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

Pam Hooten

Heidi Blankenship

Linda Duke

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

Julie Campbell

Amy Teets

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Fauve van Maanen

Gini Cagle

Jan Hennings

Tammy Roberts

Victoria Warren Mears

Viola Mahr

Sunflowers......

Good morning and happy Friday to you! This week flew by and I am so glad to see the weekend! I have finally been getting into the groove of crafting again and created a few things to share with you. : ) I used my Cricut Expression and the newer Sweet Tooth cartridge to create this sunflower. I used Jillibean kraft paper for the flower and black tulle to create the center. I used one of those sticky Grueber thingys. I added a few pearls to the center too. The leaves were cut using the Mother's Day Cartridge. I inked the edges, folded the middle, inked that, and pinched it between my two fingers to add dimension. The background is a new Cuttlebug folder called Fancy Frames. The edges were inked with Ripe Avacodo from Papertrey Ink, and a bit of brown Memento. Kristen Swain was kind enough to send me some of her gorgeous dyed seam binding which I used here!
I love the toned down color pallette........

I have a busy weekend ahead of me that does include some "ME" time on Sunday. Which means this gal will be up to her elbows in glitter and glue! ; )

Be sure to check back on Monday as we are having our Crafty Secret's group post then! It's gonna be fabulous! ; )

With Appreciation.....

I first have to thank my scrapbooking friends for this lil' treat for my birthday! ; )

I especially love the crying cookie......

Gotta love my friends! (Which I do!)

With school in full swing I like to have a few teacher appreciation gifts in hand. I love altering bags because I can slip just about anything inside for a nice surprise! I broke out the Imagine machine and the Enjoy the Season's cartridge to print this cute worm and his apple. Every time I use my Imagine, I remember why I love this machine so much! I glittered the apple up and added a bit of twine topped with a pearl. I backed it with a library card, some seam binding, and a tag cut from the Sentimental's Cartridge.

Now when the time is right for a little gift giving, I will have this to present it in! : D
Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Best Wishes

Good morning to you! I've had quite a busy and fun weekend! Saturday I spent the day with my husband shopping until we dropped! I hadn't bought myself anything new in ages and it felt good to buy some new clothes! Saturday night we attended a wedding for a fellow teacher and had a blast! I work with the best people! Then yesterday, my family went to the Misericordia picnic and volunteered our time there. Kyle worked the kids' games and Brian and I worked the main tent. The weather was beautiful and they had a great turn out. I am a bit sluggish this morning though as I prepare for work! ; )

I have a card today that mish mashes some of my favorite products, my Cricut and Crafty Secret's stamps. This was one of those cards that came from bits and pieces of stuff on my desk. (Honestly, at that point you couldn't even see the top of the desk!) The flower was created using a Maya Road kraft doily that I had cut a slit into, to the center and created a sort of cone shape to nestle my flower into. That flower was cut using my Cricut machine and Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge. I added a doily,ribbon,and some Pink Paislee twine to dress it up a bit. The sentiment is part of the Couple of Cuties set. And the pretty border is from the Antique Trims set.

I love using patterned paper for my leaves, inking them, and smooshing them a bit for added texture!

I hope you enjoyed my "hodge podge" of a card today! Time to get this booty moving for work! Have a GREAT day my friends! And thank you from the bottom of my heart for your many birthday wishes!!! : D

Want to Make it Fabulous! Day Four!

Happy Friday to you!
Want2Scrap™, Spellbinders™ Paper Arts and JustRite® Stampers Designers have teamed up to bring you an amazing four day Blog Hop Event Sept 6th -9th filled with fabulous designs that are sure to inspire all!! Each day we will be sharing a link list with you for the featured designers and we will have a master link list just in case you happen to miss one of the days.

What would a blog hop be without prizes? Yes, we will also be giving away prizes!!

Want2Scrap will be giving away 2 $25.00 Gift Certificates.
Spellbinders Paper Arts will be giving away 2 Die Template sets with a value of $24.99 each.
JustRite Stampers will be giving away 2 Stamp Sets of the winners choice.

The prizes will be hidden on the blogs so be sure to visit all of the blogs and leave a comment to increase your chances of winning. The contest for the prizes will be open until midnight Saturday, September 10th. Winners will be announced on Monday September 12th on the company blogs.

(I am obviously technology challenged since I can't get this blinky to work right! Sheesh!)

If you are new to Want2Scrap, Spellbinders Paper Arts or JustRite Stampers here is a little information about all three of these amazing companies. Each company offers a unique line of products that work wonderfully together to make some fabulous designs.

Want2Scrap™ manufacturers rhinestones lines including the specialty Nestabling™ line along with the newly released Nestaboard™ chipboard line that coordinates perfectly with the Spellbinders™ Nestabilities™ die templates. Want2Scrap™ also manufacturers their own line chipboard albums and accents, acrylic albums, and multi-layered laser designs and other fine scrapbooking products. Want2Scrap™ brings ease of use and flexibility in their product lines by offering products uniquely tailored to its customers’ needs. Follow Want2Scrap on Facebook and the Want2Scrap Blog!


Sophistication, value and maximum versatility make Spellbinders™ die
templates #1. Beautiful Details Inspiring Creativity…Spellbinders unique
triple function die templates allow you to cut, emboss, and then stencil
through the die template for unlimited possibilities. The Spellbinders Grand
Calibur® and Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities™ cut and emboss up to 11¾”,
taking die cutting to grand proportions. Follow Spellbinders on Facebook,
Twitter and the Spellbinders Blog!

JustRite's® entire collection of stamps are designed to be compatible with Spellbinders™ die templates. JustRite Original's interlocking stamp system allows you to mix and match borders and centers to create dozens of design possibilites. Since the Spring of 2008, JustRite Original stamps have been designed to coordinate with the Spellbinders Paper Arts Nestabilities®-Decorative Elements and Basic Shapes. In January of 2011 JustRite began introducing Cling Stamps Sets designed to coordinate with Spellbinders Paper Arts Nestabilities Labels. JustRite Cling stamps are deeply etched pre-cut red rubber mounted on Static Cling Foam made in the USA . Cling sets come on a colored 8 1/2" x 61/2" Storage Panel for easy storage in JustRite's Cling Mini Binder Box.

For thousands of ideas on projects using JustRite and Spellbinders™ die templates die templates visit the JustRite Design Gallery and the JustRite Blog. You can also follow our blog by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

You can find all the links for each days event this week on the following manufacturer's blogs:

Want2Scrap™ Blog
Spellbinders Paper Arts Blog
JustRite Stampers Blog

With the temperatures cooling off my mind is on fall! So, I decided to make a Halloween card! This image is from the Trick or Treat set. I colored the image with Prisma pencils and Gamsol. (Hadn't used those babies in awhile! : ) I created a shadow box using 2 oval Spellbinder's Nestibilities and popped it up with dimensional foam circles. I used Labels 14 for the back of the ovals and added my Nestabling from Want2Scrap. The sentiment is from the Halloween Sentiment's set and was hand cut. I added a rhinestone from Want2Scrap. I used Lacy Squares from Spellbinders to peek out from both sides.

A very lumpy, bumpy dimensional card! ; ) Just how I like 'em!

Be sure to visit the other talented designer's blogs for more inspiration! And if you've missed the other few days you can link back to the manufacturer's blogs up above!
Mona Pendleton
Heidi Blankenship
Windy Robinson
Michele Kovack
Tina McDonald
Gloria Stengel

Kathy Jones

I am off to celebrate my 4oth this weekend by attending a wedding and volunteering at Misericordia! It's all good though.....I'll be with my family! : ) Have a great weekend everyone!

Finally! A Tutorial!

Good morning to you! Awhile back I had asked everyone what tutorials they would like to see her on the ole' blog, and creating flowers was one of the most popular answers! So I decided to get my act together and create a tutorial. For my fall inspired card today, I used my Cricut Expression, the Flower Shoppe cartridge, and the Thanksgiving cartridge. (Maple leaves)
When creating flowers you want to cut various sizes and many of them, so that your flower is nice and full! No skimpy flowers around here! ; )

I inked the edges of each flower in brown. Sometimes I opt for a deeper color than the paper or even white.....it is just a personal preference.

After inking all of your flowers, you will want to stack them. Be sure to only glue the centers of the flowers so that later, when it is dry you can pull up all of the ends. I also make sure that the petals of the flowers criss cross each other........

......remember to keep the glue to the center! : D

All of pieces are assembled, but I still need a center. This is the fun part! I often add gems, pearls, buttons etc......

But since this is a sunflower I wanted to create a fuzzy center. The centers tend to be a dark brown or black but I didn't have anything in those colors. Than I had an "AHA" moment! ; )

Grab a container of Flower Soft.......I chose cream since I didn't have dark brown, which is the color I am really aiming for.....

Fill the center of the button with a generous amount of glue......

Fill the center with Flower Soft. Pack it in there as much as you can.......you want it fluffy remember! : )

Then grab a bottle of dark brown walnut ink, or Glimmer Mist, or Shimmerz........

And spray that cream Flower Soft till it turns into dark brown Flower Soft! (You will notice that I had a moment of clarity and took the smaller flower off under the button. Obviously, if you spray the button/Flower Soft, the flower would be sprayed too! So I took it off and put it to the side to readhere later! ; )

I gave my flower a coat of ice resin to make it a bit translucent. I will have a tutorial on using Ice Resin in the near future!

And now my sunflower has a fuzzy brown center! : D

I love those moments of inspiration where you find the ability to use materials on hand and use them in a new and different way!

Have a wonderful Wednesday my friends!

Sweet....

Needless to say this weekend has been difficult for me and my family. My gram was laid to rest on Saturday. She is at peace and in a better place, but I will miss her being a part of my life. On top of that I got a nasty cold. My head has been clogged, I have a cough, and I have been so run down and tired! I haven't crafted all week, and I really feel a bit out of the loop! I am slowly trying to get back into my normal routine with everything.

I have a Crafty Secret's card to share with you today. I actually made it a few weeks back and just never got around to showing it. (Which is a good thing, I had some back up cards! ; ) It uses the new set, Queen Bee. I colored it with Copics and a Spica glitter pen. The kraft doily is by Maya Road and I cut out the center with a circle Spellbinder's die. I popped it up with foam circles. I added a doily behind the lower half, a bit of Pink Paislee twine and a stick pin to finish it off.
I love Pink Paislee twine....... : )

And of course I added a touch of glitter to his wings.........

Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers..........it is greatly appreciated by myself and my family. (Because I know they read my blog daily!) : )

Have a restful Labor Day to you my friends!