CSSC155 Birthday Wishes

The challenge on the Crafty Secrets Forum Challenge is to do a ONE LAYER creation using Crafty Secrets products. You can stamp the card base, add texture to it or punch it, but you can only add one image layer to the base.

I did this simple birthday card to have one hand, and I love how it turned out. The picture doesn't do it justice - I just can't seem to get good lighting for my photos.  I embossed the base with a CB folder.  Then I used a piece from Crafty Secrets Earthy paper pack and ran it through the same folder, then tore the edges.  I used the sentiment from Crafty Secrets Fairyland set, embossed it with copper EP.  I inked the edges of the base card and the layer with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, then attached the layer.  Added a little copper Stickles. 

Stamps:  Crafty Secrets Fairyland.
Paper:  SU! Sage Shadow, Crafty Secrets Earthy paper pack.
Ink:  Versamark, Distress Ink.
Accessories:  Cuttlebug folder, embossing powder, Stickles.

Flourishes FTTC101

Dee jackson is hosting the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge this week.  She wants us to make a big card...5x7 or larger.  This one is 5x7.  I followed this week's sketch over on SCS used Flourishes "Santa, I Believe" set for the main image and the sentiment, cut/embossed with Spellbinders Labels Seventeen, inked in the die.  The CS is from MME Christmas Glitter pack.  I embossed the upper right portion of the base with Cuttlebug Allegro folder.  Edges of all pieces were inked with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  This also fills my personal challenge quota of a Christmas card a week.  : )

Stamps:  Flourishes "Santa, I Believe"
Paper:  MME Christmas Glitter Pack, Paper Studio CS
Ink:  Memories Sepia, Ranger Distress Ink
Accessories:  Foam tape, Dew Drops, Spellbinders

Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge #3

As I was going onto Joan's blog to post my tag link (below this post), I saw that this week's Thursday Weekly challenge #3 is:

1.Make a box...any kind of box will work.....even an alter box (how about a box for your tags)
2. A flourish
3. A butterfly
4. Make a flower (alright...if you can't make one use one you have purchased).

I made this little trinket box.  It is 2 1/8" square.  I used cardboard backing from a paper pack to make box and covered it with paper from my stash, I have no idea what company.  The box closes with the ribbon...I put a tiny flat magnet under the brown paper and wrapped within the end of the ribbon.  The flower was made with several sizes of punches, misted with water, wadded and then the layers put together.  The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and the flourish is a Spellbinders die. Will also include in this week's Flutterby Wednesday Challenge - anything goes.

Joan's Tuesday Tag Challenge #3

I love tags, but for some reason haven't made many.  Joan over at Joan's Gardens started another challenge to create a tag a week, any occasion, so we'll have tags on hand when we need them.  So for her  Tuesday Tag Challenge #3 I made this tag.

The base of the tag was already embossed, a pale pearly green CS, that I got at Joann's.  The image is from Magic Moonlight, cut and embossed with Spellbinders die, sponged with Distress Ink while still in the die.  The edges of the base tag were also sponged with two different Distress Inks.  The flowers I made, and the branches are a Martha Stewart punch.

Where I've Been, Where I Plan To Be (long post)

I've had a long absence from the craft blog world, though not intentional.  Long story short...My son painted the family room for me.  I painted the kitchen, put Venetian plaster on the walls in the breakfast room, as a backsplash behind the stove, over the tile around the fireplace, and a different color in the powder room to replace the wallpaper that was in there.  Then Chuck and I pulled up all the carpet downstairs and spent two entire days on our hands and knees sanding and scraping the plaster and paint that the contractors figured would never be seen.  After all that, we stained the concrete and applied several layers of sealer.  It's gorgeous! Then I was suddenly and unexpectly laid off  from my job on October 4.  Was hired November 29 by a law firm and I'm still trying to fit in there.  I've always worked in the medical field in one capacity or another since I was 15, so a law firm is definitely a stretch for me!

Here are the house pix, should be able to click on them to make them bigger if you'd like. 

Breakfast room (before) Girls night in. :)  Can see where I'm in process of removing wallpaper, the vertical blinds and mini blinds we replaced. 



Living/Dining room. This was after we had been sanding for more than 12 hours

   

Family room. Gray tile around fireplace I covered with venetian plaster, you'll see in after shot



Breakfast area all put together. New French doors, valances I made, new window blinds

Powder room with Venetian Plaster

Family room. Venetian plaster over the gray tile around fireplace, valances up.

     

Living/dining room, from the front door

 

As far as crafting goes, here is a listing and pictures of what I have been up to.

Military Ball invitations for the JROTC program at my son's high school.  He is no longer in the program, but I have made the invitations for the last four years, they liked how I did them and they asked me to do them again.  This is my fifth and last year.  Their colors were purple and gold, theme was "Roman", so this is what I came up with.  I made 125 of these.

Beaded ornament covers. I did four different designs, five of each design in different colors. We had a Christmas party and I let the guests choose which ornament they wanted from the tree. They loved them!

Fleece jackets.  I made four of these, this is one for my daughter.  The other designs were Dallas Cowboys, Texas A&M and Black Watch plaid.

Mass Christmas Cards.  My mother and some of my friends depleted my stash of Christmas cards.  I never got around to making cards in time to send out to friends at Christmas but I did need a few for my family.  Also, a friend wanted quite a few clean and simple cards, so I did a mass production of these, there were 40 in the varied designs and colors

Christmas card I made for my mom.  Not a mistake on lower part of card, I forgot to take a picture before I signed it, so I "airbrushed" the words off the picture

 

Birthday card for my daughter, Shelbie

Birthday card for my niece

My daughter asked me to make a card for a friend of hers who got married New Years Eve.  She loved this card I made previously and asked that I make similar one in her friend's colors.

A friend of mine is a great salesperson but can't sew, so she asked if I would make microwave potato bags and she would sell them.  Pretty boring so I didn't include a picture...rectangular bag with patterned cotton exterior, layer of cotton batting, and white cotton inner layer.  I made 96 of them and she sold every one of them!  Then she asked me to design a wine tote bag that she could sell to the ladies in her bunco group.  They went over very well so she asked me to make more.  The pics above are what I designed. They have a little pocket for the corkscrew.  I also made some tags from shrink plastic on which I used a stamp from Crafty Secrets.  I attached some jump rings to a lobster claw which clips over the drawstring cord.  I made 72 wine bags and she sold all of those too!

So my plans for this year crafting wise are to participate in more card challenges, my first one being below.  Plan to re-start my personal challenge of making a Christmas card a week so I have enough cards by Christmas, and more varied designs.  Perhaps just a few 'mass' batches. :)  Also plan to do more beadwork in the form of ornaments and necklaces.  I have one major sewing project to finish by spring break, and I will post that when I can put it on my daughter to model. :)

If you're still reading this, thanks for hanging in there with me.  So now take a look at my first challenge this year in the post below.

Sweet Pea Mojo174

This is my first card challenge this year, and I managed to get this one to fit three challenges. 

1)  MojoMonday174. I turned the sketch on its side then flipped it.
2)  Sweet Pea Stampers: All white apart from the image.
3)  In a Sweet Pea Dream: "Under the Sea"...Use a mermaid or sea creature image.
4)  Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog:  Bingo.  I used punches/dies, embossing, and ribbon (bottom row).

All of the white CS is Neenah Solar White. I used two different Cuttlebug embossing folders. The image is ching-chou kuik's Coral Immersion from Sweet Pea Stamps.  I've kind of become addicted to these georgeous fairy/fantasy style stamps! She is colored with Prismacolor pencils, with Stickles added.  The edges of the image and both embossed panels have been glittered.  The flowers are from a couple of Martha Stewart punches.



This is a close-up of the colored image.

A Very Merry Christmas to You All!

I know I've been absent for a while on my blog, but it's been more of a time issue than not doing any crafting or otherwise staying busy.  Most of my crafty projects I didn't think to take pictures of so I could post them, but I'll get some up here after Christmas. 

We want to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas, and safe travels if you're on the road.  Love and enjoy your family and your time together!  I leave you with the latest snap of my beautiful kiddos, Tyler-17 and Shelbie-20.

Whiff of Joy Flutter

It has been far too long since I made a card using a Whiff of Joy image, and I have a bunch of them! I saw Jane's great sketch on the WOJ challenge blog so decided to play along.  Definitely need to ink these images up more often again!  For this card I used Musing Melinda, putting her on the mushroom from the Fall 2009 set.  Colored image with Prismacolors. Added Stickles to her wings and Liquid Pearls in her hair on around the scallops.  Spellbinders large scallop circle used to cut/emboss image, shaded in with distress ink and chalks.  The DP is a gorgeous linen texture paper from GCD Studios.  Used JustRite sentiment, some flowers from my stash after I used Glimmer Mist on them.  Pearls in the corners and a calla lilly charm.  I am also using this card for this week's Flutter By Wednesday challenge. 

Stamp Simply 153 & MojoMonday 153

I saw Sharon's challenge earlier in the week, to use pleated ribbon on our card. I am so ribbon challenged I just kept putting it off. I had everything worked out for the card, decided to use this week's Mojo Monday sketch for this card, but could not get the ribbon to look presentable. Then I remembered this ribbon I bought probably 15 years ago that I used on a dress for my daughter, and decided to use it. Thankfully the color was right so I didn't have to change what I had already started on the card.

I used a 5x7 embossing folder on Kraft CS, inked and distressed the edges with a ruler. Stitched some sloppy lines around the edges, incorporating the ribbon in the stitching. Stamped the SU! image onto Neena Solar White paper, cut it into four panels, inked and distressed the edges as well, and attached to burgundy CS. Stamped the hummingbird from same SU! set with distress ink, cut it out and attached it to the ribbon. Attached embossed layer to SU! CS, added some Dew Drops.

Joan's Tag Challenge

This week over at Joan's Gardens, her challenge is to create a tag using something heavier than cardstock, use old and vintage looking colors, and add some stuff from our stash.  I got some Grunge Paper about a month ago and hadn't used it yet, so I pulled it out to play and ended up making two.  I cut the Grunge paper then sprayed them each with several different colors of Glimmer Mist.  After drying, embossed them using two different folders.  Added some flowers I made, some butterflies cut with MS punches, added the charms.  Made the tiny pockets from stash paper and inserted a little card into that for writing on later. 

It's Embossable at OCC, and a Mojo Sketch

Good day everyone!  This first card I made following the MojoMonday151 sketch.  I really liked this one.  I had this image sitting on my desk since I got back from Vermont in May.  I found the stamp at a scrapbook shop in Memphis.  I stamped it with dove gray Stazon onto glossy cardstock.  It doesn't show up well in the picture, but looks pretty IRL.  Cut out with Spellbinders Labels 11, as was the Kraft CS mat,  inked with Distress inks. Base card is SU! CS.  Background DP is from Mirabelle stack by The Paper Studio. Used Cuttlebug embossing folder on HOTP paper, running it through several times to get the "cracked" look from the paper breaking. MS Cornice edge punch, Spellbinders label for sentiment, which is from SU!

For this next card, a friend asked me to make her 30 thank-you cards, with specs being simple and earthy with a little glitz.  So here's my take on that.  I decided to use this card for this week's Our Creative Corner 
challenge...embossing, any kind of embossing.  This is a Quickutz  folder Shelbie picked out on our trip back from Vermont, from the same scrapbook shop in Memphis.  Embossed the paper, inked and distressed the edges, attached to base card.  Added yellow Stickles for the glitz.  Somehow I smudged some ink onto the CS, so it got covered with the tiny butterfly.  Thought it looked cute, so half the cards got butterflies. :)

Thank You Barb!

Funny how things come up. Back at the end of June, Barb, the wonderful blogger from Made for Keeps commented on a video I had posted on my Facebook page of me zip-lining in Jamaica.  Her comment was that they have two zip lines in Branson and that she wanted to try it.  So ~squeaks and squeals~ (the rusty gears started turning in my mind-haha!), a thought emerged, and I sent her a message that I would be taking my daughter back up to Norwich University in Vermont at the beginning of July, we could route our trip thru Branson, MO so we could try out one of the zip-lines there.  So plans were made.  Now, Barb and I had never met in person but we had communicated thru out blogs and e-mails, then on Facebook.  So, Shelbie and I got to Barb's house late in the evening, and I felt like I was coming to visit a friend I hadn't seen in a while, not like I was meeting someone for the first time.  Barb is a such a warm, sweet person, and her husband Jerry is a delight.  My daughter is contracted with the Navy, will commission as an officer when she graduates and Jerry is ex-Navy...so they had lots to talk about.  I fell in love with Barb's crafting cave.  Oh my, the goodies she has!

We spent two nights and a day with Barb and Jerry before continuing on to Vermont.  During our day there, we did the zip-line from the 230-foot tower at Shepherd of the Hills.  It is about half-mile long, takes almost a minute to get to the bottom.  It was wonderful!  From left to right in the picture  is Barb, me, a charming young man who got stuck with us three ladies, and Shelbie.  Jerry took this picture from the top of the tower.  Such fun!  We spent the rest of the day wandering around Branson, with Barb and Jerry showing us different sights and attractions.  I felt  a wonderful kinship with Barb, and I hope we get to see her and Jerry again soon!

In the interim since getting back from Vermont, making this card and intending to send it, job issues came up, Tyler was in an a bad accident and things just seemed to get derailed and I've had a hard time getting back on track.  Tyler is doing well, seems back to normal though having some sleep problems (stress?).  We got the police report and learned that there were six vehicles involved, not four like we originally were told.  The person who caused the accident admitted he was distracted...saw a fast food restaurant and was thinking about getting a burger, when he looked straight again he didn't even have time to hit his brakes.  So a big delivery truck at 40 mph causes a lot of damage, injuries, [and a fatality] to five vehicles in front of it who are stopped at a red light.  I am so thankful Tyler is okay and doing well.  But I had forgotten to post this card, and I finally remembered last week that I hadn't even sent it to Barb!  Sorry!!

This card followed the Mojo Monday 146 sketch.  I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder for the base and the vellum oval, slathered them with distress ink.  The strips are from a DCWV pack, inked those edges as well.  Sentiment is from Inkadinkado, stamped with distress ink, cut out/embossed with Wavy Squares Spellbinders dies. 

Stamp Simply 151

Three cards in two days, hope that means the mojo is coming back!  I made this card for my mother, to give to my son for his birthday, which was yesterday.  Oops, Gramma forgot.  Tyler understands, considering his Gramma, my own sweet mother, forgets her own kids' birthdays.  Nothing pathological, she has just always been that way.  I saw Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge late last night, so I got up early this morning to make this card for my mom to give to Tyler.  The challenge is a one-layer card.  thankfully, can use some embellishments, so I added some brads to the Kraft CS I embossed with this Tim Holtz folder.  Added some distress ink to the embossing and used it for the sentiment.  Voila...quick and easy and done in less than 10 minutes!

Multiple Challenge Card

Hey, two posts in one day! :)  I spent some time during my lunch break today hopping around blogville and came across some challenges I wanted to try.  I ended up with one card to fit them all.  Challenges will be listed below.  The base card is SU! cardstock.  The image is from Magic Moonlight, printed on canvas.  Corner punches are Martha Stewart.  Stamped images are from Crafty Secrets Fairyland set.  Sentiment, which is a John Denver song title, was printed from my computer, cut and embossed with Spellbinders Fancy Label and attached on dimensionals.  The two flowers are made following Selma's vellum flower tutorial. I love how they turned out! 

Joan's Gardens Challenge #9 - Pink & white card, with four corners punched, preferrably with a Martha Stewart punch.
Crafty Secrets Forum Challenge on SCS - To use fabric on our project, along with a Crafty Secrets item.
Stamp Simply #149 - To use two of...something. 
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - To use a song we can't get out of our head in our project. 

Mojo Monday 150 Birthday

Today is my son Tyler's 17th birthday. Where did the time go? He is such a wonderful young man, and I love every minute I have with him! Crazy that three weeks ago today I got a phone call all parents dread. Tyler was involved in a serious auto accident in which the van he was riding in was struck from behind while they were stopped at a red light. Four vehicles involved, with the van being sandwiched between the car in front of them and the one behind them, which was hit by a commercial delivery truck. There was a fatality in the first vehicle hit, Tyler suffered a head laceration and concussion, Tyler's stepmother was in ICU for four days with serious injuries, and one of his friends was also injured in the accident. Everyone is home now and on the road to recovery. I still slip into Tyler's room at night to check on him. Everything can change in a flash.

This summer has been busy and my mojo has definitely suffered. I have made several cards and some sets of cards for friends, but Chuck has been using the camera for his work so I haven't been able to take pictures of all of them, or wasn't able to get the pics off the camera disc before he had to use it again. Hard to believe it has been three months since I posted anything! The clinic where I work is being sold at the end of September, so I have started looking for another job. Still doing massage therapy after regular work hours and hoping to build clientele there to fill in when the clinic closes.

So in trying to get my mojo jump-started, I used this week's Mojo Monday 150 sketch for Tyler's birthday card. Happens to be the first one of the month so there's a contest too. Yay! Used SU! cardstock for the base card. DP is DCWV Rustic Collection; the smaller DP scraps are Hot Off the Press. Sentiment from JustRite, cut/emboss with Nestabilities. All ink is Distress Ink. The image is from Inkadinkado Horse set. Tyler loves horses, and I was trying to make this a masculine card without being too juvenile. I think I succeeded. :)

Fancy Fold Mother's Day Card

I am posting this card today so that my mother would not see it before Mother's Day. Today is her birthday, so will be posting her BD card tomorrow...again so she won't get a sneak peak at it. I'm using this card for Sharon's Stamp Simply #138...Mother's Day.

I was stalking Connie's blog a while back and saw this wonderful multi/fancy fold card she created (she has more too!) and followed the links she provided for tutorials. I love different folds for cards.

I used the new Spring Bouquet stamp set from Flourishes, which I really like. Love this gorgeous bouquet. I stamped it with Stazon and colored with Primacolor Pencils blended with baby oil, then chalked around the image. Traced around the inside of the 2nd largest Labels 10 Nesties and cut out the image by hand so I could have the flowers extending beyond the margins, then cut a mat from the largest die. Stamped around the edge of the mat using Perfect Medium on a Crafty Secrets Flourish stamp, then applied Perfect Pearls. Gave it a pretty Ole-timey frame look, I think. : )

Added the lavender flourished DP to one panel. The rest of the panels have either plain white CS or a mesh patterned CS from MME that I inked with Distress Inks and used another flourish from the Crafty Secrets Flourish set around the borders.
The sentiments are from Verve's Because of You and Flourishes Spring Bouquet set.

Added a couple MS punched butterflies, layering the one on the front with gold vellum and added Stickles. A few flat-backed pearls on the front and...voila'. A pretty Mom's day card!

I have a couple more creations to post this week, then I'll be on the road for about a week. I am flying up to Vermont Thursday to get my daughter. She can't leave her car on the college campus for the summer, so I'm going up there to drive back with her. We will head out Saturday after the graduation ceremony, so we can see one of her friends she went to high school with graduate from Norwich. We are going to do a week-long road trip coming back so we can do some sight seeing along the way. I have some friends in York, PA and Apex, North Carolina, so plan to make stops there to visit with them while we're on our way back. We both are really looking forward to the trip!

Birthday for Audrey

Today is my friend Audrey's birthday. A bunch of are getting together at Rio Rio Cantina on the Riverwalk to celebrate. I made this card and gift set for her. The card just happened to fit into two challanges: Whiff of Joy Challenge 77 to make a gift card, and Sharon's Stamp Simply Challenge to make a joy fold card.

I chose this WOJ image because Audrey loves to cook, and we got her a gift card from Williams Sonoma. I colored her with Prismacolor pencils blended with baby oil. Cut and embossed the image with Spellbinders Labels 8; chalked around her while still in the die, then inked the edges. Mounted that to brown CS cut on the fold with the largest Labels 8, and attached a smaller label to the inside to write on. All DP is Basic Grey LilyKate. Flowers cut and embossed with Nellie Snellen punches, sprayed with Glimmer Mist, and added some Dew Drops. Attached a little pocket inside to put the card in. Will also be including a one-hour maternity massage for Audrey.

Exploding Gift Card Holder

When Diane posted the Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets bi-weekly challenge on Papercraft Planet to create a gift card holder, my mind went immediately to this creation. I had seen the "exploding" boxes on different blogs, but completely fell in love with Elaine's Magic Boxes. Her designs and details are jaw-dropping. Mine is much more simplistic, and I really like how it turned out.

This box is for a friend of my daughter who is getting married 5/22. Still can't believe Jose is getting married. Jose is from Chile, and he and my daughter met and became friends in 8th grade. Many good memories that include him, but will write a brief of my favorite "Jose moment" at the end of this post. :)

The pictures aren't great because they were taken using a flash; no natural light because it was night time, so the colors are washed out a bit.

Using Versafine, I stamped each outside panel with stamps from Crafty Secrets "Cherish" and "Flourishes" sets, then embossed with gold EP. Inside each flourish I put the bride's and groom's initial using Justrite Font, embossed that as well. Used Deco corner punch and then inked the edges with Pumice Stone Distress Ink. Mounted those to metallic lavender paper, and then mounted to the box side panels. The lid was made from the same metallic lavender. Used MS Cornice edge punch for the sides. Cut and embossed a scalloped square Nestabilities and attached that to the lid. MS med and lg water lilly punches were used for the flowers on top. Ran them through a CB to add more detail to them, then attached to top. Some flat-backed pearls were added to the center of the flowers, and a tiny one in the center of each side of the top.

For the inside panels, I mounted this gorgeous gold embossed paper I've had in my stash for eons to the stiff backer board from a pad of decorative paper. This gave the box good stability, and also added perfect weight to give a good "flop" effect when the lid is taken off. I made and attached the stand for the card, then stamped and embossed the corners of a square piece of CS with a CS Flourish. Cut the square on the diagonal and attached it over the card holder. All the flowers and leaves were made from various punches, painted with Twinkling H2O's or sprayed with Glimmer Mist, and attached in various places with Stickles. One was attached to each panel. Four others were attached to acetate strips, with the other end being threaded through the flourished panels before it was attached. When the box opens, the panels flop down and the flowers on the acetate strips spring outward and sway. Again see Elaine's blog for more of those.

Okay, here's the "Jose moment": About five years ago I was in the grocery store checkout line with my daughter and six of her friends, getting supplies for a party at our house. All of these kids were in ROTC together, and all called me Mommy (still do). As I was about to pay for our goodies, one of the boys, Paul, was trying to get my attention and started bobbing up and down and saying "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" over and over. The others quickly followed suit, and soon there were seven teenagers bobbing up and down and repeating "Mommy....". Not loud or disturbing anyone. The cashier looked at them - and me - with a strange expression. I told them to shush and they all piped down right away. Jose happened to be standing right next to me. He flashed his brilliant smile at the cashier, and in his very thick Chilean accent said "we all have different daddies". Ay yay yay. I just shook my head, and then we all started giggling. Still not sure to this day that the cashier didn't think they were all mine, all from different daddies. : )

Tiny Note Cards

This is the other post that was supposed to go up over the weekend. Let's see if I got that scheduled post thing right this time. : )

I had such fun making these. I received a little card tucked into a gift bag and that is where I got the idea for this fold. The final size of these is 3x3, a tri-fold. I used Kraft CS. After folding I used the SU! scalloped border punch on the front edge. Martha Stewart Hydrangea pop-up punch was used for the flowers. I punched several out completely from scrap paper and used them for masks so I could emboss the background. Used part of the SU! French Flair BG stamp, stamped with Versamark and embossed with clear EP. Then I colored the flowers with chalk inks, and added Spica glitter pen to the edges of the petals. Also inked the surface under the top layer to coordinate with the flower petals. I made a set of eight, two in each color.

A Missed Post

I had scheduled a couple of posts that were supposed to go up while I was gone to Houston over the weekend. Or so I thought. When I realized that they hadn't posted, I thought maybe there was a problem with Blogger. Before I sent a message, I looked over few things and found out it was a PEBKAC error. I hate those. PEBKAC error = Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair. In other words...I goofed. So here is one of the posts that was supposed to post while I was gone. Grrrr... The other I have scheduled to post tomorrow, to see if I corrected that PEBKAC error. : )

While my daughter was home for spring break, she and I went to a concert at the Austin Rodeo. Before it started we were wandering around the vendor booths, bought some silly hats (and I will wear mine when we go tubing this summer!) and some pretty rings. We came to one booth that had some beautiful plaques done in sort of shabby chic. Shelbie looked at one she liked, but when she saw the price she was shocked. So was I! The lady was selling these plaques for $40-60. I told Shelbie I would make her one, and this is what I came up with. It was fun to play with different stuff. I think she'll like it. The picture on the left is a bit washed out from the flash, but you see the overall shot. The smaller one below is more true to color.

I got the pine plaque at Hobby Lobby, painted it with acrylic paint. Intentionally cut the DP so it would not match up perfectly. Scruffied that up with an emery board and then used Mod Podge to glue it to the plaque. Used the beautiful Maribel image, stamped with Ranger archival ink and colored with Distress Inks, and cut her out with deckle edge scissors. Made a rough mat with the same scissors and used Distress Ink on it as well. Then glued on various sized paper roses, punched some leaves and added veins with an embossing tool. Added Stickles to the tiny rosebuds before attaching those, then added the butterfly brad after I attacked it with copper Stickles on the wings. The sentiment I printed from my computer, onto plain copy paper that I "aged" by dunking into some water to which I had added a couple drops of Tea Dye Reinker. I tore the edges while it was still wet and then inked them. After it was dry I sprayed it with two different colors of Glimmer Mist. You can see the sheen if you click on the image. I glued on the Spellbinders Doodleparts flourish, added some flat-backed pearls. Used three different ribbons in different colors, one organza and two satins for the hanger, and threaded faceted beads onto the thinnest ribbon. I attached an eye-ring to the bottom center of the plaque and to that attached the filagree medallion. Another eye-ring, some tiny beads and more faceted beads, then an angel charm at the end, and that dangles from the bottom. Sorry so dark. I'm using a different camera and haven't made friends with it yet.

Blog Candy Winner!!!

I know, I'm late. Sorry! We went to the wedding in Houston and all was well...until Saturday, the day of the wedding. I woke up feeling like a truck ran over me - sore throat, cough, fever, aching. Ugh. Okay, I'll have a little cheese with my whine. : ) Made it through the day, through the wedding, and dropped like a rock after that. Got home Sunday afternoon, went to bed. Finally got out of bed yesterday, after missing two days of work. So here I am now, about 70% better and ready to give away some candy!!!!

I wrote all the names on pieces of paper and put them in a jar, shook it up and pulled out a name. No, I didn't take a picture of that process, because I don't have a cute little (anymore) girl to draw the name, and my cute 16 y/o son would have preferred doing housework than me taking a picture of him pulling a piece of paper from a jar and posting it on here. Stinker. : ) So without further ado:

The winner is....Debbi ! Yay! Clap, clap, clap! : )

Please e-mail me by 9 p.m. (CST) Saturday night, April 10, with your snail mail addie so I can get this box sent to you.