Earth Day, Every Day - World Image Card

I whipped up this quick card to send to Operation Write Home

and in celebration of Earth Day :)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle everyday =

I reused the ribbon knot from an old organdy ribbon

sampler page I made many years ago. 

I ripped all of the knots off and have been using them on cards. 

I even reused the back side of the card stock that had been printed on !

 It is blank inside so it could be used for whatever reason

 besides just the "Across The Miles" sentiment you'd expect. 

World stamp image I rarely use is from Peace On Earth by Stampin' Up!. 

It was water colored with inks from my ink pads and an aqua painter.

I wanted to emboss the background, but can not find the folder I was looking for.

I normally put things back after I use them , apparently not with that folder ;)

Things have gotten out of hand in the craft dungeon and I've been doing other things

besides doing much crafting much less pick up my crafty mess. 

I better work on that soon though, it has gotten out of hand !

Thanks for looking =) 

Anniversary Card - reused bits

A greeting card I made this week for my parents Anniversary. 

It is sort of an "Earth Day"project in that I reused

some items on it :)

The basic card is one I made for Valentine's Day,

but didn't care for it so I didn't give it to them then.

Although I like this card better, I still think the 

burlap flower was just too chunky for a card.

I took it apart, added stitching around the top

embossed portion, moved the ribbon up

(old, old ribbon from I don't even know where),

added the stamped on a piece of scrap paper greeting and placed the

home made burlap rose on top of it

(burlap is really old fabric from my stash, too). 

Even the "pop dots" were recycled from another project! 

I created the sentiment on my computer and 

printed it inside the card. 

Thanks for looking =)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Jeans Leg Wine Bag

I'm sharing a simple repurposing project in 

celebration of Earth Day. 

I like to try to reuse things whenever possible.

This is a pretty simple wine gift bag

made out of a leg from a pair of skinny blue jeans ! 

My daughters favorite pair of jeans

got blowouts in the knees.

She decided we could cut the legs off to make

them into shorts. I kept the leg portions 

to make something out of someday.

There are several ways you could make a base

to the wine bag, I chose to do a simple gathering stitch

around the edge. I turned it in first to make a cleaner edge.

Once I stitched all the way around , I pulled the gathers,

tied the threads into a knot and I now had a simple base. 

You could do this same thing with a much wider leg

to a pair of blue jeans then use it to hold plastic shopping bags.

 Leave a wide enough opening at the bottom when you gather it

to be able to pull bags out from the opening. base. 

Add a simple loop at the top to hang the bag holder.

The bottle will stand up in it well enough,

but to make a more stable bag, you should

 cut out a circle of fabric to fit the opening 

the sew it into place around the edges.

Once completed, add a circle of card board

that is cut to fit inside the base of the bag.

This large, premade sticker came in one of the

grab bags of items I found at the flea market last month.

I attached it to card stock that I had already 

wrapped around the wine bottle bag.

I then carefully trimmed away the excess paper

and glued the ends together so that it fit

snugly around the bag and bottle.

There are any number of ways you could decorate a wine bag - or leave it plain.


Tie a ribbon, twine, etc around the neck of the bottle and top of the bag.
Add tags if you'd like.




Thanks for looking =)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Frap Bottle Photo Holder

My son recently discovered the 

refrigerated, bottled coffee drinks

sold in stores.

I asked him to save the bottles for me

knowing there are lots of things that

could be done with them.

In celebration of Earth Day,

here is a quick project I made with 

the first empty bottle:

a photo holder.

Start by removing the stickers

and adhesive from the bottle.

This will take some 

''elbow grease". 

Once I had it totally clean, 

 I gave it one final wipe of a cloth

dampened with glass cleaner/ vinegar

to make sure all fingers prints, etc

were gone before painting.

I rolled up some old newspaper and 

stuck the roll inside the bottle to create a 

sort of handle to make it easy to spray paint. 

I coated it with primer first then I used

a tan color of spray paint I had on hand.

I stuck the roll of newspaper into,

of all things,

a roll of toilet tissue to hold it 

upright for drying. 

I let it dry (and air out!!!) for a few days

before decorating. 

There are zillions of ways to decorate these bottles,

but I went super simple.

I wrapped a scrap of wide lace around it

then added some ribbon.

This is just a prototype, practice jar

in this post. I'd make it much nicer

 for personal use. 

The photo clip holder was from an old one I bought

years ago at the dollar spot. I took it apart then inserted it

into this jar. Use a styrofoam ball cut to fit. 

I would like to make more projects with these types of bottles.

Thanks for looking =)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Repurposed Items Easter Projects

In celebration of Earth Day, I'm sharing a couple of little repurposing projects I made to give at Easter. I like to find new uses for  items otherwise considered trash if possible.

The first is a miniature "basket" made from a clean plastic container that fresh mushrooms came in.
I made two of these to give to my nephews.

Here is another Mushroom container idea; this container was pink.







The other idea is a pretty simple one: Reuse an envelope to make a mini gift bag.
I made two of these and put Dove chocolates in them for my mom and sister.

I cut the tissue with scissors that make shreds

after the photo was taken.

masking

folding in the sides and bottom

Thanks for looking =)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Winnie The Pooh Celebrate Card - Sketch Challenge

Fun cards I made loosely based on the

Operation Write Home

Sketch Challenge 252.

I should have printed it out and taken it with me

to my craft dungeon so I could have followed it

more closely ;) 

The stamps are from the grab bags I found at a flea market two weeks ago.
I colored them in with ink and an aqua painter.

The papers are from an old Die Cuts With A View paper stack (12 x 12 Summer).

The circles were cut with Nestabilities dies.

The banners behind the circles were hand cut.

I left the inside blank so it could be used for several reasons to celebrate. I made two of these ;
they will be donated to Operation Write Home.


Thanks for looking =)

Spring Scrapbook Page

Spring has certainly sprung here in our part of the country ! We've had quite a bit of stormy weather already and my daffodil blooms were pretty while they lasted. I made this quick scrapbook page to show a few photos I took of a thunderstorm rolling in as well as the flowers around the yard.

I used My Memories Suite to make it. All of the papers and embellishments came in the MM5 version of the software. The kit I used is called Spring In Bloom. Although the software included several premade spring themed pages, I made my own from scratch. I used a sketch from Scrapbook and Cards Today.

I am entering my page into the Words to Scrap By Challenge #16 : The earth has music for those who listen. Many people consider claps of thunder, howling winds and the sounds falling raindrops make as they hit objects a type of music, so I suppose this page could fit the challenge since it has a thunderstorm photo on it ;) Also, flower gardens in full bloom are a "symphony" of color !



Thanks for looking =)

Classic Corvette Convertible Card

I've so many cards completed - and Easter projects I still haven't shared!- 

yet here I am creating and posting this card for the following three challenges:

Masculine ODBD Challenge at OperationWriteHome.org

Masculine CAS Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com

TLC258 - Cluster stamping at Splitcoaststampers.com

Things have gotten crazy at our house the past two weeks,

 not to mention major issues with our internet service 

(I think it is the piece of poo computer we bought earlier this year

 and have nothing but problems with...........) 

and on top of that, I twisted my ankle so I've not posted anything lately.

 I hope to post my many completed projects soon.

Anyway, on to the card:

All rubber stamp images used were from Stampin' Up!, but retired:

Classic Convertibles (Corvette)

Antique Autos (gas pump, RT 66 sign)

Highways and Byways background (map)

Square die

Paper piercing tool

sponge

various inks

water brush pen

silver Signo gel pen

scraps of paper to create masks

Die cut the shape you wish to use as your mask

from lightweight scrap paper.

Stamp images inside it.

(I stamped the car first then placed the square mask over it

to create the "out of the box" look).

I masked off the larger individual images so I could

stamp the background (map) stamp over them.

I lightly sponged gray ink over the edges of the mask.

Remove the mask and watercolor images.

Add piercing detail around the outer edge of the square.

My stamped panel is slightly smaller than the card front.

I ran the edge of a Shapie permanent ink marker

along the edges of the stamped panel

before adhering it to the card front. 

Thanks for looking =) 

EDITED TO ADD 4/12/2015:

I was notified that my card posted at 

SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS.COM

was recognized as a

CAS Card Of The Week !!!!

Fools' Gold at AnythingButACard

This month's challenge at 

Anything But A Card is

 Fool's Gold. 

Be sure to visit the blog each weekend

throughout the month to see inspiring projects

by the design team. Share your "gold" project

(so long as it is not a card!) with a direct link back

to the challenge and please do not enter it in more than

four challenges to qualify as a top pick for the month. 

I repurposed a couple of items for my project,

incorporating the color gold.

One man's trash is another man's treasure (gold!).

Vase before, it was pretty rough in spots 

as you can see in this photo. 

Table centerpiece I was given to take home from a wedding. 

I took all of the flowers out of the foam then reinserted them,

mixing them up more than what they originally were

(too many yellows or reds next to each other;

this photo was taken after I reassembled it). 

Punch a circle, trace onto compressed craft sponge and cut out.

Dampen the sponge (it will puff up) then stamp gold metallic paint

onto your vase.

This won't be a permanent paint, so clean

carefully with a slightly damp cloth.

Better yet, seal the paint onto the item to make it more durable.

This shows to back of the vase with the stamped gold circles.

It also shows that the flowers are stuck into a round Styrofoam ball

that rests on top of the vase as well as the off/on switch

for the mini battery powered light strand. 

I took one of the flower stems out and lightly sprayed it

with a gold webbing spray paint I had in my stash.

So glad I tested it first, I did not like it at all.

I think a subtle gold shimmer spray would be pretty on it.

Word art I created to fit into a small gold frame.

The square frame is one I've had for such a long time.

I made a rubber stamped art piece in it when I first

discovered rubber stamping in the year 2000.

I had it on display for a few years,

then took it down and there it sat, in a box of forgotten old frames

for far too long. It is the perfect size for a 4"x4" photo !

Bonus project

Paper cast heart that I painted gold details on 

and added the word "love" die cut from gold card stock.

I bought many of these paper cast molds years ago

when they were a somewhat popular craft, 

using them to make projects for the school holiday bazaar.

It's been some time since I've made one!

The gold elastic loop and ribbon were hot glued on.

Originally I thought I was going to attach this

around the neck of the vase, but decided I didn't like it.

 I added a gold metallic paper ribbon bow instead.

Thanks for looking =)

Patriotic Three Challenge Card and I'm A Top Pick !

It's no April Fool's Day Joke:

I'm happy to say that I was a Top Three Winner at Cardz 4 Guyz blog !

The Challenge was TRANSPORT,

that is an easy one for me since I make cards

with car images on them often.

Click Here to see all of the 

fabulous design team projects as well

as the many wonderful submissions.

I just found out about this blog a week ago

while visiting another that had a link to it.

I had to jump right in with that Transport challenge.

The new challenge at the Cardz 4 Guyz blog is

Something Beginning With S.

Here is a card I came up with .

I ended up creating this particular card

to also work with two challenges currently at

Operation Write Home:

Red, White and Blue

and

Sketch Challenge 251

Follow the links above to see many great card designs.

Trying to show the dimension the embossing folders made.

The stripes are a bit difficult to see.

Here is how my card fits the S challenge:

STARS embossing folder

STRIPES embossing folder

STRIPS of card stock

STITCHING done with my sewing machine

SHIMMERY SILVER card stock

SKETCH challenge

I'll be donating this card to Operation Write Home.


Supplies used:
A patriotic stamp set from Stampin' Up!
(I believe the name of the set is Liberty For All)
Colored image directly to the rubber with water based markers
Stripes embossing folder , Stampin' Up!
Stars embossing folder, Cuttlebug
Red, White, Blue, Black and silver metallic card stocks

Thanks for looking =)