Fall Decorations

My sister and I made fall wreaths And here is the one that I completed.

We also made a couple of tabletop pieces.

And I painted some old bottles with silver metallic paint scrape the paint off a bit and added some scary Halloween labels and orange raffeta. 

Almost done!

I am getting so close to being finished with my first piece. I've made several mistakes which means I wont be giving it as a gift, but I'm still pretty happy with it!

I finished my first piece!

Another Craft!

As though I don't have enough half finished projects laying around, I just HAD TO start another one and this time it's worse...it's a new craft. I'm learning Hardanger Embroidery.  This is also known as White Work. It's typically done on white cloth with white thread and it's gorgeous.  I'm talking Heirloom kinda gorgeous.

So, I went out and bought a book "Beginner's Charted Hardanger Embroidery with complete instructions" by Susan Meier and Rosalyn Watkemo.  It has the different stitches in the front and does explain them.  Then it has some patterns and very nice patterns they are. But. and I do mean BUT, the instructions are so cryptic
that I'm glad I joined a Hardanger Forum, I will need them to help me figure out the instructions *sigh.  For a complete beginner leaving out one or more sentences in order for an explanation to be made in 20 words or less is not so helpful.  Example (this is word for word) "Trim around the edge after it was been secured with the sewing machine." ummm huh? "secure with the sewing machine"?  How exactly would one "secure with sewing machine" the border of this piece?

My First Glass Etching!

     I didn't have a clue what to get my husband for Father's Day.  While making the invitations for sister's birthday party, I came across my Wall Decor and More cartridge that has a very nice/fancy skull and I had just bought some nice wine glasses.  I used some vinyl that my sister gave me, cut the skull and the initials out and tried to place the "mask" of the design onto the glass.  This didn't work out so well and the skull came out crooked.  I then realized that I needed to put the design on tape first so that I could correctly place it on the glass.  I didn't have any of the transfer tape that I've seen people use, so I opted for painters tape.  I wanted to take most of the sticky off the tape so I pressed the tape onto my tee-shirt a couple of times, then over the design and then the whole thing onto the glass.  I press the vinyl down really well and lifted off the painters tape. All looked great on the second glass.  On both glasses, I used a foam brush to put a thick coat of Armour's Glass Etching Cream (pretty sure that is the name of it) and let it sit.  I got anxious and ended up rinsing off the cream ( using warm water ) after just a couple of minutes the first time and the second time, I waited about 7 minutes.  They turned out beautifully, but I think if I had waited 15 minutes on both, the etching would have been deeper and nicer.

     If you want to try glass etching, it's really simple and really fun BUT be very very careful not to allow any of the cream to get anywhere on the glass that you do not want etched.  Even a speck of cream will etch the glass, so when you cut your vinyl, give yourself plenty of edge so that you have room for the cream to slip and slide a bit.

    You might be wondering why I chose to put skulls and these beautiful wine glasses. Well, my husband LOVES skulls, they are just his thing and I was right, he loved them!

Party Invitations

I'm hosting a 50th Birthday Party for my youngest sister with the help of my older sister and niece and although we had all decided to not make the invitations, which would save a load of time, I wasn't able to find any that were suitable.  The only invitations available were for wedding, graduation, child's party, and baby shower.  I ended up making the invites and for the sake of time, I had to keep it simple.  I used the Lacy Labels to cut the basic shape of the invitations (double sided cardstock)  which is really nothing more than a rounded rectangle. I then scored both sides and folded them in.  I used Ivory Cardstock for the insert with all the info being printed on my printer and then ran that through my cuttlebug for the emboss on the sides and the back of the envelope.  I cut the flower shape (Core'dinations Color Core Cardstock) using Cricut Craftroom Basics, ran that through the cuttlebug for the embossing, glued one side of it to the left side of the invitation using Aileens Tacky Glue (I've learned my lesson in using tape runners...although it say's "permanent" it really isn't and things fall off after awhile. This doesn't happen with Tacky Glue.) and then tied the invite together using a pale pink ribbon.

A Ladies Diary Card

Once again, following the amazing Charlie Jones via youtube, I created this birthday card for my sister-in-law.  I used Krafty paper for the base of the card and papers from the Ladies Diary paper collection by Graphic 45. The corners were cut on my Cricut using the Picturesque cartridge, and the paper flower was cut from the Accent Essentials cartridge.

Birthday Reminder Book

Another wonderful project by Charlie Jones via YouTube (charliejones2686). This one is a birthday reminder book, that has a spot to write down names, plus pockets to hold tags that will be ready when needed throughout the year. This entire book was made using the "Place I. time" 8*8 paper stack by Graphic 45, with the exception of one sheet that was 12x12 which was needed for the covers.  The tutorial actually used the paper bags from Celebration, but I didn't have any and Charlie gave instructions on how to make the bags using krafty paper. I was able to complete the entire project in one day, which was awesome! Because ordinarily I'm super slow - so yeah, yay me!

Busy, Busy, Busy

     With Valentine's Day right around the corner, my hands have been very busy making cards.  I also have a brother who is going to have a birthday on February 1st so I also created a birthday card for him.  Here is what I've done over the past couple of weeks.

This is the birthday card made for my brother.  I used Tim Holtz Ideology (Lost and Found) paper stack.

This was made from the DCW Be Mine paper stack and the Damask Cricut Cartridge card feature.

This is a set of 6 stationary papers made from the Recollections Love Letters stack.

another one made from the DCW Be Mine paper stack.

also from the Recollections Love Letters Stack.

made using the Damask cartridge.

Made using the Be Mine paper stack and the Damask Cricut cartridge.

Another one using the Recollections Love Letters paper stack.

Made using the Cricut Wild Card cartridge with pink paper and white cardstock.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that the coming year will be bigger, better, brighter than last year!

I'm already looking ahead to the holidays of the New Year, stating with Valentines Day!  I made a set of Valentine Cards with a matching Gift Bag to hold them.  I'm sending this to my niece for a birthday present and I'm sure that she will put the cards to good use.

The gift bag is made from a paper bag and to make it, I followed a YouTube Tutorial that can be viewed by following this link: Paper Bag Purse .  The hearts on the gift bag and the cards are from the Cricut Home decor cartridge.  The center section of the card (the one with the oval) was made from a Cuttlebug die cut which I got pre-owned without it's booklet and I've no idea of the name of the die cut.  I used white cardstock to cut it out and pink cardstock to cut the mat behind it out and just kept layering pink and white.  I ran the base card and all mats through the cuttlebug to emboss them.  The inside of the card simply reads "Happy Valentines Day".

Confusing blog theme

I loaded up my blog and laughed when I re-read the first post.  I have since changed themes and the link that is in the post below this one no longer applies.  This blog, the Christmas themed one, is from Cutest Blog on the Block.  So if your confused about where I got which theme, don't worry - so was I!  I also added a falling snow blogmation effect, but it's very hard to see with my white background.  Still.... I thought it was nice and it's free from blogamation.com.

Changing Blog Look!!

I love changing my blog's background for the seasons!  I have absolutely no idea how to design blogger backgrounds so I use background themes made by others.  This particular background can be found at http://plumroselane-bckgrnds.blogspot.com/2010/10/golden-moments.html  The owner of the site has some amazing backgrounds and I encourage everyone to check them out.

I got in trouble with the Blogger Police!

I was very miffed at my experience with the Blogger Police and my first reaction (ok second reaction, because the first was anger) was to remove the offending post and let it go.  But.... since it's my blog (mostly) I figure I can complain.

I was send an email from blogger stating that I have broken the copyright infringement laws (according to the person complaining). I was not given a chance to respond and my item was placed into a "draft" category by blogger.  I was told that if I did not completely removed the item that further action would be taken against me.

Here is what happened.

I decided to try my hand at digital scrapbooking.  I saw all over the internet "free to use for personal use" templates and whatnot's   I downloaded like a mad woman and started putting my pages together.  I wanted to share my progress by putting them on my blog, which I did.  Apparently, the "free to use for personal use" comes with a condition: you must give credit to the artist.  Well that's all fine and good and I can understand the artist wanted credit.  But.... if your an artist and you DEMAND credit be given, then don't make your creations "free to use".  Because the demand of the credit is a cost of the item, and thus it becomes NOT FREE TO USE.  I did not intentionally set out to insult the artist by not giving credit.  I just did not, in my flurry, of downloading stop to note all the artist's of all the items and for this I was basically called a thief.  I had one artist actually contact me and ask me, very politely, to please give credit for an item of her's that she saw on my website.  I very much appreciated that email and as soon I read the email, I went to my blog and gave the credit that was asked for.

Whoever it was that accused me of stealing her item did not give me a chance to make the correction myself and that is what I object to most.  I would have given the credit if I had known who the artist was, or if the artist had given me a chance to correct my error but she didn't.  Don't make your item free to use if your going to accuse someone of theft for using it.

I am NOT A THIEF and I don't appreciate being treated like one.  If your an artist and you find an item of yours that you gave away "free to use" on a personal blog (not being resold, not having download links, etc.) and you want credit.... contact the blogger, don't send the blogger police after her.