Shabby Cottage

Hey there! I hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Easter holiday. I am here with a little shabby number that I made for no reason at all, but to please my creative spirit. I think those that we make just for ourselves tend to be the best of them all.

Warning, this may be a bit photo heavy.

Everything about this just makes my heart happy. I know it looks like this took me forever, but it really did not. I think gluing the buttons on was the most time consuming part. It’s kind of a puzzle to fit them all in and make sure the colors flow. And, since glitter is my crafty crack, I felt it was more than necessary to give the button covered roof a generous coating.

Anyway, I am going to keep this short and sweet. Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a blessed day!

A Little Emerald Love

Hey all! I’m popping up with a number I made for this week’s Trigger Tuesday Challenge. In case you didn’t know, emerald is the color of 2013. Initially, I was hesitant to embrace it, but I really love it know. As many of you know, I work in retail and we have a lot of emerald pieces that I love. I would totally recommend picking up a few pieces because I find that it can be a very versatile and neutral color.

I love the inspiration picture that Cath picked for the trigger. I especially love the ruffled top and the floral pattern of the dress. So, for my card, I tried to play that up.

I pulled out what is probably my favorite stamp set, Rosie Posie, and stamped a few blooms. I am sooooo happy that I didn’t get rid of my Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet ink pad. It’s the perfect shade of emerald. And, I also need to thank my dear friends Jess and Sara because if not for them, I would have never bought the huge package of glitter that just so happened to include . . . you guessed it, emerald. Woot, woot!

I made the crepe paper trim myself. I probably went a bit overboard, but I don’t care. For me, sometimes, more is more.

Alright peeps, that’s it for me today! You have about five more days if you want to join in on the fun! Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

 

Boo! Three Ways

Hello crafty people! So, I will admit that I have been a rather bad blogger lately, but I’ve still been working on things and I have THREE cards to share today!

Two noticeable things, I used my Cricut and I used some new photo editing effects to play up the Halloween theme. I really like the fading effect, but it does make the photos darker so by all means, let me know if you don’t like it.

My good friend Norma and I were chatting one night and she pretty much told me I should make a card using my Cricut. Well, I decided that I wanted to work on my design skills, so I used the same image and sentiment in a series of cards. I started with something simple, and worked my way up to something more involved. I have to be honest and admit that if I were just going to make one card, my first inclination is to always make it very involved.

What I ended up doing was using a few select patterns, textures, colors, and embellishments in different ways. The chevron from the ribbon the first card inspired the use of the chevron paper on the second and third cards. The first card had a black base, but instead of using a black base on the second card, I used a pattern that was mainly black. And, on the third card, I used the same patterned paper (stars) to punch out the pattern, to tie is back to the second card. Lather, rinse, repeat!!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a blessed day!

Birthday Wishes

Hello crafty people! I hope everyone is having a good week! I’m popping up today to share a number that I made for my mother’s birthday a few weeks ago.  I got to use some new to me goodies on it!

Okay, so there’s a lot going on here, as you can see. I would like to think that it’s organized and well put together, but I will let you all be the judge!

The base of the card is Kraft. However, I did something that I rarely do – I covered the entire base with a piece of patterned paper from My Mind’s Eye. For this card, I used paper from the Miss Caroline Dilly Dally 6” x 6” pad. I did quite a bit of inking. I used Antique Linen, Tea Dye, and just the tiniest bit of Walnut Stain Distress Inks throughout the card. I sewed the patterned paper front directly to the Kraft base with a perimeter zig-zag stitch.

Next, I cut a 3.75” x 5” piece of Kraft and embossed it with my Sizzix Square Lattice folder from Stampin’ Up. I’ve had this for a while, and just never got around to using it. I bought it during my style transformation, so it kind of sat in my little embossing folder crate. Anyway, I *think* I used the debossed side, and I sewed another piece of patterned paper to it. I then used my edge distresser to rough up the edges. This was adhered directly to the card base.

For my stamping, I used Teeny Tags from My Creative Time, and the Strawberry Patch dies and a Mat Stack 4 diecut from Papertrey Ink. The stamps I used were Strawberry Patch and Teeny Tag Greetings. The Strawberry Patch stamp set is kind of a double use set, it has stamps for those that like to color, and stamps for those that just like to stamp. Personally, I’m kind of in the middle. I would like to attend a Copic class, but they seem to avoid the South! Anyway, I used the leaf outline stamps, and stamped it on the diecut with Always Artichoke ink. I went back in with the large flower and stamped it with Paper White Fresh Ink. I colored in the center of the flower with my Spanish Orange Prismacolor Marker. After all of that, I used my Woodgrain Impression Plate to give it something a little extra.

This is where I am going to digress and let you all know why I tend to not video myself making cards. More often than note, they are very involved! But, I do have plans to make more tutorials! Back to your regular scheduled programming . . .

I diecut the the strawberries from Kraft and stamped them with Real Red and Always Artichoke inks. Then I adhered them to the Mat Stack with dimensional adhesive.

Now, putting it all together! I pulled out a doily and inked it really good with Baja Breeze ink. I did this to pull out the blue from my pattered paper. I adhered the mat with my strawberries with more dimensional adhesive. It wouldn’t be a card from me if I didn’t tie a bow. For that, I used some May Arts Chevron Twill ribbon. And, I secured my sentiment to it with a vintage button from Papertrey Ink, and Maraschino twine from The Twinery. Lastly, I added some Lime Green Stickles, cause you know I loves me some glitter.

Before I go, I have a little announcement. I have decided to step down from the My Creative Time Design Team. It was a really hard decision, but it was something that I thought over for a while. I sincerely love Emma and the ladies on the DT more than I can express. There aren’t many guys in this craft of ours, but they welcomed me with open arms. This doesn’t mean that I will stop using My Creative Time. A lot of my most favorite sentiment sets have a special place on my craft table.

As always, I thank you for stopping by, and I wish you a blessed day!

Vintage Halloween Tags & Bow Tutorial

Hello everyone! I cannot believe it’s already September. Before you know it, the Holidays will creep up on us. I was at work yesterday and I saw that the company is sending the first part of our Holiday collection at the end of this month. Eeek!

Today’s project was planned during the week I guest designed on Everyday Cricut. I wanted to revisit the tags I made, and change them up a bit.

Yes, I finally made another video! And, one thing I discovered when I was editing is that I’m not as uncomfortable as I thought. I’m trying to branch out and grow, so I know that one of the next steps for me is sharing more of my creative process.

I did not film the entire process of making these because the video would have been way too long. So, I wanted to mention that for these tags, I backed the window with vellum that I stamped and embossed a pattern on . Then I basically adhered the card so that it simply became a tag.

Before I leave, I wanted to let you all know about something new that the MCT team is doing every Tuesday. We’re showcasing different techniques. So, please stop by My Creative Time today to hop along.

As always, I thank you all for stopping by. I wish you a very blessed day!