Thursday, November 27, 2014

Birds Of A Feather @ A Vintage Journey

Hi all my blogger friends,

Our lovely host, Chris, at A Vintage Journey has chosen "Birds of a Feather" as her theme for this fortnight.  Not only is Chris a very talented crafter, she is our go to gal for all the techie stuff on the challenge blog.

When I saw the challenge title I started out by looking in my box of "unfinished projects".  Admit it, we all have them!  Anyway I knew this would be a good chance to finish a project that I started a few months ago while I was crafting over at my friend Susie's house with our WOW (wild old women) group.  I had all the sides done and the wheels on so just needed to add the finishing touches.  It is easy to see Tim's influence here with all the goodies I used from his collections.  The bird stamps are from Hampton Arts.
 
 
I just love these wheels, they are real antique furniture wheels that I found on one of our summer trips.  We like to visit all kinds of shops and flea markets while we travel around the country in the summer. The block is wood that I painted with Distress Paint.  I knew I was going to patina the cage and wings, using the method shown to us in Tim's Creative Chemistry 102, so stayed with a coordinating color combination.  Sorry I don't have a complete tutorial for you today but I have a few photos below that show some of the process.  I used manila cardstock, tore the edges, inked, stenciled, embossed and stamped.  Not necessarily in that order. 
 
Below are photos from each side and from the top-
 



 
 
I had this little top hat charm in my stash so colored it black with a Sharpie and then added it to this bird who I thought was very Regal looking. I added an eye hook and hung a musical clef from it.
 
 
For the flower on the top of the block I used a beautiful Prima Flower, I did take it apart so I would have more space in the center to add my wood piece, deconstructed. 
I added a feather charm with a jump ring.


For the cage on the top I used two cages back to back and two sets of wings all glued with E6000.
 
I really had fun with this and know I will be doing more blocks, hope you have enjoyed!!
 
Have a wonderful and crafty weekend,


 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Thanksgiving Wishes

 
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a week away.  Where does the time go?
 
I'm just dropping in for a quick post to share a card I made today.  I used the Tim Holtz Pumpkin Jack Die for the card and cut a hole in the center.  This cute little turkey is a stamp set from Art Impressions that I colored with my Prismacolor Pencils. 
 
 

The cute sentiment is part of the stamp set. The back end of the turkey is on one of the Action Wobble things from Art Impressions so it wiggles when you open the card.  So much fun.

Have a crafty weekend-
S@ndy

Thursday, November 13, 2014

All Sewn Up

Hi all my lovely blogger friends,

The theme over at A Vintage Journey is "All Sewn Up" chosen by the talented Brenda.
I have lots of sewing related items "sew" I was very happy to see the topic for this challenge.

Today I am sharing a birthday card for my wonderful mother.  It is a standard A2 card but by the time I finished I had some weight on it.  I will take it to her personally so don't need to worry about postage.

This post turned out to be way longer than I originally thought so you may need a beverage and a snack.  Sit back and relax.

I had some lovely paper in my stash from, I believe, Lost & Found.  It has a solid side and on the other is some beautiful glittered designs and more sewing related items that are printed on.




When I make something for the first time I always make a template to be sure I get the measurements right.  I made mine from some scrap white paper.


When I was sure what I wanted to do I got out the paper.
 
 
I cut my paper 12" X 5.5" and then scored it at 3.75", 8" and 8.25".  The quarter inch space is needed for the thickness of dress form using the Honey Pop Paper.
 
 
This paper is lovely but it has a white core so did some edging with Walnut Stain Distress Marker. 
 

I used a Flip It Die from Sizzix #659178.  Flip It's are lots of fun but for this card I needed a little more real estate so made some adjustments along the way.  I cut the paper so it was the same height as the die 5.5" and slide it into the die avoiding the ends which I did not want to cut.  I used the magnetic platform but also used a small piece of washi tape to hold everything where I wanted it. 


You can see from the photo above I used an On The Edge Cutting Pad so I only got the cuts that I was looking for.  The die makes the score lines for you so it is easy to fold with the flip tabs on the front as shown below.

 
I used Tim's Sewing Edge Die on the other end.
 
 
 
Next I added my inside panel using some of the decorative paper and some manila cardstock.  After that I added the dark panels on the squares.  The decorative die came in the die set.  I then did the same to the front using light panels.
 
 
Next came the dress form.  I used a stamp that I made from cutting out the dress form, then cutting away the parts I wanted, from the Sewing Room Die using Fun Foam and then using that as a stamp.
 
 
I have already added my sentiment so I could get the dress form positioned right.
Next comes the dress form -
 
 
For this I used Honey Pop Paper from Inky Antics, if you haven't tried this, you need to.  I cut the dress form out and then cut it in half because you only need half for this method.  On both sides of the dress form I added adhesive, I used double back tape because it is strong and thin.
 
 
Remove the tape from only one side and line it up with the score line at the 8" mark.  Then remove the tape from the other side and fold the flap over on the sticky surface being sure you have that quarter inch strip at a 90% angles, like a book binding.
 
All that is left is the decorating.  I added some details to the scissors and then added a couple of buttons and then added some Vintage Photo to the dress form using a Distress Marker.  I stamped on the needle and thread and called it done.
 
 
 
Thanks for stopping by and I love to hear your comments.
 
That just about sews it up. Have a great weekend-
 

Christmas Joy

Hi Everyone,

I just finished making a card for two challenges at Simon Says Stamp where the Monday Challenge is Ornaments, and the Wednesday Challenge is We're Seeing Stars.  I used Karen Burniston's Ring Accordion Die Set along with the Ring Frame Edges. I also used one of Tim Holtz's Mover and Shaper Dies, Mini Wreath.


 
Just a quick post for today, hope you enjoy -

Monday, November 10, 2014

Red, White 'OR' Blue

Hi my friends,

This month I am playing along again with Karen Burniston's monthly challenge.  I thought the theme sounded like fun.  At first I thought it was Red, White & Blue but then kept reading the challenge description and saw that it is OR not AND.  Karen is allowing us to use one neutral so I chose silver to go with my blue.

I love the new dies from Karen's collection but my favorite is the Clocks and Gears.  She designed this one because of a request from Shelly Hickox - thank you Shelly.

I was feeling a little silly today and had an idea for this card using the Gears and the Sprial Circle Pull Card Die.  Of course Hoppy the Frog is right there taking the spotlight.  He is on one of the Art Impressions "Action Wobble" springy things.


 
HERE'S HOW I DID IT
 

I usually make a template to check my measurements before I cut into the paper I intend to use.  As you can see, it took me a couple of tries to get what I wanted which was to have the circles overlap on the front of the card.


I started with an 8.5" X 11" paper and cut it to 5.5" X 11".  I scored it at the 4" mark and the 7" mark leaving  a 3" center section.  After I die cut the card, I decided to make it only 5 " tall so cut 1/4" off the top and bottom, ending up with a 5" square card.


I lined the center nubs of the die with each score line 1/2" from the top with the circle portion going toward the outer edge each time.


Since I wanted the circles overlapping on the front I didn't have room for the little notches.  I placed the cutting pad only over the portion of die that I wanted to use.  I like to use an On The Edge Cutting Pad for this but if you don't have one you can slide the cutting pad up so you only cut the portion of the die that you want.


So now all that is left is to decorate and that's always the fun part.  I used the gears from the die set, some metal ones from my stash and also some stamped and embossed images.  I wasn't sure about a blue frog but as it turned out - Hoppy is cute in any color.  I then embellished his eyes with gears and rhinestones.


 
Hope you've enjoyed my card as much as I enjoyed making it.
Have a great week and "Be Hoppy".
 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Season's Greetings

Hi Everyone,

Just dropping in for a quick post to share a card I made today.  It is for someone special and I'm rather pleased with the result.  I think it is simple yet elegant. 
 
I used my Karen Burniston dies and the sentiment die from Elizabeth Craft Designs.
 

Here is a look at it before I connected the tabs.  I used several layers of blue under the snowflake.


Enjoy and I hope you have a wonderful week, at least what's left of it.