Spring Has Sprung!

 

I'm still in love with this little bunny girl stamp. She's a lot tinier than she looks here and I think that's part of her charm. I stamped her with black Versa-fine permanent ink and colored her in with Faber-Castell colored markers (thank you, Valerie!).

After coloring the dresses I spritzed a little Color Shine on my craft mat and used a fine paint brush to paint the dresses so they would sparkle. Her shoes and rose got a coat of Glossy Accents, her ears a touch of sparkly clear Stickles. The ears weren't glued down so they could be bent forward, a touch I think makes her that much more adorable.

The "Spring has sprung" piece was stamped on polka-dotted paper, cut out and popped up with a pop-dot. On the inside I added 3 tiny confetti eggs to the corner.

 

Along top are 3 strips of Washi (paper) tape I picked up at Costco a while back. I matched them to the colors of each dress. I used two strips of grass stickers along the bottom, placing them so that some of the strands of grass covered her shoes so it looked more like she was standing in the midst of it.

I wanted to make more, but her little legs were a booger to cut. I'm mailing them so late in the game I decided to make them Spring cards instead of saying happy Easter. Think anyone will notice?

Halloween Cards

Dawn bought a set of the cutest Halloween stamps I ever did see, and, of course, I had to get my grubby little hands on them first. I love this little witch so much! I used colored pencils and markers to doll them up then fussy-cut them and applied them with pop-dots. I stamped more little pumpkins and used Glossy Accents on them then popped them up as well.

I used both sides of the same paper for the card, added the sparkly candy piece and stamped "Trick or Treat" on it. The tiny spider is a sticker. They were a lot of fun to make.

I was going to make my second batch of Halloween cards like this, but there was more to it than I first thought. Whoever gets this one will be receiving a one-of-a-kind. I made more with this adorable little stamp and will upload images of those later.

I stamped extra pumpkins and applied Glossy Accents, let them dry, cut them out and then popped them up with foam pop-dots along the strip and in her little hand. I stamped again and colored her costume and fussy-cut it so I could pop that up as well. Of course, everything is edged with ink to finish it off.

I love this little girl so much, I gave her tiny red Swarovski crystals in her ponytails. I kept the inside simple by using white ink to stamp a tiny Boo! I can just see her saying that in a squeaky little voice when the doors she knocks on are opened.

I made a few more cards, this time using a die-cut that sort of mimics her little pumpkin self. I stood her in a tuft of grass, which was cut from a strand of stickers I’ve had forever.

I popped up the pumpkins again with pop-dots and added tiny little flower beads to her ponytails.

You can’t really see it in the photos, but the eyes, nose and mouth of the big pumpkin sparkles as does her collar, hair and dots on her tights.

 

Again I made the inside simple only this time I embossed the word Boo! instead of stamping it with wh white ink.

 I love this little girl as well, she's so stinkin' adorable!

I believe I'm done with Halloween cards, but I'm thinking about doing a few for Thanksgiving. Then there's Christmas, and if it takes me as long to do those as it did these, I better get going right now!

Birthday Crafting

My twin daughters, Valerie and Dawn, turned 29 this month, so I've been crafting like crazy for them. It's been fun to craft with such a purpose. I made quite a few things, cards, journals, rosettes, shrinky-dinks cut from dies, a fairy jar and these elephants. I'll share a couple at a time so my posts won't be a mile long.

Valerie collects elephants (as did my mother), which gave me a great starting point. I made the little white elephant a while back by layering tissue paper and water into a mold, letting it dry then coating it with Glossy Accents. I used one of the dollar frames I found at Michael's a long time ago, backed it with fabric adhesive and glued the little fella to that. (Later I added some grey highlights, but I should have let it be. Ya live and ya learn.) I added an umbrella embellishment and dubbed it "I've got it covered."

Another gift I made her was a little felted elephant. I've played around with needle felting, but I never really made anything, so this was quite a fete for me. (I drew blood 3 times and broke 2 felting needles, something I'm sure a lot of newbies can relate to.) But it was fun trying to figure out what was what, like the tiny brads I used for the eyes. When I finished I decorated a little square plastic container with cork that looks like brown pebbles or a bumpy road, moss and flowers and put it inside that, just so there was a safe place he wouldn't get damaged.

My favorite part of the elephant is the back end, like there's a swagger to the walk. I'll post more as I get my photos uploaded.

Rosettes

Rosettes For A Memorial

 

I crafted about 50 rosettes in the colors of the San Fransisco 49ers for my daughter's co-worker. (The colors aren't exact, but it was the only paper she could find. P.S. The photos make the red look pink.) Her father passed away so these will be used along with other table decorations for the gathering afterward.

Rather than making it all dreary and sad, I like that the family has chosen to celebrate this man's life incorporating the fun things he loved during his lifetime.

The rosettes were fun to make and went together easily. They did take some time, though, which is no biggie if you're only making a few, but when you're making them in bulk you need to be organized enough to know what it entails. If you've never used this die, I recommend watching Tim Holtz's demo video.  His videos are so informative and helpful, I keep them in my YouTube favorites folder for quick reference.

Another item I highly recommend having on hand is a reusable non-stick surface. Laying down dots of hot glue for the center of your rosettes will be challenging if you don't have one.

The only part I wasn't fond of was gluing the ends together to make the circle. The paper was thinner than the heavier scrapbooking paper I'm used to working with and the rosettes small, so my fingers seemed like boulders when it came to lining up the tiny ends. But after I began using a glue stick instead of the Glossy Accents (a liquid glue of sorts) Tim Holtz recommends for heavier paper (as I did with these), the ends came together a lot easier.

This particular die makes one rosette and one center at a time, which is great. In this instance, though, the paper wasn't long enough to cut the rosette and the center at the same time, so I used a circle punch for the centers. It worked out for the better because I had extras in case I screwed up, which, of course, is inevitable.

There are so many things one can do with a rosette (Google, you will be amazed). I picked up some super wide ribbon with a stiff texture the other day and it worked wonderfully! This opens up a whole new world of ideas. I am hooked and can't wait to make more!