Anything with a Bow!

Wow! where did October go!!!  

Just a real quick post to let you know about the November brag challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu and to make an announcement, be sure to read to the end!  The pink team's November challenge theme is "Anything with a Bow".  The purple team's theme is "Let Sparks Fly".  For my project, I chose to make some cute little party favor bags and boxes.  They are just cute, cute, cute with or without a bow.   To make these lovely little bags and boxes, I used some Stampin' UP! products,  like the scallop punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, some (retired) Designer Series Paper, some Old Olive grosgrain ribbon (retired), and some of the 1/8" gold with white trim ribbon (still available).  I followed the You Tube tutorial from Dannie Graves of Dannie's Designs for the for the largest bag.  For the "4 You" bag you can find the You Tube tutorial on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts and for the little wedding favor box you can find it on You Tube Sam Donald's tutorial.   I use to sell Stampin' UP! years ago.  I took a lengthy break and I've missed so much that I decided to join Team Stampin' UP! again.   I am in the process of setting up my website and getting things in place, so watch for the up coming announcements.

Well, I better stop here, my post is already a bit tardy.  I hope you will stop by the challenge blog and join in!  Til' next time

Vintage Hot Air Balloon

Happy Fall Y'all!
My favorite seasons are starting..Fall and Winter, yea-aaah.  Harvest Time, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  No money, but I'm still excited about the seasons (lol). Sooo, let's get this show on the road. Let me start by announcing the October challenge at Eclectic Ellapu...drum roll please...one of my favorite themes...Vintage or Shabby Chic!!!  The pink team's challenge was to do something vintage, while our fab-fab purple team's challenge is Autumn.  My project inspiration came from the amaaaaazing Einat Kessler (Click on the link for all her YouTube videos). I decided to do a Hot Air Balloon!  Einat has so many great video tutorials, but the one that really got me was the Hot Air Balloon.  Her hot air balloon is a cross between vintage and Steampunk.   You can see Einat's awesome Hot Air Balloon video tutorial here.  Check out my finished project below and afterward let the Autumn breeze take you over to our October challenge at Eclectic Ellapu for more inspiring cards and projects; hope to see you there!

Supplies (I used) for this project:
Tim Holtz- loop pins, screw eyes, game spinner, time piece, clock key, distress paint-black, distress ink-walnut stain, distress stain-walnut stain
Hobby Lobby-gold Duck Tape, ATC canvas cards, patterned paper-Uncharted and (ATD's-Specialty Collections, this has a lot of foiled paper with maps and stuff about travel); chain link, large clear Christmas bulb with spout opening (they had 2 kinds of bulbs), large  metal gears, small (pliable) gears, leather strip.
SkyBluePink-unfortunately, this on-line store will be CLOSING DECEMBER 1, 2016, order while supplies last. 
Micheals- Fleur-de-lis (suspended by the wire loop that came with the Hobby Lobby large clear Christmas bulb)
Crafty Scrapper (Waxahachie, TX)- sugared brads (metallic gold).



Gift Tags and more

Howdy folks,
    It's time for the September challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu.  The pink team's theme is anything to do with a "Gift" and the purple team's theme is "New Beginnings"...celebrate a new chapter in your life-new spouse, new baby, adoption, new job, etc.  Of course no gift is complete without a stunning tag!  Since I'm back on Tim Holtz again what better way to jazz up a tag than to use some Tim Holtz products. Tim and Ranger have some amazing products out currently.  I got a few dies, stamps, inks, and tools to add to my collection. I've been playing with some Layering Stencils, as well as some of the new and vibrant distress ink colours like "Picked Raspberry".  When I first saw this ink pad, I thought...ok that one I will not be purchasing-ever!  Ooh-wee that is a bold bright colour!  Well, I truly had to eat crow on this one. I absolutely love this colour!!!  This is just a must have ink pad and re-inker.  I also got to work with some of the Distress Paints. The Distress Sprayer- I'd been looking at it for awhile but refused to buy it because, I felt like I had enough spray bottles in my craftroom.  I really do like the Distress Sprayer and highly recommend it.  I love the way the mist-dopplets come out.  The water droplets on my tags really look distressed, vintage, and aged instead of  blobs of water. The Splatter brush-one word...AWESOME!!!  I did a little tag using the Splatter Brush, I call it my Solar Tag; you'll see why in a few.   I also did a quick tag using the Distress Sprayer that I will show.  I was on such a roll, I decided to see what kind of tutorials Tim had on his site and let me just say...I found the coolest tag!!!  I am always trying to do masculine projects but they always end up looking more girly than manly.  The tag I did even though it has butterflies, still rings dudely!!  I am sooooo pleased at how it turned out...Thanks Tim!    Well, I hope you will pop over to Eclectic Ellapu and join in the challenge, good luck!

To make the faux metal tag I used: Ten Second Studios Metal Tape Sheets (8 1/2 x 11 in), #8 Manilla Tag, Spellbinders Butterflies Two die templates, Spellbinders Damask Motifs die template, a bamboo stick from Sally's hair supplies), the bottom of a pen (to make the rivets), a few pieces of an old dictionary page, Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks-Stonewash, Ginger, and Pitch Black, a sanding block (the white rectangular block from Sally's hair supplies), a whole punch, some seam binding (black and brown), Walnut stain distress ink, and Glossy Accents...whew! (I think that's it,,,lol).    I hope you enjoy the tags and feel inspired to break out some of those Tim Holtz and Ranger products you have in your stash.



Water Mark (with Picked Raspberry love this colour)



Layering Stencils, stamps, Distress Paint, and Distress Inks



My waaaaay-cool Solar Tag using Distress Inks, Distress Paint and the ever-wonderful Splatter Brush

 

Above you can see how the faux  metal shines in the light and a frontal picture so you can see the elements on the tags better. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hydrangea Jar

Hello everyone,
    Today I am posting my Eclectic Ellapu DT inspiration project for August.  The Eclectic Ellapu pink team theme is "Floral". The purple team them is "It's a Man Thing".  So you have a wide variety of creativity to explore and I can't wait to see your creations!   For my August project, I decided to decoupage a mini jar.   I chose this cute little min jar with wooden spoon I found at Hobby Lobby.   I used a couple coats of chalk paint (purchased at Michaels), I let this dry, then I baked it in the oven for a few minutes.  I used some beautiful Hydrangea napkins I got from Tuesday Morning.  I used Mod-Podge glossy to seal it and attached a Tim Holtz charm with some twine around the rim and there you have it.  A cute little multi-use jar!  You can put a small plastic liner in it and make a candy jar, great use for the little spoon, or it is great for holding paper clips and other what-nots.  Well, that's it for now.  Come back soon for more projects.  I got some goodies up my sleeve and I am excited about sharing them!  See you in the Eclectic Ellapu August challenge and good luck!

If you want more information about decoupage, check at Patti Elhoff's channel on YouTube- patioelf

Til' next time

 

 

 

 

Message in a Bottle

Hello my peeps!
It's that time again.  You got it, it's time for another awesome bragging-rites challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu.  This months' themes are the "Anything Goes" and the "Beach".  I have to say, I wasn't paying attention very well last month because I did a beach card for last month's challenge for my "summer" theme...duh!!!  Well, when I realized the error of my ways, I had to come up with something really good for this month.   First, I decided that I would do something dimensional.  I'd been eyeing some things on Pinterest and YouTube for a couple weeks and I came up with an idea for altered bottle project.  Since this was my first attempt at altering a glass bottle, I thought I'd better start small (lol).  And let me just say, I'm glad I did.  It was a lot of fun creating my project but it was time consuming and it was messy!  My warning to anyone-if you are an instant gratification type crafter...step away from the altered bottles...  My goal was to make the bottle look very old, tarnished, and rustic, like it might have washed up on the "beach" from far away.   I really like how it turned out.  

Okay, now for the supplies I used...I started out with a very nice neat list of stuff that I used as I was going along, but some how it got lost in all the mess of my craftroom when I was creating the project (Some where between the workstation, craft table, and my desk).  And before you know it, I'd forgotten that I stopped writing things on the list (urrrrh)!   Sadly, this happens to me a lot (lol).  When I'm in my craftroom, my mind just goesssssssss.  I might start out in one direction and totally end up somewhere else.  I just grab stuff and see how it suits the project I'm creating at that moment and if I think it adds to where my mind is at that time, then it's in the project (lol).  With that being said, I am going to try my best to tell you what I used to create this little bottle.  

The bottle was a clear glass bottle from Hobby Lobby ($1.99).  Originally, I used to Krylon Metalic Gold spray paint and covered it but I didn't like how it turned out.  I then decided to layer on some texture by using mesh, and some metal embellishments, and some flowers.  I put on 2  coats of Gesso.  After the Gesso was dry (I let it sit overnight).  Then, I took my hot glue gun and added the lines and Xs.  I wanted the colours to be a blue-green for a patina effect. Alllll-righty! we're cooking now folks... I started out using some Tattered Angels sprays; however, they were too light and too shimmery.  I needed something that was going to give a deeper richer colour.  I used Tim Holtz distress stains peeled paint and broken china applied them with a sponge.  I used some Baroque Art Guilder's Paste (German Silver) and Perfect Paints-Shimmering Matte Acrylics (#1008 Bright Gold), then dusted the bottle with Tim Holtz Distress Ink-Vintage Photo. It took some doing and quite a bit of trial and error but I got to where I was trying go finally.   The other supplies used in my scenery are sea shells, sand, and netting from Hobby Lobby and some autumn coloured pearls from JoAnn's.  I made a little message in the bottle.  My inspiration came from one of my favorite movies called "Message in a Bottle" with Kevin Costner (that man is still fine as ever)!!  Took some patterned paper that I had in my stash, inked with Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, and Antique Linen, used Stampin' UP! En François back ground stamp, distressed and tattered the edges and stuck down in the bottle.  Well, that's the scoop... Until next time... I hope to see in our June challenge at Eclectic Ellapu; good luck!

Of course you know there has always got to be a fleur-de-lys somewhere on my project (lol).