At The Pier

My youngest son had a fantastic father/son weekend at the island.  One of his favorite places is the Pier overlooking the water.  I have to commend my husband for getting this fantastic photo.

Paper:  DCWV's My Sunshine Stack

Gears: Tim Holtz

Silhouette:  Banners and Sketch clouds, label print & cut

Twine:  The Twinery

Brads:  My Stash

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A Portrait of My Boys

It's only been two and a half weeks right?  Have no fear, I'm still around.  I've been working on a few behind the scenes design team projects, and also just hanging out.  I am finding that I like to craft in spurts.  Sometimes I can't stop for weeks, and then I find I need a break for a few others.  I used to stress over it and posting something here every day but no more.  First and foremost this is a hobby for me, therapy really.  So I need to let it just flow . . .With that said, I have something new and kind of fun to share with you today. I have been quite take with picture displays lately.  I have all sorts of ideas (thanks to Pinterest) on ways to display photos around my home.  This project actually grew out of that.  I plan on making a wall collage of some of pictures of my kids, and I decided to try my hand at decoupage for the first time.   It's not perfect, but I really like it.  I used a bunch of my stash (all the flowers) and even strung those beads myself (thank you DCWV for the Blue Moon beads by the way).  Enough jabbering - here is one of my favorite pictures of my boys.

I used the emboss resist technique to color the back of the paper.  The stamps are from Papertrey Ink.  I first saw the technique here, at the brilliant Laura Bassen's blog - Emboss Resist.

Paper:  DCWV's Art Collage

Silhouette:  LOVE cut out of 12 x 12 photo, butterflies

Stamp:  Papertrey Ink

Flowers:  Recollections Brand and Prima Flowers

Beads:  Blue Moon Beads

Bling:  Recollections Brand

Metal Accents:  My Stash

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Love . . .

This is a very quick card I made using a file from the Silhouette store.  I download these things constantly but never seem to make the time to use them.  I have so many more that I might play with over the next few weeks if I get a moment.  This one features paper from one of my favorite DCWV stacks - Neon Chic.

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More Cards from Block Party

Here are my last three Block Party cards.

  

I used one of those mini embossing strips on the wash tape and card here. 

Studio Calico's Block Party card kit, bazzil white
Pinkpaislee wood veneer hearts
MME enamel dots, Doodlebug mini pearls, pearls by The Paper Studio
Technique Tuesday stamps;  Studio Calico stamps
Silhouette:  all heart shapes
Spellbinders label

Cuttlebug arrows embossing folder, flourish embossing folder

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Fun on the Block Party

Last week I pulled out my second Studio Calico card kit, Block Party, and got to work.  These kits are a bit fascinating to me.  There are always one or two elements that I really love, and several others that are just NOT me.  So this time I decided to see how many cards I could come up with using the three or four papers that I really liked, and the washi tape that I absolutely adore.  The rest of the kit, meh.  But all in all I created six cards, and that roll of washi tape is over halfway gone!  I want to share the first three cards with you today.  

All of the stamps you see are from Ali Edward's Technique Tuesday.  That "love you" stamp is seriously the best stamp I think I have ever used.  It stamped so cleanly I couldn't believe it.  I really, really love her stamps.  As always, I added a few things - I used some MME paper for the yellow heart.  The flourish was cut using a die from My Favorite Things and the enamel dots are also from MME.  You've seen a lot of those on my projects lately, I know.  I just can't get enough of either one of them!  Tomorrow I'll show you the rest of the Block Party cards.

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More Valentine's Day with Blue Citrus

I know, I know.  Last two from this stack I promise (for a while that is).  These were quick and easy.  I really just wanted to play with this honeycomb pattern in the Silhouette store and vellum.  The bright colors and dark blues in this stack are perfect for this type of thing.

DCWV's Blue Citrus Stack, The Paper Company vellum

Silhouette:  honeycomb pattern die cut

My Favorite Things flourish

Spellbinders Ribbon Tags

Ribbon from my stash

Papertrey Ink Stamps

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Valentine's Day Cards featuring DCWV's Blue Citrus

 I love this stack.  Blues, blues, blues, blues.  I'm so happy to finally have some really deep pretty blues.  I know traditional Valentine colors are red and pink, but I decided to do something else.  I've got all the hearts and XOXOs, but my cards are blue, blue blue. 

This first card is actually a tag that I made into a card.  My youngest sister got shorted on her birthday card this past December as I was way too busy doing tons of things for Christmas.  The plight of the December birthdays right?  Well, she has been patiently waiting for her card - she only texts me once a week or so to let me know that - and I finally finished it.  So it's a Happy Birthday, Happy Valentine's Day card.  I'm sure she will be pleased with it.

This next card is one that I'm going to give to my husband.  I try to come up with something pretty every year and I think he'll really enjoy this one.  The chevron pattern you see is actually a stamp on acetate.  New technique for me that I am really loving.  It opens up so many more possibilities when playing with negative space. 

The tag is the same tag I used for my sister's card, only scaled down so it could fit with the card. 

And finally, the sentiment.  This one is by Kara Dudley and you can find it in the Silhouette store.  Thanks Sarah!

Paper:  DCWV's Blue Citrus Stack
Silhouette:  All shapes and sentiments
Twine:  The Twinery
Stamp:  Hero Arts/Studio Calico
Gems:  The Paper Studio
Flourishes:  My Favorite Things

I made a few more Valentine's Day cards with this stack but I think I'll wait to post them tomorrow.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

CHA World Bazzar Mirror

I am not sure why I haven't posted these yet, but I have a project to share with you today that I actually completed months ago for DCWV's Winter CHA booth.  I'm sure many of you saw the beautifully decorated "World Bazaar" that the DCWV team put together.  If not, click here to see the video.  I had one tiny addition to the display, a mirror I etched and decorated.

I thought I would show pictures of a little bit of my process this time around.

I started with a mirror that I took apart.  I etched the mirror with a shape I found in the Silhouette store.  I then added hexagons in alternating colors to the frame.  This is DCWV's Silky Smooth paper and I cut the hexagons using my Cameo.

The hexagons were glued down using a really glossy decoupage sealer.  Regular Modge Podge would have worked fine as well.

It's shiny now, it's shiny!  

I then added some flourishes that I cut out using my Silhouette.  The paper is from Foiled Elegance, one of DCWV's new stacks out at Joanns right now.

More flourishes on the backside of the frame as well.

And lastly, I created the rope used to hang the mirror using Blue Moon beads.  I really love how this mirror turned out and believe it or not, this project only took several hours.  I thought I would be toiling for days, and well, nope!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Happy Birthday 2U!

Brandy recently told me she had no idea what HB2U meant.  I told her it must be a craft thing because I see it everywhere these days.  We fought a bit over whether to include it in the two birthday cards we made.  We both sort of won.  I started these cards eons ago, put them away, and Brandy pulled them back out.  We added the candle, the sentiment and a little bling and well, they're done now.

Paper:  Canas Corp kraft card base, DCWV Silky Smooth stack, Echo Park Everyday Eclectic air balloons

Silhouette:  all hexagons, flame and sentiment

Ribbon & bling:  My Stash

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