Happy Halloween

This one was made by my friend Christina. (I just had to post a pic!)

Check out Jeanette's post on October 19th. (www.jeanettelynton.com) She made a really cool project into some paper pumpkins with clay pots as a base. Awesome, I'll be making these sometime soon and then I'll post pics. Have a fun and safe Halloween!!!

B-Day gift for a 5 year old

So last week, my husband and I were invited to our friend's daughter's B-Day party. She was turning 5. Last year we got her some My Little Pony, miniature toys knowing she liked playing with this type of toys. I do not know what else she likes and I did not want to repeat what we gave her last year and since money is a bit tight these days I decided to make her some jewelery. While I was looking for my beads and findings I came across this cute, pink, mini- skirt purse. I think I was planning on decorating it and giving it to my niece, but never got around to it. So after digging out all my supplies I went to the store to get a few things. I found some cute flower charms and some acrylic flower stickers. I also bought a card since I don't have anything birthday in my stamps. So I had this silver chain necklace in my stash that I cut apart and added the flower charms to with split rings. Split rings are what I almost always use to attach charms to jewelery so that the charms don't fall off. (think key ring) I glued the the flower rhinestones to the purse with Aleene's OK to wash it. I also made a bracelet with Swarovski Crystal (which I finished at the party after I got the girl's measurement of her wrist). I made some earrings to match that are pretty and dainty. All of the women at the party loved what I made, I hope the girl does too.

My First Card for Baby Congrats

This is the first card I made this year for a baby congrats. I used Stampin' Up stamps. I had bought a CuttleBug die cutter and embossing machine with Christmas money in March of this year and I was playing with it by embossing papers and vellum. And in the same week or so I played around with the stamps by stamping and coloring in the images. So, when I saw how cute the baby images turned out, I decided to do something with them instead of throwing them away. So again, "playing" with my different supplies, I inked all over a hot pink, embossed card stock, with white ink, which made the embossed dots pop off the paper. I glued this over a card I had made with white card stock. Before gluing I rounded each corner with a corner rounder punch. I carefully cut around each stamped baby image and inked around each edge with pink ink and then glued those to the front of the card. I liked how this turned out so much that I decided to decorate the inside of the card as well. So I used some acrylic stamps from a set I purchased through OTC (Oriental Trading Company). I also used a diaper pin punch from Martha Stewart. I inked up the pins with a silver ink for a more realistic look. I also inked around the entire inside of the card with a light pink ink. Finally, so it would have a home, I used the last baby image I stamped and colored on the back of the card on top of some embossed vellum that I inked with pink ink. I really like how this card turned out and am going to make it again using more muted, lighter pinks then the hot pink I started with. I hope you enjoy!!

Baby Congrats for Twins

                                           So this is the card I made on Thursday. After I created this blog, I noticed at the bottom and off to the side was a list of Blogs that I was following. Well to my surprise there was one listed! It was one of my cousin and her new baby twins. So seeing this blog and catching up on how the babies are growing, reminded me that I have not sent her a congrats card yet. My husband had his tonsils out in May (same month they were born) and then things just got busy from there. Living far away from everybody makes it easy to forget. ( Out of site out of mind.) So I've been wanting to do something with these Stampin' Up stamps that I found at a garage sale last year, and have only played with them a little bit. So this is what I came up with today(Thursday). I "auditioned a lot of papers before I hade the right combo and then even as I started to trim and glue it together it still came out differently then I had been thinking. I swear, but sometimes things just make themselves! After I made the card, I also decorated the envelope. I own two sets of Stampin' Up baby themed stamps, and one has a diaper pin that when stamped over the flap on the back of the envelope makes it look like the envelope has been pinned shut, cute!!! I also used an acrylic stamp set from OT to stamp a clothes line on the front of the envelope. Enjoy!!!

Cold and Snowy Day

Last night I made a card before heading to bed and it turned out OK. Here is last's night card. I wanted to try it out before making it with my friend. I also tried putting a couple of necklaces together, really simple ones. All I did was add a pendant to some pre-made chains. One I liked, the other needs some more details to it. I should know better than to start a project when I should be going to bed.

Today I woke up to the weather being cold, windy and with a light dusting of snow. A good day for staying inside and being creative. This afternoon I got together with my friend Christina to put together card kits for an upcoming card workshop. Then we both made a version of that card as samples for the women to have an idea as to what the are making. I forgot to take a picture of the cards though!!! Grrr!! I probably won't see this card again 'til the 7th of November so I'll have to post a pic then. Card making is becoming more and more exciting to me, but every time I find a craft that I want to make and try to sell, I soon talk myself out of it, telling myself that the items are not really good enough to sell, and then I never follow through with doing the research needed to find out if I could sell my stuff. OR I buy enough materials in order to make many many multiples of something, and then never sit down and do them. I'm so easily distracted. So here I sit with faint ideas of making and selling cards, along with the many other Christmas ornaments that I love creating. Anyone else have the same struggles?

My New Blog

Well, through a suggestion from a friend (Aunt Diane) on the HGTV craft boards, I have decided to start my own blog to share my thoughts and ideas about the things I create and do with my family and friends.

So I hope you all enjoy what you see. Please feel free to comment and share and advice or ideas you have as well.

A little bit about myself:

I am a wife to a really great guy who loves me for who I am. I am a homemaker, though not very good at it sometimes as my creativity often trumps the chores needed to be done. I love to try my hand at most crafts, my glue gun being my favorite tool. Cats are my favorite animals, but we own a dog who is very sweet, so I like him too. My paternal grandma taught me how to sew by hand at a very young age and helped me many times with different creations I would attempt over the years. I loved digging into her stash of fabrics to see what I could find. A few years ago, I dug into her stash and grabbed quite a lot of fabrics and swatches. My plan is to turn them into a mini quilt or something and give one to each of my aunts or uncles and one to each cousin, but first I need to find out what the fabrics were made into. I plan to have a copy of each fabric swatch to pass around and have everyone write what they remember the fabrics were used for.

Currently I've been making cards. I'm always one who likes to go against the grain, not wanting to do what everyone else is doing, and cards and scrap booking has been popular crafts in the last few years. I'm finally getting into them, because I found some great Stampin' Up rubber stamps at garage sales last year. So now I need projects to do with those stamps and have found card making a good use of them. I also met a new friend who is passionate about stamping and such, so that too has spurred my interest. I love the new techniques such as inking and distressing the edges of the paper which really make the final projects look finished and make different features just POP off the page. A month and a half ago I had my gall bladder removed and during recovery I could not do a whole lot. I had joined a card swap as a motivation to get into card making and as the deadline neared it was the one thing I could do without a lot of movement (I was very sore from surgery). So, I dug through my stash of beautiful scrapbook paper I have collected over the years, (since I was not allowed to drive yet), and made a fairly decent card using my stamps and papers. And have been doing many paper related crafts since.

    Craft therapy is very good for the soul and has many healing qualities, I think. I never was depressed over my situation and kept myself busy creating more and more things. I mean, a person can only watch so much T.V.!!! So here is some of my most recent work. I'll post more later.