Finished at last!

After weeks of stamping, punching, cutting, printing, folding, scoring, taping and gluing, all 115 wedding invitations are finished! Although I was very excited and honored that my daughter wanted me to design and make these for her wedding and enjoyed every minute of the design and assembly, I am also sighing with relief that this task is now behind me! I am going to Albuquerque this weekend for her first shower and will hand-deliver this special package to her.

Here's a photo of all of them stacked neatly in piles ready to be boxed up somehow so I can get them on the plane with me.

And here's a closer photo of one to show the beautiful metallic Prism paper we used for the folders. I also used the Just Rite Stamper monogram for the centers of the scallops. Her colors are gunmetal, deep pink (almost fuschia) and dark orange.

I used white Prism textured cardstock for the invitations. They wanted them very plain - no ribbons, hearts etc. - but I thought they were a bit too plain. After receiving "permission," I cuttlebugged the top and bottom with the Swiss dots embossing folder.

Since I had plenty of offcuts of the metallic paper, I will probably make wedding programs too.

Altered Bottles

Our local stamp group met last night and had our altered bottle swap. At Christmas time, one of the members gave each of us a small bottle and we were to alter it for this month's swap. We exchanged according to our birthday month.

My bottle went to Karen. I used a double-sided transparency of a little fairy girl inside the bottle. (Click on the image to see a closeup.) When I cut the image out, I kept a little tab on the bottom which I glued inside a tiny wooden thread spool. I painted the spool white to be less noticeable and glued it to the bottom of the bottle and added irridescent shred around it. On the outside I added inspirational word rub-ons and tiny little adhesive pearls. Gold German scrap border was glued to the bottom of the bottle and around the neck. I also added some gold foil tape above that on the neck. I glued a fairy image to a flat-sided glass marble and attached that to the top of the cork. Silver glitter was glued to the side of the cork that showed above the bottle and I wrapped silver and gold wire around the neck to hang the small charms.

And this is the one that I received from Debbie (thank you!!). Isn't it darling? It's so different from the others - she thought "outside the box" and used it as a vase for the button/paper flowers. And the bottle is full of red, white and black buttons - if I ever need those colors, I will know just where to go! I love the black and white toile around the outside - it's a napkin - along with all the jewels!

All the bottles were very unique and suited the recipients so well. I wish I had gotten a group photo!

Another Patriotic 4x4

The patriotic 4" x 4"s from the online swap are arriving one by one. I received this darling one from Barbara H yesterday. I love the stamped image of the little boy. It's hard to see in the photo but the swirls are sparkly and the God Bless America is on acetate. Love it!

Breaking News!

Great news here - a new paper arts store will be opening soon in the North Richland Hills/Hurst area of Ft. Worth! The owner, Nita Tuirpin, is a former customer of the Recollections store so many of us know her already. And, the best news of all is that she has asked the Create Joy Team to join her on the creative/education side! So, Tracy, Jaclyn and I will be designers and instructors for the store. I am busy making a list and checking it twice as we are having an initial meeting tonight to start addressing questions, ideas and product! I will keep you informed as news develops, but we are shooting for an Oct. 1 opening date. Can't wait! Oh, and the name is Anthologies - a collection of works by an artist - how perfect!

Happy July 4th!

I hope everyone is enjoying a very relaxing and fun fireworks-filled day! Do take some time to remember the reason for this holiday - freedom. And give thanks for all veterans and active servicemen and women for their service and sacrifice so that we may enjoy this freedom!

Above and below are some patriotic crafts for the holiday. I know it's late for this year, but maybe next! These are all from Country Living. You can find more pictures and full instructions for these at http://countryliving.com/crafts/projects/fourth-july-crafts-0707. On that site there are also files for the six vintage images used in the first project below which you can save to your computer for other projects.

Enjoy!

Red, White and Blue Decorating Ideas

Red, white and blue, aside from being a very symbolic color combination, is also a very happy and versatile color combo. It can be bright and cheery or muted and vintagey. I love it. Check out these great photos from Country Living. Don't they make you happy? I hope they will give you some ideas for your summer picnics.

Red White and Blue

July 1st already - can you believe it?! July 4th is one of my most favorite holidays. I LOVE red, white and blue together and have always had at least one room of my houses decorated in these colors. To get you in the patriotic spirit, here are some photos from Country Living magazine's July online newsletter. (By the way, if you don't already subscribe to this, you should consider it - there are always great recipes, decorating ideas, crafts and "yummy" pictures.)

Don't forget to get out your flag and fly it this weekend!

Don't you love how these beautiful old white houses are decorated for the holiday!

Here is a patriotic 4"x4" collage I made for a friend. The red, white and blue rosette is made from _____? A cupcake liner! The patterned paper is from Rusty Pickle and the image is from a collage sheet from Digital Collage Sheets.

Tomorrow I will share some patriotic decorating ideas.