Kaisercraft 75 Cents Mixed Media Canvas, Card & Decorated Glassine Bag

Hello there scrappy friends! I'm finally back after what seems like an eternity! But boy it was one crazy summer let me tell you!
My move was by far the worse move ever ( and we've moved around quite a bit in the last 7 years)! It just seemed like everything that could go wrong did and then some. Like not fitting all our stuff into the biggest moving truck we could find, and having to make 3 trips! Ugggh! Then our power was shut off because hubby and I assumed the other had called the electric company to make arrangements for service ( which neither one of us did). It was on a Friday and they said power would not be back on until the following Monday. I'm surprised we made it 3 days without air conditioning in this Texas heat, without killing each other! I'm just so glad summer's over and we've gotten back to our normal routine. I've even had a chance to do some crafting, so let me share with you what I made...

Mixed Media Canvas

I made this canvas for a very special lady I met on Youtube. She is undergoing chemotherapy and has lost all of her hair. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be to have to go through such an ordeal. Personally,  I don't know how I would handle this situation.

But I would hope that I would have half the strength she has, because she is the most amazing and courageous woman I've ever known. I admire her so much for her positive attitude and her unwavering faith. Nothing can bring her down, I tell you! She is that  amazing!

Here's a closeup of the sentiment on the canvas. This special lady loves flowers so I made sure to incorporate lots of lush blooms to my canvas. I used Spellbinders Floral Ovals and Large Ovals Dies along with scraps from Kaisercraft's 75 Cents paper collection for the focal point of the canvas.

 I  created the background with a damask stencil and gloss gel medium.Then I used several ink sprays, Ferro special effect paste, and acrylic paint to create a grungy, yet feminine look.

Thinking of You Card

I also made her a card to coordinate with her canvas. Here, I used Spellbinders Opulent Ovals dies and some pretty paper doilies. 

Here's another view of the card. I finished the inside to match the outside of the card as well.

Decorated Glassine Bag

Last, but not least, I decorated a medium size glassine bag to round out her gifts. I wanted to send her some pretty laces so I wrapped them around a pretty tag and stuck it inside the bag. I think it turned out so pretty!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! 

Fun Birthday Card

Hey guys! Today I've got a short post for you. Just wanted to share the card I made for my sister's recent birthday.

Isn't it cute! I used MME Sky's the Limit 6x6 paper pad and the colors and images were just perfect for the look I was going for. 

I love the hot air balloons and the fun colors. The little pennants were die cut from scraps using Spellbinders Banners die set. All of the paper edges were lightly distressed with Tim Holtz distress tool. I also cut a paper doily in half and tucked the piece in between layers of pattern paper. 

I fussy cut a few images from the paper pad and layered them on the bottom corner over the pieces of tissue tape I used in the background. The flowers were all from my stash and were lightly sponged with warm white acrylic paint. The little leaves were die cut from green card stock and tucked into the cluster. I used alpha stickers for the sentiment and I love how they coordinate with the words beside the little bird image.

This card was a lot of fun to make and my sister loved it! hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by. I'll see you all real soon!

12 Tags of 2014, July

Hey everybody! I'm back to share my tag for the month of July. I fell in love with Tim's tag as soon as I saw it and knew I just had to make the time to create my own . Being from Southern California and all, I can't help and be in love with anything beach theme.Since I've moved to Texas,  I think the beach is the one thing I truly miss from Cali...that and the gorgeous weather.

I stayed pretty true to Tim's version and had to purchase the Sand and Sea dies ( any excuse to get new goodies will do) . The background of the tag was created with a combination of Distress paints, stains and inks. The edges are distressed and inked with Frayed Burlap.

I didn't have Shrink Plastic so I just used a piece of plastic packaging and embossed it with the Swirls Texture Fade. It reminds me of waves so it was perfect for the ocean theme. I inked the sea horse with Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Barn Door Distress Inks. I also used Rock Candy Crackle and then sprinkled some gold embossing powder on top. I think he turned out awesome!

I followed Tim's recipe to create the "sand" and I've got to say it looks just like the real thing. And it didn't flake off! I'm definitely going to use this technique again. The sand dollar and starfish were painted with distress paints and then sprinkled with gold embossing powder. I also used Distress Stickles on the starfish for added texture.

I had so much fun creating this tag and can't wait to see next month's tag.

Hope you are all making the time to participate in the monthly tags.

Till next time, have a great one!!!

Bo Bunny Country Garden Altered Frame and Birthday Card

Hello there! I'm back to share some more projects with you all!
Last week, my sweet, wonderful mom celebrated her 64th birthday. She is a huge fan of anything from " I Love Lucy" and collects the Lucy Barbie dolls, so my husband and I ordered some dolls online. Unfortunately, they would be arriving a few days after her birthday. I didn't want her to not have anything to open on the big day, so I decided to alter a frame for her. She loves to display pictures of her kids and grandchildren all over her room and she just loves when I make her stuff. She loved it! And immediately found a picture to put in it.

I started off with one of those $1 frames from Michael's and painted the sides a warm white. Then I covered the frame with Bo Bunny's Country Garden papers. I distressed the top piece by tearing random pieces and inking the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I also used my Martha Stewart punch to punch out border strips that I tucked in between papers.

The wooden dressform is from Sacrafter's shop and I left it natural. I just made  a "dress" from one of the pattern papers and added a piece of strung pearls for a necklace. And just look at those flowers! Aren't they gorgeous? The big blue one was gifted to me by Sa and the pink ones are from my stash. They were originally white but I colored them with Heidi Swapp's shine spray in Blush. 

I added Diamond Dust to the tops of all the flowers and tucked pieces of white tulle in my flower cluster, for added girliness! ( Is that even a word?) I also cut apart an Easter pick and used the berries to accent the arrangement. The leaves were die cut with one of the Spellbinder's Foliage dies and pattern paper.

Love these little wooden sentiments from Michael's. They come white and are so shabby chic. Perfect for my frame!

I also made a coordinating card to go with the frame. This was my first time using the Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles dies, I've had forever.They are sooo pretty! Then I just added a Kaisercraft wood frame and some pearls for accent. The banner was fussy cut from one of the pattern papers and then stamped with "Happy Birthday".

Here's the two pieces together. I think they turned out so pretty and shabby! My mom loved them both and I loved watching her smile when she opened them. Let me know what you think. I really appreciate your sweet comments.

Have a wonderful day!

Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante Shrine

Hi everyone! I almost forget to share one of my favorite projects with you all. I made a Steampunk Shrine a few weeks ago, but had been too busy to post and then I simply forget all about it. So today, I saw it in a corner, covered with scraps from other projects and thought I'd share it ( before I forgot again, hehe).

I started off with Sacrafter's Gears Shadowbox and covered it with Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante papers. The gears were painted with metallic puffy paints and distressed with black gesso. I simply dabbed the gesso on top and then rubbed some off with my fingers. This creates a cool, grungy affect.I did the same technique on the chipboard pediment from Tim Holtz.

Look at the pretty Steampunk lady inside. I fussy cut several images and layered them over one another to decorate the inside of my shrine. 

I love the way the sides turned out. Again, these are all fussy cut pieces just layered together to create this design. It sort of reminds me of Tattoo art, don't you think?

From this angle, you can see some of the fussy cut images inside. It's hard to see all the details but there is a lot of layering going on.

The feet of the shrine are empty bullet casings adhered with E6000. I used my fingers and dabbed some of that coppery puffy paint and then grunged them up with the black gesso. I think the feet look so cool!!!

And here's the back of the shrine. I used one of the Steampunk frames and added mini gears to her hair. I also added glossy accents to the mirror eye to give it a realistic look. Then I just added a fussy cut butterfly to the flowers on the bottom left hand corner, and that's it.

Being a lover of all things Steampunk, it's only natural I fall in love with this piece. Almost everything I make ends up in someone else's home. But this puppy is all mine and I can't wait to add it to my display case! Hope you all like it as well and thanks so much for stopping by!

I'll see you all real soon...

12 Tags of 2014, June

Hi guys! It's been a couple of weeks since I posted on my blog, but I've just been super busy. The kids are on summer vacation and I've been putting in a lot of hours at work. So that  leaves me with only a few hours here and there to craft or do anything else, for that matter! Don't you just hate it when life gets in the way of crafting, lol? Well, I did manage to squeeze in my tag this month with just a few days to spare. Let me know what you think!

 

Tim showed us a really cool way to use our stencils and Distress inks to create a watercolor background for our tag. This was my second try since I didn't like the way the first one turned out. I guess it's because I don't have any of the mini ink pads and it was hard applying several colors onto the stencil without it turning all muddy. Some of you may know, I have an obsession with all things "Alice" and having just ordered some new stamps from Oxford Impressions, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to play with my stamps.

 

 

I used the harlequin stencil ( which always reminds me of Wonderland), Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, and Black Soot Distress Inks to create my background. Then I stamped large flourishes using Versamark Ink and white embossing powder. I randomly stamped small script over the tag with Barn Door Distress ink for a pop of red. I colored Alice with distress inks and a water brush and aged the tag with Vintage Photo.

 

 

The two little wooden toadstools are by Recollections. I inked them with Barn Door Distress ink and sponged a bit of white paint on the tops then I lightly inked them with Vintage Photo. You may not be able to see it all that well, but I also added gold embossing powder on the edges of the tag.

 

 

I used the same colors as my background to ink up the seam binding and then I made the Paula bow and tied it on my tag. I had some cute charms that I thought would go well with my tag so I attached them to the bow using a charm clip. That's it!

 

I love the way my tag turned out and I'm really glad I found the time to participate this month. You still have a few days to play along, so I really hope you'll give it a go. Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll see you all real soon.



"Lady Rose" Cards and Super Cute Mini Layout

Hi everyone! It's been a couple weeks since I posted anything but I've just been so busy with, well...life. For starters, the kids are out of school for the summer and I have a new houseguest. We had torrential rains a few days ago and part of my house flooded. Ugggh, imagine the cleanup! I'm just thankful it didn't get much worse and cause too much damage.Also, I've been working on a commissioned project for the last couple of weeks and it is really taking up a lot of my time. It's actually a very simple, but tedious project which I'm hoping to get done this week. Hey, at least I'm getting paid for it , right?
Well, today I wanted to share with you the projects Kaylah and I created using the June card kit from DiscountPaperCrafts. Yup, we managed to finish them even with all the craziness going on! The June kit is so, so pretty. I know I say that about all the kits, but I just really fell in love with the colors on this one. It features Kaisercraft's Lady Rose collection with it's rich browns and burgundies, and beautiful roses adorn a lot of the papers. It was a fussy cutter's dream using the roses and other images as embellishments. Cathie does such a wonderful job putting these kits together and we barely used anything from our stash to complete the projects. Really, the kit is perfect all on it's own!

 

I love the way this center step card turned out! Everything you see on the card comes with the kit, except the little ribbon on top of the birdcages and of course, the TH Ornate Frame die  used to diecut the frame. I fussy cut the roses, bird and birdcages from pattern paper out of the 6.5 x 6.5 pad and used them to embellish my card. The border pieces on the bottom are diecuts that come in the paper pad. And just look at those colors, so rich and beautiful!

 

 

This card was a bit more simple, but still so pretty. It measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2  and we distressed all the edges lightly with our distress tool. I fussy cut the corner pieces, roses and crown and even those cute little butterflies. The Wooden Flourish Ornate Plate adds such a wonderful detail to the card. You get a pack of two in the kit and they are so fun to work with. We kept this one in it's original color but Kaylah used some clear embossing powder on it to make it glossy. That kid just loves using the embossing powders, hehe! We added a seam binding bow and pearls from our stash and viola!

 

 

And here is our gate fold card! I used TH Distressed Doily die for the flaps and they turned out gorgeous! The sentiment is a die cut from the paper pad and the roses were fussy cut from the pattern paper. The white roses that come with the kit add the perfect touch to the rose clusters.

 

 

Here's the inside of the card. We layered several pieces of pattern paper and added a fussy cut rose cluster at the bottom. Perfect spot for a sweet message.

 

 

This card also measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2. Notice the piece of tulle we added between layers of paper? I thought this would add a romantic touch to the card along with all the roses and the ornate oval die cut. The roses were all fussy cut from the paper as well as that corner piece, little bird and butterflies. The birdcage wooden flourish also comes with the kit, in a package of 2. Kaylah embossed it with gold embossing powder and dabbed it with Snow- Tex. Told you she loves her embossing powders!

 

 

 I really fell in love with this page and couldn't bear to cut it so we decided to make a mini layout. It turned out so cute and only measures about 6 1/2 x 6 1/2! We adhered it to a piece of coordinating cardstock from the kit and used only scraps to create it. I did a little bit of stenciling in the background using a homemade modeling paste and TH stencil. I also cut a paper doily in half and used it around my pictures. That pretty ivory trim also comes in the kit and adds beautiful texture to the layout. We used the second wood flourish ornate plate, topped it off with a metal banner piece and added some fussy cut roses and paper flowers from the kit. Perfect!

 

 

So there you have it! Hope you like what we created using the beautiful June Kit. You can get your hands on the kit here:

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/188212616/junejuly-cardproject-kit-featuring?ref=shop_home_feat_1

 

Hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll be seeing you real soon!