Altered picture frame

I haven't really altered anything in awhile, so I signed up to do an altered picture frame swap. I found the frame at Walmart.
It was just a plain wooden frame, I first added some vintage dictionary paper to give it a background:

 My partner said she liked black and pink, so that's what I gave her.

 The black is a fibery paper thing, I'm not really sure what it is, I picked it up when I used to work at an art store. Sadly it's not as see through as I thought it would be, so I could have just skipped the dictionary paper part. I had this paper with cherry blossoms and I thought they looked better than the other paper I had in mind, so I fussy cut them all out and layered them on the frame.

I covered the side with blue washi and added some black bling to it.
I wanted to make it more dimensional, but I really liked the cherry blossoms and nothing else looked quite right with them.
Sadly, my frame did not come with a back, and I couldn't find anything sturdy that I could cut for a backing, so I hope my partner's not mad about that.
My partner had a little issue, so someone else sent me a frame:

 and the goodies:

I am a bit bummed that the picture frame I got back is about 3 or 4 inches square, but it's cute.

Vintage pocket letter

I created this vintage pocket letter for a group:

I used a piece of paper from the Newsworthy paper pad from Hobby Lobby for the background. I had to include a bow, an envelope and a tag.
First row: I used some paper from a tiny paper pad from JoAnn's for layering. I used these tiny vintage photos for the details. I added the tiny envelope stickers (from Target) to the top of the pockets, I distressed them with some ink and added some vintage buttons.
Second row: I made some tags and added the photos to them. The left and right cards have wooden tags with words layered on them. The middle card just has a saying
Third row: I made the two end tags. I layered the photos on some brown paper on all three cards and added the bows to the top of all the pieces. The middle card has a vellum envelope and some blue paper.

Halloween Loaded Bag

I think it's a bit too early to do Halloween, but that's what my art groups are doing. One of them needed another partner for a Halloween loaded bag, so I thought I'd help out.

Here's what I made, front:

 I covered it with some Halloween paper from Hobby Lobby, the word paper is the background, I put some purple paper that had colored spots on the sides. For the pockets I put on some 'found relatives' from Tim Holtz, this one has four boys and their jack-o-lanterns.
Back:

 I created another pocket for the back with a card back and another of Tim Holtz's 'found relatives' this one is a pumpkin farm.
The goodies:

 I put in some notepaper from Target, some stickers from Dollar Tree, the pen is from a garage sale, the pencils are from Dollar Tree, I made the wand with a pin from Dollar Tree, the stickers on the bottom are from JoAnns.

 The owls, witch and skeleton plus a bunch more die cuts in the bag are from Tim Holtz, the tag was my copying of some Target tags last year, the notepads are from Target, the stickers are from a swap, the goblets are from Tuesday Morning, the paper clip I made with a sticker from Target, the pins are from Dollar Tree, the 'found relative' pictures are Tim Holtz, the skull paper clip is made with a skull from Walmart, and the house is from a clip art book.
I wrapped it up with purple tissue paper, some orange tulle from a swap and a black felt jack-o-lantern from Target.

Here's what I got back:

 back:

 The goodies:

 more goodies:

 and even more goodies:

Rainbow pocket letter

I signed up to do a rainbow pocket letter in one of my swaps. Do you all remember this post? And I got this pocket letter back:

 Basically it was colored cardstock with goodies on top.
I decorated it and decided to use it for this rainbow swap:

 Especially because the instructions were to have each pocket highlighting a different color, we were supposed to try to keep the main color as the focus. Since I had basically already done that I just added the white one in and was done.
I put a round piece on the background (pink - sticker, orange - egg pick, purple and lavender - egg pick, blue-die cut, white-diecut, green-diecut, red-diecut, yellow-cupcake liner), added a butterfly, and then some bling to the middle of their bodies. I added either butterflies (from Walmart) or something round (orange-stickers from Dollar Tree, purple and lavender-rub ons from Target), and then layered two shades of the color banners with a stamped word/quote on it.
I really love how it turned out.
For the goodies, we had to have 6 paper craft related, 1 letter, 1 drink/snack/candy and 1 bling/sequin/shaker material, they needed to reflect the color on the front of the pocket.

So, my note was in the back of the lavender pocket, orange-flower diecuts, pink-washi, green-foam stickers, white-diecuts, blue-flower and square die cut, yellow-Godiva chocolate (which really isn't yellow, but the packaging was), red-bling, purple-buttons.
Here's what my partner sent:

 The goodies:

we were supposed to coordinate the goodies on the back with the colors in the front, I'm a little bummed that my partner didn't do that.

Screw It & Do It Challenge last week

This was only a 15 day challenge, so I have a few left to show.
Day thirteen:

 I'm not a big fan of this one. Sunday was a bad day, and it just didn't turn out great, but I got it done. I feel this should just be a the scraps on my desk challenge, because that's all I use. Anywho, again they are all scraps from my desk. The marbled washi was something I picked up at a garage sale.
Day fourteen:

 I really love how this one turned out. The background is a scrap from a loaded bag swap and it fit almost perfectly on the page, I added some holographic looking tape to cover the paper, that I picked up at a garage sale. The banner at the top has been layered on some pink paper (it's from Hobby Lobby). I also added some bling from a swap to it. The 'peachy' is a rub on from Target, it was an afterthought.
Day fifteen:

This one is ok. It's all just random scraps that I put down. I colored the heart with some dye ink.

I won the Challenge, I'm not sure what that means, but I was to send my email address to the group's hostess.

I'm excited to do the next one. Ever since I started doing it in the notebook, I think it's a little more fun.

Back To School Pocket letter

I really wanted to do a back to school pocket letter until I got into my stash and realized that beyond background paper, I didn't exactly have a lot of back to school stuff. I did find some images in a free images book I picked up from the library, and found a few other things that worked.
Here's what I made:

 The background paper is from a Hobby Lobby, I had a few more candidates (books, school supplies), but I chose this one to sorta go with a few of the images I picked out. The corner pieces and all the black and white images are from those free images books (you're really supposed to photocopy them, but I'm lazy). I could only find 4 images from one book and two images from another book, so I chose a few stickers from my stash that I thought coordinated with the theme.
First row: first card: I found this sticker in my stash and thought it worked great. Second card: image is from that book. Third card: image is from that book, but I added a sticker from Dollar Tree.
Second row, first card: This sticker is from Hobby Lobby (I'm pretty sure kids these days have no idea what a typewriter is, I never used one in school but I did have an electric one at home). Second card: this image is from that book, I added some brown washi to make it look framed. Third card: this is a Hobby Lobby sticker that I added the 'hello' sticker to.
Third row: these three images had chalk boards behind them, but they were blank, so instead of filling them in, I added these stickers that had a college theme from a sticker book from Michaels. I tried to add a little color to the images. For the light bulb in the first one and the milk and banana in the second one, those stickers are from Amazon, they were clear, so I put them on white cardstock and cut them out. I thought the last card was ok with the corner piece.
The goodies:

Our instructions were to add things that you would need to go back to school. I added some of the images I used on the front, paper clips, erasers, sticky notes, washi that was school themed, page flags and some stickers that were office supply themed.
I really like how it turned out.
Here's what my partner sent me:

 The back:

 The goodies:

It's really cute. I don't know about the red flag things on the right side. There was no letter so technically, it was just a piece of art in the mail.

Screw It and Do It Challenge 2, Week 2

Day six:

 More scraps from my desk. I used thin washi to cover the seams. Got the stamped image from a swap. I wanted to add something to the corners, and remembered this box of random sequins I got in a swap.
Day seven:

 I really liked the color of this envelope. I wanted to use some some unicorn stickers I bought, but didn't like how they looked on the background. This unicorn was a wish granted. I picked out some washi for it to lie on. I liked the word believe from the unicorn sticker sheet, but not the speech bubble it was in so I spelled it out with some alphas I got.
Day eight:

 The cherry blossom scrap just fit on so perfect I knew I needed to use it. I just added some pink to cover the rest of the page. I noticed the fairy die cut and added her with a little green glitter pen as repair. The letters are something I'm trying to get rid of.
Day nine:

I wanted to use my "found relatives" Tim Holtz ephemera. I just added the chevron paper as background with a rub on sentiment from Target and heart stickers from a Valentine's sheet from Hobby Lobby.
Day ten:

 No plan here. I saw the background piece and it fit. The washi was on the desk (from a swap) and it matched. I saw the rub ons (from Target) and added those. Also saw the sequins (from Hobby Lobby) and liked the pop of color, had to add a little bling (from a swap) to cover the holes.
Day eleven:

 Found this card on my floor (from a swap long ago), used the red washi to cover up part I cut out for a tag. Thought the jar sticker (from Walmart) looked good. The hearts and you & me are from a Valentine's Day kit (from Hobby Lobby). I layered the you & me on some pink for more color and added the butterfly (from Dollar Tree) to cover a spot.
Day twelve:

I had the background with the circle cut out of it. I added the doily to it to cover the empty spot. Who knows where the banner came from. I stapled it on and added a puffy zebra heart from a swap. I added an arrow on top of another one. The polar bear was part of a birthday RAK, I attached it with foam tape. I think it would have looked better without the doily.

Under the sea flip book

I had to make an under the sea flip book. I used a lot of blue chevron paper for the background plus a couple other underwater looking papers.
The cover:

 I had gotten this mermaid suncatcher kit at Dollar Tree awhile back for the paints, I used the suggested coloring chart for another mermaid project and finally got this painted with acrylic paint for this project. You can't tell, but the tail is kinda shimmery.

 left page:

  I used the wavy silver washi throughout the book to simulate waves. I added some goodies to a tiny pocket on this page. The envelope is from Hobby Lobby, I put a few underwater stickers on it and made a paper clip to keep it closed.
Here is the page without the goodies:

I decided to just use a bunch of shark stickers. They are mostly from Dollar Tree, the one with the heart is from Valentine's Day at Target.

Right page:

 I added some sand dollar paper from a swap and some stickers. They are all from Dollar Tree. I added another envelope of goodies to it.

middle page:

 The top flips up. I added some acrylic shells from a swap. The fish on the side are from Dollar Tree, the whale is from Michael's.
Right page:

 I made a pocket at the bottom and added some crab stickers to it. The blue one is from a garage sale, the other two from Dollar Tree. I stamped out two images of a stamp set I have from Stampin Up, it has some fish, a crab, a star fish a jelly fish and a seahorse.

 Middle page:

 I added some foam seaweed and foam stickers to the bottom, they are from a garage sale. The sticker at the top I got in a subscription box. The shaker pocket has gold star sequins, blue sequins, star sequins, and a couple sea themed buttons. The banner at the side is a bunch of sticky notes from Target.
Top:

 I used some blue green alphas to spell out just keep swimming and added a bunch of sea creature stickers.
The back:

I just framed it in this washi and added a handmade by me.
Here's what I got from my partner:

 goodies:

It's very flat. I kinda wish she had added more decoration/dimension. I wish I could do flat, I tried really hard for this one, but as you can see, hers only has 3 pages with one pocket, and is only decorated with die cuts.