Love Multiplied

Say the words lace to me, and I immediately think of heirloom children's clothing made of Swiss Batiste, French Cotton Laces and double face satin ribbon. This week on the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog, the challenge was to create a card or project using lace and pearls. Add to this the fact that Phindy's children's images remind me of some real little boys and girls I've known, and I knew just what I wanted to do with the lace part. You really need to check out all the cuties at the Phindy's Place Store.

When making a heirloom creation, strips of lace are butted up against each other and zigzagged together to make panels. Needless to say that when I finish a project if there are any left over pieces of panels, I never throw them away. So I went to my "lace" box and dug around. When DD was starting her senior year of high school, I made a Heirloom Skirt and blouse for her. When she was in college, I added to the length of it to make it tea length for a garden party. It sat in the closet in the guest room for a lot of years. After MonkeyMoo was born, she wanted to have him baptized in our church, and I knew I would be making a christening gown. Fortunately for me, she had the same idea I did. I took the skirt and blouse and used to create MonkeyMoo's gown, so it is truly an heirloom. In the process there were lots of parts left over, and I saved everyone of them.

This is a picture of the first card base I made using blue papers and blue ribbon and part of the skirt(panel of lace and beading). I had picked out an image to use for my blue card, and then Phindy said that her DD was supposed to find out the sex of Phindy's first grandchild. I decided that I would wait for the news and make a special card for the new Grandmother. I have to tell you that after Phindy posted the image "Spring Boquet", I was really hoping for a girl, so I could use that adorable little girl. Well it's a girl, so I was back in the box for another panel of lace and beading. This time, it's on a pink card base with pink ribbon. The image is colored with Copics. I actually designed the lacy scalloped circle using my MTC software and my Cricut.

Now the second part of the challenge was pearls. Well, I have to say I went a bit over the top with the pearls, but just having them around the image wasn't enough, so I came back and added them on the scallops.

The final part of the card is the sentiment. I have to say that my grandchildren have proved that there is no end to the love I feel for them, it is only multiplied.

I'm so glad you decided to stop by to see my card.

Buttons and Bows

Are you old enough to remember that song from the old Bob Hope movie "Son of a Paleface"? If not do a google, and you'll have your earwig for the day. I have to say Roy Rogers was my hero growing up, and he looks darned good in the clip I watched. Jane Russell was looks pretty darn good herself, and Bob Hope is just Bob Hope.(You know being old isn't such a bad thing with memories like these). Okay so what does this particular song have to do with a card? It's simple. This week's challenge on Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog was to create a card using Buttons and Bows, set by Sassy Ann, who while not quite as old as me, I think might remember this song. I, of course, had to use a recent purchase I made at Sassy Cheryls Store(I need at least a weekly fix). This image is appropriately named "Bee Mine", and I'm going to be sending this to my BFF. Her family owned and operated an apiary. She now has a guest house that's full of Bee Memorabilia and is named appropriately enough The Honey House(converted from a concrete building they used to store sugar in for feeding the bees). I've colored her with Copics, and I love the rich deep reds. Coloring with them is a bit tricky though.

The papers are from Sharia Braxton's Shapes of Love kit(she's no longer blogging and designing kits). I unfortunately didn't have any red buttons in the shapes of hearts, and the challenge was going to be over before I could get to Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Instead, I decided to make my own buttons, by cutting some of the hearts out of the DP paper and punching a double hole in them and popping them up. Works for me. Sure hope it works with the DT.

So glad to see you stopping by, and I love comments.

I Am WHO I Am

Talk about your challenges, this week over on the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog, they laid down what for me was the challenge of all challenges - create a project that is "Just Be Me." I've seen Scrapbook Challenges do an "all about me" challenge, and that was the approach I took. Rather than a scrapbook page using pictures, I chose to create a wall hanging using Tiddly Inks images. It was no surprise to me that there were more than enough images in the Tiddly Inks Store to cover a 12 x 12 page with some images that I felt were indicative of me. In fact there were more images I could of used, I just couldn't find enough space for them. It also didn't surprise me that I already owned most of them. Hey you buy what you like.

I used my MTC software and my Cricut to create the I Am WHO I Am and shadow it. I also used my MTC software, the Scalloped Circle Shapely from Penny Duncan, and the word to path option that is available in MTC to create my label wheel. I knew I didn't want to "label" each image, but I also knew I wanted a descriptor for them and this worked out better than I could have hoped.

Starting at the top center the image is called "Ticket to Life Girl". Christy created this image and one with a little boy in honor of my grandson, Monkey Moo, who told his mother when he was 2 1/2 and she had corrected him, "U need to wisten to me. I a person! I got a life and a ticket!" I've taken that message to heart and I hope I embrace life to the fullest. I do try. Clockwise the next image is "Carpenter Joe" and is a reminder of the wonderfully handy man that I am married to. After all, he and I did build Tazmania. Bottom right corner is "Computer Freak" and boy is that ever me. I don't even want to think about life without my computer. I even understand the 1's and 0's. The bottom center image is called "Whatchadoin" and again an image that is so me. I put inquisitive, but that's just a nice way of saying I'm just downright nosy. If you ever saw me in action, you'd be amazed at the amount of information I can get out of a person. "Schoolgirl" is in the bottom left position and that's me with books. I'm a more than avid reader. I'm as addicted to books as I am my computer. If you could see my bedside table, you'd know of which I speak. I even read books over again. In the 9 o'clock position is an image called "Lullaby". I am a mother and a grandmother, but besides those children I absolutely adore babies. I've even been known to borrow my friend's children and grandchildren and this week, I'm driving 60 miles one way for the opportunity to babysit a great nephew. Finally the last image isn't a digital Tiddly Inks image, but rather a rubber TI image that I got from Stamping Bella and is appropriately called "best friends forevah". All of the images were colored with Copics.

I started this wall hanging with a 12x12 piece of chipboard, on which I added a lime green sheet of scrapbook paper. I overlayed it with Floral Die Cut-Pink from The Paper Studio. I then used different Spellbinders to cut my images and frame them and finished off with some ribbons, flowers and bling. I definitely could win the prize for the person taking the most time to create a project, that's for sure.

Thanks for stopping by. Now you all have some of the low down on me, but I can promise you not near about all. I've already got it hung on the wall of TM.

Show Me Thursday #9

Well aren't you surprised to see me posting my entry one day after the start of the challenge instead of mere hours before the deadline? I'm trying to prioritize a little better. I'm sure it will be short lived, so don't go getting all impressed on me.

I love being nosy, so the Show Me Thursdays on Sassy Cheryl's Blog are perfect for me. I absolutely adore getting the scoop on what folks are working on and what tools they might have, but that I don't have and might need to get. I get my nosiness from my Mother. She never met a stranger and neither do I. It's one of the benefits of blogging and this particular challenge. Every week I'm getting a little more insight into the regular posters, and we're even exchanging e-mails afterwards.

The last of my DH's nieces and nephews(26 of the including our two) is getting married in March. We all just found out at Christmas. They live in Colorado Springs and are getting married here, which means much of the details are falling to my SIL. No way could I turn her down(after all this is one of my favorite nieces and she grew up right down the road) when she called to ask if I could address the envelopes for the Wedding Invitations and create an invitation for the Rehearsal dinner. With the wedding planned for March 12, the invitations have to be mailed 4 weeks prior to the event(see I know my wedding etiquette) and so will the Rehearsal Dinner invitations. It wouldn't be a problem, except that DH and I are leaving a week from today for Colorado for our annual ski vacation and won't be back until the night of February 6th. That's calling it a bit too close for comfort for me. So instead of my Crafting Area, today you're seeing my office and MOI working on getting the outside envelopes addressed. I had a minor problem to start with on trying to figure out how to make my new office printer print envelopes. Thank goodness as, you can see, I figured it out.

OK, I've rambled enough and by now you're more than bored to tears. Have a wonderful day and do some crafting why don't you.

I Love You Valentine!

This week the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog is all about creating a project that is about Valentines or Love. When every image that Phindy has in her store screams love in some form or another, this is really not a challenge. This image called Summer Blossom looks like she's playing "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not(minus the NOT of course). Of course, you're all surprised to know that I colored her with my Copics.

Don't you love these papers? I fell in love with them when I found them in the Create with TLC store. Most folks don't realize the products Paulette has in her store and at a very reasonable price. I love green and purple together. They just are such a rich combination.

I used Penny Duncan's free Scalloped Heart Shapely to cut the open hearts using my MTC software with my Cricut. Penny is so generous with her talents so be sure to check out her blog not just for free svg files, but also for some fabulous tutorials. Do you all realize how wonderful it is to cut a shape any size you need rather than the "packaged" size? I then sort of wove the hearts around the card, topped it off with a solid heart that is raised and my cutout image. I finished it off with a white heart(inside and backside of the remnant of one of the open hearts) with a hand written sentiment. I hit with green and lavender stamp pads and a bit of looped ribbon.

Thank you so much for stopping in. I've fortunately made the challenge again by the skin of my teeth.

Show Me Thursday #8

Well it's almost time for Show Me Thursday #9, clean mine up too. Every week Sassy Cheryl offers us a chance at a free Sassy Cheryl image and all you have to do is enter a picture of your workspace on Sassy Cheryls Blog. Of course, since that picture was made I've made two sets of OWH cards, and it's quite a bit messier. Oh well I work best that way.

I want you to all notice that I have cleaned off the back half of the table, so that my neighbor actually has a space to work when she's finally feeling like getting back to scrapbooking. I forgot to take a picture of my new wide format printer. You'll just have to come back next week to get a glimpse. I guess I didn't do much to satisfy you nosy parkers since there doesn't appear to be a lot going on.

Refresh Me

That's the theme this week for the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog, and it's to be done by creating an all white card except for the image. Well it just so happens that white on white is one of my favorite things, so this was a fun challenge for me.

The image I picked from the Tiddly Ink Store is called Tiny Dancer. I colored her with Copics, and then colored her tutu and her headband with my Spicas. The glitter sheen doesn't show up in the picture, but it's there. I used my Martha Stewart ScorBoard to score the card front, and then the Martha Stewart Deep Lattice Edge Punch to punch a band to go across the card.

Before I took up card making, one of my favorite things to do was to create children's Heirloom clothing, using Swiss Batiste(think tissue paper thin fabric), French cotton laces and satin ribbons. That's the approach I took with this challenge. I have a smocking plate called Party Ribbons. The smocking on the dress is nothing more than row on row of wave stitch(basic smocking stitch), but what makes the dress is when you come back and weave ribbon through the waves. Well when I looked at the lattice, I thought why not weave the ribbon here. Then of course, I had to add some lace around the scalloped image. My sentiment was created simply in Word and says it all - Dance(another favorite thing of mine), so you see this was an all about me card.

Thanks for stopping in, and I love getting feedback.