Girls day part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, Little J and I did a bunch of crafting on Sunday afternoon. Not just the two salt dough recipes.

I made some cards while she painted. 

Once again...thanks to Elizabeth for the awesome handmade paper used in the "Home is where the Heart is" card.

While she waited for her paint and glue to dry, she went off to play. I started work on another scrappy sewing project. Basically grabbed scraps from the box and started sewing.

Here's a little sneak peek...

 

Beauty of nature

I was inspired to pull out the book I used for my friend Elizabeth's AB 101 class I took several years ago. 

I never did complete the class. I figure I can join back in where I left off since she's currently reteaching the class for free on her blog. 

My altered book theme is Nature.

It was so fun to play in paint and glue again. I have to keep at it since it makes me feel so carefree.

 

Card crazy

This summer I have been so "not creative". Yes, I have done a few things but they were more utilitarian that artsy. More on those in later post. I've missed it and I think a bit of that creative energy just had to come out.

I made 7 cards in short order mostly from scraps.

Hopefully the creative energy will continue...or at least kick in big time after Labor Day when the kids are back in school. Until then I'm still trying to soak up as much "mom time" as I can with them.



  

Quote tip-in

I have a passion for words. Quotes especially. I find myself making more and more quote tip-ins. I guess that means I'll need to put together another book one day. 

We've been watching the Hatfields & McCoys mini series. 

I think that's what brought out the photo.  It's actually from an old Reminisce magazine. My folks used to get that one...I've saved some of them since they have such fun stuff inside.

Thanks to Elizabeth for the awesome handmade paper behind the photo. She makes the best handmade paper I've ever seen!

 

Scrap inspired

Bits and pieces laying around came together for me yesterday.  

Wish that happened more often.

 

Candle wrapping

In the continuing effort to use what I have...I decided to make a new wrap to go around this candle tin.
I got the candle a few years ago after Christmas on clearance...super deep discount that I couldn't pass up. Especially when I realized that the ugly Christmas paper would come right off. 

Sweet!


I used watercolor paper as my base. The background color was achieved with distress inks, dress pattern tissue and found text.

I sifted through some of my new stash from a couple of swaps. I'm sure some of you may recognize some of your stuff. I love new fodder. It can be very inspiring.

This is going to be a gift...I hope the recipient likes it!

Quote pages

After a little nudge...I thought I'd show some of my pages. Some of these have been shown on the blog before quite a while ago. The rest were made in my pre-blogging days.

I'm only showing my pages as I didn't ask permission from the others to display their work.


Please forgive the weird formatting...not sure whats up with the pictures and why they won't go where I want them!

Illustration Friday: Warning

When I saw the topic for Illustration Friday this week I knew I had the perfect ATC.

Postcard love

Just a few quick postcards...

Citra solv background postcard

I'm trying to get back into my groove after the Holiday's.

So far this postcard is all I have to show for my efforts.

Welcome to the world....

If you remember, a little while ago I made a diaper cake as a baby shower gift. 

Well... that baby has arrived! A sweet baby girl!
I can't wait to meet her!!

Random Inspiration

This entire book used scraps of book pages glued to the board book in a random fashion. I then use paint, stamps, markers, correction fluid and colored pencils to create my backgrounds.
This is a Kelly Rae Roberts technique that I have absolutely fallen in love with.

Before becoming a member of the UHU design team, I used to think gel medium was the only glue that I could use for this technique. After getting my sample glues, I discovered that the UHU twist & glue works perfectly! No more messed up brushes or the oh so wonderful...walked away and left the top off the jar of gel medium. I was famous for that one. Did I mention I'm easily distracted...?

I tried something a little different with the spine. I sewed 2 scraps of fabric together using decorative stitches on my machine. I put a couple of large eyelets near the top so I could attach some fun fibers and charms. I used the UHU twist & glue to attach the fabric spine to the front and back covers.

I love how it turned out!

Dream world

I love playing in this board book. I've been using a Kelly Rae inspired background technique on all the pages. The book has no other theme or direction. Maybe I should call it Random Inspiration. Hey, I like that!








The little girls came from a sewing book. The watering can girl reminded me a Alice in Wonderland. It all came together in my mind after that.






It feels a little trippy to me. All it needs is the caterpillar with his hookah.

Flower Grunge

Feeling the need to do something creative, I cleaned off my workspace and grabbed my pile of book text scraps. The substrate is cardboard packaging that I obsessively save.

I decided to try out my UHU glue stic for this experiment. I knew I wanted to play with my watercolor crayons but have had issues with other glues releasing the papers from the substrate after getting wet. While wet there was a slight amount of lifting or warping but to my great delight, it dried completely flat! I believe I have found a new glue for this technique.

I'm loving the layered look. I used watercolor crayons, paint, correction pen, metallic marker, colored pencil, China crayon and rubber stamps on this piece.

Thrift Store score!

I stopped by a local thrift store today looking for snow pants for my girl. No luck with those but I did make out like a bandit with some art supplies!


I got all you see for $6.50.

And before anyone asks...
No, I am not expecting another baby. Nor am I planning another wedding but I just couldn't pass up these clear stamps. The baby set has lots of words that can be used and it was only a buck! Besides...I have yet to complete the kids baby books. I promise they will be done by graduation. Or maybe their weddings or at least by the birth of their 1st child. Hopefully in that order...

I do still occasionally make cards so all the words will come in very handy! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Summer of Love ATC swap

These were so fun to make!!

I started with an 8.5x11 sheet of periwinkle cardstock. With an old credit card, I spread out some orange and yellow craft paints.

After that was dry, I used rubber stamps, more paint, markers, and stencils to create lots of background interest.

When I was happy with it I cut 9 ATC's from my full sheet of cardstock.

I free handed a VW bug to make a template then cut little bugs out of discarded book pages. Paint and marker were applied in a very loose manner.

I punched wheels from black "handmade paper" ...I put that in quotes since it was actually store bought. I then used little flower sticker for some fun hubcaps.

The part that I love the most is the genuine VW key attached to each one. I grew up with tons of Volkswagons. My dad and his friend would buy them cheap, fix them up and resell. Sometimes they would just part them out. Dad never threw out anything so I had just enough VW keys laying around to give these ATC's just a little extra punch!

Birthday cards

A couple of VIP's in our lives have birthdays this month.