Past the garden gate

This started out as a card to represent my Mother's garden and it sort of grew and grew.   Finally I just used a 6x8" canvas board so instead of a Mother's Day card, I did a small art piece for my mother.   I'm playing with some techniques from Christy Tomlinson's Behind the Art class.

First though, I cut the garden gates with my Cricut and the Storybook cartridge.  It was one image and I split it and then added Versamark in spots and embossed with copper powder for a rusty gate look.

The 'garden' is mostly flowers cut from Basic Grey's PB&J 6x6 pad which I think is almost used up. That was a really good one!  The background is really techniques from our art class with papers, paints, a ton of Modge Podge, stencils and a few stamps.

Hope you have a happy Mother's Day.  I'll be back in a couple of days with a new page and video.

Glass Art

Wow, that is a wonky looking photo, isn't it?  Anyway...

We get many of our outing or date day ideas from the NC Weekend program on PBS.  Last year they led us to an art glass show.  We visited 3 galleries and then one private exhibit that was by far the most interesting.  We didn't take photos there as it was in a photographer's studio so we didn't think he would appreciate us taking photos of his photos and glass collection. He had at least 4 cats weaving in and out of everything.  Cats and a glass collection?  Well, it seemed to work.  We really enjoyed the afternoon.

For this page, I did two NSD challenges.  I was inspired by a Garden Girl at Two Peas.  I picked Wilna Furstenburg and one of her layouts from her Art Class where she did lettering using modeling paste.  I used heavy gel instead that I attempted to color a light gray.  It got quite a bit darker when it dried I suppose because the gel actually dries clear so the 'white' goes away.  I added a touch of black paint, lots of Tinsel Colorshine mist, and a bit of Perfect Pearls for extra shine.

The page also fits Shimelle's 'use your mist' challenge.  The colors painted on the background are all mists.  One tip, if you use mist as paint, use old brushes.  It really stains the brushes.

Thanks for visiting today!  Both Two Peas and Shimelle's challenges go through Sunday night so check the out. Lots of great chances to craft and maybe win a prize.

Creating a Tabbed Mini Book

We celebrate birthdays here with 'the week of birthday.'  My husband and I don't exchange gifts anymore as we decided it was just a money swap.  So now we do little things to make not just each others birth day special but the entire week.  So I captured those things for Project Life one week last month.

I also added a few thoughts on my birthday, age, and what I'm into these days and what I'm not.  I wanted to keep those thoughts private so it was the perfect opportunity to use Heidi Swapp's Photo book or Fotostack.  She released this product at January's CHA and I got mine at Michaels a couple of months ago.

After completing my page and video, I went searching for other places you might find this product.  I was dismayed to find it has already been discontinued! I really like this product and would like to use it again. So, I made another one myself and created a video for that.  I

Making the tabbed mini book is easy.  You just need 1 12x12 sheet or 3 4"x12" pieces of designer paper, a tab punch or tab stickers, a corner rounder and a regular office stapler.  The mini book can be used to add photos or journaling to your pages or as Smash style books or travel logs.

I gave myself an on-line class for my birthday "Behind the Art" by Christy Tomlinson.  In honor of that class, I add some misting and stamping to the watercolor style paper background (part of Crate Paper's Acorn Avenue collection.)

The stencils are from the craft area of Michaels. Home stencils are often less expensive than those in the scrapbooking area.

I needed one photo to finish off my page and found this one of me on my parents front porch not sure what to do about the approaching step.  The main photo on the page was taken on our front porch.

Here are the videos.  This one is for the page as a whole.


And this one is for the mini book.



Thanks for visiting today!

NSD Color Challenge

One of the challenges at Two Peas for National Scrapbooking Day is to use two shades of green, a bright blue and gray.  My colors are Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, and Pacific Point from Stampin' Up!  The stamps are those marvelous interlocking ones from Lawn Fawn.

Did you know that Stampin' Up! has come out with clear photopolymer stamps?  They just have a couple of sets so far.  I'm excited to see what will be in the new catalog available this month.

I was inspired here by various cards I've seen on Kelly Rasmussen's blog.

Two Peas NSD challenges go through next weekend.  Also, Shimelle.com has 24 NSD challenges this week!


Thanks for stopping by today!  I'll have a couple of videos for you tomorrow or Wednesday.

Last job?

A couple of months ago, we installed what may be my last window treatment job.  Then again, I haven't sold any of my machines so...

Right now, I'm quite happy to be out of the business.  It was an anchor in my life for 16 years and I made lots of wonderful friends.  It was rewarding to create beautiful things for my customer's homes.  The photos on this page are taken at a customer's home where we did practically every room over several years.  I loved this part of my job and it happened frequently. I'd do a room or two and then a year or so later, my client would call and want to do another room and so on.  You get to know people, know what samples to take and what designs they will like or not.

For these rooms, I did pinch pleat draperies in lovely fabrics on decorator rods.  It isn't a complicated treatment but very classic which suits the style of this home.

There was an irony to this day.  My mother was in the window treatment business when I was young and had advised me over the years about fabric choices.  However, she had never been on an installation with us.  On the morning of this last one, I woke up and twisted around pulling a shoulder muscle (a repeated injury or so I thought.)  I needed help so I called her and she came up and put in pins and did some lifting for me.

Another irony is that my shoulder cleared up nicely before the day was over but my legs were awfully sore by the next morning.  I'd run up and down ladders all day marking and taking measurements to keep both her and my husband busy.  I'm kind of glad I never got jobs big enough to have two helpers on install day :-)

The page is for the Counterfeit Kit Club blog's NSD challenges.  I started by assembling this kit.

Then I took a challenge to create a page with these elements:
stripes and dots, book page, packaging, pen work/doodling, labels, craft knife, circles, buttons, song title or lyrics, handwriting, journal on note paper, diary entry, journal in several places

The bold ones are the ones I put onto my page.  Not too bad getting that many in on one page.

The book paper is from a 1950's sewing book I bought for art projects.  This page was so perfect, I only added some pen markings (per the challenge). The line drawings aren't the same as what we installed.  I'm sure my client is glad I didn't put 1950's draperies on her window!   They are close enough to add a little fun touch to the page.


The background paper is an old one from Bo Bunny.  I chose the damask and added flourishes because of my client's very traditional home.

ETA:  I forgot to say that the sketch on which this layout was based was also part of the NSD challenge.

Thanks for visiting!   Did you get to play on National Scrapbooking Day!

National Scrapbooking Day!

Hope you are having fun on this National Scrapbooking Day!  There are tons of on-line challenges.  Check out these at Two Peas or at Counterfeit Kit Club Blog.

I've started on the latter by assembling a small kit of products.  I did cheat a bit and pick out some photos first.  The way they are approaching the kits is so clever.  You have CSI like files with "Evidence" "Testimony" "The Sketch."  I picked one with a blue, red, gray and white color scheme.

Today also happened to coincide with finally completing all the weeks 1-3 videos (whew!) from the Behind the Art class so I'm making my first canvas.  I've started with something small using only paints and stamps.  This is not as easy as it might look.  I made a real mess and had a marvelous time.  Next week we find out what we are putting on our canvases.

Of course, I've spent a fair amount of time on-line looking at the challenges and shopping - of course!  If you have a national day in honor of something, you have to spend money.  It is the American thing to do, right?

So I'd better get the kitchen cleaned up (my only chore today) and get back to my craft room.  Happy crafting!

Rhinestones, with a little polish

A couple of months ago I set out to find a way to make my own enamel dots.  I tried all kinds of things and I can tell you what does NOT work:  Dropping nail polish on wax paper and waiting for it to harden (it doesn't); coating drops dried Glossy Accents (an exercise in patience that yields odd shaped bits) and a few other things that I've already forgotten.  One thing that works fairly well is painting half pearls with nail polish.  However, they are thicker than the popular enamel dots available for purchase.

Along the way I did discover these.  If you take plain rhinestones and paint them with nail polish, you get some very pretty embellishments.  The backing shines through giving them sort of a colorful glow.  They have more of a bling look than enamel dots and aren't as rounded.  Since nail polish comes in every color these days, you can do all kinds.

These were a good fit for this layout with the glitter Thickers.  The background is watercolors on watercolor paper.  I first cut a tulip design from the paper with my Cricut.  Then I painted on watercolors until I was happy with the shades.  The rest of the layout is just some simple layers of designer paper.

The rhinestones do take quite awhile to dry and I pushed it a bit and smudged a few of mine.  (I didn't learn anything from my exercise in patience mentioned above.) Hopefully that goes with the watercolor look :-)

These photos were made at Biltmore.  I made a recent trip and found the tulips at their absolute peak.


Here's the video for making enamel rhinestones:


I guess I never said why I was trying to create my own enamel dots but you can probably guess.  If you've ever used them you know that they can disappear onto a layout faster than you can fill an on-line shopping cart and they sure aren't cheap.  I did find one idea on-line but it was just more time consuming than I was willing to invest.

If you know of a good way to create your own enamel dots, please share.  In the meantime, you can dress up some rhinestones and give your nail polish a second life.

Thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking day!

Loving these stamps

I'm in love!  I'm in love with these stamps from Lawn Fawn.

Lawn Fawn appeared on my radar about 2 years ago but I never bought any of their stamps until recently.  I tend to be fashionably late to a lot of things.  And sometimes I wish I weren't.  Their stamps are fantastic!

The first thing I always try with a new stamp is to see if they will work with Stampin' Up! ink since that is what I have the most of.  Stampin' Up! is a dye ink like Distress Inks and Hero Arts Shadow inks.  They work well with water but they aren't always friendly with acrylic stamps.

These stamps make perfect images with dye based inks.  This card is made using Stampin' Up!'s Bermuda Bay (a color on its way back in), Cajun Craze and More Mustard (a retiring color).  One of the sets is designed to create an interlocking background and is super easy to use.  I got both of these at Two Peas in a Bucket.  The stamps also work well with Staz On ink.

The sentiment on the card is from a very old SU! set called Alphabet Soup.  I think this makes a good guy card.

Thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow I plan to have a video up with a little tip for making your own enamel embellishments.  And this Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day so lots of crafty fun on the horizon.