More Paper Flowers & A Question

Please tell me what you think about selling hand made embellishments at craft shows. Do you think they would sell? Is it a good idea?

I am just loving making these flowers. I have been flattening out the back so that I can use them on cards & such. But, I think I have to try to make some 3-D Bouquets too. I also started making leaves for them. I painted the phone book pages the same way, then I just cut the leaves freehand with deco edge scissors.
These were done with orange (mixed yellow & red) and lightly went over them with yellow. Two of them have yellow skittles in the center. The other has an orange button threaded with natural hemp twine in the center. Some of these, the top layer was put together with torn pieces of the painted paper. Others, I tore the petals of the flower & arranged freehand & glued.

The bottom flower was made with light & dark blue. The top is one of the orange & yellow flowers. The orange one is one of the torn flowers. I covered an I-Top brad with some similarly colored cardstock for the center. The phone book pages, I find are too thin to use in the I-Top, they tend to tear. I have also found that thick cardstock is sometimes too think for the I-Top. I crinkle or rumple it up to soften it a bit. Once it goes through the I-Top it is smoothed out & looks great.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Birthday Giftbag

Happy Birthday Laici!! I made this giftbag for a very special little girl that just made 6. I made her card with the Cupcake theme, so went with that for the bag too. It is a little different, but still cupcakes. HERE is her card.

So now for the bag. Details:

I used my I-Top to make the brad in the center of the flower.

Cupcake, Flowers, & Happy Birthday were all cut from the Sweet Treats Cricut Cart.

White Gel Pen to make doodle dots around the Happy Birthday.

Iridescent Glitter Glue on the dot for the "i" in birthday and on the gleam on the brad.

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Birthday Card - Jean

I made this birthday card for my husband's step mom for her birthday. Happy Birthday Jean. We Love You!!!!
Details:
Tonic Border Punch System with the Cupcake & Balloon Punches.
Fiskars Paper Crimper
Prima Flowers
I made the brad in the center of the flower using my I-Top.
Stamps ( I can't remember the stamp sets at the moment) Front: It's a Celebration, Inside: Happy Birthday
Corner Rounder
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Tasha's Memorial Frame

I made this frame as a memorial to Tasha. I have a picture of her from 1994 and a picture of her in 2009.

The saying, I thought fit perfectly. I had seen it in a magazine selling a cement paw with the saying on it.

Details:
Alphalicious Cricut Cart. was used for her name. I cut it in cardstock and 140 lb. watercolor paper to give it a little dimension (kind of like chipboard) and layered it. I inked the edges of the letters.
George Cricut Cart. was used to cut the circle. I printed the saying on my computer onto the circle.
Tonic Border Punch System w/ Hearts Punch was used on the base rectangle. I added the punched out hearts to the circle. Inked the circle. I used natural hemp twine threaded around the rectangle.
Tonic Arrowhead 2 in 1 Corner Punch was used on both mats for the pictures. Tucked the corners of each picture into the cut out corner slots.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Making Embellishments - Paper Flowers

As you may or may not know I am trying to get together some inventory to do craft fairs in my area. I still want to make some projects to have on hand to sell. But, I also had a thought to make embellishments to sell also. I know I go to craft shows a lot of the time to get ideas. I'm sure I am not the only one. It's good to have our crafts for those that don't crafts. But I thought that it would be nice to have some handmade embellishments for those that do craft. I mean - we all still buy embellishments that we see & like even though we can make them. I think that is the nature of the beast we call crafting - LOL.

So last night I sat down to make some paper flowers. This VIDEO is what first inspired me to make these flowers. Then Donna came out with VIDEO 2. You really need to see both videos that are wonderful. Although I did put my spin on them. I don't have all of the materials that Donna has, so I improvised & I think I really like how they came out.

I used a roll of electrical tape and one of my rolls of sticky strip as a guide to cut the circles. I was not worried about them being perfect. I just tore the paper while holding down the rolls of tape.

For this one, I made the flowers with the bare paper. Then (The colors are off in this pic. They are actually lt. purple & lt. pink.), I watered down some acrylic paint and just kind of splattered it on them. I used my heat gun to help dry them faster (I tend to be impatient.). I then glues them together, painted a button with the acrylic paint, threaded it with some hemp twine, and coated the button with Mod Podge & attached to the center of the flower.

The following 2 were done a little differently & I think I like this method better. I watered down the paint, dried it, crumpled it, then went over it again with wither a lighter or darker paint color. I did this until I liked the look of the paper. Then after the circles were torn, I went around them with wavy deco edges scissors.

This one is Alexis' very first paper flower. She did hers as I showed her while making mine. Its a little more flat, but that's how she wanted it. I think she did a wonderful job for her first time trying. I actually think it looks better than my first paper flower. My first one can be seen HERE.

I really like the rustic look about these flowers. I am in the process of making many different colored ones. Forgot to mention, the paper I am using is old phone book pages. Way to RECYCLE, and it's FREE!!!!

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.

Lori

Wall Letter K - Kayla

I can finally show this post. I had to wait until I could give this to my niece.
Ok so this is about the 5th Wall Letter that I have done. I love doing them, but I stress myself out trying to make them fit the person that they are for. Last time I got the first boy one out of the way. Now this one is for my niece, but she is 20 years old. I tried to capture her personality & her interests in this. I hope I did good. She is a very good artist, so I am just praying that she will like it. What was I thinking, trying to give a craft gift to someone that is so talented herself? I can't wait for her to get this to finally stop stressing.

Details:

White wooden letter from Michael's.

SCAL for the letters.

Indie Art Cricut Cart. for the heart and the skull.

Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cart. for the music symbol.

I painted the letter with black acrylic paint.

I used Tim Holtz Distress Paint (Brushed Pewter) on the top of the letter. I used my fingers to give it some texture. When that dried I brushed over it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad (Worn Lipstick). My niece's favorite colors are pink & black. I did the same to the cross bones of the skull.

I used UTEE mixed with glitter and heat embossed that to the top layer of the heart.

After everything was adhered to the letter, I put a layer of Mod Podge over it. Then I sprayed it with Krylon Preserve It for extra protection.

Now for the reaction:
I think she really liked it. I felt really good when she opened it and said "Wow, how did you do that?" Her brother gave me a very good compliment on it too. He said that if he could capture Kayla and put her on a letter, this would be exactly it.
Glad that is over. I think I need to have more confidence in my work. I stress over it too much. I just want the people that I am making things for to really like them.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Valentines & Valentine's Party Favors

I made these for my daughter to give out for Valentine's Day. The heart and arrow were cut from the Hello Kitty Greeting Cricut Cart.
The Be My Valentine was cut from the Wild Card Cricut Cart.
Then I just adhered them to individual Valentine Lik-N-Dip Packs and wrote her name in the From space on the other side.

This pic is of the Valentine's Party favor bags that I made for my daughter's class.

For the topper I just cut white cardstock & scored down the middle, rounded the corners & inked with Tim Holtz's Distress Ink Pad (Worn Lipstick). I cut the red cardstock a little smaller, scored down the middle & rounded the corners. Then I used my Tonic Border Punch System with the Paisley II Punch to make the design across the front. (Info about the Tonic Border punch System is at the bottom of this post.) I have the Heats Punch on its way to me, but I was impatient & wanted to get these done over the weekend. I still think it is cute & the boys will like it too. I filled with Misc. Candy, Candy Love Beads, Bookmark, and Decorated Mini Nerds. I then stapled the white part of the topper to the bag. I layered the red part of the topper over the white (adhered with ATG), this hid the staple. From is stamped on the back of the topper & my daughter wrote in her name.

This is the bookmark that I made.

I cut red & white rectangles, just using my paper trimmer. I cut the red ones a little smaller for layering.

I used my Marvy 2 1/2" Scallop Square Punch (red - 2 for each bookmark) and the 2" Square Punch for the white. I ran the white squares through my Cuttlebug using the Love Stamp Embossing Folder. Then I used the Tonic 2-in-1 Arrowhead Corner Punch on the bottom of the white rectangles. The red rectangles were run through my Cuttlebug using the Doves & Hearts (Christmas Set) Sizzix Embossing Plates. I adhered the red rectangles the the white ones tucking the corners into the punched corners. I adhered the red squares on the top, white on top of that. I white doodle dots around the scallop square. I used a 2 slot hole punch on the top left corner & threaded ribbon & tied a knot bow. I then adhered the other red square to the back for a finished off look.

This is the covered Mini Nerds that I decorated.

The inspiration for this came from Angie @ Chic'n Scratch Live. You can see her video for her Valentine Nerds HERE. I'm sure her instructions were clear, but I was doing these in the middle of the night & was confused for some reason (not unusual for me in the middle of the night or not when it comes to measurements - LOL). So this is how I did them.

Red cardstock 4 5/16" x 1 5/8" - Scored @ 5 /16" on both ends then on one end @ 1 13/16" & 2 7/16". I ran it through my Cuttlebug using the Spots & Dots Embossing Folder

I cut the scallop tag from the Plantin School Book Cricut Cart. @ 1 1/2" in white & 1 1/2" shadow in red. I stamped in Worn Lipstick Distressed Inkpad the xoxoxo Studio G $1 Clear Stamps (Feb. Set) on the white tags. layered the white & red tags.

Tied a ribbon knot bow around the box. Using red thread attached the tags to the ribbon.

Tonic Border Punch System Information:
To see videos about it:
Tonic Border Punch System Videos parts 1 & 2
Tonic Boot Punch Videos parts 1 & 2
Tonic Border Punch System Information: Click HERE
To order or for more info, contact Cheryl Horton / Inspire Me HERE
Cheryl is a dear to work with and will answer any questions that you have.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Not Scrap Related - R.I.P. Tasha

We had to lay our beloved dog-child down today. She was 15 years old and 4 months exactly today. She was older than my first born and will be very missed.

Here are some pics of her:

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Slide Up Cupcake Birthday Card

The idea for this card came from the Flower Pot Card that I had made a while back. I just recently got the Sweet Treats Cricut Cart & thought that it would be nice to make a similar card with a cupcake. I really like the way this came out.

A good friend of our's daughter is turning 6 shortly. I thought I would make a special card for her. Happy Birthday Laici!!

This is the card. It does not open up. There is a pic further down showing the message.

I just cut a rectangle for the base & rounded the corners.

Sweet Treats Cart (cupcake 2) for all of the cupcake parts & the 6
Pop dotted the 6 on top of the wrapper
Opposites Attract Cart for the L
Cuttlebug & Happy Birthday Embossing Folder & Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Added some ribbon & gel marker stitching

This is the "opened" card and the envelope. Just pull up on the cupcake & it slides out of the wrapper.

On the slide out:
Inked around the edges of a smaller piece of white cardstock & stamped message (Stampendous - Everything happy Stamp Set)
Tonic Cupcake Punch (can also be used in the Border System to make borders) in the bottom corner
Martha Stewart Course Crystal Glitter on the flame, candle stripes, & punched cupcake

Envelope:
I made the envie using my Crafter's Companion
Hello Kitty Greetings Cart for the Happy Birthday
Studio G $1 Cupcake Stamp from Michael's
Colored in the stamp with LePlume II markers
Added a clear skittle on top of the Cherry for a dimensional effect.

Close up of the cupcake on the envie:

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Test Cut for Redfish Etching

Well, my dad bought SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) for me at the end of November. Why, you might ask?!! Because I had been doing some glass etching. He asked me how hard it would be for my Cricut to cut a detailed fish with scales & all. So I told him that if I had SCAL it would be no problem. That I could cut any image that I can copy & paste from the internet or on any image that is on my computer.

With Christmas & all I really did not have time to work on it. And the times that I did try were very unsuccessful & frustrating. I was beginning to think that I had made a mistake in getting this program. You had to use inkscape (a free program) to clean up the images & I just was not able to figure it all out. I posted a picture of the fish on the SCAL MB, asking for help. DogCarbon was nice enough to try,Thanks, but the file was not exactly what I was looking for.

I decided yesterday morning to sit down & try to figure it out. To make the .svg file I imported the original picture into Inkscape.  Then I went into Path > Trace Bitmap.  When there all I did was change the Edge Detection to .450.  That's it, nothing else.  Then I Imported it into SCAL and made a few little changes there. You will see the little (very little) changes in the .scut2 file & the .svg file).  Oh yeah, SCAL made some updates on 1/2/09 that makes it easier & less dependent on inkscape!!!

Well, after all of that - sorry it was so long. Here is a pic of my sample cut. I am proud of myself.
I cut it out of white cardstock an placed it over a dark piece of cardstock. When etched, the white parts will be clear class & the dark areas will be etched. When I get a pane of glass I will do the etching & post that pic then. This particular image will fit on an 8x10 picture frame glass. It can be sized up or down, but to size any smaller would loose some of the detail. It was hard to weed out at this size. I would love to try it a little bigger. It would also be nice to try it on t-shirts too. Yeah that's right - forgot to mention that I also got a Yudu for Christmas. I have done the Freezer Paper Technique on T-shirts & would love to see the contrast between the two ways to do this.
HERE is the .svg file.
HERE is the .scut2 file.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Altered Dome Tin & Stationary Set

This is what kept me busy most of the time. I made 4 of these in total 1 for my daughter & 1 for each of my 3 nieces. They range in age from 8 to 12. I made them all in different color & patterned paper schemes, but all were basically the same design.

Thank you Okieladybug for the .cut file to cover these tins. I don't think I could have done it with out you.

This is the tin that I made for my daughter. She was so excited b/c she knew I was making them for my nieces, but had no idea that one of them would be for her too.

Front & Top:

Top:

I-Top Brad in Prima Flowers coated in Mod Podge.

Complete Stationary Set Contents:

Flip up notepad with very brightly colored pages:

Altered RSVP pen & Altered mini composition notebook:

Calendar made with my Bind it All

First page inside of calendar, calendar & note card for note & upcoming dates:

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Fleur-Di-Lis Glass Etched Candle Bowl

I made these for a couple of very good friends this Christmas. For those of you that don't know, I am from the New Orleans area. With the way the Saints are going this year, I think I have to get more etching cream. I already have people that have said that they want some of these without even seeing them. I think I will be making them in different sizes too.

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Giftcard & Money Holders

I want to thank Christina from Creations With Christina for making all of her Wild Card Series Videos and for all of the measurements. I made these giftcard holders and envies and Money holders using the Wild card Cartridge. It would have taken me so much longer to get them done if Christina would not have had all of the measurements all figured out already.

Giftcard Holders & Envies:

Money Envelopes:

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Gift Bags & Tags

Ok, here is some of what I have been working on for Christmas. I have been very busy since before Thanksgiving trying to get everything made & finished. So in this & then next 5 posts there might not be much detail. You can always leave a comment or send me an email if you want to know something specific about what i used or how I did something. Also there are some things that I did not have a chance to take pics of, but you all will get most of it. Some still can't be shown b/c we have not done our Christmas with everyone yet. Hopefully I will be able to post the rest after this weekend.

Bags that I made to put giftcards in. I thought it made a nice touch as opposed to just having the giftcard holder. They were made from very small craft paper bags.

These were made from the same small craft paper bags. I made these to put the snowman ornaments that I made for some family members. You can see the Christmas Ornaments HERE.

The next 3 pics are bags that I made using regular brown paper lunchbags. The first pic I made 10 of these varying a little, but basically the same design. The other 2 are one of a kind.

This bag was a medium sized craft paper gift bag that I decorated and made a tag for.

This is the gift tag that I made to put on the small snowman bags.

The rest of these tags were just cut from craft paper cardstock inked and embellished with a decorated Cricut cut.

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Very Very Busy!!

Sorry to not have posted in a while. I am busy getting crafting done for presents this year. I have been able to show some of them. I can't wait to be able to post the rest. I am still trying to get so much finished. Has anyone figured out how to add more time to a day? LOL It seems like I don't have enough.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

More Glass Etching

Here are 2 more glass etchings that I have done for Christmas. I made these with my Cricut Expression, Clear Contact Paper, Amour Etch, and designs on SCAL.

This first one is of Christmas Trees, with the design on all 4 sides. I found the .svg file at ScrappingTable under Free Shapes. If you are using SCAL, you really need to check out this site. It is really a wealth of information.

The next one is for my mom. She loves butterflies, again I put an image on all 4 sides of the bowl. I found a picture of a butterfly online & asked for someone to convert it to a .svg file for me on the SCAL MB. (I still can't get the hang of inkscape to convert files.) Thanks goes out to JO-ANNEB (Sweetness4713) on the SCAL MB for converting this file for me.

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Ornament - Trent's 1st Christmas

This is the ornament that I made for my nephew (& God son) for his 1st Christmas. He will be 5 months old 3 days before Christmas. Last year when I made the ornament for his sister's first Christmas, I made it in shades of pink. So I did his in all blues.
Front:

Back:Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Christmas Countdown Clipboard - 12 Day

Well, this is one of the projects that I have been working on. I'm not sure if I'll be keeping this one or giving it as a present. This is the first clipboard I have done & my first countdown calendar too. I am also entering it into the Practical Scrappers Challenge this week Anything Christmas. Click on over to see what everyone else has made too.
Details:
Paper Doll Dress Up Cart. for the Tree
SnowTex for the snow
SCAL for the ornaments & words
Legal size clipboard

I inked the clipboard with a light brown pigment ink then went over it with a white wash (watered down white acrylic paint). I think this gave it a really nice wood grain look. I inked the edges of the paper & the board with brown pigment ink.
I then used Mod Podge over the entire board & place the printed cardstock in place. Then Used another coat of Mod Modge. The tree was also coated in Mod Podge before adhering to the board. I glittered the ornaments & sprayed with a coat of Krylon Preserve It to keep the glitter from scraping off. Then adhered the ornaments to the tree.
I used a hook that screwed into the board to hold the numbered ornaments.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Busy Busy Busy

Hey there! I have not bee posting much b/c I am busy getting some Christmas presents made. So plenty of what I am doing right now may have to wait to be posted after Christmas. Hopefully I may be able to get some of them posted, but right now I am just trying to get things made. The hard part is just finding to the time to be able to work at my craft table.
Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori

Glass Etching - Candle Bowl

I made this candle bowl for my grandmother Mamie for Christmas. (Yes, I know there are ribbon spools in the bowl.) Than bowl would not photograph well with the candle in it, so I added the colorful ribbon. This was the first etching I had done since high school, too many years ago to worry about. But it was fun & I will be making several more to Christmas gifts.

Details:
The scallop square is cut from the Mini Monograms Cart.
The M is from the Plantin Schoolbook Cart.
I used clear contact paper to cut the design out of & layered it onto the glass.
Armour Etch. I left it on for a good 30-45 min with great results. I knew I had to leave it on longer that recommended, so I really didn't time it. I put it on 7 started working on some other stuff then just checked it a while later. I scraped off as much as I could & put it back into the bottle. Then I rinsed it off thoroughly before removing the contact paper. Wash well & dry.

Thanks for looking. Questions & comments are always welcomed.
Lori