Thomas Kinkade 3D

 

Whooo Hooo, I was able to do some blog hopping the other day. How fun that was!!! I have missed so many awesome projects. I still have many sites I have not gotten to. I am planning on spending some time tomorrow morning blog hopping again. I don't want to miss reading such great posts and seeing all the projects!

 

No card today, but a really pretty 3D image. When I found some Thomas Kinkade 3D image sets on Moonstone Treasures I just had to get them. Each set contains 10 images, two each.They have a CD set that contains 3 more sets, which I am sure I will get soon.

 

This is the first image I made. I sure learned a lot about how to do these 3D images. First, I thought they would be easy to cut out since there really weren't any very small parts. I was wrong. The edges are quite detailed. Having several layers, like the pine tree, cutting each the exact same way was no easy task.

 

Second, there are some tiny areas. The snowman has a twig arm with a glove on the end. How skinny/tiny that was and a bit hard to cut!!! The lamp also has a pole sticking out on each side that are equally skinny/tiny. Really could not leave them out, otherwise they would only be on the bottom layer. That would make them look out of place.

 

I also learned that they are not so easy to photograph. They are on shiny paper, kind of like photo paper. I was able to get 4 photos that looked OK.

 

This first one shows the actual colors of the image. The others came out off, I am thinking it is because the way the light hit them.

 

Isn't this stunning! And the photo just does not do it justice. The paper really makes the "light" show up like it does on a TK print. I thought of adding some glitter or something, but it looks so pretty as is. 

Here you can get and idea of the amount of layers. I lost my biggest dimensionals, so had to use lots of smaller ones. For the bottom 2 layers I used 2 mm high dimensionals. For the rest I used 1 1/2 mm ones.

 

It really worked out nice that way. I figured that when an item is closer to you, the less depth it has. Also, for things like the chimneys, they would not seem so far separated from the house (if that makes sense)

 

Yikes, look at all that yellow. The color is so off here. It does show a bit of how the depth of the image looks, which you really can not see in the first photo.

 

I tried to take a closer shot of the difference between the 2mm and the 1 1/2mm demensionals. You can see it quite well with the tree, snowman and chimneys.

I plan on making sets of Christmas cards to sell in my Etsy store, though I have read that cards really don't sell well. I thought these were so unique that perhaps people would purchase them.

I am not sure what I am going to do with this one. Since it is my first, it is not as good as I think it should be in order to sell it. I am going back and forth between using it for a Christmas card for myself or framing it.

To frame it, I would need a shadow box frame, but not a really deep one. I looked at my local Micheal's, but they only had ones that were something like 2" deep. I think this image would get lost in it. I may be able to add some layers of corrugated board behind it to bring it closer to the front. I'll have to think about how I would mat it also.

Thanks for spending some of your time with me :o)

HUGS,

Snowflake Tag/Ornament

Yeay...I finally got something done in my newly organized craft room, lol.

Such a pretty snowflake ornament. It was really quite easy too...well, to put together. The blue gems were a bit difficult to cut until I figured out the easy way. Both sides are exactly the same. The little burrs on the edges of the legs can't really be seen in real life. Funny how when I get the new camera to do what I want, it picks up details that the eye really does not see.

Hmmmm...I just noticed that the cord to hang it fell off! Yikes! LOL

This is what I cut them from. Isn't it so pretty. I bought it from Cynthialoowho (I am figuring her real name is Cynthia) at her Etsy store HERE. It is a 1 yard by 4 3/4 inch roll for only...ready! A wopping $6.99! She has lots of colors too. I can see using it for card borders and on eggs, so bought 4 colors.

Isn't the center flower stunning! She also sells these at her store HERE. She has these in a few different colors, too.

I wanted to get a photo showing the clear crystal in the center of the flower. You can kind of see it here. You can see it a lot better if you click on it to get a look at a larger photo.

I did not come up with this idea on my own. I saw a link on a blog to a tutorial on YouTube for it. I can't for the life of me find it now. I wrote her to get the link, but never heard back. So if you would you would like to know, just shoot me an email.

Hugs to you all...
Sandy O

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I saw this at Nicecrane Designs Calling Cards and thought it was perfect to:

WISH YOU ALL THE HAPPIEST OF CHRISTMAS'S

AND

BLESSED NEW YEAR!!!

Hugs always

Sandy O

Stitched Snowflake Card

I have missed hand stitching on cards. It is so relaxing (when I don't make any mistakes, lol) When I saw this new stitching design Ignacio created for his Nicecrane Designs store, well....I just had to make it.

I used my very favorite Christmas color combo, blue and silver. At first I thought a nice Thomas Kinkade image would look nice in the center. But...when I went through my 15 or so TK stamps, I realized that I only have summer and fall images. The new owners of Cornish Heritage Farms did post that they will, in the future, be selling the TK again, YEAH!!! Here's hoping there will be some winter ones to add to my collection.

I decided a nice snowflake would look really pretty instead. I have not used this SU set in a very long time and I still think this snowflake image is soooo pretty. I used some silver micro fine glitter on it. The layer around the snowflake is actually a very shimmery silver paper, though it shows up white in the photo.

Here is a close up of the pretty stitching pattern. It really is easy to do and is perfect for beginners. Ignacio made the directions so easy to follow. After printing out the patten to 51/2 x 5 1/2" I pierced the blue card stock making very small holes since they are close together. Then I stitched using a #10 needle. I chose to use some silver thread. Since the holes are a bit on the small side, I separated the 3 strands that the strand off the spool is made out of. If you use regular embossing floss, you would want to separate the strands also. Then only used 1 of the separated strands to sew with.

All in all, it only took me about 4 hours to pierce and stitch the complete design. That includes letting my 3 pups in and out, one at a time of course. They never seem to have to go out all at the same time, sheesh.

The inside was a bit hard to photograph because of the light reflecting off the pretty shimmery silver card stock. The snowflake and sentiment are stamped with a dark blue ink which matches the blue card stock. It does show up well in real life. The sentiment says, "May the blessing of the season shine upon you" and is from SU also.

The card looked a bit naked without any embellishment, so I added some outline sticker corners. Cards just NEED to have some embellishments, lol

I, again, thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time with me!

HUGS, Sandy O

Ice Fairy Gifts

I finally finished some of the gifts for my husbands family. They are for the nieces and nephews that have no kids. The ones that do have little ones, we just buy for them. What a huge family he has. Thank God I have a very small family or we would not be able to eat for a month, lol

They are made from real medium size goose eggs and are called Ice Fairy. I made 4 in blue, 1 in purple and 1 in yellow/gold.

I was only able to get the purple photographed and one picture of the yellow/gold before my camera battery died.  I do not have time to wait for it to charge to make this post, so perhaps I will posts the blue later (which happens to be my favorite)

Why? Well, I have the next 2 weeks off of babysitting my grandson so am planning to go through my house top to bottom. It has not been done since my illness last year! Yikes, I think it will be quite the chore, but a wonderful way to start the new year. I know my husband will be thrilled, lol.

In this photo you can see the icy snow around the opening pretty well. You will not believe what is used for snow on eggs. It is bath & tub silicone! I would never have thought for a second that this could be used on egg art! It works so well and dries completely in 3 hours if the correct one is purchased. Of course, a ton of white glitter is added to the outside and inside of the snow.

This is the very first egg I cut the opening out myself. Such a simple opening, I thought it would be so easy. But it is much harder than I ever thought it would be. The shell is thin then thick which makes the dremel tool kind of bounce around. So glad that the edges are covered, lol
This is a fairly good picture of the inside details. Isn't the fairy so cute. She is made out of porcelain and hand made and painted. A dear friend sent these to me for her cost which was $10.00! And then she added all the do dads needed to complete the egg. My mother has quite a supply of the eggs, so the final cost for this was the fairy, a tube of silicone and some glitter.

The back trees are in three layers, one layer in front of the other, getting smaller at the layers get closer to the front. It is hard to see but it adds a really nice dimension to the scene.

This kind of shows the pretty chain bottom decoration as well as the Swarvoski crystal beads for the top hanger. The ribbon is not part of the egg, I just used it to hang it on the stand.

Oooooo...Look at that glitter. I used micro fine glitter from the Art Institute Glitter called Lavender. What is so good about the micro fine glitter is that it covers completely with one coat. One 1/4 oz container completely covered 4 of these eggs. Just imagine how long a 1/4 oz would last using it for paper crafting.

Here is the one picture of the yellow/gold egg. You can see how they are the same but different. It is hard to see the glitter that covers the egg in this photo, but am pretty sure you can see it better if you click on it to see it a bit enlarged.

Thank you so much for stopping by!!! HUGS, Sandy O

Cards and Gifts

I have been so busy the past couple of days trying to finish my Christmas cards. Boy am I glad I decided to make them all the same this year. I really should follow others example of starting to make them in January.

I only made 34 of these, you can see the details here. I did make a couple of individual special cards, but that is it, you can see them here, here and here. I hope this is enough, lol. I guess I should have counted how many I needed before I made them. Certainly hoping my guess is right, lol. All I have to do now is sign them, address them and hopefully get them in the mail BEFORE Christmas!

I also made some bookmarks for my sister-in-laws. My husband has 7 older sisters, the poor guy, lol. They like to read, so I thought these would be nice to give. They are made with real quail eggs, so all are different sizes and shapes.

Here is one of them which I think you can see a bit better than the pic with all of them laying down.

The eggs are covered with 5 minute epoxy which has pearl-ex mixed in. I must say that it is really hard to get the epoxy to coat the egg evenly before the epoxy starts to dry, lol. Here you can see the glitter like sparkle the pearl-ex added.

The rim is a Swarvoski chain wrapped around the top thingy (for lack of being able to remember the name of them right now) that the jump rings are put on to make the egg hang.

These balls (can't think of the name of these right now either, lol) are also Swarvoski crystals. They are so pretty as they shine in different colors depending on how the light hits them.

I really hope they like these. I am not sure how to wrap them yet. I am hoping to have time to get to the craft store to see if they have some long skinny gift boxes.

Thank you for spending some time with me today...HUGS...Sandy O

3D Display Globe Card

Ohhhhh...I am so excited to show you this card today. It is the first oval aperture card I made from Flower Soft. I used the 3D kit called Christmas Snow Globes. This kit is not die cut so you have to cut the layers by hand. I did not find it hard to do or time consuming at all.

After adhering all the layers with dimensionals, I added lots of the Ultra Fine White to make the snow on the church, trees and ground. I just had to snaz up the star so I added some of the Flower Soft Diamond Range Silver.  I am not sure if it looked better without the silver, since the silver is not ultra fine. I do wish it came in ultra fine. Actually, it would be nice if more of the colors came this way as well as the original Flower Soft.

Here you can see the layers. As I added the snow, I did not completely cover the trees, roof, hill, which is on the right side and the snow in front of the church. You really can't see the snow mounds in front of the church well in the photo, it looks like the loose glitter I added to the globe is covering it. But in real life you can see it pretty well.  I chose to just add the Flower Soft where I thought the snow would pile up. Kind of like how it would pile on roof shingles and mound on the hill and along the walkway in front of the church. I think that is kind of hard to see too, unless you click on it to see it a bit enlarged.

Oh My Gosh, isn't this paper just the prettiest! I found it at a scrapbook store and just had to have a few sheets. Kind of which I bought more, lol. The corners gave me such fits, grrr. It was so hard to get the sizzlet (I think that is what they are called) to cut through the silver card stock. I tried so many times, I used up just about a full sheet just to make 4 corners.

I am going to have to try gluing the bottom of the pearls again, I think. This is where the ends connected and the ends just would not stay around the oval. I could of held it in place for a half hour or so, but...sheesh...who wants to do that!

I made the inside using the same gorgeous paper as the front. It embosses so well. The sentiment came out perfect even with such a small font.  The paper also takes ink well, so there was no problem using it for the layer where a personal not would be added.

I am a bit disappointed that the loose Flower Soft clings to the globe a bit. I guess I expected the globes to be static free or something. It is not to bad, certainly could be much worse.

This card absolutely will not go through the mail without lots of extra postage, so I think I will give it to someone I would hand it to in person. Maybe my Pastor. I have a few more I can make, since the card kit comes with enough to make 5 cards. The 3D sheets also come in 4 scenes, so hopefully I can make the 3 others. Then think of 3 people I will be handing the card to in person. LOL. Hmmm...I will have to check to make sure I have enough of that pretty paper.

Well, off to make my mailable Christmas cards, which you can see here. I thought I made a simple design, but when making 20 or so, is does not seem so simple, lol Oh well...maybe I will figure out an even simpler one for next year.

Thanks for spending some time with me today! HUGS...Sandy O

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

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