Happy Thanksgiving

It's been so long since I lasted posted. I've been so busy and have not had any time to craft! As you know I'm starting a portrait photography business and have been occupied with that. But now that it's the rainy season I get a bit of a break. So finally this past Sunday I had a minute to do this fun crafty Thanksgiving project with my children. We had so much fun. I'm so glad we did this. We haven't laughed like that in a while.

Someone brought this snack to the church potluck. These acorns were so adorable. I also saw them on Pinterest and I knew that we could make them too. We used Hershey Kisses, Nutter Butter Bite Cookies, pretzel sticks and I melted some chocolate candy in the microwave to use as our "glue."

I didn't actually read the directions on how these are made. We started to put the kisses onto the cookie first and then realized the pretzel stem wouldn't stay on because the cookie could not lay flat. The trick is to lay the cookie down first. Add the pretzel stem with melted chocolate and let dry. Once it was secure then we added the kiss to the bottom using melted chocolate. Some of the stems didn't stay upright, but that's okay. They still tasted good. I think next time I'm going to use caramel Hershey Kisses. Caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, pretzel. How good would that taste?! Thinking about it makes me hungry for Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream!

I made these toppers using Bigz Dies Top Note (SU!) I cut it out and folded it in half length-wise. I bagged the goodies in a cellophane bag and sealed the tops using my Food Saver sealer, but you could just tape the top, too. I adhered the bag topper with double stick tape, punched a hole on the left and added organza ribbon embellishment. Stamps used are from SU! also. It's a very old set but it's my go-to every Autumn. I got this fall effect by using that double ink technique again. I wish I knew the correct technical term for that. Ink the image using the lighter color and then using a darker cat eye tap the edges, then stamp. See the leaf on the left? It's green in the center with red edges.

This leaf on the left is even cooler. I learned it from my SU! rep a while ago. It's called "thumping." Ink the image all over using the lightest color. Here I used a light orange hue. Then using a red ink pen "thump" the image. Hold the pen at the end and tap the image all over rotating it to get random all over coverage. Do the same with a green ink pen and darker orange ink pen. Before stamping the image onto your card stock, "huff" on the image. This sounds weird, I know, but your warm breath moistens the ink so you get a better image stamped. Finally, stamp the inked image onto your card stock. My directions don't make any sense but I don't know all the technical terms for these techniques and I'm not able to explain them without showing it in person so I hope you're able to translate it. But look at how cool this leaf came out. It's really like the falling leaves you find this time of year that have the beautiful yellow, red and brown hues.

Happy Summer



Child halter dress made from men's lg t-shirt

When I was in the 5th grade, one of my school mate's moms put on her own Summer Camp. The only thing I remember was that we tie-dyed white fabric and sewed photo album covers. I don't know where she is today, but each summer when I teach my kids how to tie-dye, I always think of my old 5th grade classmate and that summer I spent at her house.

I'm still learning all the tricks, but here's what we did last week. I made my daughter a dress from a men's large t-shirt. (We get the 4 pack Fruit of the Loom tagless cotton tees inexpensive when they go on sale.) I don't have a pattern. I just cut the sleeves off then sew the raw edges. I added elastic to the back, tie-dyed the whole thing, then added a ribbon to the front for the halter straps.


back view

To get this particular design, first you lay the
t-shirt flat, front side up. Starting from the center, you pinch a bit of shirt and turn clockwise until you've spun the whole thing into a flat spiral-like disk. Secure with rubberbands. This is hard to do because you want to keep it kind of flat-like, not wadded up into a ball. Then dye following the directions on the dye package. We used fuschia and purple dyes.

There are a lot of tutorials on how to re-purpose old t-shirts. I'm sorry I can't add one of my own here. I am really terrible at following patterns. I usually just kind of wing it and hope to not mess it up too badly. As for tie-dying there are also alot of tutorials on that too. You can get so many different patterns as well as techniques. It's so much fun to experiment. It does get really very messy and I'm not exaggerating. So if you're neat and tidy, this may not be for you. The cleanup is a chore. Also note that gloves are necessary otherwise it will stain your fingers.






Sweet Peas

My sweet peas are finally blooming. We have had a rough Spring here weather-wise. I wish that you could smell these in person. They are heavenly!
I apologize for not posting anything for a really long time. Life has been so very busy. Hopefully this Summer things will slow down.

Birthday Boy Mini Album

This is a mini album I made for my son's birthday. As the

previous post Birthday Mini Album, I interviewed him, asking him what his favorite things were. I also included his name meanings, his Western and Asian Astrological Signs and attributes, and some personal journaling such as what he means to me.

 

The album is punched with two holes and bound using green metal rings. I used SU! Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp set along with SU! punches for most of the layouts. Ohter supplies used were Sister Stamps Keitaro stamp, Cricut "Storybook" for the "5," Martha Stewart train punch, along with distress ink, various brads, staples and ribbons.

Using staples instead of tying ribbons
adds a more masculine tone

I like how this page turned out and I didn't even have to do any coloring. First, stamp Sister Stamps Keitaro onto large vanilla cream tag. Then stamp "happy birthday" sentiment and cut out banner-like shape and glue it right on top, so it looks like he is holding it. The attributes radiate out from the tag making a graphic impact.

Hope everyone had a terrific Easter!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sew Thankful

I had a challenge to make Thank You cards for both male and females. I didn't want to make them too gender specific so I tried to use neutral colors. I made this card using SU! Sale-A-Bration Outlined Occasions Set. I stamped it with three different colors then sewed it onto yellow polka dot card stock. I distressed the edges. I really want to add a flower and some buttons to that bottom right corner. I think it really needs it! Ugh, but I will resist. It would end up looking too feminine and the challenge would be over. Less is more, right?! Sometimes just keeping it simple is a lesson in itself.

Simple Thank You

I recently visited a fabric store and it was like walking back in time. The store hadn't changed since the 60's. The fabric wasn't anything special, but they had these fabulous buttons. I think these antique buttons were the original thing, lol!

Here is a better example of that background technique I tried on Monday. (See last post) I like how the background turned out on this one much better than the Thank You Yoshimi card. It turned out all messy and distressed. Here's a tip:  Don't go crazy with the sandpaper. Your paper will become too thin and fall apart.

Yoshimi Thank You

I don't know if it's because it's March, Girls Day, Spring or my daughter's birthday, but I keep trending toward these pink girly designs. It's that time of year that I just keep thinking about pink cherry blossoms.
I made this card kind of purple so it wouldn't be TOO pink. I saw on another blog that you could run your paper through an embossing folder, run a waxy crayon over the design and it would resist when you inked over that. In theory it sounded like a brilliant idea. Well, I must not have read the instructions or did something wrong, because it didn't come out like I thought it would.
Here's what I did: I ran white paper through embossing folder. I kept the paper on the design to keep it stable and I rubbed a white crayon over the raised (embossed) areas. Then I used a sponge to apply purple, pink and rose ink to the white paper. I rubbed it in a circular motion with medium-light pressure. The wax on the raised parts took the color rather well. I tried to rub it off with a clean paper towel, but without much success. I rubbed the white crayon over the raised design again thinking that it would make it white, but that didn't work either. So, I ended up lightly sanding it with fine sand paper. I tried the same technique with a white pastel crayon too thinking it would be more waxy. Maybe I wasn't using the right type of ink? The background didn't come out too bad and I had fun experimenting. I guess I have to search the internet and try to find that original link.
I stamped Thank You sentiment in Chinese up in the top left. I made a little fan embellishment using origami paper and gold thread. I cut the origami paper using the same Spellbinder Nestibillities as the other two frames. Cut it in half, fold accordion style and snip the bottom corner off. Wrap the bottom with gold thread and spread top and bottom out fan-like. Secure to card with tacky glue.
Happy Spring!