photo distressing

found some old pictures of my youngest after bath time, she used to just love to be naked!

i have seen lots of cool arrows lately and have been wanting to try one out, so i did! took a piece of chipboard (the kind that comes in the back of packs of papers to keep them from bending, they're like a bonus in the pack of paper!) and freehanded drew an arrow. over and over i drew the arrow until i got it to look half decent, then used craft knife to cut it out! covered it with DP, sanded the paper, attatched some ribbons, whala! is that how you spell it?!

saw the photo scratching in a magazine lately and wanted to try that for a photo-distressed look. i took a thumb tack and scratched the edges of the photos downward to the edges. i rubbed walnut ink on the scratches, then dabbed the ink off with a cotton ball. i gave you a close-up of the edge of a photo so you can see it a bit better. i really like the look it gave my photos!

ingredients:
paper- SU scrap pack, lined notebook paper, cardboard (tore it open and used the insides outward for the photo corners), brown packing paper (for title mat)
ink- jim holtz walnut distress ink, SU Cchip
stamps- SU 'baroque motifs' & 'headline alphabet'
accessories- chipboard, misc. ribbons, SU spriral (for the notebook paper) & tab (for the journaling block under the middle photo) punches, sizzix flower dies w/ my cuttlebug (sanded the edges, used dimensionals to pop up the diffrent layers), big green brad, sanding blocks (used on all DP). used misc. chalks on edges of photo mats for soft distressing.

well, today was the first day of the rest of my life. and it went well! thanks for all the well wishes! have a great day!

picnic at the park

finally got a couple of minutes to spend with some old photos and here's the outcome.

we went to a local park to have a picnic a year or so ago. we got some sandwiches from arby's for our lunch, took some bread to feed the ducks, played on the toys, went fishing, and d'Ete even found a "boy" friend!

all paper is DCWV, used CB for diecut circles. ribbon pulls on top right photo for journaling panel.

sorry i've been pretty much non-exsistant lately. well, for over a month now. i can't believe i'm busier now than during this last holiday season! hawaii in less than a month!

horse wanted

so have you ever gotten stamps that have sat there BEGGING to be used, yet you refuse them the right to be in your projects? that's me with this set. i have this paper tray on my desk that has been collecting items that i knew would fit with this set great. until today, i just didn't know what i wanted to do with it all. and get this, i'm scared of horses! they are beautiful and majestic, but huge beasts at the same time!
we went to wal*mart the other day and all their holiday stuff was super cheap. i picked up some (like 6) packs of cards w/ envelopes for $0.25 each pack. i realized when i got them home that there were sentiments inside and they were all in spanish! oh well, i still got loads of envelopes! i did this card on one of the 5x7's holiday cards.
before we get to the details of this, i must admit, this card WAS NOT CASED! most of the great stuff i get inspiration from others for, this is all me, baby!

recipe:
paper- CB is holiday card, used some kind of generic cream CS on bottom half (ink distressed w/ jim holtz 'vintage photo", stamped small images in Bblue, TWteal, and Ssky inks); generic gray on top (stampled SU 'crackle" stamp and large circle image in Cchip); used notebook paper (ink distressed w/ jim holtz 'walnut stain' ink); part of a paper sack; peeled apart some cardboard and used the inside up for the corner pieces; thick chipboard for title (ink distressed w/ jim holtz 'old photo' liquid stain); SU Vvanilla for scallop pieces.
ink- SU Bblue, Ssky, TWteal, Cchip
stamps- SU 'wanted' set, and 'crackle' background
accessories- scallop punch, green gingham linen, hemp twine, pewter brad, Cchip grosgrain ribbon.

well, think i got it all. it's almost time for bed. i haven't worked out as much as i'd like so i HAVE to in the morning. i figure, chance of a lifetime to go to hawaii.... there's no way i'm going to those beautiful islands and not wearing a bathing suit! countdown is on, bring on the sweat!

have a super rest of the week!

a book just for me!

so i keep making stuff, and loving it, and giving it away. the other day was really tough, i felt like crap, internally. you know those days you think you're not worth much? well, i had one of those. they seem to come more often the older i get. then something happened. i got a compliment. from a stranger! that meant it was unbiased and most likely, actually the truth! i decided to make myself a book to document these great little moments that seem to fade so quickly from the mind so that the next time i "have a bad day", i can pick up my book and remind myself that it's not that bad.

i got this little journal book from the $1 bin at michaels. i covered the front and back with this awesome pink and brown (LOVE IT!) paper from DCWV. leaves are from some flower arrangement that i took apart. i found other pinkish papers and ran them through my CB w/ my flower sizzix die for the flowers and topped it all off with that great big pink button. i threaded it with hemp twine to try to tie in the brown. the "j" is SU chipboard that i covered in some other pink paper and got some great ribbons to go around the top of it.

know what i love even more? the fact that my little book has a lower case "j". just the way i like my j's!

have a super night!

ducky birthday card

i made this card for my nieces first birthday. i am just horrible at mailing stuff and mailed it late (her birthday was on the 11th and i mailed it to her in hawaii on the 10th). well, i got it back in the mail saturday (yesterday) the 15th. now wayyy late. they put a sticker on it saying it was too fat to go through their machine. well, it may be fat, but at least it's cute too!
i got the duck from joanns, CB is SU Ppink, used my DCWV stack for yellow paper (stamped w/ TAC flourishes in SU Ppink ink & distressed the edges) and the squares (used my SU punch). used lots of dimensional adhesive for this card, it actually is pretty fat.

hearing aid battery tag

d'Ete started school today, going into the third grade! where has time gone? she recently got her hearing aid (2 weeks ago) and the Dr. recommended that we give a spare battery tester w/ some batteries to her teacher just in case. well, having seen the inside of some other teachers desks (don't ask, LOL!), i knew it would have to be something that stood out and wouldn't get lost amidst the turmoil. so here's what i came up with!

this is some heavy duty chipboard (when you gets packs of paper, you all save the "chipboard" from the back of the stack, right?) that i cut to size. i used some "unknown" paper w/ rubber cement to cover the board and clamped together until dry. when it was dry, i sanded the edges then ink distressed w/ SU Cchip ink. "d" is from SU set "big deal alphabet", i stamped it in Cchip & clear embossed. you can't really see it in the photo, but there is a pocket on the front. right under the hole (crop-o-dile) i notched out (circle punch) a spot for easy access to the tag that will go inside, adhered pocket w/ tacky tape.



here's the inside tag. used textured ivory CS and ink distressed w/ SU Cchip around the edges. wrote on tag w/ SU Cchip marker (back has contact info on it). i gathered up a bit of ribbons that were either pink or brown (or both) and using tacky tape across the back top, put layer after layer of different ribbons. when i had it the way i liked it, i stapled it on the front twice.







finished product! tag fit nicely into pocket, looks great! the hole in the chipboard was used to "hang", "thread" whatever you'd like to call it, the battery tester through.






so DH looks at it and says, "it's a little fancy, don't you think?"
boy did i love hearing the teachers & their aids compliment me on it when we dropped her off with it this morning! and the deep sighs and the look on his face..... ahhh, priceless!