Friday, September 23, 2011

Unusually Bright!

Hi all! Happy Friday to you! I have a busy weekend of apple picking and Dutch Days at Cortney's school! I love going with the family to get our bushels of apples, and with Kyle being 14 now, I wonder how much longer he is going to want to go with us. For now I am going to enjoy this little tradition we have!

I have a card that is a bit out of my norm. I tend to like the softer more vintage inspired colors. But I had this cute little sticker and wanted to make something with him! I used my Scalloped Square by Spellbinders to cut the card. I used 4 colors of cardstock and wove them together. I adhered them to white cardstock so they wouldn't move around, and then cut it out with my square Spellbinder's die. It gives it a nice clean edge. The tag was cut using my Cricut and the Sentimental's cartridge. The sentiment was computer generated. I tied the image with Twine from the Twinery, added a few rhinestones, and my card was complete!


Here is the inside of the card....... : )

I hope I didn't blind you with my card today! ; )

Have a great weekend my friends!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

We are Sisters and a Tutorial! Sort of.... ; )

Good morning to you my friends! I think my birthday "month" has finally come to an end! Saturday night marked the end of a wonderful, wonderful birthday. Nothing like spending the evening with family, laughing, eating cake, and having a glass of wine. (Thanks Mom and George! ) And Thank you so much for your kind, kind response to my altered spoon! I was literally smiling from ear to ear! Many people have asked for a tutorial and I am definitely going to work on getting one done! : )

Today I have a LO to share with you that I created for Noel Mignon's LO Tag. This is where one person gets an inspirational photo and creates something from it....and then passes their LO to the next person who will be inspired....and so on and so forth! It is always fun to see the progression of LO's! I chose some old photos of my sister and I, along with a new one taken at my 40th birthday. Don't ya just love the lovely hairstyles? The clothes? Gotta love the 70's! I did a bit of misting on my paper using Glimmer Mist and a large chipboard swirl. Love the subtle effect is gives!
I am truly addicted to all types of flowers......gotta have 'em on just about everything! This one was made with cream felt and 2 Papertrey Ink dies. Oh.....and a bit of glitter too! ; )

Here is a close up of the misting.......

I absolutely adore these resin flowers.......and guess what? This green one? Was made by yours truly! I got sucked in to the whole Ice Resin craze and had to try it for myself!

I have a tutorial of sorts on how you make these adorable little resin flowers.....not perfect....but I tried! When you get your kit, it comes with 2 bottles, A & B. Plus mixing cups and stirrers. Like me, you may think you can wash the cups out and reuse them......but you can't. It leaves a coating on the inside of the cup that even soap can't cut through. (Cuz, I've tried.....being a bit frugal.....and it was unwashable!) You mix 50% of A with 50% of B.

Your ratio needs to be perfect.....you can see A and B here.......

Then you stir your resin mix until all is blended......


You can customize your colors by adding ink, pigment pearls, or paint to your mix. I chose a green paint for my project. Just a drop......a little goes a long way!


Okay......maybe you noticed that this one was blue? I separated my resin after it was mixed into two cups.....one green, one blue. For some reason, I didn't take any pics of the green being poured into the mold! Duh! See these air bubbles? Gotta pop those....or they harden just like that. (again.....not that I would know that from experience or anything....) ; )

The directions tell you to wait about 10-12 hours to let them cure. It is dependent on the climate you live in. So I would recommend making a batch ahead of time and having them on hand for your projects. Once dry you simply pop them out of the mold!

The molds can be found in various Etsy Shops....... So many cute molds.....so little time!

I am sure you will be seeing more of these cute lil' flowers popping up here and there on my projects!

Have a great day my friends!!!! Thank you so much for stopping on by!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Crafty Secret's Retro Style Group Post!

Today is the day for Crafty's Secret's DT group post! This month's theme is retro style! My project today is retro Christmas! Have you ever had a crazy idea that actually worked? I had this moment while cooking that I could do something really cool with a wooden spoon. (My husband just shakes his head a lot......) I wanted to make a photo album from the spoon and with a bit of experimenting, it worked! I painted the entire spoon with cream paint and sanded the edges. I also inked the edges with a bit of brown ink to distress it. I covered the handle with patterned paper from the Vintage Papers CD collection. After it was adhered, I sanded the edges a bit, applied glossy accents to the entire handle and sprinkled Martha Stewart's course glitter over the top. I added a piece of lace too! : )
To create the mini album, I cut 6 ovals using my Spellbinder's die and patterned paper from the Vintage Paper CD collection. (LOVE this paper!!!) I used a smaller oval to cut out the pictures of my kids and the nieces and nephews decorating their gingerbread houses at Christmas last year. I cut out my retro Santa from the Retro Christmas Vintage Cuts. I adhered all of the ovals to seam binding. I just folded it up and tied the bow to keep it shut! I stamped Happy Christmas in red using the Christmas Mail Clear Art Stamp set. I adhered it to a stick pin and tucked it behind my ribbon/snowflake combo!



To open the photos just untie the bow and pull! Here are all the photos encased at the bottom of the spoon! : )



I hope you enjoyed my altered spoon........you'll never look at your cooking utensils the same way again! ; )





Be sure to check out the rest of the DT's fabulous projects!
Vicki Chrisman Team Leader





Michele Kovack <;------ ME! : )