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While traveling recently I stitched up a couple of Christmas cards. These are from my own design. Both are stitched with a single strand of rayon embroidery thread. One uses red 'tinsel' and star sequins and green beads. The other uses gold metallic Sulky for the tinsel and finishes off with red beads.
Ddd studio3d@ccwebster.net
My husband fancies me a gardener. However, I grow nothing successfully as far as houseplants (including cactus), or landscaping. I'm also the only person alive who cannot grow zucchini!
A few years ago, said hubby brought in several half-barrels and filled them up with good garden mix. I have a modicum of success growing a few garden vegetables each summer - except any kind of squash or melon. This year I added some little pots with herbs.
Here's the lineup this year: carrots, yellow onions, green onions, sweet peas, parsley, sage, beets, green beans, rosemary, radishes, thyme, beefsteak tomatos, cherry tomatos, marjoram, cucumbers, basil, spinach, and lettuce. The radishes and spinach are starting in on their second crop.
Yum Yum!
Ddd studio3d@ccwebster.net
Here's a little scrapbook I made up but have not decorated or used yet. The instructions are from Craft TV Weekly (http://www.crafttvweekly.com/player.html?wid=94.) You finish with 18 surfaces on which to use decorations and photos (including front and back covers.)
Here it is closed and tied - front cover
Untie the ribbon and open out the left and right front flaps to get this
And the fully expanded scrapbook.
I think I'll be baking lots of these little books.
Sometimes you'd like to try out a papercrafts technique but don't have 'just' the right supplies? Someone else has already been there and come up with a way to MakeYourOwn! On the site for the Rubber Stamps Club (http://www.rubberstampsclub.com/tips/make-your-own.html) contributors have given recipes for: colorwash, rub-and-buff, mock mulberry paper, dye inks, embossible inks, shadow stamps, magic mesh, no-wax seals, puffy paint, shimmer spray, envelope glue, stamp cleaner, blender pen refill, and embossing fluid.
You'll also find instructions for gift bags, handmade paper, tissue paper envelopes, a tye-dye stamped t-shirt, antiqued paper, and MORE.
When you get done scooping up all these ideas, scroll back up to the top of their list and click on 'tips and techniques home'. BINGO! A list of over 140 (and growing) categories for stamping tips and techniques! Delving into any one of these brings up multiple examples with complete instructions.
Need MORE inspiration? Scroll back up the page to the main index and click on 'Rubber Stamp Art Gallery'. You can then click on the calendar for any month back to 2001 and view the work of their artist of the month contest winner and several others. Their work all includes complete instructions and, when appropriate, links back to the tips and techniques pages. You can get LOST in here!
If you become a member ($6 per year) they will let you play along with them in the contests and view other areas of the site. Go enjoy!
What a fun little site this is! Jim's Printable Minis (http://www.printmini.com/printables/pp.shtml) is a delightful collection of everyday items in PlayScale (1:6), 1 inch scale (1:12), 1/2 inch scale (1:24) and 1/4 inch scale (1:48). If you are not a miniaturist the scale 1:6 means each inch on the model is equal to 6 inches on the full size item.
These items are designed for use in dollhouses and other miniature setups, but imagine the fun of using them in collage and on cards!
Rove through and scoop up a pirate treasure map, movie posters, covers for itty-bitty leather-bound books, nearly microscopic seed packets, legal documents (talk about your 'fine print'), and blueprints! Want more? Go for the eye chart, speed signs (what fun for a 'milestone' birthday card), 1800s tin types, popular board games, or a dollhouse for your dollhouse!
Oh, this is just too much fun!
One more project from the Pittsburgh trip. This tag book is made from legal envelopes! There's LOTS of cutting and pasting which is why I only got a card made (a single panel) in class and brought the rest of the parts home to finish.
This is the extended view:
Here is a closeup of one spread:
I haven't decorated the tags yet as I'm not sure how I am going to finish it. It has a masculine feel so I may go with that or a 'homespun' theme. The tags will get punched and fibers added as pulls.
As promised, here are some of the projects we completed while in Pittsburgh at our papercrafts retreat.
Beaded Spirelli:
Floral Punch:
Folded Butterflies and Envelopes:
Origami Top:
Torn Spotlight Stamping (this was one class I taught):
Challenge Card (everyone started with the same 8 items - a quilled ducky, a square paper doily, a sheet of round silver stickers, a decorated button on a square card, a feather, a silk rose, a piece of floral ribbon, and two decorative paper clips. We had to use at least 5 on our card, plus anything else we had in our stash of supplies.):
I don't have photos of all the other stuff we made last week, but we were busy from 9:30 am to 10 pm as a group and then went to our rooms and kept playing! We took an hour for early dinner but the rest of the two days was class after class. We took one day for shopping (craft and stamp stores).
One of the classes I taught to my friends in Pittsburgh was the microscope slide necklace/pin from my website page at http://mystudio3d.com/SlidePin.htm
Here are the results from the 8 ladies (myself included):
Now who wouldn't be proud to wear any one of these beautiful jewelry pieces?
I really like these plastic corner templates by Paper Deckle. They are laid upon the card or othe page and traced around. Cutting along the lines creates extremely elegant corners. There are 6 templates and they are available at: http://www.franticstamper.com/tools.htm
Here is one of the 6 templates:
Today I'll be going to the First City Arts Faire in Oregon City (where I live).I thought I'd inspire you with some art from the web. I have always been fascinated by the sand painting artists featured on YouTube. Here's a link where you can go to view a bunch of them. Totally mesmerizing!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=related&v=j94WnAUh0XM
How do you carry your business cards? Don't you think an artist ought to carry them in an artistic way?
This fellow designed a card holder to be made out of a large paint chip from the paint or hardware store. http://www.designverb.com/2006/11/12/paint-chip-card-holder
This original posting is for a non-regulation business card but a later note in his blog says "for the regular business cards, expand 'A' on the template to 2.5 inches and lower the red line some."
Now you can have a whole wardwobe of card holders!
Are you going to be entertaining this summer - or have you been asked to bring a dish for a get-together? My son gave me this recipe for a spicy relish to be eaten as a dip with tortilla chips. Oh Yeah! This is good!
TEXAS CAVIAR
2 15-oz cans black eyed peas
1 15-oz can black beans
1 15-oz can yellow niblet corn
2 small cans chopped green chilies
1 15-oz can white shoe peg corn
1 16-oz bottle Italian dressing
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1 bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, deseeded and chopped.
3 tomatoes, chopped
Drain & rinse all wet ingredients, combine with chopped ingredients. Pour in dressing and mix well. Marinate at least overnight. Drain and serve with tortilla chips. Makes 3 to 3.5 quarts.
So, what do you listen to while you're crafting? I have a little stereo in my studio where I cycle through a variety of things.
There's always the radio - set to a local Christian music, oldies, or jazz station.
Books on tape, CD or MP3 are favorite listening, too. I love reading, and being able to read a book while I craft is a bonus. (I listen while I clean house and drive, as well)
I have some music on CD in the studio and can load up to 5 disks to play straight through or randomly select from the stack. I have a variety of musical styles in my collection including all of the above as well as Celtic, men's quartets (Statlers, Oak Ridge Boys), and (don't laugh) Yanni. I also like to listen to Julie Cruise, Nickel Creek, Charlotte Church, and Sarah McLachlan.
However if I had to pick just one thing to listen to forever it would be Alan Jackson's CD Precious Memories. This man has the perfect voice for singing my favorite old hymns and he presents 15 of them in this 2005 release. Disappointingly, the title song is not included!
Someday, I hope to have a mini TV and media player in the studio so I can play instructional DVDs and craft along with the instructions. I guess I could do that now with my laptop..... say..... I better go check out some DVDs!
While I am traveling, watching TV, riding in the car... I love to do paper embroidery. I started designing my own patterns soon after I started stitching, but there are SO many designers with books and selling on the internet. But, I only own ONE book of paper embroidery because I have found so many sources for FREE patterns on the internet that I will have enough to keep me busy for a very long time.
Lisa Burns is one such source - and very prolific. You will enjoy the variety of embroidery patterns she provides at http://www.freewebs.com/lisaspapecraftsdesigns/
There are a variety of embroidery designs in the book Classic Cards: 60 projects for the discriminating crafter as well.
This book published in 2006 combines embroidery with other cardmaking techniques, something the 'paper embroidery books' rarely do.
Well as you read today's entry I will be winging my way to Pittsburgh. This is the 4th year I will meet with several ladies there.
We stay together at a local motel, eat the free breakfast, rent the breakfast room for the rest of the day (till 10 at nite!), and teach each other paper crafts.
This year I will teach a card and a piece of jewelry. In past years I have taught papermaking, making a stitched signature book, paste paper, making a flag book, carving rubber stamps, and other books and projects that now escape me.
We all take along a handmade item for each person (this year there will be 8 of us) and have a swap the first nite. I have made parchment liners for plastic mugs, paper bead necklaces (you can see these on my website), and parchment cards (the angels on the website). This year it will be the ceramic boxes marbled with alcohol inks shown previously on the blog.
We eat out for a late lunch/early dinner and reserve one day for shopping. My favorite place to shop is Pat Catan as they are a discount craft store and EVERYTHING IS ON SALE! I save up my craft money for this trip. In fact I have a list of things I want to get there. LOL!
One other activity is that everyone arrives with one craft supply for each person, identical. These are distributed to paper sacks so everyone has a set of supplies exactly the same as everyone else. The challenge is to make a card using at least 5 things out of the bag - secretly. We take these on another of our shopping trips to Stamp Fanci and the owner graciously acts as judge. The first year I won 1st place and last year came in 2nd.
I will be flying home on Saturday and give updates on the projects and activities starting Monday, July 16. In the meantime, I will pre-date my entries for this week so you can continue to see new materials every day while I'm gone.
Have a great week - I know I will!
For the Feburary ladies event at church the theme was 'Falling in Love With Jesus'. Again, I did the decorations.
This time I took the wreaths from Christmas and wrapped the greenery tight around the wire frame, then shaped them into hearts. I made crosses out of garden stakes and set them in pots using floral foam and white garden rocks. Then I wired the hearts to the crosses and used silk roses to decorate the left side of the heart on each face.
These topiaries were very popular.
I did decorations for the church women's event in December. We had a theme of 'Home for Christmas' so I set up a real tree in the corner, decorated with handmade ornaments. I added a little wooden rocker with a light blanket tossed over it, a side table with a tablecloth, oil lamp, Bible, glasses, and a mug of hot chocolate. Behind, on the wall, was hung my farm painting.
The tables were alternating red and green tablecloths with a centerpiece of an oil lamp sitting inside a wreath. Handmade ornaments were scattered around both and each place setting had a handmade Christmas card with a Victorian illustration. These had the program glued inside.
Here is a photo of the centerpiece.
Ddd studio3d@ccwebster.net
Did I 'sell you' on 3D cutting yesterday? Well perhaps a sample of a finished project will do the trick!
Here are a couple more favorite sites from which to print images:
http://community.webshots.com/user/d0npen
http://www.thelilacgarden.co.uk/
Now print, clip, glue, repeat. Come on - you know you want to!
3D pictures... decoupage... paper tole... whatever you call it, done well is is a classy, elegant card form. You can print up multiples of semi-simple images and cut away smaller and smaller sections. Then they are mounted one on top of the other with some spacer like silicon glue, pop dots, or foam tape to make an image that appears three dimensional. Some artists curl the paper slightly so it lays more naturally.
If you want to get started without figuring out for yourself what parts to cut away, try these two sites which offer free printable pages. (some offer coordinated backgrounds and inserts for the cards as well.)
http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/Craftypixiedust/
http://www.3dsheets.com//index.html
Group leader on one of my lists issued a challenge to make a card using: an A4 card, two 2 inch circles, patterned paper measuring 3 x 4.5 inches, a piece of paper 1 x 3 inches, a button, a peel-off sentiment, and either sewing, pop-dots, or sandpaper.
Here are my two cards.
