Birthday Present & Gift Bag/Reusable Tote!

Happy Afternoon Everyone! Today I would like to share a quick and fun present and bag all in one! One of my friend's birthdays was the other day, and I always like to suprise her with something unique & different. She is one of my dear friends that truly supports my artistic endeavors. I wanted to give her something inspiring and as soon as I saw it, I just had to get it. I am sure that most of you already know Rhonna Farrer of Rhonna Designs. She creates the most amazing, visually interesting digital images I have ever seen! She is the designer behind Pink Paislee's Daily Junque line just to give you an idea of how talented she is. Rhonna recently created a digital image titled, Focus and here it is in all it's wonderful glory. The sentiment underneath reminds us to make time for ourselves every once in awhile! I purchased this wonderful image and decided to print and frame it for my friend. The funky colors and style I knew would be perfect. After framing it, I decided to make a rosette out of fuschia/orange dupioni silk. It ties amazingly well to the flowers in the image. Additionally I added the vintage blue tickets to make it more like a prize ribbon. I love the way it turned out, and she did too. :) For the gift bag, rather than using the typical throwaway ones; I decided to give her one that she could use as a beach bag or tote bag in the future. Since we are all about using totes these days for shopping, etc isn't this perfect? I also have noticed that burlap is becoming a very hot trend. I purchased this burlap bag and added the rosette/ribbon to the front. To make it a permanent fixture to the bag, I adhered it using E600. You can never go wrong with that stuff! As for the materials I used to create the rosette, I used some beautiful new Webster's Pages Ribbon, cream dupioni silk & some vintage pink/white trim I had in my stash. To give it the folded appearance, I simply used a Cosmo Cricket Gluber. My goodness, those things rock! To give the bag a little bit more of a festive flair, I added 3 pennant flag pins from the Girls' Paperie as well as the "joy" pin. Those are easily removable, and she can take them off before carrying the bag. Clever huh? I thought it would be fun to share this idea with you all. Not only was it fun/quick to put together, I think she truly likes it. I know if I was on the receiving end, I would love it. Which reminds me, I am totally going to print/frame Rhonna's "Focus" for my bedroom. It has such a funky flair...so totally me:)

Thanks for stopping by. I have some exciting news to share with you soon so stay tuned! Amy

DIY Wedding Share the Love Challenge by Crate Paper..."Love Birds"

Last week the Crate Paper blog hosted a challenge to create using "wedding" as the overall theme.  When I saw the Portrait Collection in the early Spring I knew it was a must have.  The combination of creams, black, aqua greens & that floral woodgrain just screamed out to me.  Absolutely gorgeous, I knew that I wanted to create with this collection for the challenge.  Since we had severe storms and power outages last week, I was unable to enter the challenge by the deadline.  :(  That's okay.  Because of the challenge, I forced myself to find time to be "artsy" and now have a sweet creation to show for it.  :)

The baroque frame that I used is a vintage one I found about 5 years ago at a garage sale, just waiting for the right moment to shine.  It is a heavy wood that is golden with a white wash distressing over the top.  Isn't it downright lovely?  For the background, I used all the Portrait Papers and with a scalloped ruler I created the "feathered" look.  After placing the glass on top, I then did a mosaic with 2 "love" birds.  The aqua green spotted tile in the center says "love" in a romantic cursive style.  I wanted to give the illusion that the birds were looking at one another.  I created the eyes using the Portrait Brads & Buttons.  The feet are made from copper wire.  Lastly, to add more dimension I wanted the birds to look like they are standing on branches.  Using my Wild Card Cricut Cartridge I cut the branches out of my favorite paper in the collection:  that gorgeous floral woodgrain.  I know this is a rather unusual mixed media piece but I am truly happy the way it turned out.  As for the wedding themed aspect, I thought this wall piece could hang as decor at the wedding to represent the "love birds."  After the wedding it would be hung in the new couple's home as a forever reminder of their most wonderful day ever! 

Thanks for stopping by, and as always thanks for the wonderful comments and words of encouragement! 

Amy

The Joy of Magnetic Paper Dolls...

My friend's daughter had her sweet little birthday party today. So what does one get for a 4-year-old child that surely has every princess accessory and Barbie doll under the sun? You make them something handmade, that's what! In addition to a cute little kitty cat purse, I decided to make her some paper dolls! This was lots of fun for me, let me just tell you it brought back great memories of playing with them as a child. Remember when the tabs would get all worn and tear? The clothes would never seem to stay on very long. Well, I came up with a great solution. Magnetic sheeting!

First of all, I must say what inspired me to do the paper dolls was an adorable digital collection by Pretty Little Studio. Have you ever heard of them? They have the most fanstastic vintage imagery of children, clowns, bunnies, etc. If you love vintage like I do, then you will definitely want to check them out at http://www.prettylittlestudio.com/.

The set I chose to work from is the "Mary" Nursery Rhyme Collection. The size of the doll and the cut-outs print out at approximately 4 - 5" each. The perfect size to fit into a tin Maya Road lunchbox! (I had this in my stash of old packaging that used to house Maya Road chipboard.)  These are perfect for sweet little gifts like this as there is even a little clear window on one side to "peek" in. Since the box is made out of tin, the magnets stick to it perfectly. The back of the case is the ideal platform for creating/dressing Mary in all her fancy outfits.

If you are interested in making some of these for a little girl, or even for yourself I will share with you a brief tutorial on how I created this one-of-a-kind gift.

1. Order the digital images at http://www.prettylittlestudio.com/. The set is only $3, that is what I call a deal. Or if you prefer, you can order the actual paper dolls and work from them. As most of you know, I am more of a traditional crafter; but sometimes in a time crunch, digital is definitely a great way to go.
2. Print out all the images on high quality photo paper.

3. Place all the images on magnetic sticky backed sheeting and fussy cut around the doll, each dress and hat. No need to include the tabs since it is magnetic. Where the lines are dashed, you will use an x-acto knife to cut the openings...this is typically where Mary's head slides through for the hats.

4. To add additional texture to each of the dresses, I added vintage lace, silver/red ricrac & pom poms.  For the hats I added a blue gem, a pink feather, red velvet ribbon and gold flowers from Jolee's Boutique.
5. Take the tin lunchbox and clean/take off all stickers. Next cover the back of the box with a gingham red paper. I used some from GCD Studios Artsy Urban Collection.
6. Included in the digital images is a cover page that has the title, and the illustrator details. I used this as part of my packaging. I took some kraft paper and cut a strip that would wrap completely around the box. I then cut angles & glued the title to the kraft strip.

7. For the inside of the box, I added kraft krinkle stuffing at the bottom. I then tied all the dresses and the hats together using baker's twine.
8. To finish it, just stick Mary to the back of the box. I added the "Pretty Little Studio" as a magnet so that it can be removed when the little one is playing with the paper dolls. Next wrap the label around the box and you're done!

I hope that little Lucy will enjoy this gift. I am a mother of 2 boys so I don't get to do too much of this girlie stuff. It is so refreshing to be a little girl again every once in awhile! I hope you enjoy the tutorial, and I wish you all a wonderful evening! Amy

Arrow Perpetual Calendar

As some of you know, I won the entire Pink Paislee's Daily Junque Collection a few months ago. Definitely one of my favorite collections ever, I am really gravitated to the vintage imagery, the whimsical feel and all the numerical graphics. What perfect product to create one of my well know perpetual calendars! This is the first one I have created in the shape of an arrow...I think it is a good match with the Daily Junque line, don't you? In addition to many scrapbooking products, I used lots of vintage ephemera as I do on all my calendars.

Here is a list of the goods...

Paper: Pink Paislee, October Afternoon, Prima, Teresa Collins

Stickers: Echo Park, EK Success, Martha Stewart
Rub-ons: Jenni Bowlin

Journaling Spots: Jillibean Soup
Die-cuts: Pink Paislee
Bingo Marker: Maya Road

Other: arrow shaped metal sheet, aqua computer key, 1" buttons

Vintage other: scrabble tile, ticket, rummikub, boyscout patch, playing card, dominoes, lotto, marquee numbers, typewriter keys, bingo markers/ball, poker chip, dice, wooden ruler, checker, skeleton key

I hope you all are enjoying your Sunday afternoon!

PS, I have had several requests for a tutorial on my calendars. I plan on doing a comprehensive one in the future with many pictures. Sound like a plan?

I will be back soon,

Amy

Curio Window

Happy Saturday My Friends! I just came in from working in the yard the past 5 hours. Talk about worn out and covered in dirt! It is 95 degrees out there, but something about working in the yard and the flower beds is very therapeutic for me. How about you?

Today I would like to share with you a custom window that I just completed yesterday. My customer wanted a window for her remodeled kitchen and chose to do incorporate colors that were in her wedding: olive greens, tans, browns & creams. After working together, we came up with this design using the ever so gorgeous Basic Grey's Curio Collection. I think the window turned out wonderfully and it has a fresh botanical feel that is so popular right now. I hope that she truly loves it. Creating a one-of-a-kind piece that she can enjoy for many, many years to come makes my happy. :)

I hope all of you are fantastic; have a fun & restful Saturday night!
Talk to you soon!
Amy