A Quickie for Cas-ual Friday's Challenge 122

Just a quick pop in for the Cas-ual Friday's Challenge 122 of Tree or Trees.  I needed to make a sympathy card for my daughter to give to a friend who just lost her grandmother.  This family has a rustic cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin so even though this isn't a typical sympathy card I thought that the image was fitting.  The inside, which I forgot to photograph, has a lovely sympathy sentiment.

It is made with Taylored Expression dies and although the picture doesn't show well, it is heavy 120lb white cardstock mounted on white, then choco brown and finally kraft.  Take care and enjoy your weekend!

Be well,

Sheila

Working with Metal...

Hi and I have something really fun to show today!  My oldest is living in her first "real" apartment....one that she can finally decorate the way she would like to...but on a very tight budget.  So, enter "mom".  I have been shopping with Bess and seeing what she likes then trying to recreate it on a cheaper scale.  And, when her tastes change, she can "deconstruct" the decorative items that I have made and repurpose the different pieces and parts into some other use.  One thing that she seemed to like was "tiles"....and we saw different decorated tiles at nearly every store we went to.  Most were accented with metal and had an overall shabby chic look to them.  I found my "tiles" at the paper mache' aisle of Hobby Lobby.  Each paper mache tile was only a few dollars and that of course is before coupons.  I  had Bess pick out the various papers that she liked and wanted me to work with.  And from there I had free rein to go where ever my imagination took me. The tiles measure 6" x 6" and so a the small paper packs are a perfect fit. And, wow, this was so fun.  I first decided that the floral would be the center tile and then went from there.  I decided that the two "bookending" tiles would be decorated exactly the same but with coordinating papers in order to tie the whole grouping together.  The "metal" is foil paper that I embossed in some Spellbinder embossing folders and then worked over with Distress Alcohol Inks as well as some copper Perfect Pearls and then finally, Staz On Saddle and Timber Inks.  I LOVE HOW THIS LOOKS!  I really think that this looks like burnished metal!   In the center tile I also cut a simple circle out of foil paper and then stamped it lightly with a "script" stamp as well as a IO crackled background stamp.  This stamping was also carried over to the two side tiles for continuity.  I then used that foil circle as a mirror effect for the center tile.  The two side tiles were accented with the same door/dresser pull that I bought from Hobby Lobby.  Hobby Lobby has an amazing variety of these pulls and they are almost always on discount.  I find that when I can't find the metal style that I want I can easily change almost any of the others with some sanding and ink to look the way that I want them.  I am entering this project into the Drunken Stampers Challenge #152-Thing: METAL.  I haven't ever entered this particular site before but have followed their various challenges and love the the fun approach they have to crafting.

First I will show a pic of how the tiles look as a grouping.....I am sorry the pic is so small...not sure how to make it bigger.   Then my next pics will be of each tile on it's own.

I am really excited to get this in the mail to Bess and actually, to try another set of tiles.  I am envisioning a 9 tile wall grouping......

Thanks for stopping by and be well!

Sheila

Hello!

It has been a while but of course the holidays always take me away from crafting!  But, I did see that City Crafter Challenge Blog has a challenge that is right up my alley....."Snow White"....basically an all white card which I love to make!  Here is the lovely inspiration photo that was included:

 
And, I actually went almost totally with this photo....even down to the placement of my bling and ribbon to mimic the lit candle.  I used a Spellbinder's tapestry die to create the "lace curtain"  and then to copy the opaque look of the windows I used vellum behind the die cut.  Since the challenge refers to "Snow" white I also used double sided tape along the edges of the velum  and then pressed some glitter on it for a frosty look!   Finally, I used silver for my sentiment along with some rhinestones to further a crisp winter look.  I loved this challenge and really, really hope that I will be able to play along again before it is done.  It is such a challenge for me to work an all white card and still make it interesting!

I am also entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday - Countdown to the Holidays and also the Simon Says Stamp Blog Anything Goes.

The inside is really hard to see but it is white card mounted on silver with a silver embossed Merry and Bright and two snowflakes on the upper portion.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday yesterday....and are ready to gear up for the next one!  

Take care and Be well,

Sheila

Another day....Another Jewelry Box....

I really have had such a good time with making  these jewelry boxes.  They have been a really nice accompaniment to the TV when Joe was out of town last week.  I was able to sit and listen to a show....usually a documentary or a TED Talk and then just craft away.  I use those two types of shows because  I can just listen and craft rather than having to actually watch what is going on like I would with a movie or other type of show.  So, I have been getting lots of "larger" crafting done and also improving my mind with documentaries....Win/Win!

One of my daughter's friends saw the box I made for Bessie and asked her if it would be alright to ask me to make her a box.  I was tickled that she asked....Bess and this girl have been friends since they were in second grade.  She asked me if I could use the color purple and I said yes before I discovered that there is almost no purple paper out there!  I searched thru my own stash and basically came up with nuttin'!  Just random bits here and there that even with distressing didn't really look well together.    Then when I went online I did find one pack by Authentique that seemed more eggplant or Aubergine than truly "purple" but I like the way this turned out anyway.  It seems more sophisticated  shabby chic than just shabby chic.  I hope she likes it!

The first two pics are the box laying flat....so you can really see how it is constructed and then standing up so you can see how well these Tim Holtz products support the box!  I also am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge of Patchwork.  I think this look like a lovely homemade patchwork quilt!

I then picked up some fake vintage hardware from Hobby Lobby and placed the cabinet knob on the top panel of the jewelry box.  I love how this looks!  This shot also shows the two different types of corner hardware that I used on the top of the box.  I like how it finishes off the project but I also think it gives greater stability to the overall box.  

This is a shot of the back of the box.  The first box that I made I used a 12x12 sheet of paper but really struggled with it and the small bubbles that would form below the surface.  I do think that cardstock would work but I used some Tim Holtz coordinations and think that it was too absorbent for the ModPodge.  I now distress the pack of the cardboard after I seal it with some ModPodge and really like this warm, vintage-y look instead.

Finally, these last shots are of the sides....both sides are the same as far as being framed out with a piece of hardware.  This helps to cover the seam that is created when i used two pieces of paper from the 6x6 paper pack.  Now I know I could just use a 12x12 piece of paper to eliminate the seam but if I did I think that I would still use the hardware here as I think it adds even more interest to the piece.

Well, I hope that you liked my piece and I certainly hope that Jenny loves it!  Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope that your weekend is FABULOUS!!!

Be well,

Sheila

Life is Sweet!

Yep life is sweet and one of the main reasons is because we bought waaaay too much candy for Halloween!  We had tons of trick or treaters last year but this year...not so much.  We now have oodles of candy and just Joe and I in the house.  So, I decided to make up Halloween gift bags to mail to my three kids and the "boyfriend", as well as one to my little second grade lunch buddy and then finally to  the people who I "chemo angel".  I have two people that I am chemo angeling at the moment. Both   have just been assigned to me last week  so this will be my first "meeting" with them.  And what better way to meet new folks than with a sack of candy right????  In the bios that I was given one person has young children and the other has grandchildren so I thought that both could share these Halloween goodies with their family!

This first bag is the one that I made for my little lunch buddy.  I used a regular gift bag for this one and I like to go all out for her as she gets so excited!

The rest of the bags are clean, bulk coffee bags that I ordered awhile back and have been using them over the years to fill up with coffee, candy, bath salts etc....They have liners and are so nice  to use.  They are  pretty sturdy so they hold up nicely to whatever I put in them!  I have gotten them in two different sizes.  This is the smaller of the two.....

And these.....

and these are the next size up.  It is a nice little treat  bag to have around and can be filled with quite a bit.

Thank you for stopping by today and for leaving me such nice comments the other day on my jewerly boxes.  I have a couple more that I am working on and when they are finished I hope to post them.  I am discovering a whole new world of "modpodge" items....or rather items that can be modpodged!  It has been fun to try other paper crafts and I am enjoying stretching my products (and using up tons of hoarded paper.....) and trying new things.

Moxie Challenge - The Sequel....

So, let me just start off by saying that I had soooo much fun making my daughter Bessie's "thing-y" that I posted yesterday that today I dove right into making one for my daughter Clarice.  And, it had to be as different as Clarice is from Bessie.  Now, if you read my previous post you saw that the Moxie Fab Challenge of "The Ready Made Embellishments", Moxie Fab Challenge of Using Wood, Metal and/or Cork,  and the Moxie Fab Challenge of General Craft Supplies  is what got me so exited to try something different.  And I know that sounds absurd because these particular challenges are what we do all the time as crafters but.....I was just back from a long vacation with my husband and really, really feeling the emptiness of my house when Joe left for work.  All the kids are either away at college or away in another town and so, for the first time, I am alone.  And that is really different for me. I got into card making from Scrapbooking.  In fact, I switched from scrapping to cardmaking when one of my children became very ill and I needed to be awake through out the night sometimes. I needed an "outlet"for all the stress that a sick child in the house brings but at the same time I needed to be able to be immediately accessible.  Cardmaking, which is sort of small and confined, really fit the bill for me.  But now, now I have time and space.  Two things that I have never had before.  Time to try out new techniques and and bigger projects and space to leave my larger projects and supplies out and at the ready.  So, when Cath posted these particular challenges over at Moxie Fab I really began to think about all the STUFF I have cramming every nook and cranny of my craft room.  And then I began to think big.  Yeah, BIG!  Bigger than a card.....bigger than a scrapped page.....and, this altered "thing-y" is what I came up.  And. I. Am. Having. Fun. Like. I. Am. Out. For. Recess!   

My daughter Bessie has already received her gift and called me right away to let me know how much she loved it!  I am so glad.  I knew she would like it and be appreciative but I could tell by her voice that she really, really liked it.  So, today, I made one for Clarice and tomorrow I will drive over to see her at college and give it to her and I just know that she will love her's too ;-D

I am entering this into the above challenges again.  I am just tickled that I am trying something new!  So,  here is the altered cupboard I made for Clarice.

Thank you for stopping by today and thank you to those who left me such kind comments yesterday!  You have no idea how much I appreciate the time you took to leave a pleasant remark ;-D

Be well,
Sheila

WARNING!!! MOXIE FAB PHOTO HEAVY POST AHEAD.......

I am so excited to post and share my most recent project! I went on the Moxie Fab blog during one of my "trying to find some inspiration" trolls and saw that Cath had these three challenges that really prompted me to try something totally out of my comfort zone.    I decided to make each of my girls a ....well, I am not even sure what to call it.  I saw these super inexpensive cardboard advent calendar containers at Hobby Lobby and used a coupon to bring down the cost to about $6 for the advent calendar.  It is a cardboard container with 25 cardboard drawers which I thought that I could redecorate and give to my two girls as a funky jewelry box. This type of 3 dimensional project is really a step out of my comfort zone.  But, I had a blast making this.  I think I might be one of the last crafters to get into "altered art"....I think that is what this might be called. And the three Moxie Fab challenges that dealt with "ready made embellishements" and using "cork, metal and wood"  and "using general craft supplies" seemed pretty much tailored made for the type of adornments and stuff that I have been hoarding over the years.  You know, the type of stuff that looks sooooo cool that you gotta buy it....especially when you can get a sale but then you never are really sure about how to use it.  Like Advent cartons.  And,  Tim Holtz stuff.   I certainly have always admired Tim Holtz and consider myself to have been so lucky to take a class and meet him at Scrapfest last year.  I have never really, outside of that class, every felt that I could take his "funkiness" and apply it to something that I would use or give in my own life.  I was more concerned that what he can create so well would turn out to look like a brownish distressed blob of c@#% in my hands!  And so, I admired from a distance all the folks who can "alter" items and make them look cool and fun.

But, I secretly bought and hoarded do-dads and ephemera and Tim Holtz stuff whenever I saw it on sale at Hobby Lobby. Or Micheal's.  Or JoAnn's.  I did this until I had a shoebox full of metal bits of coolness staring me....taunting me with it's need to be made into something.  And then Moxie Fab and it's perfect challenges came along......

So, I saw this advent box-y thing and thought this is my plunge into the world of altered art.  And, man alive, DID I EVER HAVE FUN!

First, I decided on paper and found that I did best with paper that is coordinated in a 6x6 pack.  The paper also need to be two sided.  I then cut each sheet into 2 1/4" squares.  I modpodged each "drawer" and then laid the paper onto the drawer and modpodged again.  These drawers then were stacked over a glue bottle, mist bottle....whatever I had to allow them to dry.  When dry, I distressed each corner and edge with distress inks.  I modpodged each drawer 3 times.  I also cut coordinating strips from the paper pack into 6 x 2 1/4" strips to be modpodged over the sides and top of the advent box.  I used a large sheet of card stock to modpodge over the back.  I did the same distressing on the corners and edges of the box and also distressed the bottom edge and each little cubicle edge.  Then the whole thing was modpodged 3 times just like the drawers were.

After all was modpodged 3 times and dry the real fun began!  It was time to decorate each drawer and I can't tell you how much fun that was to do!  As you will see by the pictures I went a little wild and didn't follow a theme except to distress each item in some way.  I also used Platinum Stickle for a bit of glimmer and shabby glam and really, the pics do not do justice to just how cool this stickle color looks! A while back my husband bought me a dremel to use to make earrings and I used this little dremel to sand and file away the edges of certain embellishments.  I also used a small, personal drill to drill the holes for the legs, knobs, brads and corner pieces.  Both little tools worked just great and I loved the fact that I could do a project and "alter" anything I felt like using.  I also used "Matte" finish ModPodge so the project wouldn't looks super shiney.  I am in the process of making another one of these for my other daughter and am thinking of a Christmas themed one as well.  Mine is made to stand but I think it would be equally nice to make one that can me hung on the wall.

So, here is the finished project, standing up on it's own little adorable four legs....I also included a pic of it lying down to try and eliminate some of the glare....not too sure that I succeeded.  I also am going to enter this into two Moxie Fab challenges.....something I hardly ever get to do!  I love Kath's inspirations and hope that now that I am an empty nester I will be able to take part in more challenges instead of always having to do what family and friends want! I am not sure this totally qualifies as it isn't a card but I am going to share it anyways!  Can you feel how excited I am?  Don't you love it when something turns out????  Anywho....I certainly used alot of challenge "stuff" in making this project!

So, I will be entering this into the    Moxie Fab Challenge The General Craft Supplies Challenge , Moxie Fab Challenge "The Metal, Wood and Cork Challenge",  and also into the Moxie Fab Challenge "The Ready Made Embellishements".

 Here is the top of it....the next one that I make I am going to put a cabinet handle on the top rather a frame like this.....I think I will put the frames on the side.  The top embellishments and the side embellishments cover/mask the seam where the two pieces of paper meet.  This pic also shows the two different types of corner hardware I used.  The back has a industrial look while the front (see pic above) has a more ornate look.

With both the upper corner pieces and the lower corner feet I glued the drawers into the box and then drilled the holes through both the box and the drawer.  I also did that on the sides where the embellishments are.  Therefore there are 6 drawers out of 25 that can't actually be pulled out....this is partially because the 4 front corner pieces block the drawers but it is also done to make the overall piece more stable.  Then when I put the brads in I also put glue or glossy accents into the holes to help hold the brads to the metal accents nice and tight.

I don't know if I would call this a tutorial but I hope that if you too want to create this type of project you will be able to follow my tips and do so.  If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them. I sent the project on to my daughter today by way of a pal of her's who was heading back to Minn so I will for sure share her response with  you all when I get it!  I am soooo excited to hear what she thinks!

Thank you for hanging with me thru this super long post...and I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Be well,
Sheila