Plaster Posy

Aug 19, 2013

Plaster Posy

Before falling asleep one evening, I was think­ing about things to cre­ate with plas­ter and thought a flower would be fun. So the next morn­ing, I grabbed some wire and start­ed bend­ing and twist­ing it into shape cre­at­ing the base for a neat plas­ter posy. Once I had every­thing the way I liked it I applied plas­ter and got real­ly messy. I love the raw­ness of plas­ter and find it so inspir­ing. After the plas­ter was com­plete­ly dry I used bees wax to seal images onto the posy. Then to accent the edges of each petal and the leaf I paint­ed metal­lic gold paint all along the edges. I love how this lit­tle unas­sum­ing pop of gold looks. Paint­ing the edges of any project real­ly does help fin­ish off your piece. To com­plete the...

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Enjoying the Process

Jul 31, 2013

Enjoying the Process

These projects are sit­ting on my work­table just wait­ing for me to com­plete. I real­ly enjoy cre­at­ing sev­er­al dif­fer­ent plas­ter items at once. This way I have sev­er­al dif­fer­ent projects to pick from and I don’t have to wait for plas­ter to dry. I just dig around, pick out the piece that inspires me that day and start cre­at­ing. It’s a love­ly way to start the day. This heart is going to become a shad­ow box. It will be paint­ed, inked, stamped, waxed and filled with who knows what kin­da thrifty find. This plas­ter crown is just the first of many I plan on cre­at­ing. Good­ness was this fun to make. I must admit I did fuss with it far too long but I want­ed it to have lots of rough, uneven tex­tured areas...

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Jenni Bowlin Studio ~ Thank U Card

Apr 12, 2013

Jenni Bowlin Studio ~ Thank U Card

Here is Card 2 of 4 and I must say, I think this card set is one of my favorite sets I’ve ever cre­at­ed. I just love the pat­terned papers and embell­ish­ments on each card. I’m telling you Lisa Dick­in­son’s Mod­ern Mer­can­tile line she designed for Jen­ni Bowl­in Stu­dio is so super inspir­ing. I love to cre­ate mini col­lages as the focal point on all my cards. A col­lage is not just lay­er­ing and attach­ing paper and ephemera to a can­vas it can be items of any kind grouped togeth­er, which is what I had loads of fun doing with this card. The wood­en but­ter­fly, heart pins, milk cap and resin flower make an adorable col­lage and the “thank u” sen­ti­ment works great to bal­ance the col­lage per­fect­ly. Cre­at­ing 3D col­lages are won­der­ful ways to use...

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Today She Is One

Jan 25, 2013

Today She Is One

It’s hard to believe my sweet lit­tle niece Olivia is a year old, today. As you can see she is a super hap­py baby. Olivia has brought loads of joy to our fam­i­ly and I am so hap­py for face­time. It’s so excit­ing to see her look clos­er into the phone and smile at me as well as clap her hands and play peek-a-boo. Although our first game of peek-a-boo was total­ly an acci­dent on my part but she knew exact­ly what she was doing. I talk with my hands and when I put my hand on my head she thought I was want­i­ng to play peek-a-boo and start­ed play­ing and of course I instant­ly played until she lost inter­est. Olivi­a’s first year has had many mem­o­rable moments of won­der­ing why her par­ents sat...

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EnviroTex Memento Key Chain

Jan 4, 2013

EnviroTex Memento Key Chain

Here is anoth­er key­chain I cre­at­ed as a gift for Christ­mas. This one was for my mom. I start­ed by cut­ting a piece of wall­pa­per from the old home­stead that mom and I peeled off the wall one sum­mer. I then placed the wall­pa­per piece inside the heart bezel. Using a paint­brush I cov­ered the wall­pa­per with three coats of Nunn Designs Glue allow­ing the glue to dry thor­ough­ly between coats. I then mixed a small batch of Envi­ro­Tex Resin and filled the bezel halfway. I set this aside and let it cure for 12 hours. Remem­ber there is no need to waste any of your resin. If you don’t have anoth­er charm you want to cre­ate, cre­ate resin paper by plac­ing the paper onto wax paper or foil and brush the left­over resin onto the papers...

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Family is Everything

Dec 26, 2012

Family is Everything

This is the can­vas I cre­at­ed for Mom. I made her a fam­i­ly tree sor­ta can­vas. You will see me at the top as I’m the old­est, then I placed my two daugh­ters Ter­ri and Ans­ley under­neath me. Next is my broth­er Richard, then my sis­ter Belin­da and her kids Aman­da, Brit­tain, Made­lyn and Isabel­la (Bel­lie). I cre­at­ed this can­vas using the Maya Road Por­trait Chip­board pieces, Clau­dine Hell­muth Stu­dio Acrylic Paint Char­coal Black, Tra­di­tion­al Tan and Blank Can­vas. I accent­ed the sides using the Heart sten­cil by Dina Wak­ley as the hearts were the per­fect size for this piece. I traced mine onto the sides using a pen­cil then using a paint brush filled them in with black paint and white accents. I paint­ed each por­trait chip­board piece using black paint. Once dry...

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Happy Thanksgiving

Nov 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving

For­ev­er on Thanks­giv­ing Day The heart will find the path­way home. ~Wilbur D....

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Gotta Love UTEE

Oct 22, 2012

Gotta Love UTEE

I LOVE frozen Char­lotte dolls but real­ly don’t love the price that comes along with the orig­i­nal ones when I find them in antique shops. So I decid­ed to make a mold using Mold-n-Pour from the two I’ve been hoard­ing for just the right project. Once the mold set I popped out each frozen Char­lotte doll from it’s mold then filled both molds with clear UTEE. I did­n’t want to mix up a batch of white UTEE since I main­ly use clear and just let it cool in my pot. Yes, I know… shame on me for not clean­ing out my melt­ing pot after each use but it is what it is… you real­ly should clean it out after each use.  It’s real­ly easy and takes no time at all… so in this case, do...

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The little cousins

Aug 17, 2012

The little cousins

Mom, dad and I have been stay­ing with mom’s sis­ter “Aunt Wil­da” and broth­er-in-law “Uncle Jim” since we arrived in West Vir­ginia. Yes­ter­day, my cousin “Ang­ie” brought her three boys (Patrick 7 yrs., Michael 5 yrs., Nicholas 3 yrs.) to see us and boy did they keep us enter­tained.  As you will see by the pho­tos Nicholas was the major source of enter­tain­ment. Love that he still calls me his “lit­tle skunk” Makes the best jel­lo sal­ad ever! Nicholas blow­ing bub­ble after bub­ble after bub­ble. While look­ing around in an antique shop dad found some pieces from an old pipe organ for only $3.00 and had to buy them. Mom thought they were $3.00 to much. Nicholas on the oth­er hand had fun mak­ing sound come out and thought it was the best $3.00...

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Craft Day with Madelyn

Jun 26, 2012

Craft Day with Madelyn

Made­lyn, niece #2 is vis­it­ing this week. Each day we have a craft day so yes­ter­day, we made a birth­day ban­ner and par­ty hat for her My Twin doll. She had a blast with this craft since her 9th birth­day is next week. Sup­plies Need­ed: Pat­terned Paper, Bak­er’s Twine, Alpha­bet Stick­ers, Dia­mond, Fruit Punch and Lime Green Stick­les, White Boa, Yel­low Seam Bind­ing, Adhe­sive Tools Used: Fiskars Large Scal­loped Heart Punch, Martha Stew­art But­ter­fly Punch, Scis­sors, Scal­lop Scis­sors, Sewing Nee­dle, Hot Glue Gun Instruc­tions: My Twin Hap­py Birth­day Ban­ner Using the Fiskars Large Heart Punch and the Martha Stew­art But­ter­fly Punch, punch 13 hearts and 13 but­ter­flies out of two dif­fer­ent pat­terned papers. Attach one alpha­bet stick­er in the cen­ter of each punched but­ter­fly to spell “Hap­py Birth­day” Apply adhe­sive to the back of...

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Style, Discovery and Friendship a Free Online Webinar

Jun 20, 2012

Style, Discovery and Friendship a Free Online Webinar

Ron­da Palaz­zari and I are up to some­thing… and tomor­row is the day to find out! We are host­ing a FREE ONLINE WEBINAR titled STYLE, DISCOVERY AND FRIENDSHIP It’s an Online Mixed Media and Paper­craft­ing Meet Up Thurs­day, June 21, 2012 1:00 P.M. East­ern Time Reg­is­ter by click­ing HERE  A Per­son­al Style. We all have it. That artis­tic ten­den­cy, say, toward a spe­cif­ic col­or palette, or maybe a pre­ferred sub­ject mat­ter, or per­haps we favor cer­tain sup­plies and mate­ri­als to the exclu­sion of all oth­ers. We sim­ply refuse to budge. We are com­fort­able. These things we know. Maybe we are even a lit­tle bit intim­i­dat­ed by the mere idea of step­ping a toe out of the box. But what if you had a best friend to take you by the hand and show you the...

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Maya Road Mid-Release Lisa Uppercase

May 17, 2012

Maya Road Mid-Release Lisa Uppercase

I can­not pos­si­bly explain to you all just how much I LOVE the new Maya Road Lisa Upper­case ~ Chip­board Alpha­bet. And not because they are named after ME but because they tru­ly are my favorite font style and size chip­board alphas Maya Road makes. When Maya Road dis­con­tin­ued their Philadel­phia Upper­case alphas (my first true love) I near­ly had heart fail­ure and let Car­o­line know I was not hap­py with that deci­sion and begged PLEASE NO NOT THESE but there I sat any­way with no more Philadel­phia alphas. I begged some more, plead­ed some more but they were gone, gone, gone!  BUT  NOW I have a new love and I real­ly do love these more than the first so all is well, this new set is the per­fect size and I’m super hap­py and Car­o­line...

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In The Works

Apr 17, 2012

In The Works

Yes­ter­day, I played with wax and must admit Encaus­tic art makes my heart hap­py. This can­vas piece is still in the works but I love how it is turn­ing out. The soft white and hues of cream make me swoon. The tiny doily is made by my mom. It was just too per­fect not to use in this piece.  I’m think­ing this might be a fun class to teach at “The Crafty Scrap­per”, in the near future. What are your thoughts? I love how dif­fer­ent these two mini can­vas pieces are yet the col­ors are the same. It was so much fun exper­i­ment­ing with dif­fer­ent tools and embell­ish­ments… doilies, dried flow­ers and small feath­ers are per­fect addi­tions for encaus­tic work. This one is one is my favorite. The pho­to is of my grand­moth­er and mom...

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Creative Play

Feb 23, 2012

Creative Play

Yes­ter­day, in between laun­dry and clean­ing I did a lit­tle bit of play­ing and cre­at­ed this bracelet and spoon charm for a neck­lace. I real­ly do enjoy putting odds and ends togeth­er to cre­ate unique pieces of jew­el­ry. I love wear­ing things I’ve made because I can make them as funky as I want and I like funky jew­el­ry a lot. I real­ly like dig­ging in the tins I have that hold all my baubles. I save EVERYTHING no mat­ter how tiny because I am always think­ing I will find the per­fect project for it some­day. I’ve had the lit­tle cop­per heart charm for YEARS. It final­ly found it’s home on a bracelet. And these dried flow­ers… I have no clue how long I’ve had these but I think they are per­fect rest­ing inside this...

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The Art of Felting

Jan 11, 2012

The Art of Felting

I’ve been play­ing around with sev­er­al new medi­ums late­ly and felt­ing has been the lat­est one. It has always intrigued me and I find tak­ing wool rov­ing and shap­ing it into some­thing is quite relax­ing, that is unless your my dad. Then, well… it’s not so relax­ing. I taught him and mom how to do it dur­ing their Christ­mas vis­it and he was not too impressed. He’s decid­ed to stick to wood­carv­ing. But I do have a star and a bird that they both com­plet­ed that I’ll show you tomor­row. They did a great job. I decid­ed to take this felt­ed heart and cov­er it with small scraps of stamped muslin, linen and burlap then accent them with vin­tage but­tons, pearls and charms. I attached two jump rings at the top of the heart...

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Growing up with Santa

Dec 19, 2011

Growing up with Santa

No mat­ter how old San­ta’s grand­kids are they’re nev­er too old to have a pho­to tak­en with San­ta. This year, Laren (SIL) and Ter­ri my old­est daugh­ter went to Beau­mont for Thanks­giv­ing. This meant they were able to get their pho­to tak­en with San­ta. It’s been sev­er­al years since they’ve been able to make it down for the hol­i­days and Mr. and Mrs. Claus were very hap­py to see them. This pho­to is of San­ta and my sis­ter Belin­da’s kids… from left to right is my adorable nephew Brit­tain (poor boy he is the ONLY boy out of 6 grand­kids), Isabel­la, Paw Paw San­ta, Made­lyn hold­ing Grand-Dog Zeus and niece Aman­da. Believe it or not this pho­to was the first one they took! Talk about a Christ­mas mir­a­cle. Even Zeusy was good and looked...

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Christmas Baking

Dec 6, 2011

Christmas Baking

One of the things Ans­ley always looks for­ward to every hol­i­day sea­son is bak­ing Christ­mas cook­ies… wait, let me rephrase this… me bak­ing Christ­mas cook­ies. Each year, it is not Christ­mas to her unless I bake her all her favorites… Choco­late Chewies, Lemon Cook­ies, Pecan Sandies and Red Vel­vet cook­ies with a Her­shey Kiss in the mid­dle. The girl keeps me busy dur­ing the hol­i­days for sure. But I love it and it makes me hap­py that she loves them so much. So Ans­ley and her cook­ies were the inspi­ra­tion behind this card. I thought the Maya Road Heart Tart Tin Bot­tle­cap was per­fect to start with, then using Jet Black Archival Ink, I stamped the Anti­quat­ed Col­lec­tion Miss­es’ Aprons onto grungepa­per three times so I could cut out the apron from one and...

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FINALLY…

Nov 19, 2011

FINALLY…

The day has final­ly arrived. Please vis­it me dur­ing the LIVE online chat at A Cher­ry On Top as I debut my new stamp line “Anti­quat­ed Col­lec­tion”. It is going to be lots of fun chat­ting with every­one AND I have give­aways … my new book Delight In The Sea­sons, an Anti­quat­ed Col­lec­tion stamp set and a set of the New Maya Road Heart Tart Tin Bot­tle­caps. I thought I would share with you one of my favorite projects. I com­bined sev­er­al dif­fer­ent Anti­quat­ed Col­lec­tion Stamp Sets, then used Archival Ink in Jet Black to stamp the image onto muslin, cut out each one using pink­ing shears, and stitched all the pieces togeth­er with my sewing machine set to a zigzag stitch using a cream col­ored thread. I then attached the sewn pieces and...

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Smile Sweet Heart Card

Jul 1, 2011

Smile Sweet Heart Card

Here is a bright and cheery card I cre­at­ed using the Cocoa Daisy Main Kit “Urban Loft” and the “South Loop” Add On Kit. I’m lov­ing all the bright col­ors and designs on these flow­ers and accent­ed with self adhe­sive pearls which are includ­ed in the main kit, makes them even cuter. You all know how much I love pearls! Today, I will be cre­at­ing with some new CHA release prod­ucts for Maya Road which make me so hap­py, just wait until you see them… oh my good­ness did Car­o­line and Deb ever out do them­selves with this release. I think it’s my favorite ever. Then tonight, I will be edit­ing into the wee hours of the night, again. My Aunt would cringe if she saw my sleep sched­ule right now it’s worse than...

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Friendship Tokens

Jun 15, 2011

Friendship Tokens

Dur­ing the meet and greet at Paper Cow­girl we had a super fun friend­ship token exchange. The tokens can be any­thing you wish to cre­ate and give away. This exchange would be some­thing fun to do at crops or any scrap­ping event. I just have to show you how cre­ative every­one was at Paper Cow­girl. I did my best to get a good close up of each one I received. My name badge was full. One of the par­tic­i­pants cro­cheted all her flower tokens. Some altered game pieces. As you can see my name tag was full… col­ored keys tied on with yarn, stick­ers, millinery flow­ers a met­al dress form was cre­at­ed and watch faces were used. I’m not kid­ding when I said peo­ple made them from all sorts of items. Kraft tags were...

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Its been a Dogs day afternoon…

May 17, 2011

Its been a Dogs day afternoon…

and soon to be bath day as well for three super won­der­ful dog­gies. Today, I am tak­ing a day off from the stu­dio to just relax and get myself orga­nized. I’ve dis­cov­ered I’m the worlds worst at relax­ing. I just can­not do it. Always feel like I need to be doing some­thing at all hours of the day or night. So today I sat out­side with the four legged babies and threw toys and just chilled. They loved it and I love watch­ing how they are all so dif­fer­ent in per­son­al­i­ty. We can only throw rope toys or balls for one dog at a time. Chiefie being the youngest can out run the oth­er two, Buster being the mid­dle is a pure toot and will turn nasty the sec­ond Chief or Son­ny even thinks...

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