Merry Christmas!

Credit: Google Nativity Wallpaper

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I want to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

I'm so grateful for this crafty community and certainly appreciate those of you who prayed for me during my recent surgery. All is going very well and I'm blessed beyond measure to have so many wonderful blog and Facebook buddies.

God Bless,

Lisa xx

  

O Christmas Tree!

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge #17 

Hi everyone! Can you believe I'm linking my project up early lol. I'm having my gallbladder taken out on Wednesday and did not want to let this challenge pass me up so I kicked it into high gear. I love Tim's process for altering his woodland trees and the tinsel as well. You can check it out on pg. 60 of his CC3 book and if you are looking for a last minute gift click here to get an autographed copy from Tim.

I rummaged around in my alterables stash and came up with some items to use for my project. 

The box is an old Christmas card box and it made a great base, the Brie cheese container serves as a platform for my two trees and JOY letterpress letters and the picture frame was a thrift store find some time ago. Each was given a coat of Gesso then I added white felt to the card box base and sprinkled distress glitter over it. A Graphic 45's 12 Days of Christmas border decorates the edges.

The Brie cheese box was covered with Tim's tissue wrap, given a dusting of spun sugar distress glitter and the edge was wrapped in ribbon. The picture frame was  painted with a silver metallic Adirondack Paint Dabber.

The silver tinsel was altered using Tim's technique and I added vintage Victorian tissue wrap to each of the frames. I altered plastic beads to add to my woodlands trees and a mirrored star adorns the top of each one.

I love Tim's letterpress letters and was so happy to receive a pack in the prize package I won for my Faded Layers Tag. They're great like they are or you can alter them to fit in with your color scheme with a dab of paint. This was a super fun project to make!

The Inspiration Emporium is sponsoring this challenge and offering a 

to one lucky winner. 

That's all for me today, my family and I would appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery from my surgery. Thanks so much!

Lisa 

xx

Inspiration From Within Your Home

Altered patriotic metal stars

Inspiration From Within Your Home

That's the new challenge at Top Tip Tuesday and I'm hosting this one. We're looking for projects that you create using inspiration from something in your home and we want you to also include a photo of what inspired you. 

Here's my inspiration photo

This is our patriotic themed guest room and the flags in the room inspired me to makeover this trio of metal stars. Originally they were black and now they've been updated with designer paper, craft paint and Mod Podge. 

Here are a few process photos

Each star received a coat of Gesso  and then I began to decoupage and paint.  

There are templates out there but I didn't use any of them, I opted to fit the paper to the star. Does that make sense, hope so. Basically I just molded the paper to the star, cut the excess off and gave it a good coat of Mod Podge. Once it was dried I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age it a bit. I repeated this process for the other small star but changed it up a bit for the larger star.

For this one I used a combo of craft paint and a small scale star designer paper. Martha Stewart's stencil tape was used to separate the areas. It's great because it's a low tack tape and won't peel off the paint when you lift it. I used inexpensive craft paint and gave it several coats letting it dry in between. 

Here's what it looked like after the painting/decoupage part was finished. I added a paper rosette to the center to finish it off and Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age it a bit as well. 

Here's the trio after all three were altered and put on display.

They rest on the shelf of the headboard my hubby and I made using inspiration I found on Pinterest. I fell in love with the idea of using a door for a headboard so we set off to find a door and then turned it into a queen size headboard. Here's the link in case you like this idea too. :) While I'm on the subject of Pinterest (which I love by the way) here's another cool idea I saw and put into use for my patriotic bedroom.

I love this table top patriotic themed tree! I decorated it with glass ornaments and Fourth of July party decorations which I found at Hobby Lobby. No kidding, even the flags were purchased there. The glass star ornaments were a Lowe's find and they are perfect. The fluffy white garland was a Wal-Mart find and my tree skirt is actually a quilt that my MIL made for my son when he was a toddler. Here's the link to the tree that inspired my tree. 

Here's one more Pinterest inspired idea and then I'll go, I promise. ;)

 I love the idea of using trunks as a nightstand. 

For more inspiration check out what my teamies created by clicking here to go to the TTT challenge blog. We're looking forward to seeing what inspires all of you and please don't forget to include an inspiration photo in your blog post. 

SPONSOR

Fred She Said

 

Prize is a $20 gift voucher to the online store.

Thanks for hanging in there, have a wonderful day!

Lisa xx

What's Shaking???

Mitten Shaker Card

There's nothing more fun than making a shaker card and today I have two to share with you. I have to confess that I've never made a shaker card before and have no idea why it has taken me so long to do so. These are FUN! 

~ The Cutting Cafe ~

I used the Christmas Shape Shaker Cards cutting file and in no time I created the Mitten and Snowglobe Shaker Cards for two special peeps on my holiday card list. There are 8 assorted Christmas shape cutting files offered in this one file. :) That's right, 8!!!

Snowglobe Shaker Card

Sequins were added to both of my shaker cards and for this one I decided to stamp the background and create a magical scene. To me, there's nothing more magical than seeing Santa and his reindeer flying high in the sky on Christmas Eve. ;)

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut these files but if you do not own an electronic cutting machine, that's ok. Regina always offers a PDF file which you can print and cut yourself. 

You will need foam tape and acetate to create these and the rest is up to your imagination. I hope you have fun playing with shaker cards. 

Before I go, I have one more card to share today that is not related to our DT post. I was going through my folder and happened upon the House Shaped Card and Envelope Template and thought how cute it would be to send this as a Christmas card. The peppermint dp and Crystal Stickles add some holiday flair and I stamped a "From Our House to Yours" sentiment on the inside. I love the idea of using something in a different way!

Regina offers inserts for the windows which I didn't use because I couldn't find them on my messy desk so I drew curtains with a marker and colored my windows with Copic markers.

You can view more holiday cutting files/template/printable stamps at The Cutting Cafe  and to see more holiday inspired shaker cards be sure to check out TCC's blog tomorrow because the DT post is all about them. Also, If you'd like to be eligible to win 3 FREE sets from TCC leave a comment on the DT post and Regina will announce the winner on the 21st. 

Happy Creating!!!

Lisa xx

PEACE, HOPE and JOY

Whew!!!

Talk about sliding in under the wire, well I am with my tag for the 16th challenge at Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge. I'm running way behind this week and my goal was to get this done and linked up before Mr. Linky expires tonight. It has been a week! :( 

Edited: Photos have been updated

( I removed the blurb about editing photos)

Challenge 16 - Layering Stencil: Embossing 

This one is technique based so no sharing of my process but you can check it out on pg. 50 of Tim's CC3 book. If you don't have one yet be sure to put it on your Christmas Wish List so you can play along with us next year. You can order an autographed copy here. Tomorrow when the newest challenge is introduced we'll be halfway through the challenges in the book. That's absolutely mind-boggling to me! 

Here are a few close-ups.

I love word bands and jumped for joy when Tim released holiday word bands this fall. Mowed lawn distress ink was rubbed into the recesses of the letters and I used Tim's red and cream trim to fasten it to my tag.

The bird was die cut from grunge paper using Tim's Caged Bird Alterations die, I inked him with festive berries distress ink and embossed certain areas to highlight him. Christmas rub ons were added to a white Idea-ology plaque and the silver metallic stars were created with Tim's Stars Layering Stencil and Studio 490's silver metallic embossing paste. 

The center of my tag was left in its natural state and its the area that I did my embossing on. No details per the rules. ;) I'm a huge fan of Tim's layering stencils and used three on this tag-Holly, Stars and Latticework. Idea-ology metal embellies were added to complete it. 

The Funkie Junkie is sponsoring this challenge and offering a generous prize of a $25.00 gift certificate to the online store. Thanks Linda!

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend everyone! 

Lisa xx