WOYWW 308

It's the middle of making a birthday card gift set for my father's widow.  The one front and center is a Simon Says TV Shaker card (I've written "Don't Cut this die apart on the back of the die ... because it looks like it might be a cut apart die, but I don't think it is). To the right is my kaleidoscope in progress.

The inside is done, it's just the outer decoration that needs the finishing touches.

On the down side, I hit a deer on Monday. It was a little easier when I thought I had killed her outright. I was horrified when she came to and tried to run off, but couldn't stand up. The officer had to shoot her twice.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground to have a gander at crafty spaces around the world.

Enchanted Evening and Roses

Papertrey Ink's April  2015 Blog Hop is here. There are so many great elements in the inspiration photo. I used Enchanted Evening cardstock scored at 1" intervals at a diagonal to pick up the table cloth. Pearlescent vellum to pick up the plates. The roses are Rosie Posie cut out of Sweet Blush and stamped with Berry Sorbet. The card base is Raspberry Fizz.

Thinking of You card

The vase is from Mega Gracious Vases, the purple Ranunculus flowers are from Cutting Garden stamped with Papertrey Ink's Royal Velvet and Close to My Heart's Petal. The background is made with a stamp from Pretty Peonies inked with Close to My Heart's Sorbet with black dots in the non-flower white space.

I lightly traced the stamp with pencil and then stamped the two stems (which go over the vase top) and then erased the pencil lines. The vase was inked with Versamark and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The white card stock is Stamper's Select White and the card base is Hibiscus Burst.

Simon Says Make Your Own Background and In the Middle.

Elephant and Polka Dots

Simon Says Make Your Own Background, so I used the Simon Says XL Dots stencil and some molding paste from a big box store. on some Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy cardstock. The elephant is from Mama Elephant's Ella and Friends, fussy cut and colored with Distress Markers and popped up.

Hedgehog with a Heart

It's difficult to get sweeter than a tiny hedgehog with a heart in the middle?

The cue care at CASology this week is Sweet. 

Simon Says in the Middle .

The ticket is die cut and stamped  with Classic Kraft ink with the Just the Ticket set from Papertrey Trey Ink. The hedgehog is stamped with Dark Chocolate Ink with the Ella and Friends set from Mama Elephant, fussy cut and colored with Spun Sugar, Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Markers. The heart is cut freehand and colored with Festive Berries.

WOYWW 306, Working at the Stamp Wash, 500th post : )

An unusual (temporary) lull lol. Bottom left is a large whorl painted gold (it will be a large spindle one day). This marks my 500th post btw, I think I'm starting to get the hang of things lol.

I made a little stamp wash (and I sing car wash while I'm cleaning them). The scrubbie pad has stamp cleaning solution and water. I use a lunch container to keep squares of a car drying "towel". It has no lint and leaves the stamps squeaky clean. The lunch container gives me a place to store the bits that need cleaning.

edited to add: Most of the stamps I'm washing have lost their stick due to a lot of use (and Versamark?) and linty from all the baby wipes I've used. After the wash they are all sticky again : ). The "towels" are damp so they are like the rinse to the wash. And the Car Wash song is from the 1976 movie Car Wash... it was re-made in the movie Shark Tank. If you google it be sure to say Car Wash Song or theme song 1976 Car Wash... I didn't, it was... surprising lol.

For more crafty spaces, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Bedtime Story Challenge

You may be asking why a frog flying with an umbrella. It's my interpretation of Waltzingmouse's Pajama Party Bedtime Story sketch.  It just seemed like it would be a good bedtime story : ).

I stamped the circles from Off Beat Backgrounds on the left of the mat in Versamark and clear embossing powder. The scalloped edge is a leftover painted with Milled Lavender Distress Paint. A circle from Faux Fun Circles is stamped in Papertrey Ink Soft Stone. The frog is a Cricut cut painted with Forest Moss Distress Ink and doodled around the edges. The umbrella is from Papertrey Ink's Scattered Showers stamped with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink and doodled. Hello is from Fiskar's Say It Loud set. The banner is made with handspun silk embroidery thread and Tim Holtz tissue tape.

T Stands for Tiki Glass

I am Tiki obsessed, even when there is no Grumpy with it. I've been making books from Club Scrap kits I bought on sale. No expiration dates on them even though the kits were made in 2003, 2004 and 2009.

The strip of paper to the left of the glass and the square to the right will be joined to make a scroll element in this book.

This is the first one. I was doing some Spring Cleaning, innocently opened a box and found it had four ribbon books to stitch in it. And even though I've had the kit for 5 years, I was compelled to make one right then.

This is what the spine looks like. The green ribbon comes out one each side to tie the book closed. There are two pieces of blue ribbon under the stitching.

Then I put that box back and looked in the one under it... And found this book. Beads need to be tied to the strings. I added the washi tape to give it a little more stricture. It needs things on the cover, but I don't know what.

I put the ink pad there for scale. No idea what I'm going to put on the pages either. It's diffiuclt to see in this picture, but the pages are textured. It closes with a tie.

This is a very old kit (2003 I think). The directions don't call for a cover plate, but I'm adding them too. The first and last pages slide into the cover sleeves.

I'm not in danger of running out of things to do lol. That's my $5 typewriter on the bottom left.

For more fun with T head over to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's at the Altered Book Lover.

Cantankerous When I Want to Be Layout, part two.

I thought I had finished this layout before, but apparently not lol.  Quick synopsis before the additional embellishments. A scanned picture of myself as a baby. I can not remember a time that I didn't hate tight clothing. The base is Anna Griffin paper with a die cut vellum overlay hand stitched with handspun embroidery thread. Cantankerous and #$@& is glassine paper from my father's stamp collecting supply die cut with Cricut Explore. The glasssine letters and vellum mat are wrinkled with the pink Stickles used to adhere the glassine letters.

I added the speech bubble, toads, bug rosette and journal pocket (under the larger toad). I used Tombow Multi-Glue on the back of the new embellishments (waiting till it had dried but remained sticky) to give just a little dimension.

The pocket is Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush. The edges are cut with a pair of decorative edge scissors to pick up the deckled edge of the original photograph. The pocket is stamped with white pigment ink with Papertrey Ink's Honey Bees stamp set. The toad is from Cricut (the Explore software doesn't have a way to show where an image came from after it's been put in a project). The top layer is heat embossed with white opaque embossing powder and the eye is Glossy Accents.

 The top layer of the smaller toad is also heat embossed with opaque white embossing powder. I've always loved watching toads. My hands have memorized them : ).

The speech bubble is another Cricut diecut. The Arrrrgyles is stamped with Papertrey Ink's Simple Alphabet and Soft Stone ink. I've lost the "L" so I colored an "E" with the L part of the stamp.  The discoloration of the photo is in the original, so I let it be. Arrrgyles is the punch line to one of my favorite riddles (what sort of socks do pirates wear?). The edges are distressed with the edge of a scissor.

The rosette is also cut from glassine from my father's stash. It works completely differently than paper or cardstock lol. The beetle is another Cricut cut. The head and abdomen are popped up a little with Tombow Multi-Glue and then the legs and antennae are glued flat. The top layer is covered with Glossy Accents.

Simon Says A is for... I say Amphibians and Arrrgyles  : )

WOYWW 305

A desk to die for lol. It's been a diecutting frenzy. Both electronic (toads, bugs and raven) and wafer dies. I splurged and bought the tv shaker die from Simon Says. Oh, the possibilities. Below that are the dies and stamps from Simply Jane. My oldest niece is engaged, and I'm trying to work out a card. I also got one of those needle like glue dispenser, it's really nice.

For more crafty fun head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Love 'n Breakfast

The matchbox is made with the Tim Holtz Matchbox die, Papertrey Ink's Spring Moss cardstock and decorated with a stamp from Lawn Fawn's Love 'n Breakfast stamp set. Th toaster and toast earring charms are from the same set stamped on Shrinky Dink (easier to photograph before they are attached to the earring wires.

Fancy

This week CASology cue card is Spring. This little horse from Crafty Secret's Down on the Farm certainly has a spring in it's step. It reminded me of the song, "Fancy" so I used the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's City Scene Sentiments set. The hat and saddle are painted with Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks and the horse is painted with Papertrey Ink's Soft Stone.

Simon Says Pastels so it's entered there too.

Spring Hills Spindle

I made a drop spindle out of a wooden wheel (from the craft store), a piece of dowel and and an eye hook twisted open.  It was painted with Crushed Olive Distress Paint and then stamped with the sheep from Papertrrey Ink's Spring Hills set and Stazon ink.

To stamp the sides, I used Ashley Cannon Newell's tip for stamping with small cling stamps and used my finger as the the "block".

Tea to Go with Mr. Darcy

A gift for someone who gets frequently gets self-serve beverages to go, frequently in company of other people who have the same cups. A Coffee Cozy not only keeps one from burning one's fingers, it says "hey this is the cup you are looking for".  The giftee is also a big Jane Austen fan. I thought the "Mr. Darcy" silhouette from Papertrey Ink's Simply Jane stamp and die set would be the perfect decoration. The Coffee Cozy base is cut from Papertrey Ink's Coffee Cozy die set.

 The stitching on the sides is done with naturally brown Corriedale handspun embroidery thread. The felt used for the Coffee Cozy is Papertrey Ink Fine Linen felt. It really is a wonderful felt. The embellishments are made with much less luxrious "craft" felt from big box stores.

The Multi Medium Matte is only there to provide scale to the size of Mr. Darcy. He is so small that trying to stitch him onto the Limitless Layers: 2 1/4" Ovals would be way too fiddly for me. Then I remembered, I have needle felting supplies. I realized I missed a few edges while I was stitching down the oval so I did a quick touch up.

I really like this brush needle felting support by Clover. The needles are wicked sharp, and they have little barbs to carry the felt from one layer into the next layer. The bristles allow the needle to go through the fabric and not bring anything back up.

This is what it looked like after the touch up.

WOYWW 304

Towards the back is my new stampin' up letter making thingy, totally blaming Julia for that purchase lol. In front is Stampin Up's From the Herd all ready for coloring. And then another set which is being experimented on but I'm forgetting the name of it. The pants are drawn on.The holes are for fingers to make feet and maybe some dancing. It's a work in progress lol.

The Distress Paints have escaped their box and are lining up on the desk now. I used Crushed Olive to paint a spindle (for spinning). I need to hop on it, it's an Easter gift.

Short and sweet this week, though I have been busy making more Scissor Keepers and adding matching Coffee Cozies to the mix.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more crafty spaces!