Vintage Flowers

Designed by Lisa S. for Nicecrane Designs

 

Hi everyone, hope your week has been going well so far. I'm excited to share two cards & a gift tag that I made using Nicecrane Design's Flowers From Vintage Books CS. The images are gorgeous and can be used for your crafting and home decor needs. They not only make beautiful cards but their excellent to use on altered projects and for framing. A collection of these flowers framed individually or as a group would make a wonderful accent to any wall. I can also see them decoupaged on an altered gift box with matching note cards inside, perfect for gift giving any time of the year. I'm including two preview sheets that feature the floral collage sheets, my projects today are from the first collage sheet but I can't wait to work with the second one. ;-)

 

The possibilities are endless but for my purposes today I created cards to send to Operation Write Home. This organization collects handmade cards from crafters and sends them to areas where US troops are deployed overseas. Let's face it, there aren't any Hallmark's in the deserts of Afghanistan lol. As most of you know, my son joined the Army in April of this year and he is currently in training but will most likely be stationed overseas next year when he graduates. This organization assists  military personnel everywhere in reaching out to their loved one's with a card. If you would like more information or would like to participate in this worthy cause click here.  Here's my second card and gift tag and as you can see there are no embellishments. OWH requests that you send cards that are not dimensional so they can be mailed easily and no additional postage is required. I did include bows but they will mash flat and on the purple card I do have low profile pearls but they do not add weight or too much height so I think I'm good. Hope so! You can see why I love using these gorgeous vintage images now. They don't require a lot of fuss because they make a terrific stand alone focal point.

Designed by Lisa S. for Nicecrane Designs

Designed by Lisa S. for Nicecrane Designs

Thanks for stopping by and to see more of Nicecrane Design's gorgeous vintage images, collage sheets and scrapbooking products just visit the site here and pick up your favorites today!

 

Have a blessed day,

Lisa



 

 

Make It Monday #107

Hi guys and welcome back to another linky Make It Monday party! Michelle is currently on holiday with her family and our fearless leader for the next few weeks is Lisa Minckler. I know what you are thinking, now it's a party. hehehe This week we are sponsored by the fabulous Meljen's Designs and I'm using the Country Star Pumpkin digital image. I'm so happy that fall is nearly here in the US and the temps will start cooling off for good.

My inspiration for this card came from the fall season itself-every fall kids are back in school, state fairs are being hosted around the US, and pumpkins are a familiar sight. The papers in the Crate Paper's School Spirit Collection were a perfect fit with my theme. I distressed the score card & alpha dp's and attached to my orange base. One of the dp's in the pack featured student's grade cards and I fussy cut two of them to add a pop of color and visual interest. A Webster's Pages Country Birds Whimsies in brown perches atop one of them and makes himself at home. ;-) The star of the show however is my Country Star Pumpkin image which I colored with Copic markers. Spellbinders dies created my layered panels for my image and Kaisercraft Chocolate Pearls anchor the corners while brown polka dot ribbon adds a bit of whimsy. I'd like to thank our generous sponsor for providing the design team with digital images to work.

Every week the DT is asked to choose one entry for our Pick of the Week and I'm finding it harder and harder to choose only one. I'm thinking maybe I could pick one for every category entered like cards, LO's, altered projects, mixed media, etc... what do you think? After all, Michelle is away on holiday and they say while the cat's away the mice will play. I was torn this week so I'm going for it with my POTW and a runner-up. Shhhh! My POTW is #32 Heather A. Hudson and her gorgeous shabby mini album. It made my heart sing and she's taken terrific close ups of each page and provided wonderful details of how she created it. Be sure to click the link above to see this beauty for yourself. My runner up is #55 Amanda Davis and her adorable little handbag which is seriously too cute. Thanks for all the inspiration ladies and to all of the amazing weekly entries!

POTW designed by #32 Heather A. Hudson

 



Runner up designed by #55 Amanda Davis


 



Sponsor

 

This week we are being sponsored once again by the ever fun and cute Meljen Designs Digital Stamps!

http://shop.meljensdesigns.com/

Meljen Designs Digital Stamps are giving away the lovely prize of the winner's choice of 4 single digis!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to check out my teamie's blogs to see their amazing creations. Have a great week everyone and happy crafting!

Hugs,

Lisa


TE September Calendar Challenge

Hello everyone! I'm back today with my September calendar for the monthly Taylored Expression's Calendar Challenge. I skipped August so guess it's a good thing that you only have to compete in 10 out of 12 months to win the $150.00 prize that's up for grabs. ;-) You can click here for the details and link up your calendar entries if you'd like to participate. The only requirement is that you use a TE calendar product and I'm using the 2013 6x6 Calendar Download.  I kept this month low-key to let the sentiment take center stage. It is definitely one of my favorite quotes and I paired it up with a TE die cut label that I embellished with platinum liquid pearls. 

This is going to be short & sweet because I returned late Wednesday from a working vacation and I'm exhausted. We did get a brief reprieve and were able to visit our son at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio over the weekend. It was so nice to meet his girlfriend, Jessica, and we absolutely adore her. She is a special young woman and I'm thrilled he's so happy and enjoying Army life. As much fun as it is to get away it's even better coming home and returning to my crafty spot and comfy bed. :-) I guess Dorothy was right, there's no place like home.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a terrific weekend everyone!

Hugs,

Lisa 

 

 

TE Products: Dream Big stamp set & Take Note Frame 1 die 

Recycle It

This fortnight it's all about recycling at Top Tip Tuesday where your lovely hostess, Carol, would like to see some aspect of recycling in your project. We are always thrilled that you choose to play along with us at TTT and we hope you are excited about recycling a previous project, an object lying around your house, or using up those scrap materials. That brings me to my tip-scraps are perfect for small projects like bookmarks, gift tags, ATC's and many other uses so don't throw them away. :D Another tip is to recycle packaging from products you purchase to use in your crafting. For more inspiration check out Carol's fabulous tutorial on the TTT blog.

For my gift tag I am using Beautiful Blocks-Life in Color digital stamp by Bugaboo Stamps. The rectangle shape of this image is perfect for gift tags and bookmarks. I added a tab by using a tab stamp from the WMS Vintage Labels 18 and fussy cutting it. I used royal blue ink for the tab and Prismacolor pencils to color my image. Kaisercraft aquamarine bling added to the stems adds some pizzazz and another pop of color. For the finishing touch I used up some scrap ribbon and trim in my stash and I printed my image on a recycled piece of paper.

Sponsors

 Simon Says Stamps is offering a $20 gift voucher to spend in their store!! In business since 2002, Simon Says Stamp is striving to offer you the best selection of Rubber Stamps, Altered Art, Scrapbooking, Artist Trading Cards, and Paper Crafting Supplies in the world. We stock over 100,000 items in our warehouses so that we can offer you quick service and one stop shopping at a great price!
Happy customers are the heart of our business.
We work hard to find and deliver to you the latest in stamping and paper crafting supplies! Attending classes, workshops, and sales meetings around the world, our goal is to keep our product offerings fresh and current. Make us your one stop easy shop - and we'll deliver right to your door!

Bugaboo Stamps

One lucky Random winner will win 7 Digi images for their choice.

Ooh La La Creations is offering you any 1 of their CDs!
We live in France. My daughter and I design the CD's. I started crafting about 20 years ago with glass painting and decorated furniture then started making cards for friends and family. We decided to design our own CD's as there was not much craft materials around when we moved here. We use living Artists for all of our CD's now and have recently shown our CD's on Create and Craft TV.

We appreciate our generous sponsors!

Good luck everyone, we can't wait to see your recycled projects! Remember that you can enter up to 3 projects and 3 tips. If you leave a tip be sure to put (TIP) beside your name to be considered for our Top Tipper. Congratulations to the winners of our Birthday Theme challenge and don't forget to pay my teamies a visit and leave them some comment love.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Hugs,

Lisa



Make It Monday #106

Welcome everyone, it's time to party with Make It Monday! The design team has a wonderful line-up of inspiration for you and we're sponsored this week by Bugaboo Stamps. MIM is so grateful for the amazing community of crafters that join us each week!

My bookmark features the Beautiful Blocks-Thank You digi image. The rectangle shape of the image is perfect for creating a bookmark and I colored mine with Prismacolor pencils. Yellow stickles highlight the center of my pansies and I made this for my friend and teamie, Lisa M., who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Hope your day was filled with love, laughter & lots of presents L2! A big thank you to Bugaboo for supplying the team with images and prizes for our winners.

My Pick Of The Week is #191 by Smita. This frame is a true work of art and I love the design and color scheme she used. Click the link to take a closer view of this incredible quilled frame which she dedicated to her mom.

We are very excited to have again our fun sponsors Bugaboo Stamps! Everyone loves these fun and sweet digis!

Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know About Bugaboo Stamps: A Short Essay

As if raising five children in the frozen land of the North was not enough of a challenge, Jodie Mackrell decided to dip her cold little Canadian toes into the world of papercrafting by opening an online store full of her illustrations. That was two years ago. Today Bugaboo Stamps is one of the leading companies in digital images, and we're still growing! From seriously snarky to sugary sweet to sublimely soulful all the way over to the other side of the super sexy spectrum, you're bound to find all that you need and more to create your paper projects. Jodie works very hard to provide New Releases and Freebies every week!

If your taste runs to rubber (and you know who you are), you can find Bugaboo Stamps atTotally Stampalicious. And finally, join the Bugaboo Stamps DT for weekly challenges at Catch the Bug.

Bugaboo Stamps are offering a very generous prize of winner's choice of 7 single digis!

Remember, 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 and congrats to our winners of MIM #105!

Happy Crafting Everybody!

Hugs,

Lisa

Vintage Mementos Box

 

 

Click Make It Monday #105 to view my recent MIM DT post. 

 

Welcome back to my little spot in the blogosphere! I have an altered paper mache box to share with you today that features Vintage British Playing Cards from Nicecrane Designs. This is the second project in a row that my DD snatched as soon as it was finished. Do you think she's a fan of Nicecrane Designs? lol

 

I applied ephemera paper to my box and used Faber Castell Pitt Pens in dark sepia & raw umber to shade and age my paper. There are four images of vintage women on these playing cards and I imported them to Microsoft Word where I sized them to 2.5" x 3.5" (standard playing card size). I fussy cut them out and all of the edges were inked with antique linen distress ink and applied to the box with Plaid's Mod Podge. I chose various embellishments by Bo Bunny & Prima to adorn the front and I did the same for the inside cover. The wild rose is handmade and the Queen Elizabeth brad is a nod to the British nature of these cards. The inside of the box will be used to store my daughter's mementos from our travels and special events. She collects and keeps everything so I may have to make a few more of these. ;-) I wanted her to be able to close the box as it will be stuffed when she fills it with her treasures. A combo of a Zutter Hang-it-All and Tim Holtz swivel clasp works perfectly and adds to the vintage feel. The memo bags are pre made paper gift bags which I purchased from Taylored Expressions. They are a bit contemporary so to age them I went over each one with vintage photo distress ink and attached the vintage playing card with a Tim Holtz memo pin. I stamped a notebook image on the back so she can easily list the contents of the bag. I received not one but two big hugs from her which made my day. :D



Back Cover

 

 

 

If you are a fan of vintage images you will love the digital collage sheets and scrapbook products offered at Nicecrane Designs. Happy shopping everyone and thanks for visiting me today! 

Hugs,
Lisa 

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