Getting ready for Christmas!

Hello friends!
Yes, it is July . . . but a day was spent taking inventory of my "wares" . . . the tags, ornaments, cards and assorted items I market annually at the November O'Tis a Festival in Norwich.  I counted and sorted and thought about what I want to spend time making for this year.  An ever-changing list was begun  . . . decisions, decisions . . .

A few things from last year . . . . I pack and transport the goods in fabulous cardboard suitcases I found at Michael's several years ago.  They work perfectly  . . . I just open the lids and everything is pretty much ready for viewing.

The case seen below holds flat paper goods . . . note cards, bags, tags, and flash card banners. A few new Christmas stamps arrived in that brown truck so my popular tag selection will expand a bit this year.  With the coloring book phenomenon in full swing, I'm thinking of adding some "color it yourself" tags to the mix.

A second case carries paper ornaments including embossed and glittered partridge-style birds, ice skates, and little dresses folded origami-style from dictionary, sheet music, maps,and text pages. Silhouettes of men, ladies, and a Sherlock style fellow are stamped on book and school register pages in a black card stock frame.

More ornaments in the third case . . . embellished sheet music angel wings, a glass ball ornament with a little tree and glittery snow, and some half globes with snowy scenes of deer, trees and a cabin. The gift bags with tags keep these from shifting around.

The final suitcase holds "objects," including a variety of wooden spool ornaments. There are also bottle brush trees in or on various containers or spools in the snow globe theme popularized by Anthropologie several seasons ago. I've also been collecting little vehicles and plan to add Matchbox style cars/trucks carrying little trees to the 3-D selection. 

Although it's in the 80's outside, the Christmas spirit is moving along inside, worked in around the golf schedule!

Cheers!

S.

Card for Lovebirds - From the Archives

Hello friends,

A long-time couple I know have a marriage that is to be admired. This card was made for their last anniversary . . . A few new supplies had found their way into the house and I needed to play . . .

I have been a fan of silhouette art for most of my life, probably originating from the silhouettes my mother collected and displayed in my antiques-filled childhood home. 

This card came together quite quickly, once the idea took off. I die cut the people and a heart from black cardstock - (notice the shadow at the top of the heart) and another heart from red paper. It was all arranged and mounted on a vintage book page that was layered over black paper and then mounted on a cream card.

The sentiment and label outline were stamped on cream paper and added to the card.  The inside was penned with a personal greeting. Off it went to my friends . . .

It's golf season so . . . although I'm not creating much, plans for many things are swirling around inside.

Til next time!

S.

Julie Nutting Paper Doll Babies

Hello friends
I've been taken with Julie Nutting's paper doll stamps since they first appeared in the marketplace.  I've written about the dolls I've made a few times here . . .

Baby dolls arrived on the scene within the last year and since many of my friends are becoming grandparents (not me), I decided they would be a good thing to have. They arrived in the brown truck and I fiddled with them a bit, and that was it.

When the shower for the expectant Mrs. L was announced, I started making these little ones and as the time approached, decided to fashion them into a banner. I made one long banner, stringing it so it could be divided if necessary. And divided it was . . . one section was draped on the mantel . . .

And the remaining length was hung over the mirror in the foyer . . .

So, how did I do it? The dolls were stamped on white paper and cut into an oval shape.  Clothing was stamped onto patterned paper, cut out with fine point scissors and glued to the dolls. The shoes, hats, and accessories were added and the ovals were adhered to black "chalkboard" pennant shapes. Pale green seam binding was used to string the triangles together and a little "It's a girl" charm was knotted in between. The garland added a whimsical touch to the traditional decor of the party venue.

So I could remember how I dressed these babies, I took pictures of each of them before they traveled off to Virginia.

Here are the babies all dressed up . . . they all have hats because those bald heads didn't do it for me.  I played around with the hats, tilting them one way or another so they wouldn't all be identical.  Shoes and socks were all cut separately while sitting at the mezzanine watching/listening to my favorite TV programs.

And the babies ready to play . . .  I chose the areas of the patterned paper to stamp the clothes on so they would coordinate yet be different.

I think they are pretty cute . . . But wait . . . there were 19 of these little gals . . . so I apparently forgot someone! Good thing I'm done parenting!

Cheers til next time!

S.

Cards for today

Hello friends,

Here are two cards I recently made. The first is a clean and simple up-cycled card - an image was cut from a magazine, mounted on patterned paper and then adhered to a card base. There is a wealth of interesting pictures to be found in magazines, advertising flyers, travel brochures, glossy newspaper inserts and catalogs that can be cut out and easily made into cards.  I think this one is pretty cute.

The yellow patterned paper is a great complement to the flowers in the boots and brightens the weathered wood background. Since the card base is red, a piece of thin white paper is added inside for writing a message. Although this card is an odd size due to the size of the boot picture, it will fit nicely into a 5 x 7 envelope. Or if you are the proud owner of an envelope punch board, you can make a custom size envelope.

The next card has more of a vintage feel. This carved image stamp from Magenta was stamped in Ranger Red Geranium ink on off-white paper. The edges were torn into an oval shape and inked with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I tore a book page to the approximate size to fit the card base and did some machine zig-zag stitching around the edges in red thread. The stamped image was glued on and the layers mounted onto the kraft colored card. This one also has a paper glued inside for message writing.

I am a fan of the look of kraft with red - the red stitching adds a bit of pop to a card that could otherwise be non-descript and bland. Images mounted on book pages are very "in" these days and a vintage look is easily achieved using inked and torn book pages.

Cheers til next time!

S.

BabyThemed Note Cards

Hello friends,
Over the past several years, I have become addicted to rubber stamps. And there are so many wonderful ones out there. I had always loved stamps as a kid  . . . there's something about the images . . .  being drawing-challenged, stamps are a great way to create without having to put pencil (and mostly eraser) to paper.

Many of the stamps designed by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous, especially his "mini" blueprint series, have found their way via the UPS truck to my house. ("What can brown do for you? Hah!)  I own the set pictured below, bought originally for the stack of books in the lower right (that librarian thing . . .)

The baby-themed images were perfect for making some note cards for the soon-to-be mom to use as thank you's or whatever.

Below is a grouping of some of the cards made - four of them using the blueprint stamps. I didn't take individual pictures of the cards . . . so squinting is necessary . . .

 The images were stamped on watercolor paper and color applied using Ranger Distress markers and ink pads (Spun Sugar, Faded Lilac, Scattered Straw, and Evergreen Bough). The ink pads were stamped onto a silicone craft mat and using a wet brush, the colors were picked up and slashed across the image . . . in all honesty I can't really call what I did "painting." Shading was added with the markers in places I thought shading should be. I do confess to watching a YouTube video or two to see how other people worked with the inks and just went from there.

After the images were dry, I tore ( the ABC blocks) and cut the images to fit on patterned paper that was layered onto a blank card. All in all, I was pretty happy with the results. And so was the mom-to-be.

The "onesie on a hanger" cards are made with a stamp I picked up at Michael's, stamped in red ink on white cardstock with a pink mat on cheerful paper. The clothesline card is made from some paper I unearthed from my thousands of sheets and added onesie puffy stickers to "hang" on the line.

For the "Where's Waldo fans, if you look closely and compare my bear card to the image on the bear blueprint stamp, you may notice a difference. It's the eyes.  Intended to be buttons, the original eyes on the stamp are way too big and spooky-looking for my liking.

So . . . out came the craft knife and those button eyes were history - sliced right off the stamp. (You can change anything with the right tools.)  A circle of black marker makes a much nicer eye while a heart punched from red cardstock and a bow tied from red DMC pearl cotton complete the look. One handsome bear.


Until next time!

S.

A wedding card

Hello friends,

Here is a wedding card I made for a friend to give to a special couple . . .

The Prima Julie Nutting doll stamps, Adam and Lorrena, were used for the happy couple.  I stamped the foundation figures on buff cardstock, colored/shaded them with Prismacolor pencils and cut them out. Next, the garments were stamped - white ink on black cardstock for the "tux" and sepia ink on dotted vellum for the dress. These were cut by hand, the edges inked, and glued to the figures with rubber cement. The self stick "Say it with Crystals" used for the jewelry on the bride are made by Prima. I drew in the pocket square and colored the tie with silver pen and snipped the bride's arm so it could intertwine with the groom's (after I trimmed down his jacket sleeve a bit).

The rest of the card just evolved serendipitously. I probably slipped a dozen or more different papers behind the couple and was surprised at what looked the best. A sheet of gray paper with a wild floral border was the hands-down choice.

The paper was trimmed to take advantage of the flowers while also fitting on the 5 x 7 black card base. The greeting was stamped using white ink on black paper and placed vertically (since it was the only place it would fit).  A piece of 4 x 6 plain paper was affixed inside the card for writing  a personalized message. A custom envelope was folded to fit the card . . . the skirt just nudges over the edge and I couldn't bring myself to cut it off.

The card was a big hit with the gifter and the giftees,

Two more card postings coming next.

Cheers!

S.

Baby Gift #3 - More Onesies

Hello Friends,

So more shower gift onesies for Baby girl L . . . but there is a story - there's always a story, dontcha know?
A while ago I became a member at Lia Griffith's website and have access to a fabulous library of Lia's projects. There are templates, printables and cut files for a variety of occasions - wedding, holiday, home, kids and babies, stationary and more. A great value.

Lia must have been reading my mind (or it was just karma) because one day there appeared in my inbox a post describing two iron-on tee/onesie designs for baby - just what I needed. After all, two diva onesies with beads are plenty for one little baby. And these can be called "denim friendly"  - I mean, all babies wear jeans, don't they?

I just happened to have some Avery iron-on transfer paper so I was ready.  I printed the design on plain paper first and decided it was just a bit too large for the 3-6 month size I was making.  I re-sized the image (in the print dialogue box) to 70% of the original. Perfect fit.

I printed the designs onto the transfer paper, followed the instructions for ironing them on and Voila!  Pretty cute, aren't they? Thank you, Lia!

These were packaged as the second layer in a suitcase style storage box found at the craft store. The tag (made with Stampin' Up Bear Hugs) has care instructions on the reverse.

The bottom layer held the "store-bought" gifts.  These were two Burt's Bees coveralls and matching blankets, two cute little board books and a some Carter's baby headbands.

The "Take me to the Park" blanket (shown in a previous post) was folded to fit the box as the top layer in the suitcase. Neat and tidy.

All-in-all, a successful project from the perspective of  the gifter.  The giftee seemed pretty pleased, too!

Next time, some baby cards.

Cheers!