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! 

Baby Gift #2 - "Dress Up" Onesies

Hello friends
For the baby shower I decorated some onesies for the soon to arrive Baby L.  Two are similar to ones that I have posted about previously . . . painted necklaces with fabric flowers. Here's the look:

The onesies were washed first to remove any sizing or whatever. The beads were stamped with a pencil eraser (a new flat one) using fabric paint. I drew half ovals in black Sharpie on a piece of paper sized to fit the shirts and then pinned it in place inside the onesie. This provided guide lines for painting and also prevented any paint bleed through to the back of the shirt. 

 I began in the center of the shirt, following the outlines and spacing the dots somewhat evenly to create the necklace strands. (Handmade is not perfect.) The beads were shaded by brushing on a bit of white paint to add dimension. Finally the beads were connected by painting in little lines with a fine tip brush. 

After drying overnight (the bottle says 4 hours), I heat set the painted areas on both sides of the shirt using a dry iron over a pressing cloth. This flattened the bits of fiber that had arisen during the painting process and gave the pieces a nice finished look. 

The flower is simply four 1" circles of cotton print, each folded into quarters and the tips sewn together onto a smaller scrap of fabric. A button found in Annie's button box completes the look.  I sewed this on very thoroughly and tightly so there is no chance of it coming off and becoming a choking hazard. 

The tag made using the little bear from the "Stampin' Up" Bear Hugs set has washing instructions on the reverse and proclaims these to be "Dress Up" onesies. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's "Denim-Friendly" onesies.

Cheers!

S.

Babies and such . . .

Hello friends
I hope you are enjoying the warm temperatures and spring greenery that have finally decided to appear here in eastern Connecticut.

I journeyed to the suburbs of Washington, DC last weekend for my niece's baby shower. Baby L is due to arrive in mid-July but "like a fine wine" will come in time. It was wonderful to spend time with Mama L in her new home (well, new last year) . . . we don't get to do that very often  . . .

An elegant cake - would you believe made of diapers - made a beautiful centerpiece!

The banners I made using the Julie Nutting baby stamps added a whimsical touch to the traditional colonial decor at the shower venue.

Living with "the crafty gene" as my niece terms it, I created my shower gifts rather than shopping from the registry. Before we knew which flavor the little one would be, I had sewn a bright but  "gender neutral" flannel blanket. The hexagon print flannel is backed with navy and white dots . . . very washable and both picnic and car friendly. Tagged with a balloon image stamped from a  Tim Holtz set, I called it the "Take me to the park" blanket. It's ready to travel on lots of outings.

Stay tuned for the rest of the gifts next time !

Cheers!

S.

A Crafty Workshop Morning

Hello friends
Today, I watched a number of YouTube videos  . . . what? you ask . . . crafting videos, of course. YouTube is the next-best-thing to attending workshops with the rock stars of the crafting world, since few find their way to CT.

I watched (actually re-watched) some of the demonstrations of  new products and techniques that were introduced at the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Mega Show in January.  I wanted a refresh of the products introduced by my favorite designer, Tim Holtz. Tim is the Creative Director for Ranger Industries and also teams up with various companies including Advantus, Stampers Anonymous, Sizzix, Tonic Studios, Core’dinations, and Westminster Fibers/Coats to bring unique products to the market.

I do love Tim's products and design aesthetic . . . and my craft room shelves show it. One of my best experiences was meeting Tim several years ago (three years ago today, to be exact) at a workshop in Westbrook, CT. Tim is most gracious, friendly and full of knowledge. It was a thrill to meet him.

The ScrapTimeVideos channel on You Tube is worth a look for information on the newest products and how to use them.

Til next time . . .

S.

Made from the Printed Page - Three Cards

Hello friends,
Have you noticed all the items out there in the marketplace that have a "bookish" feel? As a "librarian for life," I have an affinity for all things "wordy" and there's lots out there to see. The emphasis on up-cycling and recycling certainly contributes to the longevity of book pages, sheet music, dictionary pages, document text and the like being incorporated into home decor, clothing, textiles, and more.

Here's three cards made using book pages . . .

Hearts were punched from various book pages and mounted on black paper in a "specimen" design. A red heart was added as a focal point. Then the hearts were outlined freehand with a black pen for emphasis and the panel was mounted on a gray card. The inside is blank for a personal message.

For the second card, an origami dress folded from a dictionary page has been mounted on a black card. Accented with red - ribbon and tape - as well as a lace-like strip punched from a book page, this is a simple but eye-catching design.  I left space at the bottom front to mount a strip of paper for the appropriate stamped or handwritten greeting such as Happy Birthday or Congratulations. When using a black card, I attach a piece of light paper inside the card to have an area for writing a message.

The third "bookish" card was made using a Scotty dog die cut from Sizzix, embellished with a ribbon and mounted on a dictionary page. Framed in black and adhered to a gray card, it is a clean and simple design. Inside is blank for a message or greeting.

Til next time . . .

S.

Bunnies to the Attic

Hello friends
I am putting away the few Easter/Spring decorations I scattered around the house this year. As I was gathering them up and admiring my work, I decided to share their make-overs with you.

This large bunny was found at JoAnn's on sale and with a coupon. He stands 9" tall from surface to ear tips; both his stance and size appealed to me but his paint job was reminiscent of a case of the mange.  I was so eager to start his make-over that I neglected to take a "before" picture. Trust me, it wasn't pretty.

Some of the best patterns and designs can be found on paper napkins, especially cocktail size ones. I buy the ones I like whenever I see them. I've found pretty ones at both TJ Maax and Home Goods, and at after season sales in gift shops.

Looking into my stash, I found the perfect design and decoupaged it onto the body. Simply separate the layers of paper napkin, using only the single, top patterned layer. Then paint the Mod Podge onto the bunny and smooth the pieces of napkin onto the body. Wrinkles are OK - they will not show and "a man on a galloping horse" will never see them. I worked the napkins around the eyes (so no re-painting there) and used brown paint for the nose.

Adding white paint for the bow was the finishing touch to make him much more handsome . . . now this bunny has a high-end decorator feel rather than a poorly painted Made in China look.

Here's a four-side view. I had thought for a millisecond to paint his tail white but decided against it. All in all, I was pleased with this handsome guy.

The little bunnies (4" tall) seen below were found at the Christmas Tree Shop. Each was spruced up with a new look using the same decoupage method. 

None of the four I bought had perfectly clean fur (what do you want for $1.29?) so out came the Mod Podge, napkins and tissue paper. Here's the before and the after in their Easter finery:

The French script bunny is covered with tissue paper I rediscovered in my supplies. I used some green napkin for the base and painted the flower and nose with nail polish. 

Paper napkins were used to make a twin to the large bunny and for the more feminine stripe bunny. Again, I worked around the eyes on all of them so I didn't have to repaint. Nail polish nose.

The bottom of each was covered with coordinating paper to minimize furniture scratching.  I added a postmark from the tissue paper to the green bunny base for a bit of whimsy.

 Now that they have ushered in Spring, they are off to the attic 'til next season! 

If you happen to have a decorative piece you like but are tired of its look, try the Mod Podge and paper napkin makeover. It's pretty simple and fun to do.

Cheers!

Susan

Birthday Tees

Hello friends
Recently my grandniece celebrated her 1st birthday.  I put together a bag of goodies for her (or her Mom) to open the party which happened (unfortunately) while I was on vacation in Pinehurst, NC.

These are the tees I embellished for her . . .

I drew the U-shapes on paper, fitting them to the shirt, then placed the pattern inside the shirt as a guide. Using fabric paint and a pencil eraser, I stamped the beads on the shirt, then went back with a fine brush and added the "string" between the beads. Next was to add a light shadow on each bead with white paint, giving each bead some dimension.  Last step was to fashion the flowers from circles of fabric (fold circles in quarters and stitch the points together), sew a button in the middle and sew to the shirts.  I was quite pleased with the result. What do you think?

The gift bag held the shirts, two pairs of coordinating leggings, a funky hat purchased a the Farmer's Market in Richmond, a bunny I sewed, and a book.  I hope she liked them!

Cheers til next time

S.

It's been a while

Hello friends
After many months of silence, mulling about blogging, I've decided to attempt to be a more regular writer. However, the posts will be briefer and will reflect what I've been making (or thinking about making)  :-).

So . . . I happened across some cards recently online that struck my fancy. They were made with a Stampin' Up set called "Sketches" and after investigation I learned the set was "retired" in 2003 (!). The "dog with a bone" in me came out and I hunted around on eBay, found it (ta-da!) at a reasonable price and it flew into Connecticut last week.

Here's a card I made using one of the images in the set - stamped, tore around the edges, and added a bit of color with Tim Holtz Distress markers and a wet paintbrush. Found some paper among the thousands of sheets in my craft room and there you have it.

I was quite pleased with the results and sent it off to a friend . . .

Til next time . . .

Cheers!
Susan