By The Sea

John and I have friends getting married next month. They both love the beach. So much so that they are getting married ON Clearwater Beach! So I thought it was appropriate that their wedding gift from us have a beach theme.

I started with one of Tim Holtz's Mini Configurations Books and used Distress Paint Salty Ocean to paint all of the edges. Once dry, I came back in with some Ground Espresso Distress Ink and aged here and there to make it look a little more worn. I used an old Graphic45 paper line called By The Sea and added some raffia to the covers and cut out some of the stamps from the line and pop-dotted them for dimension on the front cover. The happy couple's initials are K and J, so I used Tim's wooden alphabet and pounced Salty Ocean Distress Paint on them and once dry, I lightly sanded to age them a bit. They are getting married on October 15, so I found a 10 and a 15 and did the same with them as with the letters. I found L O V E in my letter dice and applied a bit of Salty Ocean Paint to them as well. I had bought the sailboat and flip flops at a craft show that I went to a while ago and I used some LuminArt Silks on them. I used a corked vial and added some Distress Glitter to it. A word tag, Destiny since K says she was destined to meet J! And finally three hearts with a bit of Mushroom Alcohol Ink to age them a bit.
 

 

Playing catch-up

Trying to get caught up on projects. Right now I have three going. I work on one til I get too much "wet" and then move to another. I have even set up another table in my scrap room to hold the wet stuff while it's drying. Some I will be able to share as I get it complete and some notsomuch as they are for Christmas gifts.

Here is a couple that I CAN share. My nail gal over over 10 years will be welcoming her second grandchild the middle of February 2014. I'm already betting on a Valentines Day girl! They know it's a girl to go with their soon to be 3 year old son and her name will be Melanie. So of course I had to do one of Sue's World Famous Name Wall Hangings for her room! CTMH has the cutest "baby" paper pack in the Fall/Winter Idea Book called BabyCakes, so that is what I used along with the Canvas Compliments that go with the paper pack.

A fellow CTMH Consultant who used the paper pack for her contribution to this summer's Convention used our 3 x 3 blocks to make "alphabet blocks" which were displayed in the Art Room. I took her idea and made it my own, using more of the Canvas Compliments and other stamp sets that I have accumulated over the years. What is hard to see in the pics is the Glossy Accents and Viva Iridescent German Glitter tht I used on the side with the birds and the side with the bee, dragonfly and ladybug.

Christmas?!

Yes, I'm working on Christmas! Found this the other day at Hobby Lobby and used my 40% off coupon and one Christmas gift is done!

I used papers that were in my stash. I know. Hard to believe! It came together very quickly. Hardest part was cutting out all of the box fronts!

Next up is to get my Christmas cards done. I just need to fina a layout I like.

wall hanging

One of my co-workers is pregnant and having a little girl at the end of the month. Her name will be Eden. So pretty! I decided she needed one of "Sue's World Famous Wall Hangings" to go in her room. Not knowing the colors she was using and wanting it to be a surprise, I used last month's CTMH special cardstock from Dream Pop. Added in some flowers and birds from Dyan Reaveley's How Does Your Garden Grow stamp set colored with Dyan's fabulous Spray Inks. Added a bit of white Signo Uniball white pen highlighting for good measure. I gave the hanging to Jackie today and she fell in love! She said the pinks and greens will match the nursery almost exactly! I think that's pretty cool since I had no idea what colors to use!

Ta-ta's

My wonderful friend Liane was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought she needed something to help boost her spirits and there are a lot of women I know who would be offended by this, but I knew Liane would love it! I used quite a few of Christy Tomlinson's SheArt line on this. The bra is a card that is on the CTMH AP cartridge. Once I cut it out, I ran it thru my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. The ribbon and flower are dyed using Victorian Velvet Distress Stains.

Gift Card holders

Needing a few gift card holders for the upcoming holidays, I decided to put Pinky to work. Make her earn her keep!! These are the pillow boxes on the AP cartridge and there have been more than a few of my sister CTMH Consultants who have already used this idea, so I am not the first. I used the CTMH Wonderland paper pack and made belly bands for each and embossed using white embossing powder with glitter added. The glitter doesn't show up so well in the pic. The stockings (which will be the gift tag) are also cut using the AP cartridge.

There is only one small problem. Small being the operative word. I didn't think to measure the boxes once I assembled them and the gift cards won't fit. Well, they fit. You just can't close the end flaps! They were cut at 5.5", so I think I need to go to 6.5" to insure I've got a skosh of extra room. Don't know yet what I'll do with these, but they're too darn cute to throw away.

What's that old saying? Measure twice, cut once.

And more cards

This is gonna be a  theme for a bit. Working on Christmas gifts and sharing a few here and there.

Jan put in a request for more Sympathy and Thinking of You cards for this year, so there are quite a few of these. This is just a sampling. This uses up my Typeset paper pack. LOVE the new smaller pp's that CTMH introduced with the Fall/Winter Idea Book. For a paper hoarder (did I just say that out loud?!) like me, this is perfect. I used an all time fave stamp set, Treasure Life. I love the "weedy" looking stems that work perfectly on this type of card. And the Just Blooms Paper Shapes butterflies flitting about them also worked for me. I used some Perfect Pearls Mist on the cs to give a subtle shimmer and some of the Basic Assortments buttons tied with hemp and Bakers Twine.

More Joy!

Made a few more cards for Joy to give her gf's next year. I used the now retired CTMH Cherry-O paper pack for these, along with a couple of old stamp sets, Party Time and Birthday Celebration and the required Stickles Diamond for bling! Oh, and some Magic Mesh that I found when I was cleaning in my room. Had it for yeeears and it's now on my table so I see it and use it! Buttons are from the CTMH Basic Assortment and there's some Foundry Ribbon Slides as well.

Joy cards

Working on cards for Jan for Christmas. Joy gets invited to no less than a bazillion birthday parties every year, so I have to do a bazillion and one cards just for her! Here are a few. I used the CTHM Veranda paper pack along with my best new friend...the Art Philosophy cartridge and Cricut! All the shapes were cut at 2.5" using it and all of the layered pieces have some sort of Stickles for the required blingy goodness! Other embellies are all from my stash. The half butterfly was a happy accident. It was the last thing I cut and the cardstock shifted as it was cutting and the other half was out of line with the half that I used. So I just cut it in half and positined it on the edge of the card!

Memory Cube Box duh!

Sometimes I amaze myself when I have duh moments. Totally forgot to take a pic of the BOX that the chipboard pieces go into! So, in all it's glory...here it is. I covered up his name on the box since I don't know how they feel about having his name plastered all over the Internets! All four sides are covered like the front. Only the top and flap are different. I inked the corners and edges in Chocolate ink before I started applying paper.

Memory Cube Box

This is a cool new alterable box that CTMH is offering. It comes as plain white chipboard and has 24 white chipboard "coasters" inside for you to alter any way you want.

I used an old Heart Of Winter campaign paper that is one of my all-time faves called Serendipity. I only use this paper for "special" projects! This is going to be a gift for my nail gal to send to her grandson in Hawaii so he can learn his alphabet. And yes, I did add two more of my coasters from my stash so he has the whole alphabet to learn and not just the first 24 letters!!

Home

Some friends moved into a new home and they had a housewarming party last weekend. I decided to make them something that they could hang in their new place. I used one of the Ikea mirrors I've had forever and covered 1.5 x1.5 chipboard in CTMH Grace papers, then ink distressed the edges. I cut some flowers out using my Cricut and CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge. The "home" letters are from my stash and covered in CTMH Barn Red cs and I used Cherished Flourishes stamp set on them. Our friends loved the hanging!

Washi welcome

I knew I wanted to make something for JoAnn & Bill for Christmas using the Washi paper she sent me. I thought about making a "welcome" sign using the alterable wooden trays I'd seen at Hobby Lobby but once I got there and really looked at them, I decided they wouldn't work for what I wanted. And since it's already the middle of June, they not only have Fall merchandise on display but also Christmas! OK, I get that they have to get the stuff to the stores, but can't we at least wait til after the 4th of July to display it?! All of their Spring merchandise was discounted 60% so as I was perusing the aisles looking to see what I couldn't live without, I found an already done Welcome sign that I knew I could alter with no troubles. I got it home and covered the letters with the Washi papers and let it dry then cut out around each letter. I had some Japanese embellies that the Japanese family and friend Jill had sent me, so what better use for it. So everything on the piece is Japanese. The ribbons, the crochet flowers and the paper flowers and dots. Debbie had sent me the cutest silver tone sushi platter tchotkes quite a while ago. I've used a couple on other projects and still have a few left. So there is one on the "O" as well. JoAnn moonlights on weekends at a sushi restaurant around the corner from their house taking phone orders, so I thought that would be appropriate.

I have the best friends!

Walked to the mailbox the other day and there's a box. From Debbie and Evan. What are they sending me? I get inside and open the box and it's REAL Vermont Maple Syrup! And some real Vermont maple candies that are shaped like maple leaves. How ingenious of the Vermonters! And a pen from the NH Motor Speedway. See, they were on vacay up that way a few weeks ago. And they got this great stuff to send to John and I. Now I'd never had the real Vermont maple syrup. I've had the fakey crap they sell in the stores here. I told Deb I had half a mind (no smart comments Thitou) not to tell John about the syrup and just eat it all by dipping my finger in the jug! But I couldn't do that! It is yumalicious and I am thinking of all sorts of different ways I can enjoy it. Some whomp biscuits are on my grocery list for this week, that's a given! Thank you both. Again. And again and again!

Mail surprise

Mailman pulls up in the driveway yesterday and blooooooooooows the horn. Heaven forbid he should have to get out of his truck! I go out and there's a package from Jeanne. http://orjustme.blogspot.com What's Jeanne sending me? I can detect a smell coming from the box, and silly me thinks she's baked me cookies. But why would Jeanne be baking ME cookies?! I get the box inside and open it and she's made me one of her fabulous little totes that she started making and I had to be a smart ass (I know...hard to imagine that out of me!) and tell her my favorite colors RE blues and browns. And there's also a bar of handmade Patchouli soap from http://www.hickoryridgeorganics.net/ which has a store over on the East coast of FL close to her. Beings how we are both of the 70's era in our growing up years, we share an affinity of patchouli. Mt bestest friend at the time and I used to burn patchouli incense so as to mask the smell of burning...ahhh...illegal tobacco-ish products in our cars so if the police stopped us, they couldn't smell the...oh nevermind!! I have the soap on one of the shelves in my bathroom and the smell is just heavenly. I almost don't have the heart to use it! Thank you again, my friend! I will enjoy using both of these gifts.

Life Delights

This is the last project that was found on my (S)crap heap! Well, there was one more, but somehow the directions for putting it together got lost, thrown away, who knows?! I sat and finagled with it for quite a while but could not figure what I was supposed to do, so I threw it away. No sense keeping it if I don't know how it goes together!

This was a l-o-n-g ago promo for CTMH. Called Life Delights Memory Showcase Album. Life Delights paper is long gone. The Memory Showcase Albums are still available and they make great gifts! They come in 6 x 6 and 9 x 9. The saddest part of this being an unfinished project was that I had put all of the pages together. All I had to do was stick them in the album! So this one was completed in less than 5 minutes.