And the Muse Spoke to Me...

Are you ready to see what he/she/it said? 

 

I'm really happy with the results, I think they turned out lovely.On the back of each tag I've written "You hold the key to my heart!" So what's your opinion? Do you have a favorite? Is your muse speaking to you these days?

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

Muses...

Sometimes they disappear without warning. I've been feeling very "un-artistic" for a couple weeks now. Is it like that for you? Do you get dry spells? The good news is that when you are at your most frustrated, they reappear. I'm not sure who or what my muse is but I am SOOOOOO glad it's back.

This morning as I was sitting in my office before dawn, frustrated and thinking I was just going to make the same ol' whatever when it hit me like a ton of bricks!

A while ago I ordered some wrought iron keys from Pick Your Plum. I'm terrible about not reading fine print so when they arrived, they were two or three times bigger than I had imagined. Originally I wanted to make Santa keys with them, you know the ones that you hang if you don't have a fire place. Alas, they were just to big for that. What to do with them...nothing hit me so they've hung on my office wall for months.

It's kinda blurry since I took the pic on my phone, but you get the idea. They measure 9 1/2" top to bottom so they are BIG and weigh a lot.

Can you guess what I'm making with them? No? Well stop by tomorrow and I'll show you what the muse said to me.

Love ya,
~Deb~

Great Blog, Cool Projects

I've been following Astrid for a while now. She has some of the coolest projects. I thought I'd share her site with those of you that aren't familiar with it. Besides being a terrific blog, I also won a set of dies from her in her December give away. Cool right? Go check out her projects. I guarantee you'll be amazed!

 
 Astrid's artistic efforts















Love ya,
~Deb~

Finally Getting Back to Regular Life

Whew! The holidays were busy, busy, busy. We had a great time but I'm kinda glad it's over, kinda sorta ...

 

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and are looking forward to a bright New Year! Thank you for sticking with me during my hiatus.

 

Here's a few pics of the fam in case you're interested and then the project I made is after that so keep scrolling!

 

 The fam

 The fam in our hats

4 dressed dogs all in a row

 Besties

My parents, Joy and Dave with us.

 



I couldn't show you what I'd been working on since it was a gift for my mom but since Santa has come and gone I can show you now. As I told you earlier, we are going on a cruise in mid January to celebrate my parents 60th wedding anniversary. I decided the perfect gift was a smash book of sorts to highlight the places we'll be going. It totals 12 pages besides the front and back cover. I painted the chipboard first and then embellished with papers stickers etc.

 Jolee's Boutique had some great cruise stickers. I used a Fiskars wave punch to make the rows of water and added some Deco Art texture to make the sea foam.

 Background papers were from Auntie Social's cruise collection. The passport is another Jolee's Boutique item and when you open it it looks like a real passport with a place for your photo and personal information and then pages for pictures, journaling or whatever.

 The gold paper is actually wrapping paper and the slides on top are by K & Company. I'm not sure where I found the journaling spot at sorry. The map I pulled off the Internet and then added the picture corners and chipboard letters both of which are made by Recollections.

 

Inside the package of one of the Jolee's stickers was this image you could cut out to create a parcel package. I filled it with some lace, strings of pearls and a gold chain to make it look like they'd been shopping. On the opposite page There are beach stickers also from Jolee's. There's a towel with sunglasses, some flip flops in the sand, a water bottle, and some sunscreen.

For this one I found a map and a flag of Belize on Wikipedia, mounted them and ran some ribbon down the edge to make it look more finished, then added the chipboard letters.

On the next page I painted a sun setting over the water, attached the word sunset out of the chipboard letters, and put corners to mount a picture. A very simple page.

OK so I was stumped on this one. I knew I wanted to incorporate the ruins but I couldn't find any stickers etc. of them, only pictures. I wanted it to be more 3D so I took a thin piece of foam, cut it into brick size pieces and created my own. I painted it with grays and browns to resemble stone. After mounting on the book I added Flower Soft to make grass and trees. I think it came out OK but I would have like it to be better. Again added the chipboard letters and the journaling tag.

On the opposite page I modge podged some mint green tissue. I was going for that rough sea look. I used a Studio G stamp for the Ahoy in black pigment.

For this page I found a picture of Cozumel written in the sand. I added some white flower soft along the edge of the water for foam and some sand colored (duh! :) ) for some texture in the sand areas. It's hard to see here but it came out cool in real life. Then I used a ruler and drew on some journaling lines.

For the opposing page I used another K & Company slide but I mounted it on white CS to make it stand out a bit more. I put some sand Flower Soft at the bottom of the page and set the Jolee's drink stickers in the "sand". I made a pop out picture album with another of Auntie Socials papers as the front and then attached a closure of paper with a Recollections little plastic suit case  for the front.

I can't show you the back cover because my mom walked in just then and I forgot to take one later. For the back I used glue to do a crackle paint technique so it would look like wood (get it? wood of a boat) not that boats are made much out of wood anymore but I like the idea.

So that's my big project for December. My mother seemed to be thrilled with it so I hope she can fill it with lots of memories from our upcoming trip.

Til next time...

Love ya,
~Deb~

A Christmas Gift for You

Merry Christmas to all you fellow crafter's. This has been a very tough year for me but I am so grateful for what the Lord has given me. I have found my way through the dark times and am now enjoying life more than I have in a long time. To end this year I want to thank God for blessing us, and thank all of you for reading my blog and giving me encouragement with my projects. The best way I know how to do that is to give something back. I hope it's meaningful to you and you enjoy using it.

 

As usual, click to enlarge then left click to save.

 

May your Christmas be filled with joy in abundance and your New Year be peaceful, filled with blessings and happiness.

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

Light Fixtures are Christmas Ornaments?

Last year, my husband gave me the light fixtures I wanted for Christmas. We bought the house 2 1/2 years ago and are still working on fixing it up. It was built in 1947, was in good shape when we bought it but needed updating. The light fixture in the dining area was one of those flat square thingies and gave out too little light. I'm kind of eclectic and I saw these balls at IKEA and had to have them.

This year, I transformed them into ornaments hanging over the table. I may add some regular ones hanging down too. I haven't decided yet. I guess it will depend if time allows since I'm so far behind. So tell me, cute or just plain ugly?

Lit up.

 

I should have had the wall mounted fireplace going too. Sigh...after thoughts.

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

When I get to Heaven...

I'm going to ask God why he gives so much talent to a few and none to others! You have to see these videos by Mary Ellen at Dearie Dolls. They were on her site but I put them here for you to enjoy too. Ugh! She kills me with her talent.

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

Cookies Coming Out of My Ears

Yesterday I baked 12 1/2 dozen cookies and 3 cakes. I don't think I've ever baked that much in one day. Usually I try to break it up over a few days but being sick REALLY put me behind. Are you guys ready for Christmas? Today is wrapping day for me. I need to get finished so I can enjoy the last few days.

Today I have my last card of the year. I thought I was done but then Mary Ellen posted the cutest images and I couldn't resist. I merged 4 of hers together to make one very sweet card.

 

Isn't the image adorable? I cheated and used her pre-colored images to save some time. Not like me but hey...I'm behind LOL. I used glossy accents to give the face of the clock a glass look and used flower soft for the stockings and hat edges. It's the first time I've used flower soft...not sure how I feel about it. I wove a textured ribbon through the lattice ribbon and added lights. Mary Ellen, I can't tell you how much I love your stuff! You're the best and I hope you have a peaceful blessed Christmas, thank you for all the images you share. If you haven't checked out her site by now with all the shout outs I've given her then go right now. Don't wait just do it. I promise you'll fall in love with her work like I have. Click here to get you there!

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

Answer and Show Update

I meant to post this the day I got home but I was looking for the camera so I could put the picture of the booth in. We lost it. This has not been my week. Sorry for the delay.

Well, I'm home! I did two days of shows while down visiting my parents. The first day was horrible! I thought for sure it was gonna be a total loss. I literally sold 2 cards in a 4 hour period. Certainly discouraging but I kept telling myself it was OK, I was getting to spend time with Mom & Dad.

I begrudgingly got up for the second day of the show, not expecting to do any better. Boy was I wrong! I sold $120 or so. When you consider the fact that it was only cards, they were buy two get one free for regular cards, all the Christmas cards were marked 50% off to get rid of them, and they ranged regular price from $3.50 - $5.50, I think I did amazingly well. Of course I spent more at the fair then I made, but that's OK. Christmas shopping almost complete and I cleaned out my stock quite a bit. Absolutely no complaints here plus I learned a lot about that venue.

We had a great time with my parents and their friends. Jen thinks their friends are so nice and funny too. We laughed a lot so the whole trip was worth every second.

Came home to no heat and a 21 degree night so I'm waiting for the heating guys to show up now. My fingers are having a hard time typing I'm so cold. With that in mind, I'll sign off for now.

 

Now for the answer in case you couldn't spot the mistake on yesterday's post. I forgot to color the glass on the inside car :(

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

MIA...sorry

I owe you all an apology, I've been MIA all week. I've been ill and trying to squeeze Christmas stuff into what little energy I had so I haven't been able to make anything to show you on here. I am so sorry.

Apology #2 I'm sorry if I wasn't clear in my last post. I don't leave on the cruise until mid January, so I'll be around blogging until then :) The cruise is my Dad's gift to my Mom for their 60th Anniversary. He's taking all of us kids and their spouses, what a great husband and a fantastic Dad isn't he?

I am going to show you what I made for my mother's birthday. It was back in November and it's a quick easy project. It's an adult Sippy Cup LOL

(the beer mug behind, my daughter made for her Dad)


These cups were so easy to make and with the addition of wine, champagne, beer, coffee, etc. they make a great gift.

Here's how:

Choose a CLEAR GLASS cup or glass of your choice (coffee, wine, beer mug etc.)

You can use Acrylic paints in many brands for this project (like Plaid or Folk Art). I used Martha Stewart Glass Paint. As long as the manufacturer says the paint can be baked on your good to go.

Print out your saying in font of your choice to fit the cup/glass. Tape this to the inside and then draw it on with your paint. Simpler fonts are easier to use obviously. Let dry.

Next step can be done in two (2) ways:
     1. Print out a design and tape inside then paint on or
     2. use sponge daubers in a 2 or 3 sizes and make dots like I did for these. You could make your own geometrical shapes as well but I liked the dots.

Again let dry. Then follow your paint manufactures directions for baking to make it safe to wash. For my MS paint I put them on a baking sheet in a cold oven heated to 200 for 25 minutes, then turned the oven off and allowed to cool completely. I left them in over night.

Tie a ribbon around the stem or handle, add your bottle or bag of drink to the inside (use mini bottles) and you have a cute personalized gift. Easy peasy.

Hope you found this useful and If you make your own, link up I'd love to see. I'm planning to make some non personalized one for the sale in February. I'll show you more shapes and designs when they are completed.


Love ya,
~Deb~

And The Winner Is....

It's that time! Thank you all for celebrating with me and good luck!

That means terriavidreader! Congrat's Terri! I'll email you and you have 3 days to respond with your address.

 

Folks if I don't get a response I'll draw again. If you didn't win, take heart. I'll have another drawing in February! I'll be back from my cruise and hopefully I'll find some awesome stuff while I'm away to pass on to you.

 

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

Free Paper

I told you about my daughter's soon to be MIL in a previous post here. Well she generously offered a couple of papers to give away today. The first is a Christmas paper using some Outlaw by Design elements. The other two are masculine papers that she was playing with for a project I was doing. Enjoy, and if you've finished all your Christmas cards for this year, save it for next year!

Remember, she'll do any custom paper for you including your own personal pics, or tell her your theme and she'll be creative, for $1.50. Just e-mail me the info for your request if your interested.

 

As always, click to enlarge then right click to save.

 

Love ya,

~Deb~

Last Chance for Candy!

Morning Everyone,

I'll post again later about my craft fair but I wanted to remind you about my candy give away. It's your last chance to sign up. The drawing ends Wednesday at 5pm so if you haven't signed up do it now! It's a $30 value prize package. You can find it here.

Here's another picture to encourage you.

Love ya,
~Deb~

Change Up! Masculine Cards

While I was decoupaging the Nativity I also had my daughter cut up some masculine sheets for me so I could make some birthday cards for men. The first is from La Pashe called Remember When (garage set).

 

Isn't it cool?

I couldn't figure out how to fit the little boy on the front so I put him inside instead and cut out another car. Can you see my mistake on the car? Compare it to the front and tell me if you can spot it. I'll tell you the answer tomorrow in case you miss it.

I'll be back live and in person tomorrow so I can tell you how the shows went. See you soon.

Love ya,
~Deb~

Decoupage Nativity & a Freebie

I found this over at Free Craft Downloads and thought it was so pretty. It's a bit fussy to cut out each piece but hey that's what daughters still living at home at the age of 19 are for right?

After she cut them out for me I decoupaged each with Mod Podge and then waited for them to dry...an hour later, I layered them with pop dots and then mounted the whole thing on background paper.

Let me tell you ab it about the background paper. It started out as a background from Auntie Social called Nativity. In the right hand corner where three Kings/Wisemen. I loved the background but my image already had them on it so I needed them removed. I'm not stealing if I give credit right? So I called on my crafty partner in crime, my daughters future MIL and asked for help. She does amazing work and can fix almost any image for me. She's going to be my literal business partner in Feb. when we get the store up. So I asked her to make the background usable by removing the kings. I guess I could have covered them up with the other image but I'm neurotic at times and wanted it perfect.

The cross will be a freebie for you if you read all the way to the end.

Here you can see the image popped up, It's hard to get a clear picture of decoupage because no matter how you turn the camera you get a glare. You get the idea though.

 

Inside, I used an image from Inkgenious. I found it through Carmen over at Beyond the Fringe Crafts. She does these great blog tours that she calls sleigh rides and she manages to find the coolest stuff! There's a funny story behind how I got the art so ask Carmen all about it when you visit.

 

I screwed up on the size and made it about 1/2" to big for my envelopes so I had to make my own. UGH! One more thing on my to do list before the show. What did I expect on almost no sleep though.

Back to my friend who did the background. She will do a custom background with images of your choosing or just give her what your looking for and she'll find and create the paper for you. She charges $1.50 for a custom paper. Not a bad price. Email me with the information and I'll pass it on to her and send you an invoice after you approve it. Easy Peasy and totally custom. You can even use your own personal pictures, how cool is that?

Now for the freebie, enjoy!

Love ya,
~Deb~