From drab to fab- little plates

I have been want to do this quick project with my cricut forever!!! I have been going in thrift shops looks for small plain white plates with gold around the edges. I have seen a few but nothing seemed worth it. Most of the time the price or quantity wasn't right. So this weekend as you know I went to a garage sale in the bins I found these not so great plates and the light bulb went off. My project can finally be done! I love them the only thing I didn't account for was how big the pattern in the center was but the worked out thank goodness.

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Decorating for Christmas

So I have been away....TOO LONG.  I'm going to try to be better in this coming year.  So anyway I'm starting to decorate for Christmas these pictures are from my craft room, which isn't difficult to decorate because I just have to pepper in some decorations with my already very fun vintage decor.  The vintage Christmas ornament boxes and ornaments came from an awesome find at a thrift store over the weekend.  I'm in love with them because they remind me of my great grandparents.  My mom had a few of their ornaments when I was younger but after many many years they have slowly disappeared.  So I just started my own collection. But because of my 1 year old nephew I felt they would be safer in bowls in my craft room up high where I knew his little hands wouldn't get them.  Better safe then sorry.  This has inspired me... I think I will be going to more thrift shops and antique shops in search of holiday decor in the near future.   

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Isn't this a beautiful project and It is soooo easy.  What I used was the Close to My Heart Mix and Mingle album, Close to my Heart Mayberry Paper Pack, Close to my Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Mocha Pearls (CTMH) and Smoothie ink (CTMH).  The Mix and Mingle album is awesome its 5 pages of Chipboard and 3 pages of acrylix and the jump rings to attach it together it cost $8.95 and I have seen it used as a mini album, a banner (like mine) and the list goes on and on.  Its so fun to play with!  I just worked on each page as its own piece of art.  I used the cricut to cut shapes out of patterned paper, a 3-d flower and the letters.  It looks beautiful hanging in my craft room.   Pin It Now!

Stamped plate

Well I'm planning for a Close to my Heart Club gathering at my house.  We are doing our projects a month in advance, so the crafters have a chance to give them out.  This month the projects are Halloween based.  I decided to decorate a little and I wanted to make mini pumpkin cupcakes and I wanted to get a cupcake stand, but ended up with a plate stand from Target then got white plates from the Dollar store.  Then with some purple and green stazon ink and the flourish stamp from the Close to My Heart Stamp set "Pair a Pharse" I stamped around the edges.  I'm not a perfectionist so I tried to space everything out as evenly as possible without measuring in some spots the images overlap and with glass it is hard to get a nice smooth image because between the glass surface, the stamp itself and angle your working on you get images that look a little too mushed and images where everything slides.  But the great thing is that in the end it is handmade and honestly no one will notice but you.  lol.  Why use aryclic stamps for projects like these, because you CAN go back and line the image back up if you don't stamp it evenly the first time.  Even the most experienced stamper has projects where that stamp something and part of image doesn't stamp quite right.  I do it all the time, on your usual cardstock project like cards its easy to correct.  You can put a piece foam like Close to my Heart provides in all of their stamp sets and slip it under your paper and try again.  Projects like my plates you don't really have that option so you have to line your image back up and push a little harder.  Another tip when working with Stazon ink that I have found it takes a little time to dry so if you keep a damp paper towel handy when working on glass projects when you make a mistake that you don't like and you want to start over with you just wipe it off quickly.  Another thing and this works when your using sharpie too.  All you need is a little rain-x to wipe Stazon ink or Sharpie off plastic or glass. I like to label all my craft tools so when I go to a crop and let someone borrow something it will come back.  And once in a while I like to be a little bit of a perfectionist so I sometimes will get a new tool and decide I want all the writing on my tools to match, so if I have say my name in blue on one item and pink on another it SOMETIMES bothers me, so I take out the rain-x and wipe all my tools down and relabel them.  This doesn't happen too often but when it does, it does I can't fight it haha. Pin It Now!

May 4th my best friend and I are going to a "Ladies Night Out" Vendor Fair where we are showcasing Close to my Heart products and she will be selling pre-made cards as well as some Close to my heart stamps and items that are available in the Catalog.  To help her out (in case you are wondering "her" is my friend Tabitha) I'm doing demos using the product I have in my house (which weird cause I never limit myself to "Just" Close to my heart product).  This is the My Creation Cube that is featured in the back of the catalog.  It is a 5x5 cube that you receive completely flat and it comes in white.  You just add ink, paper and your favorite photos and it becomes this beautiful home deco piece you can have sitting in any room of your house for friends and family to enjoy.  I used the "Grace" paper pack, mini medley's,  ink (Honey, Twilight, Cocoa, and Barn Red) Stamps sets ("Grown with Love", "TLC", "Extreme Caps").  It was a quick and easy project that only took me a few hours and it would make a beautiful presents for a friend or family member.  And an AWESOME mother's day present hint,hint... 

So come visit us May 4th at the Site Solutions Worldwide Office 333 Kingsley Road Burnt Hills, NY from 5:30-8pm. Pin It Now!

Well I actually created something

Well I did some creating yesterday and today.  I have been thinking about a canvas piece for awhile inspired by my friend Peggy who quoted Tim Holtz in saying "Never Apologize for Your Art".  I got a new book last week that showed how to create wire letters and I formed the letters I needed for the piece.  I bought some flat canvas boards from walmart the other day and painted it a dark and light green and stared at the letters sitting on the green canvas for a few days.  So as it sat I started thinging about some other projects that I need to work on.  So I move on to the LFB page above which I like but it doesn't have the pazz I wanted.  So that is sitting on the shelf till I figure it out and I went back to the canvas today with beeswax on the brain.  I love the medium!! So I put a sewing pattern over the greens which gave me the aged look I love.  Cut up a page of mini collages from K& Company.  Stamped my new little girl on to sewing pattern and used one of my paper roses and some do dads and placed my words in the wax.   I love this reminder piece!! I will look at it and remember that my art is my art and I should embrace the good with the not so good and continue creating.  In other news I have been spending a lot of free time with the ferrets cause they need it.  I have given them weekend to rest, so that I can start all over with play time tomorrow.  Here are a couple pictures from play time last week.  JJ the lighter ferret likes to steal toys and hide them under the bed and I guess size doesn't matter.  I bought them a fun toy that is a big lady bug wtih a pocket for them to hide in/sleep in and some balls that make noise and then there is a bar that goes over it that has a couple toys hanging down.  JJ just love to take it by the attached toys and try to pull it under the bed to hide it.  I play tug-a-war with him.  Its nice bonding time.  Stormy is the other ferret picture she hasn't been doing well in the loss of her sis.  She plays for a little while and then climbs up into the cage or finds a place in my room to go back to sleep.  I feel really bad for her but I pull her out of her hiding spot and try my hardest to get her to play for awhile more.  I last for a few rounds of this before I give up and let her go to sleep.  What can I do?? There are no pictures of my oldest ferret Bandit because she is naked due to anderline diesase. She lost all her hair but she functions like normal she is way to old for a ferret to have the surgery required to fix it, so I figure what's not broke don't fix it.  So we are still hurting over the loss of Saratoga Hollner (yes her full proper name was Saratoga because we got her from Albany Saratoga Speedway at an adoption Clinic) but I think we will heal and maybe someday soon someone new will enter the ferret cage.  Its just not going to be too soon.

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Love Blocks and Paper Roses

I have been working very hard on these 2x2 blocks.  I'm not going to give you every side because it would be picture overload and I don't feel like uploading all of it tonight.  Blogger needs to do something alittle different for their picture up load I don't like the current one. Any who I also created a bunch of Paper roses.  I was told that I could create the Tim Holtz grudge paper roses using water color paper.  So I borrowed a similar flower punch to the diecut that Tim uses and went to work.  I played with color, stamping, and glimmer to get different effects.  I really love making these, but I dont' have the patience to wait for them to dry, but it didn't much matter if they were still a little wait. Here are my pretty creations.

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Artful day

Ok well I can't get the hang of the new way blogger is which is disappointing.  I want things a certain way and it wont let me do it how I want.  Oh well.  Well today was nice time with some art friends then I went home and visited with my uncles, my aunt, my one uncles girlfriend and my little cousins, so over all today was a good day.  Today was my best friends birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tabitha!!!  It was a nice time creating with my friends from the vintage room.  I got a lot started then after my uncles left I did some finishing.  We created 1 inchie block and one twincie block.  I had all my images planned out then came home and did some embellishing.  I left the party with a warm feeling and I enjoy every minute I spend with my art friends... I guess I shouldn't just call them they are my friends.  Which in my world means so much more.  Anyway.  When I got home I played with my little projects and then remember that at the last gathering I started another inchie block and never finished so what did I do.  I finished so now now half finished art sitting around its all finished for the most part.  I am very proud today.

*** I just wanted to let you know I used my new Tim Holtz Disstress crackle rock candy on the bigger block. The stuff is amazing.  It gives awesome texture to and flat surface and gives pictures that little bit more.  I also think its neat that it flakes in sections to give that little bit more aging.  Tim Holtz you are amazing!

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