Oh My Stars!

I think this is one of the most fun projects I've done for awhile. It took me several hours because I just kind of made it up as I went along. I'm really getting into these wall hangings and other non-card projects.

I am submitting this ornament/wall hanging for the following three challenges:

1. 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style - Week 9

2. Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stars

3. Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Matthew 6: 25-34/Birds

Linda's inspiration tag for the Funkie Junkie challenge is shown below. I was inspired by the theme, corrugated cardboard and the music paper. As you can see I totally CASEd Linda's music paper stars except that I used a primitive star die instead of a regular one and I wrapped them with gold cord instead of white. I was also inspired by a star wall hanging I saw online a couple of weeks or so ago that had paper rosettes on it. Unfortunately, I didn't make note of where I saw it so I can't give credit to the artist. I need to be better about that.

For the ornament base I cut a 6" star from a corrugated cardboard box. I peeled the paper off one side and sanded off the little stuck pieces. I painted it with a couple of coats of gesso and then dry brushed some antique gold acrylic paint. The bottom rosette is made from music paper and the top is made from vellum. I used border punches on both before folding. I sprayed the top one with homemade glimmer spray. I stamped the music on the button with StazOn.

For the little tag, I stamped the holly with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. After that was dry I stamped the music background with Versamark and embossed with clear. I sponged on Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. I added the little snowflake, some gold cord, the sentiment (computer generated) and a bow.

The Vintage Holly image is from Stampabilities. I stamped it three times, then cut it apart since it was very long. My original plan was to not color the holly, but it needed something to make it stand out, so I tinted it with pastels. The little bird nestled in the holly above the rosette is from Paper Studio. I stamped him with Versafine Vintage Sepia and tinted lightly with pastels.

The little metal word tag on the right side was originally copper so I rubbed it with some antique gold rub n buff and attached it to the center star.

I think that about covers it. Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Simple Christmas Cards

I made a couple of very simple Christmas cards today. While it was nice to take a little break from my usual vintage-distressed-grungy style, I keep thinking these aren't finished. LOL!

I am submitting this first card for this week's Less is More challenge - a bit of bling. I stamped the tree and sentiment on black and heat embossed with silver. I added some rhinestones to the tree for the bling. The tree stamp is Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from the $1.00 bin at Michaels (several years ago).
This card is for Lora's sketch challenge on CardSwaps. The background is embossed with a Sizzix Impressions plate. I went over the raised areas with a Versamarker and applied bronze Perfect Pearls. It looks a little splotchy in the photo, but in person it's not. I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and also applied the bronze Perfect Pearls. I don't own any ornament dies, so I found an ornament template online and printed out the size I wanted. I adhered it to the back of some metallic bronze cardstock, cut it out and embossed it with the Swirls Cuttlebug folder. I added an wire hook and some ribbon.

That's three cards for today so I think I'm done. Thanks for stopping by!

Peaceful Country Church

This week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge is to make a project using the dryer sheet technique. This is my first time to submit a card for the Timeless Tuesday Challenge. Unfortunately I don't own any Flourishes stamps, but I wish I did. I think they are very pretty. I have a few on my wish list if my budget allows it.

This is also my first time to do the dryer sheet technique. It's super easy to do. After you stamp and color your image, you run it through a Xyron to apply the adhesive to the image side. It's been so long since I used my Xyron, I did it backwards and had to run it through again. :^) Then you apply a used dryer sheet to the adhesive and trim it to fit. I cut mine with a circle Nestie. Finally, you pour some glitter over the dryer sheet, rub it in and shake of the excess. The glitter goes through the holes in the dryer sheet and sticks to the adhesive. If you don't have a Xyron you can use spray adhesive. There's a great tutorial and video on Splitcoast Stampers if you would like more details.

I don't know who makes the church image that I used. It was in my stash of stamped images, so I either got it in a swap or someone gave it to me. I thought it would be pretty with the technique. The frame is a Quikutz die that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. I thought the circle needed a little something to set it off, so I inked the edge a bit with Fired Brick Distress ink. The top part of the background was run through my Big Kick with a Sizzix Impressions plate and the bottom is from my scrap stash. I punched the green strip under the ribbon with a Fiskars border punch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Red and Cream Snowflake

This card is for Jane's Unusually Used Challenge on the CardSwaps Autumn blessings online crop. She asked us to use fabric and lace on a card. The gingham on the bottom is fabric. I tea dyed it to make the white squares more cream. The top half of the card is stamped with Fired Brick Distress Ink using the SU Winter Wishes set from waaaay back. The large snowflake is a Sizzix die and the two on top are punches. The Noel Stamp is from Inkadinkado. I have had the snowflake twill tape forever and this is the first time I've ever used it. I also trimmed with a bit of lace.

Vintage Santa Waterfall Card

This waterfall card is for Golda's challenge on CardSwaps Autumn Blessings crop. I used vintage santa images from Graphics Fairy and Flickr. The image below show the different images as the card flips up.

Beaded Christmas Tree

This little piece is my submission for week 3 of the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style challenge. I'm also submitting it for Lora's Just Bead It challenge on the CardSwaps online fall crop. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do with it yet. I'll probably make a Christmas tree ornament out of it, but for now it's just a little 4x4 piece of art. It didn't turn out exactly like I saw it in my head, but I like it okay.

Linda's inspiration tag for week 3 appears below.

My piece was inspired by the stamped word background (most of mine got covered up), the chain and the metal tag. Also, it's hard to tell, but the tree is made of a sort of music paper. It's a scrap piece of music theme Club Scrap cardstock that I found. I cut it with my scalloped circle nesties and cut them in quarters to make the tree.

That's about it for this one. Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Angels

This is my project for week 6 of the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style challenge. I am also submitting it for Golda's cracked glass challenge on the CardSwaps fall online crop. I thought the antique angel image would be perfect for this technique.

Linda's inspiration tag for week 6 of her challenge appears below. The inspirations for my card were the angel, the doily and the Peace sentiment.

Since I don't own any angel stamps, I used an antique post card image that I downloaded from Graphics Fairy. The sentiment is actually a picture font. I just typed "h" and it appeared like that. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils. The background is embossed with a Sizzix Impressions plate, scissor distressed and inked with Vintage Photo distress ink. I sprayed the doily with some homemade glimmer spray. I painted the flowers with antique gold metallic paint and added a bead cap and pearl to the center.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hand-Stitched Starburst Card

I made this card for Lora's stitching challenge on the CardSwaps fall online crop. I saw one of these starburst cards on SCS a few days ago and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out. The one I saw wasn't stitched, but I thought that would work well for it. My sewing machine is not working right so I hand-stitched between the pieces. I also stitched around the sentiment. I embossed the bottom piece with the Victorian Cuttlebug EF, then sanded it. I scissor distressed the edges and inked with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. I embellished with some red gems, lace, ribbon, button and stick pin. The papers I used for the starburst are Basic Grey Fruitcake.

The tutorial for the starburst is on the Operation Write Home web site.

Thanks for stopping by!

Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History

This card is for Georgette's Faux Leather challenge in the CardSwaps online fall crop. The first thing I thought of for this was a western theme. I created the cowgirl collage in Photoshop. I scissor distressed and inked all the edges. I embellished with some gingham ribbon, a concho, some buttons and a photo corner. The concho and photo corner were originally shiny silver so I rubbed them with some antique gold RubNBuff. I embossed the lower half of the faux leather background with the Cuttlebug Victorian EF. It's kind of hard to see in the photo. The quote says "Well behaved women rarely make history."

Thanks for stopping by!

CardMaker Autumn Blessings Blog Hop

WELCOME to the CardSwaps Autumn Blessings Blog Hop!! It goes along with the Autumn Blessings Crop at CardSwaps. The crop is from November 16-19, 2011 and you have until November 22, 2011 to get your projects posted to the challenge threads and in the drawings for prizes. You should have arrived here from Meredith's blog. If not, consider starting the hop at the beginning with Lora's blog. All our blogs are linked together from post to post. At the end, you'll hop right on over to the CardSwaps board. We hope to see you there!

The theme of our blog hop is "I've been blessed" and we were asked to create something that reflects on someone or something that we have been blessed with. I chose one of my favorite Bible verses because I believe all our blessings come from God. The most important part of this verse to me is "Give thanks in ALL circumstances." We should not be grateful only when things are going well, but even when they are not going so well. No matter what is going on in our life, we have many blessings to be thankful for.

This is something I have had to remember many times over the last couple of years. Over that time myself and my family have been going through some very difficult circumstances and we haven't come through on the other side yet. During that time, my step father (who I am very close to) has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, my husband started and lost a business, I've been fired from two jobs, and my husband has been wrongfully accused of something that still hasn't been resolved. While I could give up and become depressed, I choose instead to focus on what I DO have. I am truly blessed, and no matter what I am going through, I know that my God is with me and will get me through it.

For this card, I downloaded the sheet music from The Graphics Fairy and the harvest image from Plush Possum. The background is corrugated cardboard. Everything is sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The Bible verse is computer generated. I embellished with a handmade flower and stick pin.

I made the flower from a fabric called buckram. I had no idea what this was when I bought it. I just thought it would make good flowers because it had a nice weave, was made of cotton and was pretty stiff. I looked it up later and found out it's used to make hats. I think it does pretty well for flowers too. I cut the layers from a Spellbinders Bloom die, colored them with distress inks then scrunched them up and let them dry. When they were dry, I pulled them apart and layered them together.

That's it for me. Your next stop on the hop is Golda's blog. Golda is a delightful and talented lady and I think you will enjoy what she has created for the hop.

If you get lost along the way, here is the complete blog hop list.

Lora

Meredith

Judy < You are here.

Golda

Ana

Traci

Angelina

Susan

Tina

Teresa

Ivanka

Jane

Christmas Gift Tags

I've gotten behind again on my submissions for the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style challenge. Things are extremely crazy in my life right now so I'm hoping I'm going to be able to complete all the challenges. I may end up having to simplify my plans.

I did decide to go simple for my Week 7 submission and to actually make tags. These are doing double duty for a gift tag swap that I am participating in as well.

Here is Linda's inspiration tag for week 7:

My first inspiration from Linda's tag was the background. I stamped the Merry Christmas and snowflakes with Versamark on white cardstock, then embossed them with clear EP. Then I sponged on Old Paper, Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The EP acts as a resist, leaving them white.

The next inspiration was the corrugated cardboard snowflake. I don't have any white corrugated cardboard, but I do have some funky corrugated paper that I have had for at least 10 years. I have no clue why I bought it or why I hung onto it for so long. Maybe it was to make this tag. :) I cut my snowflake with a punch because all my snowflake dies are too "skinny" and I wanted a chunkier snowflake. I highlighted the edges and ridges with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and used some chunky glitter on the edges. For the center I used a red button tied with twine.

Next was the pine branches stamped on Linda's background. From those I was inspired to make the wreath on the other tag. I stamped some texture with Peeled Paint Distress Ink, then punched out the "branches" with a Martha Stewart leaf punch. I glued those around a round ring that I made with small Spellbinders circle dies. After the wreath was dry, I sprayed it with some homemade glimmer spray and added red gems and a raffia bow.

Finally, was the Christmas ticket and gold snowflake. I love ticket images, but I don't have any stamps, punches, or anything like that. I have been wanting to create some of my own in Photoshop, but just didn't have time for this project. I used a small scalloped tag to stamp the To and From on for the gift tag. It's very hard to see because it's a tiny stamp. I sponged on Fired Brick Distress and Frayed Burlap Distress inks, then edged the tag with antique gold metallic paint. Instead of a snowflake I used a Prima flower that I painted with antique gold metallic paint, then brushed on gold Stickles. For the center I used a bead cap that I flattened a little and glued a pearl to the center. The bead caps were silver so I rubbed them with antique gold RubNBuff.

For a little color, I added a piece of red cardstock that I embossed with my Victorian Cuttlebug folder. I distressed the edges with scissors and edged with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. I added some gold and black fiber. Finally, I added some jute twine to tie the tags to gifts.

That's about it for this one. Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Santa Gift Set

Why is it that something can look so good in my head, then not look so good when I actually get it done? I made this box, 3x3 card and tag for The Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style Challenge week 8. It's not horrible - otherwise I wouldn't even be posting it. I actually do like the little card and the tag. I just don't like the box much. I probably should have just made a regular box or bag. I don't think it's one of my best projects.

I love quilt blocks and have been wanting to make a card with one for awhile. My grandmother was a quilter and tried to teach me. I never was able to do anything decent with fabric, so I thought I'd try paper. This pattern is called Ohio Star. I have never made a quilt block from paper before and I have not made a box like this before. I think if I do either again they'll be better because I know things I would do differently. I probably will try the quilt block again, but the box is doubtful.

Linda's inspiration tag for week 8 is below. The inspirations for my set are the vintage Santa collage, snowflakes, the flower and "quilt". Linda stitched her collage piece with some fill to give it a quilted look so that's where my quilt blocks come in.

I will say there is one piece of the box that I am very happy with - my Santa collage. I don't have a stamp like this and I don't have the right types of individual stamps to create my own stamped collage. So I made my collage in Photoshop. I used the image "Merry Old Santa" by Thomas Nast. This is the first illustration of Santa that is similar to our modern version and it's one of my favorite Santa images. It was published in Harper's Weekly in the early 1880's and is now in the public domain. I cleaned up the background around the image, then placed it on top of a text background and added some snowflakes with Photoshop brushes. I used a font called Christmas Card that I downloaded from daFont for the "Believe". The little stamp in the upper right corner is also a Photoshop brush. Now I have my own vintage Santa collage that I can print in different sizes for cards or other projects. This is my first digital collage, but I don't think it will be my last. It was fun.

I also created the sentiment on the card and tag in Photoshop. The sentiment itself is actually a picture font that I also downloaded from daFont. There are several Christmas sentiments in the set. You just press a letter key and the sentiment pops up all nice and pretty like that. I put it inside a frame image that I downloaded from The Graphics Fairy, trimmed around it and layered on a Spellbinders Labels 18 (I think) die cut. So I can also print the sentiment in any size I want.

A larger version of the sentiment also appears on the other side of the box, but since I wasn't all that thrilled with the box anyway, I only photographed the one side. The two ends have other vintage Santa images - just single images, not collages like the front.

I think that's about it. Thanks for stopping by!