Home Decor - Matting for Wedding Guest Signatures

Hello Everyone...

One of Four craft fairs is done. A month from now I will have all of them behind me and things will slow down again and I can get back to normal here on my blog :). I already purchased my treadmill because the weather here in NY has been so terrible this fall, but I have to pay myself back and then I also hope to get the Imagine too.

I am working on editing a video that I made a couple months ago and never shared here and in the meantime I wanted to show this project that I made. A woman that I work with is getting married and having a John Deer theme. She wanted me to decorate a matting that she purchased for wedding guests to sign and have it go with her theme. I knew I needed a little outdoor scene so the farm equipment could go at the bottom and then have the rest be sky...so I made a little hilly/grassy area. For the sky I took some clouds and used removable adhesive and stuck them down in various places. Then I used light blue Versamagic Chalk ink to ink over the matting so that when I was done I peeled the clouds off and was left with white clouds. I didn't want to adhere clouds all over it because then it would not be smooth to write on. So I did it this way and it turned out fantastic.

She absolutely loved it.

Hope you enjoy...I will post the video over the weekend :)

Home Decor- Picture Frame for Walker

I'm alive...I promise I will be back to normal once the craft fair season is done. I am doing 4 of them this year because I am earning money for a treadmill and maybe even an Imagine. It is consuming almost every free moment I have and I am having to craft in a different way than I am used to and am a bit overwhelmed, so I have not been taking pics of everything and no time to blog it all either.

Anyway, I made this frame a month or more ago for my Boss' daughter who was having her first baby, a little boy named Walker. I checked into Nursery colors before hand and then went with the colors his room was going to be so it would coordinate. I kept it very simple since it's for a boy and just wanted his name and the colors to pop out. I used acrylic paints for the frame then decorated with ribbon and gems and buttons. The font was from Robotz.

Hope you enjoy!

Home Decor - Decorated Canvas for Lauren

Here is the second baby gift that I made. This was a 12x12 canvas that I got to decorate. I bought some garter belt elastic material at Joann's to go around the edge for the trim and it worked out quite well. Then I cut these paper squares and did them two layers thick. I used some crafty power tape along with scotch quick dry to make sure it really was stuck well. The thing with the canvas is that the center isn't really supported so you have to be careful. Then I adhered the brown ribbons like this to cover all the seems. I put a pink button to frame the ribbons which looks awesome. The papers I used compliment each other so nicely and the colors that they decorated the nursery with. Hard to believe this is mostly paper because it looks so spectacular and pretty!

On a side note my recovery from surgery is going well. I have been enjoying being in my own home and relaxing. I've been sleeping right down stairs in my recliner because it takes all the pressure off my belly for resting and makes me more comfy. Everything has been going so well though that I am truly impressed with this. And already it is so nice not to cough and hack all day from acid reflux, and I have nothing coming back up...so it seems it worked and this will all be worth it! I miss my crafting stuff though. It hasn't even been a week yet and I have the itch.

Home Decor- L

Here is the first baby gift that I made for my high school friends. I got this idea, to make enough layers of the letter L to make a letter that could stand on its own. I cut this from Storybook. I think it was cut around 4 inches. I had to cut 40 layers of the pink paper and one layer of the green. I ended up gluing each layer together, using the big zip pen. And then when it was all done, I used the modge podge and sealed over it. This is awesome, it does stand up. It took a long time to make though but it was worth it. Who would ever look at it and think right off that it was made of paper right? Hope you enjoy!

Baby Card - Home Decor- For Ali

A Sales Rep that I know through my work needed a unique baby card, that could turn into a hanging for the nursery for her new niece. So we exchanged several emails and decided I would make a wall hanging that she could write on the back of it. I used a 5.5x8.5 size, made two thick layers and sandwiched the lace between the layers. So this is nice and sturdy. I love this printed paper from DCWV. I cut the letters for her name from Storybook at 4 inches. I added lots of bling and buttons but the main embellishment is my handmade quilled spiral roses which I used glossy accents on to make them look wet.

I think this turned out fabulous and my customer loved it. I hope the new mommy does too! Another thing I really like about it, is it isn't baby. So she can keep it in her room for years to come.

Blog Make Over and Sign!!!

As I am sure you have noticed I gave myself a BLOG MAKE OVER!!!

I have been wanting to do this for a while, because my blog has changed so much since I started it in May. In May I was totally hooked on quilling and I didn't even have a Cricut, and while I still like to do quilling, this blog has become more of a Cricut blog...so I needed a new design that reflected that. I decided to tackle this myself and kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to make a sign that I can hang in my new craft space, and I wanted it to match my blog design.

So this is the awesome sign I made. It is 6x11.6. I love how it turned out. I love the purple tree. This has all the colors I love, but also has my favorite color purple. That is my very favorite tree and I love turtles. So this is very much ME.

Making it was the easy part. Getting good enough pictures of it to use for a blog graphics was harder. I had to do a lot of playing around with it to get this one which I liked the best for the main header picture. Then I had to change around the blog colors to match it. I love how that turned out.

Then I had to make brand new blog buttons. I am so SUPER happy with my blog button which you can grab from my sidebar. I just love how it turned out and it is so stinking pretty. If you want to display my button on your blog that would be great! Just grab it. I made buttons just like it for my Designers and Guest Designers on my challenges and they turned out just as cute. I still can't believe that I made that button.

Hope you enjoy the new look. I am really loving it and excited about it. The next time I need business cards printed I will giving my printer the button image to put that on one side of my card. My current cards matched my old blog design.

I also simplified a few things. I took the Etsy shop off my side bar and am simply linking it at the top under the Purchase Tab. I don't think I was getting much business from this blog anyone since my visitors are fellow crafters, most of that has come from the Etsy site. I also put a drop down menu for my labels/categories. It really cleans up the side bar. I did the same with my blog archive. With about 500 posts now and at least 30-50 per month usually that gets very cluttered.

I added a new Q&A page at the top in my row of pages...just a common place where anyone can post questions they might have and it will be easier for me to answer them since my posts tend to get buried fast.

Oh yes, and on my main page now there will only display my most recent 8 posts...so to see more click older. I think my blog was loading too slowly because of how much was on it and it was frustrating.

What else...yes my new craft space is pretty much done. So look out for the video tour this week!

Let me know your feedback on my new design. Hope you enjoy!

Flaunt it Friday 1st Blog Hop and 1st Challenge!!!

Thank you so much for joining us for our first BLOG HOP! If you have arrived here from Amanda's blog then you are in the right place! If not, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. Remember to leave comments on every stop along the way, and leave a 2nd comment on the Flaunt It Fridays blog saying you've visited everyone and left them comment love for a 2nd chance to win the Grand Prize sponsored by Peachy Keen Stamps!

For my blog hop project I decided to make a little treat bag using the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge as well as Winter Frolic for the tree. I may use this type of bag for some Christmas goodies for various people. I hope you enjoy my little project and below you can see my first design team project too.




I am also submitting this to Momo's Tuesday Challenge, at www.madebymomo.com.





This was my first design team project for Flaunt it Fridays. Our task this time was to use this snowman from Winter Frolic. I decided to make a Winter Decoration. I designed this in my gypsy and I made the snowman quite big. I welded the circle cut out into the belly of the snowman so that it would create an open window to place my snowflake in. I love how that turned out. I coated that snowflake with glossy accents so it shines nicely. I also embossed snowflakes onto the belly of the snowman too. I added diamond stickles in little dots all over to resemble snow. I had to cut one piece of the scarf away so it didn't cover the snowflake. I added some bling to it's cheeks and scarf. I used the pink ribbon as a way to hang it. I really love how this turned out!

Now, I'm sending you to Stephanie who is your next stop on the hop. Remember, if you get lost along the way, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. Don't forget to leave comments on every stop along the way, and leave a 2nd comment on the Flaunt It Fridays blog saying you've visited everyone and left them comment love for a 2nd chance to win the Grand Prize sponsored by Peachy Keen Stamps!

I hope you enjoyed your stop here! Feel free to become a follower if you aren't already and enjoy the rest of my projects too!

Home Decor - Happy Holidays Penguin

This is another request from my sister. She loved the penguin Christmas cards I had made and since they sold at the craft fair she asked me to make her something with the penguin. I had my Gypsy with me on Thanksgiving so we designed this together. She decided on a large penguin all decorated that she is going to give to her suite mate to hang on their door at college. If you ask me this is going to be totally adorable! I added some snowflakes to it just for an added touch with some pink gems and then stickles around the gems. The stickles weren't quite dry when I took the picture, as I had to get this posted for her tonight. I am really happy with this. I was thinking how when you have a Cricut, you really have no reason to buy decorations, when you can so easily make your own! Hope you all enjoy.

CJ Too Design Team - Happy Fall Wall Hanging

So it is time for another Craft Junkie Too Design Post! This week we had to make something in the air, to be hung, so I made this Home Decor Wall Hanging. The fence and the grass is from Paper Doll Dress up. I made like 5 layers of fence so it was nice and thick. I went around each of the fence posts with the braiding cord and buttons to make the actual fence more festive. The pumpkins were from Create a Critter. So cute. I just added glitter to the stems, mouths and eyes. I made them all raised up but the lighter one is more raised up than the other two. The letters are from Storybook.

I am really happy with how this turned out. I gave it to a friend of mine just because and she loved it. It is so awesome to know that such cute crafts can really be made from just paper and a few accessories. Hope you enjoy.

CJ Too Design Team - Home Decor Scarecrow Wall Hanging

This was my first entry for Design Team 2 for Tracy at www.craftjunkietoo.com!!! I am so excited to be part of her design team and I am a little happy I was up second, so I had more time to work one something totally different than anything I have made before. I decided to try my hand at a home decor item. In the past all I have done is quilled artwork for framing, but I wanted something totally different.

I decided on a wall hanging for fall...and what cuter to use than the scarecrow from Simply Charmed. To get started I made my thick base. I used 6 layers of kraft card stock and then sandwiched that between two cereal box cardboard pieces. I had all that adhered together and then covered it with this creamy shimmery paper. That took quite a bit of ATG and a little time to get it where I was happy with it.

Then I added the brown layers and wrapped them behind. I had this adorable ribbon which I picked up last winter, and decided that would look really pretty going across the top and bottom. Next came the braiding cord and I used a technique I have seen Momo do...I tied it off through the orange button...Love it. I am so glad I added this cord because I think it really makes it look more fall and festive.

Next I made my adorable scarecrow. I used real buttons for his overalls because I thought it was cuter than the black dots. I did some doodling on him to make him look better too. Then I added braiding cord and tied it through the yellow button for his hat and I LOVE how that turned out. So stinking cute. He just puts a smile on my face, not scary at all.

And the last part is the binder clip I used for hanging this. It's just a tiny one, I covered it in brown paper. Because the wall hanging is so thick it fits nicely onto it, and won't slip off. I added the sunflower over the front metal part so you won't see it, and chose that because the ribbon has scarecrow heads and sunflowers so I thought it was perfect. The back metal part is actually what will be hung onto your nail or hook! It really is perfect for the hanging part of this.

I am not sure what I am doing with this little guy yet but I sure do love how this turned out. I was so honored to be part of Tracy's design team that I wanted to challenge myself into doing something new. All in all this took me about 2 hours. There is a very good chance I am gifting this one!