Just Playing Around

Last weekend was Presidents Day and I took an extra day off so that I could have a 4 day weekend to just play around.  I thought the project I chose would be easily completed during my days alone (Monday and Tuesday). Boy was I wrong! lol

I decided to make SVG Cuts' Magnolia Manor. Have you seen it? It is a GORGEOUS Victorian mansion. You need to check it out. 

The first issue with building any of these 3D projects is picking the right papers. I originally was going to make the house dark red (I even made a special trip to Michaels to buy the paper). I now have several sheets of dark red card stock waiting for something else lol

I ended up using card stock from Close To My Heart. Lagoon, Colonial White, and Black. The 'wrought iron' decorations on the top are Cricut's Pearl paper. I am not sure what they call the color but I would call it Pewter.

I embossed all the siding to look like clapboard using Cuttlebug's Stripes folder. I embossed a diamond pattern on all the roof pieces with CTMH's Diamond folder.

As fabulous as it is I thought it needed 'something' so I created window boxes on the bay window.
I cut strips of the Colonial White to simulate the actual box, folded the ends to give the illusion that they really are boxes then filled them with leaves and flowers. 

 The taller green plants are from Spellbinders Die D-Lites Basil set. The smaller leaves and all the flowers come from Impression Obsession die sets. The leaves are the Small Leaf Cluster set, the flowers are the Spiral Flower set.

Yesterday I made a trip to the craft store just to buy lights for my house. I used Firefly LED lights (a string of 30). I am thinking maybe I need to switch to a string of 10 or 15 but doesn't it look cool all lit up?


All the prior houses I have made from SVG Cuts took just a couple afternoons to complete. This one was much more than that.

It took over 3 1/2 hours just to cut out all the layers!  I was able to call my mom and have a long chat AND then cook dinner while I moved mats in and out of my Explore!

Then over the next 4 days I spent aproximately 14 - 15 hours assembling.  I then spent an additional hour or so creating the window boxes.

Was it worth all that time? YES!!!
Would I do it again? Maybe, but it would probably be as a gift because I don't really need 2 of these houses sitting around.....unless I decided to make one for Halloween or Christmas. I can see this as a really cool haunted house. ;-)

But I did more than just build a house this week.

My brother's birthday was on the 23rd. And I actually made his card BEFORE his birthday! lol
Now, I didn't mail it until the 21st so it probably didn't arrive in time but at least I was closer than I was with my niece and nephew lol

This is one of Tim Holtz' Crazy Dogs. The food dish comes with the dog set. The party hat and balloons are from the Crazy Things set.

I stamped and masked the hat, dish and dog using my Misti. I then colored everything with Spectrum Noir markers. 
I cut the frame with my Cricut Explore. It is from the Pooh and Friends cartridge. I used Distress Inks around the edges.

The balloons are attached with foam tape and the strings are heavy carpet thread. I cut a small slit around the dogs foot so that he could hold the strings.

My Tim Holtz Birch Trees cutting die arrived on Friday so of course I had to try it out. And then I had to figure out something to use it on. Oh the troubles of a crafter lol

I used Distress Inks on the trees.
I then embossed light blue card stock with Crafters Companion Regency Swirls embossing folder. The blue is a white core card stock so I rubbed the embossing with sandpaper to make the swirls white.

A while back, one of the local craft stores had the Gorjuss stamps on sale for 1/2 off. I picked up a few because I think they are so adorable.

I finally found time (and a project) to try one out.

This girl (and her squirrel) are from the You Brought Me Love set.

They are stamped with Distress Ink Black Soot and colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.
I then fussy cut them and attached them with foam tape.

I had so much fun coloring the first Gorjuss girl that I decided to color another one. :-)

She comes from a set called The Hatter.
She is also stamped with Black Soot and colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

Notice the cool corners? That was an estate sale find from yesterday.

The listing had all kinds of things....collectibles, books, kitchen stuff, old toys and the last thing....craft stuff.
So we stopped by, it was the last day of the sale so you know all the good stuff is long gone but they usually mark stuff way down to try to unload it.
The sign said anything priced under $50 was 75% off.

I wandered all over the entire house twice. Lots of tacky junk and piles of trash but no treasures.

On my third pass I noticed a couple tattered boxes filled with what looked like old, ratty magazines. I never go through stuff like that, I have enough trash in my own house! lol  But this voice in my head said....what the heck, shuffle through and see.

I found the corner stamp, it is Martha Stewart. I also found a Martha Stewart butterfly border punch. These things are not cheap when brand new.  I was happy.
So I moved to the second box of junk. I shuffled through several tattered magazines and as I picked them up a Cuttlebug folder fell out of the stack...still in it's original packaging. Huh! What do you know!  So I shuffled a little more intently and found 5 more Cuttlebug folders, Cuttlebug plates - 1 A, 2 B and 1 C ....all still in the factory packages, never opened. I left 2 of the Cuttlebug folders - 1 I already owned, the other just didn't appeal to me.

For the 2 punches, 4 folders and 4 plates and a Tupperware mixer/shaker (so I don't just buy craft stuff lol) I paid $6.50  I couldn't buy 1 Cuttlebug folder for that amount!  I had just been thinking the day before that I needed to get some new B plates as mine are in really rough shape!

Yep, estate sales are fun!

So that wraps up all my finds and creations for this week.
I hope you all have a wonderful week as we move into March! (can you believe it???)

Happy Crafting!

Happy Presidents Day

I'm still not sure why we have huge mattress and sheet sales for Presidents Day but I am very thankful for the day off.  :-)

I have no plans for this weekend!  I just want to relax....so much so that I am taking Tuesday off too lol

I have been relaxing a bit too much though. So much so that I totally forgot to make cards for my nephew (birthday in January) and niece (birthday just last week). Yep, I am terrible!

So I spent the last couple days making cards for them (and I guess I do have plans for the weekend because I am going out to buy gift cards) 

I love stamping and these stamps are so adorable.but I don't get to use them very often.

This little cutie is one of the members of Tim Holtz' Crazy Dogs. I colored him with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.
His deflated balloon is from the Crazy Things set that was designed for the Bird Crazy birds but they work great with the Crazy Dogs and Cats too.

For my niece I made a gate fold card. I then took a separate sheet white of card stock and embossed it with Close To My Heart's Diamonds folder but used an Anna Griffin Impression Mask and Scoring die to create an un-embossed center. I cut this sheet in half and glued it to the front card flaps. I then cut the cupcake from Cricut's Summer Celebrations cartridge. I ran the icing layer through my Cuttlebug to give it some swirls. (the folder is part of Sizzix' Flourish stamp and emboss set).

Last time (or maybe the time before....old age affects the memory some times lol)  I talked about the round robin we are doing in the BadBaby group.

We are not supposed to share our works from everyone's books (and I am debating on whether I am going to break that rule since we were talking about the facebook group and not a blog) but I thought I would share the spread I did for my own book.

My book is 4Wx6H with the binding at the top. 

I drew and colored this rose in a Ball jar on watercolor paper using Inktense pencils. I then splattered dark brown paint all around.

I am really please with how it turned out so I am very happy that it was for my own book so that it will eventually come back home to me.  (not that I don't like what I have done in the other books so far because I do but you can't get attached .... you have to give them away)

So Happy Presidents Day... I hope you have a fun time mattress shopping lol

and Happy Crafting!

Let's hope she's a great cook

because it is going to take some serious skills to make this meal edible! lol

I finished my second page in the Grimm Fairy Tales - Different Seasons book.

I am assuming this is supposed to be Red Riding Hood getting her revenge on the wolf but I could be wrong. lol

No matter who she is she was fun to color.

I used Spectrum Noir markers for "Red" and her dinner.
When my sister gave me this book she also gave me a very large tub of gel pens..100 pens to be exact! I used the silver for the oven rack, cupboard handles and some trim on the top of the stove.
The sheet pan was done with Crayola metallic silver pencil...I wanted metallic but not super shiny like the gel pens. (my sheet pans are far from shiny lol)
The cupboards, floor, walls and ceiling are Prismacolor pencil and lastly the window view was done with Rembrandt soft pastels (crazy weird sky going on out there lol)

I love using alcohol markers! Yeah Yeah I know!

As any of you who have been reading my blog over the years know, I avoided alcohol markers like the plague. I mean seriously ... over $6 for ONE pen???  I pride myself on being thrifty with my money (well most of the time lol)

So, when I finally decided to take the plunge I bought a few Copic Ciao markers....same colors, thinner barreled pen... just a little more than half the price. They are still refillable so why pay more?  But still way more than I wanted to pay.

I then found Spectrum Noir last summer. A wide range of colors, they come in coordinated packs of 6 pens for less than the price of 2 regular Copics (or 3 Ciaos)

C'mon.....this is a no brainer.

They blend beautifully....even for someone like me that does not have much experience with alcohol markers.
I love the effect I got on her dress! I used a couple shades of blue to give some depth to the folds of her dress and then quickly swiped over all the stripes with the clear blender pen.....instant light stripes. It would have been a lot more work to get this color effect with pencils.

I rarely show off my stash....you all wouldn't believe what a person can cram into an 8x10 room! But I want to show you my markers just because they are so pretty!  I just sit and stare at them. Hey, I do the same thing with my paints... don't judge me lol

How can you not get inspired seeing all those gorgeous colors every time you sit down.
See my tiny Copic stash at the top left? lol
The blue pens are the new Spectrum Noir Colorista pens. The rows above them are for the rest of the ones coming on my HSN autoship later this year. (shh hubby may not know about those yet lol)

All I am missing now is the Dark color set and I will have them all! (I just won an Amazon gift card at work so they will be ordered VERY soon)

Kind of like when I had to have all the Inktense pencils last year....the more you have the more you want because they are so wonderful to use.

Ok, as I reread this I thought you all needed to see my paint stash too....it is gorgeous too! lol

Isn't is awesome? I found the wall rack at an estate sale a few years ago. It obviously holds a lot of paint! I love being literally surrounded by color.

Since this is Friday I will wish you a very happy weekend! and Happy Crafting!

Craft Warehouse is allowing us to use JoAnn's coupons for the next few days (they never do that!) and I have a couple 50% off so guess where I will be?!   ;-)

The Blah Season

That is what it feels like....the major holidays are over. Summer vacation is a loooonnnnnggggg way off!

I have to really work at being motivated at this time of year.
Thankfully I have a very full craft room (too full if you ask hubby - so we don't ask lol)

It also helps that I got new toys (read supplies) for Christmas.

My sister Laurel gave me a new coloring book for Christmas. I have lots of books but NOTHING like this one. I never would have purchased it for myself. It is so different from any of my others. Grimm Fairy Tales - Different Seasons. It is MUCH darker than any of my others but I have to say that I am loving it!

 As you can see I am not done with this one. Each page is a scene featuring a real BadAss heroine from a fairy tale. Definitely nothing like the stories from my childhood. :-)

So far I have only used Spectrum Noir alcohol markers on this one but will probably use some chalks and pencils on the background to keep it much lighter. 

Here is the first page of the book. 

She is a mix of Spectrum Noir and Copic alcohol markers, Inktense pencils and Prismacolor pencils. I colored her in the couple days I had off after Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas presents...

Hubby gave me a couple new cutting dies.

One of them was this window from Spellbinders called Window Two. Does that mean there is a Window One out there too? 

And Craft Warehouse had ALL their cutting dies on sale last Saturday - 40% off so I HAD to go look. 
The lighter colored leaves and all the flowers are from Impression Obsession. Small Leaf Cluster and Spiral Flowers. Aren't they adorable?

And lastly, on the way home from Craft Warehouse, I popped into Tuesday Morning (that place can be dangerous!!!) They had some Spellbinders dies. The dark green leaves are part of a die set called Basil. The set is 5 dies - 2 different sets of leaves, a flower pot, a decorative layer for on top of the pot and a little herb marker sign. Too cute to pass up! I knew when I saw it that it would go great with my window.

I embossed the blue with Close To My Heart Stripes folder. It makes pretty good siding don't you think?

So far the card is blank inside. It could be just about anything....birthday, get well, just because... I will toss it into the stash until something comes up.

And since I am talking about shopping... What? You forgot? Scroll up a couple lines :-)
Have you all seen the We R Memory Keepers Typecast Typewriter?
Isn't it cute? I like the turquoise.

Well, it has me kicking myself for leaving my mom's typewriter behind when I moved west. It was her high school graduation present. A Smith Corona Super Silent...in pink. Google it. You will find out just how rare and expensive they are. And her was in mint condition with the case and original instruction booklet and typing tutorial booklet (and I had just put in a new ribbon! ugh!). I used to use it all the time. But I was going to have a computer and printer out here and just left it with my ex thinking "I won't need it if I have a computer". Stupid Stupid!  (and not the only thing I left behind that I regret leaving. UGH!)

But back to shopping...I just couldn't pay out that much money for the WRM retro version of a typewriter so I went on a weekend quest and searched every single thrift and antique store and mall in the valley....it took 2 days, 5 stores/malls and over 15 hours but....

Persistence, stubbornness...or again maybe stupidity (lol) paid off.

Isn't she a beauty?  A Smith Corona Super Sterling from the mid 60s. She works beautifully and has only very minor wear and tear (and was only $40!)

And an even bigger plus....the pretty colored typewriter ribbons (teal, pink, silver...) that WRM makes for their typewriter FIT mine! 

Do I have a use yet....nope. But I am ready with black, pink and teal ribbons for when the idea strikes. :-)

And lastly.....yeah, I am winding down lol

I pulled out my 3x5 Gelli Plate and had some fun. 
I was in the mood to get my hands dirty....am I the only one that ever gets that urge?

I was experimenting with masks (I freehanded a couple cats) and am thinking I will grab a pen and do some doodling on some of these.

I am also in a Round Robin mini book swap with the BadBabys and have already used a couple of these as backgrounds on some of my pages.  I can't show them yet though because we swore we wouldn't share our works until after the swap ends so everyone will be surprised. But then again I am a BadBaby (part of our motto is to break the rules lol) so I may sneak some in here once in a while (the swap will be going on most of the year so I have time to think it over)

I hope this encourages you to find something to clear out the blahs.

Happy Crafting!