Classes for April - June, 2015

April 13,  I have the Sizzix Test Drive from 4 to 5 pm, this is a fun demo/class where you get to not only see how this die cut system works, but get to make some cut yourself and take home a little project.  It's really a nice demo so come check it out.  Click the "Sizzix Test Drive" for the link to sign up.

I also have on April 13, a Mixed Media class from 6:30 to 8:30 pm for beginners where you will paint and decorate a really cute wooden heart frame.

April 14, from 11:00 to 1:00pm is Paper Crafting for Beginners - Instructors Choice.  This class will get you started on basic card making.  I plan on making 3 different cards with a Mother's Day theme, but honestly, you can use them for any occasion.  This class will utilize the Cuddlebug and some really great die cuts, plus punches and embellishments.  We will shop for supplies together, so arrive a bit early if you can.

Paper Crafting Advanced - Instructors Choice, One Page Mini Album class, where you will make a Mini Album from ONE piece of 12x12 paper!  Once the mini album is made, we will decorate it! This album is perfect for all those small school photos that we acquire and don't really know what to do with. I don't have the Syllabus made up yet, but I will come back and edit the post once I do have it.

The dates for this project in May, 2015 are:
May 3rd, May 12th, May 16th and May 18th.  The calendar is up online at Michaels.com where you can check the times of the class and you can also pick up a calendar at the store.

Also for May, I have the Paper Crafting Advanced, Instructor's Choice class for a more complicated One Page Mini Album.  Again, this Album is also made from a single piece of 12x12 Scrapbook paper.  Once the Album is made then it will be decorated using other patterned papers. 

The dates for this class in May are:

May 3rd, 12th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 27th and 31st.  The Calendar is up online at Michaels.com where you can check for the times of the classes and sign up.  A printed Calendar can also be picked up at the store.

Paper Crafting Advanced - Instructor's Choice class but this time we will learn how to make Paper Flowers using die cuts from the Cricut and Cuddlebug. 

The dates for this project will be in June, 2015:

June 9th, June 15th, June 16th and June 21st.  The Calendar for June is up online at Michaels.com and you can pick up a paper calendar at the store.

They will look something like this:

The Syllabus is available at the store, just remember that it's the Chipman Mall store in Lee's Summit.

I also have  Paper Crafting Beginners, Instructor's Choice class for June where we will make a Paper Purse Gift Bag, it's super cute! and looks hard but it's not.  

The dates for the Gift Bag are June 1st, 7th, 8th, 11th, 15th, 20th, 22nd and 25th.  Again, you can check for the different times of the class online at Michaels.com or stop by the store and pick up a printed Calendar.

Here are some photos of the bag, although the colors are different than what we will make in class.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been busy crafting my little heart out for my upcoming Micheal's craft classes.  You can check the Classes tab for the project sample's I've got done to date, fun stuff!

My head is jammed full of things I could make and turn into classes, it's hard to think of anything else lol.

I've been at my local Michael's store every day this week, familiarizing myself with the store layout, getting to know some of the staff and of course spending a great deal of time in the class room prepping for upcoming classes.  While I was there yesterday, the Classroom Coordinator came in and said she was sorry but that she had to kick me out of the classroom because someone wanted to use it.  I didn't mind because I learned something new.  Apparently, anyone can come in with their kids and use the classroom for a few hours, have some fun finger painting with the kids!  I mean who knew that Michael's offered that? for FREE! (paints, crayons, markers and aprons included).

Small Painter's Tray

I was shopping at Michael's the other day and found this little Painter's Tray from 7 Gypsies and had such fun decorating it.  I used paper from Graphic 45's Ladies Diary and Botanical Tea, some from my mountain of scrap paper ( it's insane how much scrap paper I have!).  I added a pretty ribbon that I've been keeping around for just such an occasion and finally found a use for the odd bit's of jewelry.  This is a very forgiving project, you really can't go wrong with whatever you use.

Another Hardanger piece

I made this for my Sister-In-Law Josie's birthday and I'm a little late.  Her birthday was in May and I've just finished it.  I had reason though, I suffered an eye trauma and was out of commission for a bit.  All is better now and I'm right back at it.

Birthday Card

I made this card from paper in "The Cinnamon Stack",  which is a DCWV brand and I love it!  I'm trying to make extra cards whenever I make a card specifically for someone so that I will have a nice little "go to" pile when I need a card.  So far, I have not done that well at making the extras, lol.  This time I actually did make an extra card and this is.

I used a nestabilities 'Floral Oval" die cut (with my cuttlebug) for the oval pieces.  The floral border was also made using the cuttlebug with a spellbinders die.  The "Happy Birthday" was cut using a font that I had on my computer via Sure Cut's Alot software.

Paper Bag Purse

I was inspired by a You Tube video (click here for the link) and this is what I came up with:

It was a fairly quick project once I adjusted the measurements for the size of bag that I had.  The video is using a paper bag that is 5 inches wide, mine was a bit smaller.

Birthday Card for a dear friend.

The Postcard and "Spring is in the Air" is from the Graphic 45 "Sweet Sentiments" 8x8 paper pad.  The little girl is an element from the "Sweet Sentiments" chipboard set.  The Blue floral square under the little girl is from the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge and the envelope and tag is from another cartridge but I honestly can't remember which one.

Handmade Valentine's Day Cards

I had so much fun making my little nephew and nieces some little Valentine's Day cards.

This little Bee is from Cricut Cartridge, Spring Holiday Cards.

The little Ewe is also from the Spring Holiday Cards cartridge.

The Cheshire Cat from the Disney Classics Cartridge

Thumper is also from the Disney Classics Cartridge.

I then made some adult Valentine's Day cards (I actually forgot to take pictures of a few of them, boo.)

With this one, I tri-folded white card stock, then measured another piece in pick for the first layer and a second piece in white, put them in my cricut and cut a heart out, then I cut right down the middle of the heart.  I used the pink heart of the inside of the card.  The embossing was done using the Cuddlebug.

This card was made using the beautiful paper pad by Graphic 45 "Sweet Sentiments" there are such lovely Valentine's Day and Easter images and paper.  This was from the 8x8 pad.

I bought this downloadable image from an Etsy store.  My husband just loves everything "Skull" and he got a real smile from this card.

My blog was HACKED!

Well I was very surprised to find that my blog had been hacked.  I got a notice from Pinterest (Go Pinterest!) that a fellow pinner visited my blog, which made me wonder when was the last time I myself had visited my blog. Sadly, life has been extra-ordinarily busy and the blog was set aside.

I clicked on my blog link and was incredibly dismayed to find it immediately redirected to spam sites!  I consider myself to be a moderately crafty person, but a software programmer I'm not! I had no idea how to fix it.  The words of my lovely daughter floated in my head "Mom, Google knows everything!" so off to Google I go and within a minute I had the fix.  I came upon this site: http://aw-snap.info/blogger-tool/ (if anyone else is suffering from a hacked blog, I would recommend that site) and found the problem was coming from another blog site that I had listed in one of my gadget.  I removed that site and problem is resolved.  My apologies to anyone that visited my blog and ran into spam re-directs, that certainly was not my intention.  I will pay closer attention to my blog from here out.

Painted Bottles

I've been collecting bottles for a while now. I have many different shapes and sizes, which I love to paint and then distress. These are the latest ones that I've done and the blue matches the blue centers of the cabinet behind the bottles.

A lady's diary

I made this with my sister who also made one and we crafted via Skype. This took slightly over a year to make as we only worked on it when we could do it together. We followed a tutorial that I found on YouTube and I will have to look up that information and post the link to the tutorial here. We used the ladies diary paper packs and stickers from graphic 45, a variety of embellishments that we both made and bought, buttons, lace trims, decorated paperclips and our cricut.  I am not actually using this as a diary but rather it will be a photo album, with photos of all sizes put on the many different mats that we made.  (I found the link, click here.)

 

Hardanger

I made this for very dear friend of mine for her birthday. She absolutely loved it!

Old bottle

This started out as a clear glass apple cider vinegar bottle. I started with a dark brown paint that I brushed on waited until it's dried and then I painted over that with a steel blue color.  Both paints were sherwin Williams I think. They crackled naturally then I took the piece of extra fine sandpaper and sanded down to the brown paint in some spots.

Scrapbook page

I used the Cricut Damask Decor cartridge for the elements in the upper left and lower right corners.

Titanic

The lamppost was made using cricut ornamental iron cartridge. The Bow Tie style of bow I learned to make following a YouTube video which you can find here. The little tiny flowers in the center of the bow tie's I learned to make following another video which you can find here.

When I made the Bow Ties, I did not make the punch that was used in the video so I simply made a template, cutting out the "punched" areas where required with a small pair of scissors.  The punch would have made it super easy, but really it wasn't that hard at all just using scissors.

When I made the little baby prima roses, I used the super small 5 petal punch, I think it's about 1/2 inch, and they came out really tiny and ended up being the perfect size for scrapbook pages.  

The other one...

Handmade Birthday Card

I made this card in the spring of last year and forgot to post it.

Valentine Cards for 2014

I first saw A similar card posted by Faithabigaildesigns.com on Pinterest. The heart shape was cut using the cricket cartridge Folk art festival and the girl with the puppy behind her was cut using A child's year cartridge. The little white rose is a button and the font that I use is MC sweetie hearts that I downloaded for "free for personal use " on dafont.com.

   This next card I first saw a similar one on Pinterest by Stampinconnection.com. The crafty paper  heart was cut using the cricket craft room basics cartridge and the red heart on top is actually a paper Doily. The small filagree Red heart was cut using The Folk art festival cartridge with the shadow layer behind it and the heart under that is again another shadow layer drawn out slightly larger with a small red heart shaped gem on top. The paper with the postage stamp on it is from the love stack by recollections.

Getting The Hang of Hardanger!

Here is another doily (making this my 3rd) that I made and it measures approximately 14 x 14.