It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Bling. 21st Birthday Card.

I don’t feel old enough to have a friend who has a 21 year old daughter! Darn you reality!

Special occasion called for a special card so I outblinged myself.

I used a black and white damask paper from a  Recollections pack I picked up at Michaels, and a pink and white paper from the same pack.

The focal point of the card is a dimensional sticker from KandCo. It already had rhinestones so of course I added more.

Layered the two papers and went over the border with pink glitter ribbon. For the “21” I used clear stickers on a plain bezel charm and filled in with Dimensional Magic.

Finished by adding crown shape self adhesive rhinestones on the corners.

I’m still not old enough to have a BFF with a 21 year old. Nope!

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Recollections Glittery Graduation Cards

I’m starting to feel old when the children of friends I knew when they were pregnant are now graduating from college!

Children of two friends are graduating from the same school Mr. C and I went to, so I had to go all out with school colors for the University of Washington …purple and gold. I found the perfect glitter Recollections papers at Michaels.

I haven’t figured out how to really capture the sparkle of the glitter in photos.

The cards are 5x7 and I cut the papers for the front to 4.75 width and then layered them as shown. Stamped the sentiments with clear embossing ink and used Recollections gold sparkle embossing powder.

Really good that I paid close attention to all of the words on this stamp because one card is for a guy and one is for a girl and wouldn’t want to send the one with “Atta Girl” to the wrong person.

I had some paper bag filler stuff in my party stash so I pulled some out and stick it to the card before I put the stamped focal pieces (layered with purple, black, and gold mirror cardstock). 

Finished with stars punched from the gold glitter paper.

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Recollections "Fashionably Chic Mother's Day Cards

I’ve confessed my paper addiction before. It’s not getting any better. I wasn’t even looking for paper when I walked past the paper stack section at Michaels and Recollections “Fashionably Chic” jumped off the shelf at me. Practically attacked me. It did!

The cover doesn’t do it justice. It repeats the same series of patterns in several colors and within a color family, you can mix the patterns.

I  made several different cards because I always like to recognize the special women in my life on Mother’s Day.

For the first card, I glued the scrapbook paper to a piece of cardstock to give some body, and then cut out the flower, hit it with a spray of adhesive and glittered it.

I used another piece of the same floral paper and a piece with a coordinating damask print for base panel of the card . Used foam dots to adhere the glittered flowers to the card.

For this one, I used a different floral pattern and dotted the inside of the flowers with iridescent Stickles. For the focal flower, I used Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Floral die and cut the flowers using my Cuttlebug.

I don’t like to waste pretty paper so I use scraps to make embellishments to use in cards and other projects. This double sided tape I got at my local stamp store and is by a company called Sookwang. You can also use this tape to make your own washi tape.

I also played with another color combination from the stack:

I'm telling you. Paper just jumped off the shelf at me. Really.

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Altered Canvas: Stashbusting Tale of Crazy Michaels Lady

One of the most dangerous sections of Michaels for me is their used to be  $1 section that’s now 2 for $3 (sorry Michaels, I’m still not over that although it hasn’t deterred me).

Despite my grumbling about the whole 2 for $3 thing, that section is a treat for me. It gets even better when that section goes on sale. Yes, that is me... the crazy lady doing the happy dance and talking to herself in that section and digging through the bins trying not to drop stuff because she didn't think she needed a basket because she came for just one thing. You’ve been warned.

Last year, I went a little wackadoodle over rub-ons. Completely justified since they don’t take up a lot of room and can be used on everything and I really truly will use all of the ones I bought ( someday).

Then when I was there on a trip not too long ago, I did an extra happy dance because that section had these cool mirrored pins in all kinds of shapes , ON SALE, and one of the shapes was a key that happened to go with key rub-ons I bought last year! Breathe.

Now this would have been cute as a pin,  but I’m not much of a pin wearer. So naturally I snapped the pin back off.

I had an 8x10 canvas in my stash that I covered with some shabby paper by Little Black Dress and then went to my scraps and pulled out some coordinating pieces. Layered them on the canvas w/ Mod Podge.

Reduce. Re-use. Recycle. I used the paper the pins came on and glued those to the canvas. Didn't even tear them or cut them just used as they came.

Tore a sheet from a notepad ( from the same section) and stuck that in the middle. Enter my last year’s rub-ons, an adhesive scrabook border and done and done.

Easy, inexpensive, and “green” since I used packaging from the pins.

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The Artsy Girl  Connection

Craft Therapy: Crocheted Wrap

First, thanks so much for all the thoughts, prayers, and well wishes for my Mom. After a couple of stressful and hectic weeks, she’s back home recovering nicely and I was able to fly back home yesterday.

Being a crafty person who is used to having several projects in process at once, and spending long hours sitting in a hospital does not a great combination make. Thankfully there’s crochet which is portable, productive, comforting and not something I always have time to do.

On the way home from the hospital the night I arrived to see my mom, yes…I stopped at Michaels!

What can I say? It’s a comforting place for me. I wandered the aisles looking for nothing in particular and then saw this yarn by Loops and Threads in Lavender Blues. Bingo. The Mumster’s always cold ( even living in Arizona!) so I decided I’d make her a wrap.

Pretty basic. The yarn is very textured so I just did a single crochet stitch. Something I could do without thinking while Mom was napping.

The store I was closest to didn’t have enough yarn so when I needed more , thanks to my Michaels iPhone app, not only could I find another store but even get directions to get there and a coupon right on my phone!

It’s great to be back home, but it’s better to know that the Mumster is home and doing great!

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School Spirit Necklace and Bracelet

I mentioned in my post about my field trip to Shipwreck Beads that I picked up some things for a specific project. We’re going to a parent’s event at our son’s college and I wanted to show my school spirit so I made sure to pick up some beads in his school colors. Most people buy a tee shirt. I make jewelry. I know…

When I make jewelry, I have a general idea in mind but my “process” is to gather up the stuff I think I might use and take it from there:

I had some gunmetal Bead Landing chain in my stash that I knew I wanted to use, two shades of blue fire polished crystal beads and these great crystal studded beads I picked up on my trip..

I made four sets of these with the light and darker blue crystals and the crystal studded beads, then attached them to some of the chain with silver jump rings.

I had two different styles of Bead Landing chain (Michaels) so I used both and doubled them up to give some more depth to the necklace.

The center piece is actually half of a clasp but I’ll use the other half for something else.

Although this looks like a necklace on my Premiere Prop Co mannequin form, it’s actually the bracelet I made to go along with my necklace. You can find a variety of these jewelry props at Michaels.

For the bracelet, I used more Bead Landing chain, crystals, bead caps and white off set beads.

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Disclosure: Premiere Prop Co provided me with props however, the opinions expressed are mine

Glitter Is For Hanukkah Too! Hanukkah Card

I’m a glittermaniac lately so I was quite thrilled when I found glittered cardstock that I could use for some Hanukkah cards I wanted to make for friends.

Michaels had their glitter cardstock 10 (12x12) for $10 last week. It’s hard to capture just how gorgeous this blue is in a picture but trust me it is!

I generated the menorah from my PrintShop program , printed on a textured cardstock, and then went over the candles with an iridescent Stickles glitter glue.

I also accented the dreidel. Mounted this on gold glitter cardstock and then on the blue.

I made the main panel for the card from a spongy blue paper with a strip of the blue metallic and added a row of gold glitter ribbon. Hey, if you’re going to go glitter, go all in!

To finish, added a strip of blue rhinestones I had in my stash ( more from last year’s after season Michaels binge).

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