I'm Baaaaack!

This post is going to be a short one. I just want everyone to know that I have not disappeared. Please give me another couple of days and I promise to have quite a few new photos posted of what's been keeping me busy lately!

I had my daughter, Jenny's, birthday (10/31)...her party (11/1)...her school's Fall Festival (11/7) of which I'm her class mom and was in charge of a scrapbooking basket to put together...and then a craft fair I had a table at on 11/14! Needless to say I've been BUSY! I'm finally not committed to anything "major" but of course I now have an amazing head cold to contend with. C'est la vie!

For this craft fair my table was about two thirds jewelry and one third Stampin' Up! creations. I'm really happy...my table did well...surprisingly so! I got a lot of compliments on my jewelry, so I was very excited. It's nice knowing that I'm not the only one who likes my stuff.

Here's a picture of me and my table.
Check in again by Wednesday and I'll definitely have all my pictures up. Thanks for sticking with me!

Too Much Of A Good Thing

I haven't posted in a few days because I've been working on yet another kind of project. Last year I sanded down my natural-colored kitchen table and stained it a dark walnut. I liked the way it came out, but I didn't have the gumption to attack the six matching chairs.

Last week I decided to tackle the remaining chairs...one chair at a time. I even decided I would take pictures of the major stages I was taking it through to share on this blog. HOWEVER...I hate the way the chair turned out! So, now I'm going to have to re-sand the sealer off the chair and paint it a dark brown. Right now I'm aggravated from that project and am taking time off from that...again!

So, here's what I made to make myself happy again..."Too Much Of A Good Thing". I used the Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White cardstock from Stampin' Up! The stamp set is called "Time Well Spent"...also from SU!

I had some extra long envelopes from a Stamp-a-Stack I did, so I wanted to make a long card and this is what I came up with. I'd seen a similar card in one of the SU! catalogs and loved the layout. I punched holes into the So Saffron piece using a piercing tool and foam mat. I colored the images using my coordinating Stamp 'n Write Markers, cut out the butterfly and "popped" it using a Stampin' Dimensional. I tied a knot in my pink grosgrain ribbon and glued it on using Crystal Effects. The card still lacked some "punch" so I decided to go back with my Basic Black marker and line "stitches" around the images.

Now THAT made me happy to complete a project!

Amethyst Haute Couture

Here's a card I made yesterday. I had this in my mind for some reason and just had to make it before I forgot it. Again, this is all Stampin' Up! products. I used the following cardstock; glossy white, basic black and almost amethyst. The also used a piece of designer series paper in almost amethyst. The stamp set is an old hostest set called Haute Couture...LOVE this set!!! It's something I just had to have and bid on eBay for it and won! Woo hoo!

It's a standard size card; 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". I stamped the image using a Versamark pad onto the glossy white cardstock(it makes a watermark of the image), poured my silver embossing powder over and heated it using my heat gun. I colored in the dress using my almost amethyst marker. The trick here is to go over the image once, then come back to 'darken' the areas you want to have shadows on. I punched the corners of the image and small piece of black cardstock using my ticket corner punch, glued them together and then onto the almost amethyst cardstock. I popped this using Stampin' Dimensionals (foam dots).

I made the silver spiral using 16 gauge wire, tied a piece of black grosgrain ribbon on and voila! To make sure it stayed in place I used a dot of Crystal Effects to hold it down.

I always have to decorate my envelope to coordinate with the card. It makes the receiver excited to open this piece of mail first! Using my Aqua Painter and SU! chalks I colored in her hat, lips and cheeks.

That's it for today. Keep coming by to say hello & leave me some comments so that I know whether or not you've appreciated this post. Thanks!

I'm on a roll now!

Well, I'm moving along quite nicely now. I figured out how to change the time stamp on this blog. It had me on Pacific Time...I needed Eastern!

So, after my first post I was inspired to finally take pictures of some of my jewelry and upload them. I'll have to figure out how to take better pictures though. I'm not doing the jewelry justice. I love the way light bounces off the facets of the Swarovski crystals!

One bracelet I made was done using Swarovski crystals in Montana, Light Peach and the new Cantaloupe. Cantaloupe is a very interesting color. Depending on the light it comes off as three very different colors. This bracelet is shown above in the three photos...yes, it's the same bracelet! In natural light (larger picture) Cantaloupe shows as a light grey, in fluorescent light (top small picture) it looks like a peridot green and in incandescent light (bottom small picture) it looks like a rosy-peach color. So, needless to say I had to come up with colors that would compliment it no matter what light it would be worn in!

My next step will be to take pictures of my Stampin' Up! stuff. I have cards, stationary sets, clipboards and frames. Hopefully I'll sign up for another craft fair this fall. They're alot of fun to showcase your products and to meet new people. Or in some cases, the same people that you saw at the previous craft show you were in!

If you see any of my items that you like, I'd love to read your comments. I would appreciate all critiques, whether positive or negative. You can only learn from others and make changes to improve! Thanks for reading & please save me in your favorites.