Shadow Box Card

Hi peeps, long time no blog, I know! I had some computer issues and I finally got all those taken care of so then I was able to get back to creating, yeah! This is a shadow box card that I made for my little sister for her birthday next Sunday. I was inspired by Sari Hanninen from Sweden. I stumbled across her blog a few weeks ago and she had a whole bunch of TH (tim holtz) inspired creations and this shadow box card really caught my eye. The frame on the cover was chipboard cut with my cricut and covered with paper on either side. Then I just poked a hole in the center of it and sprayed it with water from my mini mister. This allowed the chipboard to be torn a little easier and I just kept pushing out until it looked like it was fairly even on all sides. Then I stained the white core parts with TH walnut distress stain. Added some flowers and a bow and a few buttons and a door knob, of course. And know for the inside. The inside is the best part...................... drum roll please Can you see how the right side stands out a bit? It was a bit difficult to put together but once you got the hang of it, it worked out pretty well. I just love how it looks like you are looking in say a store front window or someone's living room window, not that we would really ever do that, lol! I made the 'window' first, then I made a book cover so to speak and attached the window to the back cover and decorated the other side. I used some TH papers, some Heart Warming Vintage papers that I printed free off their website and some pages from an old, OLD book that I bought at a garage sale years ago. The little viles (filled with colored water) and the weathered clock on the left are TH. The other clock is CTMH with some TH arts added on and the rest is just stuff I found in my stash. I heat embossed the happy birthday with black embossing powder so it would stand out. Here's a close up of the two sides. I just love the way it turned out. Need to make one for myself now, ha! Hope you have a good rest of the weekend and an even better week. Hugs, ~Jody

I DID IT!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!! I have been having computer problems for the past couple of months so I had to completely recover my system. And guess what, I must have done something right because I can get on my blog again and all those other sites that I haven't been able to access. I'm so excited!!!! Welcome back Me!

TH Inspired Birthday Card

Went over to Stampfest in Kissimmee this morning. Met some of my sister's friends there. My sister is home recouping from back surgery so she wasn't able to go with us. She seems to be getting around pretty good though, I guess. Anyway, was checking out all the Tim Holtz stuff, as well as the other vendors, but I had purchased a couple of dies the other day at Scraporium and wanted to give them a try. Needed a birthday card for my step-father. His birthday is next Saturday and I'm not sure how old he will be, maybe 70-71, we'll go with early 70's, how's that?? Here's the card I came up with. I purchased the 'old jalopy' die and the little texture fade (which I used on the inside). The jalopy I embossed with black embossing powder and then inked with vintage photo. It made it look kinda rustic. I did the accent pieces in vintage photo as well. The map I found online and inked it too to give it that aged vintage look. My folks still live in WY so that is why I used that particular map. I thought it was kinda cool. The sign I made with one of the stamp sets that I got this morning, it's called "Going Somewhere". I heat embossed the red and blue lines around it to kinda match all the lines in the map. Then I attached a key and a muse token with a pin to the sign. Thought it turned out pretty cute, hope he likes it!

July 4th Plaque

I made this plaque for my front door inspired by Annette Green's. Mine is a bit different but I guess that is what makes the world go 'round. Her letters were a bit to big I thought or maybe just a bit too big for my piece of wood so I cut mine out of some chipboard on the Cricut. I cut four of each letter and then stacked them for some dimension. I wrapped some TH tissue tape around them to hold them together. I watered down some acrylic paint (barn red and military blue) and painted over the top. The words showed through really well so I didn't need to stamp on them. I really like how it turned out. It now adorns my front door for all who enters to see!!!

Pennant Banner

Well, I finally had a chance to play with the new pennant dies from Spellbinders. I made this banner for my nephew's birthday. He's all boy so I tried not to make it toooo frilly. They work nicely but I have to say I was a little disappointed in the size. I thought they would be bigger than they are. Next I want to try a small one for a scrapbook layout. I need to get on my daughter's scrapbook pages anyway so maybe this will give me the push I need. Anyway, here's a couple of photos of the banner. It turned out pretty cute, I thought. I used some black eyelets on the top to thread the ribbon through. Got a Crop-o-dile over the weekend so gave it a pretty good workout. Hope he likes it. Happy Birthday Zachary! Hugs, ~Jody

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day and that we kept in mind the real reason for this holiday. Here's a really cool you-tube video a friend sent me just for the occasion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJO7lJIxG10 I spent the weekend over at my little sister's on the east coast of Florida. We just hung out, swam in their pool, drank margaritas and made some awesome Father's Day cards. It was a great weekend! Here's one of the cards that we made. It is a tool belt, how cute is that! We found the inspiration in Paper Crafts magazine from a card by Kim Kesti. We embellished upon her idea so ours turned out quite differently but Oh So CUTE. I'm sure our father will love it. AND, since we have two father's, one biological and one step, we each had to make two cards. We will give the alternate one to the other father, how cool is that, lol!!! Here's the other card. It was made out of a brown paper lunch sack. We got the inspiration from my little sister's friend and CTMH consultant, Annette Green. She is so handy, I tell ya! We had so much fun making these two cards. Now I'm already for Father's Day, three weeks early, don't think that's ever happened, lol! Hope ya'all made it home safely from your holiday weekend adventure. Hugs, ~Jody

Scrapbooking. . . . . . . .Is Cheaper Than Therapy

Good afternoon peeps. My little sister was here for the weekend, birthday celebrations ya know. I turned another year older on Friday so she came over and we did some scrapbooking and ate lobster and chocolate and monkey bread (I call it sticky buns but ....) and brownies, lol. I think we ate more than we did anything. Even had fresh homemade eggs benedict for breakfast before she left this morning. ANYWAY, what I wanted to share with you was a sign I made this morning after she left. I had started it before because I was thinking I would need her help but I was able to do it myself so......... A couple of years ago, my daughter Miranda, gave me a vinyl sign that says "scrapbooking...is cheaper than therapy". It was one of those that you put directly on the wall. Well, I live in an apartment so I didn't want to put it directly on the wall so I was always going to get a piece of canvas and put it on there and then hang it on the wall. Well, I finally did it. It looks pretty good to, if I don't say so myself. And if I ever move again, I can take it with me and put it in my new craft room, lol!!!!!

Waltzingmouse Stamps Challenge

I just love that little tea bag template. It makes up so cute. This is one I did for the challenge over at Waltzingmouse Stamps. They are having their 2nd anniversary. Claire is having a little party and she invited us to show off some our creativity. I used my new Cricut Expression to make the little tea pot. It turned out so cure. Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs, ~Jody

Scrabbleized

I believe I've been scrabbleized. Let's see Merriam Webster add that one to the ol' dictionary, lol. My little sister has gotten me interested in the game of Scrabble this past week. We are playing each other on Facebook. Pretty funny hugh!!! Pretty TIME CONSUMING! OMG, it takes forever to find words that will get me the biggest scores. We are on our second game. I actually won the first one quite by accident I tell you, lol. My little sister says she was robbed, ROBBED I say!!! I was behind by three points I think. When I used my last tile, the screen flipped to a "YOU WIN" and it was all over but the cryin'. I ended up with one more point than she had, so I won!!! I guess in the facebook game when someone runs out of tiles, who ever has tiles left in their hand has to deduct them from their score and also give the same amount of points to the other person as a bonus. So....... that put me ahead by one point. I think that is how it went. To be honest with you, it all happened so fast that I didn't really know what happened at first. I had to go back and study it a couple of times. Well, we are on re-match #1 right now. I am ahead of her for about 40 points. Just want to make sure if she runs out of tiles first, the same thing won't happen to me, lol. It is a fun game and I haven't played it for years, actually since I was married to my first husband, and that was centuries ago. Good Luck my dear, may the best woMAN win!!!!!

May Tea Party

So, I have our monthly tea party today. It's the annual Sertoma Tea Party. We were requested to wear hats. I have searched high and low for a hat that I could afford but to no avail. Found some really cool ones online but OMG the prices are frightful, for my little 'ol budget anyway. So.......... having just seen some of the fancy schmancy hats at the royal wedding, I had a thought! (lightbulb turning on here, lol) Why not make your own, how hard could it be. I found some chipboard in my stash. It was heavy duty that we made our TH 12 Tags of Christmas Banner out of last December. It was just the left over corner pieces. I put them together to make something that would shape over the top of my head, ya know so it could be curved. Next I punched sewing holes along the sides that were to be connected together. I sewed them together with some beading wire that I had in my beading stash. It was just stiff enough that I didn't need to use a needle. Worked great. Unfortunately I didn't think about taking pictures while I was making it so here's a shot of after I had it stitched together and covered with shiny fabric, the underneath side. I was able to overlap the long edges to maneuver it enough to fit my head. I didn't stitch all the way to the ends because I knew I wanted to cut the ends off and make them curved, which I did with the scissors. I had stopped at Joann's for some inspiration and found a few different things in the floral department that would look cute on a hat. My dress is a lavender color that I was going to wear so I tried to keep within that color scheme. They didn't have alot to choose from in the feather department so I went with burgundy, it matched fairly well. AND, here' s what came out of my efforts. It turned out so damn cute. A professional hat maker I would never be, but I'm tellin ya, this will be an eye catcher at the tea party. Oh I forgot to tell ya, I attached a metal barrette thingy to the underneath side so it would stay in my hair, or on my head. It's a bit top heavy but with a couple of decorative dragonfly bobby pins, it will be just perfect!!! Just a note: The hat won top prize, "Most Elegant", at the tea party. Didn't even know there was going to be a hat contest, lol!!! It was so much fun!!! It was well worth the $20.