Altered Journals

These mini journals came from Michael's (I think they were marked down to 50 cents each) right before Christmas.  The dress form was made using the French Manor cartridge with my Cricut machine and I made the flower yo-yo.  The bling flourish and bling across the dress form are from Michael's.  The jeweled pearl on the closure is "Say it with Pearls" from Prima.

The second journal:  black and gold scalloped circles were made with Spellbinders dies and my Cuttlebug.  The gold embossing was done with a Spellbinders Mbossibilities folder.  The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch.  Pearls on the butterfly and the rhinestone flourish are from Mike's and the jeweled pearl on the closure is from Prima.

Thanks for looking!!

Dictionary Stamping

I stumbled upon a beautiful blog,  Stamping Mathilda.  Mathilda had the wonderful idea of altering a dictionary someone had given her by stamping images and coloring them right on the entry pages.  So I've lifted her idea and have started my own altered dictionary.  Like her, I will be stamping/coloring every Wednesday.  I'm challenging myself to 2 images a week.  Since this is the second Wednesday in 2013, I stamped 4 to catch up.  The balloon, key, and clock images are with Unity stamps, the daisy is with a $1 (or $1.50 now) stamp from Michael's

Since I live in Maryland, I made colored my daisy to look like a Black-Eyed Susan (our State Flower).

Thanks for looking!

Crafty Gals Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Thank you Crafty Gals for allowing me to join you.  Since this month's challenge is Anything Goes, I thought I would just some techniques I learned from Creative JumpStart Summit 2013.  It is a FREE online series of tutorials.  Many of the tutorials are given by instructors by companies we love (Sakura, Prima, Liquitex, etc.).  You can join in the fun, go to the founder's website, Nathalie, here and click on the tab "CJS2013" at the top.  I've learned so much in the first week.  The tutorials are archived so it won't take long to catch up and did I mention there are chances to win products?

After my long commercial, here's how I created my tags.  The tag on the right was stenciled with Fired Brick Distress Ink, then stenciled again with spray ink (ivy vines), finally I attached a flower made with Tim Holtz's Tattered Flower die.

The tag on the left was made after I sprayed the ivy stencil onto the tag I took a blank tag and pressed it on the stencil to pick up the ink on the stencil (negative).  I used a brass stencil (flower) and stenciled with acrylic paint.  Finally I stamped a frame and glues a chipboard number inside and stamped the letter u.  Thanks for looking.

An Altered Box

My sister gave me a beautiful scarf she got in India while on vacation.  It was wrapped in this box:

The colors were very pretty (and not 2 colors I would ever dream of putting together).  So I altered it to this:

The paper is Trend Setter, the Flowers and Pins (Western Romance),  and Ribbon (Yacht Club) are from Webster's Pages.  The flower on the bottom (with the blue center) was made from the packaging that held the flower and pins (punched with a button in the center).  The beautiful starburst flower was made by Julie you can find more of her exquisite creations here.  Thanks for looking!!

Welcome 2013!!

It's a new year, which means new resolutions.  The biggest resolution for me this year is to post on my very neglected blog at least once a week.  So here goes:

In my quest to use paper I already have (really trying to refrain from buying more paper in 2013, the hoarding has to stop), I made these two cards.  {ippity} stamps were used on both.  Thanks for looking!

Graphic 45 Album

 I went to Tuesday Morning a few weeks ago and bought lots of cardstock, embellies, and stamps.  When I came home I made this mini album.  The inside has binder rings holding the pages made from scrap paper I had.  This album was a lot of fun!  I love the images Graphic 45 uses.  DH even said he liked it.

Altered Cricut Cartridge Box

 I recently bought a Cricut Cartridge Keeper (Tote).  What to do with all those cardboard boxes (with magnets in the flap closure)?   I altered them.  Here's an example of one I altered using scraps I had.  The frame was made with the Fancy Frames cartridge.  I added floral gems (glass marbles for feet).

Inside the box, I added this mini notebook and pencil.