Happy Hump Day!

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all are having a terrific mid-week!  I love Wednesdays.  At work, Wednesdays are my Fridays, because I work a three day week.  It is also "date" night with my Hubs.  That's code for grocery night, but I like to pretend it's more fancy than that!

Today, I am going to share five more cards. 

 

With this card, I made use of some of my "inky leftovers".  The background and the heart are both cut from index cards that I used to soak up Distress Inks, paints and stains as I worked on other projects.  

The inside has the other half of the background index card from the front, and some matching layers.  I am making lots of these cheery cards to send off to my DD at college.  I am also working hard to increase my stash so that I can continue the tradition of mailing a card each week when both DDs are away.  That's a total of six school years worth of weekly cards!

 For this card, I cut the elements with my Silver Bullet Digital Die Cutter (man I LOVE this machine
!)  The files are all from random SVG Cuts files.  The label is printed and cut using my Bullet and SCAL (Sure Cuts A lot) software. 

I used coordinating layers on the inside.  I think I'll leave it blank for a handwritten note.

 This card was inspired by Pinterest, as so many of my cards are.  As always, I couldn't have done it without my Silver Bullet and SCAL software.  The papers are from a pretty little six inch stack that I picked up at Tuesday Morning.  I'm sorry I don't know whose collection it is. 

If it ever warms up here in New England, I will mail this card! The inside co-ordinates nicely with the front, as I echoed both the papers and the shapes.  I like how this card opens a bit differently from a typical card.

 This is such a quick card to make, especially if you use double sided designer paper.  The angled "off cuts" are flipped and adhered to the card for a really easy and frugal accent.

I used Archival Ink to color some white sequins to add a simple embellishment to the front and inside of this card. 

 This card is made with a freebie file from SVG Cuts.  Mary and Leo are very generous with free files.  They often give release a sample that coordinates with the kits they offer for sale. 

This is a fun little card, with lots of  possibilities for changing things up.  I have another on my work desk, and will likely make enough of these to add to each of the kids' Easter baskets. 

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.  I hope to be back later in the week to catch you up on my Christmas cards.  I am keeping up pretty well with my "one per week" goal. 

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 a birthday card and a fun file share...

Happy Day, Everyone!

Here is a photo of the Birthday card that I made for my mom:

This card is from the SVG Cuts Picnic in the Park kit.  I love its simplicity.  My mom's favorite color is blue, and my favorite accent color for blue is yellow, so this card should make us both happy.  I used vintage buttons from Mom's attic for the flower centers.  Often, in my excitement over the dimensional projects in SVG Cut's kits, I forget about the terrific card files that are included.  I'm so glad I went searching through them for this card.  As always, I used my Black Cat Cougar from Sherri at That's Scrap Inc. I used the pen holder and a gel pen to "print" the tag on the front.  For the inside, I used the print and cut function to easily handle the sentiment.

 

 

My next project is one that I thought up all by myself!  I spend a lot (ok, too much!) time looking at projects on line, and my work is very often inspired by what I see there.  I have hundreds of paper bags, because I wanted to make some albums, and it was cheaper to buy them in bulk.  I have been wanting to use them as gift bags, and I needed a quick way to dress them up.  So this idea was born.

 

 

If you would like to try this out, all you will need is a paper bag, 2 scraps of cardstock, and some ribbon.  Oh, and this file.  Cut two of the handle file, and run through an embosser if desired.  Adhere one of the handles to the paper bag.  Using a ruler and a craft knife, cut the center rectangle from the bag.  Flip the bag over, and adhere the second handle, lining it up with the rectangle.  Add some tissue paper and a gift, tie on some ribbon, and you're finished.  How fun and easy is that?  My gift bag is filled with little fall decorating items for my mom.  I think this would be a really great way to pack special little snacks for my girls. 

 

And here is a photo of one of the items in the bag:

 

 

I made three of these mini banners for a September challenge over on the That's Scrap, Inc. Forum, my favorite place to hang out on the internet.  The adorable pumpkin files are from Treasure Box Designs. 

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. 

 

Elizabeth

 

 







The one with my Halloween Decorations (Part 3)....

Happy Day, Everyone!

Welcome to day three of my Halloween house tour.  Today I am sharing one of my new favorite spaces to decorate.  It is a corner of our mudroom, which until this summer, housed a large, unattractive basket full of hats and mittens.  I found a terrific little dresser at a shop in my neighborhood, and used it to spiffy up that eyesore. 

This display includes apothecary bottles from the SVG Cuts Toil and Trouble kit.  I posted deets on the shoe a few weeks ago.  It is also from SVG Cuts.  I will be sharing more about the pumpkin a bit later. In the frame is one of my favorite projects of this season:

 

This is a photo of my mom and my aunt, circa 1938.  I Photo Shopped jack o lantern heads onto their little bodies, and added top hats.  I think it is adorable.  I haven't showed it to them yet, but I'm pretty sure they will love it, too.  The frame is another thrift store find.  I paid 99 cents for it.  I covered up the silver marker text that someone else had added to it with black Distress Paint.  Then I very lightly dry brushed on Distress paints in Rusty Hinge, Ripe Persimmon, and Wild Honey with a fan brush. 

 

Above the dresser are three of my recent altered art pieces:

 

 

You might remember them from earlier posts.  All of these frames are from the local thrift store.

 

That's it for today!

 

I will be back with one more installment of the house tour, in which I will showcase my mantel.  I may be adding one more item to it between now and then, if I can fit it in.  I have roughly ten different projects on my desktop ready to be cut and assembled.   

 

Until next time, I wish you a very happy weekend!

 

Elizabeth

The one for DD's Boy Friend...

Hello All,

Today I am going to begin sharing all of my recent Halloween projects.  I will also be sharing some photos of the various ways that I have displayed them around my house. 

Today's project is a shadow box that I put together for DD's BF's dorm room.  He asked for (or said ok, when I asked if I could make... something like that... LOL) a creepy decoration.  This is what I came up with:

 

The frame is from the thrift store, and the skeletons and spider are from the dollar store.  In the background is a creepy castle photo that I printed.  I cut the spider web with my Black Cat Cougar from Sherri at That's Scrap Inc.   This was pretty difficult to photograph, especially since it was dark and dreary this weekend.  With the shorter days limiting my photo opportunities, I have finally decided to order a little photo booth. 

 

 

Hopefully this photo shows the background and additional skeleton parts a bit better:

 

 

 

I left the white over spray on the glass, after painting the frame, because I think it gives a bit of a dusty effect.  Sure doesn't help with the photography though!  It does show the black and white background better.  The first photo looks very blue.  Probably the aqua walls of my studio interfering. 

 

This project is now on the way to college with Sean, so I won't be able to show you how it looks hanging on the wall. 

 

Until later,

 

Elizabeth

 





The one with the paper strip pumpkins and another file share!...

Happy Day, Everyone!

I have a fun project to share with you today.  I saw these really cute pumpkins while blog browsing.  I was so intrigued by how easy they looked to construct that I dropped everything, made a cut file and made two immediately.  I added the flower embellishments after remembering that I had a storage box full of fall colored quilled flowers that I made two summers ago for a project that never got off the ground. 

 

Here are the links to the downloads:

 

Strip Pumpkin Large

 

Strip Pumpkin Medium

 

Strip Pumpkin Small

 

 

Here is the link to the MsLiberty Creations Blog where I first saw these pumpkins.  There is a link to her construction video, which has instructions for two other beautiful pumpkins as well. 

 

This is a quick project that takes only one sheet of paper and two brads. (and what ever embellishments you choose to add)  Can't beat that!  I am planning to make some with Christmas papers later on this year.  I think they will look terrific filling the antique dough bowl on my kitchen work table.  I'll be sure to post photos when that project gets off the ground. 

 

Have a delightfully day!

 

Elizabeth



The one with the candy basket....

Happy Good Morning, Everyone!

I have a quick project to share with you today.   Late last week, I took a little time to make four of these cute baskets from the SVG Cuts Caramel Apple Pie collection:

 

 

There are lots of pieces, but they went together really quickly.  I cut the flowers and leaves from white card, and colored them with Distress inks.  Three of these treats went back to college with elder DD, who came home for the weekend, for her and her roommates.  The other was for younger DD, who wasn't feeling well, and needed a treat. 

 

Thanks for stopping by to have a peek!

 

Elizabeth