Fresh Living

Good morning everyone! I hope this beautiful Monday morning finds you all well. It is a glorious fall day here. The sun is shining and the air is crisp. This was the first morning in months that I was actually chilly. Had to look for an extra layer to put on as I was stumbling bleary-eyed around in the wee bus stop hours. Guess that means my favorite season is on the way.

We have a new challenge for you today in The Shabby Tea Room. Create a card or project using a nature theme and the color green inspired by this lovely fresh living photo.

I love these simple arrangements made from a mixture of greens and crisp white. I used that blend as the basis of my card, creating my own floral arrangement that mimics the inspiration photo.

My focal flower is a digital image called Lily Stems provided by this week’s sponsor in the Tea Room, Tiffany Doodles. Tiffany Doodles is offering 10 free images to this week’s winner, plus free images to the runners up, as well. Great reason to come play along with us!

I printed the lily onto white cardstock and colored the image with chalk pastels and my silver gel pen. I then spritzed the panel with Ivy Green Glimmer Mist and edged it with Antique Linen distress ink, and added several layers of ultra-thick embossing enamel to the entire piece.

To get a fun crackled finish to your embossed projects simply put your piece into the freezer for a few minutes and then bend the cardstock gently to create the cracks. If you didn’t get enough crackling to suit you, place the piece back in the freezer for another few minutes and repeat the process. If, on the other hand, you are not happy with how the crackling turned out, re-heat your panel with your embossing gun until the cracks smooth out. Then you can try again. Here’s a close up.

Hope you check out the Tea Room blog to see more great inspiration projects from the rest of the team, and play along for your chance to win some free digital images from our sponsor. And on a personal note, it’s time for me to say goodbye. This is my last design team project for the Shabby Tea Room.  A huge thank you to the team and to Debbie for having me these last 6 months and for all your wonderful inspiration! It has been a ball, and I look forward to playing along with you all in the future. Good luck, my friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have a wonderful day!

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Just Because

Good morning everyone!! Happy Monday! Did you have a fabulous weekend, sweet friends? Any big plans for the day? For the week? I am in a nesting mood still. As summer is winding down, and school is due to start soon, I’m feeling the need to get my house in order. Get it all shiny and clean.  Put my best face forward for the new season.

Today is new challenge day at The Shabby Tea Room.  We have another wonderful photo to fill you with inspiration to create a scrappy project using “the delicate cottage rose”.

You can use the soft colors, florals/roses, the shabby-chic inspired theme … or ALL!

Our sponsor this week in the Tea Room is Squigglefly. Squigglefly is a digi stamp company selling over 2,000 digi stamps and papers featuring many artistic styles from different artists!  Squigglefly has graciously donated  images for the shabby girls to work with this week as well as a prize package for this week’s winner!

I used the adorable Vintage Missy for my design, lightly colored with chalk pastels for an aged and faded look. Papers are some of my latest favorites from Creative Imaginations and The Girls’ Paperie.  I used gorgeous paper roses from Prima along with vintage lace and buttons from my stash. The greeting was hand stamped and stitched in place.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting me today.  I always love to have a visit from YOU!

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Hello You

Hi everyone, and happy Sunday to you!  I want to take a moment to wish all you wonderful, dedicated, and hard-working dads out there a fabulous Father’s Day. I know, for myself, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the love and support of my father and all the help he’s given me over the years.  I love you, Dad!  Hope you have a relaxing and peaceful day, with just a touch of pampering, too!

I have a little card project to share with you today that features the current challenge over at the Cardalicious blog.

You are to create a card using the color green, a flower, and polka dots. Sound like fun? Come and play along with us!

I used some of my most-favorite scrappy goodies here.  Papers from Jillibean Soup, trim from Webster’s Pages, buttons, and twine.  I had fun creating a large focal flower by layering several flowers and elements together for a very dimensional look.

The base is one of my last remaining vintage hat flowers I picked up at the antiques store.  On top of that are a spiral cut flower made from a Jillibean Soup Sprouts journaling card, a large pearled button, and a petite Prima blossom. Added a tiny jeweler’s tag with a hand-stamped greeting and a touch of hemp cord.

A few scalloped edges and a bit of machine stitching finish off my card with a touch of light inking around the outside.

Hope you take a moment to check out the fabulous designs from the rest of the team, and hook me up in the comments if you play along.  I would love to see what you did!

Thanks so much for stopping by, everyone!  Enjoy your special day with the wonderful men in your lives!

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Meowy Messenger

Good morning everyone!  Is it just me, or is this week zooming by more quickly than usual?  I had to stop and think was it truly Wednesday today,or only Tuesday?  Somehow, I feel like I’ve lost a day somewhere.

Hope you don’t mind if I take a moment to share some fun news with you all.  I’ve had a few projects picked up for the May issue of ScrapStreet Magazine, a wonderful online publication featuring lots of cool articles.  You can find me here, here, and here.  Thank you, thank you, ScrapStreet!

And today I have a fun card featuring this week’s Digital Doodles stamp release over at 2Peas called Meowy Messenger.

This adorable digital stamp is the perfect framework for greeting card sentiments or journaling blocks on scrapbook layouts.

I printed Meowy Messenger onto white patterned paper and using my craft blade, cut away the inside of the frame image.  I colored the cat and bird with my watercolor pencils and used my blending pen to add spots to kitty.  Layered the frame on yellow paper, added a double row of scallops, and machine stitched the panel in place.

Papers are from Basic Grey’s new Max & Whiskers line, which I thought were a perfect match for this fun stamp.  Finished the project with a bit of tight zig-zag stitching in the corners, gold adhesive pearls on the frame scrolls, vintage seam binding and a Prima Cameo Rose.  The sentiment is a combination of rub-ons from a Creative Cafe SwatchBook.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone!  Hope your weeks are going well!

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Crazy for Chipboard

Good Monday morning everyone!  I hope all you mothers out there had a fabulous Mother’s Day yesterday.  I feel so truly blessed that I have my own mom here visiting with us and that I got to spend my Mother’s Day with her.  We had such a lovely weekend together.  We decided to create a Mother’s Day garden in my backyard that I can watch flourish and grow over the years.  Now I have a constant reminder of my sweet mom every time I look out the window.  I can’t think of a nicer Mother’s Day present than that!

Can’t wait to share with you all my finished garden project!  It is still a work in progress.  But here’s a peek at what we’re up to.

A beautiful combination of Hostas, Heucheras, and Cinnamon Ferns for a shady, neglected nook.  You can find out more information about this project on my other blog, here.

I hope to have finished photos for you all soon!

Today we have a new challenge for you at The Shabby Tea Room.  Our Crazy for Chipboard challenge is to use chipboard elements on a card or project. With all the chipboard on the market today, this is a super fun and easy week.

I created my card using new papers from Graphic 45′s On the Boardwalk collection. This is a beach themed line, but with the bold patterns on these double-sided papers, they are perfect for so many uses.

I used a large chipboard butterfly from Colorbok and two large chipboard brackets from Scenic Route that I covered in papers for my chipboard elements.

Added some machine-stitched detailing around the edge of my card and a small layered tag I created by hand.  The sentiment was stamped with my tiny Hero Arts alpha stamps in black ink.

I gave my butterfly some knotted hemp antennae and layered it with some vintage seam binding and a beautiful Prima rose.  The seam binding and flower were spritzed with English Ivy and Gold Glimmer Mists.

I hope you’ll all take a minute to peek at the other design member’s cards as well as this week’s guest designer, Cathy Clark.  And come play along with us!  this week’s fabulous prize is a $15 gift certificate to My Favorite Things.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

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You’ll Always Be

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.

This is a crazy busy time for me.  In a good way.  This weekend is the kick-off our our annual Spring Garden Party down at Garden Supply Company,  my first big event at my new job.   So of course I have to be there every minute. Poor me, huh?

I did want to pop in here quickly between shifts at the garden center to share my page for the new challenge at the 52 Weeks x 52 Layouts blog.  We have such a fun challenge this week.  I hope you’ll come play along.

You are to create a page using one heart, one tag, buttons, and ribbon.  Some of my favorite crafty supplies!

I’ve been holding onto these photos of my little Nik and her best friend for awhile, waiting for just the right inspiration to scrap them with.  When I saw the new lines from Webster’s Pages, I knew I found the perfect match.  Papers are a combination of the Garden Gala and Seaside Retreat collections.  I also used Webster’s Beautiful Storyteller Alpha Stickers, the Coco Velvet ribbon, and their Turquoise Petite trim.

The chipboard tag and ribbon slide are older Making Memories pieces from my stash.  Paired them with a wooden flourish from KaiserCrafts, some buttons from Foofala, antique lace, and Prima Say It In Pearls flourishes.  Finished the page off with lots of straight stitches from my sewing machine.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to stop by tomorrow to check out our very first challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend and get out there and soak up some sunshine!

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We Wait

Good morning everyone!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!  I am trying to take some time to pamper myself a bit and just RELAX.  After a busy weekend and rather long week, it feels nice to chill…..start a new book…..sleep in….catch up on some of the Olympics I’ve been recording on DVR.

You all may recognize these photos that I took last weekend of our sweet little adoptive pup we are hoping to bring home to us soon.  We are so excited to have her join us, but we have to wait a bit longer yet.  She is undergoing medical treatment and it will be another month before we can call her ours.  The wait is hard, but worth it.

I made this page for the new challenge over at 52 weeks x 52 layouts.  You are to make a page using ric-rac trim and NO patterned papers.

What I love most about challenges  is that they can take you out of your normal routine every once in awhile.  I love me some patterned paper and usually use it as my jump-off point on a project, so this week’s challenge was fresh and oh, so fun for me.

I used several colors of  layered cardstock  to begin with.  Sprayed some of the papers with Glimmer Mist in Gold and English Ivy and added a Tattered Angels Bingo card that I also painted with the mists.  Matted two of my photos with Prima and Webster’s Pages packaging and added some of my favorite Prima flowers and pearl flourishes.  The journaling cards are from Webster’s new Garden Gala collection and the trim is a mixture of Webster’s Pages and Making Memories.

Aren’t my two girlies a couple of cuties?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you all come play along with us for this week’s fun challenge.

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Heart of Love

Hi everyone!  Happy Friday!  I always love Fridays, don’t you?  It’s so nice to know you can turn off that alarm clock for a few days and just relax.  And this weekend is particularly exciting with the Winter Olympics starting.  Cannot wait to watch the opening ceremony in just a few hours.

I’m also very excited to share with you a project I made for Webster’s Pages just in time for Valentine’s Day.  Throughout the month of February, the Webster’s girls are showcasing projects made in partnership with Tattered Angels.  If you have not popped over to inspireME to check out all the amazing offerings, you MUST do so!  Truly, you won’t want to miss out! Today I posted my little Heart of Love I made to brighten up my home for the holiday.

Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile probably already know that I love to create things from old kraft shopping bags.  I love the rustic charm of the kraft paper, love recycling something old into something treasured, and especially love the large “canvas” a big shopping bag provides.

To begin this project,  I created my own heart template on some newsprint paper, using the old-fashioned method of folding the paper in half and drawing half a heart shape.  That is probably the ONLY way I could freehand a heart and get the two sides equal.   Once you have your template, draw your heart shape two times onto the kraft shopping bag that you have cut open into one large piece.  Cut out your two hearts, leaving about a half an inch extra between your traced line and your cut.  Don’t worry about being perfect, as you will go back later and trim the edges once your heart is finished.

Next I created a patchwork of beautiful patterned paper from Webster’s Postcards From Paris line.  I was down to my very last scraps of paper, but that’s ok because this is a perfect project for using up those scraps.  To create your patchwork, lay your pieces front side down onto your workspace, joining your edges together.  Using regular scotch tape, tape your pieces together so that they will stay in place.  Make yourself a large enough piece so that you can trace your heart pattern onto the paper.  Cut out and adhere to one of the kraft hearts.  I then machine stitched a zig-zag line between each seam of patterned paper.

Now comes the fun part of decorating and embellishing!  I sprayed my heart with 3 colors of Glimmer Mists (Gold, Blue Skies, and Coffee Shop) in a very random and chaotic fashion.  So very fun to just go wild with this.  I love the beautiful shimmer it gives to the whole piece.

Sprayed some white tulle with the Coffee Shop mist to tie across the center of my heart, and then added a few of the gorgeous Webster’s trims to add detail. I used stamps from Tattered Angels’ In Flight Screen Prints Clear Stamps to create several flourishes and the large focal butterfly to place on top of the trims.  The butterfly was stamped in brown ink on Webster’s Paris Couture paper and then heavily misted with first Blue Skies then Gold Glimmer Mists, and cut out.

Used Tattered Angels’ Regal 3-in-1 Alpha Chips to spell the word love on my butterfly.  They are sprayed with Gold mist and outlined with brown pen.

I then had fun adding some beautiful beaded picks and Prima pearls and crystals and silver mesh flowers. LOVE those!

When I had the front finished, I edged the entire heart with some of the vintage lace I found at the antiques store recently and then stitched the two kraft hearts together on my sewing machine, leaving enough of an opening to insert some poly-fill fiber.  Once you’ve created a pleasing “pillow” effect, stitch the remaining opening closed.  Trim the edges with pinking shears or your regular scissors so that the edges are even.  I then used the original handles of the shopping bag, wrapped in some old white wire, as the hanger for the piece.

I had such a great time with this project!  It is just so fun to go crazy with the Glimmer Mists.  Think I sprayed pretty much everything on here, including all the papers, the butterfly, the tulle, the beaded picks, and even the center Prima pearl embellishment.  I haven’t found an item yet that won’t work with the mists.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I always love to hear your sweet comments!  I’ll see you all back here tomorrow.

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Thawing Out

Good morning!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  We are having quite the wild week here in North Carolina.  After our snowfall last weekend, and three days of canceled school in a row, we are finally settling into our old routine.  School buses are once again able to safely access the back country roads, and folks are able to get their cars out of their driveways and off to work.  We sure enjoyed the snow and the unexpected days off, but it’s good to get back to our regular schedule, too.  Although I do admit….there was some grumbling from the wee people on their way out this morning.  I believe they would have enjoyed one or two more snow days. But since we have the possibility of more snow in the near forecast, they may end up getting their wish yet.

I have been so struck by the peace and beauty of this gentle snowfall.  Loved every minute of it, including the gradual thaw and meltdown that we are having now.  Makes me smile to see a remaining patch of lone snow hiding under the bushes or off to the side of the road.  But nothing is making me smile quite as much as watching the gradual transformation of our little snowman in the front yard.

Here’s our guy yesterday afternoon.  Silly little thing.  You can see he’s about to loose his hat, and his arms are drooping on the ground.  And if you’re wondering what happened to his eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons….well, here they are.

He’s in even worse shape this morning, of course.  His head is now entirely missing and his little bike helmet lies upturned on the ground beside him.  I do wonder if he’ll make it through the day???

I have a card to share with you all this morning that I made for the Sketch This blog.

A little Valentine using Making Memories’ Love Struck line.  The sentiment came directly from the patterned paper, as did the single heart that I cut out and layered with a Prima Say It In Pearls embellishment.  The die cut journaling block is Anna Griffin and the trim is vintage Melissa Frances.

Added a few more pearls and a bit of machine-stitching, plus a touch of hand-stitching, to finish the card off.

Here is the sketch.  I do hope you will come and play with us!

Have a great day everyone!

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Petite Papers

Hello everyone!  Hope you’ve been having a wonderful weekend.  It’s always so nice to get a break from the routine, isn’t it?  Sleep in later, stay up later, no homework to deal with……love it!  And the best part is, we still have tomorrow off, too!  Yippee!

This weekend I’ve been doing some playing in my scraproom.  Been making some cards with the gorgeous Petite Papers from Webster’s Pages.  If you haven’t seen these, you are going to love them.  Perfect for card making and scrapbooking projects alike.  In one paper pad, you get 36 6×6 double-sided papers from two different collections.

I used the Postcards From Paris and Sweet As Cherry Pie pad to make this card.

The background was pieced using the Petite Papers.  Love how the blank space in the scrolled area was the perfect canvas for my rub-on greeting.  I cut the butterflies and dressmaker’s form from the 12×12 Postcards From Paris papers, and added some Prima pearls and a little tag that completes my sentiment.

And before I go, I have my most favorite snowman from my Winter Wonderland decor to share.  This is another fun and easy craft project you all can make at home in a snap.

Isn’t she cute???  That’s my little peanut when she was 2 years old.  Her class made these snowmen in preschool.  The base is made from tag-board that was cut into a general snowman shape.  Place a photo of your child’s face down first, and then cover the remaining area with white cotton balls.  Glue a couple of sticks on the back for arms, and tie a strip of cloth around the neck for a scarf, and you are done.  Simple, huh?  And so darn sweet!  I cannot tell you how my heart melts every year to pull this little gal out of storage.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone!  Enjoy the rest of your long weekends!

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