Friday, November 9, 2012

A birthday card

Here's the card that I made for my sister, for her birthday.  I actually got it to her, along with her gift, on time!  (Even though she wasn't there to receive it.)  It's been years since I've managed to do that.  I'm so bad with getting things off in the mail....even if I have it all ready to go!!  (What's up with that, anyway??)

Anyway, it's hard to tell from this picture, but the butterfly was actually stamped, using Distress Markers for the ink, on a separate piece of cardstock, then cut out.  So, it's raised up from the rest of it.  I used Distress Inks for the background, liquid chalk on top of "punchinella" - that creates the little dots, markers (can't remember if I used Distress Markers - Tim Holtz, of course - or if they were my Tombow markers... I think they're the Distress ones, though.  Maybe a combination?  I added some Perfect Pearls or Pearl-Ex powders, not sure which...they're both great products!  Where you see any glimmer...that's from those.  I used Stickles on the butterfly, which is really hard to see here, but there are some little spots of it along the body and the biggest spots on the wings.  The green, flowery stuff that goes across the top and bottom is Washi Tape....wonderful, wonderful stuff!!!  So fun to use!!  I just added gems on the bottom.  The sentiment is from a little pack of vellum sentiments, on Love.  I had to trim it, to fit on this.  The flowers on the corners of that are Prima, with gems added.  I just happened to have the perfect color to match the green in the Washi Tape!  Yay!

Part of my sister's gift was this book, by Kelly Rae Roberts.  Her story is so great; she's such an inspiration to so many would-be artists.  My mom and sister were visiting in Sept. and we did some art-work while they were here.  I showed them how to do some things.  The only problem was we didn't have enough time!  They weren't here long enough for a trip to Salem, a trip to Portland (which we ended up foregoing, in order to do art) playing with art, music at the coffee-shop, an over-night trip to the yurts at the coast, etc...etc....!!  But, we did what we could and had a great time, regardless.

So, check out Kelly Rae's book.  Now, I need to get a copy for myself.  :)

http://kellyraeroberts.com/book

Enjoy the weekend!

        ~ Teri

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Autumn!

Happy Autumn!!

I really can't believe it's even here, let alone it now being November! 
My son looked at the calendar this morning and informed me that it's
three weeks until Thanksgiving!  Wow.

I *do* like to decorate for the seasons, though. I had some cute "Boo" garlands out, for last night. 
I also bought some dimensional scrapbook "stickers" (three or four layers, made of paper....not what most people think of when they think of "stickers"!).... of jack-o-lanterns, cute mice, owls... and I put those on our bathroom mirror and on one of the door-frames.  An easy way to add some cuteness.  I took them off carefully and put them right back in their packages... so, they'll be ready for next year!
This is a "Boo" vertical garland??  not sure what to call it... but, it's oh, so cute!!  My friend Jana made it for me...confessing that she started it about three years ago!  Ha!  Sounds like me!!  It's really cute up close and personal.  Dang... I just realized that I've got to put it away now.  :(

We got together with our homeschool group a few weeks ago, to make a leafy garland.  My 11 year old cut out his leaves and made a simple garland.  His is here, all green leaves, hanging with the "Boo" garland.  But, I'd been wanting to make a leafy-garland for a few years now and just wasn't getting around to it.  So, this was my opportunity to get started!  The drawings of leaves shown here is what I used as my templates.  I found them on Pinterest.  :)  So, I embroidered each one, just free-hand.  I wanted them to hang, like they are, so had to come up with a way to attach them to something... embroidery floss was my first thought.  But, then, I decided on ribbon.  Fairly narrow so I wouldn't have to worry about it not lying flat.  I bought a pack of fall-colored buttons and I sewed on a button to the stem of each leaf.  Then, I arranged the leaves as to how I wanted them so I wouldn't have any of the same color next to each other.  I used Aleen's Tacky Glue to adhere them to the ribbon.  I put a drop on the ribbon and layed the leaf over it, so that the glue went on right behind the button.  I let them dry for a couple of days (not necessary, but probably overnight would be good, just so they don't pull off while you're trying to hang it.)  I put the leaves on about every nine inches.  (Pictures are below.)  There's something about it that I'm not happy with, although I'm not quite sure what it is.  Is it the way I have it hanging?  Are the leaves not big enough?  Are they not close enough together??

I'd appreciate your feedback!  I'd thought of needle-felting little acorns and putting those in between each leaf...but, I knew that would take me a whole lot longer and we'd be going to get our Christmas tree by the time they were done!  But, maybe it needs something like that.  ??
Let me know what you think!

Have a wonderful day!  I hope you're all happy, healthy and safe... especially those of you on the East Coast!

      ~  Teri