Happy New Year

Unfortunatley I don't have anything crafty to share with you today. I have a plan for things I would like to do with my stamping/crafting in the New Year. I have not started them yet but hope to soon and when I do I will be sharing them with you so stay tuned. I mainly just wanted to take a minuite and wish you all a Happy healthy New Year and also wanted to share a picture Rich took of Emilia and I at an outdoor ice skating rink we went to yesterday. As you can see when Emilia has her skates on she is as almost as tall as me. That's scary! :) Anyways I hope to be back soon with more crafty things to share. Until then I hope you have a great 1st day of 2009!

Be Mine

I hope all of you that celebrated Christmas yesterday had a good one. Since we don't celebrate Christmas we usually go to a movie on Christmas day. This year we went to see Marley and Me. I had read the book so I thought I would be prepared for what would happen in the end but I still ended up sobbing anyways. At least I wasn't the only one crying though. I also could not believe how packed the theater was especially with it being Christmas day and the prices of movies right now. It was still was a good movie if you are a dog lover and followed the book pretty well.
Tonight is another Papertrey Bloghop
The challenge this month was to repurpose leftover holiday trimmings such as Christmas cards or gift wrap and create something all-new! For an extra challenge we were suppose to think out of the box and adapt these items to create a non-holiday project too. This challenge was a hard one for me because we didn't wrap any of Emilia's Hanukkah gifts and did not give gifts to each other this year either so I did not have a lot to work with but this is what I came up with anyways though.
I started by doing the Splitcoast stampers Technique challenge this week which was Faux Silk with a pop. I stamped the heart from the new Heart Prints set with Razberry Fizz ink on some white tissue paper that my stamps came wrapped in then crumpled it up and left it to dry. Next I stamped the heart again on white stampers select cardstock and then cut the smallest heart out. I attached the smallest heart to the underside of the stamped tissue paper and then glued it to a piece of Raspberry Fizz cardstock. After that I matted it on a piece of black cardstock then sewed a green border around the edges with my sewing machine and stamped the Be Mine Saying under the heart with Palette Noir ink. The background layer is a piece of printed cardstock from the Raspberry Fizz Mix Cardstock collection. I am loving the new Razberry Fizz color by the way! For the ribbon I cut out some lime green strips from this Christmas wrapping
I found at the grocery store last week and attached it down the middle of some Raspberry Fizz Luxe Satin Ribbon. After that I cut it into pieces and attached it to the patterned cardstock then added the heart piece in the middle. Finished card size is 41/4x 41/4. Now I have a cute Valentines card all ready for someone special now. I am looking forward to seeing what the others have come up with for this challenge because I bet they had a lot more to work with than I did. I am glad I was still able to come up with something anyways though and I hope it still qualifes for the challenge. As always thanks for stopping by and have a good night.

HOME

This is another postcard I made for Pat The Wood Veneer Man. I got the inspiration for this postcard from a book my daughter Emilia was reading called Indigo Blue by Cathy Cassidy. Emilia loves her books and she is her new favorite author. I started the postcard by putting masking tape around the edges to create a border. Next I stamped the house from The Angel Companies Welcome Home Set in the middle of the Maple Wood Veneer with Versamark ink then I embossed it with white embossing powder. After that I stamped a retired flower background stamp from The Angel company behind the house and embossed them with white embossing powder too. When I was done with those things I colored in the house and flowers with copic sketch markers RV19, B39,V09,YG17,B24 and Y15 then went over them with a Versamark pen. When I was done with that I painted the background with light blue acrylic paint. When the paint was dry I went back over the flowers and highlighted them with a Taken With Teal marker from SU. After that I painted the bottom half of the postcard with and a Lettuce Adorindack Acrylic Paint Dubber. When that dried I stamped the Home stamp from the Welcome Home set with Versamark Ink then embossed it with black embossing powder. I drew a line under it and wrote in the rest of the saying with a black sharpie. Finally I took off the tape and outlined the border it left with a black sharpie as well. To finish the postcard off I sealed it with some clear Acrylic Matte finish spray.
One another note tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish readers out there. The American Girl Doll Ruthie was Emilia's big present this year. She has all the American Girl Historical dolls now. If I don't get to post again before Christmas I hope it is a great one for those of you that celebrate it. As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great night.

Vintage Music Box

This is the project I had been working on for Emilia's piano teacher Catherine. I knew I wanted to make something with music in it for her and after I came up with this idea I thought it would be great to make it vintage looking too. I started by cutting some White Matte Coated Carstock that I had gotten from Marco's Paper using Jen Del Muros Pizza box template. After that I did the Burnt Edges technique that I learn from the February/March Technique Junkies 2007 newsletter to give the cardstock a vintage look then I stamped the music background stamp From Lasting Impressions With Panache down the middle with Black soot distress ink. While that piece was drying I cut another box pattern out of Papertrey Vintage Cream cardstock and then attached it to back of the music note piece so it would be the lining for the box. To make the band I started by cutting a piece of plaid ribbon that I had gotten from Hobby Lobby awhile ago then I wrapped it around the box and tied it in a bow. I made sure not to tie it to tight though because I wanted to be able to take it on and off without untieing it. Next I cut the snowflakes from Papertreys White Stampers Select cardstock using some Nestabilities snowflake dies. After that I stamped the snowflake pieces with the Essential Glue Pad and then covered them with Angel Wings Glitter. For the tag I used a Cuttlebug tiny tags die and cut it out of white coreboard then I sponged Antique Linen Distress ink on it and ran a Black Soot ink pad around the edges. After that I stamped the Happy Holidays saying from the Papertrey Faux ribbon set on it with Versamark ink and embossed it with black embossing powder. I then threaded a piece of silver cording through the tag and snowflake then through the band on the bow and tied it off. To finish the tag I cut off some holly berries that I found in a bunch of small fake flowers that I had hiding in my craft closet and pushed them through the hole in the snowflake. When I was done with that I took off the snowflake band and lined the inside of the box with some white tissue paper then I filled it with the same chocolate fudge I had made to put in the ice skate box because I still had plenty of it left.
We gave the box filled with fudge to Catherine yesterday and she loved it.
I hope it is warm where you are. It is still very cold here but at least we are above freezing now. As always thanks for stopping by and I will be back soon with more things to share.

Skating

Emilia started taking Figure Skating Lessons this year and loves it. I wanted to make a little something for her Ice Skating teacher Alicia for the holidays and this is what I came up with. It is also my entry for the Papertrey Guest Star Stamper contest this month too. I started by tracing the boot from Lauren Meaders Stocking Timeless Template on Papertrey Stampers Select White Cardstock then I cut another boot out of black cardstock to line it and leave a small border at the bottom. Next I drew an ice skating blade and cut it out of Papertreys Silver Shimmer cardtock. After that I stamped the images from the Star Background set on the boots and the box then heat embossed them with Silver pearl embossing powder. The next thing I did was punch some holes in the boots with my Crop a dile and added silver eyelets then I sewed around the edges of the boots with my sewing machine. After attaching the skates to the box I laced up the skate with some sliver cording and added a tag that I had stamped with the Happy Holidays image from the Faux Ribbon set on white coreboard with Pure Poppy ink and embossed with clear embossing powder then tied it at the top. I filled the box with homemade chocolate fudge.
When I had my baking business I use to make this kind of fudge all the time but I could not find the original recipe I used for it. Luckily I found this one here and it is a very close match. I packed the fudge in a clear cello bag and tied it with some more silver cording. Tonight is the Papertrey December Release. I am loving the new Razberry Fizz color. I also really like the heart set Nicole designed too. It is hard to think of Valentines day right now but it will be here before we know it and I already have a few ideas for things to make for it churing in my head too. That's it for now. I will be back soon with the holiday gift I am planning on making for Emilia's piano teacher next. Until then have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Winter

Have any of you been following Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags on his blog? I have. I am really enjoying seeing what he comes up with each day. My favorite tag so far is the one he made on day 2. That was my inspiration for this postcard. I am still playing around with the wood veneer and decided to make a post card this time which was perfect for this challenge too. I started with a 4x6 piece of Cherry veneer, then I used Silver, Stream, and Eggplant Alcohol inks to make the background. Because the wood was not white the background came out a lot darker than I wanted it to but I decided to keep going anyways. The next thing I did was to stamp the trees from LIWP on the left hand side with Versamark Ink and then embossed them with black embossing powder. When I was done with that I stamped the snowflakes from the PTI Rustic Snowflake set with white craft ink and embossed them with white embossing powder. After that I added the flourishes from The Curls and Swirls set from The Angel company stamping and embossing them with white craft ink and embossing powder like I did with the snowflakes. I stamped the bird from the PTI Birds Of A Feather set with Black Versafine and the embossed it with clear embossing powder. After all that I was still was not happy with the background color so I tried sponging on some lighter blue ink but it was not helping. I found a bottle of Delphinium Turquoise Starburst Stain I had bought awhile ago and gave that a try and was finally happy with the result. Next I added the PEACE saying in the lower right corner from the Merry and Bright Additions set and then added a few more Angel Company flourishes. To finish the postcard off I splattered some watered down white acrylic paint all over the card to add more snow. I would have liked to have added more dimension to it but because it was a postcard I had keep it one layer. Since the wood for the postcards is backed with white posterboard I decided to do the alcohol technique on the back too. This is what the background was suppose to look like. You can see now that the wood gave it a whole different effect. This card is definitely different from what I usually do but I am liking it. It reminds me of a bleak dark winter night something I don't usually like but it still looks peaceful too. What do you think? As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day.

Tea Time

This is another card I made for the Orphanage in Mexico with the Wood Veneer. I started with SCS sketch 197 then stamped the tea cup border stamp from Lasting Impressions With Panache on a piece of posterboard backed maple veneer with Momento black ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. After that I colored in the images with SU Pretty In Pink, So Saffron, Ballet Blue and Certainly Celery Markers using the TJ marker watercoloring technique. This kind of veneer is great for watercoloring by the way. The Tea Time sentiment was stamped with black Versafine ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The pink patterned paper is from the Memory Box sugar collection. The Ballet blue piece was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder then matted on a piece of SU So Saffron cardstock. The piece behind that is Posterboard backed Cherry Veneer. Finished card size is 41/4x51/2. If you are interested in trying some of the Wood Veneer email Pat at rubyjo1@windstream.net for more information about it. I am off to work on another project with it now. I hope to be back soon to share it with you. Until then I hope you have a great Saturday.