Valentines

It has been way too long since I created anything or posted on here. I admit, I just haven't been inspired to make anything. Part of that is that my closet where I keep all my craft supplies is rather cold and my apartment temperature does not rise much over 66 degrees. I did get a space heater for Christmas, but I also haven't been inspired to make anything, I think my muse took a winter vacation.

I did want to make valentines, though. Sadly, I got a cold at the end of last week and I have been very tired because of that. But, I wanted to make some and Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and today I was working, so I wanted to get them distributed before work today.

At first, I made some valentines rocks. I don't have pictures of those, so just picture some small rocks with hearts painted on them in red, pink, purple and blue. I relearned what I learned last year, I'm not good at free-handing hearts. Even when I cut them out of paper, they turn out kinda wonky.

Anyways, I always wanted to make something more creative, but I thought I'd only get the rocks done because it was Friday night and I hadn't started anything else.

I started with some blank tags I had bought for a project in the past and chose some paper to add as backgrounds. When I was pulling out things to embellish with, I realized I hadn't covered any in red paper, so I improvised a couple. I didn't buy anything for these, at least not specifically for these.

 Starting at the top left corner:
This top row, the background is a transfer of paints, I really liked the purple color in it. The first one has a steampunk heart sticker on the top and some vintage trim layered with some purple flowers. The second one has a plaster-ish heart, it originally had the words Just Married printed on it (I bought a package of wedding picks on clearance a few weeks ago, mostly cause I liked the decorations), but I didn't like that, so I repainted it to kinda match the background, the bottom has a strip of pink paper and some hearts. The last one has a playing card back and a fuzzy heart sticker on top of it, the bottom is some vintage trim with a piece of pink ric rac.
The second row has some pink patterned paper for the background. The first one has a little girl with a tea party layered on a pink tag that I cut the top off, the bottom is part of a lace sample. The second one has a strip of painted inks and some heart buttons on top, the bottom is some trim. The last one has vintage trim with a strip of pink seam binding and a vintage "best wishes" tag layered on it, the bottom is some vintage trim with pink velvet.

 This top row is pink paper that looks like mulberry paper. The first one has a rose cut out of a card with some of the same trim as above. The second one has a face from a swap with pink seam binding and vintage trim on the bottom. The last one has vintage trim with red elastic, a girl in red picture and a rose button (I cheated a little on this one, the girl picture actually says At Christmas underneath that button, but it looked so good together, I just had to cover the Christmas part), at the bottom, I layered vintage trim and some pearls from a necklace. The first one in the second row has the pink faux mulberry paper with some of the purple paper, white paper and a cross-stitch layered on it, the bottom is pink seam binding and vintage trim. The second one has the pink patterned paper with a rose from a card, pink seam binding and three heart buttons. The last one, I layered burlap ribbon, some red/white print fabric and an old button with some vintage trim.

This last tag, really curled up as it dried, I don't think I pressed it long enough. It's a white tag covered with heart vellum, a burgundy ribbon and some vintage metal rose buttons, it has vintage trim on the bottom.

Next up is Easter. I'm hoping to create something cute for that.

My muse returned

My muse left me for awhile. I'm not making cards this year, or gifts, or tags. I did get a little creative with my Christmas wrapping though.

 I bought some brown kraft paper for wrapping, and then I found my wrapping paper and used that up. I started wrapping my presents for friends last night, and thought it would be fun to do a little something different with it.
My original plan was to stamp on the paper, but I thought this was cuter. I added some burlap ribbon, some vintage trim and some vintage bits on top of that. I just glued the loops to each other and not the packages, thought it would be easer to unwrap.

 This one has some toile I got in a swap, I don't know if it's old, the pin someone gave me.

 This one is blue velvet and a pin I bought.

 This one is a thicker lace and a sparkly snowflake.

 I like this one the best, I think it's the most Christmasy, it's red velvet ribbon and a broken pin.

My muse did come back last week and I got sucked up in making a few patchwork quilt like pieces.

 This one is in different kinds of fabric with different shades of green.

This one I haven't sewn down yet, everything is sheer and I think I really need to borrow a sewing machine to sew it. I probably won't sew them down in blocks, maybe I'll do a little freeform stitching.

I'm kinda stuck on these two. My original thought to was to make two stockings, but the stocking background was just too big for the sheer piece. I also thought I'd make them pockets (like a stocking), but I don't know if I want to do that anymore. I wanna do some kind of embellishment on them, but I don't know what.

Anyone have any ideas?

Halloween ATCs

I'm not much of a Halloween crafter, but I was putting together a Halloween basket for someone and then some goodies for others, I thought I should include a card with them.

These were scanned so they're a little smaller than my regular photos, sorry, I'm sure you can click on it to make it bigger.

Mostly, I just added pictures to a background.

I used orange, black, purple and neutral backgrounds. I actually prepared many more backgrounds than I made cards, so now I have backgrounds for something else.

Starting in the top left corner and going clockwise: the background is orange and white striped the image is something I got in a swap, this one is my favorite; the background is black, I have no idea where I got this image; the background is white with black spots, there's three pumpkins I got in a swap last year and "Halloween greetings" at the top; the background is orange, the gold is from an Asian paper, the trim at the bottom is from a swap and the bat came with the above pumpkins; The background is white layered with a house and blood, I really like this dripping blood, but I didn't really know what to do with I; the background is black with an orange strip and a goblin on top; the background is white with black and orange fabric and a stamped cat on top; the background is purple with some washi tape on the bottom, a witch girl and "witchy woman" on top of the washi tape.

Linen and Lace

My last post was about the cards I made for this swap.

I received my return cards on Wednesday, normally I would take pictures of these as they came out of the shipping envelope, but I picked up my mail on the way to work, and I knew what it was so I couldn't wait to open it.

Here's what I received back:

 Starting in the top left, Sherry of Createology, top right: Susanne T of No 108 Bella Vista, bottom: Pam of Virginia Retro.

Kimberly also included a bunch of Halloween stuff for crafting, I'm almost inclined to make some Halloween cards, I usually don't create for Halloween.

Linen and Lace

Hi All, I signed up for Kimberly's Linen and Lace ATC swap, and have finally finished my cards.

I have four done, but only because I decided I didn't really think the butterfly one goes with the others, so I had to make another one.

 Kimberly said it was up to me how I interpreted the theme, so I used a linen hanky for the background and then promptly covered it up, but the lace is promptly seen on all of them.
This is the one I created today:

 Like I said, linen hanky has background, on top of that I added a piece of wide vintage lace, some blue rhinestone flowers and some blue trim. I might go back and add a little blue coloring to the lace, I'm not sure. Compared to the other two, it's kinda dull (but only cause I'm not really a neutrals kinda gal).
These next three, I made at the same time:

 Again with the linen hanky background, on top of that is some (I have no idea what it actually is) green fiber (?) and then the edging of a green napkin, some lace I picked up at a garage sale and some tatting from an old shirt collar at the bottom.

Linen hanky background layered with some green fabric and then more green ribbon and some vintage buttons. I also added some lace to the bottom.
After making this last one, I decided I didn't like how it looked with the other two, and I'm gonna list it on Etsy.

There is a linen background, some brown/gold fabric, some very elegant looking trim and then the lace butterfly. The butterfly was originally white, so I colored it with some alcohol inks and then used some gold puff pant to accent some parts of it and tie it in with the other fabrics.

I'm thinking of wrapping them in a vintage hanky to send them on their way.

My Own Style Swap

A few weeks ago, I joined Kimberly's ATC swap, My Own Style, check out this post to see what I made for it. Earlier this week, I received my return cards in the mail:

 This first one is from Kimberly, hostess, of ArtJoyStuff:

 I really like how she used fabric on it, it's so gorgeous.
This next one is from Sherry of Createology:

 I love the blues in this one.
And the last one is from Jane, no blog:

 I really like the key and the round beads?

I see on Kimberly's blog that she's got upcoming swaps listed, some of them sound really fun to me. The current swap is grunge, but I'm not really sure I'm a fan of grunge, so I'm not participating. the rest of the year swaps sound really fun, I'm hoping I find time for those.

 

Thank you lades for your beautiful cards.

Getting creative

I was in charge of prizes for my cousin's fiancée's bridal shower this weekend. I thought I'd get a little creative with the wrapping of the prizes, plus I haven't done anything arty in awhile.

Here is a book wrapped in tissue paper with heart ribbon on top. The box I covered all the seams with washi tape (I'm trying to use more of it, I have 25 rolls). I also added some flower stickers.

 Here I had two gift bags that were kinda plain. The pink one I added some satin ribbon and then a strip of ribbon with white roses on top. The second one was a brown bag, I added some washi tape to the top, some vintage lace and then some green wired ribbon and a burlapish flower sticker to the top. I love how this bag turned out so much that it inspired something else.

 I also made a card for the shower and a graduation card for my cousin's kid (different cousin).
For the bride's card, I used dictionary paper with the word bride on it as background, some vintage lace and some pearlized buttons on top.
For the graduation card, I used dictionary paper with the word graduation on it for background, layered some paper and added stickers spelling out "Congratulations" on it.

I joined Kimberly's My Own Style ATC swap a few weeks ago (mostly because I needed to do some art), and I had the hardest time figuring out my style. This morning, I sat down with my supplies and was thinking how much I loved the gift bag above, so I basically re-created it on ATC's.

I used dictionary paper with the word artist as the background (I made three for the swap, and one for me), added the green wired ribbon with the burlapish flower sticker on top. I used some vintage trim and a paper measuring tape for the bottom.

 Liz at Lululiz in Lalaland kinda inspired me to make pockets for them, she always does for her cards, and I thought it might be fun to start doing that with my cards. So, I used the leftover page of the dictionary. I folded it over and added some washi tape. I plan to match each card to its page when I send them out.

I still have to write up what my style is. I'm not entirely sure, I was always going to start with dictionary paper and then go from there. I like that I combined vintage, fabric, and paper.
I love these cards so much that I really want to keep them and make something else, but I'm not going to. I know I've done something great to give away when I want to keep it.