Projects and fun

Three cards - the first is an invitation to a wedding rehearsal dinner which will be held at a yacht club. The picture is of the groom's sailor suit when he was four and a boat he made with his grandpa. It was fun to work on these with my friend. We made 42 of them!

The next card is a very fun Stella stamp from Bugaboo Stamps. I love their silly characters! My friend has been sewing the elegant satin dresses for two little flower girls for this wedding. She is amazing at this, but it has been a tough project. She even made muslin versions to be sure they would fit, and created a net slip for each to keep the long skirts full. They are gorgeous! I am giving her this card to celebrate completing them. The papers used are CTMH.

The last card is one made from clip art. I saw a card like this and really wanted to make one, but didn't have a cow stamp. I searched for free clip art and printed it and colored it with CTMH markers - drawing in the spots and grass. The sentiment is computer generated also.

Well, school starts Thursday. Tomorrow will be a very busy day - laptop training, finishing up plans for the first few days, September reading assignment calendar for AP Gov. . .this is my 21st year teaching, but I am nervous every year! I think teachers are worse than the kids :)

Hope your week has started well.
Thanks for looking.

Dena

Anniversary Celebration

It hardly seems possible that one year ago we gathered for my youngest son's wedding. It was a beautiful weekend! The celebration this year has us watching the little dog, Max, while the kids go off for fun for a few days.

It has been a long time since I posted - I am sorry for those who check here and found nothing new. I'm getting ready for back-to-school, and that means less time to create new things. But I have also been working on little gifts for my fellow teachers, and several wedding related items for my friend. Photos of those will appear as I finish them.

This card was fast and easy to make, but looks very elegant. Must learn to fix bows before taking picutres. . .

CTMH products used: textured Colonial White cardstock, Happy Holidays (D1431) stamp set, metal-rimmed tag, black and new Cotton Candy inks, a heart charm bead (retired ); other: ribbon from SU!, circle punches, silver cord.

Meanwhile, celebrate the loves in your life. Got to go play with the dog now! lol

Dena

APRON card directions

This is for all the wonderful CTMH gals that have sent requests for how to make the little apron card.

I saw this somewhere and just made up a rough pattern. I took a piece of paper 41/4 X 51/2 - folded it in half and cut from 3 1/2" up to
3/4" from the center fold. This gave me the tracing template for the card base.
I did the same thing with a 4 "x 5 1/4" for the apron top. Folded in half, cut from 3 1/4 up on the side to 3/4" from the center fold.

The decoration pieces on the apron are 4" X 1 3/4, 4" X 5/8

It took about 6"-6 1/2" of ribbon for the top. You could fasten it with a brad, too.
Hope this helps. I tried scanning my template for the apron top...doesn't look too good, but gives you the idea. I think it gets bigger if you click on it.

Dena

Tiny Gift Bags

The local craft store is having sales!! Tomorrow I will go stock up on some of these tiny bags. They were in the wedding section for favors, and are perfect for a little thank you gift with chocolate, cocoa packet or tea bag...

Products used: CTMH cranberry and Sweat Leaf, Heavenly Blue and Chocolate papers and inks; Tasty Treats ( D1427) stamp set; 2" and 2 1/2" punched; assorted ribbons.

Sweet Birthday

A little card to go with some birthday cupcakes.

products: CTMH Life Delights (retired) paper, Lilac Mist, Sweat Leaf and Colonial White cardstock; It's Your Day, Happy Birthday, and Cupcake Sprinkles stamps; Chocolate, SweetLeaf and Lilac Mist inks; ribbon from Sweat Leaf Collection; MS border punch; eyelets.

Kraft card and 'talking supplies'

One of my favorite bloggers wrote a while back - "Always listen to your supplies!" I hesitate to say that my ribbons, etc. speak to me . . . but early this morning I needed to find a home for the little starfish charm purchased in Port Townsend. Wanting to give it a home of sand and sea, I used some retired 'naturals' paper from CTMH, a Cuttlebug embossing folder, and a wonderful sentiment from the Wordsworth Dickinson collection that you can get here:(http://notimetostamp.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2010/05/12/rubber-soulwordsworth-stamps/)

I cut around the design and put the other part inside.

I did the other card with another piece from the embossing and this sentiment is from the Signatures collection, Papertrey Ink.

Now there are more charms purchased on that same expedition . . .Can you hear them? :)

Memories

I had a delightful conversation yesterday with my 4 year old grandson about memories. Who knew the concept could be so complicated . . . memories can be thoughts in your mind and also 'things' that help you remember events/times from your life. He has a lot already in just 4 years!

A while ago I posted a memory box made for one grandson, and I have finally completed the other and put names on both.

I also had fun today rummaging around in my memory boxes. Everyone worth preserving.

How are you keeping yours?

Enjoy!

Papercrafts rocks!

Well, I DO look at Papercrafts and get great ideas. But this time I have probably gone too far . . this is a sketch and color copy from Page 66 of the July/August edition. I have used CTMH stamp sets 'You're Sweet' and "Happy Birthday'; papers from Zipidee and Blue Ribbon (also CTMH), added a few buttons and some chocolate ribbon. It's a bright and cheerful little card.

I have some projects to finish, but would love to get to some challenges, too. Who would have thought I'd ever think 'good, they expect rain tomorrow' in the summer?? Excuse to stay in and stamp :)

Watercoloring stamps

I just tried new things today. A very dear stamping friend gave me a scoring board as a gift! So I wanted to try that, and then I was totally intrigued by a card and technique seen here http://simplicitybylateblossom.blogspot.com/. This has become my go to blog for inspiration.

So I tried the watercolor technique, the muslin and the scoring . . . with some successes and some just so-so results.

The watercolor was tricky but very fun. I wanted to use current CTMH stamps, but the one that worked the best was an old CTMH wood/rubber. I colored with watercolor crayons then lightly misted the stamp. There were quite a few failed attempts at this until I discovered the 'spray up in the air above the stamp and let it catch the mist on the way down' method! :)

I also tried a VERY light mist on the watercolor paper or muslin before stamping. The less wet worked best. The last card is the result of a too wet mess on the fabric. So I sprayed it (as the original card directions on Susan's blog instructed) and just let it blend all through. After it dried I stamped it with waterproof black ink. I used spray adhesive to mount the fabric pieces. It worked beautifully.

products used: CTMH stamps (Extreme Happiness, Smiles, Card Chatter- Thank You, A Little Bit of Everything); Sweet Leaf, Hollyhock, textured Colonial White CS; CTMH Hollyhock and Black inks; Wordsworth stamp ; watercolor crayons (SU!); watercolor paper; beading twine, black bitty brads, 'moss' sparkles (PTI); muslin scraps; spray adhesive.

Special Family Recipes Book

This is the book made with my BFF for her son's fiancee. It was a hit at the wedding shower today - and several asked about having something similar made for them. That would be fun, and the start of a new thing in my business.

The three-ring binder is CTMH as are the fabulous 'flip flaps'- the sleeves for the recipes have a strip of adhesive and can be stacked together. They are the greatest invention! and very inexpensive. Some of the papers and ribbons used , and the stamps and beautiful button clip are CTMH also. Because my friend wanted the colors to match the kitchen colors, we selected the designed papers from several local shops: basic grey and BoBunny.

Printing the recipes and photos on a creamy vanilla paper that had a bit of weave to it gave them an older, vintage look. She placed the recipes next to photos of the person best known for that speciality. I love the pictures of them cooking together.

Contact me at denahughes@myctmh.com

if you would like a book like this designed for you, or a 'recipe' to make your own.

Hope you enjoy all these photos!