Catching up with some crafting....

Hi Everyone,

It has been a busy few weeks for me, getting my house ready for a holiday party next week.  Sometimes it's good to have a reason to stop crafting and do some much needed home care, but this girl needs to find a least a little time to craft!

After missing out on Tim Holtz's October tag, I made sure to get the November tag in before I start my hard core Christmas crafting.

Here is Tim's tag:

Click here for his tutorial.

 

 

I love that pumpkin, and the cork text element is totally cool!  What I love best though, is how keeping the embellishments simple allows the amazing background to shine.

 

Here is my version of the tag:

 

As I usually do, I followed Tim's instructions for the background closely.  Isn't the foil applied with t glue stick a genius technique?   I chose a brighter palette, as I wanted this piece to stand out from the brown tones in my display boxes.  I don't have the pumpkin blueprint stamp, (although after seeing Tim's neat technique this month, I surely do want it!) so I used this lovely little girl from my collection of vintage advertising cards instead.  I made a copy, matted it, and popped it up over my background stamp with foam tape.

 

I attempted to cut a cork sheet that I purchased years ago at a dollar store with my Silver Bullet digital die cutter.  It didn't work out so well, not that it wouldn't cut, but because the cork was so old and dried out, it crumbled as I removed it from the mat.  That's ok, chipboard made an ok substitute, especially when I inked it with Distress inks to match the background of my image, and edged it with Distress paint.

 

 

Here is one last shot of my November Tag of 2015.  As always, I am displaying it in my wall of boxes.  I like the nice touch of autumn color that it adds. 

 

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Elizabeth

The one with one last pumpkin (and a file share)...

Happy Day, Everyone,

Hope you all are well.  I have one more Autumn project to share with you before I start posting Christmas projects.  Paper has been flying in my studio as I craft gifts that I want to have completed before Thanksgiving.

This little pumpkin is similar to the strip pumpkin I shared earlier this fall.  This one is a bit simpler to put together, as it just requires one brad instead of two,

 

After assembling the pumpkin, I added some leaves and flowers that were hanging around in my stash.  

 

Here is one more view, with a flower from SVG Cuts:

 

 

This pumpkin is now living in DD's dorm room.   I'm sure it looks cute on her desk.

 

I am sharing the file so you can try this one for yourself.  It would make darling little place card holders for your Thanksgiving table. 

 

Here is the link to the SVG file on my SkyDrive.  Once you see the file, it should be obvious how to put it together.  Simply place the hole in each strip over a single brad and close it up when they are all on.  I found it best to alternate strips around the circle, starting with a strip at the top, then a strip at the bottom, then either side, and repeat.  This gives the best shape to the top.  A wooden stem, or flowers and leaves, as I have done here, will cover up the brad and give your pumpkin a finished look.

 

 

Just in case I don't have time to post again before Thanksgiving, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a marvelous holiday, filled with family, football and food!  Or whatever combination of the three makes you happy! 

 

Elizabeth



The one with the Thanksgiving canvas...

Happy Day, Everyone!

I hope your week is going well so far.  Today I am sharing a project I completed a few weeks ago.  I found a bunch of metal wall art on clearance at Michael's, for 75 cents each, so I bought a few to use as mixed media canvases. 

 

I used lots and lots of Distress products on this piece, including inks, paints, stains and crackle paint.  The paper elements are SVG Cuts files, cut with my Black Cat Cougar from Sherri at That's Scrap.  The text stamp and the wheat stamp are from Tim Holtz.  The metal pieces and gem are from Recollections.

 

This is a close up of my favorite element.  I recycled my morning tea bags and an old key chain loop into this wreath.  I removed the tea leaves from the dried bags, folded the bags in half and machine stitched a channel for the loop. 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Elizabeth

 





The one with the Thanksgiving Mantel....

Happy Day, Everyone!

Today I am sharing photos of my Thanksgiving mantel which was inspired by lots of blog-hopping and Pinterest perusing.  It is the first time in ages that I have decorated  my mantel for Thanksgiving, because I am usually in a big rush to get Christmas crafting done.  This  year, I decided to make some time for Thanksgiving.

 

I was inspired to use a monochrome palette and vintage items for this display.  It gives me a nice visual break between the bright colors of Halloween, and the rich colors of Christmas.  I pulled from my collection of ironstone and creamware pitchers, my recently growing tinware stash and put the brass candlesticks from my Halloween display to use, as well.  The frames were pulled from the basement dusted off and put to use.  Pretty thrifty, eh? 

 

 

This ironstone pitcher was a gift from a dear friend.   The wooden box is a fairly recent antique store find.  I love that some of the type is still there.  It is from an optometrist shop, and has dovetail joinery and a working slide lid. 

 

 

I made this banner with paper from my stash and my digital cutter.  I added stamping from a Bo Bunny harvest set that I purchased on clearance over the summer, and vintage book page scraps leftover from another project.  I love using my scraps, especially when the vintage ones.  As usual, I used lots of Distress Inks here. 

 

 

You may recall seeing these tins mixed in with my skulls on my Halloween sideboard display.  I simply moved them over to the mantel, brass candlesticks and all.  The creamware pitcher was lifted from my bathroom, and the antique books were a terrific find at the recycle center.  (yes, I occasionally "pick the dump", much to my mother's dismay! At least I don't gift it to you, Mum!  LOL!) 

 

And finally, my favorite piece of the season:

 

 

I absolutely love this piece so much that I may have to decorate a room around it after Christmas.  The board, the newspaper and the bent hat pin are "attic treasures".  (This is when I comb my parents' attic for useless junk that I can turn into "art".)  I found the Thornton Wilder quote earlier this fall, and love it so much that I have already used it twice.  The calendar page and tag are also attic finds, but I photocopied them onto cardstock, so that I can use them over and over.  I have a hard time gluing original ephemera onto my pieces.  (the newspaper here is the exception.  I have a pretty large source of it, and don't mind using it once in a while, especially if I have already scanned it.)  The feather was given to me by a bird hunting friend.  The book spine layer a the bottom peeled off when I removed the covers from the books at the other side of the mantel.  It was still sitting in my scrap bowl, and was perfect for this piece. The bottle cap is not vintage, but I bet I could find some like it in the attic!  It is from a bottle of vanilla.  I stamped it with a number 4 from the Tim Holtz Little Labels stamp set, using Distress Paint.  The word "bountiful" was stamped with a cool alphabet set I found at a discount store.  I have no idea who the manufacturer is. The ink is Archival, either Coffee, or Wendy Vecchi's Potting Soil. 

 

If you're still here, thanks for sticking with me through what is, for me, a very long post!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

 

Elizabeth

 











The one with the ATC....

Happy Day, Everyone!

Even though I spent almost all day in my craft room making Christmas gifts, I have more Autumn projects to show before I get to sharing Christmas.  I made a batch of ATCs a bit ago for the RAK list on my favorite forum, the That's Scrap Forum.  I spend a lot of my on-line time with the terrific folks on this forum, and I really wanted to do a little something for them. 

 

It's a pretty simple design, with little flags hand cut from my box of scrap strips.    I did a print and cut for the Autumn flag, and added a little transparent dot.  The background is simply stamped with a 7 Gypsies text stamp. 

 

I kept one for myself, and have it arranged with other ATCs and artwork from friends in this display in my craft room:

 

 

I picked up the cute wooden box at an antique store while on a trip with friends last weekend.  It is a prefect container for the gourds and ATCs. 

 

Thanks for taking a peek at my projects. 

 

Elizabeth



The one with my Halloween decorations (part two)...

Happy Day, Everyone!

I am back with more Halloween décor today.  This display of pumpkins and Hydrangeas will take me right through Thanksgiving:

I love this display, which is  new this year.  I'm sure it will be making a comeback in the future!  The pumpkins are from Walmart (the big ones) and the Dollar Tree (small ones).  I sprayed them all with white spray paint.  It took several coats, and the original color still shows through a bit, which I like.

The incredible lace table cloth was made by one of my Great Grandmothers.  The hydrangeas are from a tree in my yard.  It was one of the first things I planted when we bought our house 20+ years ago, and probably the only planting that dates back that far.  It doesn't get enough sun, so unless it is a very sunny summer, I don't get all that much yield, but I pick every blossom I can.  This year, I had to downsize my vase, because the large green one that I usually use overwhelmed the bouquet.

 

I found the green glass bottle at Michael's for 70% off.  I also used it in yesterday's skull display.   Wish I was able to get two!

 

I love cream ware pitchers, and have quite a few.  I picked up the salt shaker recently at a local antique store.  I have been collecting green glass for ages.  DH knows I love it, and occasionally surprises me with a piece.  The bottle was a gift from him.  The spool lamp was a gift from my girls, and is one of many wool work artifacts in our game room.  I need to rework that boring shade! 

 

That's it for today's stop on my personal Halloween House tour.  I hope to be back tomorrow with another newly decorated space. 

 

 

Hope you all have a terrific weekend!

 

Elizabeth

The one with my Halloween Decorations (Part One)....

Happy Day, Everyone!

Today's post is going to be heavy on pictures, and  light on paper crafting.  I am going to be showing you my game room sideboard, in all of its Halloween glory.  This sideboard is one of my favorite pieces to decorate.  I picked it up about 10 years ago at a thrift store, and have been thrilled with it ever since.  It didn't require any refinishing, and it has tons of really good storage.  Best of all, this piece is big enough to fit the space perfectly. 

 

The whole shebang

 

I recently purchased a bottle cutter, and have enjoyed making wine bottle "bell jars".  You will be seeing more of these.

 

 

I filled this antique store bargain bottle with various sizes of skull beads.  I made a cone and glued dollar store skelly parts to it for one of the bell jars.  The other has a thrift store china doll head floating in cheese cloth.  The grungy brass pill box matches the candlesticks I have been purchasing all fall, some from antique stores, and some from the thrift store.

 

 

I purchased a ton of plastic and foam skulls this year!  I found the terrific wire and metal cloche on clearance at Michael's.  I will be using it over and over.  It is the perfect size for this large sideboard, and can be filled with just about anything. The spiders are another Dollar Store find. The small antique bottle has more tiny skull beads.  The box and loving cup are antique store finds, and the architectural print was a gift from a neighbor many years ago.  The label on the wine bottle is from SVG Cuts.  (I did sneak in a little paper crafting here and there!) 

 

 

I paid just $5.00 for this awesome little camera.  It is not particularly Halloween-ish, but I really likes how it balances out the creepiness. 

 

 

I love this super rusty Rumford Baking Powder tin.  I still use Rumford Baking Powder, and have a Rumford cookbook from the 30's that belonged to my Grandmother. 

 

 

This tin was purchased specifically for this project.  My daughter joined me in a search for things that would look good on candlesticks with skulls.  Bet not everyone gets to go on that kind of treasure hunt! LOL 

 

 

That's it for today.  I will be back soon with photos of some of the other vignettes I have put together recently. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Elizabeth

 

 

 

 

 

The one with the Fall card...

Happy Day, Everyone!

I hope you are well today.  I have a quick fall card to share today.  It is one that was inspired by the Online Card Class I participated in recently, called "Insider".  I was all about adding interest to the insides of cards.  Man, did I need this class.  I got all kinds of ideas, and made several cards in one weekend. 

 

A clean and simple printed outside.  I think my favorite take-away from this class is the narrow band of black between the two front panels.  Simple and beautiful.  I have already used it on several cards.

 

The sentiment was meant to open from the center fold like a book, but for some reason, I made a top fold card base.  Doh!  That's ok, I'm kind of liking it, anyway. 

 

 

So that's it for this post.  There were lots of lessons in this mini four day class, and I hope to make each and every card.  There should be plenty of card posts in my blogging future.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Elizabeth

The one with the Fall window redo.....

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are enjoying a sunny early autumn day today!  In honor of the beginning of fall- which is one of my four favorite seasons- I have redone the large reclaimed window in our game room.  For me, early fall means apples and pumpkins. 

 

For this project, I chose several files from one of my fave SVG retailers, MyScrapChick.  I love the clean, modern, fun style of these files.  The tile feature of my Make the Cut software made it simple to enlarge "apple tree top" and "happy trees 2" (trunk) files to fit my window. 

 

The pumpkins and title are from the "fall title" file.  I think that this is the most fun I have had decorating my window since the hubby installed it.  He even noticed it without me having to drag him in to ohhh and ahhh!  I think that is a first! 

 

I apologize for the photo quality here.  I opted for the glare from the flash, rather than the glare from the other windows in the room.  The darn window is so big that it is impossible to get a clear shot of it, without the chandelier photo bombing me. 

 

If you haven't checked out My Scrap Chick, I encourage you to pop over and check out all of the super cute files.  There are lots of cards and scrapbook elements, as well as my favorite, dimensional projects.  The Fall Pumpkin Box is adorable, and so easy to assemble!  And if you've been following me for a while, you might remember the Cow Treat Boxes that I made for DD's birthday party last year.  Adorable!!!!!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

Elizabeth

 

 

(Today I am linking to My Scrap Chick's Harvest Linky Party and also answering the My Scrap Chick Design Team Call)