Romantic Heart

Valentines may be over but the trend at the moment is heart banners that are year round decorations. Since Romance is the theme for Miriam's Crafting Supplies and I entered a heart banner swap I thought a marriage between them was the perfect answer!

Miriam's The Craft Source store (her brick and mortar) has Tim Holtz fabric and Wild Orchid Craft flowers that I ordered and used to create this. The embellishments are from both heronline supplies store and my Gone Artsy store.

Thanks for stopping by today and I appreciate all you wonderful followers new and old!

Love ya,
~Deb~

Romantic and Warm

This month's challenge is all about Romance at Miriam's Crafting Blog. Romance does not have to be all kisses and red hearts. 

a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.
"the beauty and romance of the night"
synonyms: mystery, glamour, excitement, exoticism, mystique; 

Romance can be an elegant piece of jewelry, it can be a beautiful sunset, or it can be soft and warm like this piece I am sharing today. This infinity scarf would add just a touch of elegance and warmth on a winter day. It can even be doubled up to create a tighter neck area for additional protection on very cold days.

To create this I started by crocheting with a good quality nubby yarn. When I got it to the length I wanted it I looped it and added in 3 loops of Ivory Crochet Ruffle Stretch Lace. I bound it together with another loop of crochet and stitching to make it durable. On top, to add some elegance and romance, I added a Long Stem Rose Metal Embellishment and I embedded a 10mm Pink Flat Back Pearl in the center. That is stitched on as well. It was a fun project and I plan to make more designs available for sale in the Gone Artsy Store.

Speaking of Gone Artsy...I'm having a 20% off sale this week. On top of the everyday 25% off MSRP that's a lot of savings. Everything in the store is marked with only a couple of exceptions so if your interested in some beautiful things, Hop on over and take a look. Sale ends Friday at midnight CST!

Visit:  Gone Artsy by clicking the words or 

use this link: http://goneartsy.zibbet.com 

As always, thank you sooooo much for being loyal fans and followers! Hope you have a FANTASTIC Valentines Day!

Love ya,

~Deb~

Pearls Of Wisdom - A Tutorial

Continuing in  the theme of Shades of White over at Miriam's Crafting Blog. It is my turn to create a tutorial. I decided to do a written one rather then a video this time around because the process was easy but time consuming for glue drying. My project is a Mini Clipboard. Nearly everything on it came from Miriam's Crafting Supplies with the exception of the feather, which came from my Gone Artsy store, and the calligraphy nib which I picked up at an office supply. The clipboard came from AC Moore.

Supplies From Miriam's Crafting Supplies:

White Small 5 Petal Flower
Silver Tone Glasses Charm
Bronze tone Pocket Watch Charm with White Face
ATC Sized Canvas Piece
Small Vial
Assorted Shapes and Sizes of Pearls
5mm White AB Rhinestones
Round Pearl Beads (not listed in the store but available by contacting her)

1. Paint the wood part of the Clip Board with a light coat of gesso...you're going for a white washed look, not solid coverage.

2. Next glue the feather to the nib to create your "pen".

3. Place small round pearls in the tall clear glass vial and add enough clear glue to cover. Allow to dry completely. I used Journey Glaze.

4. Insert the "pen into the vial and a bit more glue to hold it in place. Dry thoroughly.

5. Paint some glue on the back of your ATC size canvas to stiffen it some. When dry use a round dowel type object (paint brush ends work great for this) and your heat gun to soften the glue enough to curl the canvas around the dowel a bit. Let cool and write your sentiment using a silver pen.

6. Place the canvas on the clipboard and glue in place.

7. Embellish with your "pearl inkwell and pen" set and any other objects you so desire. 

I really love how this turned out and I have already been asked by someone if they could purchase it. We'll see, I kinda like it too much to sell :). I hope you like it too...you still have time to join in the challenge at Miriam's Crafting Blog! Create something in Shades of White and enter!

Love ya,

~Deb~

Let it Snow!

Well not here please LOL...I did my time in the tundra and am enjoying the more moderate weather here in Florida. But this month is Shades of White over at Miriam's Crafting Blog so of course my first thought was snow. I remember the way the pristine white looked against the red brick buildings and I always thought it was kind of magical in it's appearance so I tried to replicate that in a small wall hanging.

Come join in the challenge...White is an easy color to work with! You never know you might be the next winner.

For this project I used the following products from Miriam's Crafting Supplies:

3 Bronze tone snowflake charms - I painted them white

4 Silver tone snowflake charms - I painted them white

4 White Corner embellishments

I hope you enjoyed this very simple project. Anyone can do it! So come on...go join in on the challenge!

Love ya,

~Deb~

Cigar Box Anyone?

It's still steampunk theme for Miriam's Crafting Supplies so for my second project this month I chose to make an altered cigar box for my cousin. He smokes cigars and gave me a bunch of boxes so I felt the best way to thank him for those was to make him an altered one for his humidor room. I used a traveling theme with a train, hot air balloon, clocks, springs, gear key, typewriter keys, chipboard gears, chains, a mini bottle and some resined chip board quotes. The paper was DCWV. I also used a Tim Holtz Stencil and some DecoArt Terracotta paste. I'm in love with the clawed feet from Miriam's store. I think they really added to the piece.

I had a ball making this. I always do when I'm working steampunk! I hope you enjoy peeking at it!

The Top

Front

Sides

Back

and the Inside Top

I left the inside of the box plain wood.I wanted it to be rough and manly. I plan to put a bottle opener and a new cigar cutter in there for him. I'm hoping that he will love displaying it in his "special cigar room".

Thanks for stopping by again and as always...

Love ya!

~Deb~

Pink Passion!

As usual I am way behind in posting! I do actually have a good excuse this time LOL!

Mid September I had a total knee replacement done on my right knee. They say it's the second most painfully surgery there is. I can honestly say it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected and maybe that's because the docs told me that! It is however a slow recovery period. Nearly three straight weeks of basically bed rest with exercises (PT came to the house everyday) and ice while you lay there. After that there's Outpatient PT for a month 3 times a week. Your stamina goes way down and every effort exhausts you, but pain?  Not so bad. Anyway I am mid way through recovery and walking with out a cane so I'm REALLY happy with my progress and can get back to a fairly normal life. I still have the PT and I still get more tired then before but each day is a little better.

So enough with my excuse! Let's get to the projects I did for this month.

As you all know, Breast Cancer Awareness is crucially important to me. It runs in my family and I keep a close watch on mine and get my mammo's regularly. They may be a pain but if they can save my life I'm doing it! 

Gone Artsy and Miriam's Crafting Supplies have teamed up this month to do an auction to raise funds for this important cause. DT members from both groups, which of course I am on both :), has each made project(s) to donate. They've spent their time and materials creating some AWESOME art so I hope you will come join in and if you can bid, if you can't bid invite your friends and maybe they can! The funds raised will go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. You can find the event on Facebook here: Auction to Benefit the BCRF

The first two projects were made for earlier this month and the last is a YT tutorial on a canvas. All of these will be up for auction. I hope you like what I've done!

To see what's inside, you'll have to go to the Gone Artsy Blog or to Miriam's Crafting Supplies Blog

And here's the tutorial link for the canvas

PLEASE come help us with this EVENT!

Love ya,

~Deb~

Pop Goes the Gum

It's time for Miriam's Crafting Blog Try this at Home Friday Tutorial and It's my turn again! Keeping with the St. Jude's kids theme I've created instructions to make a faux bubble gum machine. So are you ready to start?


Supplies:
1 clay pot (I used muffin size)
2 clay saucers to fit this size pot
Acrylic or spray paint in color of your choice (if you use acrylic you will also need a clear sealer)
Round glass vase to fit your size pot
E6000 or other strong water proof glue
1 embossed box corner
1/2 of a round metal latch
1 30mm wood button
1 round bead
1 flat back pearl
1 shank style button for your knob
a small spring
2 small jump rings
Ribbon to embellish with
Bubblegum to fill it!

1. Take your clay pot and 2 saucers and paint them inside and out with paint color of your choice.

2. When the paint is dry, glue the glass vase into one of the saucers as shown.

3. When that step is completely dry {don't do it to soon or you'll break it like I did :( }, glue that piece to the BOTTOM of the clay pot.

4. While step three is drying you can work on your lid. Take the second saucer and glue your wood button to the center. You can paint it if you like but I liked the yellowish wood tone on mine so I left it plain. I turned it upside down so there was no pattern showing. Glue the bead to the center of the button and then add a flat back pearl to the very top to hide the hole in the bead. This becomes the handle to your lid so make sure you use a good glue.

5. For the spring, I used one out of a pen and then cut it in half. You don't want the turn knob to stick out to far but it does need that added dimension. Twist the end of the spring on to the shank part of the button and then glue that down.

6. The box corner and latch parts were originally bronze. I sprayed mine silver because that's my memory of bubblegum machines. That bright shiny silver was so enticing! I trimmed on edge of the box corner to make it look like a spout before I painted it. Th attach the two pieces use your small jump rings through the provided holes.

7. Attach your ribbon and the glue the spout and knob over the seams to hide them. Fill it with gum and put the lid on. Enjoy an occasional treat with the kids!

How cute would this be sitting on your desk filled with beads instead? These two will be included in the auction over at Miriam's FB event for St. Jude's. Please stop by and help this great cause! You can find it by clicking this:

St. Jude's Benefit Auction

Love ya,

~Deb~

She's Puzzled!

This month at Miriam's Crafting Blog the theme is children. We are doing it in honor of St. Jude's as that is a charity near and dear to Miriam. Each of the DT members created an item to auction off for the charity. 100% of the proceeds will be given to the St. Jude's foundation.

Please join with us by donating in the event area on FB for this worthy cause. The event is linked here: St. Jude's Charity Auction 

So for my project I used from Miriam's store:

Pink Necklace Base
Puzzle piece charms
Made with Love charm
Silver flat back pearl
Pink Rhinestone

I also used from my stash:

A felt heart
Pink jump rings
A bottle cap charm
Silver wood beads
A Pink Sharpie
Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

And here's what I made out of all that...

And I created a box for it so it can be easily gifted with no fuss!

Hope you like it. Stop by and see what other fab items are up for auction by all my DT sis's. Again you can find the event at St. Jude's Charity Auction.

Love ya,
~Deb~

A Blinged Out Ride

As we continue with the fantasy theme at Miriam's Crafting Blog I decided to go traditional, the real deal, original fairytale material. I made Cinderella's Coach and I had a ball doing it!

I took a foam pumpkin, painted it white, and then sprayed it with Krylon white glitter paint. A couple of coats gave it a really nice sparkle! Then I began to build; metal tags painted shiny silver for the wheels, mounted on wood skewers painted sliver for the axles, a broken metal stand taken apart became the breeching dee, rigger, and hitch, and a miniature mirror became the door. I used strip of a pop can covered in material to make the seat and coachman's foot step.

After that is was a matter of embellishing. I used Bronze Tone Flower Embellishments for hubcaps and placed gold Candy brand dots for centers; Star Flowers painted silver with Krylon Mirror Paint then cut in half became the crown dotted with rhinestones and flat back pearls. The metal flowers, rhinestones and pearls are all from Miriam's Crafting Supplies.

Final touches included tiny strings of pearls, ribbon and flowers (some of which I painted to match), adding the chain for the harness, and of course the horses. The Cinderella figurine I picked up at Target while I was looking for the horses simply because she was so perfect with it!

And here is the final result for your inspiration, hope you like it!

Don't forget to link up to this month's challenge at Miriam's Crafting Blog for your change to win a gift certificate for her store. I Adore working with her items and if you haven't tried them now's your chance to try and win some! Click on the link above to go right to the challenge page.

Love ya,
~Deb~