Happy Father’s Day

I decided my father-in-law was “man enough” to handle a little sparkle on his father’s day card this year.

I used Peel-Offs, Glitter Peel-Offs and Silk Microfine Glitter from Elizabeth Craft Designs to make the plane and border stickers. I cut one of the strips of stars apart to create the stars in the background.

I colored the plane with Copic markers and used a sheet of glittered paper from American Crafts as the background.

The inside stamp is by KaiserCraft. I used a few extra planes from the sticker sheet to accent the inside.

He loved it … even suggested that I could sell it for $1.50. Yes, my father-in-law has a unique sense of humor!

Flower Cuties Fun

The May Designers Challenge at Elizabeth Craft Designs is to create a standard-size “flat” card — one that does not use the fabulous accordion or pop-up dies Elizabeth Craft Designs is known for.

Frankly, I love to make flat cards because I mail them and I get tired of having to pay extra to mail thick cards.

Here’s the card I created ….

This one uses the the new Flower Cuties Peel-Off stickers, the Thank You die, Glitter Dots and Silk Microfine Glitter from Elizabeth Craft Designs; cardstock from American Crafts; vellum paper from Stampin’ Up and Copic markers.

I started by covering the Peel-Offs in Silk Microfine Glitter and then coloring them with Copic markers.

I created the card base and attached the vellum (I hid the adhesive behind the images.) I added a torn piece of cardstock for grass.

Then I cut out each piece and applied them to the card.

I took one of the extra ladybugs and used dimensional foam adhesive to attach it on top of the one the little girl is holding. The second one I placed on the inside of the card.

Then I added Glitter Dots to the antennae, floral ankles and flower pot. I think they add a cute touch.

Finally, I cut the sentiment out of cardstock with a die. I think she turned out pretty cute … what do you think?

 

Docked

During a working trip to Ludington, Matt & I took a few hours to do a bit of sightseeing. This was the first weekend in April and although Lake Michigan was beginning to thaw, there were still lots of chunks of ice floating around.

The Badger was in dock, with its sister ship, The Spartan. I have always wanted to ride the car ferry over to Wisconsin, but have never had the opportunity. I have been on car ferries before, but they were nowhere near the size of these boats. I was surprised at just how massive these boats were! I was so intrigued by them, Matt took me back to see them the next morning when the lighting was better.

Showing size and scale in a photo is always a challenge. I had Matt stand directly behind an old lifeboat to try to show how large they were. I kept the newer lifeboats hanging on the boat in the photo so you could compare the size. Because there is so much going on in the photo, I used a metal porthole frame from Prima to highlight Matt.

I was also amazed at the size of the chains anchoring the boat. I tried to take photos to show the scale, but they didn’t work at all.

I did add a bit of ribbon chain, from Hobby Lobby, to go on the page, in memory of that chain.

I used Mosaic Moments Grid Paper in Pewter on this page. I also used Paper Tiles in black, white and Scarlet, along with corners in black and white. The letters are Thickers from American Crafts. I accented the pages with more metal embellishments from Prima. These are available in my store …  I used Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear adhesive to attach all of the metal pieces.

I also took a few pictures of the icebergs floating around and used those as smaller photos to connect the page together. What do you think?

Perfect Birthday Gift

This month’s contest at Scrap It Girl is birthday.

 

This little 4×4 mini album is the perfect gift for a birthday present. It has places along the way to record memories and place photos of the special day. And the last page has a gift-card pocket!

I used chipboard to create the cover. The inside pages are Mosaic Moments RTC Grid Paper, which can easily be cut to 4×4 sheets. I glued them together back-to-back to make sturdy pages. I bound the book with a ring and added ribbons and fibers from my stash and a little clock from Hobby Lobby.

I typed all of the quotes and words and printed them off to use in the book. The tiny prints are all from Memory Box.

The cupcake is an outline sticker by Elizabeth Craft Designs, filled with ECD glitter and colored with Copics. (Don’t try this without ECD glitter!)

By using the grid paper, I can easily place 1″ squares to frame the photo on this page.

The striped, text and jar papers are all from American Crafts. I just cut one jar out for an embellishment on this page.

This page takes advantage of the grid paper. I also added a Cornerstone (the cake) from Mosaic Moments. I replaced the paper it came with with a piece of patterned paper to keep with the theme of my book.

The last page used another Mosaic Moments Cornerstone (a present), along with chevron and note paper from American Crafts. The pocket (the brown chevron paper) allows for a gift card to be inserted.

Now it’s your turn … create a card, scrapbook page or project with a birthday theme. Post it at Scrap It Girl during the month of March and you could win this:

 

 

 

 

A Special Christmas Dinner

For Christmas last year, I asked for a Dutch oven.

Matt bought me one, but when he gave it to me, he made an amazing beef roast with a red wine, mushroom and onion gravy to top it. The wine was a gift from my mom — brought back with her from a trip out west.

Matt made mashed potatoes and some of the green beans we grew and froze over the summer to accompany it.

It was such a special meal (we eat very little beef because of the high costs these days), that it deserved its own page!

The papers are from Graphic 45. The utensils from Hobby Lobby and the cork letter stickers from American Crafts.

The barn tree

Last spring, Matt took me to a friend’s home and I was able to tour a 150-year-old barn that was about to be torn down. I fell in love. This is the Mosaic Moments page I created following my adventure …

The part of the barn that amazed me the most were the ladders. These ladders went from the floor of the barn to the second and third stories. They were built onto the main support beams of the barn and I fell in love with them.

I even got Matt to pose on one for me …Many months later, I found a tree made out of a pallet on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect to replicate for my house. I figured I could put knobs and clips on it and hang favorite photos, cards and other items that could change throughout the year.

So, I asked Matt to go back to that farm and get me some discarded barn wood to build the tree.

He came home with a piece of one of those amazing ladders!!! He told me it was the one he posed on and I let him believe that I believed his little white lie. These days, that barn is a pile of rubble, so there was absolutely no way to know what ladder the piece he brought home came from. But, Matt can be a real romantic sometimes, so I went with it.

Anyhow, I asked him to use the piece of the ladder as the trunk of the tree and to use barn siding, trimmed down, as the branches. He did as I asked and created this amazing tree for me …

 

I added random knobs and pieces of hardware to the tree to hold my creations. Many of the knobs were purchased at Hobby Lobby. Others were from Home Depot. I also made a few with my paper crafting supplies … check back in a few days to see how I did it! Every knob is unique — there are no two the same — but all are in silver, white, black, cream or glass.

 

For some scale, here’s how it looks in my house. It hangs on the hallways wall that connects the bedrooms to the kitchen via the living room. (I live in a very small house) … The pictures don’t do it justice (it’s hard to photograph in a small space on white walls), but it looks amazing and makes a huge difference in my living room.

(remember to click on the photos for a closer view)

At the top, I placed a rusted pipe fitting I found in the rubble at the farm. Matt used toggle bolts to hang it to the wall and I asked him to use really large washers to add a bit of metal to the wood. I love that you can see where the rung of the ladder was ripped off of the ladder side. The paint and patina is all-natural, century-old barn paint, water damage and weathering. All we did was clean it.

I made the explore life knob and then glued two Tim Holtz clips to hold photos and cards. I used Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive. It stuck almost instantly and held strong! And, they work perfectly as you can see!

 

When we were at Home Depot looking for toggle bolts to hang the tree, Matt and I both noticed the chains and he asked if I would like to add it to my tree. I jumped at the chance. The Home Depot employee thought I was rather strange when I asked for only 3 feet of chain. He had a very clouded look on his face as we attempted to explain what we were doing, but when I mentioned “cards,” the light bulb went on.

“You mean Christmas cards?” he asked with this excited look on his face because he finally figured out what we were doing … or so he thought. I just went with it. Sometimes it is impossible to describe my altered style to those who only use pipe fittings for pipes and chains to hang plants and secure loads. lol

Here’s the tree with a few random things hanging from it … These are cards I recently made, some ornaments that didn’t sell at a craft show last week and a favorite photo of mine.

On the bottom rung, Matt used picture hanging wire to create a thin clothesline for hanging things. I added a few mini clothespins by American Crafts that were left over from a project to hang my cards.

I also added a few eye hooks and this chain from Prima fit through perfectly.

I love my new tree and I hope it inspired you to turn some “trash” into something fabulous with the help of your paper crafting supplies!

 

 

 

 

 

My Place in the World

My place is not fancy or large or impressive.

In fact, I do not even own it — I rent it!

But, it is the place where I am happiest, comfortable, relaxed and at peace.

Get a better look at my place, see how I did it, and cheer me on by clicking here.

 

A Trip to the 1970s

The recent challenge for Mosaic Moments was to create a page that was inspired by the pop culture of the 1970s. Here’s the page I created …

Discover the images that inspired me and see how I created the page by clicking here … 

 

Warning: This post may offend

I used to keep a spotless house. I used to wash walls every few months, mop the floor every week, clean the bathroom and dust the house every day. Then, I went to work full time and found myself struggling to be a mom and housekeeper while working. I finally decided life was more important that a clean house and I lowered my standards. Yes, it took some time, but eventually I found myself able to cope with dust on the ceiling fan and spots on the windows.

Even though I no longer have a full-time, outside-the-house job and my children are grown, I still find so many things to do that cleaning my oven is not a priority.

A few weeks ago, a friend posted this on Facebook:

And I knew I had to have it hanging in my house. Of course, I didn’t want my husband to think I should be in heels and a dress everyday, nor did I want a reminder to clean the tub, so I created this:

I started with a 6×6 canvas. Then I used metal stencils (the chicken is from Dreamweaver, the dots are from Lasting Impressions) and Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio Gesso to create the texture. I just laid the stencil where I wanted it and used a puddy knife to spread the gesso and then lifted it off.

I washed my tools immediately (this stuff is permanent if left to dry) and let it dry overnight.

Then, I used Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio paints and water and painted on the colors in my house … browns, blues, yellows …

I used my Non-Stick Craft Sheet as a pallet and didn’t worry about cleaning my brush between colors. I started with the light and then went darker. Sometimes I used a dry brush, sometimes I made the paint into a glaze with lot of water … I heat set the paint between some coats and used a paper towel to wipe off the excess on others. I kept going until I had the look that I wanted …

Then, I decided it needed a little metal, so I added metal corners from Tim Holtz. I wanted them to be a little more aged, so I painted them and then wiped the paint off like this:

The one on the far right hasn’t been wiped off yet …

I glued them in the corners with Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive.

Finally, I used American Crafts Cardstock and a Lifestyle Crafts letter die to create the wording. They, too, were a bit too bold when I was done, so I took my paintbrush and smeared just a hint of paint to the letters as well …

Now everyone knows my philosophy on cleaning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published: Cricut Magazine

I’m off to a scrapbooking retreat hosted by my friend Linda Neff .

We’ve been going to Sunset Shores in Clare, MI for some time now. It’s an old-fashioned resort on a lake with cabins. The basement of the main house has been turned into a great scrapbooking (or any other crafting) room. And Vivian, the owner, is an amazing cook. She makes incredible meals from scratch using locally grown foods.  The food is so good, I’ve told my husband that he needs to go with me just to eat!

Anyhow, this time Linda has set up a special retreat. We’ll be making a mini-album, a window and an ornament. It’s going to be a great time filled with good friends and good food.

But, before I go, I wanted to share some exciting news.

I was published in June’s Cricut Magazine!

I had two cards published this time … both using the Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart.

 

on page 76-77 and

on page 64-65

The company mixed up the tips for the two cards, so the tip on page 64 actually goes with the card on 76, but it’s wonderful to be published!

See you next week with pictures of the projects I made.