Birthday Cards

I have several birthdays in August so I had to make some cards. One was a quick card using left overs and the other took a bit longer, but both were fun to make.

The first card also doubles as photo frame. I covered chipboard with this pretty pattern paper from MME. I covered both sides of the chipboard with paper so it looks good from front and back.

I used a Sizzix die to cut out the frame shape. I have two of the same Sizzix frame die, but in the second die I took out the frame "center" cutting blades so it would cut a full shape with out the "hole".

It's not hard to do, you just need a good pair of pliers!



I slipped a mat in front of the greeting, here the wood grain paper. To add a photo, just slip out the greeting and slip in the photo. I also used foam strips to raise the front of the frame for a shadow box look.
I made all the flowers using punches and flower stamens from the cake supply store. I colored the spiky white stamens with Copic markers to a  warm yellow shade.

The  card below was for my sis-in-law. She likes western themed things so these left over chipboard pieces from Cosmo Cricket made quick card embellishments. 

The sentiment is part of a set from Close to My Heart.

I hope the recipients of these cards liked them!

Thanks for visiting.

Fair Time

Hello, long time no post! Life and work have gotten in the way of my crafting and scrapping! Hopefully my next post will be sooner. 

It was just county fair time here in Sonoma County. It is always a summer must for us to visit, to see the beautiful themed flower show, the animals, carnival and fair food!

I also love to check out the Adult Fine Art and Home Art Exhibits, and also the Kids exhibits. 

There are some talented people in our county. 

Almost every year I also enter items in the Home Art Exhibits. It is fun to see my creations on display and see if I won any ribbons! 

Below are a few of my entries this year. 

I entered my smashed penny bracelet, made from my smashed pennies I gather on my travels. I added some bead accents and used my handy Crop-a-dile from my scrap tools to punch a hole in each smashed penny. 

I also entered this little sewing book I made while scrapping at my friend Narda's one weekend. I covered manila file folders with sewing themed scrapbook paper and real sewing pattern tissue. I covered chipboard for the covers and put it all together with my bind-it-all.  

 

I embroidered the little heart for the cover. The photos that will go in the album are photos of my sewing projects that I have given away or were out grown! 

I also made another paper mache figure, this time a Santa with his toy bag on a paper mache book. Santa is molded from styrofoam shapes and aluminum foil, covered in paper mache medium.  

Painted and covered with mica flakes, all set for Christmas!

I entered some cards too! 

 

And of course some scrapbook pages!



My 4th Fervor page even won a blue ribbon!

I had another 2 page scrap book lay out, but the fair crew only displayed one page! I was disappointed they only displayed one side as they were attached together? The judge wrote on my entry, "where's the journaling?"  On the half of the lay out you did not see!

My son Henry entered a Lego creation, as he does every year. He always themes his creation to the Fair theme, and wins a blue ribbon every year he has entered.

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully my next blog post comes a little bit sooner that the last! 

4th of July Craftiness

I added a few new ornaments to my 4th of July tree this year. I made these three little barrel ornaments from empty ribbon spools. I store most of my ribbon on old fashioned clothes pins so when I buy a new ribbon spool I take it off the spool and transfer it to the clothes pin. What to do with the empty spool besides toss it?

Why make an ornament of course!

Below are the basic steps to make an ornament. First remove the ribbon. Then carefully take off the round chipboard sides so you just have the "spool" left. I added some music paper to this spool with a decoupage medium.

When that dried I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the spool and threaded a hanging loop through the hole with bakery twine.

The next step was to find a die about a half inch larger in diameter than the spool. One of my scalloped Spellbinders "nesties" worked perfectly! Solid colored card stock or paper with two sides works best as you will see both sides.

I centered the first scalloped circle on the table, centered the spool on top and glued the inside edges. Then I added glue to the top of the spool and centered the other circle on the spool. If your pattern paper has a definite up or down design, be sure to line up the pattern with the hanging loop.
Next step was to weight the spool until the glue dries. I used a several items sitting on my table to weight the spool. A plastic jar bigger than the spool and floral frog.

When the glue is dry, it is time for the fun part! Since these were for my 4th of July tree I used my stash of patriotic papers and embellies to decorate both sides. Crepe paper ruffles, glass glitter, glitter paper, Stickles, punches and dies. On several of the ornaments I also added some paper border trim around the spool. 

I had some bits and pieces left over and put together this tiny garland ornament. Each pennant is only about an inch tall! 

Thanks for looking! As always, any questions post a comment!