Christmas - Use Your Stash

I made this card with pieces from my stash.  The strip of designer paper, I think is by Basic Grey.  It combines the dill color and the brighter citron green color.  I chose textured card stock in a citron color for the card which works with the darker green.  I cut the trees with the Tree Art Stamp & Die set by Hampton Art from a scrap of dill card stock. I've owned this die for a few years and this is the first time using it from my stash. I stamped them with a spatter stamp in dark green ink. I embossed the middle one with a Cuttlebug Friends Forever embossing folder which mimics the design in the decorative paper.  I printed the greeting in red on white card stock. I ripped the bottom edge and adhered it to the card front.  The next layer was the designer paper. Then came the three trees.  Submitting to challenge at Holly Jolly - Use your stash.

Farewell Card - Teal & Ice

I made this card for a couple who are taking on new responsibilities. 

I used teal card stock and cut down the 12x12 to 8.5x11. I folded the card in half and adhered a piece of the designer paper by Adornit - Carolee's Creations - Cold Water Collection - Ice to the front leaving a small border.  I printed the greeting with a watercolor background from Pixabay onto a piece 4x6 photo paper.  This was mounted to the card front with a piece of matching card stock offset on the left hand side.

Change is for sure so as we transition to a reality we will see and do new things.  Adventure awaits for all of us.

Note Card & Encouragement Card Gift Sets

I made a couple of Note Card and Encouragement Card Gift sets today.

I created some new encouragement cards in the portrait orientation with some great art from Pixabay.  The hummingbird and mushroom ones are posted below.

These cards were included in these 2 gift sets along with some made with a landscape image from Maria (see image below) and some I designed a while back.

One of these will be given to a couple who is starting new roles. 

This landscape was created by Maria S.  I used the image in black as well as I converted the image into sepia, artichoke, and navy.

Mosaic Monday - New Stuff

I've been refining things in my home.  You will recall from the Tea Cupboard DIY post I wanted to hang my mugs. I was able to find cup hooks large enough to accommodate my cup handles.  So quick as a bunny, I evenly inserted them into the bottom of the upper cupboard.  You can see in the photo on the right I needed a spacer so that the tip of the hook would not punch through the shelf on the inside.  A look through my bead collection produced these small copper spacer beads. Worked like a charm. Thanks for the advise on the weekend from my sisters.  Now the teapot fits in the corner. Yeah!!
The next photo is a container for hair gel in my bathroom.  I have used a Tupperware pump container for years. Recently my hair gel seems to be getting thicker in the container so upon investigation I discovered that it had developed a crack in the lid therefore air was getting in and my hair gel liquid was evaporating.  As the pump has been discontinued I needed a solution in quick order. This ivory pearl clam shaped bottle is likely a temporary measure but fits into the neutral scheme in the bathroom. 
I have decided to change the color scheme on the couch so I have moved from pink to yellow and green. The green needs a zipper inserted so that I can wash the cover when I want.

I'm sharing on Mosaic Monday hosted by Judith at Lavender Cottage.

Happy Easter

Wishing all of you a very happy Easter.  Enjoy time with family, friends, and in nature.  Take a walk, a few photos, and get some time away from technology.

This is one of my backgrounds from a batch made in early January 2016.  Enjoy.

Baby Boy - Artemis

I made this card for my nephew's son who was born in Feb 2016.  We will see him for the first time this weekend on Saturday evening at a family celebration.
I started with a deep teal card folded in half to make a large card. I cut the designer paper by Adornit - Carolee's Creations - Cold Water Collection - Ice.  I printed the first part of the sentiment onto it along with the banner and then trimmed it to leave a small border.  I then adhered his name in large letters which I had cut from the same card stock as the card with my Sizzix Shadow Box Alphabet dies.  I adhered them along the bottom but as you can see not quite straight.  I added confetti triangles to repeat the ones in the banner.   The card colors complement the gift wrap I used on the gift.

Share Your Cup 190

We got some more snow this week.  Quite a bit of the white stuff actually.  Monday was a bit of a sloppy day and driving home from Card Club in the evening after it has frozen was a bit hairy.  It's been cool all week with the afternoons being somewhat warmer.
 





I found this tea pot tray with three tea bag holders in white ceramic at the thrift store today.  I knew I had another similar tea bag holder at home so I would have a full set.  They have Joshua Maxwell Studio on the bottom.  Not able to find a link.  The front one is not ceramic and was a gift from a friend's trip to England 20 years ago.  I'm glad they all fit in the tray and keeps things tidy.







Mom and her girls day out.  We are spending Saturday with our Mom crafting, talking, eating, visiting and making memories.  Us girls all have crafting in our blood in one way or another.  Some quilt, others paper craft, one is into needlework and my niece is into wool accessories.  Some will just come to spend time with family. We will have a great time.  It's potluck for lunch and dinner so I made Quinoa Salad with Asian dressing, a veggie tray and Raspberry Bavarian just like my Mom made when we were kids.

I'm sharing with Share Your Cup hosted by Carol at Art and Sand.

Card Club - March - Pick Up Truck

I wanted a card for guys.  I chose this striped designer paper in some great colors.  I chose cards in green as show, royal blue and a deep orange. I adhered the striped paper to the card front. I created the banner with the Stampin Up Triple Banner punch.  The white strip is 1" and the blue one is 1.5 inches.  Once they were adhered together I placed it on the card front and trimmed the top end to the card edge. I then adhered the pick up truck image to the navy blue layer. This was then adhered over the banner. I placed 3 sticky embellishments on the right hand side. 

Card Club - March - Sunburst Birthday

I started with a royal blue card.  I cut the background red checkered gingham designer paper at 4.00 x 5.5 inches leaving the small border.  I adhered it to the card front. I cut the warm yellow sunburst with the Stampin Up Sunburst thin die and adhered it to the card front and trimmed the rays to the edge of the card.  The greeting is a combination of a scalloped circle in the same color cut with the Spellbinder Nestabilities Large Circle set - No.2 from the centre.  The greeting is color printed the punched with the 1 3/8 inch Stampin Up punch.  These are glued together then the greeting is adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.

Card Club - March - Peacock Feathers

The card features a nice piece of decorative paper with peacock feathers. I cut a Stampin Up Top Note from this paper then another from gold paper. The gold one was cut in half across then I trimmed the points on the left and right.  These halves are then adhered offset to the top and bottom of the top note.  I repeated the turquoise color when I wrapped a piece of turquoise organza ribbon on the left hand side and taped the ends to the back.  This layer was adhered to the front of an orange card which coordinates with the colors in the paper.  I added a turquoise greeting color printed the punched with the Stampin Up Modern Label punch.  This was adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.

Card Club - March - HB Initials

It's time for Card Club again.
This card features a set of large initials. The ivory panel already had the turquoise and grey vine pattern on the left. I repeated these colors with grey in the initials and turquoise in the greeting and printed it onto the right hand side. I adhered the panel to the front of a turquoise card. Then, I have added three handmade paper flowers with each having a turquoise sequin in the center held in place with a blue tiny brad.  I placed them somewhat randomly.

Friday's Hunt 12

I'm joining Friday's Hunt hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills. The prompts this week are:
Start with L
Favorite
Lace

I took a shot of a glass lamp my niece made for me many years ago.  I have never filled it but it is beautiful.  It came with the copper star base.  It repeats the star theme as you can faintly see the star etched above the peace.







This dish is my favorite photo this week.  I attended a Vintage Sale yesterday and bought myself this little glass dish.  It catches the light well with so many glass pebbles on the under side.  The dish I have been using is divided so I needed when I can't fill all the spaces in the divided one.  It has traces of gold on the edge but it's pretty much all gone. I placed it on one of my blue plates and put a few blue/green glass gems in the center to create a focal point.

I dug through my small box of lace and found this one with a heart motif.  I placed the white border lace on a black cloth to have the details visible. 

Vintage Bazaar - Today

Drop by and say hi today!  For my handmade items, I will have 2016-17 photo calendars - Retro & Beauty, Greeting Card Gift Sets, Nifty Notes, Alphabet Photography, Birthday Invitations which can be personalized.

There will be vintage items at some of the vendors.  I have a few items myself.

Looking forward to see you there if you are in the area.

Update:
Below is a list of the vendors I spent the day with who had very good variety of vintage product to sell. Some of the items available were: vintage brooches, linens, chairs, toys, vinyl, photos, pottery, glass, a bingo ball machine from the 20s, cast iron lamp, wagon wheels, wood drawers, furniture and much more.

Alberta Vintage  - Jenna

Aunty Olive's Basement

Blueberry Pie Vintage - Sherry

Corey & Tim

Dottie's Vintage - Jenn

Grandma's Vintage Everything

Kim Frost

Lemon Bar Vintage

Polargirl Vintage -

Relic's Relics

Terrariums by Janice

Trinden's Treasures

Nifty Notes - Retro, Vintage & MyPics

I created some A2 Nifty Notes for my sale tomorrow.  I used some vintage images from Graphics Fairy.  The retro images are from my own photos with filters applied to create these retro looking images. The notes will coordinate well with the calendar.  I made some with my own photos as well.

Easter Cards - Sunburst

I made a few Easter cards for my sale on the weekend.  I used the Stampin Up Sunburst Thinlit.  I cut a sunburst from polka dot designer paper in yellow at 4.00 x 5.25 inches and cut it aligned to the top left hand corner. I adhered it to a card front in a similar color.  The greeting was created with a metallic rose scallop circle, then 1 3/8" yellow smooth circle and then the greeting punched with the Stampin Up 1 1/4" circle punch.  The Easter layer was adhered to the scallop circle with 3D foam tape then this accent was adhered to the card front over the middle of the sunburst.  The second card with blue card, yellow sunburst with a silver scallop circle, a navy circle with a blue greeting.

I copied Brenda's card at QbeeQuest. Check it out here.

On this card I used the same textured yellow card stock.  I glued the yellow polka dot sunburst to the card front.  I cut another sunburst in brown designer paper.  I trimmed off the 4 corners to leave a cross.  It was glued over the yellow sunburst aligning the edges.  The sentiment combines a copper glitter scallop circle cut with the Spellbinder Nestabilities. The 1 3/8 inch circle was punched from dark brown card stock and the sentiment was punched with the 1 1/4 inch circle.

Note: I cut the sunbursts layers at 4" wide to maximize the 12x12 paper but I'm not sure it was worth it. Alignment is a challenge.  When the layer is cut at larger than the 4.25 x 5.5" then you can just trim to the card edge. Easy peasy. 

Gender Reveal Party - Thank You Cards

I attended my first gender reveal party tonight.  Never heard of it before. Not sure if it's a trend. When everyone had arrived the cake was cut to reveal the gender of the baby.  The middle layer of the cake was blue so they are expecting a boy.  Everyone was excited!! The baby has a great great grandmother and some of great grand mothers and a couple grandmothers.  He will be well loved.

We were asked to bring something for the couple/baby. It was the gift opening before the baby shower.

I made these quick gender neutral baby thank you cards with the Stampin Up Little Additions stamp set.  The color combination of So Saffron yellow and Lovely Lilac mauve.  These are printed on store bought thank you cards.  Worked out well.

Gift Card

Here's another card.  I created the gift rectangles of solid card stock in blue and white with accents of Designer Paper. The designer paper is from Michaels Recollection paper.  The green card stock is from a value pack, interesting how they coordinate.  I cut narrow strips of DSP paper to add to the gift as ribbon.  The Gift Bow Topper die is from Lil Inkers which I cut in white. I placed the vellum greeting between the bow and the gift and trimmed it to the card edge on the right. Being a gift it can be customized to many occasions and seasons by changing the designer paper.  Versatile design. Love those.  Might work well as a gift card holder.

Mosaic Monday - Tea Cupboard Project DIY

This is a project I have been working for a week.  I have documented the basic details in the graphic but here's a bit of background.  I'm been cleaning up, de-cluttering and organizing.  One of the areas was my tea storage.  I had tins of loose tea and tea bags, bags of loose tea, tools like my tea spoon for loose tea, the strainer for the blue tea pot, etc.  I had been looking on line, at IKEA and second hand stores for a solution.  I wanted it to hold everything so that once it was in place I just had to keep the tea to the space I had.  I always checked the wood sections of the stores I visited.  About 10 days ago, I saw this little wooden cupboard.  I had not measured any of the pieces at home but I hauled around the store as I was mulling over the possibilities.  It was just the right depth, there would no stacking in front of something else. I was quite sure that it was going to do what I wanted but it was pink! Not so great for a white, navy and yellow kitchen.  The price was right so I decided to bring it home.  I washed it all up then set to seeing if it would hold the containers I had in mind.  After several configurations I decided that it would do the job!  Wood can always be painted right?  Not that I have much experience in that department but I come from a family of crafty people with can do attitudes.

I started the transformation stage next.  First, the doors had to come off because I was going to use it wide instead of tall as it was designed.  The hack saw then the Dremel tool came out and you can see the doors cut in half.  The feet were removed and the hanger rod were also removed.  Then all the surfaces were sanded down.  This took a little patience with all the nooks and crannies.  A turquoise plastic table cloth served to protect the kitchen floor from the mess that would come next. The color was next.  I had a jar of paint that would be enough I thought but the color had to be warmed up a little.  The red acrylic paint came out and I added a bit, mixed it thoroughly with my wooden skewer then painted a swatch.  No, needed a little more so a couple times later I was happy with the warmer color.  I painted all surfaces except the back and let that dry then the back.  At one coat, it was clear it would need at least one more.  Eventually, it was painted 3 times on all surfaces.  The jar then indicated that it should dry for 72 hours before the piece was used.  It was a long 3 days because I just wanted it set up.  I was patient and distracted myself with other things as it sat in the kitchen drying.

Today, I set up the cupboard on the counter.  I went looking for a couple pieces of fabric, cloth, whatever to protect that painted surface and bring in the navy. I found some microfibre towels which I had purchased for the kitchen which had not been used yet.  They will serve the purpose for now.  I filled the boxes with the navy blue metal boxes I found a few weeks ago.  They hold tea sealed in sachets. One for each, Chamomile, Earl Grey and Green tea.  Unfortunately, the set only had three, now, it would be nice to have another but I have no idea how they were originally filled.  The small navy round has the Lemon Tea for now.  The bottom shelf holds the Oprah Chai, the Jade Citrus Mint which is a regular, the red tin of Christmas tea, the turquoise brown tea tin holds my Roobios Chai which is another regular.  A few Tetley tins which will live there till the are empty.  On top of the cupboard I have a wooden box which holds all my loose tea bags. Masala Chai Black, Dragon Pearls Green, the extra Jade Citrus Mint, and a few others. Behind the box is the navy tea pot cozy.  To the left of the box is a couple of TAZO tins which hold Chai and other herbal teas. In front of that is a nice yellow ceramic container where I store my tea spoon for loose tea, my strainer, my tea ball.  The mug tree to the right and the new yellow tea pot on a Tuppeware hot spot in navy and white.  I'm thinking of putting cup hooks under the upper cupboards to I can tuck the tea pot right in the corner.  We'll see.
Submitting to Mosaic Monday hosted by Judith at Lavender Cottage.

Farewell Card

I made this card for a lady from our congregation who is moving.  We will miss her and her family.

I started with a light green parchment card stock which I folded in half.  I applied a piece of Recollections Designer paper to the front cut to leave a small border.  I cut a piece of light green card stock with a picket fence Die-namics thin die.  I cut the piece of card stock to be narrow enough as I did not want the pickets as I was going to use it as a ribbon threader.  I trimmed it to the width of the card.  I taped my orange organza ribbon to the back of the DSP then ran it through the slots in the die cut. I tied the ends in a bow and trimmed the ends.  The orange picks up the orange in the large flower which is the focal point.

I created a couple new Nifty Notes to include in a gift of cards for her in her new job.   These again feature watercolors from Pixabay.

Greeting Card Gift Sets - Portfolio 2 more sets

This set of card features a cross stencil I created myself. I applied ink with a sponge in a diagonal direction in green. The purple butterfly stamped.  The doll is added to the a handmade paper card.  I added fiber for wings and thread for hair.  I printed trout graphic then colored it with chalk.  The gifts in the last one are my own design.  I printed them on the card stock then water colored them.

This set has one of my lily color prints onto card stock. It was mounted onto green card stock.  The Thinking of You features a small square piece of water color decorative paper.  The purple daisy is hand painted onto purple handmade paper.  The trio of birthday gifts are hand watercolored with a wide brush.

Greeting Card Gift Sets - Portfolio

I'm working on inventory for my sale next weekend.

I designed a new portfolio for selling these gifts sets.  The advantage to the old packaging is that you can see all the cards and it stands on it own so may not need a container on the craft table. The front has a small label at the bottom identifying the set and the back holds the credits.  The inside shows both cards.  I used a 6x10 cellophane where I add the 2 labels and a piece of bond between the 2 sets.  I seal the cellophane then punch holes in the center with a long reach punch through the cellophane and the bond paper. The provides strength to the ribbon feature. I string a piece of satin ribbon through the holes from the back to the inside and back to the outside and knot and trim the ribbon ends.

Happy with this system.

I'm refurbishing some of my cards which have been returned to me or were samples for classes that did not run or some other reason the cards were set aside.  I've added a piece of card stock or whatever else is needed.  This set features watercolored graphics glued to handmade paper then onto card stock.

This set features paintings of my own.  The green white lily and the birch trees are paintings I have scanned and printed on the card fronts.

The flowers are from Dover Clipart collection.  The hyacinth and the lily are great flowers for this time of year.