Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Crafty Halloween Fun

I've been having fun making little Halloween shadowboxes for everyone!  I made one for Matt and Jen and one for Adam, one for Diane, one for me.  They are so much fun to make!  I made some for Easter last year, I'll post some of those pictures later, and I think Christmas ones would be fun too!



This is for Matt and Jen.
This is the one I made for me.

This is for Adam.

This is the one for Diane.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Fall is here!



This is Yellow Mountain, kind of behind our house.  You can see our Christmas trees in the foreground and, if you look closely, the barn in the distance.  The colors are so beautiful now, we think it may be at it's peak.  We're hoping that some will remain next week when Matt and Adam come to visit!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Hawaii State Bird and Flower ATC

Today I made the Hawaii ATC for the State Bird and Flower ATC swap on Swap-Bot!  These have been a lot of fun to make!


Wednesday, October 7, 2009


I have joined a swap on Swap-Bot where you make an ATC with the state bird and flower for each state.  I joined when they were on Delaware - I guess I'll have to catch up on my own!  These have been fun to make.  Today I made Georgia and I discovered something.  I wanted to cut the edges of the stamp image I used with my stamp border scissors - but unfortunately they broke.  So I improvised and used my 1/8" punch and just punched little half-circles along the edges of the stamp.  It looked better than using the scissors - so I won't be buying another pair!  Here are the other states I've made so far:





I haven't quite figured out how to arrange the pictures yet!  lol

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Old Wooden Box


I found this round wooden box in the basement when we started renovating the house here in North Carolina.  I assume it belonged to Jay's grandmother.  I brought it up to my craft room where it has sat on my table and recently I started using it for inchie storage.  I loved the label, but I thought the box needed covering.  So today I did just that.  I used Graphic 45 papers (Botanical) and I think it came out very pretty.  I cut out an opening so you could see the old label.  One problem, however; I have to struggle to close the lid now that there is a layer of paper underneath!  I filed it down and it's better but I just don't put the lid down all the way onto the box.  Ta da!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Sunshine!

I woke up this morning thinking it was much later than it was, since the sun was shining!  It's a beautiful fall day!  I took this picture around 7:30 a.m.  I love seeing the clouds hanging in the trees with the mountains in the background.  Who wouldn't love to be up here viewing this every morning?

Monday, September 21, 2009

Rain, rain go away!



It has been raining here in Western North Carolina for almost two weeks, off and on, and now continuously for two days.  See the rain in the first picture?  Every time I think it is going to let up it starts pouring again!  In the picture of the front lawn and Christmas trees, you can see the fog - sometimes it is so thick I can't even see the Christmas trees.  The poor dogs are going stir crazy and Cody will hardly go out to pee! 

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Pumpkin Kid!


Today I worked on a swap I joined at a site called Art42.  You were to make a pumpkin kid ATC.  I found the sparkly foam pumpkins at Michael's and I had a collage sheet of vintage kids.  I thought she came out very cute!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Handmade Book


I made this book at Keeton's at a class with Joey Long. We used a dremel to drill the holes in the spine and sewed the book together. It was very informative and fun, but I'm not sure I could do it again without Joey!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Red Lead Swap


I joined the latest swap at Red Lead Paperworks, which is entitled "Which Red Lead Image are YOU?" You have to use a Red Lead collage sheet or rubber stamp and add your childhood picture to the image. I decided to be a butterfly girl!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Busy, busy




I've been very lax in posting lately but I have been busy in the craft room! Here are some of what I've been doing: covered and decorated a box for Claire for Christmas (which I planned on doing two years ago!); made inchies and twinchies; finished all of my swaps for August and started on Sept. which includes a series of ten ATC's for Wild Card Traders.




Here's the box I made for Claire. I want to fill it with something so I'll check with Diane on what would be good. It was fun and easy to make!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Blog Candy!

My sister told me about this great blog and today she's giving away AWESOME blog candy! Here's the link to Midnight Madness - check it out!

I made a beautiful book today in Joey's class at Keeton's. Pictures to come!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Challenge!



Since my last post I've come home from North Carolina and gone to Maine and back. I'm home now until the end of August and am trying to keep abreast of all the projects I've committed to!




This one is from a Yahoo group called Card Swapping for Fun, but this was a challenge to use what the hostess sent to you and create something, not necessarily a card. We were sent a coaster and a scalloped oval punch. I just purchased a stamp set from Cornish Heritage Farms and was anxious to use it. I made this little "Honey Do" list using the stamp set and Stampin'Up papers. You send a picture of your creation to the hostess, she posts all the pictures in a file and the members vote on the one they like best. The winner receives a small prize. Wish me luck!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Fledglings!










The birds are so much fun to watch up here in the mountains. It reminds me of growing up in NJ when my mom used to feed the birds. Some Eastern Phoebes (I know this because my sister, Lesley, told me what they were!) built a nest on top of one of the lights on our deck and we've been watching them since we discovered the nest over two weeks ago. The mother or father (I'm suspecting the father) was continually sitting on the wind chime which is hanging not far away, chirping and flicking his tail. We could see the little birds inside the nest. This morning I went over to look at them and one of them was sitting right on the edge so I grabbed my camera, took a couple pictures, and away they flew! Three little birds came out of the nest, one grabbed on to the side of the house, then flew away. I guess they're on their own now!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Inchies!!


I've joined quite a few inchie swaps lately so I thought I'd show you some I've done in the past. These were for a swap on Swap-Bot (my first!) These were so easy, as are most inchies - at least most that I do! The hardest part for me is thinking about how I can get as much on a 1-inch square as possible! I used a bird inchie collage sheet. First I punched out scalloped inchies and then stamped with some script on them - edged them with Versamark and embossed with silver and glued on the inchie bird picture. I wanted to dangle something! So I stamped "sing" and a swirl on shrink plastic, punched a hole and shrunk it - then hung it from the inchie with a tiny safety pin! The safety pin worked great - I tried using a tiny paper clip but I couldn't open those little suckers enough to get them through the plastic and the inchie. I liked the way these turned out!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Rolodex Time!


Ok, so here's another Rolodex card made for the technique group I'm in. It was the Paint on Paper Towel technique from Bernie Berlin's book, Artist Trading Card Workshop. I really liked this technique, which is painting with Lumiere paints on textured paper towels. I can't say the same for many of the other techniques we've tried! I will definitely do this one again - great background!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

By the sea, by the sea. . .



This month's theme for one of my trading groups is "beaches." I was inspired to make this card based on a larger card I made at a class a couple years ago. I tore the cardstock, wiped the torn edges with Versamark and stamped with a sand/snow stamp in Versamark, then embossed with gold tinsel embossing powder. Then I layered 3 pieces on the card and stuck the little shells between and on top of the layers so it looks like the shells are lying in the sand. I computer generated the text on blue vellum and tucked it behind the first layer of "sand." Actually, I realized I should have put the vellum on first as it was a little tough getting that layer to come up from the card once I had it glued down! I then mounted this card (3 1/4 x 2 1/4) on another card that is 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 and edged with a gold Krylon pen.

Father's Day


I have been in NC now for almost three weeks and we've been so busy I've hardly done a thing until about 2 days ago. I realized I needed a Father's Day card so I went on SCS for inspiration and came up with this. Very easy! I think he'll like it!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Fun and Easy Technique


Yesterday my mom came over and we did a very simple technique called Wrinkle-Free Distress that I wanted to try from Splitcoast Stampers. You can see the technique here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/wrinklefreedistress/

We did some tags and card fronts and here is a tag I made. It was easy and fun!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Chatchki!


I had a lot of fun with this project! I purchased a "chatski" pin (which I call chatchki) and collage papers from Red Lead and made some charms from Tim Holtz's fragment charms, which you can see a video of him doing on his website. I used some jewelry rings to attach the charms to the pin and added a charm or two. Then I just chose some ribbon and fibers to tie on. I like how it came out - I don't know what I'll do with it, but for now I just like looking at it!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Itty Bitty Book


This is a page I made for an Itty Bitty Book swap with the Red Lead Yahoo group. We did one for Valentine's Day and this one is for a birthday celebration of the Red Lead store and the title is Butterfly Wishes. You were required to use either a collage image or a stamp or embellishment that you purchased at Red Lead. Since that is one of my favorite online stores (their physical store is in St. Louis) that wasn't a difficult requirement! The page had to be 1/4" wider than an ATC with no embellishments on the left side so it can be bound. There are 29 of us playing and I can't wait to see the finished book!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Inchies



I love inchies! They are so fun and challenging. I've joined a swap where I need to send my partner 5 inchies. And because I'm so into birds right now - you guessed it - I used a bird theme! I punched out 3/4" pictures from a Red Lead (http://www.redleadpaperworks.com/) collage sheet, mounted them on a 1" scalloped square which I had embossed on the edges. Oh, I also stamped some script on the 1" square but it mostly got covered up with the 3/4" collage picture. Then I cut out some small tags from a Shrinky Dink sheet, stamped a swirl on the tag with Brilliance ink, stamped the words "sing" and "hatch", then shrank the tags. I used tiny safety pins to put them on the inchie. Fun!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Rolodex Cards


As if we didn't have enough going on, some of us decided we wanted to trade Rolodex cards as well as learn some new techniques. We decided to use the book "Artist Trading Card Workshop" by Bernie Berlin. This photo shows a card using one of the techniques called Embossing Scraps, which has been my favorite technique so far. Some of them have been very challenging, some simply frustrating and some I would never do again! Others have made some very interesting backgrounds. It has been fun to try them and see how the others in the group interpret them.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I'm Bird Crazy


It seems that many of my cards lately have included birds. I have lots of bird stamps and I just love them! Here's a card I made yesterday for one of my trading groups. I used a music score background, sprayed it with Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist, and stamped the birds with black ink. I adhered that to a card of SU Sage Shadow which I sprayed with Patina Glimmer Mist and edged with Brilliance Crimson Copper. I hope you can see the shimmer in the photo. I stamped the Bible verse with Stazon Timber Brown on vellum and tore it out and adhered it to the card. I thought I was done, but decided it needed something dimensional. I didn't have enough of any one charm that I liked, so I punched out these little birds (4) with my Martha Stewart bird punch and gathered them all together with a SU mini library clip. There are your "many Sparrows!"

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My First


This is my first post to this blog that I set up months ago. I'm not sure who will want to see what I'm doing but I thought it might be fun to post some of the stuff I'm doing in my little craft nest!


This is an ATC I made for a group I'm in. I had fun with making the background - I just swiped Kiwi Kiss, Purely Pomengranate and So Saffron pads on watercolor paper cards and swished over it with a large, very wet paintbrush. Then I stamped the bird, covered the slide holders with paper, adhered the slide holder, and added the little flower.
I'm going to try to keep up with posting present and past work so you can see that I just don't sit around all day eating bonbons (like my husband thinks I do!)