More fun with a tag...

I love tags...they have so many ways you can use them...and they make nice small gifts or an "extra" to a larger gift. They are also a great place to try a new technique...and that's usually how I make mine.  I am really, truly a technique junkie. I take down the information and make copies of all techniques I find interesting (especially those that make embellishments) and then I try them as soon as I can gather the supplies I need. I try to find techniques that use products I already have or those that don't require a lot of purchases.

So here's my tag for today.

I made this for my granddaughter's high school graduation. I watched a video by a Prima Designer who demoed how to make artsy backgrounds by using different mediums. I still have a lot to learn because I have a hard time getting my colors in the right places. This turned out bluer than what I pictured but then I was afraid to add more color because I didn't want it to turn muddy. The designer used an art medium that had a lot of texture to it and I had never seen that to purchase. I tried out paint, puffy paint, stenciling medium...but none of it turned out to have that look that I think she achieved with the textured medium. She showed what it was and I most definitely need to get some. I love texture on my stuff and I have to try this.

On to the deets:

I make my own chippies by layering several layers of heavy cardstock. And that's what I did here with the Memory Box flourish.

The butterfly is a Memory Box die too but I left that thin and covered it with a clear sparkle emboss powder. 

I think dies are my most favorite embellishments to use. The new ones are so delicate and thin and they are gorgeous!!!

I am entering these into these challenges:

http://berry71bleu.blogspot.com/ They want us to show our chippies. and I think my thick layered flourish fits the bill.
http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.com/ Show us your style...I'm not sure what I am. I am very drawn to shabby chic & some vintage (not too grungy or old & torn) I like it beautiful and elegant too. I guess it's wherever my heart is at the time.

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/  All sorts says "any die will do"....ladies after my own heart..
http://panpasteluk.blogspot.com/  This one is "anything goes"...Their prize is a sample of pan pastels. I would love to win that...I've never tried them!

Thank you so much for visiting...
Please leave me a comment...I would love to know what you think,
Blessings,
e

A really wonderful day in June...

Hello Everybody!!!
It's been so long since I have written here that I think I might have forgotten what to do.
My life took a different turn and even though I was still working on my craft, it wasn't in a way that I could enter my work in any challenges. So I kind of gave up on that and waited until I could start again.


Well, I am ready!!!


I have made a couple of tags for gifts that I need and I will show one here and one on the next post... 

This one is for my husband...a bookmark. 

The brown is a faux leather paper I bought a long time ago.

Then some shredded burlap, some paper ribbon and a bronze colored arrow trim.

The two metal love and kiss pieces are from Hot Off the Press, many moons ago also.

They have holes punched in them to put small brads in.

I found a twill manly looking ribbon that says "joy, peace & love". 

Perfect for his Bible or our devotional book.

I am entering this into the http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/

Their requirement is "anything but a card" and also into the 

http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/

this challenge is "show a bit of brown"

I guess I fit right into these two challenges and I am glad. I LOOOOOVVVEEE

Simon Says. I know they get a lot of people linking in, but they have a great store and their prizes are AWESOME!!!!

So........thank you so much for stopping by.

Please leave me a note...it's been long since I have connected with this blogging world.

Have a great weekend,

Blessings,

e

Dreaming of flowers....

No, it's not spring yet here in Michigan. We still have a little snow on the ground and it's really cold.
Thankfully, we did not experience the tornado devastation that happened in some parts of Michigan and other states. How absolutely horrible to lose everything in the blink of an eye. Times like these call for extreme faith and trust in a God who can bring good out of pain. We don't understand the life we are called to live. Sometimes it just doesn't make any sense.
So to all those who have suffered such great loss, I lift my prayers up asking God to heal, comfort and bring blessings into your life.

Now for the card I made for the challenges at:
http://www.thehousethatstampsbuilt.com/designers-choice-challenge/dcc229-spring-challenge-with-pastel-colors/
http://cceestampers.blogspot.com/

Both of these challenges required a spring theme and I sure am in the mood for one. We have had a very light winter, but it doesn't matter...March comes and we are ready for warm weather.

I love lace and it seemed so fitting for spring.
The background is a Hero Arts stamp that was covered with VersaMark and embossed in white.
I then applied Distress inks in several colors and rubbed them together until I was happy with the result.
I stamped the orchid on watercolor paper and painted with Twinkling H2o's. I really do need that class for these watercolor paints. It turns out ok but certainly not as pretty as I would like.
Added a scalloped border, my lace and some Zva flourishes. I colored these purple...aren't they pretty?

So...that will do it for today.
Blessings on all of you
Please leave me a note and let's "chat"

e

It's MARCH already!!!

A very warm "HELLO" and  welcome to everyone who is reading this.
It has been quite a while since I posted anything...
I don't know how it goes with you, but I came to a time when I seemed to be reevaluating everything. I love ART in many forms, and it wasn't about giving up my papercrafting...I just didn't seem to know what direction I wanted to go in. I was very busy with a scrapbook I was working on for a grandson's graduation from college (important stuff right???) and a great-granddaughter's baby scrapbook...they were so much fun for me...
but somehow blogging about them or putting any of those pages into challenges just didn't seem to be something I wanted to do.

I continued to read your blog entries and devour all the tips, tricks, new techniques and ooh and aah over all the new stuff to buy. But I kept myself from buying hardly anything because it seemed like I had so much stash already that buying more was almost greedy. I used the stuff I already had and tried to put the new techniques to work. I think that all of us who do this for the love of crafting, come to the place where using the stuff that's been hanging around becomes a real challenge.

In keeping with the idea of using stash we already have on hand, I also decided to take some new classes or participate in free tutorials that are around the internet. I need an injection of new teaching with stuff I have and don't really know how to use all that well. It isn't that the information is not out there...it  just takes time to work along with someone who is teaching new ways of using a product and learning it so well that you can apply it to whatever you are wanting to make.

So, on to my first project I have made to enter into a challenge.

I chose http://www.simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/ because they feature Tim Holtz AND I like their site a lot.

I Stamped the tag with TH wildflowers stamp, using VersaMark and then embossed in white.
I then layered Distress ink colors onto the background and spritzed with water to get the colors to blend and topped it off with Tattered Angels' "Wheatfields" spray. I love that spray...it's very subtle but beautiful.
I stamped and cut out the TH bird on a limb and colored it with watercolor pencils.
The fence is a TH die cut and I tied brownish hemp cord over it.
I colored an acrylic round, small tag with alcohol blue & green ink and attached an orange butterfly to it.
It is slipped onto the hemp rope with a small ring.
I just watched TH attach beads to a new tag he made and I loved that look. So, I did the same by attaching the beads into the ribbon at the top of the tag.

I am happy with the results. There's lots more I want to learn to color & embellish my projects but this is a good beginning.

I am giving this to a friend for a belated Birthday. Hope she likes it.

Thank you for reading through my ramblings.
If you have anything to share with me from your life...I would love to read it.

Blessings,
e

This is a quick post....

Hello crafting peeps....
It's been a long day and I am pretty tired.
I want to get this post up so that I can enter it into the StampTV Friday challenge.
The requirements were for a sympathy card and I really enjoyed making this one.
Somehow, it just felt right and flowed smoothly....ahhh what joy when it all comes together.

I have really been struggling lately.
It seemed like I had great ideas but NOTHING came out right.
It was one of those times (I'm sure you've experienced it too) when things just WOULD NOT
come out looking like I had imagined. And the more I tried and worked at it, the worse it got.

So, I did what I always do at times like that...I went to sit on my "Father's lap". My real father has died, but my heavenly Father is always there to answer my heart's cry and bring peace into my muddled thoughts.

So, with His help, I put everything aside, and just start a simple card.
I tried not to think about all the ideas I had, the embellishments I wanted to do, everything.
I went through my stash, picked out some white embellished paper, and then found this beautiful
square of flowers that I had cut out from a card I received a long time ago, and started to build from
there. It seemed to be so freeing...I found such JOY in just simply putting things I loved together.
I can't tell you how wonderful that felt.

I didn't feel overwhelmed or that I HAD to make it look like something that would win prizes and accolades. I was just doing something that I liked, enjoyed and felt good about.

I don't know how we get into these places where we feel "NOT GOOD ENOUGH" but the world seems to push us to bigger, better, faster, prettier...trying so hard to be the best at everything!!! But God tells us we don't have to do that....we just have to allow ourselves to ENJOY the gifts God gave us and use those gifts to bless others.

So here's my simple card.....

 

Have to show you this little bird at the bottom. He wasn't too visible and I like him so much. I made him a while ago. A friend of mine and I did an afternoon of making fun embellishments that we cut out of Tim Holtz' grungeboard and then colored with different paints, Perfect Pearls, and embossing powder. On this one I heat embossed and then set a small flourish stamp on it while it was hot so that the stamp image would imbed itself into the embossing. Came out nice, didn't it?

The rest of the card was made with a white background paper that was dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The flower square is a cut out from a card I received.

I wrapped that with white satin ribbon, cut an oval and stamped the text in navy blue.

The butterfly was cut with Martha Stewart punches. There are two pieces...they fit perfectly together. They are both cut from the cover of a music CD jacket. I love those, they have such beautiful covers on them. I have used quite a few that way.

The little rhinestones on the right side are blue teardrops.

I am entering this card into Stamp TV Friday challenge

and

http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/

http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/

Thank you friends for visiting,

Please leave me a comment....they're a great lifter-upper.

Finally, a Lilly of the Valley image...

Hi everybody,
I am sharing this card with you with much excitement and joy...
I bought a few Lilly of the Valley stamps back over a year ago when they were still very new in this country. I was so excited to get some because I just loved their beautiful creations. Now they have so much more and I am very excited for how their business has grown.

Anyway, I was really intimidated to try them. I started a few times but somehow I could never get the image colored decently. I see all that beautiful coloring that crafters do on their projects and I just don't seem to have the talent to make them look right. I think that what I need is the right product for the job. So I finally bought some DerWent pencils, but they are too dark for these small images.  HELP please!!! If you have any suggestions for me, I would surely welcome them. I really want to be able to be comfortable with coloring images.

So here's my card and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The image is not as lovely as you ladies would do, but it's a start. And hopefully, if I get some helpful hints, maybe you will see some better colored images coming up.

I have entered this card into these challenges:

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/
http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/
http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie/

Thanks for stopping by,
Be blessed!!!
e

Family Visits...the fun and the sad!!!

Hi there scrapping peeps,

We were surprised this weekend by a visit from our daughter and her family. What a fun thing!!!
Instead of just doing normal everyday stuff, we get to spend it with kids and pets, and a couple of adults too. And then we get to do fun stuff, like stay up til the wee hours of the morning watching movies. That's the good part.

But we also had a not so fun thing happen during the night. Our granddaughter's bunny died. She had him and loved him since 2005 and didn't go anywhere without him..."love me, love my Nemo!"  Kirstin (our granddaughter is 15 and a natural caregiver. Nemo was her best friend, lived in her bedroom and they spent many hours together. Another life lesson...living with the good and the sad...

But that's life and we KNOW that there's many happy days to come. She has family that loves her, cares for her and helps her through the sad times. Love you, Kirstin. God bless you for many happy days and adventures to come.

Goodby Nemo!!!

I do have a card for today.
I made this for a couple of challenges.

 

Stamp TV's Monday challenge is an inspiration picture and I fell in love with the mirror frame on it. The colors to use are mustard, blue and deep red. So that's what I started with.

http://www.polkadotdoordesign.blogspot.com/ has an inspiration challenge with the same colors and I LOVE their challenge site. Not only can you win the weekly sponsor prize, but you might also be invited to be a guest designer.
http://stampinsistersinchrist.blogspot.com/ They wanted us to use an item we had purchased that we just had to have, but it's been hanging around in our stash. See the heart on this card? I bought a packet of these beautiful hearts a long time ago...but guess what? they just never seemed to fit into anything I was doing. So, I'm very happy to have found a place for one of them.
http://www.simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com/ This challenge required us to use a Tim Holtz technique. My background is colored and then stamped over with a mesh background stamp. The dark red on the right side is a piece of long stranded fiber with a heart attached by ribbon and a butterfly nestled in the strands.

So, that's it for today.
Be blessed today and every day,
e