ANYTHING GOES

One of my favorite blogs is Crafty Creations, it has challenges for all types of crafting. This weeks challenge #118 is Anything Goes, love it!

Have been doing all types of crafts besides cards and just finished this piece. It is a quilted wall hanging. The focal point is a picture of my Great Aunt and Uncle. I've been working on genealogy and also getting things together for a family reunion. We are going to have an auction to offset some of the costs and this is my contribution to the cause.

Printed the picture on photo fabric, cropped it using a rotary cutter that gives the old style ragged edges. Matted the picture three times with other fabrics, just like matting pictures for cards. Used "Wonder Under" on the back of all the fabric.

The base of the wall hanging is a different fabric and it was made like a mini quilt with batting in between the top and back, sewed the two together and turned, then added the photo to the front. Added a piece of lace in the corner and also some pearls (hard to see them). Thought about adding more embellishments, but Billy thought it would take away from the picture. I did sew about the mats and then a few rows on the background. This was a learning experience and will be trying a pillow for my next project.

Thanks for stopping by, love to hear you comments. Have a great day.

Suzie

HYDRANGEAS MADE WITH HEART

Gingersnap Creations has so many wonderful challenges, and I wish there was time to do all of them, but am not staying focused very well lately, have a ton of projects started and keep finding more to start, thus there are alot to complete. Made a list yesterday and hopefully this will help.

GC#70 challenge is to use punches, this is my finished card. The hydrangeas where made by using a piece of white cardstock 1" wide, then folded in half, you then punch out a heart to make the flowers. I then used a sponge and yellow ink to do the center of the flower, and pink ink to sponge the outside of the flower. It takes 2 hearts for each flower, the leaves are also a heart punch, a halft pearl was added to the center to complete the flower. The base of the card is pink card stock, then an embossing folder was used for the white mat. The oval and rectangle are from Spellbinders. The watercan is a stamp from a set that I purchased at Michaels.

This was such a simple technique that I was able to teach my niece how to do it, and also owed my Aunt. My Aunt is just getting into papercrafting and this was something that she would see the result immediately. She does wonderful dried flowers and gave me some that I will be using on my cards.

Am trying to get a few things together for a Boutique with my Aunt around the first of November, really have my work cut out, but am looking forward to giving it a try, will be able to spend some quality time with her, so it will be worth the time.

Thanks for stopping by, would love to hear your comments. Have a wonderful day.

GRATEFUL THOUGHTS

Have been working on some projects to show my Aunt Marion, she wants to start doing some papercrafts. Kay and I are going to spend the day with her tomorrow, so I wanted to show her some different projects that we could do.

Mojo Monday's sketch this week was perfect for an altered book. The sketches for the cards work so wonderfully for the layouts for altered books, they are such great inspiration.

Used some of my favorite papers by "Graphic 45," Had pearl trim in my stash and added a bow for double face satin. Think is would be such a great book for journaling about what I am grateful for.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope everyone is having a crafty day.

SUNNY SUNFLOWERS

Where has the time gone, was just comment a few days ago that it was already May, now it is the middle of May and things around my home have been a little on the crazy side. Can't believe that I have been a member of the Gingersnap Creations Group for a year, seems like only yesterday that I started to blog. This is such a wonderful group of creative ladies and they give me inspiration each and every day. The Design Team is so supportive and they share such great and new techniques. Haven't had the chance to really be creative because of everything that has been going on. Some have been good, and others not so good.

Grandson's birthday, spent time with my school buddy Sandy. Car in shop for two days, and spent Mother's Day in hospital, the doctor thought I had a blood clot. Don't know why my leg was black and blue and swollen, but no blood clot, thank goodness. Had to keep my leg up and so couldn't really spend much time doing anything creative.

Wanted to do something for the "kraft" challenge at Gingersnap Creations, and had made this mini photo and souvenir album. It is made from lunch bags, can't get anymore "kraft" than that. Used 4 lunch bags, folded in half, every other bag can be opened so that you can put ticket stubs, or brochures in the bag and they are right there.


The cover is bright and cheerful, sunflowers are one my favorite flowers and couldn't resist using them. The title was printed on designer paper. Base of the cover is bright yellow with some yellow polka dot paper to accent. Cheated on this one, the sunflowers are stickers. Had some buttons and added them to the center of the flowers. Each page is decorated differently so that you can add pictures and a little journaling as you go. Made one for my sister Kay, and our friend Barbara when we went on our vacation in the summer of 2007. Used binder rings to hold the bags together and then added lots of ribbon to the rings to give it a really fun look.

Another one of my favorite blogs is The Pink Elephant. This weeks challenge #TPE66 is from Ella's Kitchen which is a recipe to use yellow, design paper and buttons, thought this vacation album fit right in. They have also started a scrapbook challenge on Thursdays. You can meet the design team this week. Know that I will be participating in these challenges as my scrapbooks have been left behind for awhile. Miss doing it with my girls, the creative juices just don't flow when it is just me.

Time to get ready for work. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

HUG A TREE

The last three days have been really great. Spent Monday with my best friend Sandy, she is here for a visit with her daughter. Sandy lives in Ohio and I haven't seem her in over 15 years. We really had a great time, doing what girls do the best "shop." Sandy is into quilting and it just so happens that I was working on a quilt. We went to a couple of quilt stores and found some great fabric, that I want to use on an altered book. The book is a work in progress, have lots of things in mind and will be working on that in the next few months.



Tuesday I finished the quilt top, and worked on a couple of cards. Gingersnap Creations has a new challenge for botanical. I used the stamp set from Stampin Up, Thoughts and Prayers. The base of the card is green cardstock and the mat is in cream color, stamped the cardstock using the branch stamp, and then embossed it using a new embossing folder from Provo Craft and my Big Shot.





The tree was stamped on a cream cardstock and then added a green mat. Used a $1 stamp that I found in Reno for the sentiment. Tried to keep the card pretty simple, but added the green rhinestones to each corner. Didn't show a picture of the inside, put stamped a small tree on cream cardstock and added that to the inside.

One of my favorite places to go for other challenges is Crafty Creations, the challenge this week is to make your own background. There are so many ways to do this, mine is probably is the simplest, but does qualify. If you would like to see some other ideas, check out their blog.


Hopefully Sandy and I will be able to spend some more time together next week. It's my Monday, so time for me to go to work. Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great day.

P. S. Almost forgot Week 16 challenge of trees or leaves is at Lots to Do blog.

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

Have been pretty busy on my days off, not only have I been working on a quilt, but took the time to complete a couple of cards. This card is for the challenge at Our Creative Corner, they have a different sketch each Thursday.






The card base if 5 x5, with 1 1/4" squares, the paper is from the "Once Upon a Time collection." Used the corner rounder on the center mat, and used my label die cut, from Spellbinders, to make the frame around the angel. The hardest part was the embellishment, didn't want to use ribbon, put after trying twine, beads, wire, and anything else I could find, the double faced picot ribbon was what ended up on the card.

A glue pen was brought out for the wings, and then glitter added to give some dimension. Also added a pink rhinestone to the center of the bow. Used colored pencils to color the angel. Will be sending this card to my sister, she just had knee surgery on Monday, she loves angels and fairies, know this will put a smile on her face.

The other card completed will be posted tomorrow, it is using the faux silk technique, this was really a fun technique and will be doing more with this technique.

Hope everyone is having a great day, time to work on some more projects. Talk with you soon.

ONEIES

Ton of things to accomplish today, so just going to put this card out there. You guessed it, is it a challenge for Crafty Creations. Thought this would be super simple today, but not the case. We were challenged to use only one designer paper, one image and one embellishment. Have gotten so used to jazzing cards up with all kinds of embellishments, it was hard to use just one of everything.

The stamp is from my stash, Hero Arts, and had an inch of dust on it. Colored pencils were used for the coloring. The paper was also in my stash, a few years old. Added the bow to the handle of the basket for the one embellishment.

That's it for today, am going to work on my grandson's quilt, ran out of thread yesterday and ran to Joann's. They had some new products from Provo Craft that I couldn't resist, can't wait to put them to use. Also found that they have added Spellbinder die cuts in the stores, now I won't have to wait until going to Utah to purchase them, or getting them on line, will now have instant gratification.

Hope everyone is having a great week, talk with you soon.

WHAT A DAY!

It has been crazy around my place, started this posta few days ago, but never got back to it. Got ready for a yard sale, that was for Saturday and Sundy, but I couldn't do Sunday, was in too much pain from Saturday and slo the lack of sleep. Work nights and got up early Saturday for the sale. It worked out okay, but am in a lot of pain, also weeded the yard imbetween customers. When will I learn, that I'm not spring chicken.



I have had this tree stamp for years. It is one of favoriates, but for some reason I haven't used it in a long. time. Ran across it and thought that the sketch challenge at The Pink Elephant Challenge would work nicely. I stamped the tree with Stampin Up ink and then suing a glue pen added glitter to the leaves. Cut an oval mat and then added samller ovals. Trim on the side is ribbon. Then stamped "What A Day", had to go shopping to purchase a new stamp. Thought that it would be neat to add some siz zag stitching aound the edge, like it, but don't know if it really tied in with the rest of the card. The base of the card is 5x7, the tree stamp was to large.




This would be the card for me yesterday, got to work and "What a Day!" Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, mine starts tomorrow. I have half finished projects on my desk and ready want to get them completed tomorrow, but also need to deal with all the stuff I didn't sale. Oh well, just another day in the neighborhood.


Talked with my daughter yesterday and she and my sister were at a Scrapbooking Show in Salt Lae, so wished I had been there. They found some great new products, can't wait to get there to see what kind of projects we will be doing next.


Thanks for stopping by today, have a crafty one.

Ahh!! It's Spring

Spring is the air here in Las Vegas, the tree are in bloom and the weeds they are a growin'. It seems good to see all the beautiful colors and think about spring cleaning. It is suppose to be in the 80's next week, that might be a good time to address the weeds in my desert landscaping.






Don't want to do that so, here is a card that met a few challenges for this week. Spring is at Rosie Dees Challenge, and that brings to mind bright colored Easter eggs, that is the basis of this card. Added wavy strips with solid and plaid papers and then using versa ink added a little texture to the solid colors. Crazy 4 Challenges wanted to see some paper piercing, and that is what was done as a border of the wavy strips.




The flower was made with a Sizzix die cut flower. double layered in two shades of pink. The leaves are also a Sizzix die cut that is available at Stampin Up. Finished the card off with a little tag and blue 1/8" satin ribbon on the stem of the flower. To make your own flowers was the challenge at Crafty Creations, only made one flower, but am sure this still meets the criteria of the challenge. Added the butterfly just for fun. Hope this brightens up your day.


Thanks for coming by, please leave a comment, love hearing what everyone has to say.

IT'S A CELEBRATION "OOH LA LA"

Gingersnap Creations have given me the honor of being a Gingersnap Gem, this is such an honor. This group is so wonderful and they offer so many tutorials on a wide variety of techniques. That is how this particular tag came to be. Ink on Your Fingers by Hels has a wonderful tutorial on "faux flowers" and this really intrigued me. Didn't have any of the supplies but went out immediately and found UTEE and a melting pot.


Hels suggested stamping the flowers, but I didn't have a flower stamp that would work so I used my flower die cuts by Spellbinder and used patterned papers. It was really amazing how the paper kept its shape, was a little afraid that it would tear, but that wasn't the case, did learn that you do have to shape your flowers before dipping the paper in the UTEE. Once a couple of flowers were completed it was now necessary to decide how they would be used. Think they would be wonderful on gift boxes, photo boxes, or as a pin just to mention a few.





I found these chipboard tags at Michaels in their $1 bins and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to challenge myself (Scrappy Frog Challenge) by doing a collage on the tag. It's a celebration (Gingersnap Creations) and used one color and shades of that color (Crafty Creations) and these wonderful papers from Lasting Impressions was yelling to be used. The color gold is really different from the bright colors that I usually use. Added different textures 3 dimensional flower, button, pearls, chipboard sentiments, ribbon and even some gold glitter on the leaves. Crazy 4 Challenges was requesting 3 textures, think that I may have gone a little overboard on this one, but love the results.

Hope you can see some of the detail, the mix of papers and all the different textures. Will be making doing some more of these wonderful flower very soon, want to try and use leaves and different shapes not just flowers. A special thanks to Hels for this wonderful tutorial, you have opened up a new technique for me and my mind going a mile a minute to try and come up with ways to use the technique.

Time to head off to work, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

KAY'S DOLLS

My sister, Kay, does porcelain dolls and she just posted some new ones she just completed. Most of her dolls are very vintage, thus when I was checking out Graphics Fairy, I am drawn to the art that is vintage and little girls.


I found the art work for my card and of course it reminds me of my little sister, you can check out her blog here to see some of her wonderful creations.

The challenge at Gingersnap Creations is lace and fiber, all the dolls that Kay dresses have lace and all types of fiber, beads, ribbons, flowers, buttons and all types of embellishment. When making the card I was thinking of my sister, that is why the sentiment is Thinking of You.





The card is Kay's favorite color pink, has lace on the border, a button, and fiber under the button, which is DMC floss. The base of the card is offwhite cardstock, a mat of pink and then a print with scrolls. I matted the focal point, the little girl with black so that she would pop
.

Talked with Kay and Kaylene today, and they were out trying to find some inspiration for some new craft projects. Can't wait to see them, so we can create together once again, miss my mojo that they both give to me.


Hope everyone is have a great weekend, have a crafty day.

TIME AND FUN

Time flies when you're having fun! Truer words have never been spoken, the older we get the faster time flies. It does not seem possible that Monday we will be into February 2010. Where does the time go? Time happens be the Chestnut Theme Challenge and Gingersnap Creations, thus this is my interpretation of "Time."

While lying in bed, it dawned one me that "Time flies when you're having fun!" Now that I had that theme how to put that on a card. I realized I had a clock in one stamp set and wings in a fairy set so the only thing to do was put them together.

The background paper used for the background may look familiar to those of you that have papers that you purchased years ago. The edges of the card were distressed, the clocks were colored in with chalk. Found a charm to also add to the front.

The sentiment for the front and inside were computer generated. I also matted the inside of the card to finish the card off. It amazes me how we all look at these challenges in a different way, we are all so unique and it is so much fun to see what comes out of these challenges. Thanks to the DT for all of their inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by today, please leave a comment, and have a crafty day.