Some Cards...

My first crafting love is cardmaking and my addiction is paper. I'm not a paper snob; I love everything from expensive handmade papers (especially Japanese Washi papers) to "ordinary" copy paper. Old paper, new paper, you name it I love it. I get giddy whenever JoAnn's or Michaels has scrapbook paper 4 or 5 for $1 and the cashiers always ask me: "What are you making" and I usually have no idea at the time. I just know that you can't have too much paper.

I'm in intense card mode from about September through December (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... for a list that goes from about  15-20 people for Halloween  to 60 or so for Christmas ). January slows down to a couple of birthdays, then February is Valentine's day and birthdays and the March / April picks back up with Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day etc. with birthdays and other occasions sprinkled in. So Summer is not a big card time for me but I like that because in those other "high production" times, I'm usually using the same papers / colors etc. and while I put love into each card, when you're making multiples it's not the same as making one for a single purpose.

I got a Cricut Expression for Christmas ( I love you Mr. Chocolate!) and that's opened a whole 'nother box of crazy for me. 

Here are a few recent ones:

BIRTHDAY BOY 

 This is a card I made for my Nephew's birthday. I had fun using the "Doodle Charms" cartridge to make the seahorses and just tore ( did I mention I love , love, love tearing paper?) the yellow and white panel mounted on the aqua. The letters are "wave" alphabet stickers I had that spell out BIRTHDAY. And even though he's a boy, I'm addicted to self adhesive rhinestones so those are what I used for the eyes.

FATHER'S DAY

Since we had a rainy Memorial Day weekend, it was a good time to work on some Father's Day cards. I always have a hard time with "guy" cards and only have a couple "guy" stamps,  but I loved this vintage bicycle from The Graphics Fairy and thought it would be good for Father's Day so I imported it into PrintShop ( I have Adobe but I am useless with it) , created the sentiment and printed out using the business card option since I was making multiples. I added a bronzy-brown dot of Stickles glitter glue to the center of each wheel to match the papers.

GRADUATION

 

This last one is a graduation card I did for a friend's daughter. She's graduating from HS and I liked the idea of discovery so I used my "Graphically Speaking" Cricut Cartridge to make the word jumble, and mounted it onto a panel with some handmade silver scraps ( because we never throw out scraps right!) and blinged it up with some rhinestones. 

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Look what a new bloggy friend made!

I was reading a comment from a new follower , Laurie ( thank you!) and went to check out her blog Simply Scratch  , because I try to always do that. If someone is nice enough to visit me and comment, I do try to do the same in return. Anway, imagine my little chocoholic heart's delight when the first post I saw on her blog was THIS:

Yeah, that's what I said. Want NOW! Simply Scratch isn't just a blog about chocolate (a girl can dream) but about something I try to do as much as possible which is cooking from scratch. Not to fulfill the part of my brain that has a Martha Stewart personality disorder ( said lovingly) but because there are so many chemicals and junk in processed food that where I can do it from scratch I'd rather. Anyway and needless to say, this recipe caught my eye so go check it out and some other yummy ones too!

Black Forest Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Ganache

Another Tray Transformation

On the same trip where I picked up the other tray for $.99, I picked this one up for slightly more....gasp $2.99. Oh the extravagance!

I liked the shape and it was in decent enough condition. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but since when is that an inhibitor? Mr. Chocolate and I had recently been to a lovely street fair in the town of Snohomish, WA and he spotted a goodie bag of watch parts. Mr. Chocolate is a watch collector and loves all things watch and clock related. So I bought this bag of goodies:

and the vendor threw in a bag of containers for $25. Haven't done much w/ Steampunk but thought it would be perfect for playing with that. Then, the other day, as I was visiting The Graphics Fairy ( whom I call the Queen) and saw a lovely antique pocket watch image, I got an idea. So first I painted the tray black...didn't worry about the middle too much because I knew I was going to add some paper.

Decoupaged two complementary styles of scrapbook paper ( one is the same paper I used in the other tray and one of my fav patterns) and then went over the painted parts with thinned white tacky glue to give it a weathered look. When dry, I dry brushed it with gold paint and lightly brushed the center of the tray with it too. Then to my bag of watch goodies and took complementary pieces of "watch guts" and glued them to opposite corners of the tray.

Last but not least, I printed the antique pocket watch image onto clear label paper ( I'm in love w/ Avery 8665) and the used my Printshop program to create the word "Time" in Latin . Even though it's clear, I trimmed closely, pulled off the backing and stuck it to the center of the tray. Done and done:

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Chocolate Barbeque Grill Cake ! How Perfect is This For Memorial Day BBQs

or even for Father's Day! I haven't made it, and the weather being what it is in my neck of the woods, there aren't any barbeque plans in sight, but maybe those of you with better weather need something fun for your weekend plans:

It's from the Hershey's Kitchen Recipe Collection (recipe at link) complete with the instructions for the "Cocoa  Fudge Burgers" and "Shish Kabobs". If anyone tries it, let me know!

Monogram Pillow & Friday Follows

I'm on pillow/flower kick. OK, I'm on a "I make stuff" kick, and the point of having a blog is to , well, blog about the stuff right? I had some "I know I'll use it someday" fabric in my stash and it went well with the colors of the other pillows I recently made and I still had some scraps left from the dress I cut up. So I created a monogram using a desktop publishing program ( Printshop Deluxe) and decided to add the year we were married. Printed that on transfer paper ( don't forget to reverse the image!) and ironed it to a linen dress scrap:

 I wanted a casual shabby look so I top stitched it to a flour sack towel panel and then to the pillow top. I didn't care about the linen or flour sack panel edges being finished because I wanted a ragged look. Sewed the rest of the pillow cover together and stuffed it w/ a 14x14 pillow form.


Being flower crazy, I made four black organza flowers with centers made from scraps of the fabric I used to make the pillow.  Here's the finished product:

It's hard to see in the picture but I pulled threads on both the linen and flour sack panels to fray them.

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Thrift Store Store Tray Makeover

I picked this up on one of my thrift store outings for $.99. I almost left it as is because it had a weathered look to it already, but like most of us...I JUST had to play with it. Maybe it was a sign that I should have left it alone because nothing was going right but I kept playing with it ( and didn't take pictures of the things that were going wrong while they were going wrong).  The end result after painting it green, a crackle fail, dry brushing it white and then glazing it w/a pewter glaze and decoupaging a piece of scrapbook paper to the bottom:

It was always intended for the kitchen to hold some this and thats , so I finished it off with a couple of forks I picked up for $.20 ea at the thrift store, and flat backed glass marbles for feet. I pounded the forks flat so things wouldn't catch on them. My husband was afraid to know what I was doing in my office/art room when he heard the banging lol. Definitely a "don't come in here" moment.

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Zen Doodling

This may be old news to all you cutting edge artists, but Mr. Chocolate, who watches me do this regularly, asked me if I'd put anything up on my blog about it and I haven't so here I am. I first became aware of this while watching an episode of "Scrapbook Memories" . Officially, it's called "Zentangle" but since I haven't taken a formal class I don't feel qualified to use the term. Here's the same segment I first saw:



I was instantly hooked and went online looking for more which led me to the official Zentangle site started by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. They have a Zentangle kit you can order and you can also become a certified Zentangle instructor (which I am not). I decided I would play first before ordering the kit and about a year later, here I am but I do plan on ordering it.

Most work is done in black and white but you can do whatever you want. I was playing around near St. Patrick's day when I did the green one (colored pencil). For me it's just relaxing, and unlike many of the creative things I like to do, very portable. I can Zentangle waiting for things like doctor's appointments, or sitting in an airport , or wherever. I have a small notebook I carry with me all the time and another one that sits by my "TV chair".

It's forgiving because you can hide your mistakes and consider them intentional. And there's no right or wrong. I've cut my pieces into smaller pieces and used on cards, and have framed some pieces as easy DIY artwork:

You can start any way you like but here are a few basic musts ( shoulds):

• Good quality paper....I like Canson sketchbooks 
• Smear proof pens. The recommended ones are Micron by Sakura and they're great, but a smear proof gel pen is what I tend to use...Pentel, Pilot  whatever's on sale at Staples usually

That's it. I either start with a free form blob kind of random drawing that I then section off and fill in until I get tired of whatever pattern, or like this basic diagram, with a focal point and work out from there wherever my mind goes:

 

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