C for Clean or D for Distress at ABC Christmas Challenge

Our February challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge is live and this month we want to see

C for Clean

or

D for Distress

on your Christmas themed projects. Our sponsor is Lawn Fawn and I used two stamp sets by them on my Clean card above. The trees are from the Joy to the Woods stamp set and the rabbits and stars are from the Upon a Star set. 

My first card is a CAS style card with no embellishments just stamping and coloring. The background was created with blueprint distress oxide ink and the sentiment is from My Favorite Things - Clearly Sentimental About Christmas stamp set. For the next card I used another stamp set by MFT - Sophisticated Snowflakes. 

My second card is D for Distress and I used distress oxide inks to create my background. First I stamped the snowflakes with Versamark ink then embossed with WOW's Sparkling Snow embossing glitter. The embossing resists the ink and allowed me to blend faded jeans and chipped sapphire distress oxide inks over the background. A soft cloth rubbed gently over the snowflakes restored their pristine image. I fussy cut a fishtail banner and stamped a sentiment from Verve's Holiday Treats set in black tie ink by Ranger. 

To see more inspiration visit the challenge blog to see what my design team mates created for you. You have until the 28th of February to play along with this challenge.

Good Luck!

Lisa xx

Remembering Marilyn

 

 

That is what I titled my mixed media canvas that I created for my BIL's birthday which is today. Happy Birthday Ray!!! He has always been an admirer of Marilyn Monroe so when I saw this amazing canvas HERE on Pinterest a light bulb went off in my head. Bingo! A custom piece of art for my fave bro-in-law. :) I scoured my inspiration piece and added a lot of the same elements while adding a few unique touches of my own. I will confess that my chicken wire is not the "real thing" as hers is but created from a Pop-Tart box and a fabulous new die, Die-namics Chicken Wire, which I acquired from My Favorite Things. It worked like a charm and I'll have more MFT goodies to show you on his birthday card in a minute.

 

I followed the artist's directions and hot glued the embellishments where I wanted them and covered the whole canvas excluding the photo with Gesso. The great thing about this is you can use any color flower or metal embellishment you like. If you have paper flowers that have been in your stash for a while but just don't work for you anymore this is a great way to transform them. Once everything dried I covered the photo with a towel and sprayed Rangers Lettuce and Sunset Orange Ink Sprays and Dylusions Melted Chocolate Ink Spray onto my canvas. After everything dried again I went back with Bundled Sage and Vintage Photo Distress Ink and highlighted some of the embellishments. Another drying cycle was needed and the final step was a coat of Deco Art's Decoupage to seal it.  

 

Here are a few close ups, sorry for the glare.

 

 

I used a lot of Tim's Idea-o-logy goodies on this piece.

 

 

See the mesh in the upper corner? I recycled a shallot bag
to add texture so save those fruit and produce bags. :)

Spare Parts and Tim's Idea-o-logy metal embellies add a masculine
touch. The chipboard clock was in a set of 4 by Dusty Attic.

A metal key, plastic M,
Idea-o-logy crown and
Melissa Francis resin scroll
adorn the left side of
Marilyn's photo.

True Marilyn fans will know what the 26 stands for. She
was born on June 1, 1926 and would have turned 87 in two
days. Cogs/sprockets are from Tim's Idea-o-logy and TPS's
Spare Parts product lines.

I threw the kitchen sink in can you tell lol. Cogs, pen nib,
key chains, memo pins, locks, keys, tags and charms.

I Google'd the photo of Marilyn and ended up using the same
one as the canvas that inspired me. It was a better fit than
the others and shows off her beauty.



 

 Here's the birthday card I made for him and it too was inspired by a CARD which I ran across on Pinterest. Both inspiration pieces can be found on my altered art and cards Pinterest boards plus lots more. Pinterest has been my go-to place for kick starting my mojo lately. :)  I've been running around at Mach 5 with my hair on fire and sometimes you just have to go with the flow and CASE (but always give credit where credit is due). I do hope you'll check out the mixed media canvas and card which inspired me. They are very talented people!

 

 

MFT goodies on this card are:

Die-namics Feathers and Arrows

LLD Document It-Bingo stamp set

 

I used a Spellbinders pennant die set to create my flags and a Notebook Plain Jane by Verve which I fussy cut and distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The chipboard circular piece is by Basic Grey and the metal clock is from Tim's Ideo-o-logy line. The feathers and chevron banner were cut from MME Kraft Funday collection and the rub ons are from Christy Tomlinson's She Art collection.

 

 

Thanks for hanging in there! I'm grateful that you dropped by and I'd love to know what you think of my media media tribute to Marilyn Monroe. I do hope it has inspired you to preserve a memory or create a keepsake for a loved one . :)

 

Have a super day!

Lisa xx



Sew happy

 

 

 

**For my Make It Monday DT post click HERE**

 

 

Hello and welcome! I was inspired to create this card by the wonderful color combo at the CR84FN Color Challenge, the button challenge at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #151 and the lovely layers challenge over at Divas by Design.  The colors denim, tan and brown were the main challenge colors and I did not need to add any neutrals this time. Obviously the button challenge inspired me to use buttons and I found this neat button dp in the This & That Graceful 6x6 pad that worked perfectly. Four buttons later and my main image panel was done and I moved on to those lovely layers the divas requested to see. ;-) So here are my layers-image panel, 4 buttons w/twine, seam binding, die cut tag w/sentiment, dp that I matted, die cut crochet border, base dp and pearls anchoring my corners. Inside I dressed my card up with another base dp, die cut doily, stamped sentiment on a die cut circle and a trio of pearls for embellishment. It was a lot of fun to make and I'm sending this to a friend who truly makes me "sew happy."

 

Thanks for taking a look and for those of you looking to join a design team the CR84FN Color Challenge is currently hosting a DT call. Click here for the details and good luck to everyone who enters.

Happy Crafting!

Lisa  

 

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Sew Happy (TE), Great Friend (Verve)

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa

Paper: base dp-MME/Lost & Found-Madison Avenue; brown diamond dp-Jillibean Soup/Homemade 6 Bean; Button card dp-Echo Park/This & That Graceful

Dies: Die-namics faux crochet border trim (MFT); Mini tags-set of 9 & layering doily large die (TE); std. circles lg. (Spellbinders)

Accessories: seam binding-Prairie Bird Boutique; buttons-Buttons Bonanza; pearls-Recollections

 



Make It Monday #105

Hi everyone! Welcome back to our new linky party at Make It Monday #105 and more creative fun. This is the second week in a row that the design team has been free to create anything we like. Since I am on an organization kick I decided to follow up my Shopping Organizer with a Bill Organizer.

There's no tutorial for this project because I recycled an unused recipe file with deep accordion pockets. I layered patterned papers by October Afternoon & cardstock on the front. Twine, a vintage Jenni Bowlin button, a MS doily lace border punch and an outlined border created with glaze pens tie everything together. To sort my categories I die cut eight Keeping Tabs Die's by Taylored Expressions and labeled each with Cosmo Cricket's Tiny Type alpha's. To finish I die cut a Die-namics File Tab by My Favorite Things and stamped BILLS with You're My Type-Upper alpha's by Taylored Expressions's to record what the organizer is for. Two gingham ribbons, that were already attached, are used to keep it closed when not in use. :D Now I have another recycled "trash to treasure" project!

Ok, ready for my POTW? I chose this fabulous card by #44 Rina Fashionista. All of her hard work paid off because she created a masterpiece and I would have loved receiving this card as a little girl. It's fabulous! Click the link above to see how she created this beauty with two Tilda stamps and punches. Congrats Rina and thanks for sharing your talent with us at MIM!

Designed by Rina Fashionista

For more inspiration pay my teamies a visit by clicking on their links in my right sidebar. We look forward to seeing what you create this week and to be in the running to win the prize from our sponsor this week just leave a comment for another entry. Be sure to mention you saw them on Make It Monday. The more entries you comment on the more chances you have of winning. Good luck!

Our Fabulous Sponsor:

 

 

This week we are sponsored by The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop

http://prettylittleribbonshop.co.uk/

The Pretty little Ribbon Shop supplies beautiful ribbons, lace, twine embellishments, rubber stamps etc aimed at the crafting world. Small and international orders are always welcome. Our sale continues with further reductions and more items added regularly. New in stock is a very pretty range of guipure lace and pearl string in some lovely colours. We also now have many Christmas ribbons and embellishments in our Christmas section. As always we offer free postage for UK orders ( equivalent discount for international orders) over £25.

 

 

 

 

They are generously offering this wonderful Catslife Press "It's Your Birthday" Rubber Stamp.

 

 

 

 

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Hugs,

Lisa



 

January Calendar & To-Do List Organizer

Hi there and welcome! I'm sharing the first month of my 2012 calendar/scrapbook album and I have a bonus for you. I made a To-Do List which helps me during the Christmas season and I hope it will be useful to you. 

My January calendar doesn't feature scrapbooking because I opted for a larger calendar this month and you only have so much room on a 6x6 page. I couldn't resist this Pure Innocence stamp and it was great to "dress" her using the technique you'll find on the My Favorite Things blog. The calendar can be made through Microsoft's Word program or you can download one from various companies. I stamped the month on a die cut oval and traced the outer lines of the die on cardstock to back the stamped image. Liquid pearls, rhinestones, and a few snowflakes finish it off!

As for my second project, I am drawing inspiration again from TE's 12 Days of Christmas with this project. However my booklet is a handy To-Do List that features the Santa List Download available from Taylored Expressions. I trimmed the lists with my paper cutter and used book board to make the front & back covers which I decorated with Christmas dp's, a paper rose and brad. The sentiment was stamped on a die cut and Santa's coat was highlighted with a red glitter pen which you may not be able to see in the photo, sorry. A Cinch binding machine brings this project together with ease and I chose to use the colored images from the download which I've shown below. There are four images with two colored and two outlined so you can personalize. NOTE: Use a heavy duty paper cutter to cut the book/chipboard because a regular paper cutter will NOT cut through this material. Also you might find this video from Day 9 of TE's 12 Days of a Handcrafted Christmas helpful. Here's a photo of Santa and his elf from the Santa List Download.

  

That's all for today and I hope your creativity is sparked in some way. Need to save some money??? If you sign up to receive email from Hobby Lobby they will send you their weekly ad with a coupon. The coupon varies but quite often they offer 40% off and it is offered frequently from now through Christmas. ;) Who doesn't like to save some money? A few items are restricted like Cricut products, Copics and a few more I'm not sure of but everything else you can save some moolah on. JoAnn Crafts also offers coupons for signing up for email but they bar code their coupons and they can only be used once where Hobby allows you one coupon per day per customer during the weekly sale, how awesome is that? Hope this tip helps out! As for JoAnn, it doesn't cost anything to sign up and a coupon is a coupon, right?

~Lisa

Calendar Supplies:

Stamps: Calendar Borders & Centers (Just Rite Stampers), Pure Innocence-Snow Day (MFT)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versa Color-Boysenberry

Paper: Little Girl Collection (Echo Park), Sweet Seasons (Webster's Pages), cardstock

Accessories: calendar (Microsoft Word); Spellbinders Classic Ovals Large; Small Snowflake punch ( Marvy Uchida); Medium Snowflake punch (Emagination); lilac ribbon (Hobby Lobby); white liquid applique (Marvy Uchida), purple rhinestones

To-Do Lisa Supplies:

Stamps: Keeping Tabs  & Take Note Holidays (Taylored Expressions),

Ink: ColorBox Chalk Warm Red, Antique Linen (T!m Holtz)

Paper: Botanical Christmas (Webster's Pages), Jovial (Basic Grey)

Accessories: Cinch binding machine, .75" gold binding wire, book board & wire cutters (We R Memory Keepers); Charming Oval Die (Verve); red velvet ribbon (TE store); T!m Holtz Micro Serrated Scissors

(T!m Holtz for Tonic Studios); atyou Spica 03 Red Glitter pen; Jovial glazed brad (BG); paper rose (Recollections); red pearls (Kaisercraft)

CASE Study Challenge #65



I'm back today with a CAS card inspired by the CASE Study November Muse, Kryssi Ng. For my card I used kraft paper for my base, chose a DP with a snowflake theme and stamped a pair of mittens attached by a string to mimic her image. I paper pieced the mittens to match the colors she chose for her stamped image and added two vellum stickers for a little detail. I die cut a matching border and stamped my sentiment and it was that simple. The CAS style that Kryssi is so popular for is definitely the way to go for those with busy lives. Here's a picture of her card which was my inspiration. 

A quick note of appreciation to all those who have served or are currently serving in the United States Armed Forces. My family and I appreciate your sacrifice more than words can express and wish you and your families a Happy Veteran's Day! God Bless.  

Have a wonderful weekend!
~Lisa

Stamps: Winter Mittens (Verve)
Paper: snowflake DP (MME-12 days of Christmas); kraft & cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, StazOn Cotton White
Accessories: Die-namics Solid Bracket Border (My Favorite Things); vellum stickers