My try at flower layering

A short post as my hubby is back from a long business trip. I co-worker wore a great neutral outfit today and I was inspired to make this card. The pattern paper is prima as are the flowers. I think there needs to be another flower between teh small one and the crocheted one though. The sentiment is PTI. The background we sponged along the edges with some beautiful neutral distress ink and then the patterned paper was sprayed with some gold glimmer mist for a little something extra.

A Pretty Little Frame

I've got a pretty little frame for ya'll today. I took a simple (and cheap) frame and attacked it with lots of Prima goodness from YMH. I covered the frame with some Prima paper using Glaudine Hellmuth's Multi-medium. After I did that I went back and forth about sponging on ink or not. I finally decided not to. The next step was to for some bling to act as leaves in a way. I took several swirls and just cut them apart and layed them down where I wanted them. The flowers were colored using some glimmer mist except the cream color one. That came from a flower/butterfly combo. I had used the butterfly on a previous project and haven't known what to do with the flower. Today I took the center bling off and layered my other flower onto it. Now I need to find a quote to go in to for my home :)

Yummy, yummy cupcake

Ok, so this cupcake isn't for eating, but it sure can help a sweet tooth. It is a cupcake giftcard holder. Cute, right?! The wrapper is pleated Prima paper. The icing is a combo of white ribbon and white Prima flowers I sprayed with TA's Glimmer Mist to match the pattern paper. I hope to make more of these and I am sure that with practice, perfection will come. I will taking this sweet little thing with me when I meet with someone this Sat (I hope) about selling some of my crafts. Wish me luck :)

On a personal note, my oldest has started Kinder and is loving it. I have started another school year too. I am praying that it goes well for us both, but my biggest prayer is to get out of debt. I hope everyone who has gone back to school/work will have a good one.

Sweet Box

I've got a sweet box to share with ya'll today. I've had this box in mind for several months. In fact, it is inspired by an article I read title "God's Box" In the article, a lady is talking about the discovery of her late mother's box of prayers that had been labeled God's Box. She described how her mother would say prayers, big and little, write them down, and leave them with God. I really like the idea and started thinking that maybe, just maybe, it'll help me leave my problems with God instead of trying to take them back. The box is from Hobby Lobby with the products are mostly Prima. I don't think I'm am finished with it yet as I am trying to decide about putting the name of the box on there or not and about putting feet on it as well.

The first thing I did was paint both the box and lid with white gesso. After that was dry I used some multi-medium to glue down the Prima Sparkling Spring papers. Once dried I used a fan brush to edge all side with some slightly watered-down white paint so the edge of the paper wasn't so harsh and then gave a top protective coat with the same clear, matte multi-medium. The bottom was then complete (more or less) and that left the top. I really wanted to dress that up and even give it a handle. I used a knob from Tim Holtz's Curio Knobs for my handle and lots of Prima goodness for everything else.

I glued a leftover flower from a Live with Prima kit in the lower right corner and then added a sweet and sparkly Prima butterfly over it. To give it some movement I glued the butterfly on with some Helmar's Scrapdots for a angled height. In the upper left corner I first layed down some Prima bling and then layered the large white flower that came with the butterfly. Next, I took another Prima butterfly and layered it with Tattered Angles Chandelier Glitter Glam and water down pink paint. Then, I sprayed some white Prima flowers with some pink glimmer mist and then took my pink paint water and dyed them. Once dried I used Helmar's 450 Quick Dry to glue them down (as I did with the other two flowers) as well with the Prima leaves.

One of my favorite things on this box is the edge of the top. I used some Prima paper to create a box pleated ribbon effect as shown from this LWP show. Once that was done and glued down I added some Prima trim to add to the ribbon look since I wasn't in a sewing mood, lol.

Challenges used:
Stampin' for the Weekend: use your favorite things (love me some Prima goodness and glimmer mist)
There She Goes: Glitter, Glitz, & Bling
Allsorts Challenge: free and easy
Papertake Weekly: anything goes

American Life Saver

With so many challenges in blogland focusing on July 4th (Independence Day here is USA) I thought I would do another patriotic card. If you remember from my last WMS waltz post, I don't really send out 4th of July cards, and so I've created another card that can really be sent anytime. The sentiment was perfect for the colors as this could go to a military person, firefighter, police officer, or anyone you think of as an American hero. The card came together in under 30 (a rare thing for me, lol). The sentiment is from Verve's Sweet On You while the frame the banner and flowers are layered on is from Prima. The card base is 4.25 x 4.25 so that the flowers and sentiment can take center stage (and allow the banner to hang off of the edge). I layered some white Prima flowers on top of some red ones that reminded me of fireworks to represent the stripes and the blue Prima flower is for holding our stars. I sprayed the card base with Tattered Angles Denim Blue and then sponged the edges with some Broken China Distress Ink (as well as the ink for the sentiment and the edge of the banner). I used foam dots behind the red frame and glued the red/white flowers down with Helmar's 450 quick dry and the blue flower with some Scrapdots for some height. Your Memories Here not only has the Prima flowers and stamps, but the glues, and now Distress Inks.



Challenges used:
OTWC: red, white, blue
Stamp Something: Julty 4th/ Celebration
Stampin' for the Weekend: My Favorite Things ( I try to have at least one thing Prima and either Distress and/or TA)

Doodling on Canvas

I promised ya'll a project and I got it done in time :) I had so much fun with this little bag and I think it might still be a work in progress kind of thing. Most of these supplies can be found at Your Memories Here. I have been very intrigued with all of these art journals I've been seeing lately and have been wanting to try my hand at one. However, the thought of creating going that far out of my comfort zone is still trumpting my wanting to work on one, so I thought I would do the next best thing: a canvas project. I took a small Donna Downey canvas bag and went to town. The first thing I did was pray the bag with Tattered Angles's Glimmer Mist in Patina, Key Lime, and Purple Pansy. Once done I sprayed some Scotch Guard to help seal in the colors so they don't run if it gets wet. Before I took my copics and created some doodles I ironed on the flocked saying from Donna Downey. My flowers are Prima and the large one I sprayed with both TA's Patina and Purple Pansy. I replaced the pearl center with a white one to work with the over touches of white. I layered a sprayed a hydrangea flower in Patina and layered it on a white flower that was coated in TA's Glitter Glam Chandelier (also coated the doddled button in the same GG). To finish off the little bag I used lots of Prima's Say it in Crystals that I cut apart.











Challenges used:
Easy Craft Projects: be inspired by the photo (I was inspired by the fact they were watercolors. Since the mists are water based I was able to achieve a watercolor effect around the edges what I fadded two colors together)
Paper Cutz Challenge: anything goes
Creatalicious Challenge: use flourishes
Papertake Wkly Challenge: anything goes
Little Red Wagon: mist it

Prima CASE for YMH

I saw this card on PRIMA's blog and knew I had to CASE it as I just happened to have one of the clear doilies packaging on hand. I also had on hand several flowers and bling leftover from the Prima kits that I've gotten from YMH. The card was really easy and came together fast for me. The base is a turquoise color that I sponged white ink around the edges and then layered the clear packaging from Prima on top of it using some glossy accent for it. After that it was just a matter of playing with the flowers and bling. That's one thing I really love about the Prima kits, you get all kinds of great leftovers to use for other projects. After getting all of the flowers and bling glued down in place I decided to create a banner using a PTI dies and sentiment from PTI's Friends 'til the end stamp set chosing ink colors from the flowers (yellow and turquoise).




Challenges used:
Paper Cutz Challenge: make a card, LO, or project using a banner and any color or theme
Stamp Something: use a sentiment
PaperPlay Challenge: blossoms and blooms

Happy Birthday to WMS

Another quick post as life has been off this week. With that said, I'm also going to be double dipping as this is for WMS and YMH. Claire over at WMS is celebrating her 2nd birthday of her on-line stamp store. To celebrate, she is hosting a Tea Party and to help her celebrate I made a little teabag using one of her FREE templates. Of course I had to use two of your amazing stamps to help embellish the bag (Holiday Label No 14 and Bitty Banners). These were the perfect frame for my Prima sugar coated flower and the paper came from a Tattered Angels kit that I got from YMH. What really helped me add the depth to the project was Helmar's Scrapdots. This bad boy adhesive is what gave the depth to the flower and stamped ribbon. I distressed the edges a little and then sponged with some light brown ink and then to help the flower flow with the bag I edged the white of the bag in glitter as well as the stamped ribbon. It's simple but it's cute.

Nothing like a last minute entry, lol. At least I am able to say Happy Birthday and may there be many more to an amazing stamping company.

Summer Birdcage

I have my desk back and can craft again. For my mini-comeback I decided to decorate a birdcage. I have been wanting to do this since I saw this one on the Prima website back in February. When I first got the idea I had wanted to do blue egss but when I bought this cage with the nest and eggs already in it and saw how well it went with the Prima flowers and vines and decided to nix the blue eggs. I am loving this vines from Prima (I used two different colors) and enjoyed mixing in some extra Prima flowers. These muted colors are a subtle spring and work just as well for the summer months. Since the vines have wire in them the piecing of this together went really fast. Be sure to visit Your Memories Here to pick out your Prima goodies.

I used:
Flowered Tendrils Lemon and Pinck
Floret Coll. Camille (little roses)
Love Letter Roses peridot (big yellow roses)
Fairytale Roses French White

A Canvas Dream

I've got a quick post for you today and I am sorry about that. I've been up all night finished a book that I just couldn't put down, ,lol.

I love being inspired by Donna Downey and decided to take a chance and try out one of her inspiration videos. I had some hardback canvas around and decided to take that chance now. I decided to use some TA stamps (YMH has a sell going on with all TA products) to reinforce my sentiment. I also used some Prima bling and flowers in the lower corner to give it a little something extra. I really like how that corner ended up looking too. I glued the flowers on with one of my new favorite adhesives: Helmar's 450 quick dry.

Just a little frame

that I've been working on. I've got LOTS of these really cheap frames that have been sitting around and I decided to have a take at one of them for my project today. Subway art has become really popular and I wanted to see if I could create something with that in mind using another hobby I have: reading/books. I really enjoyed pushing my creative side a little more than normal (not to mention thankful that my boys let me get it done in time for the DT call). Lots of my favorite products were used on this too. This post is photo heavy, so let's get started. The above picture is me playing around trying to figure out how to bring my little branch to life. The branch is a Maya Road chipboard that I covered is some Distress Ink Walnut Stain Crackle Paint. The leaves are snippets of the canvas I used to cover the frame (more about that later). The flowers are some old ones that I've had laying around. Once I decided on their palcement I used Helmar's 450 Quick Dry (LOVE this stuff as it works on so many different textiles).

Here's another little peek into how I work. Notice the Root Beer? When I am working late at night (you know late, 9:30/10:00 pm LOL) I like to have it to keep my energy up. I've also got my newest fav in the glue department (Helmar's stuff it GOOD and YMH is selling it now. Gotta love Kristina cause she knows how to pick the good ones). You can even see a little peek of the little bird I created with more Maya Road chipbaord and Tim Holtz tissue tape.

Now this pictue gives you a peek at the start of a layered detail for my frame. I don't do layers as it scares me. I always feel you must see everything I use even though I love the look of the layers others create with. This is something I am trying to work with more and this project really had be enjoying it. Some more of my fave is being used here: Prima and Tattered Angles. The half flower is one I had left over from a previous Prima project and I was dertermined to use it in this one. The frame is TA that I sponged Vintage Photo and Waltnut Stain Distress Ink over and then sprayed some Old Lace and Sand Glimmer Mist. For the mat, I glued a piece of a dictionary page and then white washed over it (or at least tried to anyways). I thought the dictionary page was a great touch since this is becoming a "book" project.

Here I am trying out some different layer ideas. I took a TA chipboard letter and sponged Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks and then sprayed Blue Sky GM. So yummy IRL. This is also where I discovered that I'm going to need something to help raise the frame for my embellies behind it. I wonder what will be used...

More pictures of me trying to figure out how I want everything to look. This was the longest part for me I think. I would get it just right and then have another inspiration hit and had to start over. Lots of playing around. In fact, I had to take a little break to give my brain a break (ok, really the dog wanted to be let out but it sounded good, lol).

And this is the final product of the layer corner I created. Squeal! I am so happy with how it turned out. The flowers are Prima and the little sprig is from a Prima vine that again I had left over from a Live with Prima kit (gotta love how you end out with extra goodies to play with after creating their projects). I was able to achieve me depth using Helmar's Scrapdots. That really is an amazing product cause I get to control the height I need and I can put gloop it on big or small. I thought the corner need a little something more so I created a little book banner using a PTI die. I sponged the edges with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain to continue with the color theme. I also wanted to create a visual triangle with the blue and white so I had to take two white flowers and spray them with TA's Blue Sky GM. The frame is raised off the dictionary page and then that is raised at the top with the Scrapdots and slopes down where I used the 450 quick dry to glue the bottom half down directly to the frame. I really like the effect it gave.

Here is my final branch piece. Since it's spring time I decided to add little blossoms to the branch. I so need to find more of these sweet little flowers cause they were perfect for this look and I would LOVE to do it again on another project (but need the flowers first). I decided to add just a little bling as it was looking rather dull after all the details I put into the bottom layered corner. I took my smallest rhinestones and stuck them on. It gave it the perfect amount of bling without looking out of place since I didn't use it anywhere else on my project. The bird is covered with Tim Holtz's dictionary tissue tape and then I sponged it with the Broken China and Faded Jeans Distress Inks. Once done I sprayed TA's Blue Sky GM, let dry, and repeated to get the effect I wanted. Then I white washed just slightly around the wing to allow it to have some depth. I really wanted something to hang from the branch, but after looking through my supplies nothing seemed right. That might be something I come back to later (they say a project is never really done right).

And finally here is my final project. The sticky back canvas was sprayed using Ranger's Color Wash in Lettuce and they sprayed over in TA's Meadow (I think) Glimmer Mist. I chose green because I made me think of the leaves in a tree and since I was using a branch it made since to me. I then sponged the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Everything was glued to the canvas using the 450 Quick Dry. I hope you enjoyed the project and the little peek into my thought process in creating a project.

Challenges used:

A Spoon Full of Sugar - tons of texture

Papertake Weekly - anything goes

Tuesday Throwdown - spring inspired (the colors, blue bird and flowered branch was inspired by spring)

Creative Inspiration - punches/dies (I used the PTI banner die to create my banner)

Moxie Fab World - a gift for someone (this may just go to our dear school librarian)

My "No Mojo" Card

I wish I knew where my mojo has gone as it seems to be taking a vacation more often then I do. What frustrates me even more is that I WANT to create, but as soon as I get in the room I just can't seem to create. I even have ideas floating around in my head, but I just can't seem to get past the ideas. It is very frustrating.

Maybe the stess at my job is getting to me on some level. Maybe it's Spring Fever. Maybe it just my mojo playing a mean joke on me. For those that don't know, I teach 9th graders. I am sure most every one is aware of the education troubles that seem to be spreading around our country. My district is better off than some but still being effected. People are being shifted around or let go and nothing is a done deal until the new school year starts and then we'll be starting this all over again for the next following year. I didn't think I was worried as I've been trying really hard to leave it in God's lap, but maybe on some level I am still worried. At any rate, there are 10 weeks left and I am trying to make them as teachable as possible for my students.

However, ya'll came for the card, lol. Even though my mojo is on yet another vaca, I was able to squeak this little card out for ya'll. It's very simple, and IRL it is pretty (at least according to my DH). The base is white with another white piece cut slightly smaller, embossed with PTI's linen plate (I LOVE this plate), sponged along the edge, and then sprayed with TA's Irridecent Gold Glitter Mist. The two pieces of patterned paper I used is from Prima's Annalle paper pad. The flower is also Prima and is in fact two Prima flowers that I simply layered on top of each other for a subtle color difference between the flower and paper. In fact, they were left over flowers from a Live with Prima class kit I got over at YMH. I even sprayed the flower with the same gold glimmer mist give them a little something extra. The sentiment is from a PTI button set and the banner was cut using PTI's little banner die. Before I glued everything together I sponged the edges with PTI's Chamomile ink from their Vintage Touch duo. I ended up with a simple little card to welcome in Spring (what better way than pastels, white, and a flower).

Challenges used:
Get Sketchy - sketch

Colour Creatre Challenge - pastels

Totally Gorjuss - spring

Stamp Something - spring