BROWN PAPER BAG ALBUM

I tried my hand at making a brown paper bag album this week. My wonderful cousin Norma W. Jasso gave me instructions on how to create one. Her sister Nora Flores, showed her how to make them. So thanks to my adorable sisters/cousins, I created one that I am really happy with.

This is the front cover.........

There are 5 pages, including the front and back cover, and 4 half pages. The full pages have side loading pockets as well. Love it!!! I can't believe this sweet album started out as plain old brown paper bags!!! I'm making lots more for gifts!!

FABRIC YOYO'S!

A very good friend of mine gave me a huge bag full of wonderful colorful fabric yoyo's she bought at a yard sale recently. Wow!!! I can't wait to use them...........I'm thinking of all kinds of ways to use them in my crafts!!!

Thank you Elsie for this wonderful bag of sunshine you gave me!!!!!!

CINDERELLA Themed Quinceañera

My sister-in-law Olga and my niece Stephanie, owners of "Weaver's Thoughts" (an event decorating business), did a beautiful job decorating for a Quinceañera recently. A Quinceañera is the Hispanic tradition of celebrating a young girl's coming of age - her 15th birthday.

The theme was CINDERELLA. In the photo there is a beautiful horse drawn carriage, upon which the honoree sits and her escort sits in the chair to her right. I love the clock which is almost striking midnight and the two Royal Knights standing guard. It all looks so beautiful!! I just had to share this on my blog!

WEDDING BOUQUET...FRESH SUNFLOWERS

For the same wedding as those two floral arrangements in the previous post. Very large and a little heavy bouquet, but the flowers were beautiful! Had to really secure those heavy fresh sunflowers with wire so they won't slip out of the oasis bouquet holder.

FRESH SUNFLOWERS!

Making two large fresh sunflower arrangements for a friend who is decorating for a wedding for tomorrow. These sunflowers are huge!! Using some leather leaf, baby's breath some ivy and these huge sunflowers. There arrangements are going to be placed on the altar at the church, then later at the reception.

WEDDING CARD

I created this card for a cousin, who just got married recently. I didn't want to make it too frilly or fru-fru, so this is was the end result.

Materials used;

Dark blue card stock cut down to 81/2" x 11"

Cream colored card stock

Printed card stock (for heart cutouts)

Dark blue mulberry paper (ripped it by hand)

Decorative paper edger

Fine glitter and glue

Wide black Sharpie marker (outline card and hearts)

Spray adhesive (I love to use "acid free" spray adhesives)

I used my PC to type and print the wording on the cream card stock, then hand ripped it to fit on the card front.

On the inside I glued down a piece of cream card stock that I ripped by hand and two smaller heart cutouts.

I could sit here and design and make cards ALL DAY LONG!! I love it!! But, alas, there is always something around the house that needs to get done!!

BIRTHDAY CARD

Made this birthday card for one of my granddaughter'today. I decided a carousel horse (clip art) would be just perfect. I cut a 12"x12" decorated scrapbook card stock page down to 8 1/2"x11" and folded it in half to make a card. I used the carousel horse graphic and colored it in with Prismacolor pencils and embellished with lots of sparklie glitter, some shaped brads, and added a couple of silk flowers. On the inside, I just cut out a piece of the same colorful cardstock paper and layered a smaller piece of white cardstock over it and then glued it all down to the inside, then added a silk flower on the upper left hand corner. I love making special cards for the special people in my life!♥

WEDDING BOUQUET

A while back,one of my relatives asked me to make a wedding bouquet for her wedding day, she wanted fresh cream colored roses in a round shaped bouquet. This was the end result, and I was happy with it and she totally loved it! We took this picture the day she came to pick it up.
Fresh floral wedding bouquets are not my area of expertise, but I gave it my best shot. You don't know what you can do unless you try, right? Love, love, love creating!!!

Gourd Art

I thought I would try my hand at creating art with something a little different, sketching in a design and do a little wood burning and applying some color on the surface of a dried gourd. I've had this one gourd for a while, it was fresh and green when I first got it and it had to be dried so I hung it up in the back corner of my patio away from rain and such, I left it there for about 4 months until it dried totally. I didn't like waiting such long time but what could I do, it takes a LONG time to dry. I asked my hubby to bore a hole in it for me because I thought it would make a really cute birdhouse and then I hung it in my craftroom. I stood back and looked at it then decided it needed to be altered with art!
So, the above picture is the finished project.

This was like a blank canvas.........
A Southwest design is what I had in mind and I sketched it, then burned it in with the wood burning tool. Those tools get really HOT! I accidentally gave my hand a minor burn! Ouch!


I used PRISMACOLOR Pencils, to add the color, they blend in so nicely.
Next, I'll be using a good spray sealer.
I need to get some more gourds to paint on!!!!!

Making more yummy cards...

Made a birthday card for my BFF, her birthday is in February. She LOVES collecting faux cupcakes, so I thought I make a card with a huge cupcake on it for her. I used a paper crimper and my Cuttlebug. Hope she likes it.
I also made a card for any occasion, I used a rubber stamp dragonfly and rubber stamp flower on this one. I used Prismacolor pencils to color them, then used Glossy Accents to highlight some areas. I don't think I will ever use a store bought card again!

Fake Cake (Money Tree) #5

Another fake cake money tree for a Quincenera Celebration for this weekend.
This time the colors are Fuchsia, Black and White. I think that color combination is so pretty.
The ribbons are Grosgrain, nice vivid colors. I used glittery fuchsia tulle to make the skirt and hot glued it around the bottom of the cake, giving it a nice finished look. Made a large black bow for the cake topper. The cake is 25 inches tall, from the tip of the top feather to the bottom. It is 41 inches around the largest layer. It's pretty large and will accommodate lots and lots of birthday cards.

Complete instructions on how to make a money tree cake is in my blog archive dated October 21, 2009.

This is a close up view of the bottom layer.
This is a close up of the fuchsia tulle skirt that is hot glued from underneath the cake.
This the the top view, where you can see the slot for dropping in the well wishers cards.

Stepping back I realized that maybe it needed something more............perhaps some black feathers........hmmmm. I decided to add a few black feathers to the fuchsia ones and added feathers to the bow cake topper as well.
Okay, I think that did the trick. I'm happy with it now. Hope they like it!

Quick Wine Bottle gift wrap-up

If you have a bottle of Champagne or Wine you are going to present as a gift, this is a great way to wrap it up quickly and prettily. Using some mesh tulle glittery fabric, cut into a large square (making sure it will be more than about 8 or 10 inches bigger than enough to cover the bottle), lay the fabric on a table and place the bottle standing upright in the middle of it, then bring all four corners of the fabric together and gather it right on the neck of the bottle, underneath the top leaving the sealed top of the bottle above it. Tie a ribbon around it to secure it or use tape. Attach a pretty bow and some curly ribbon, add danglies or a gift tag. You can trim the top if it is too high over the bottle.
There you go, quick, easy and pretty wrapping. Leaving the top of the bottle free will allow it to be opened and used freely without tearing the wrapping off.

Handmade Christmas Cards....

Here are a couple of Christmas cards I created for two of my adorable grandkids....I used my cuttlebug, ribbon, glitter, brads and some cute Christmas cutouts. Love it!!!

GINGERBREAD MAN CHRISTMAS WREATH

I'm back with a simple Christmas wreath idea, this is the wreath I made yesterday and hung above the fireplace. I took a large wire wreath form, wrapped green tree branch garland all around, added colorful mini lights, then filled it up with bright, shiny round colorful ornaments and fake Christmas candy and candy floral picks and then positioned a soft sculpture gingerbread man in the center. Added a florist bow to finish it off, and it's done! I love that it is so large and colorful. Very easy to make. Making your own is so much cheaper than buying a ready made one. Dig through your Christmas decorations boxes and use items you already have on hand, like extra ornaments and Christmas floral picks, etc. and let your imagination take over!

Give-away by Becky Conley

Check out this awesome give-a-way by Becky Conley!!

MY 2ND CHANCE: A BLOG GIVE-A-WAY!

Location:MY BLOG: http://beckyconley.blogspot.com/

Time:5:30PM Thursday, December 2nd

POTPOURRI PIE (faux)

I really enjoy making unique holiday decorations and this is one that I love making and giving as gifts to my friends and family to enjoy throughout the festive season.
It is a pie.....a fake pie that looks and smells real!
I use a glass or ceramic pie dish, that they can use later for actual baking.
Here are supplies that you will need to make one for you to display or to give as a gift (this would make a wonderful Hostess gift):

1 ceramic or glass pie dish
1 package potpourri (vanilla, or cookie/pie scent)
12x12 square brown netting (or tulle)
2 12x12 pieces of light brown or tan felt
ground cinnamon
Low Melt Hot glue gun and glue sticks (use care when using hot glue)
pinking shears
regular scissors

Place the contents of the potpourri bag into the the glass pie dish. Remove the pieces of the potpourri that are too bulky or large (or break them up into smaller pieces). Hot glue the netting onto the pie dish over the potpourri by placing a dot of the hot glue on the rim of the dish every inch or so, using care not to touch the hot glue, press the netting in place, making sure the netting is taut as you make you way around, after the netting is glued down completely around the dish use scissors and trim off the excess netting that extends over the rim of the dish.
Use the pinking shears to cut felt into 10 strips, 12 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Place 5 strips evenly spaced over the netting and place 5 strips in the opposite direction, weave them to create the lattice (refer to picture). Glue the strips down at the point where they meet the rim of the dish. After all the strips are glued down, trim the excess felt that extends over the rim.
Using the regular scissors cut about 5 or 6 strips of felt 12 inches long and about an inch wide.
Refer to the picture and start to hot glue the strips around the rim of the dish, one at a time, fluting as you go along to make it look like a fluted edge on the pie.
Once you have finished, sprinkle cinnamon all over the pie as you would for a real pie.
After that you will have a pretty realistic, wonderful smelling fake pie to place on your table or counter for a long lasting fall or Christmas decoration (or for anytime).

CAROUSEL HORSE APRON

Here's what you need:
1. Ready made apron, any color and size you wish
2. Glitter dimensional fabric paint (assorted colors)
3. Fusible webbing (follow manufacturers instructions)
4. Iron (dry iron no steam)

This is an apron I had fun embellishing not too long ago. The apron is from Michael's, just solid purple (my favorite color) and I wanted to do something special with it. In my fabric stash there was some fabric with these beautiful carousel horses printed on them. I ironed some fusible webbing on back of the fabric and then carefully cut out the three prettiest carousel horses. I ironed them onto the apron, and when they cooled off, I used the glitter dimensional fabric paint all around the entire outline of the carousel horses as well as the mane, tail, saddle and other areas on the horse. Then with the same glitter paint application I wrote words having to do with carnivals all over the apron. Let it dry overnight. I really liked the way it turned out. It's completely washable. Great for a kids craft, with adult supervision of course.

FLOWERS EVERYWHERE!

Whew, been really busy these last couple of days, I've been helping a very good friend of mine (a florist) prepare flowers for a big wedding for this weekend. This bride wanted lots and lots of beautiful flowers, which she got!


Beautiful Wedding Bouquet, she made with many white roses.
She used lots and lots of beautiful, wonderfully scented flowers! She is a very talented floral designer!

ALTERED BOOK....3D CHRISTMAS

Great Recycling Project!!

Do you remember making Christmas Trees out of Readers Digest publications, where you fold each page into itself twice then fold the bottom flap up? Well, here is a great twist on that craft, using a hardback book. Do NOT remove the hardback book cover, it is part of the project, the pages will remain attached to the book cover.
I took the hardback book, (with maybe 185 to 200 pages) and folded each page that same way (as mentioned above). Books with more pages than that will be too many and you will end up ripping pages out.   I then spray painted the inside flaps and the Christmas tree 'Hunter Green' and spray painted the entire outside cover with Matte Black. You can use a gold metallic marker to write anything you like on the outside cover. I wrote 'Merry Christmas'.

As you can see, it is only half a tree, still attached to the book cover.

Side view

Using gold metallic marker, write anything you like.

After folding and spray painting I waited for it to dry thoroughly, maybe 1 hour. I then took some Christmas scrapbooking papers, cut them to size and glued them down to the inside flaps using white glue. Then came the fun part! The embellishments!! You are only limited by your imagination...I recycled old Christmas cards by cutting out and using the graphics and the inside greeting, but you can use die cuts, photos, anything your heart desires!! Photographs would work perfect!! You may decorate the tree by gluing Christmas trinkets all over it. I used low-melt hot glue.This is a simple and wonderful craft you and your kids can make together. I think grandparents would love a gift like this from their grandkids especially if there are some photographs involved!!

BABY SHOWER fake cake (money tree)

Made another fake cake (money tree) for a baby shower this weekend. For "It's a girl", pink and white. It looked so cute with the Kewpie Doll cake topper, got that at Hobby Lobby.
I love creating and making things for baby showers!!
This cake is 25 inches tall from the base to the top of the Kewpie doll's head and 41 inches around the larger cake part (bottom layer).

View of cake top. Slot for the cards to be dropped into.

Embellished Journal

I embellished the cover on this journal for the daughter of a friend of mine. Gave it to her for her birthday, she loved it I am happy to say. I used textured papers, rubber stamps, dimensional objects, beads and colorful fibers. Personalized it with a metal star tag with the initial of her first name. I think I will start making more for Christmas gifts.