Proud mom

I am so proud of my daughter, Kelly. She is just starting to get interested in scrapbooking and has never made cards either. This is the invitation she made for the bachelorette party she is hosting for her sister, Dana, who is getting married in September. I think she did a fantastic job!
I love how she used that comical picture - a family favorite - of Dana when she was 18 months old on her first Halloween trick-or-treating night. She was dressed up in this cute red devil suit and my husband caught this funny face while she was munching on candy. She was drooling so much her little mustache ran all over her chin!

Today I ran into a different Michael's store than the one I usually shop in. I have been looking for this new Martha Stewart "double-punch" butterfly punch for quite awhile after seeing some beautiful samples online. I finally found it today and was able to use a 50% coupon! I love how it punches out the design in the wings instead of being solid.

Blog Award

My friend, Diann, at Diann's Art Spot gave me this award a few days ago. Below is the information about the award and the five bloggers I chose to give the award to. Be sure to visit their creative spaces, say hi and check out their lovely artwork.

The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming and this type of blogger aims to find and be friends with other like minded bloggers. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

Deliver this award to 5 and include this cleverly-written text in the body of their award.

Linda at Friends in Art

Karin at Creative Chaos

Autumn at Autumns Antics

Judy at My Artistic Side

Linda at The Art Sook

I finished another project on my list this weekend. My art group altered paint cans at one of our last meetings. I wasn't sure what I would do with mine, but then decided that I could make another matching one and my daughter could give them to her two little 4-year old flowers girls at the rehearsal dinner, filled with individually wrapped goodies. That should give them something to do while all the adult fun is going on.

I painted chipboard letters for their names and added Stickles. I used border punches for the eyelet paper borders and added "perler" beads and lots of fun ribbons to the handle. Hope they have fun with them.

Altered Rolodex Cards

I'm in an online swap of altered rolodex cards. We have to alter regular rolodex cards on the fronts with our personal information, likes and dislikes on the backs. We need to make a total of 31. During the six-hour crop I attended last night I finished mine! These aren't due until June 1 so I'm very glad I'm ahead of the game!

Here's my card (they are all the same). For the background I crumpled sewing pattern tissue paper and glued it to the card. I then inked it with Broken China and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks. I dyed cheesecloth by swiping Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet and spraying with water, then wiping the cheesecloth through the wet ink. The birds are from a clear stamp set from Clear Art Stamps and were stamped on an ivory cardstock and edged with more Broken China ink. The music scrap is from an old hymnal over which I glued a small piece of mica stamped with Staz On ink.

This is the class project I taught on Thursday as part of a workshop focusing on using the new Heidi Swapp Invisibles (embossed cardstock, chipboard and stickers). I just love these new products that debuted at CHA. They are pre-embossed in several different patterns. They can be inked, painted, chalked, misted with color mists or glimmer mists, spray painted or watercolored and the embossed areas resist the color - instant pattern!

This canvas is 9"x12" and painted black. The polka dot "background" is one of the papers on which I used a Heidi Swapp bracket mask and inked the interior with Fired Brick Distress Ink, overstamped with Staz On, and then masked the interior to ink the outer border with Black Soot Distress Ink. The vertical and horizontal borders were cut from the border paper and also inked with Black Soot. The heart in the upper left is the grid-patterned chipboard painted with acrylic paint; the larger heart in the lower right is one of the precut chipboard shapes inked with Fired Brick and the polka dot heart was cut from paper and inked with Worn Lipstick. The pink rectangle was also cut from the patterned chipboard and inked with Worn Lipstick. Notice that you can get different colors using the same ink on the different surfaces.

Oh, and those cute girls are two of my daughters a few years ago on a trip to Greece.

Earth Day - late

It's been so busy this week that I missed posting on Earth Day. I compiled this post several times in my head, but it never got here! But I'm thinking that we should think about protecting and preserving our earth every day, not just once a year, so here are some ideas on reducing, recycling and reusing.

My parents were born during the Depression and I was brought up frugally. I remember my Mom washing and reusing aluminum foil (which I've also been known to do!) among many other thrifty habits. Our family has always recycled paper, plastic, glass and aluminum and I have the habit of cutting the ends off tubes and plastic bottles to use that last bit of toothpaste or glue or shampoo.

Here are some ideas of recycling and reusing for our craft rooms.

1. Paper - Since I am more of a cardmaker than a scrapper, I tend to use more 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Once I have cut into a piece, I will try to get a card base (5 1/2 x 8 1/2) out of the remainder, and/or a card front or ATC base or 4x4". Then the rest will go in the scrap file and I always go to this file first when I need paper before cutting into a "virgin" sheet.
2. Packaging - Blister packs can be reused as treat boxes or shaker fronts and the hard plastic makes a great paint palette. Empty ribbon spools can be remade into minibooks or treat boxes (both of which I've posted here previously). The plastic boxes that small punches come in sometimes can be reused as blocks for unmounted stamps or for storage for small items. Empty CD cases are great for unmounted stamp storage. Empty travel-size baby wipe containers (Huggies brand) are the perfect size for storing twelve Twinkling H2Os pots.
3. Soda can "pop top tabs" make great buckles for ribbon and can even be embossed any color. I also cut the top and bottom off aluminum cans, cut through the back seam and have a nice size piece of metal for punching, embossing or stamping metal embellishments.
4. When foam brushes (the cheap ones with the wooden handle) fall apart, I save the handle for spreading glue or stirring paints.
5. Old CDs or credit cards make great disposable paint palettes. Credit cards can be used to apply paints or glue as well. They can also be altered into mini-ATCs or tags.
6. Sample paint "chips" can be stamped and added to cards or scrapbook layouts or made into bookmarks.
7. Formica samples make cute little tags or luggage tags or several tied together to make a little book.
8. Old magazines and phone books make great "glue books." Place your item to be glued on a clean page, apply glue, then turn the page - you will always have clean surface for the next glue project.
9. Old books - use the covers for collage bases; save the text pages to add to backgrounds or to use as scrap paper (see #8 above). Paint stripes on a page and cut into scalloped borders.
10. Scraps of rubber leftover from cutting apart unmounted stamp sheets can be used as dimensional pop dots. Also, the leftover portion of a sheet of circular pop dots can be cut up and used as well.
11. Cough syrup cups can be reused as little paint pots or water pots when painting - a perfect size when just needing a small amount.
12. Used dryer sheets are great for swiping your paper before heat embossing. Work just as well as an "embossing buddy" for eliminating stray embossing powder specks. They can also be painted or inked for backgrounds.
13. Slice old wine corks and stamp for inexpensive alphabets or embellishments for collages, cards or layouts. Carve the corks to use as small stamps.
14. Use the bottom of a Velveeta box or a Pringles chip can to store 6 Rollagraph stamp wheels (the smaller size).
15. Save the tiny Silica gel packs that come in most new shoes boxes and add to your embossing powder jars, especially metallic EPs. It will help retard tarnishing and clumping.

That's it for now, just off the top-of-my-head. If you have any tips of your own, please let me know. I hope everyone will consider reusing and recycling to keep even a small amount out of our landfills. Many little baby steps can make a huge impact!

Two cards

Just two quick and simple cards I made today - one a thank you for a friend who gifted me with this new SU oval sentiment set along with the scalloped oval punch (love this!!) and one for a new baby. It's starting to get hot here and we are procrastinating about turning on the air, so I have no energy and the creative juices aren't flowing either!

Technique Canvas

As busy as I've been the past few days, there's not much to show here! I finished a canvas for a class using Heidi Swapp masks and her new "Invisibles," but I can't show it until it hits the website.

This is a small 8"x10" canvas for a technique class. It uses Claudine Hellmuth's new Sticky Back Canvas and is similar to some samples she had at CHA in January. There are at least five techniques here and I will also show students an inexpensive and easy way to make their own tiny 2" square canvases! I love getting messy and working with inks and paints, so I had a ball making this.

Scrapstashers

The monthly Scrapstashers Class was yesterday. As always, the project is a mystery and a supply list is sent out a few days beforehand. This month the list included 27 sheets of various colors of cardstock and one patterned paper. Sometimes I can guess what the project might be, but this time I was totally stumped!

Here's what we made - a 26-page scrapbook. Each 12x12" piece of cardstock was cut according to templates so that there was a tab on each (in different places) for the letters of the alphabet. The 27th piece was cut down for the cover. I used white rubons for the letters, but some people used stickers and you could always use stamps. This went together very quickly after the cutting was done. The black title letters were cut on the Cricut and "me" and "A" and "Z" are chipboard. I painted the A and Z and added Glossy Accents. A few scraps of ribbon and some buttons finished it off. The trick will be to find photos and add journaling for each letter.

Finished!

I lied - we actually made SEVEN projects on the art day, not six! Here is the final one - a "gentlemen's peep show book." The covers are corrugated cardboard and the pages are ticket tags, all of which was bound with the Bind-It-All. Again, this was an easy-peasy project - simply adhering copies of vintage postcard ladies, patterned papers, stamps, lace, ribbon, flowers and buttons and bling. Jeri had fashioned a crank from a coat hanger which was threaded through the corrugation channel of the front cover to simulate a hand crank for turning the pages of the peep show. I hadn't added mine yet when I photographed this. The binding is actually on the bottom of the cover and the book opens from the top. It measures about 4" by 6." Enjoy the show! (Click on image for closeup.)

And the final two pages. Don't you love the last one?

A closeup...

Spring Banner

It's a beautiful day here in Texas - sunny again and still cool - a great start for the week!

Here's one more project from last Monday's art day - a spring banner made with dyed tags. We had packets of various spring images which were adhered to the tags along with flowers, brads, ribbon, buttons, whatever we wanted. The scalloped ovals had computer-generated letters, but I added the K&Co patterned chipboard letters when I got home. Another simple project.

And this is the make-and-take that we offered at the Open House last week. It uses Heidi Swapp's new Invisibles - awesome new products. This tag was diecut from the lightweight Invisibles chipboard which comes in white with an embossed design. You can use just about any medium over this and the design resists it, giving you a white design on a colored background. The line also includes cardstock, alphabet stickers and peel-and-stick punch-out chipboard shapes. I love this stuff! Here I inked the tag with Faded Jeans Distress Ink, the heart with Fired Brick, and stamped the cardstock rectangle with Brushed Corduroy. Quick and easy. You can see the various designs available. I can see so many possibilities for this!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today! It's supposed to be rainy and cool here - luckily our children are grown so we don't have to worry about Easter egg hunts! Here's a sweet vintage Easter image for you.



This is a little Easter book we made on Monday. Our hostess had dyed the small 4-inch square coasters in advance in yummy spring pastels and we were each given a small "kit" of various images. We then assembled the coasters, adding flowers, ribbons and buttons. I also added Stickles, rhinestones and some stamping once I got home. Remember, you can click on each image to enlarge.

Front cover

Pages 1 and 2

Pages 3 and 4

Pages 5 and 6

Pages 7 and 8

Pages 9 and 10

Back cover

A little bit of everything

This has been one very crazy, busy week. Not only were we gone for the weekend and on Monday also went out of town for the entire day, but I also hosted my local art group on Tuesday night, was busy finishing up several class projects for the Open House on Thursday evening and my brother and his two teenagers arrived for a visit Tuesday night through Thursday noon. Needless to say, I was ready for some rest and relaxation on Friday!

Here is one more project from the art playday on Monday. It's a FAT ATC! I'd heard about these online, but had never made one. It's the same size as a regular ATC - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" - but is made on a block of wood which is 1 1/2" thick. So it's three-dimensional and you have four additional sides to decorate. This was an easy-peasy project: the wood block was painted, torn paper added to the front along with a black and white vintage image, a flourish stamped on both the front and back, lace and rick rack added to sides along with flowers and three decorative brass upholstery tacks, and, finally, rhinestones added to the frame of the image. I love the chunkiness of this! (I still haven't found time to finish the other art day projects - maybe next week.)

Here's a side view to show the dimension.

This project is for a class and is a chipboard house and book from Maya Road. I used the "Girl Friday" line of papers from Cosmo Cricket. Below you can see the front of the house. Look closely and you can see the Stickles.

This is another view.

This is the six-page accordian book which fits inside. I love that stamp on the little tag - "Home is where the heart lives."

And the other side of the pages. This is free-standing, but could also be hung vertically. I decorated it with both ideas in mind. It is just waiting for some small photographs.

Here's a closeup of the roof. You can see the glitter better in this photo. As always, you can click on any of the pics and get a closer look.

The saying around the bottom is: "Mother makes a house a home." It would be a perfect Mother's Day album/gift.

Playday Projects

Yesterday was a ton of fun. My friend, Julie, and I drove two hours down to another friend's house for an art playday. There were a total of eight of us and what fun we had! We made six fun projects, had a yummy potluck lunch, ordered pizza for dinner and Julie and I got home after midnight! How's that for a long day!

I still have some work to do to finish up three of the projects, but here are the other three. The first one is a little spring hanging pocket made from only half a piece of 12x12" paper. Two folds, a little tape to hold it, an eyelet for a ribbon hanger and a few embellishments and we were done! This would be cute on a package or even for treats.


I love the vintage image on this one. This is embossed, flocked wallpaper attached to matboard and is approximately 5" by 10." We backed the image with a torn book page and added buttons, leaves, flower petals and some glittery Easter eggs. I might add some Stickles or bling to the dress or stipple the wallpaper background, but then again, I might not!

This is one of my favorite projects and was so, so simple. This image of Scotties was so nicely aged with waterspots or age spots on it. We mounted it on black cardstock and then added ruffles made with sewing pattern tissue cut in strips. Then it was backed again with black cardstock and black ribbon added. I'm thinking I might try to find some red and black tartan plaid ribbon instead - wouldn't that look adorable?!

As soon as I finish the others, I will post them. They, too, are so cute. Thank you to Jeri for hosting a very fun day with great projects, great friends and great food!

Home again

Has it really been almost a week since my last post? How time flies...

We just returned tonight from the weekend in Albuquerque visiting our daughter and getting more wedding plans attended to. Unfortunately it was even colder and windier than it's been here. We did manage to see her soccer team play and win this afternoon. That took me back to all those weekends of soccer when she was little!

I'm off again tomorrow on a road trip a few hours south of here for a "play day" with some art friends. I'm sure I'll have some fun projects to post tomorrow.