Thank You, Pt. 2

Hello!

Today is the second thank you card in this miniseries for another lady who helped me out recently.  I suspect she won't be looking at the blog, and if she does, she's probably going to know who it's for, but I'll pretend like I'm keeping the secret anyway.  

This one was fun to make.  Unlike yesterday's card (here) which used colors with which I'm pretty unfamiliar, this one is shabby vintage all the way which is my card making bread and butter.  The two printed papers have a lovely linen texture, and I do love texture on my cards.  The red paper is faux distressed (it's printed that way) and looks wonderfully old.  I inked the edges of both and distressed the edges of the red even further before matting them both on dark brown card stock. 

The greeting and its matching shadow layer were cut with nesting dies and the shadow layer was heat embossed all around the edges with my favorite metallic copper embossing powder.  So was the greeting.  I do love the copper, it's got more character than a simple brown embossing powder.  I sponged inside the smaller die for a bit of a halo effect with Antique Linen and Tea Dye distress inks.

I added a couple of bits of net ribbon and a delicious Colleen bow (directions here) for the decoration and topped it with a vintage button.

The inside was distressed but left blank for my personal message.  This card and yesterday's will go in the mail on Monday.

Thank you so much for joining me and here's wishing you a lovely day with a big THANK YOU from me for stopping by to visit!

Copper Beauty

Hello!

Today's card was a special commission that my husband wanted to give a co-worker who is in need of encouragement, and he asked that I make a card that was full of STUFF, which is my favorite kind to make.

I've used one of my favorite stamps, this quote by Audrey Hepburn.  I've heat embossed it in metallic copper and layered it on a contrasting layer having also heat embossed the edges in the same color.

See that metallic glint?  It adds a nice shimmer to a card.  I even embossed the edges of the patterned base layer for continuity.

I knew that I wanted to add a nice big fat double looped bow to this card and I used a metallic copper ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon to do the job.  This is the Silky Crush Rust Ribbon and it's a dream with which to work.  I've topped it with a mulberry paper rose from Wild Orchid Crafts which I've glittered with a bit of champagne glitter.

When I really want to pull out the stops on a card I will add one of my handmade stick pins.  To this one I had added what I call a "guardian angel" charm.  I thought it fitting for the occasion.

Some stitching and a few pink pearls finish this card.

The inside was kept simple with contrasting layers and some subtle stamping.  I hope this card made the recipient feel a bit better and know that nothing truly is impossible.

Thank you for joining me, and I wish you a happy, healthy week. 

Happy crafting!

HOPE

Hello!

Today I'm featuring another inspirational-style card, this one focusing on "hope," and I'm using one of my favorite color combinations, red and turquoise.

It's a simple little card with some nice textural touches, including the distressed edges which have then been stitched, the true vintage hand made (crocheted?  tatted?) lace trim on top of the satin turquoise ribbon, and the twine holding the tiny tags.  I love texture on my projects and am hard pressed to make a card without at least some tiny bit of it.

The word "HOPE" has been heat embossed and has been sponged with distress ink around the edges.  The edges of the brown mat have been heat embossed with metallic gold for yet another bit of texture.

Two little bitty tags have been adhered with twine for a bit of added interest, and a satin ribbon flag has been anchored with a vintage button.

The inside contains the rest of the quote, one of my personal favorites.

Thank you for joining me and I wish you a hope-filled happy day.

Happy crafting!

This card is for sale in my ETSY shop.

Nothing is Impossible

Hello!

Today's card, second in the week long series of friendship and/or inspirational cards, features one of my favorite quotes:

She sure had it right.

I've used one of my favorite shabby color combinations, pink and brown, on this one starting with a kraft base and layering plaid and floral prints with dark brown mats for definition.  I distressed the edges of the floral print and turned one of the corners down.

The quote was heat embossed with copper metallic embossing powder, the edges were inked, and then I layered it onto a dark brown shadow mat with the edges also embossed in metallic copper.

Of course this kind of card called for a shabby bow, so I tied one of my favorite kind, a "messy" bow, using caramel colored seam binding.  Then I added a couple of loops of string pearls and centered it with a tiny pink posy that I painted with caramel shimmer paint to tone the pinkness down a bit.  An additional posy adorns the opposite corner.

A bit of stitching completes the front.

The inside was finished with contrasting layers of card stock stamped with faint flourishes.  I keep designs like this very light so that a personal message can be written over them.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I wish you a lovely day full of delightful possibilities.  Because NOTHING is impossible.

Happy crafting!

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop.

The Queen of Ever'thang

Hello and Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you are all taking good care of yourselves today and being taken good care of whether you're a mother to children, pets, your plants, whatever.  It's YOUR day!

As is our custom, my daughter and I are spending the weekend at my mother's house (remember the wonderful English cottage garden?  You can see it here.) and are having a wonderful time.  We went "thrifting" and antiquing yesterday (jackpot!), and then last night we saw Johnny Rodriguez in concert.  This little town sure has some big names coming through.  Granted, he's from a different era (my generation as opposed to the NOW generation), but nevertheless, he's one of the biggies.

And now to the project at hand, the one I couldn't share any earlier because my mother reads my blog every day.  Sorry, Mom.  :)

What do you think?  It's the second time I've painted on a mixed media canvas (the first time was here), and I'm quite enjoying it.  It is my goal to paint roses in a decorative fashion (as opposed to a realistic fashion), and I'm starting to feel more comfortable doing so.  

There is a lot of symbolism on this piece, starting with the music notes I stamped onto the colored base layer (I used Neocolors this time).  They're ever so faint, but music is a big part of my mother's life.  Country music from the good old days, not that modern stuff that passes for "country" nowadays.  It plays all day in her house. 

Flowers are another biggie as evidenced by her fabulous garden.  She grows so many kinds of roses, both modern hybrid teas and fragrant antiques.  I have normally given her plants every year for Mother's Day - it was a big tradition for me while she was building her garden.  Roses, hostas, you name it, I probably gave it to her; however, she doesn't do the heavy, hard planting anymore and instead is directing her attentions towards her art, so this year will be the first without a live plant.  Instead, she gets the painted rose which will bloom forever.

 As a side note, I used to grow a very similar rose.  It was a modern hybrid tea and I don't remember the name, but here is a picture which looks exactly like it.  Alas, it was too finicky and no longer resides in my garden.

Two of the digital stamps are from Gecko Galz, and I honestly can't link directly to them because I think they were freebies that Leanne gave to us at the retreat (referenced here), but you could always contact Leanne through the Gecko Galz site (here) to see if she does have them for sale.  I LOVE these images, especially the woman's face, both of which are perfect for Mother's Day.  The "Mother" word has a crown on it because, as today's title states, my mother is the queen of everything.

I added a bit of blush and lipstick with Copics as my mother never EVER leaves the house without her makeup on.  I should be so dedicated.  And the wooden butterfly was painted with shimmer paints to match the rose.  Butterflies are thick as thieves in her gardens.

This soft, vintage image is part of a free collage set that you can obtain over at The Graphics Fairy.  It was designed by my friend Heather Hudson and is featured on her painted canvas blog post here.  It's perfect because my mother had two children, me and my sister.  

By the way, all images were printed onto tissue paper for that soft, see-through effect.  I love how you can see some of the background stamping through them. Card stock is just too thick and heavy for my purposes.

The words "my friend" were printed from my computer, also on tissue paper, and edged with Stickles.

When I had all of the painting done and the images decoupaged, I knew this piece needed something else, something 3-D, and definitely something dangly.  My mother almost never makes a piece of art that something isn't dangling from it somewhere.  So Mom, here are some danglies for you.  At first I thought I'd do a "necklace" but I didn't want to cover the lady's face with it, so then I played around with the vintage chain and it struck me - a charm bracelet!  The first charm is a frog because my mother used to collect frogs, but some years ago she said, "NO MORE FROGS."  Sorry Mom, just one more.  The flower charm of course symbolizes her extensive flower gardens.

Next come the scissors for the woman who sewed nearly all of my clothes as a child.  She also made some of the most fabulous quilts you've ever seen, many of which grace my home.

And of course a heart.  She puts at least one heart on every single project she makes, whether it's quilts, mosaics, paintings, etc.  I don't think I've ever seen her make something that didn't contain at least one heart, if not more.  Because of her, I ♥ hearts.

I made the centerpiece and in-between charms with my various pearls and beads.  The little key (another heart!) was silver but I colored it with a copper Copic marker.  I rarely use silver, and copper looked better.  My mother has always collected keys ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper.  And last but certainly not least, the flamingo.  Why?  Because a few years ago I said I was going to put a flamingo in my front yard for a little bit of tacky fun, and being who she is, my mother made me a huge one, mosaiced in pink and sporting a stylish ceramic bow on her neck.  You can visit Fanny the Flamingo here.  I am now known as "the house on the corner with the flamingo in the front yard."  I truly think this is the ONLY cool yard flamingo out there - nothing tacky about this one.

I will be entering this piece in the Gecko Galz challenge which is all about Mother's Day, and also in the Frilly and Funky challenge which is to use a single word as a focal point.  Hopefully this one qualifies!

So thank you for joining me today - it was long but, well, that's how I roll.  I'm chatty.  And I like lots of pictures.  Here's wishing all you moms out there the most wonderful day that's focused on YOU!  And for my own mother?

I ♥ you, Mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

P.S.  I was on a rose painting roll, and I had a tiny 1" wooden heart, so I painted it for my daughter.  It looked fine until I saw the close up photo.  Clearly I need to work on my vine painting.  I know she'll love it regardless.

Mother's Day is fast approaching...

...but I'm ready this time.

Hello!

I'd like to share with you a card that I made a short while ago.  I made it at the fabulous Gecko Galz retreat in mid-February (which you can read about here) and was saving it for the PERFECT occasion, which I think Mother's Day is.

I was the ONLY person who made a card at the retreat.  Talk about a newbie.  Everyone else was making fabulous albums out of the materials we were given, but my poor little pea brain just drew a complete blank, so I stuck to that which made me the most comfortable in such unfamiliar surroundings (craft retreat), a card.  At least I gussied up the heck out of it.

The image comes from Gecko Galz "Sleeping Beauty," and I edged it with glittery embossing powder along with this wonderful glammy sparkly yarn stuff that was included in our supply packets.  (Leanne, the founder of Gecko Galz, does not skimp on supplies and freebies with which to craft at her retreats.)

Also part of the supply packet (everyone chose a different theme) was the wonderful organza ribbon, this gorgeous blue rose, the jeweled piece, all of the papers and the metal flower thingie underneath the rose (which I touched with a bit of clear glitter).  There was so much but I couldn't quite include everything on this card.  I'll make an album next year. 

Here's a picture of the embellishements up close and personal.  As there was so much yummy, blingy goodness on this card, it was a wee bit too much for the blue base cardstock, so I cut the front off and attached it to a kraft layer that I cut just a tad larger than the standard A2 size, thereby turning a card into another card.  I used the leftover panel (formerly the back of the card) for the inside mat.

The sentiment was printed on my computer.  This is a saying that a lovely Brazilian neighbor used to tell my mother many, many years ago when my father was stationed in Rio de Janeiro.  I was seven years old, and this lady and her family lived above us in the apartment building, and on many evenings he, a concert pianist, would play beautiful tunes such as "Strangers in the NIght," "Moon River," etc. and she would sing.  Lydia (pronounced "Lee-ja") had a wonderful voice which would soar out their window over our ground floor courtyard, crooning us to sleep on many occasions.  (Do women "croon?"  This one did.)  Ahh, memories.  (Her husband also gave us piano lessons.)  

At any rate, this is sound advice to all women when we're tired and stressed.  Give the baby to the husband, put the dog outside, call out for dinner and go relax.  And be beautiful.

By the way, pardon what appear to be smudges on this layer - I had to photoshop out my message to my darling mother-in-law before posting, and I will be entering this into this month's Gecko Galz challenge, which is "Mother's Day."

Thank you so much for joining me, and I wish all mothers out there a wonderful, happy, and pampered Mother's Day.  

Relax, and be beautiful.

Challenges:

Gecko Galz - Mother's Day

Easter challenge at My Artistic Adventures

Hello!

It's time for another challenge over at Heather Hudson's challenge site, My Artistic Adventures.  The theme this fortnight is Easter and/or Flowers which should be easy peasy!  Use at least one of Heather's images and come play along!

My project was super fun to make.  It's a set of six 2-inch wood puzzle blocks and I used a different vintage postcard from Heather's Etsy shop for each side.  This is my favorite side.  Those cute little chicks are so adorable.  They're from the Vintage Easter Postcards Collage Set and there are three sheets of images to this set - a super value and so versatile!

These little blocks start out brand new with sharp edges and corners, and after much sanding (and more sanding, and still MORE sanding) and painting and distressing and decoupaging, I end up with cute little blocks that look like they've seen many decades of love.

This image is from the Victorian Vintage Basket collage sheet.

From the Vintage Easter Postcards Collage Set mentioned above.

Also from that set.

And another.  See what I mean about versatile?

And you can't have Easter without a cross.

This is from Heather's Shabby Vintage Easter Cross set.  

Thank you for joining me, and I urge you to go visit Heather's blog and that of the other designers to see their Easter/floral creations too.  

Happy crafting!

I will be entering the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes 
The Shabby Tea Room #212 - Pretty In Pink (this probably doesn't qualify but I couldn't help sharing since the images do contain all the colors and even images of ribbon! :-)   )
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew #58 - Animals (Easter Chicks and Bunny)
Oldie But a Goodie -  April Showers Bring May Flowers (I followed the floral theme as opposed to the rain theme.  The blocks are over a year old and I was saving them for a special occasion.)
Divas By Design - Anything Goes


Collage sheets used:

         


        

More Tattered Goodness

Hello!

As you know if you've read my blog the last couple of days, I've been privileged to be guest designing for Catherine Pooler over at StampNation, and this week's challenge is "Doodling."  She's had a big name co-sponsor, Tattered Angels, who sent the designers all sorts of fabulous goodies with which to play, and we posted our projects on StampNation a couple of days ago with sneak peeks on our respective blogs (here's my post).  There are all sorts of cool prizes to go along with this challenge (go here for full details).  Well, I couldn't stop with just making a card, oh no, I had to go much further.  I've been in a wood block kind of mood lately, so...I made another one and pulled out all the stops with Tattered Angels products!  They've developed a new line of papers called "Tattered Tangles" which are mistable and paintable, plus they also sent some of their Glimmer Glazes, some rope yarn and even some darling mini clothespins.  And here is what I came up with.

Of course my husband asked "What is it?"  Umm...it's pretty, said I.  And it has little inspirational, fun quotes.  And, and...uuhhh...what indeed.  It's JUST BECAUSE, that's what it is.

I took a 4x4," 10' cedar fence post and had the home improvement store cut it down into many 4" blocks and sanded this one until it was silky smooth.  OK, the fun part of this project is that it is the reason I went to Home Depot last week THREE TIMES to buy tools.  A vise for my workshop that I'd been wanting for years but had never gotten around to getting.  A new drill (that I didn't use here.)  More tools.  Spray paints.  Fun stuff!  I also paid a visit to some other stores for some of the findings.

Each side of this block uses TA papers, including this flower, the pieces of which I misted with the alcohol ink sprays I made from their Glimmer Glazes.  They're such a deep, rich color that I knew they'd be fabulous in sprays, and they are!  I mixed the Sangria and Desert Sun and came up with this fun orange blend then attached some organza shapes (melted in a candle flame first) and some jewelry findings (flattened bead caps, flower bead, pearl).

The cute sayings were cut from the sheet that was chock full of them, so many from which to choose!  I sprayed them all with ink sprays because the new TA papers take sprays so beautifully.  The drips and dribbles add lots of character.

Another of the sayings, another flower, this time using the Sangria and Blue Oasis sprays.  All of the sayings have been edged with corresponding colors of glitter glue.

This is my favorite side.  I LOVE the saying, and I had the perfect charm to  hang from the little clothespin...

...which I dry brushed with gesso and also glittered the top.  The bird charm even matches the whole color scheme quite by accident!

You can see the distressed edges and corners.  After sanding the block with my handy dandy orbital sander (hence the need for the vise) I sprayed it with black paint and then white, then I sanded the edges and corners down to reveal the layers.  Then I decoupaged the papers on with Mod Podge.

This block will decorate my craft room nicely and I'll turn it to view whichever sentiment makes me happy for that day.  This is a good one.

The finial makes my daughter laugh every time she sees it.  She was expecting something small and dainty, but this block, with all of its bold, graphic papers called for something with a little more oomph, hence the finial that normally would go on the end of a curtain rod.  It's metal and quite heavy, and I attached it to a wooden round piece for added height and painted the whole thing black.  Since the theme of the challenge is doodling, I doodled on the finial with silver shimmer paint and sprayed it with clear sealant.

I dry brushed the bright orange rope/yarn with gesso before wrapping it around the base and topped the whole thing off with a couple of vintage earrings.  Actually, they're mine so I guess we can't call them vintage, can we. CAN WE.  Right.  One of them was missing the largest pearl but I had one in my stash, so...problem solved!  Some rhinestones on tops and sequins sprinkled on the sides finish this...thing off.  Oh, and some tiny wooden craft store finials spray painted black for the feet.  This thing deserves to be lifted up a bit.

Thank you SO much for joining me today, and do hop on over to Catherine's blog to check out the challenge which is still going on.  There are prizes from Tattered Angels as well as from Catherine, so you won't want to miss it!

Happy crafting!

Challenges:


Craft Hoarders Anonymous #4 - Show Sparkle, Glitz or Glam (sequins, rhinestones and vintage jewelry)
The Shabby Tea Room #210 - Anything Goes
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes
As You Like It - Favorite Coloring medium and why - (I love alcohol ink sprays and frequently make my own with various color mediums.  I've used three sprays here that I made with alcohol and glimmer glazes, a red, yellow and blue, to mix and mingle into other colors, both on the flowers and all the sentiment pieces).
Frilly and Funky - Neglected Dies (Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers and Spellbinders Rose dies - I haven't used them in ages!)