Christmas Craft Fair

Howdy.  and welcome to my little slice of blog-land.  I received both good news and bad news this past week.  First, the bad news.  Who are we kidding.  Let's just get this over with.   The Tramway Community Church will NOT have a holiday craft fair this year.  Boo-Hoo!  I just love this craft fair. The fellow artists are true artist.  And the patrons are equally great!  I will miss the folks there.  I have had the same booth location for 5/+ years.  And well, I have gotten to know a few of my 'neighbors'.  I also have some shoppers who visit my booth every year.  They are familiar with my work, and rave about my creations.  So, I am on the look out for a 'new' holiday craft location.  If anyone knows of any that they are familiar with, please pass along the info. 

Now the good news.  I have been selected to participate in the La Cueva High School Holiday Craft Fair, again this year!  Yahoo!  This is another 'juried' craft fair.  So, you already know that the crafters are pretty good! and our creations are devine!

So, with all the frenzy of holiday craft fairs, I have started making items to sell.  And, as usual, I start with some easy things, and then get into my groove.  Today, I made a card with some holiday scraps. I'm pretty happy with how my card turned out.  Please stop by these two challenge sites, and play along!

I stopped by a 'new' to me sketch challenge site.  Cheerful Sketches Challenge Blog.  The design team will certainly inspire you!

the sketch is easy to work with.  easy to create something beautiful in your own style.

My second stop is an all time favorite challenge.  Word Art Wednesday.  Their challenges are anything goes.  But their design team creates some beautiful cards!

and here is what I created:

this blank inside greeting card is A2 size: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  I used some retired and 'long-ago' products.  The card base is made form Night of Navy card stock by Stampin' Up!.  I just love the dusky card blue.  The music sheet is a digital download that I printed on cream textured card stock.  It helps keep the paper from looking too flat.  I used a vintage Christmas ornament pattern paper for the main panel.  I machine stitched these two papers together.  I love the way machine stitching looks on cards.  {smile}

I took a scrap piece of scallop bordered eyelet trim and a dusky green seam binding, and did a quick and incomplete stitching to the paper stack.  I left the trims unfinished, to give the card a more homespun look.  I tied the seam binding into a double bow, and then tied a gold twine to the bow.  I finished the bow off with a snowflake charm.  Now the card has some glimmer. {smile}

I fussy cut an ornament block, and matted on a teal textured card stock.  I added some foam tape to the ornament square and adhered it to the front of the card.

I added a piece of vanilla card stock to the inside of the card.  That way, you have a place to write a special message, and you won't have to dig for a special pen!

Thank you for looking.  Now, I need to get back to crating a few more simple 'things'.

Vintage Noel in Paris Card

Howdy.  I haven't stopped Christmas crafting yet!  I have just been side railed with a few other obligations.  I was baking individual size Lemon Cream Coffee Cakes, 3-inch Traditional French Apple Tarts, and a few dozen Boston Cream Cupcakes.  And  yeah, I had to make pretty gift cards to go with them {smile}.

But, I did find time to make some holiday cards and a few gift bags to match {smile}.

I am playing along with two different paper crafting challenges:  Mix It Up Challenge and Brown Sugar Challenge. 

So, let's start with Mix It Up Challenge.  They have a sketch and an inspirational photo.  You can use either or both.  How sweet is that?  I used the inspirational photo!

I was inspired by the red and green colors of the holiday photo, along with the holiday theme.

The other challenge I am entering is Brown Sugar Challenge.  These talented ladies have an Anything Goes theme.  Always great ideas from the design team.  They use items from the current sponsor and create some of the most beautiful paper crafts!

here is the card that I made:

Recipe:  I used real red card stock from Stampin' Up!  I just llove the heavy weight.  The pattern paper I used is from a few years ago.  I don't remember who made it, but that is all I have left {frown}.  The green gingham pattern is the reverse side of the holy/polka dot pattern.  

I machine stitched a piece of cream cotton trim and red gingham ribbon to the card front.  Tied a double bow with the ribbon.  I tied a larger double bow with kraft twine and tied a silver Tim Holtz pinecone to the twine.  Then layered my trims:  rat twine and red ribbon.  

I added a dark green glittered paper blossom to the top of the bows.

My focal piece is actually a digital download.  I printed the image on white linen card stock by Paper Trey Ink.  I originally purchased the digital image to print on kraft card stock.  I haven't given up on the idea.  {smile}   I thought this image would look better on white.  To help accent the white polka dots (aka snow falling)

Thank you for looking!  I hope your weekend is wonderful! and creative!

Shabby Chic Vignette House

Howdy!  I was surfing the web, and came across some new releases from Tim Holtz, for the holidays.  Let me say, that I love his work.  I know its not girly, shabby chic.  But it is vintage, and retro, and quite gorgeous!  Anyways, I saw that he has these vignette house shadow boxes in his new holiday  release.  Along with some fabulous flash cards, some deer trophy heads, and some new smaller bottle brush trees, and so much more. 

I want to share with you what I did with this new house-shaped shadow box.  It's sweetly shabby!

I am happy with how my very first shadow box came out.  And I hope that you like it too!  And here is how I did it. 

Recipe:  I painted my vignette house with 2 coats of white chalk paint.  Once dry, I used a sanding block all over the 'house'.  I sealed the distressed paint with a matte finishing cream (sealant).  I cut two patterns of Prima's Sweet Pepperment paper collection.  I cut the polka dot & snowflake pattern paper to fit on the back wall and the two side walls.  I purposefully cut them too short and too narrow.  I wanted the distressed paint to be seen.  I also added a tear at the top and at the right side of the pattern paper on the back wall.  I wanted my pattern paper to look like worn wallpaper. I didn't paper the floor or ceiling.  I liked the 'worn' look.

I purchased these sweet bingo cards as a digital download, and printed them onto white linen card stock, by Paper Trey Ink.  I just love the look of shabby digitals printed on a white textured card stock.  It adds an element of texture and luxury to your printed projects.  I sponged crumb cake classic ink on the edges of all the papers.

I had an extra (ok, left over) burlap doily, so I cut a section off, and added it to the side of my bingo card (it is behind the tree).  I adhered these two joined pieced to the back wall of my house.  

I purchased some plain white resin mini frames from a big box craft store (M) last year, and decided to use the round one.  (yes, I am a hoarder collector)  I did add some gold paint randomly to the white 'frame'.  I used my hot glue gun to adhere the 'frame' to the back wall.  I adhered the deer trophy head to the center of the 'frame'.

I took a bottle brush tree I had left over from last year, and added a crystal star to the top.  (I bleached a lot of various sized bottle brush trees, and painted the tips with white paint.) I wrapped some gold bakers twine around the tree, as garland.  I thought the simple decoration added enough sparkle, and didn't distract you from the 'room'.  I tied on a narrow strip of fabric to the bottom of the tree.  It needed a 'skirt'.

The three gift boxes, I made.  I cut them from Kraft card stock with a die.  The finished boxes measure 5/8" cubes.  They are pretty tiny.  But oh, so, beautiful!  I wrapped each one with different ribbons: silver, gold, and pink silk.  I adhered the metallic ribbon boxes to the floor and the pink ribbon box to the attic.

I added tiny pink blossom to the floor with the boxes, along with a tiny candy cane.  I love little hidden 'treasures'.

The attic doesn't have too many items, a misplaced pink gift box, and a vintage ice skate.

I used one of the new holiday word labels from Tim Holtz.  I painted the piece with white chalk paint, and then quickly wiped it off, so that the paint would only be in the depressions of the lettering.  I wrapped a piece of green ribbon around my house and through the word label.  Finishing it off with a single, simple bow.

I have a few more of these vignette house boxes to finish for my craft fairs.  I am planning on doing a vintage one, and a retro one.  I'm looking through my pattern papers to find the best ones.  Maybe, I'll need to purchase a few more, so I have a larger selection.

Thank you for looking.  Stay tuned.  I have painted and decorated tiny wooden blocks in the shapes of houses.  Yeah, they will be for sale, too! {smile}

Shabby Chic Altered Monogram G

Howdy.  I hope you are having a great holiday weekend.  Please don't forget, to take a moment and thank those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, so you can enjoy your freedoms.   God Bless America!

I love to create, and make all sorts of items: cards, cakes, altered monograms, pies, altered art, gourmet dinners, and so much more!  I sell a fair amount of my crafts in my Etsy shop HERE.  And I will even create something special and custom for a client.   All you have to do is ask.  Easy Peasy.  Just let me know what  you like, what you hate, color(s), and any inspirational photos you may have. And that is exactly what I did for a special lady Lari.  She wanted a custom altered monogram, and sent me a photo of the space where it will go, and viola!  Here is what I did:

I covered the naked letter with this beautiful green and pink pattern paper.  I painted the letter a white-cream color.  And then added pretty little details!  There is a piece of pink cotton ruffle material.  And then a double white cotton ruffle material.   I tied a piece of pale pink seam binding around the letter, and made a triple bow.  I tied a white button to the bow with thin silver tinsel.  I tucked a flat back faux pearl and button at the bottom.  I tucked in a white resin frame, just above the bow.  I added white paint and glitter to the pink paper blossom, and then adhered it inside the frame.  I tucked in a little white tulle and pearls.  I painted a metal bird with white paint and dipped it into some glitter.  I took a piece of sand paper and distressed the bird a bit.  I adhered the bird to a stick pin, and tucked him in behind the frame as well.  I added a vintage button and another flat back faux pearl.   I added a trio of flat back faux pearls to the leg of the G.  

This is a custom order from my Etsy shop.  Distressed, vintage, shabby chic, feminine, and just plain pretty!  I have several different letters with slightly different looks.  If you don't see what you are looking for, just convo me, and give me the opportunity to create something one-of-a-kind, and unique just for you!   I don't charge more for custom orders.  Just ask that you give me a week, to create something beautiful just for you!

B - U - N - C - O

Howdy! and welcome to my little slice of heaven.  Yeah, crafting is what keeps me going!  I love the whole process.  I'm not too sure my husband loves 'my process'.  But, he doesn't have any household chores, so he doesn't get to vote.  [wow, that sounds kinda mean.]

I belong to a Bunco group.  If you don't know what that is, it is a group of 12 people [ladies in my group] who get together once a month to socialize and play a dice game.  We, each take turns hosting [so everyone comes to your house] and the hostess makes dinner, and provides the 'prizes'.  My turn to host is July 7th.  So, I have already started making stuff, and getting stuff organized.  I am also a theme party planner.  [once my daughter's children are all in school (in about 3 years), we are going to start our own party planning service.  It will be awesome!] I love themes for parties.  I think it helps keep the party organized and focused.  My theme this year, is 'vintage Paris hot air balloons'.  Yep, that is a theme.  Vintage, to help keep me focused as to the over-all look and feel of the decor.  Paris, because who don't love romance, sparkle, and great food!  Hot air balloons, to give the decor a little flair.  It all works.   I purchased my invites from Impressions Paperie @ Etsy, HERE. 

here are the invites I purchased from Etsy:

I selected my invite first.  That way I would have a more exact color scheme to go with, but you can always select the color theme first.  This is how my prices went.  I knew that I wanted hot air balloons, and I'm a super big fan of shabby chic,  and I love mint and pink, so this is what I decided on.  Super happy with my purchase.  

Since my invite has dictated my exact color scheme, I can proceed on!  So, I decorated some plain ugly letters to sit on the mantel: B, U, N, C, O.  Here they are:

I purchased the letters from one of those big box stores.  They were about $1.49 each.  But, if you shop during a sale, you can get them for 30% off.  Bargain!  and since I plan ahead, I waited for them to go on sale.  I used an opaque gold paint I had on hand (gold, because that is the accent color of the invites).  A quick coat of paint while I was watching TV with my husband.  And then, I grabbed some seam binding that went along with my color scheme (colors found in the invite).  I matched various paper and fabric blossoms I already had on hand.  And the final touch was to add a trio of various 'sparkle' pieces: flat back faux pearls, rhinestones, and enamel dots.  I simply hot glued the multi-loop bows and blossoms on to the letters.

Thank you for stopping by.  I'll share with you more of my Bunco items, soon.  I have a great dinner planned, and the prizes are precious!  Stay tuned!

Vintage and Shabby, right next door

Howdy, and welcome to my little slice of blog-land.  It really does make my heart happy to have to visit.  {smile}

One of my favorite shops in town (Albuquerque, New Mexico) is the Specialty shop.  That's where I rent pans when I need to bake more than 2 cakes or 3 dozen cupcakes at once.  It's also where I buy edible glitter, flavorings, boxes, and a variety of many more baking supplies.  

Anyways, a shop that shares their parking lot is a 'new' shop named: Vintage Market and Design.  Ok, just from the name alone, it sounds fabulous!  And so, when I was returning a few pans from baking a three layer German Chocolate Cake yesterday, I went inside this 'new to me' shop!

To start, just look at their business card.  How clever, unique, and stylish is this?  The inside of this store is just as fabulous!

Oh my!  I was in vintage, shabby chic heaven!  It looks like a European flea market on the inside! rooms filled with all things vintage and shabby!  They have linens, furniture, nick-nacks, wall art, calendars, do-dads, books, sheet music, and so so so much more!

They also have a room dedicated to paper crafting!  YES, they do!!! Tim Holts, G45, Authentique, and a few other brands of this style of paper crafting.  But, they have tons of stuff.  Tons of unique and different stuff from the big box stores! and their prices are comparable to those big box stores.  And one of my greatest finds there:  Scor Tape!  Yes, we no longer need to make those purchases off the internet!  And all widths!

Ok, I just wanted to share this store with you.  I hope you venture in.  It is actually very neat, and wonderfully 'old'.  {smile}  They just may have a new stocker frequent visitor {smile}

Have a great day!  I am heading into my craft room.  I have a few special orders that I need to work on.  And yeah, I'll share a photo or two with you when I'm done.  Take care!

Re-Purposed Cuff

Howdy!  I hope you are well.  I am doing ok.  Work has been work.  Enough said.  So, let's craft something!  I collect cardboard coffee cuffs.  Crazy, right?!  But, for a very good reason.  It's corrugated cardboard, that's thin.  That translates to easy cutting with my die cut machine!
I was looking at creating some gift card holders for a few friends, when I remembered a sketch challenge that was perfect for my little creation.
Jen, from Deconstructed Sketches has the perfect sketch for me to use my coffee cuff collection!  It's sketch # 173.  Here it is!

I traded the stitching at the top for a sentiment that I stamped directly onto the pattern paper.  The 'green' rectangle is actually the gift card.  The brown center rectangle is my re-used coffee cuff.  I used a banner piece in place of the scallop trim.  But the sentiment remains the same.   Here is what I made!

Ok, so here is the recipe:  The card base is always artichoke card stock by Stampin' Up!.  The matts are kraft by Recollections.  The two sentiments are from the same stamp set by Verve: Delightful and Delicious.  I think it's retired.  I believe that I purchased the stamp set over 5 years ago.
I took a 'collected' coffee cuff, and used the 'back' side.  (I didn't think the 'green' side would work.)  I wrapped some strawberry bakers twine around the card, and tied a green vintage button from Paper Trey ink to the front.  I used 3 (yeah, three!) glue dots to hold the button in place.
The pattern paper is: Happiness is Homemade by Tilda.  (I had to purchase the pattern paper from overseas.  Tilda is a company from Sweden.)
I inked the bottom of a 'favorite' coffee cup into soft suede classic ink, and 'stamped' it  right onto the pattern paper.  I thought the coffee rings would look sweet.  I then took a water mark/splatter stamp and stamped onto the pattern paper, too.
Ok, I made several (about 12) of these cards.  I used different papers for different 'looks'.  Here are a few others:

office theme

floral theme

and of course I had to make a holiday version!

holiday theme

And  yeah, these will be for sale at my Arts and Craft Fair this Saturday!  Thank you for stopping by! I am off into my craft room once more.  I need to create a few more notepads and notebooks, and a couple gift bags.  Thank you for stopping by!

Merry Christmas

Now, before we head-off to our third holiday celebration today, I wanted to share with you, an ornament that my oldest granddaughter (H) made for her family.  H, is a caring, compassionate little girl.  She always thinks of others and I believe truly grateful for what she has.  H, saw an ornament that I made, and wanted to make one for her family.  I didn't have any more ball shaped glass globes, so we selected a bell-shaped glass globe.  H, selected the tree, we trimmed it down to fit, and then H, went to select all the embellishments and begin the assembly.  The bottle brush tree was hand-painted with white crackle paint to replicate snow.  The tiny pearls were glued on individually.  There are a few different buttons in front of the tree, as presents {smile}.  H, created her own winter scene.  Finally, we added mica flakes for snow.  We hot glued the tiny pom-pom trim and seam binding bow with clay blossom.  

I think H, did a great job!  I hope you like it too!  Before we head out the door, I want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday filled with love, laughter, and those who mean the most to you.  

I know that this holiday can be crazy busy, a bit hectic, and maybe a little overwhelming.  But, take time out to truly enjoy those around you.   Take a moment to talk with an aunt, and really listen to how she is doing.  Find the joy in a little one's smile.  Hold the hand of your grandmother, and truly be present when she speaks to you.  It's these little things that bind us together.  Family.  

We have all traveled miles and endured hardship.  So relish this time together, and  remember the warmth, the laughter, the hugs, and the good cheer in the these times.

Merry Christmas

Wear-able Art Class

Look at these fabulous Shabby-Chic vintage wear-able art pieces! Aren't they just wonderful? Well, you can make them yourself! I will be hosting a class for these projects on April 23rd (10a-1p)! In the class you will make this wonderfully vintage brooch. Notice the window panel center and the key? Also, you will make two vintage shabby-chic inserts for your necklace charm. All supplies are included (including the charm) for $45. If you are unable to attend (due to any reason) purchase the kit and receive a supply list, along with written directions that include color photos in a PDF format, and shipping for $50. This class will provide you with $40 in Stampin' Up! product! You can give this wonderfully vintage gift to that special lady in your life for Mother's Day. Also, if you would like to alter a window lid tin to hold your treasures, there is an additional $5 fee. So, make something from the heart, that she can wear day after day for years to come, for under $50! Payments can be made through PayPal. (my email is listed on this page with my Facebook badge.)