More Father's Day Art

I had so much fun making the wall hanging for my dad for Father's Day that I decided to do something similar for my husband's step-father.  Rather than using a book cover, for this one I used a piece of the corrugated cardboard from my Etsy shop.  This cardboard is flexible so I glued it to a same-sized piece of chipboard for stability.  I used my finger to smear some gesso up and down it for a whitewashed look and when dry, inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  I stamped the larger of the two Book Covers stamps with Brushed Corduroy onto kraft CS.  The vintage sales receipt is from Curiosities, stamped in black archival ink onto white copy paper and then ripped and ink distressed with Vintage Photo.  Again, the same for the auto panel, but onto kraft instead of white.  The sentiment had the same treatment as the sales receipt.  I ripped and crumpled up a strip of Tim Holtz Kraft Glassine paper, sort of pleated it and ran a straight stitch across it  The vintage keys came from my stash.  I have pile of old keys and was lucky enough to actually find an automobile key.  The piece of filigree metal is from my Etsy shop as re the small brass flowers.  A couple of scraps of black grosgrain ribbon and a vintage button topped of the piece.  

Thanks for stopping by today and for any comments you leave.  If you have any questions, I'm very happy to answer them.

Challenges Entered:
Creative Inspirations - Card for Dad
Sentimental Sundays - Father's Day/Masculine
Stamptacular Sunday - Dads and Grads
Oh-La-La Creations- Father's Day/Special Man
The Kraft Journal - Father's Day
Papertake Weekly - Dads and Lads
PaperPlay Challenge - Father's Day/Masculine
ABC Challenge - F is for Father's Day
Fussy and Fancy - Card for a Boy or a Man
The Stamp Man - Boys and Men
Craft Your Days Away - Monochrome
Crazy4Challenges - Masculine Card
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - A Male Card
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Father's Day Card

Dad's Distressed Edges

Hello and welcome!  I'm here to share my challenge sample for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week we want you to show us your distressed edges.  That was no challenge for me - LOL.  You probably know that I just about can't make anything without distressing the edges - rip, torn, scissor scraped, inked - oh yeah, that definitely makes me happy!  As so I was, working away at this project.  

I decided that rather than make my dad a Father's Day card, I would make him a little wall hanging.  My dad likes old things, especially old things with wheels.  I started with a book cover, which I am finding that I really love using for a project base.  I started with my new Book Covers Tim Holtz stamp, which I stamped on kraft with Brushed Corduroy distress ink.  Then I did my distressing thing with scissors and Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges.  The General Merchandise stamp from the Curiosities set was stamped with black archival ink on plain white paper then distressed with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress inks.  The same for the car stamp from The Journey stamp set, except that it was stamped onto kraft CS.  The bird from Flights of Fancy was stamped with Tea Dye distress ink and the sentiment from the same set was stamped in black archival ink.  The pocket watch face from Curiosities was gold embossed, inked with Vintage Photo and then Crackle Accents was applied.  I made a watch case with Ten Seconds Studio metal, cut with Spellbinders circle dies and embossed with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I applied gold alcohol ink mixative and when dry, hit the hit points with a sanding block.  The metal bits came from a trip to my local hardware store and then I applied Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder to create faux rust.  I also added a bit of Ginger Alcohol Ink to the bottom piece to darken it up a bit.  Oh, and I used my new Kraft Glassine paper to cut the letters for DAD using the Vintage Market die.  

Them's the dets, folks.  Let me know if you have any questions.  It's really a pretty technique-free piece, even though I did manage to use a LOT of Tim Holtz products.  Now it's time for you to scurry on over to Simon Says Stamp and Show to check out how the rest of the team distressed their edges.  Plenty of great inspiration there, I tell you!  And as always, our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp has a $50 shopping spree just waiting for some lucky random winner, but you can't win if you don't play.  So be sure to show us your distressed edges!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous week!

An Inspiration Photo Challenge

Good morning and welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.  I do appreciate you starting your weekend off with a visit to my blog!  This week, our hostess Lori Rider has an inspiration challenge for us, but with specific instructions.

Here's the photo and Lori wants us to pick a minimum of two items to be inspired by and tell us about it on your post.  For my sample, I tried to stick to the color palette, just using lighter shades of these colors to give my card a vintage feel.  I loved that pleated pillow and mimicked it with my flower.  It was made with the same white crinoline that I sell in my Etsy shop.  I cut a strip of crinoline and then tea dyed it.  After drying it, I took a ruler and a brown Copic marker and drew stripes on the crinoline.  Then I cut it using the PTI scalloped dye.  I saw a flower made like that on Viola Mahr's blog, in fact she has a little tutorial on it.  

The designer paper is all digital - Raspberry Road and Designer Digitals, printed at home.  I found the faux vintage image on the internet.  I stamped in Soft Suede with a stamp from SU's Elements of Style and the Best Wishes stamp is from Crafty Secrets.  I just got a pack of Tim Holtz's Kraft Glassine paper and had to try it out - especially because the colors matched so well.  I used an SU border punch on it and ran it through SU's Square Lattice embossing folder, which I hope looks a little like the brick wall in the photo.  I added the buttons to look like polka dots and picked up the oranges in that gorgeous new stick pin I made.  

I think that's pretty much it.  Let me know if you have any questions.

The following items can be found in my Etsy shop:

Rayon Seam Binding

Crinoline

Stick Pins 

Thanks again for stopping by and for your lovely comments.  Have a great weekend!

My Favorite Stamp

That's the theme of our newest challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  And this is, at least my current favorite stamp. I think the whole design team wrestled with this one.  I mean, how on earth do you choose a favorite stamp?  It's like trying to choose your favorite child - LOL!!

Anyway, I do love this Tim Holtz Papillion set. I've used it several times already and keep coming back to it.  For this challenge, I made a little desk art piece.  It sits nicely on my desk.  I cut a 12" x 8" piece of cardboard and folded it down the middle for a 6"x8" "canvas".  The front panel was covered with card stock from Tim Holtz Kraft Resist Paper Stash and the back panel and inside panels were covered with a plain vanilla card stock.  A strip of Tissue Tape was run across the top to cover where it folded and the papers joined.  From an 8"x8" cream doily, I cut a diagonal pice and glued it down with Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium Matte.  (I love that stuff because all of it that oozed out from the doily dried clear and you can't see it AT ALL).  Then I swiped some gesso across it and when dry stamped the weed stamp from the Flights of Fancy Set in Broken China that I misted before stamping. 

For the main butterfly panel, I cut a piece of watercolor paper and clear embossed the butterfly stamp, than ran Vintage Photo Distress Stain over it and roughed up the edges with scissors.  I happened to have a scrap of mocha dyed lace and a safety pin on my desk - humm, wonder what I can do with that?  Got it - out came the beads and two glass pearls and a clear crystal rondel fit perfectly.  The teal color was added with a Copic - gotta love that alcohol ink, you can alter almost anything with it!

I found that piece of beveled glass last week at the food pantry that I manage.  It was just laying around, must have come off something that was donated.  It didn't seem to belong to anything so it went into my pocket and also ended up on my desk.  It was the perfect piece for the butterfly specimen to be under glass.  See the itty bitty copper butterfly landed on the glass.  I loved the contrast of the butterfly under the glass and the one that was flying free.  It perfectly fit the freedom theme I had in the back of my mind.  

I had also stamped the text stamp from this set onto vellum, ripped it out and coated the back of it with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.  It promptly rolled up on its own.  So I tied a ribbon around it and it became my freedom document.  My chipboard heart was cut with a Spellbinders heart die, but it's actually several thin pieces of cardboard cut and then glued together because Spellbinders can't handle much thickness.  I made a little ruffle out of kraft paper twist for the heart, added some vintage snaps which I altered to black with alcohol ink and added the clear star rhinestones then altered them with a Copic. I used the "freedom" page from a vintage dictionary, photo copying it several times to use for the butterflies and Tim Holtz Vintage Market letters also.  The seam binding was hand dyed to match using Broken China distress ink.  

Oh, and that flowery trim at the bottom of the butterfly panel - someone gave it to me.  I have no idea what it is, but it worked great here.  I added the pearls with my Viva Pearl Pen.  

Well, that's it for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  Now it's up to you to stop by the challenge blog to see what the other design team members have been up to.  Week after week, they produce some amazing art.  And don't forget, our very generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, always gives a random winner a $50 shopping spree in their store.  So what's your favorite stamp?

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  And always, I so appreciate your comments and encouragement.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.  

Beautiful Baby

 Good morning friends!  I hope you are all set for a wonderful weekend.  Happy Memorial Day weekend to my fellow Americans!  Thanks so much for coming by my blog today.  I have a "Beautiful Baby" card for you today - that's the challenge theme over at Our Creative Corner.  (Baby is also the theme at The Shabby Tea Room this week - one of my favorite challenge sites).  Sharon Wheet is our hostess and she wants to see baby cards, but not just any baby cards.  Your card must also have something in kraft, some sort of trim (lace, ribbon, etc.) and a button.  Now I didn't think I would have any trouble with those recipe ingredients, but I did struggle a bit.  I really wanted to use the straight doily from my Etsy shop because I thought it was perfect for a baby card.  But then I couldn't seem to work in the trim.  I was tempted to call the lace applique the trim, but finally decided to add a bit of lace to the bottom of the main image.  I hemmed and hawed - laid it on, took it off, laid it back on again and finally when I took it off again, it looked bare without it so out came the glue and when I laid it on again - it was with glue.

The dets:  Brocade Blue CS with old Creative Memories baby blue gingham.  I used a vintage nursery rhyme image from the Graphic Fairy.  I've had the image for a few months and have really been wanting to use it.  The library card stamp is from PTI and the Sweet One stamp is from SU.  I stamped it a second time, cut out Sweet One and popped it up.  Then I stamped it again on Barely Banana, cut out only the moon, glittered it and glued it to the original stamping.  The appliques, doily and lace are all from my Etsy shop. The heart applique is mounted on a scrap of kraft paper twist ribbon, also from my shop.  I'm finding that I'm reaching for that kraft paper twist a lot - adds a nice texture and warm color.  The lace comes in white and I tea dyed it with very weak tea this time.  The vintage image was cut with a PTI die.

Let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks so much for your comments and for stopping by today.  Wishing everyone a happy and safe weekend.

Oh, and anybody know what happened to all my followers?  They seem to have left en masse several days ago.  I've been hoping they would return, but no sign of them yet - LOL.  Looks like Blogger is having a little issue again.

Challenges:
The Shabby Tea Room - Sweet Baby

A Lady's Hands

Here I am back again for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  The challenge this week is to show us Something With Hands.  Probably many times we when first hear of a challenge, something just pops into our heads (and yes, sometimes I struggle too, coming up empty until the last moment).  That's how this challenge hit me.  Something with hands...all I could think of was a woman's hands and how strong and capable they are, but soft and gentle too like a lady's hands should be.  While poking around in an antique shop recently I came upon a bag of women's gloves.  Now I have to tell you, I am old enough to remember my mother wearing gloves back in the 50's.  Heck I even wore them to church which I was little. I saw the gloves before I read what our challenge was this week and when I started thinking about a woman's hands, I remembered the gloves and headed straight back to that store.  I also picked up a vintage pie tin (not a disposable aluminum one) at the same time, thinking I could make something out of it.  So I did.  I made this wall hanging.

I first covered the rim with Tim Holtz Tissue Tape and rubbed a bit of Vintage Photo distress ink over it. Then I broke into my highly-prized stash of Melissa Frances vintage crepe paper.  I am having a wonderful time working with that stuff - so fun! I cut about a 3 inch wide strip of the white, ran a basting stitch down the middle, gathered it and then folded it along the stitch line so it was a double frill. Then glued it around the inside edge.  The circle chipboard piece I was working with  didn't quite fill the space, so I then created a single gathered ruffle of the blue.  That filled the gap.  The chipboard circle was covered with some Tim Holtz Paper Stash Vintage Shabby paper.  I was going for lots of ruffles and frills so had to run a circle of lace around it too.  The image is printed on cardstock edged with Vintage Photo distress Ink and then stitched to a piece of vintage muslin.  I mounted the vellum sentiment on scraps of muslin too.  A crinoline and paper flower tops off the upper portion.  I draped the sweet glove across the bottom, finished off with a stick pin and another handmade flower.  In the making of this piece, I also used plenty of Claudine Hellmuth Multi-Medium Matte.

Okay, that's it for the details.  Now, I really want to know your opinion.  PLEASE don't say you like it if you don't.  I know you are all sweet and polite and want to say nice things about everyone's work.  If you like it, leave a comment.  If you don't, you can give me some constructive criticism or just don't leave a comment.  LOL - if I get no comments, I'll know that it didn't make the grade.

Now, please head over to Simon Says Stamp and Show to see what the rest of my more talented team mates whipped up to inspire you to Show Us Something With Hands. I hope you will join in our fun this week.  Who knows, you might just win the $50 random prize drawing for a trip to the Simon Says Stamp on-line store.   Our generous sponsor is giving one away again this week to one of our players.

That's it for me.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and will have a terrific week.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Butterflies, Blossoms, a Bow and a Button

Humm, how do you like that title?  I should be able to play in a lot of challenges with all that going on, right?  Oh, and I could probably have thrown in babies too.  I actually did make this card to play in several challenges.  It's my DT card for Our Creative Corner today, plus The Shabby Tea Room has a butterfly inspiration photo challenge and CCEE Stampers are asking us to add a butterfly this week.  So butterflies it was.  Our hostess this week at the OCC is Jen Rzasa from Our Change of Art and she wants to see embroidery floss on our projects this week.  Not only does she want to see it, she wants it to be used in a fun new way.  Well, I guess I didn't nail this challenge because I couldn't think of any fun new way so I embroidered with it.  You can't see it too well, but I pierced a flourish into the card and then sewed through it with the embroidery floss to simulate the path of the butterflies.  

I had some more fun with PhotoShop Elements with this card.  The designer paper is digital and I wanted a washed out look so I faded it out.  Then I took the bird nest vintage image and removed the background, layered it over the DP and then reduced the opacity to fade it.  I really love the look of the new improved DP I created!  Then on to the image.  It was pretty bright.  The bright pink and blue grated on me so I changed it over to a sepia tone again in PSE.  Then I colorized it just a tad with my Copics.  What an amazing improvement for that image!  I felt kind of bad piercing holes in that pretty image.  I made some itty bitty flowers this time out of crinoline and topped them off with a tiny white prima bud.  I used two stamps - the butterflies are from the Papllion set by Tim Holtz and the Thanks a Bunch is from Crafty Secrets Sweet Kids set.  I used a small Sizzix die for the leaves, which I cut twice - once in matching CS (Bravo Burgundy and a page from an old book) and layered them together but offset them just a bit for effect.  This seam binding was scrunched  around in a puddle of water and one tiny drop of Creamy Caramel ink.  The crinoline was tea stained.  The butterflies were also tea stained.  All of these embellishments are available in my Etsy shop.  

I think that's about it for the details on this one.  Thanks so much for stopping over this morning.  Please do stop by Our Creative Corner to see more creative uses of embroidery floss.

Challenges Entered:
The Shabby Tea Room - Photo Inspiration
Crafts and Me - Vintage
Flutterby Wednesdays - 3 flowers, 2 papers and a button
CCEE Stampers - Add a butterfly
If the Shoe Fits - Things with Wings
Just Add Ink - Just Add a Flower
Stamp Something - Something With Wings
Totally Gorjuss - 1-2-3 (1 button, 2 butterflies and 3 flowers)
One Stop Craft Challenge - Stitching

A Vintage Sewing Find

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a joyous Easter for those of you who celebrate the Resurrection.  I attended a beautiful Mass and then had a relaxing family day.

Thank you for starting your week out with me this week.  I have a fun project I did for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week we want you to show us Buttons.  Can't go wrong with a button project, right?  Above you can see the end product of Saturday's crafting session.  I decided to alter a wooden box below that I picked up at Tuesday Morning quite some time ago.  It's been calling out to me, but just the right project hadn't come along.  I thought I'd alter it into a box for my desk that I would just dump all my buttons into.

I have to warn you, this is a long post.  If you really want to know how I made this project, it's all here.  If not, skip the text and skim the photos!

The first thing I did was to give the top of the box a good coat of Golden Fiber Paste.  Ever since I saw my team mate Lynne's box that she altered with fiber paste, I have wanted to give it a go.  This box actually took three coats of the stuff before it really disguised the original top.  Between coats of fiber paste, I covered the sides of the lid with Tim Holtz Tissue Tape.  The lower sides were covered with the new Kraft Resist designer paper, glued on with Claudine Hellmuth Multi-Medium Matte.  After the third coat of fiber past was dry I gave the entire box a nice color wash with a reinker blend and water, and then a little spritz of my homemade glimmer mist.

To get the stamped image on the rough texture left by the fiber paste, I stamped onto tissue paper (a la a sewing pattern) and then adhered it to the fiber paste with plenty of the Multi-Medium Matte.  Since I seem to be totally hooked on hand-dying everything, yes, I did dye the jumbo ric rac.  It was a sky blue to which I added a bit of aqua reinker and a nice squirt or two of the homemade glimmer mist.  I also dyed a strip of crinoline which I gathered to make a ruffle and then layered a piece of Tim Holtz's Ruler Ribbon over top.

The Haberdashery stamp set has a needle book cover stamp and I couldn't resist making an actual needle book with it.  I cut Grunge Paper and muslin with Spellbinders Mega Curved Rectangles, layered them together and did a bit of distressing with Vintage Photo distress ink to both the muslin and the baker's twine.  Oh, and on the inside of the needle book cover the Grunge Paper was swiped liberally with Vintage Photo Distress Stain (if you haven't tried it, you should!).  And I also stamped a couple of other Tim Holtz stamps in the inside to make it look a little more authentically vintage (from Curiosities and Mini Holidays).

The Haberdashery set also includes two thread spool label stamps which I stamped in Gold Encore ink on black CS - love the vintage feel of those stamps!  And of course, I have to have a Tattered Florals Die cut flower on all my creations lately so I cut a number of layers of crinoline and then tea stained them for this project and topped it off with a button,

And now for what I'll be storing in this box.   A couple of months ago, I was browsing in our one and only junk/antique shop and found an old sewing basket.  Inside were some awesome vintage sewing products including a few wooden spools of thread, snaps, hooks and eyes, a couple of crunched up vintage button cards, a paper tape measure and that metal needle threader thingy that I put on the top with the needle book.  And there was even a little glass vial of teeny brass buttons.  All in all, a very cool find that I got for about $5.

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my Simon Says Stamp and Show project.  I love to hear from my visitors and any constructive criticism is more than welcome - especially on my mixed media projects.  

I hope you will stop by the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog to see what my team mates have created for this challenge - always truly amazing stuff over there!  And how about showing us your Buttons this week?  You just might win a $50 shopping spree randomly given to our of our players this week by our lovely sponsor Simon Says Stamp.

Have a wonderful week!

An Easel Card Challenge

Welcome back to my weekly Saturday morning post for Our Creative Corner.  This week our hostess, Vicki Burdick, is challenging us to make easel cards.  I know for the past year everyone has been wild for easel cards, but for some reason, they are not a favorite of mine.  I think it has to do with the fact that I can NEVER get a decent picture of one.  To get the entire card in the photo, you have to move back a bit farther than normal and with my little point and shoot camera, I seem to lose details.  But ever a challenge trooper, I plunged in and here is the result.  I actually like the card, but dislike the photos.  I'll give you a few close ups to help you see the details.

Where to start...that was the problem, I didn't have a clue as to what I could make when I sat down to get started.  Usually I have some nugget of an idea when the time comes to start, but not this time - no idea of colors, images, stamps, themes - nothin'...well, maybe not quite nothin' - I did have that bit of lace running across the bottom.  So with my lace in hand, I started scrolling through my vintage image digital files and came up with this sweet image of two little girls whom I envision are sisters sharing secrets.  I drew my colors from the image - a sweet blush pink and aqua/teal highlights with a bit of vintage brown tones thrown in.  That revved up my mojo and I was off and running.

The CS colors are kraft and Blush Blossom and the DP is from the same SU pack I used yesterday - retired and don't know the name.  I threw in a couple of strips of my vintage songbook, some SU glass glitter on the Spellbinders frame and then I hand dyed the applique posies and fan.  Hand dyed also are a small scrap of shabby seam binding and a crinoline/tulle flower.

What do you think?  Too much teal or a nice accent? I'm on the fence.  I like the teal, but am thinking maybe I have bit too much of that color - it really does jazz it up though, don't you think?  Whatever, I did have a sweet time dying all those fibers.  If you are looking for any of these dy-able products, hop over to my Etsy shop and...shop.

I hope you will make an easel card and join in the fun with us this week at Our Creative Corner. Be sure to stop by the blog and see the easel cards created by the rest of the design team.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for any comment you care to leave.  

Post Update:  A reader kindly critiqued my card and suggested that I replace the deal seam binding on the tag with a neutral.  I thought it was a great suggestion so here is the modified card.  Now what do you think?  Thanks Sue, I appreciate your input!

Tutorials
Hand Dying Shabby Seam Binding
More Crinoline Flowers
Easy Apple Blossoms

Challenges Entered:
Gingersnap Creations: GC99 Random Redhead Challenge - Fans

Love at First Sight

Yes, it was love at first sight when I was blog surfing a few weeks ago and saw these sweet Venise lace appliques.  I knew then that I had to have some for myself and tracked down a wholesaler to buy from.  Now I'm in lace heaven!  I'm surrounded by beautiful Venise lace - both sweet little appliques and lace trim.  And I've opened an Etsy shop to sell my Funkie Findings - things that I love and want to make available to my blog friends so they can use them in their crafting too.

There are still a number of Easter challenges running this week and I couldn't resist one more vintage piece for Easter.  This image is from a LunaGirl vintage holiday set CD and I matched it up with some Raspberry Road digital DP plus some ancient Creative Memories gingham paper.  The Hello and My Friend stamps are from the Sweet Kids set from Crafty Secrets.  I took a white lace heart and tea stained it.  When dry, using an empty aqua painter and a bit of Lavender Lace reinker mixed with a drop or two of water, I hand painted the lace heart and the tiny tri-bud appliques (the buds were white to start with).  I then added a bit more water and reinker to the puddle on my craft sheet and dyed the seam binding to match.  You know I'm hooked on custom dying everything to match, right?  

Here you have it - easy peasy!  And if you don't have reinkers, just pick a stamp pad, tip it over and mash it down on your craft sheet.  Mist or otherwise add water and mix up a dye puddle to use to dye your embellishments.  Let me know if you have any questions.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for whatever comments you care to leave.  I love knowing who is visiting me!

Challenges Entered:
Paper Sundaes - Texture
Sentimental Sundays - Easter/Spring
The Shabby Tea Room - Egg-cellent
Creative Beli - Eggs/Bunnies & Old and Forgotten (Creative Memories paper)
Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Happy Birthday
Truly Scrumptious - Vintage
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Easter
Stampin' for the Weekend- Easter
Craft Your Days Away - Easter
Secret Crafter - Stitching

Mini Vintage Easter Triptych

Good morning and thanks for starting your week off with my Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge sample.   This week our challenge to you is to use a Tim Holtz technique.  I used two - on the front of my mini triptych (right panel) I used the Rock Candy Distress Stickles technique (rubbed the stuff all over with my finger) and the Painted Metal technique.  You can learn all about these two techniques and plenty more in Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities.  

Now, about my make.  Do you sometimes start a project that just doesn't work out?  That's what happened here - now, make no mistake, I am happy with the way it turned out but I had planned to alter a small tin and tuck this little gem inside.  The tin was about the size of an Altiod's tin.  I painstakingly measured the paper, carefully cut it, rounded the corners (several times until I had a template).  I cut three and laid them in the tin - they fit like a glove.  Haha!  I then cut six like-sized pieces of the Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby paper, ink distressed them, created hinges out of seam binding and then glued everthing together.  Well, poor inexperienced me - I found out when they were together in a stack, they wouldn't drop down into the tin.  Grrrrr....now what?  I had already invested over an hour, probably more like two because I am a super slow crafter, plus I used some of my hoarded stash of TH paper.  So the altered tin got jettisoned and the project became merely a spring triptych.  I had had thoughts of making this project sort of a greeting card and putting it with the tussy mussy I made on Saturday for a nice Easter gift for a friend or family member.  Will have to re-engineer that too!

So after I got over my mad, I did have fun making this.  Lots of mini vintage yumminess here.  I never do ATCs because I didn't think I would enjoy working on such a small canvas.  But I made one a few weeks ago for a challenge and loved it.  This project is almost the same dimensions as ATCs and I had a great time working on it.  On the front "cover", I used a scrap of an Easter vintage image, some vintage songbook pages and the TH Vintage Market Die that I finally invested in and also a small scrap of Venise lace.  I had misted the letters with my homemade Vintage Photo glimmer mist and you can see that it bled a little when I put the Rock Candy Distress Stickles on it.  I sort of liked the effect.

When you open the inside, you see the first half of the quote which I printed on my home printer.  

More vintage images and on the first panel a TH Type Charm, a small Spellbinder flourish and a Tattered Floral die cut piece of acetate that I treated with Cranberry alcohol ink.

The middle panel made due with just a piece of filigree metal and a feather.  

The end panel features a Spellbinder's tag die cut treated with Vintage Photo distress ink and more of the glimmer mist.  The flower is a Sizzix die that cut the song sheet and a piece of crinoline.  Here is the other side with the rest of the quote.

Not too much here - another vintage image, a couple of small floral appliques and a metal frame.

Another applique and a scrap of pink seam binding with a white metal piece.  All the vintage images are from LunaGirl.  I purchased a CD a couple of years ago with vintage holiday images.  

That's it for my make this week, but I gotta tell you, it's another stellar week of DT samples over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  Be sure to stop by to take them all in.  And how about showing us what you can do with a Tim Holtz technique?  Our ever generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, has a $50 shopping spree for the lucky random winner!  Can't go wrong with that.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

A Vintage Easter Project

Welcome back to my post for Our Creative Corner.  We're kicking the weekend off with an Easter project.  I've been looking forward to this challenge.  I knew I wanted to do something vintage and thought it would be an opportunity for one last springtime blast of crinoline flowers.  Then this week I received some Melissa Frances vintage crepe paper and thought it would be so perfect to work into an Easter project.  I decided to make a tussie mussie, using some of the vintage songbook paper I picked up recently.  I have to tell you, this was a blast to make.  It was a little tricky and I had to improvise as I went along.  I knew what outcome I as looking for so I just kept at it changing this and that and the final result was pretty much as I pictured it. 

I started by rolling a page of the songbook and spritzed it with my homemade glimmer mist (Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls, a couple of drops of Vintage Photo Reinker and water in a mini mister).  I printed a few vintage Easter images in a fairly small size, cut them out, ink distressed them and glued them down.  About a 1 inch strip of the crepe paper was cut and sewed with a basting stitch down the middle and then gathered.  Then I folded the crepe paper strip in half along the line of basting and affixed it to top inside rim.  You can't see it too well, but I love the double ruffle it made.  The vintage crepe paper is very stiff and nice to work it.  It has almost a crisp feel to it.  

Next I created 12 crinoline flowers, 3 of each type/color.  (If you are new to my blog, I have two tutorials on making flowers from crinoline - here and here.)  Most of them have a brad for the center so I took a wire and wrapped it around the base of the brad on the underside of the flower.  I wrapped the other end of the wire around a toothpick to create a floral pick effect.  Once all 12 flowers were finished I arranged them together in bunch and then wired all the stems together for stability.  The inside of the cone is filled with shredded paper so I pushed the pick ends of the flowers down into it and arranged it to  sit up the way I wanted it.  

The handle is a 1/4 inch satin ribbon.  I repeated the same steps with the crepe paper again and glued the ribbon to the underside along the basting line.  I cut a few strips of pastel card stock and ran them through my crimper, then wound them into a spirals so they would curl nicely.  I added a little Venise lace and some darling Venise lace tri-florals.  Watch for these and more yummy Venise lace for sale on my Funkie's Junk blog.  I just received a shipment and will be getting pictures and prices uploaded over the weekend.  

I think that's all the details but if you have any questions, leave them in the comments or email me privately.  Thanks for stopping by today and for your lovely comments.  Be sure to stop by Our Creative Corner to see the Easter projects that the rest of the team have made.  

Challenges Entered:

Die Cut Dreams - It's Eastertime
Oh La La - Happy Easter
The Pink Elephant - Easter
Flourishes - Show Us Your Best Floral Creations
Papertake Weekly - Truly Dimensional
Little Red Wagon - Easter
Truly Scrumptious - Vintage
Creative Inspirations - Easter
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Easter
Pals Paper Arts - Flowers
Stampin' for the Weekend - Flowers
Crazy4Challenges - Make an Easter Gift
Craft Your Days Away - Easter