SUO 112 & PP 225 & CCC 053: Sparkly Snow Wreath

All the talk about the Winter Solstice put me in the mood to create a card that was inspired by Snow.

I wanted to make a shaker card, for the holidays, and to make it a bit extra fancy as the challenge with The Paper Players suggested!

I find twinkling snow to be so magical, that it makes winter a happier, merrier, time. The SUO Challenge this week is all about creating a project that includes something that conveys the season greetings of Merry or Happy. I chose "Happy Holidays" since I have friends of many faiths.

I was thrilled to see that Catherine and Cathy Creates challenge this week was Walking in a Winter Wonderland! Yay!

Here is my card. It's simple but fancy!

Paper: Marina Mist, Pool Party, Whisper White cardstock, Silver Glimmer paper, 

Stamps: Four Seasons, Four the Holidays

Ink: Marina Mist, Pool Party

Tools: XL scallop punch, 1" circle punch, small heart punch

Extras: Shaker dimensional circles, glitter, beads, rhinestones in white and blue, window sheet

Really, what are the holidays without the snow? When you live in Canada...snow, especially twinkling snow, the pretty kind is always welcome and certainly makes me feel happier about winter (well, I'll just speak for myself on that one.)

Happy Winter Solstice!

FMS 164: Kiwi Kiss Hybrids

More Kiwi Kiss Hybrids! 

I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches as my inspiration for this piece. I'll admit to flipping on it's side and upside down (I put the greeting where the bow was in the sketch.)

The flower portion is the Hybrid section, as I used My Digital Studio to create it. I fussy cut it out (this was the longest portion of the card making.)

The Kiwi Kiss liner was pierced along each edge and finished with a white gel pen to create faux stitching.

My greeting is a rub-on. I made a couple of cards and used different greetings.

La pièce de résistance...is my gorgeous corduroy button to top it all off! 

So simple but so cute!

Stay warm! I'm off to dog walk in -24°C (which feels like -34°C with windchill according to my weather app, ugh)

Halloween tags

Here are some Halloween tags I made! Perfect to spice up your treats for someone special!

I was actually able to take a picture that captured the luminescent shine I created on the moon. Yay!

A destroyed version of the Greeting Card Kid, kinda old and creepy looking.

Glitter and frayed ribbon! So much fun :D

Wouldn't you feel special if you received a small bag of your favorite treats topped with some handmade Halloween fun? I would! And that is why I'm off to create some little bags of black licorice cats for one friend, dark chocolate berries for another, and I found these cute little blackberry candies that look nice and festive but don't taste like black licorice, perfect for my final friend. I only make a couple of bags and that way it doesn't get out of hand, but I still get to gift goodies with cute little tags.

Hope your Halloween is fun and SCaaARY!!!

shower part 2

Here is Part 2 of the shower finally! This is the banner I made for the party.

I also made some little decorative accents, which are basically cards that act as cute little signs.

I used the Tangerine pom-pom trim to string the banner and some retired big buttons were perfect add-ons! 

The little onesies I made in My Digital Studio and printed them out then I added a backing using the larger label bunch and put some pom-pom trim on the bottom. Tangerine Tango baker's twine tops it all off.

I used LEGO CANDY!!!! Both parents were Lego freaks as kids, so it was a bit hit. 

Some adorable cupcakes were made for the party by a very special secret someone. Little Mikes and Sculleys from Monster's Inc!

Ack! Almost too cute to eat with his jellybean horns! 

Hope you are having a good Thanksgiving!

Welcoming BBQ Invitations

My friend is having a "Meet the Baby" bbq party! These are the invitations I made for it. She wanted a chill little party and not a typical conventional shower.

• simple 
• outdoorsy
• baby themed

The clothesline idea was one I found in the stock templates for greeting cards in MDS (My Digital Studio) which I adapted to the postcard format for the invitation.

I made the choice to go with the Tangerine Tango orange. It's not my first choice when I reach for orange but it really worked well, soooo I went with it. I added a little flag (with a brad) to one side of the clothesline and made it into a hybrid postcard :D

Sorry! I can't get this picture to go the right way but it shows that I chose a section (top right hand corner) of designer series paper in MDS (Domestic Goddess DSP.) Then I added my onesie overtop of the socks on the clothesline.

I also made the banner for the party using MDS. I adapted it from a Christmas banner template (so I just changed letters and colors around) and added buttons and baker's twine. I found I had Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight big buttons...sweeeet!

Now my big decision was that I couldn't decide which way to tie the buttons into the banner. Turns out, I did each one a different way but it somehow worked because it spaced out the shorter words and evened things out a bit.

Stay tuned to hear about what I have done with the Tangerine Tango pom-pom trim!!

Artsy Monsters

My best friend is having a baby. It's a huge deal to me! I'm so excited to be able to share what I've been working on lately for the baby's room.

The baby's room is decked out in Monsters Inc. creatures for their little boy. She was hoping to put up some artwork that incorporated the monsters. Her aunt found these cute canvas prints.

As my girlfriend and her significant other appreciate creativity and hope to foster it in their little one, they asked if I could "artsy" them up a bit.

Here are the slightly wacky end results...

I changed the Sulley character, and turned him into George Sanderson (the orange guy) so that Sulley wasn't in every picture.

I added the Roz character, since she's my favorite monster of the bunch. I feel like I've met a number of Roz characters in my life, so Roz made me laugh out loud! I love her gravel voice, partial lipstick, and her elaborate glasses and rockin' hairdo in the movie. My creation is certainly a monster alright, lol.

Because Mike is the star of the show...

And the last one...

Retired Stampin' Up! papers, old book pages, and some recycled music sheets belonging to the baby's dad (a musician) were used here and there. I also used acrylic paint, Mod Podge, and markers.

Now all we need is a baby!

Kiwi Kiss Hybrids

There have been some birthdays the last couple months, and with Mother's Day around the corner, I made some cards. All are in Kiwi Kiss...

I had some of the stock template greeting cards in My Digital Studio printed and played around with them in order to make hybrid cards.

I need to trim the ribbon on the first one...lol. The "stamp" in top left corner is actually done in My Digital Studio. The greeting is embossed in white.

The centre greeting is digital.

This last one uses a die-cut sticker from a Simply Scrappin kit, but could easily be done in MDS.

Happy Spring!

Rhodonite creations

I have been working with gemstones in my beading lately. The pink and grey beads throughout are Rhodonite which balance out energies so that you feel grounded, and it encourages compassion. It is meant to give you the strength to stay true to your heart and ideals

This is what the stone looks like under better lighting and in much bigger form...

The pink is a dusty rose colour, a sort of muted pink. I added small crystals, latticed grey metal spacers, and tiny pinkish beads.

The big beads are Travertine Czech firepolished beads and they do have a burnished quality to them. Love them!

It took me awhile to get this finished off, I'm so glad it's done and I can wear it!

I also made myself a purse charm....

The bottom stone is Mookalite, and it's an all pink one which doesn't happen often. It usually has swirls of dark red and mustard. Mookalite  increases your flexibility and your ability to see several solutions to any problem. I added a little Blushing Bride button from the retired Twitterpatted product series.

Stay grounded!

Telephone Pole Trail

This first photo is a picture of the work in progress, before much of the painting happened.

 I include it only to show how the piece evolved, since it's a bad picture.

The base is a 18"x 20"collage of book pages on canvas. Over this I drew with permanent black marker. I added layers of more book pages, music pages, corrugated cardboard, newspaper, sewing patterns. Using the patterns of the pasted papers to give the painting shape, I then painted with acrylic paints over top.

The snow is created using bubble wrap dipped in paint. The clouds are made with dryer sheets.

I used stamps throughout. There are hints of pearlized stamps in sky that only are visible in a certain light. I used the Illuminate Stamp pad for these.

Here is a close up of my birds, textured with.black microbeads over pieces of torn black tissue paper. Silver dots embellish their edges.

The inspiration behind the piece is the little walking path near my place which provides a view of these telephone poles and a bit of a messy building site. However a cold grey winter and its falling snow turned a routine doggie walk, into a striking moment with the starkness of the white snow, the grey undertones of frozen earth and these black birds. 

I've been working slowly on this for months, chipping away at it. I'm a newbie to mixed media so still experimenting and hope to share more creations soon.