Valentine's Day Card - crystal glaze hearts

Well, this photo sure doesn't do this card justice. lol I had actually stamped these hearts to use on the card with the colored brads, but it just wasn't working out how I wanted it to, so I set them aside and ended up with that card done totally different then I had planned. I really didn't like how these stamped hearts looked. My ink is starting to get a little dry and they just weren't rich, red hearts like I wanted. But, I just can't throw anything away! Yes, I have it that bad. I was determined to use those hearts because there was no way I was going to toss them. So, I ended up getting my markers out and I went to work coloring. I rubbed the brush tip of my marker on one of my acrylic blocks for my unmounted stamps. Then, I took my blender pen and picked up some ink and colored in the white areas in each heart. After that, I went around the edges with red and tried to shade the bottom of each heart in a bit. For some reason, I decided to cover each heart with some crystal glaze to make them stand out a bit. And, since I've been a glitter freak lately, I sprinkled each heart with some fine glitter. Like I said, this photo does not do this card justice! It's hard to see the areas that I colored in and the glaze looks cloudy. We actually have sunshine coming in our windows today and it's causing quite a glare on my hearts! I can't complain either because we have had almost no sunshine since the beginning December. All of these cloudy, gloomy days have really gotten me down. It is so wonderful to see blue skies right now!

Valentine's Day Card - coloring your brads

Here's a card that I made for the brad challenge at Practical Scrappers. It's funny, because this card isn't anything like what my original idea was! I actually used the images that I had stamped for this card to make another card with. Crazy how that happens! lol

I have some alcohol inks that I hadn't ever used and I honestly don't know anything about them or all that they can do. But, I wanted to color my brads red! My embossing gun broke, so I couldn't cover them w/ embossing powder......I tapped them in some red Ancient Page ink, but I didn't know if that would every dry.....so then I remembered my alcohol inks! Luckily, I had some red, so I put a couple of drops on a metal lid and dipped the tops of the brads in the ink until they were covered. Then I stuck the ends in a piece of thick foam and let them dry over-night. I was so happy that it worked! lol Like I said, I don't know a think about all that these inks can do and I'm sure that a lot of you already knew that this would work. I really need to do some research on these, because I know that they are a great tool just sitting in my drawer unused. The stamped image is colored in with my Stampin'Up! markers and a blender pen.

An easy card for one of my special Valentine's!!!!! ;-)

Easy-Peasy Valentines

I wanted to share these super-easy, home-made Valentine's with you. I absolutely LOVE Valentine's Day. Well, I love all of the fun, crafty ideas out there, the reds, the pinks.....everything! lol I am so amazed w/ all of the fun projects that people are sharing all over the web. I wish that I had all of the time in the world to make them all! But, for now, I'm trying to save them and file them away in my Valentine's Day folder.

All that I did for these Valentine's was to measure the size of the wooden block that the stamp is on and I used this as my guide for cutting the card stock that the image will be stamped on. Then, I cut a mat out for each piece of card stock in red. Each image was stamped in black ink and then I used my set of Stampin' Up! chalks and a blender pen to color the images in. I have finally caved and I have started buying Copic markers and I had two shades of green, so I used them to color in the alligator. I have no idea how to use my new markers, but I fun playing with them and I'm anxious to learn all about how to properly shade. But, for now, it's okay for this fun, little alligator! I have to admit that I can do a pretty good job at shading with my set of Stampin' Up! markers and a blender pen.....and I probably really don't NEED to buy Copic markers.....but....(there's always a "but" isn't there? lol)....my 13 year old daughter is an amazing artist and she has been using my set of SU! markers. She almost always has them with her, so I guess it's time to let her use them and I'll start buying Copics here and there. So, that's how I'm justifying that. lol
Anyway. lol After I colored the images in, I adhered the colored image onto the red, card stock mat and then I used a medium-sized hole punch to punch out two holes for the sucker to slip through. Oh, before adding the sucker, I used a stamp that came with this set on the back that says, "Happy Valentine's Day! To:____________ From:_____________" This is an old Stampin'Up! set called "Animal Valentine's" that I bought years ago. I'm not sure if they still carry it in their catalog, but they might!

My daughter helped me make these one year to pass out to her class on Valentine's Day. She was in second grade and had a lot of fun coloring them it and putting the suckers on them. So, this would be a great project for your little ones!

Die-Cut Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

Here is a card that I made for this weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers to use your die-cut machine or store-bought die-cuts. I used 3 different Cuttlebug dies and added some small rhinestones in the center of some of the flowers to jazz it up a bit. lol I stamped the phrase in black ink and then went over it with a light pink marker and blender pen.
I also made this bookmark that's created using the corner of an envelope. I have been wanting to share this idea for awhile, so I went ahead and did up a tutorial for you all. You can find it in the post below this one or just click here. I used a paisley die from Cuttlebug and cut out three colors of cardstock. Then, I mixed and matched the pieces to make colorful paisleys to decorate my bookmark.

I have more to share, but I'm buried under tons of Girl Scout Cookie paperwork right now! lol I need to be working on it, but I keep getting distracted by sharing new projects here and working on layouts. That's not good! So, off I go......time to work.....it's just 12:50 a.m.....eek. It's going to be a long night!

Envelope Bookmark w/ Tutorial

Something on my mind....I -heart- Books

I've been wanting to share with you how to make these super-easy and totally fun bookmarks for quite awhile now. I made one for this weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers (which is using a die-cut machine of any type) so I decided to take pictures as I went along making it and now I can finally show you how to make them!

The base of the bookmark is made from the corner of an envelope. You can use any size, I have a business-sized envelope and a card-sized envelope pictured above. You can use regular-sized envelopes as well, but your bookmark will be smaller. These work the best if you know that you'll be using your bookmark in a small, paperback book. So, you might want to think about what size you need (how big or small your books are) before you start. For my bookmark, I used a business-size envelope.

Seal the envelope first. Then, make a cutting mark with pencil as shown above:

*business-size envelope mark at 3 3/4 inches at the top and at one side

*card-size envelope mark at 4 inches at the top and at one side

I'm sorry, I don't have the measurement if you use a regular envelope. Just measure the envelope and see how tall it is and make your marks about 1/8-1/4-inch smaller than your measurement.

Place the envelope in your paper cutter so that you can see the cutting mark lines. Center the lines in the center of your paper cutter and then cut the envelope. If you don't want to use a paper cutter or don't have one, simply draw a line from one pencil mark to the next and then cut. You can also draw the line and then cut it with your paper cutter. This helps if it's hard for you to see exactly where you need to cut your envelope.
You will end up with a triangle, that has one open side, like a pocket. I forgot to mention that you can sometimes make two bookmarks from one envelope, if it's long enough to cut the corners off of each side! This would also be a great recycling project. You could use junk mail envelopes, because we will be covering the envelope with paper and that would hide any printing, etc.
The next thing that I did was to figure out how I wanted to decorate my bookmark. You can do this first, of course, but I usually get my bookmark base done first and then I start pulling out things that I think I might want to use to decorate my bookmark with. Sometimes I already have an idea, but a lot of times I don't. This time I didn't, except that I knew I needed to use a die-cut for the Practical Scrappers Challenge and I was leaning towards using my paisley one. So, I pulled out my sticker binder first and started flipping through it. I knew that I wanted a word of some kind on there and I found this sticker w/ a Bible verse on it. I liked that it was about "hope" because I really need to be putting my hope and faith in God better, so that's when the rest of it came together. I started going through my paper scraps and found the paper (one pattern for the front and one for the back), then I went through my blue color drawer and found some paint swatches. I liked this one because the name of the paint was "Inner Harbor" and I thought that was pretty fitting for a bookmark about hope.....God is my Inner Harbor. Whatever you decide on, just be sure to think FLAT. You don't want to use buttons, brads, eyelets, Prima flowers, etc., because this will be too thick. You want you bookmark to be flat so that it lays nicely in your book and doesn't blemish or mark the pages of your book.
Next you need to cut your patterned paper to cover the base with. You can either measure it like you did above for the envelope, or place your base on the corner of the patterned paper and use it as a template to mark the patterned paper. Cut one triangle from each piece of patterned paper, or two of the same.....or just one for the front. You don't have to cover the back really, unless you want to! lol Adhere the patterned paper to the front and back (or just front) of the bookmark base. I use a glue runner and I run the glue all the way around all three sides, as close to the edge as I can. I don't like the paper to gap between the patterned paper and the envelope base, if that makes any sense. It also keeps it nice and smooth and stays together better....helps keep the edges nice and flat.

For this bookmark, I cut a piece of the patterned paper that I was using for the back that was about 1/2-inch thick and then cut along one edge with some scallop deco scissors. I then put it on the side of the triangle where the opening pocket is. Then, I turned it over and trimmed off the excess.

So, here is my finished bookmark. I really love how this one turned out!

Find Rest, my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. - Psalm 62:5

And here are some other bookmarks that I have made as some more inspiration for you!

This is my spot
I made this one for my 13 year old daughter who has her nose in a book as much as I do....all of the time! lol

There is a time....for everything (Thomas Edison)
especially BOOKS

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it all made sense! If you have any questions, please ask! I'll do my best to help! And, if you make one of these bookmarks, I would LOVE to see them! Share you link in a comment here!

Take care my friends and happy crafting!

Pattern Paper Challenge @ Practical Scrappers

This weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use 2 or more designs of patterned paper on your project. Well, I am totally addicted to patterned paper. I have tons of it. I collect it like fine china. lol I say that because a lot of it I treat like fine china! I file it away in my cabinet and leave it there, because it's so pretty, I just want to look at it all of the time....just like if it was china in my buffet. lol It's silly, I know, but true. Silly and sad! lol So, I've been trying really hard to not collect patterned paper like I used to. I only buy new patterned paper if it's for a specific project. My goal is to use up my massive stash of patterned paper that I have collected in the many, many years that I've been scrapbooking.

So, here's what I have to share:
For this layout, I used eight different squares of patterned paper. I keep all of my paper scraps organized by color in drawer units, so it was easy for me to look through my color drawers and pull out scraps of paper that worked well together for this layout. So easy and lots of fun! I've had such a scatter-brained week (more on that later!), I can't remember where I got the sketch idea for this layout from....sorry! This is my little Gracie during her first feeding of cereal. Such a cutie-a-tootie!

I'm sorry about the darkness of these next photos. I tried to take the photos at night, which wasn't too smart of an idea! The idea for this idea came from sheer desperation. lol My husband gets up a lot earlier than I do, and since I've had Gracie and I sleep in with her as long as I can, he has often left for work before I get up and moving in the mornings. So, almost every morning, I had to call him to see if my little Sophie doggie had been fed or not. Needless to say, this got really old. So I made a sign that I put on our fridge w/ a long magnet. The sign is double-sided....one side says "Sophie HAS been fed" and the other says "Sophie HAS NOT been fed". I used five different patterns of paper on this one. Another project made mostly from my scrap drawers. I also raided my ribbon box and used lots of different ribbons!

For the title, I used my Big Shot to make the letters for "Sophie" and "been fed" and my good, old-fashioned plastic letter template for "HAS" and "HAS NOT". The dog, dog house and food bowl are all stamped using an old Stampin'Up! stamp set that I've had forever. I used pastel chalks and a blender pen to color them in.

Now, before you ask, because I know your wondering......did my husband ever use this? Well. Nope. Not once! lol All of that work and it doesn't get any use at all! He just doesn't think to use it and I don't bother him about it. Oh well. It was a lot of fun to make and sure does look cute on my fridge beside her food bowl. And, I guess I do still bother him about it in a way, because every now and then I do have to call him and ask him if Sophie has been fed! lol

I totally forgot to share my projects for last weeks challenge at Practical Scrappers. It was to use embossing of any type. My daughter had her Confirmation this past weekend and all of last week was complete chaos! Let me just say that it is almost impossible to find a decent dress for a young lady to wear. One that isn't too short, too low, too sparkly, too slinky....too EVERYTHING! lol It took 3 days of shopping and going to almost every clothing store in town before we found something. But, it was so worth it! She looked absolutely beautiful and the ceremony and Mass was wonderful! I will try to share my projects from last week in a day or two.

Take care, my friends.....and happy crafting!

Some ornaments to share......

Here are a couple of ornaments that I was able to make last week. We were totally snowed in for three days, so it was nice to have some fun projects to work on!
This little house ornament is inspired by this ornament that I found at the Orange Flower blog. My printer wasn't talking to our computer server when I decided to do this ornament, so I had to totally wing it with the pattern. I forgot that the original had windows and guessed on what size to make everything else. I still think that it turned out pretty, darn cute! The house is made from a scrap piece of white flannel and red scrap fabric that was left over from the tree skirt that I sewed last year. I embroidered on the year and I'll tell you about those flowers in a minute!
For this ornament, I used the pattern that I found at the author Jan Brett's website. I absolutely love her books! This heart ornament is made from white paper and red patterned paper. I added some rhinestones to each crossing of the paper, because I was trying to think of a way to jazz it up a bit!
Now, for the flowers, I used the tutorial that I found at Cheeky Magpie to make them. I really had a fun time making these and I can't wait to make some more! I used my Prima flowers and I just had to add some Diamond Dust to them....lol I think it kinda looks like snow on them and since we got over 12 inches of snow while I was working on these ornaments, it seemed fitting to add snow to my flowers. lol

I'm not sure if I will have time to make any more ornaments, but I hope that I can. I have started working on some 100% cotton, crocheted wash cloths for my kitchen and a couple of gifts. It's fun to be doing something different and still creative with my hands! And, we are getting more snow today and ice today. My kids missed three days of school last week! This is their last week of school before Christmas Break and I'm sure that they are hoping and praying that we have another snow storm roll through. Starting Christmas Break a few days early would really make them happy!

I do have lots more that I want to share with you all. Some favorite recipes and some great crafty links that I have found that you don't want to miss! I hope you are all doing well and keeping warm!