I Don't Know If I Like This

Hmmmm...To like or not like, that is the first question of the day. This card certainly did not turn out like my minds eye pictured it, but that is not unusual. This time though I almost did not post it. Since it is the only thing I have been able to make in the past few days, I figured I would just swallow and post, lol

I showed it to my son to see what he thought (he has a really good eye for this kind of thing) and he was not sure of the color combos. Hmmmm....I think I like the contrast though, which is the only part I do like, SIGH. What do you think?

What she is skating on is supposed to be ice. I added crystal effects to some vellum and when it was dry covered it with some of the new SU mica flakes. These are a bit to large for me, but they really are pretty.  They kind of covered a lot of the shine of the crystal effects.

Here you can see some of the details I added. The sentiment is embossed in silver and says "Be Merry". The paper tole image is from Sliekje Digi Stamps. This is not a digi stamp though. It is a 3D cut out sheet I was able to purchase from betsylurvink. At the time that I purchased it, there were only about 4 different sheets, but there are a lot more now. You can see them all here.

These sheets are not die cut, so need to be cut by hand. They are so cute though, I did not mind the cutting at all. The image is 4 layers and all the parts are large enough to make popping up with dimensionals really easy.

Being a bit bummed out about how it came out, I ended up leaving the inside plain. I think I may go back and add a sentiment and maybe some of the die cut snow flakes.

These are the first pictures I took with my new camera. I love it. It has a 250 page manual! On CD too, the stinkers. I had to print it out or I never will figure out all the dodads it has. I think it will still take me a few months to make all the fun things that cost extra worth the money, but...how fun it will be to actually understand and use all the modes, video recordings and stuff!

I ended up getting the day off babysitting today. My son-in-law's classes were cancelled due to the weather. Now I have a decision to make. Do I clean up my craft room or....just craft around the mess, lol

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving...{{{HUGS}}}  Sandy O

2011 Christmas Card #2

I finally got my camera to take a few pictures this morning. They are not the best as I could not get the editing software to remove some of the brightness. But this is the card I wanted to share yesterday and am glad I got some pictures that you can hopefully see well.

This wreath is from a Dufex 3D sheet. The sheets are die cut so they are very simple to make. All the Dufex sheets are so pretty and shimmery. They are a bit on the expensive side compared to others, but well worth the extra money. This wreath has 4 layers which were very easy to pop up with some SU dimensionals (1/8 of an inch high I believe). I added some yellow pearls to the center of the flowers and some tiny cranberry pearls to the red centers and berries.

I found this paper at a local craft shop, but it was flat with not shimmer. I decided to try spraying it with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and it worked very well. HINT: one thing I learned is that you should cut the paper to the desired size before spritzing. The paper does curl just a bit and I had the hardest time getting a straight cut.

I did not have ribbon wide enough to go under this pretty lace ribbon. What I ended up doing was adhering 2 pieces of ribbon, one on each side, so that the gold peaked out from under the lacy ribbon. It still looked a bit naked, so I added a few pearls.

Popping everything up on with dimensionals gave a really nice dimension to the whole card. For the bottom layer I had to use dimensional dots which are 1/4 inch high due to the thickness of the ribbon. Because of the thickness of the wreath though, the added height of this layer ended up being just right.

I wish I had more of these Dufex sheets. I only had one that my mother bought for me a year ago to make for last Christmas. Since I was to ill last year to make cards, I was excited to pull it out for this year. The sheet only had 2 wreaths, this one and one with white flowers and some borders. I don't like the borders so will only get 2 cards out of the sheet.

This one came out so pretty. The pictures really don't do it justice. The shimmer of the whole card is perfect, just really hard to photograph.

Well, I try not to make my "talking" to long since I know that I have a hard time reading the whole post on some of the blogs that I visit. But I like to read the whole post before leaving a comment. If my posts are to long, I would love for you to let me know :o)

I found out last weekend that my grammar is really poor, lol. I don't use my comma's properly as well as my prepositions and things like that. My son and husband seem to know all the "rules". And my spelling, well, all I can say is I am sooo thankful for spell check! I am thrilled you all bare with me, lol. as I doubt I will ever learn them. <<<SIGH>>>

Have super weekend everyone...HUGS, Sandy O

Just For Fun

Aggg...As I said the other day, my camera is giving me fits. On a good note, my husband said I can go and buy another one. So that is one of the things I am going to do on Saturday.

I did make another Christams card I so wanted to share with you,....but...until then, I have bookmarked these 3 videos that I thought I would share with you.  You are sure to get more than a chuckle out of these!

This one you may have seen before but if you are like me, you won't be able to get enough of it.



This next one made me laugh when the culprit was found.  
Since this one is not on You tube, there was not link to imbed it into the blog. Here is the link though.

LINK

Last but not least, here is another one that is not on You Tube. So here is another link.

LINK

I hope these brought a smile to your face today.

HUGS, Sandy O

Ornament #2

I know I really need to get back to actually "transforming" paper! I miss doing teabag folding, iris folding, altered media (like my butterfly house here), coloring, etc. Maybe making some home made paper from my scraps, which I have wanted to do for a long time. That would be the ultimate transformation of paper, lol

Until then...I have made another ornament. This is the second of the Nicecrane Designs ornaments.  The ornaments are so unique, I just love them. I am not sure why I can't find this one on the site :o( but there are 3 others there. One of the three I made you can see here.

This is the top of the ornament. As you can see, I used beads and cord to decorate this one.

I also used this very unique glitter called Elements. I know it has been around for a while, but I wanted to see it in real life before purchasing it. Not only is it really nice and a bit chunky, but it smells so yummy. This one smells like an herb I just can't place right now. My husband thought it smelled like chicken soups, lol. I really think it is just an herb that would go into it. The store had others that I smelled. They all smell soooo yummy or pretty.

Here are some views of the 4 sides of the ornament:

I did not add any embellishments to the pictures. I just couldn't think of any that would dress them up without distracting from the nice vintage look . 

I hope your not sick of seeing the Nicecrane Designs, lol, I like them so much I have not strayed from them...I am planning on doing so on my next project though. Sooooo...if you are a bit bored, just hold on, lol

Thank you so much for stopping by...{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O

My 1st 2011 Chrstmas Card

WOW, I am becoming such a lazy paper crafter! I miss having time to color (it has been so long that I am kind of intimidated by it now, YIKES) Usually I make my Christmas cards a bit more complicated (for lack of a better word) that this one. Then I make about 5 different ones.

I don't really have photos of the ones that I sent on this blog, they are on my old blog, just some I made for challenges or something are here. You can see one here that I did send out where I was brand new to coloring. I only had Pro-markers, no Copics and blending was something I never even heard about, lol. You can't see the inside either, but....you can see I spent lots of time coloring quite a few of them.

Ohhhhh...to have such time now!

Again, I used a Nicecrane Designs picture, as I have been doing quite a bit lately. I wanted a nice nativity scene that I did not need to color...of course. When I received an email of this new set, I was so happy that the perfect nativity scene was included with it.

I found this wonderful gold paper at Jo Ann's about an hour from my house. I only got one to make sure it matched well and it matched perfectly. Next time I go to my mothers (which happens to be tomorrow, yeah!) I need to stop there on the way and hope they have more.

I distressed the edges of the picture with some Viva Decor Inka-gold. I saw it at a not so local craft store and thought it looked interesting. Since it was a trial size, I figured I would give it a try. It is like a paste and I used my fingers to apply it. It is a bit different from the Krylon gold leaf marker I usualy use.

The sentiment is from the new SU set called The Sounding Joy. I just love the script and flourished of it. To get the ribbon to lay flat I just ran my ATG over the whole things. That worked really well at keeping it from popping up in the center. Gosh, look at the gold paper, lol, I just love it.

Can you see the "Joy" on the bottom of the front here? This is from the same SU set. I really like the gold on gold and it does show up a bit better in real life.
Boy, am I so glad for the spell check that Blogger has. I just can't spell even some of the simpler words! Can you believe I misspelled "finger"!!! bwaaa ha ha ha

Have a wonderful day and thank you so much for stopping by
{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O



Gift Box Worth Keeping

I have been thinking about what I am going to give for Christmas gifts this year. I most likely will give items I have made or will make out of real eggs, such as ornaments. One thing I like when I receive gifts for Christmas is when the item comes with a box to keep it in. Especially breakable items. When I saw the Christmas Birds pictures from Nicecrane Designs, I though they could be used for an adorable gift box to put gifts in for storage.

I ordered some of the gift boxes from SU and they are really small! Now that I have 2 packages of them, I have no idea what to use them for, lol. I am willing to bet that you have items you bought that are not what you expected too! Have you ever found something to use them for? I would love to hear about them!

I found some good sized gift boxes and though they are not exactly white (there are just too many different whites out there...soooooo confusing when ordering on line!) they are the perfect size for what I needed, which is 4x4. I only wish I could remember where I ordered them from...grrrr

I really wanted to use this vellum paper with the sparkly dots and "x's" but could not see the sparkly design when placed on the gift box. I decided to put some colored cardstock behind it, that matched the pictures.

To add some dimension to the pictures, I added some of the SU glitter glue (just like stickles but dries much faster). I only placed it on the snow that is at the forefront of the picture so that the back snow really looks like it is further back (did that make sense ? LOL)

Here are photos of the other 3 sides:

I kept the top really simple. I had this poinsettia from last years supplies. It was way easier then trying to make a nice big bow, tee he he Sadly I only have 1 white and loads of red. I did not like the red with this, the white really looks so much better. I guess I will just HAVE to go shopping...darn...

The center was gold, but I did not like that either. I really wanted it silver. What I did was cover all the gold with Aleene's glue and dipped them in the beautiful SU silver glass.

Here you can see not only how pretty it looks, but that I missed one! I had no idea until I took the photo. When I went back to fix it and take another photo, I just could not find it! WOW...I know it is there somewhere, because it is quite obvious in this photo.

I guess you can see that I am not the perfect crafter, lol. I like when I find a blog that it's items are not exactly perfect. Makes me feel like I am in good company, ha ha ha When items are so perfect, well, I feel like my items are just not up to snuff...know what I mean.

I am sorry if the photos are not very clear. My camera is giving my such fits! It is shutting off on it's own while I am trying to take photos. Then when I down load them, some come up blank :o( It is about 10 years old, but I really liked it...LIKED being the main word right now. I guess it is time for a new camera too, but that does not fit into my crafting budget. I am hoping that it will last until Christmas (I am dropping hints now, tee he he)

Have a super duper weekend everyone...

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O

Ladybug House

I have not gotten into my craftroom yet. The electricity is out and there is absolutely not enough natural light to craft with. Choosing colors would just be a nightmare. Sooo...I decided that I would show you my favorite project I made at the egg art show a couple of weeks ago.

This will give you an idea of how small it is. Isn't that just so cute? The egg is a real quail egg that I am sure mom quail gave up willingly so it could be craft with, lol The outer shell has only a couple of coats of mod podge on it so that the natural coloring of the egg shows.

Here you can see the mom talking to the baby. The flowers are made with what eggers call scibbles, but it looks and feels just like flower soft to me. I have no idea where the teacher got so many tiny flat stones for the walkway as there had to be 50 eggers in this class and she also sells kits on her website. And, wow, the doors were pre-cut in the eggs for us...she is one patient person!

I thought that the material to make the shrubs was really neat. Those pinecones are simply adorable. We painted them green and plopped them on with Aleene's tacky glue. I would love to know where she gets these itty bitty pinecones too!

From the top you can see almost the whole yard. I am not sure what the orange stuff used for trees is called, but I think it added some really nice color contrast to it. You can also see the lines and dots on the ladybugs. They were made with a sharpy marker. The mom was not to bad, but the baby, wow, I still don't know how I did it, lol

If you know anyone looking for a house, as you can see, this one is for sale, lol. What a fantastic touch it was to add that.

I hope you like it. Hopefully we will have our electricity soon (we are almost finished with day 6! YIKES)

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O

Butterfly Wedding

Phew...finally got my computer back. We have been without power for 5 days now. A co-worker of Paul's got his back and offered to let us use his generator! WOW...now we have hot water, a running refrigerator, one lamp, TV, a coffee maker (the top priority, lol) and computer. I am hoping that the one lamp will light my craft room enough to play today. I am really sick of reading by flashlight!

I do have a wedding card I made while I was on break.

As you know, I LOVE shimmer paper. I also can't get enough of this nestie die. Butterflies seem so perfect as a couple begins their new life together. I added lots of pearls to kind of make up for the lack of pattern paper and they just look so pretty. Of course, as always, I purchased these from Pizzazz Aplenty.

I have to say, I really like how everything blended together. The small amount of pattern paper I do have here is a digital paper I got from Bearly Mine Designs.  The light embossing of the 3rd layer is from the SU Texturz Plates. Doesn't it add such a pretty and soft look.

Here you can get a better look at the pattern paper. I am so at awe as to how well digital paper prints out. I find a lot of them print out as an 8x8 pattern, which seems to waste a lot of paper. The patterns are so pretty, though, so I use them anyway, lol

I so wanted to use the smaller version of the die, so decided to add it to the back of the front (back of the front, lol, sound so funny!) It was a good way to get some ribbon on there too :o)
Have super wonderful day!!! {{{HUGS}}} Sandy O