Unscripted Sketches Challenge # 79

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Hi Folks!  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  This week's sketch for 'Sketch It Saturday' at Unscripted Sketches was a breeze, so I decided to try something a little different from my end and use digital images for both the image AND the patterned paper.  Here is this week's sketch . . .

And here is my card based on the sketch . . .

Product Info:

• Base card stock is Bazzill
• Patterned paper and Santa image are from PC Crafters 'A Christmas Sampler 3'
• Poinsettia is from Memory Makers "BlossomSets Poinsettia Cranberry"
• Gem is from Prima e. Line
• Stickles 'Golden Rod' and 'Frosted Lace'
• Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist 'Iridescent Gold'
• Ribbon and lace from my stash

  

Tips, Tools and Techniques:

• Card base cut using Cricut Expression, Walk In My Garden cartridge, card2 set at 5"
• Patterned paper was printed on inkjet printer, sprayed with glimmer mist, allowed to dry.
• Then for the base, cut on Cricut Expression, Walk In My Garden cartridge, card1 set at 5"
• For letters, also cut on Cricut Expression, Songbird cartridge, JOY caps set at 1 1/2".   Blue paper was cut using same except using shadow feature.
• Image was printed on ink jet printer, cut and mounted on red cardstock and lifted off the card on foam squares.
• The ribbon on the tree was decorated with Stickles 'Golden Rod' and the fur trim on Santa's suit was decorated with Stickles 'Frosted Lace'.  It took several coats to get the thickness I wanted on the fur on Santa's suit.



I love this image, and all the images from this set.  PC Crafter's images are super easy to use, too, as you simply drag and drop the image you want to use to a Word doc and re-size it to the size you want.  I hope you have enjoyed your visit today!  Please come back soon to see what is up at Camellia Cottage!  Blessings, Becky

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Sparkle & Grunge . . .

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So, my friend Phyllis has created a monster!  At the Country Living Fair that we attended together on Saturday she pointed out some grungy, aged looking tags; some were plain, others decorated with vintage papers, buttons, ribbons, etc.  On Sunday I played around a bit (see post here), but then yesterday (Monday) I really got crazy with the new 'sparkly grunge' idea, and made these lovelies . . .

Three of the prettiest tags I've EVER seen!  My faves are the two most elaborate ones (of course) but think all three are so pretty!  All of the paper products are the same; manilla tags purchased from an office supply store, paper flowers made from the blank pages of a very old journal and an even older 'History of Georgia' school book that is disintegrating as we speak.  The pages are very delicate!  Beyond the paper, let's take a look at them individually:

'merci' . . .

Lots of brown ink, lots of Stickles 'platinum' (my go-to Stickles), 'Iris' seed beads, one tiny lampwork bead, a stick pin made of a quilters pin, more iris beads, and stickles, plain and crinkled seam binding, purple satin ribbon, cut into strips (didn't want to go too crazy with the purple), cotton twine, and a piece of older (not too old) lace.  I grunged the lace and seam binding with a bit of brown ink and even more stickles.

'hello' . . .
 

As in the others, lots of brown ink and Stickles 'platinum', plus seed beads, other miscellaneous beads, crinkled seam binding, cotton twine, and 'aged' cotton muslin.  The stick pin on this one is from Jenni Bowlin.

'thinking of you' . . .

Once again, lots of brown ink and Stickles 'platinum', plus assorted seed beads, a larger Iris bead, and a larger gold bead, a sparkly bird, a couple of very old buttons in iris-y shades, ivory lace, blue crinkled seam binding, ivory wired organza ribbon, and red twine from a large bag of dog food (and yes, I am a craft supply packrat, thank you very much!). 

I am in love with these tags, and the idea of sending something this pretty instead of a greeting card.  I also look forward to making many more, but it will probably be Saturday at the earliest, but probably next week, because hubby has decided to take off two days in the middle of the week, plus I have a 2 week follow-up appointment with my mom's Opthalmologist to see how her eyes are doing after her cataract surgery tomorrow. I may get to do some playing on Saturday, but who knows!

These tags, along with their white envelopes for mailing, are now up for sale in my Etsy shop, so if you are interested, go check them out!   Thanks for visiting, and blessings friends!!!  Becky


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A Couple of Small Projects . . . and a Winner!

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Hi Folks!  I sure hope you have had a nice weekend!  The weather here in GA has been remarkable, but rain is supposed to be coming in overnight, and I am glad - we need the rain badly!  Yesterday my friend Phyllis and I went to Stone Mountain, GA for the Country Living Fair - put on by Country Living Magazine.  It was INCREDIBLE!!!  Tons of vendors and all kinds of demonstrations - it was such a great day!

And while we were at the CL Fair, Phyllis kept seeing things she liked and saying "Do you know how to make this?  We could make this!"  So this morning I spent some time trying to make a few of the things we really liked.  First up is a candle jar, just an old jelly jar, decorated with vintage journal pages and pages from an old "History of Georgia" book that was my grandmother's.

I also used vintage buttons, copper wire (need a larger gauge wire) and beads.  There is rice in the bottom of the jar (about 2 inches) and you put a tea light in there and light it - it is very pretty in a darkened room, or hanging over your outside table.

And here is a tag that I distressed and made the flower and leaves from the same History of Georgia book. 

Wouldn't these be gorgeous as the gift tag on a Christmas gift wrapped in kraft paper?  Lovely!!!!  The ribbon is actually tea stained muslin (purchased that way), inked up with some brown ink - they are very easy to make!

And, I know I promised you a winner of my blog candy from the Unscripted Sketches Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop, and the winner is . . .

Leila Pierce!!!  Leila is one of the design team members over at Unscripted Sketches, and I will be getting this . . .

. . .  out to her in the next couple of days!  Congratulations, Leila!!!

And thank YOU, friends, for visiting me once again!  Blessings, Becky


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Unscripted Sketches Challenge # 78 - Snow Lady

Hello everyone!  Once again it is time for "Sketch It Saturday" over at the Unscripted Sketches challenge blog.  This week's sketch was a bit challenging for me, but I love the card I came up with based on the sketch.  Here is sketch number 78 . . .

And here is my card based on the sketch . . .

Product Info:

• Base card stock is Die Cuts With a View
• Patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket, Mitten Weather, 'Deck the Hollies' and 'Woolens'
• Ribbon from stash
• Stickles 'Green' and 'Xmas Red'
• Image from MagisPlace digital images shop on Etsy

Tips, Tools and Techniques:

• Base card cut using Cricut Expression, Walk In My Garden cartridge, card2 set at 5"
• Polka dotted paper cut using Cricut Expression, Walk In My Garden cartridge, card1 set at 5"
• Holly and poinsettia paper was cut using Cricut Expression, Songbird cartridge, frame2 set at 4"
• Sentiment printed on home printer, backed with scrap of red card stock and popped off the page with foam squares
• Stickles used on the snow lady's hat, gloves and umbrella

I'm beginning to enjoy making some Christmas cards, and I'm really enjoying using the images I got from Magi at Magis Place on Etsy.  Please go check out her shop!

And don't forget my giveaway from last week's Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop!  I will draw a name some time this weekend and post it as soon as I have a chance!  Have a great weekend!  Becky


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A Couple of Cards . . . and Some Goodies!

So sorry my posts have been few and far between, but Mama had her 2nd cataract surgery yesterday, and is doing very well, so I took her home - to her home - today, and hopefully things will get back to normal soon..

A little news, which I am so very excited about, is that on Saturday I had a booth at a shop a few miles from here (outside in the sunshine!) and didn't sell a thing, but before I left, I got a part time job working at the shop!  It will only be one day or so per week, and it's not much money, but I'm really looking forward to working with my new boss, Tina!  The shop is called Georgia Mountain Candle Company, and she sells some of the most wonderful candles, as well as accessories like purses, hair bows, etc., AND takes home decor and furniture items on consignment.  Ms. Tina is one busy lady!  If you want to learn more about her candles, and maybe even try one out, you can check out her website by clicking on the picture in my left hand column.

Another cool bit of news is that "I WON!"  A couple of weeks ago I was checking out my news on Facebook, (and no, I'm not sharing my personal facebook ID!) and saw a post from Little Yellow Bicycle about some winners.  Well, I hadn't signed up for any giveaways on there, but decided to see if there were any familiar names on the list of winners.  And yep, sure enough, there was my name!  It was a giveaway for their fans on FB, and they had drawn 10 random names from their fans, and I was one of the ten - and I didn't have to leave a comment or anything!  Isn't that cool!

The prize is a Christmas Card Making Kit with all the stuff to make 8 cards, including the cards, envelopes, borders, glitter stickers, self adhesive glitter chipboard, etc.  I love the designs - they are very cute!

I have made one card from the kit, but just haven't had time to make more than that this week.  Those Little Yellow Bicycle products are really great!

So, enough with the news, let me show you a couple of cards!  First is a Christmas card . . .

Products Used:

• Card stock is Die Cuts With a View
• Patterned Paper - Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather "Deck the Hollies" and "Woolens"
• Stickles Platinum
• Ribbon from $1 bin at Michaels - bought ages ago
• Brown ink is Stampabilities

Tips, Tools and Techniques:

• Card base cut on Cricut Expression using Walk In My Garden cartridge, Card 2 set at 5"
• Two labels (patterned paper) cut on Cricut Expression using Songbird cartridge, frame2-s, set at 3 1/4"

And the next card - Thanks . . .

Products Used:

• Base cardstock is Die Cuts With a View
• Patterned papers are Cosmo Cricket Togetherness "All A Flutter" and "Making Plans", reverse sides of both!
• Brown Ink is Stampabilities
• Lace, button, twine and ric-rack from my stash
• 'Thanks" rub-on is from KaiserCraft 'Occasions'

Tips, Tools and Techniques:

• Base of card was cut on Cricut Expression using Walk In My Garden, Card2 set at 5"
• Green checked paper was cut on Cricut Expression using Walk in My Garden, Card1 set at 4 3/4"
• Circles for flower (see further instructions below) cut on Cricut Expression using Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, circle, set at 1 3/4", 2", 2 1/4", 2 1/2", 2 3/4" and 3".
• Stitching was done on my sewing machine
• Flower instructins:  Take a bowl of warm water and dip the circles in the warm water just for a few seconds, then squeeze them tightly to get out as much water as possible and encourage 'wrinkles'.  Open up the circles and place them on a paper towel in the microwave and heat them at about 20 seconds.  The smaller ones will be dry, but larger ones may still be damp in the center.   Remove the dry ones and ontinue heating remainder in 10 - 15 second increments until they are all dry.  Ink the edges of each circle.  Using a craft knife or hole punch, make hole in the center of each circle and then put a brad through the holes to hold the bloom together.  I glued the button onto the brad.

The flower was a very easy project, and didn't take very long to make, but it makes a big impact on the card.

I hope you enjoyed these cards!  If you haven't already, please visit my previous post and leave a comment for my BCAM blog candy, as part of the Unscripted Sketches Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) Blog Hop.  I will choose a winner some time this weekend.

Have a great rest of the week!  Becky

Unscripted Sketches Challenge # 77 + Breast Cancer Awareness Month Blog Hop!

Hello and WELCOME to my blog!  This is a very special week for those of us at Unscripted Sketches!  I don't know of anyone who hasn't been touched by cancer in some way, especially breast cancer.  In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we are hosting a blog hop, with the chance to win a cool prize at the end. 

A blog hop is simply a circle.  You must start at the Unscripted Sketches website, and there you will be directed to the blog of one of our design team members.  That DT member will direct you to another, and so forth.  Once you have reached the blog of the last DT member, they will direct you back to the Unscripted Sketches website.  There you must leave a comment, saying you have visited all the blogs, and a winner will be chosen from that pool of comments. 

If you are here for the blog hop, you should have come from April's Blog!  If you didn't reach me through April's blog, and you want to participate in the blog hop for the wonderful prize from . . .

then you need to go back to the Unscripted Sketches Website and start from there and continue through the rest of the design team member's blogs.  Once you have visited all the designers blogs, go back to the Unscripted Sketches website and leave a comment.  Some of our Design Team members are giving away little goodies themselves, so be sure to leave them comments for those prizes as well.

And speaking of prizes, I am going to give away a cute prize package of goodies from my stash, including an 'Ellie's Day Out' 6" X 6" paper pad from Nikki Sivils, a sweet rubber cling stamp 'Bears On Fence' from Stamp Oasis, a hand made (by me)  fabric flower with a vintage button (that just happens to match some of the papers perfectly), and a hand crocheted (also by me)  'Granny's Work Horse' dish cloth that is very sturdy, made of two strands of 100% cotton yarn.  And as I am in the process of cleaning and reorganizing my workspace, there may be a few more little goodies added to the stack.  And I am sorry, but due to the cost of shipping, I must limit entries to residents of the USA.  Thank you for understanding!

And now (at last!) on to the sketch for this week!  The reason we are called 'Unscripted Sketches' is because you can make any kind of project as long as it is based on the sketch.  It can be a card, a scrapbook layout, or any other kind of craft.  For this sketch I chose to make a wall hanging.  Also, this week the sketch has a piggy back challenge to use pink as your primary color.  I wanted to use pink ribbon, so pink is my primary 'accent' color.  Here is the sketch . . .

And here is my unscripted project following the sketch  . . .

I used some vintage fabric from a stash my mother gave me a while back.  It's a blue and white gingham, kind of faded with age.  The lacy lattice fabric, quote, bluebird and butterfly are actually digital images printed on Avery Printable Fabric, and all but the quote were printed using clipart images I got from PCCrafter.  The verse is my own.

I took the butterfly and bluebird images and sewed them to cotton muslin, stuffed them lightly with polyfill, and added a pink bow to the bird, and pretty crystal bead antennae to the butterfly, along with some crystal Stickles for a bit of sparkle. 

I ironed the verse to a piece of dark blue fabric and edged it with some white lace, then sewed it onto the center of the piece.    The  verse says "The things that make your heart flutter are little gifts from God, reminding you that He is there, and He loves you beyond measure".

And the 1 1/2 inch wide pink satin ribbon is in honor of all those women who have fought breast cancer over the years. 

I look forward to seeing what kind of project YOU make based on this week's sketch and challenge!  And don't forget to leave me a comment so your name will be in the running for my giveaway.  Cut off for comments for the blog candy ON MY BLOG ONLY is midnight EST on Friday October 22nd.  I will announce a winner on Sunday 10/24.

Now, please visit my friend, Alanna, and see what she has come up with for this week!  Blessings friends!  Becky

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Busy Week - and a Reminder!

Hi Folks!  Sorry I haven't posted anything this week, but my mother was with us from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon because of her first cataract surgery on Monday.  And we will repeat the same schedule next week so she can have the second cataract surgery.  It's hard to get away and create with her here, because she wants to know where I am and what I'm doing every minute, and if I'm not doing what she thinks I should be doing, she tries to do it herself - which makes me crazy!  I mean, I'm 58 y/o and yet she still treats me like I'm 8!!! 

{sigh - so sorry about the vent!}

Anyway, hopefully after next week I'll be able to get back to some of the challenges and making some cards! 

The real purpose of this post is to remind you of the big Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop - TOMORROW at Unscripted Sketches!  Please visit the Unscripted Sketches website first, and follow along the hop, and you can win some neat prizes!  Thanks, Becky


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Unscripted Sketches Challenge # 76 - Altered Journal

Well, of course it is Saturday again, and that means that it's time for a new sketch from Unscripted Sketches!  This week's sketch was a bit of a challenge for me to make a card from, but when I remembered that SarahKaye, our fearless DT leader had encouraged us to do projects other than cards - or go unscripted - I decided to do a journal instead, and it was easy as pie!  Here is this week's sketch . . .

And here is my project based on the sketch . . .

The photo is one that came in a 'lot' of old photos that I bought on eBay a while back.  I scanned it, cropped the frame away from it, touched it up a bit in Picasa and Picnik, and printed it on white card stock.  Here are all the details . . .


Product Info:

• Notebook is a Top Flight Composition book, wide ruled, from Walmart - 25 cents
• Base paper on front is the reverse side of Websters Pages Life's Portrait 'imagine your life'
• Cream text paper is from The Paper Studio 'black and cream script'
• Paper used on back and inside covers is a pale grey leaf print that came in one of the first kits I ever bought, I think, from QVC.  I couldn't even start to tell you who made it!
• Gems (bottom left corner) are from Prima e. Line
• Vintage lace, black velvet ribbon and cameo are from my stash

Back and inside covers

Tips, Tools and Techniques:

• Photo was scanned, edited, printed on white card stock, glued to chipboard, and the edges inked with black ink  I used foam dots to raise the photo ff the journal a bit.
• Papers are glued to the journal using FabriTac glue, as are the lace, ribbon and button.

I love making these journals!  Once you have your design in mind, they are easy to alter.  At the last minute I decided to take this with me to the Purple Palooza festival last weekend, and it sold!  So I only have the photos to remind me of it!  I think I may have to make some more similar to this one. 

Please remember that Unscripted Sketches is hosting a blog hop NEXT Saturday in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  If you visit each of the design team's blogs and leave a comment, you will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a prize from Anita Be Stampin, a new company that sells cling mounted rubber and digital stamps.

Thanks for visiting!  Becky