Flowers, flowers and more flowers

I'm a sucker for flowers of any kind... real flowers, felt flowers, paper flowers, crocheted flowers....since its the middle of winter I have to wait for spring for the real flowers and I've already shown you the felt flowers I created (posted back on March 15, 2009), so know I will show you my paper flowers.

This is one that is SO easy - I just love it...but I don't think I will use it on any pages as it is very bulky - so it will probably end up on something altered. I added some glimmer mist to this one - I made it from regular ol' copy paper.
Those crazy chicks over at My Little Shoebox have a great (and fun) tutorial that you can watch ... and be patient...its at the very end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpAKetnM9c&feature=player_embedded

This lovely specimen is something else I found on my online wanderings.... I found this over at the Pink Paislee website... for some reason I can not get the link to post but the website pinkpaislee.com and the post is from October 2009 wacky wednesday ...I'll keep looking until I can get it for you. If you are really dying for it - email me at jewel@twcny.rr.com and I will get it for you!

And here are my creations... using cream colored cotton yarn. I can't follow instructions so I just made my own version. Someday I will post a tutorial I promise!! The bigger one in the center was made using a larger crochet hook.

Then to dress them up a bit I sprayed them with glimmer mist.

This weeks creations

This past week marked my return to work after being out for my gall bladder surgery. I tried to make the most of the Monday that I had off before going back to work on Tuesday.

Chuck's sister Donna had a birthday so I whipped up a card for her - a Bella that I received in am image swap, the blue polka dotted paper is MME I believe, Red Riding Hood SU! paper and grosgrain ribbon. Brads made with the ITop (still loving this tool) and the sentiment was from a set of clear stamps I picked up at M's ages ago on clearance.

One of my 'sisters" on the Cricut message board really liked the pretties I had made last week so I whipped up some to send to her. I made about 10 of them - didn't want to bore anyone with photos of all of them so I picked out a few to show off.

this one I used felt to make a brad - had to do it twice to get all the stray ends under where they belong.

pretties

I made these pretties the other day when I was trying to decide what to do for my next layout.... for this one I used scraps of Stampin' Up! paper - I do not remember the name but I know that I bought about 4 sets of it as I was afraid that I would run out! I threw in a layer of tulle doubled up to soften it up a little. And I finally used my ITOP that my sister Lisa bought me :o) I LOVE THIS TOOL!!

This pretty was made with some old trim that I had sitting around, I threaded it on some floss and gathered it to make a circle, then did the same thing with the pink trim and then used a super duty really big sticky glue dot to hold the two together; then I reinforced it by stitching them together around the glue dot then I added a paper flower from my stash. This will look very pretty on a page.

This one is made with the same collection of the SU paper - I dampened it by spritzing it with water than wadding it up into a ball and basically taking out all my aggression on that paper ball! Then I cut out some circles (if you can call them that) and again used my ITop for the brad in the middle. I love this tool so much I bought a jumbo pack of brad refills from Oh My Crafts!

This one is my favorite - it looks so rumbled and beat up - I really like the effect of the crumbled paper - this paper was what was left over from Jenny's accordion folder. The button is from PaperTreyInk.


I really enjoyed making these and love the results!! Thanks for looking - and fell free to comment!

Cards from Paisley

On Thanksgiving evening I met up with my sisters and Niece and we went to Michael's for their great sale. I bought myself lots of goodies that night including the new Cricut Cartridge, Paisley.
I made this thank you card for my niece Sierra who helped me during my recovery from gall bladder surgery two days before Christmas. She has a wiener dog, Levi Button, so when I saw this image on the cart I knew I that it would be perfect. I used the Swiss cheese border punch from EKSuccess.


This card was also made from the Paisley cart - my new NSSS Jenny loves owls as much as I do so when I found out it was her birthday I had to make her a card with the cutest owl image. The paper for this card is Basic Grey Lemonade collection.

another accordion folder

I made this one for my new NSSS JennyK for our first package - we decided to alter something each month rather than send each other stuff we have no room for. This paper is from K&Co - not sure of what collection but I do know that I've had it for several years.

The ribbon is PaperTreyInk - really love the quality of their products. This flower on the tag was hand colored with cats eye chalk inks.

This is a view of the first two pockets

and this is the rear view

I love these flowers - I got them from Michael's in a little clear paint can in the bridal department - they cost approximately $5 for at least 1000 flowers - I believe that they are supposed to be treated like confetti and tossed on a table.

full of joy

This layout was very labor intensive. I did not have the right shade of paper with the pre-punched holes so I "made" my own - then spent most of the morning doing the stitching and cutting the petals. (click on the pictures to enlarge - sorry).
I then spend about 30 minutes getting this lace ruffled just right.

This lace flower was much quicker - I really like the results

Here is a close up of the stitching.

thanks for looking!

I'm on a roll

For the second day in a row I've completed a layout - but with my sweet subject how could I NOT?? This layout is of my mom and her first great grand baby Leah. The title is a play on words as mom is Leah's great grandmother and she's a GREAT gramma to all of her grandchildren.

The background paper is from Oriental Trading Company, the lettering, both hearts and the heart borders are from the cricut cartridge Lyrical Letters (fast becoming a favorite) the journaling tag and the title tag are from Accent Essentials - that shape is why I wanted this cart so much - Thank you SO much for getting it for me Rachel!!

2 Cute Critters

Here it is - my first layout of the year 2010 - these two cute critters are my nephew Jeffery and his niece Leah. I finally got the excuse to use my Stampin' Up! set, Forest Friends which co-ordinated with this paper really well, matted then inked around the edges with cat's eye dark brown chalk ink.
And there are owls on the paper, my favorite.

A close up on the journaling for which I used the journaling spot stamps (Autumn Leaves) that my new NSSS JennyK sent me the other day. I used 3 (count 'em 1..2..3..) Cricut carts for this layout - A Child's Year for the red scalloped title background which I popped with pop dots to well..pop....

...the title is cut from Lyrical Letters and the heart is from Plantin Schoolbook. I also used American Craft Premium ribbon - Green Ruffles, hand dyed skittles and the paper is "woodland friends" from The Paper Studio.

All in all I am quite proud of my accomplishment - I've had this floating around in my head for a couple days now and finally got the time to put it down on paper.

Happy 2010!

Today is the first day of 2010.

I don't make resolutions as I never keep them. However I do set goals.

Goals for 2010:

Complete at least 52 Layouts - this means making time for ME.

Read at least 52 books - I reached this goal for 2009 and am very proud of myself. I managed this by taking a book with me everywhere I went, many long hours soaking in the tub and actually reading at the beach rather than keeping one eye on all the kids, doing a continual head count (none of them are mine!) and one eye out for surfer boy. ;).

I also would like to keep a running total on the number of cards I make as well as the altered items I create.

And last but not least - I will attempt to update my blog weekly.


Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2010!!