Craftiness happening

I've been trying to incorporate all sorts of creative energy these days, sneaking in when I can, into the craft space.

Last weekend I spent time with my friend Phyllis and her daughter. She wanted to try out mixed media art and so we sat for a couple of hours. Mine is not quite done but its getting there. I want to add some words to finish it up.

Munchkin man had a birthday party where they went to see the Lego Movie.  So I whipped up this card in a last minute frenzy. 

 And finally I thought I would share a bracelet I made for a client. Spikes are pretty trendy everywhere and she had requested this one in silver.  I kind of like it for myself and might make one for me soon.

Bead Bracelets

I enjoy seeing the trend on Pinterest these days, of bracelets that are all mixed up and of the mala type trend. Thought I would give it a try with my own twist. Here are two that I made. One on the left is made from wood and ceramic beads and the one on the right is a combo of river stones with jade, sandstone, jasper and howlite. I find them simple but fun to wear as you can turn the bracelet on your wrist to the side you want showing. It's like two-in-one!  I'll be posting some for sale this weekend on my Etsy site too, if you happen to be interested

Some layouts to share

 Here is one of the day my cutie nephew was born

A close up of the dimesion on this one. I had stamped the background paper with Distress markers and created the border using Tim Holtz' stamp on patterned paper.

 Some simple layouts

Some from a few classes I recently taught at Pointer's Scrapbooking

Loved playing with the papers from SEI.  Title from Heidi Swapp and Tattered Angels

 Some other layouts I taught recently using Bazzils travel paper line.

Mixed Media Birthday card

Yesterday I joined a bunch of local women for a crop my friend Diana was hosting, to raise money for the memory loss foundation. It was a great opportunity to see so many of my scrappy friends. I didn't get to complete anywhere near what I wanted to accomplish (isn't that always the case?).  I did complete this mixed media card for one of my sons friends.  Albeit a very simple card, it was a great chance to whip out the paints!  Here I used Bazzil shimmer card stock as the base. I then just added a tag diecut and trimmed down another tag for the "ribbon".  The cupcake was from Barely Essentials and came as raw chipboard and canvas. I coloured both with Distress Paints - so quick and easy. After it dried I glued in seed beads for sprinkles. Voilà- easy little mixed media card.

My Sad Little Blog

I've been truly a neglectful blogger. I can not believe how quickly time passes but here we are in 2014!  Anyhow I figure now is better than never to get this blog up and running again!
So I thought I'd share with you my latest find at Pointer Scrapbooking today. I'm so excited to work with new collections from Pink Paislee and Bella Blvd.  I'm most excited about those hexagon stamps!

Spring Inspiration

On Ranger's blog site they have a little challenge/inspiration Earthy palette going on.  Since the theme was Earth Day, I tried to upcycle for this project.

So to start, I had this piece of chipboard from the back of a paper pad, that through serendipity of paint on fabric, ended up with this great background.  What can't be seen from the photo is all the great texture.  Love lumpy bumpy!

 I used a piece to make a tag.

 I coloured the edges with Broken China Distress Ink

 I then took a white paper bag and used my distress marker on my mat, sprayed with water and created this background. After it dried, I used my punch to cut out flowers.

 Next, I then used alcohol inks on a piece of plastic packaging.

 And cut out a butterfly.

 I did the marker technique again on another scrap of paper bag but in green.

 I free hand cut out leaves.

 To complete, I used Tim's paper tape and folded it onto itself to make a paper ribbon.  I didn't think the butterfly was vibrant enough, so I added more dark blue alcohol ink. Very happy with the results, which I may use for a layout.   And so here is my finished tag!

Scrapfest Kitchener 2013

This past weekend, I had a fantastic time participating in Scrapfest in Kitchener.  I am lucky to join the team at Pointer Scrapbooking and we set up the booth on Friday afternoon.  After the mad frenzy of setting up the booth, I was up to do the first Make n' Take. This session I showcased this box and walked participants through using stencils, Distress Inks and the Scor-Pal tool.

Love this stencil I used from the Crafters's Workshop!

While at the show I shopped a little, I could not resist getting some of these paints from Ranger to play with soon!  Love all the properties and will report back what I've been up to shortly! I haven't even opened them and I know I NEED more colours!

Pinterest Inspired

Those who know me, know that I am addicted to the site Pinterest.  There is so much inspiration and tutorials for the crafters. Many recipes for the cook in me and so many handy tips.  Here are two things I recently did that I got off Pinterest.

This blanket is for my nephew, who's father is a huge football fan.  I had intended it for Christmas but as we all know that time of year just gets way too busy for everyone (in other words - what was I thinking!).  I now hope to give it to him for Easter. Anyhow I took the original pattern and increased it by about 15% using polar fleece instead of chenille.  There was no pattern for the white parts, so I winged it. I used satin stitch to attach the white stripes to the blanket and added a single crochet to the edges to "finish" the blanket.  I'm pretty happy with the end results.

One of my other addictions is washi tape and people have been pinning all sorts of great storage ideas. By far my favourite for my crazy stash has been the use of a pant hanger. Here is my crazy tape obsession. Top two tiers are washi and the others are either cellophane tape or fabric tape - which are just as yummy!  Now that I see them all layed out, I can play with them much easier 'cause I'm the kind of crafter that has to see it, to use it!

Super Hero Life

Well the munchkin man finally turned 6 and we celebrated with a Superhero themed party. I had so much fun, and Pinterest was a big player in all the planning.  I also was lucky to have a friend who provided me with all the comic books in digital format - loved decorating with them (and dear husband thinks it should be a permanent fixture now).

I even got into the groove of things and put on my handmade Wonder Woman tiara and t-shirt. I think every mom woman out there should be donning this glittery head-piece!

So was wandering Michaels trying to find yarn and look what I found - this paper pad! Which of course had to come home with me and my luck it was 40% off this week. Wahoooooo!

Will try and get the layouts done to share with you. I'm so inspired by this paper now!

Also thought I would share some of my layouts from my Rapid Fire Class I teach at Pointer Scrapbooking.  These are my layouts for January and February. |If you are ever in the area and have an incline to finish 6 layouts in about 2 hours, come join me. Love adding techniques in each layouts, so hopefully you will learn something new.   March and April's layouts are in the store now, and have a vintage feel to them. Come into the store to see it is something you'd like to do.

Made a pocket with 6x6 patterned paper and lots of stamping ont his LO

Inky splats and stamping

Stamping, stencils, glitter techniques

Masking, paint, stamps and stencils

Alcohol inks and punches

What's on the craft table?

I would not have guessed that my life would be so full of Superhero stuff when I was about to have a boy in  life. But here we are in full swing of planning a soon to be 6 year old party based on said theme! And you know what, it's pretty darn fun!

I finished sewing the boys felt masks, based on patterns I  found on Pinterest recently, from this blog. Next up are the Wonder Woman tiaras for the girls attending.  

The invite characters were from an Etsy vendor, Melon Headz Doodles. Pretty darn cute!  I imported the images into Photoshop Elements and did a simple design with for the invite.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I thought I could share with you the two cards I made, for the 2 guys I love with all my heart.   I love heart doillies and this was the perfect excuse to use them. Hubbies card features a journaling card from Jillibean soup. Son's card is showcasing a print from the superhero comics again. Those comics are one of the best gifts ever!

Playing in my art journal

Lately I've been playing in my art journal. I find it incredibly freeing to play with all sorts of media and allowing me to be expressive. What started out as an intro class I was teaching at Pointer scrapbooking, has become a recent passion in my creative journey. Here are some of pages and hopefully you are inspired to play also.  These first pages were about playing with technique. The later ones were also about play but had more thought put into them.

Cover with book pages, paint and stamping. Play with colour combo.

Painting, misting and stencils

Paint, drippage ala Donna Downey, stencils, glitter, Sharpie marker

Hidden journaling, gesso, paint, stamps, colour combos

Paint, gesso, glitter

Paint combo, paint pen, messy journaling, stamping

Paint, stamp, distress ink

Colour combo, ink and paint, stamping