Last of the Snow for 2011

At least I hope so! Yesterday brought snow, rain, sun, and hail and snow again. So I was inspired to get one of these pages done of the first snowfall this winter. Hopefully the last snowflakes I see for a while.



I started off with a sketch from my friend Susan at Sketch Savvy. I love her sketches but I really don't feel like I did this one justice. And you can blame THAT on my husband. He psyched me out by teasing that it had been so long that I had probably forgotten HOW to scrapbook. :P grumble grumble grumble (from me) and then poof it happened. He really should learn to not speak such things when his wife is trying to enjoy herself. Guess who is making dinner tonight? NOT ME! LOL

*edit-these are post fix shots. I added the bling swirls and mica snow. STILL forgot to add one of the Maya crystal star pins behind the date frame. oh well! I'm going to scrap another page to get rid of that bad juju! LOL

Lamp Shades with Echo Park

I recently got to play with some Echo Park Be Mine collection. It matched my scrapbook room perfectly so I knew what I needed to create with it. ;)

If you have a little chandelier it is so easy to swap out these clip on shades for holidays or seasons. I found my shade bases at Lowe's for under $5 each. you can easily make your own template by laying the lampshade on a large piece of kraft paper (like a paper grocery bag). start with the seam down and mark the edges of the shade on the paper as you roll the shade across the paper (it will make a big arc). cut out the template leaving 1/4" on each side to allow for enough paper to fold under the shade and hide the edges of the paper. don't worry if it is not perfect. ;) you can always cover it with ribbon or ruffles and hide all of your hot glue mistakes! Decorate with bows, sticker elements or flowers.




In the example above I used Echo Park's Be Mine collection.




Try using a collection like Summer Days for a birthday party!



Or Springtime for Easter.

An Anniversary Box

In case you are like me and procrastinated on using your Echo Park Be Mine collection because you wanted to find something *perfect* to make...no problem! It makes some really great anniversary and wedding themed projects! ;) I pulled a few of the black & white papers from this collection (and they are YUMMY aren't they?) along with a few of the pretty pink prints for some rose buds. This collection is so eclectic I can see using it for many themes beyond Valentine's Day. (which is a good think because the cold and flu season this year has been hitting our house along with everyone else we know! so much for the old flu shot :P )

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Shadowbox Class

My friend Cassandra Cooper is offering a digital download for this class and will be having live instruction on Dec 18th. Check it out!

I got a sneak peek of the class recently and just knew I had to put one together with all my vintage Christmas goodies! I like to call this "Tinsel Chic"! ;) I had a blast putting this box together (yeah it even has LIGHTS!)

Hope you all are having fun with your Christmas crafting!

Happy 103rd to you TWO!

My Grandmother asked me for some cards she needed for the next couple months. Apparently TWO ladies where she lives are turning 103! (and still only needing assisted living care) I gave the cards a bit of a theme as they are both very proud of their careers I hear. One lady is a retired school teacher and the other was a Navy Waves ("Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service")

The snow is here!

this is some of the earliest snowfall I can remember and it's wonderful! last year Rob put the xmas lights up over this weekend and is kicking himself that they are not up yet for the snowfall. ;)

This pic was only the beginnings of it. we have about 3 inches right now and should be getting an additional Trace-4" tonight. YEAH! The roads are a mess though.

Auggie gets so excited seeing it out there. he asks to go out about a dozen times just so he can go eat the snow LOL He'd love to just park himself on the back of my chair and watch it out the window like a cat! unfortunately he's not as graceful ;)

Man in the Moon

This is the first time I've picked up sculpting in about... (omg the calculator doesn't lie! ...unfortunately LOL) 18 years! how is that possible??!! ugh.

well anyway so it's been a loooong time apparently but much of it came back to me quickly. ;)

I sculpted out of Creative Paperclay over a hand formed base. I love the shimmer of the paint on him too. (some old discontinued Lil' Davis Pearl paint) It's probably hard to tell from this picture but he's about 8-9" across. (about the size of a salad plate)

A friend is sending me her stash of paperclay to play with, so I may be doing more of these soon. :)

Toil & Trouble

I've been wanting to make these for a couple years and finally got around to it a couple nights ago (ahhh insomnia lol). The skulls I found at the dollar store. DH thought I was crazy buying more glittered skulls (we probably have a few dozen for Halloween props). I knew they would work perfect for these though. I always forget to buy dowels unfortunately. For these I used the bottom edge of a plastic tubular coat hanger! (an "ah-ha!" sorta moment ;) ) I just cut it with a large pair of wire cutters and filed the ends smooth (great way to recycle a few if you've switch to the new velvet flocked hangers ;) ) I covered each in fabric strips I twirled around and secured with hot glue.

I was inspired by the Skull Parade Batons made by The Holiday Queen. Her style is a bit more simple and folkart-ish. I wanted mine more colorful and bright so I used the DCWV Midnight spell. Love the foils and glitter on these papers. I think my favorite is the purple with tiny silver spiders! Or maybe the glittered hounds tooth?