Forever Frogs

 Thankfully January is finally over! My two daughters are away at university and came home for a visit this weekend, which I really enjoyed. I miss them terribly, the house is just too quiet and tidy!
My oldest daughter asked me to make a fun birthday card for her to give to her friend when she goes back to school and of course I was happy to do it! After I discovered the friend is a collector of all things 'frog', I decided to use my "Unfrogettable" stamp set by Stampin' Up! It's a retired set but I found it on ebay and scooped it up. It's the perfect set to use to make a forever or never ending card so that's just what I did. For those of you who have never seen one of these cards it's really neat, you open it and just keep opening until you end up where you started!

Crocheted Cuties

Crochet rocks!! I made these characters from patterns I purchased on http://www.etsy.com/, a site that is really worth a visit! The monkeys are crocheted from a free pattern I found on the internet a few years ago and for the life of me I can't find the source. Sorry to the original pattern designer, I love this pattern! If anyone finds out who it is let me know and I will edit this post to include her name. This type of crochet is done in rounds with a single crochet stitch, which by the way is the only stitch I know how to do! I had a neighbour behind our house, Mrs. Snell, who was my go to person when I got stuck on a pattern. She moved into a retirement home a few months ago and I really miss running through the backyard in my slippers dragging yarn behind me to get her help!
These projects are quick to make which suits my short attention span just fine! I do tend to jump from media to media, but 'fibre art' is where I am most comfortable. Paper, yarn, basket reed, fabric, floss, thread......oh the possibilities are endless! I have to do some house work and grocery shop today which is seriously cramping my crafting time, don't you just hate it when that happens?!

A Rose is a Rose

Good afternoon everyone! I had a late night card craftin' and experimented with punched flowers til 2:00 a.m., and made this distressed rose card. I was inspired by valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com, Valita uses Stampin' Up!'s Owl punch to create roses and I've been itching to give it a try! I love using punches in a way they were not designed to be used and you would never suspect the petals of this rose where once little owl punch outs! It's made by punching 8 owl shapes, cutting off the little feet, splitting the head open and gluing it together to form a cup shape. Sounds gruesome! The inner part of the rose is a 2 3/8" scallop circle cut into a spiral and rolled up using tweezers or a quilling tool. I punched the rose out of patterned, off white, light weight card stock and inked with Fired Brick Distress ink. The background was once a box of Special 'K', which has been die cut with SU!'s Top Note die then embossed with an all over flourish pattern. After painting it with Sunflower acrylic paint, sanding and blending with Walnut Stain Distress ink one would never know it was once my fav breakfast cereal!

Happy Lunar New Year!!

It's the year of the Dragon, and I'm  Dragon so this should be great year! I made and posted a card similar to this one a few posts ago with some homemade alcohol ink. This card is made using a large Martha Stewart Butterfly which I thought would make a good lunar moth.  I punched a moon and masked it off then inked the background with Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord Distress inks. The border is stamped with Hero Arts Flourish Tree using Walnut Stain Distress ink and the sky is speckled with a combination of Pewter Perfect Pearls and Diamond Stickles. It really sparkles against the dark background.
Happy Chinese New Year to everyone and may this year bring you health, wealth and happiness!!

Yep there's a cat in there...

Rainy, snowy, miserable, January day here in the Heart of the Ottawa Valley today! I was lacking inspiration so I did some blog hoppin' and was inspired to create this faux leather handbag with a cat inside. It is a homage to Ellen Kemper, who is probably the best punch art artist in the known world and Ali from alicardmaking.blogspot.com.  As a card maker there is no greater pleasure for me than to see one of my card making ideas used as a jump of point for someone else to create their own piece. So thanks Ali and Ellen for your inspiration, a card is born!
I've been wanting to experiment with faux leather finishes for a while now, this is my first attempt. I embossed the handbag with the Diamond pattern embossing plate from Stampin' Up!, then used Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress inks to create the leather look. The purse top is a large Spellbinder Scallop circle, cut from K & Company, Life's Journey paper.  It started of as a tourquoise floral print, but after embossing a swirl/flourish and inking with Distress inks it looks more like coloured leather than paper in real life. I cut a 1" little perch for the punch art cat (thanks again Ellen!), and added a sentiment I created with viner font on my 'puter'. Meow.

Book Jewellery

This is a great way to read in style, book jewellery! I guarantee if you have one of these stylish bookmarkers holding your page it will grab the attention of those around you! They are slim and not only work well but look beautiful at the same time. It's a good way to use those stray miss matched single beads that are left over from other projects too.
I often tuck them into a hand made card as a small gift, they fit perfectly. This will be one of the pieces we will be making in my upcoming Introduction to Jewellery Making class, this coming spring.

Eye Candy

Anyone for hors d'oeurves? I'm one of those crafters who jump from craft to craft, cards one day jewellery or baskets the next! It's a curse, I can't stay focused on one thing, too many crafts too little time! I love these sterling silver wire rings, they look so much like candy that I have them on my desk on a glass tray. Making jewellery is one of my many crafting passions, I like shiny things! These rings take a little practice to make and if it's something you would like to try I recommend using inexpensive 20 gauge craft or floral wire to practice. Nothing makes me more sad than to waste a nice strand of silver wire! You will also need a ring making/sizing mandrel, to wrap your your wire around, and some pretty beads, 'coin' shaped work best.