Making progress

Hello everyone, and welcome this snowy day!  I'm so happy you could join me.  It is snowing again, but they are assuring us it's not going to amount to much.  For those of us in the Mid-Atlantic this winter is going on forever!!  The weekend was beautiful and I was able to get out into my garden and prune the roses and clean up some of the flower beds.  My hellebores and crocuses are starting to bloom and that makes me very happy.  Now if we could just warm up and stay that way!  But, enough of the complaining about the weather (which gets you nowhere!) and on to the title of this post.

I don't make resolutions at the New Year but I do try to set some realistic goals for myself.  This year it was to finish projects that have been sitting around in various states of completion.  Of course, I had to weed out the ones that made me say "What was I thinking?" and keep the ones I still really liked and wanted to finish!  After that exercise was done I decided to do one a month to keep to my realistic timeline and not try to finish everything in two weeks as I'm inclined to do once I decide to do something!  In January I finished a little paper art project that was from a technique class I took over a year ago with Wendy Vecchi.  This month it was to finish a lariat I had started about two years ago.  This is the finished necklace.

 

 

While I like to design as I go, this was a compilation of patterns from other bead artists.  It started out as a way to use a beaded ring that was a Cynthia Rutledge design.  I decided to use it as the ring end of a lariat.  Of course, then I needed a lariat!  I was just going to bead a spiral rope using some beads from the ring but then I saw this lariat pattern in  Kelly Wiese's book,  Beaded Allure.  I liked the seed beaded stitch pattern and the fringe that used silver as well as beads.  So, using the colors that I had used in the ring, an unusual color combination for me, I stitched the lariat and then the fringe. 

 

 

 

 

 

While the green is a color I use a lot, the blue pearls and golden accent beads are not go to colors for me.  But, I guess I was in a mood to change things up the day I stitched the ring!! It was fun to stitch and I found blue seed beads with a green iris finish to stitch the lariat.   Of course, the fringe was my favorite part of the necklace.  Here's a picture of it.

 

 









 

I love stitching fringe and I use lots of different beads to create pattern and interest in it.  The original fringe from the pattern used silver beads, bead caps and spacers and I kept that part of the design.  From there I added crystals bicones and shaped beads, fire polished beads, seed beads, Hill Tribe bead caps and a few vintage beads.  Its a nice long fringe which adds to the drape of the necklace.  

 

 I feel so pleased to have been able to finish a lariat that I really like and to have been able to put those beads away after a long time sitting on my work table!!  On to project 3!!!

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today!  I love all your comments and appreciate your visits so much.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

 

A Positivity Journal

Hello everyone!  It's so nice to have you visiting!  Today I want share an ongoing project with you.  Astrid MacLean had a brilliant idea at the end of the last year.  She decided to create a "Positivity Journal".   I don't know if you're familiar with Astrid's work, but it is truly beautiful.  Her journals are so wonderfully artistic.  She decided to create a journal in which to record one positive thing that happened every day for the entire year of 2014.  She encouraged anyone who wanted to join in to do so.  I loved the idea because I have been trying to find positive things to be grateful for in my everyday life for a couple of years.  I found that it does change your attitude to look at a beautiful sunrise and say "Thank You".  Some days the positive things are more substantial than a sunrise and some days the sunrise is just too wonderful to ignore.  But, whatever the situation, I found it makes a tremendous difference in my attitude.  But, I had never written any thing down.  I just kept these things in my mind.  When Astrid talked about her journal and showed the first pages I knew I had to create a journal to record my positive experiences.  I have found that creating the journal is becoming a positive experience in itself! 

Here is a picture of the inside cover. 

 

 

 

I love that saying!  It's part of the Typography collection from Graphic45.   I thought it was perfect for the inside cover of my journal.  I used another paper from the same collection as a background and stenciled with heavy body gel medium.  When it was dry I rubbed some Gilders' Paste over the stenciling.  You can see a little of the first page of the journal.

 

 

The journal is becoming a means of trying new products and new techniques.  My daughter shared some of her stenciling tricks and I've had a great time using them and adding some others.  I've rediscovered my love of stencils and all the ways you can use them.  I've gotten to love Gelatos and I'm using pan pastels for the first time.  So, positivity is flowing from the creation of the journal!!  I love that!

 

 

I start by doing a background on a two page spread and then take off from there.  I coordinate the two pages but they are each different.  The journal is already becoming bulky so I'm trying to keep the embellishments flat.  Some times I use little tags or envelopes with tags in them for the journaling and sometimes I just journal on the page.  I think I'll have to eventually start in another journal anyway. 

 

 

Here are some pictures of some of the other pages.

 

 

Another piece from Typogrhapy which I made into a flap that folds down to record my entry for that day. The background used gold Perfect Pearls over DI for some shimmer.

 

Stencils and masks along with a little tag attached for future entries.

 

The facing page with more stenciling and masking and a little folded journaling card.

 

 

 

I have several more pages to share but I'll wait to share those as I  continue to update you on the progress of my journal. 

 

If you would like to join in it's not too late.  Here is Astrid's original post about her journal.  There are no rules and no challenges.  It's just a chance to find positive things in the everyday to enjoy and cherish. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate your visits.  Have a wonderful day today.





A little bright spot

Hi, everyone!  Welcome!  I'm so happy to have you visit today.  I'm sure you're wondering what the bright spot is.  Well, for me it's Valentine's Day.  Winter is cold and it's often gloomy and since I was a child I've always thought that Valentine's Day was a fun bit of brightness, what with all the red and pink and lace, in the middle of a dull winter.  By now everyone is tired of the harsh weather so we all need a little pick me up!  And, of course, I love to make things for Valentine's Day.  This year I'm making some cards but I also wanted to make something to put on a table in my living room.  Here's what I came up with.

 

 

 

It's a tag, but not a tag!  I used one of the large tags and covered it with Authentique's Valentine paper for this year.  I always love their holiday themed collections. I inked the edges with Vintage Photo DI.  The banner was part of the paper's design.  I cut out one of the vintage images from another sheet of the paper and cut a slit above the banner so I could tuck the corner of the image in.  The background is a 6x6 inch piece of red paper.  I cut a Tattered Doily out of white cardstock using the On the Edge die from Tim Holtz.  After sponging it with Vintage Photo DI I put it down on the background paper and glued the tag over it.  I created a bow from shear ribbon from my ribbon stash and attached that to the top along with two crystal "hat pins".  Using Kaiser Craft Sparkles I tacked down the ribbon streamers and "sprinkled" them around the tag and background.  A little "Forever" sticker fills in the corner.  I cut an easel with the easel die from TH and attached it to the back so it's free standing.   Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 You may notice that there are no hearts in this Valentine project!  Well, that's because I wanted to enter it in the latest challenge over at Frilly and Funkie.  This challenge is to make something for Valentine's Day using the traditional red, pink and white but NO hearts!  That was a challenge I couldn't pass up.  All that red and pink and Valentine sentiment but no hearts. 

 

 

Well, I hope this post is putting some bright color into your day.  Thank you so much for visiting me and for all the wonderful comments you leave for me.  Have a wonderful day.

 

 

Winter Wonderland

Hi everyone!  I'm so happy to have you join me today.  We are in the midst of another cold snap here in the Mid-Atlantic so I thought the title of this post was appropriate.  It's been a cold winter with some snow which is sticking around because of the frigid temperatures.  That all has me spending lots of time organizing and creating.  And, a lot of my ideas are centering around winter and all it's glories!  Surprising, I know!  But, I finished a little wall hanging yesterday and I wanted to share it with you.  Here it is.  Oh, and by the way, I'm calling it "Hot Chocolate"!

 

 

 

I had this clip board for ages and I decided to use it for a winter themed wall hanging.  I just love this year's Authentique winter set of papers and I wanted to use them for something that was vintage looking. The clip board seemed to fit.  It really wasn't very vintage but I helped it along a little bit ;)!  I started out "rusting" the clip.  I used Ranger's Vintaj metal colors in Clay, Rust and Cinnabar. I painted them on randomly and then dry brushed some Silks Nutmeg over the clip along with some Black Soot Distress Paint. I painted the board, both back and front, with Antique Linen Distress  Paint.   For the paper I embossed the first layer with a Spellbinders embossing folder.  You really can't see much of the embossing but it's been gone over lightly with some German Silver Gilders' Paste to bring out the embossing.  I then layered one of the papers that had the word Chocolate in the corner and distressed the edges sponging some Vintage Photo DI on them.  The text is actually from the Louisa May Alcott book Little Women!  I thought that was a great touch.  It appeals to the booklover in me!  And, I love reading on a cold winter night.  I cut the scene from another paper in the collection and distressed this too, using Black Soot DI on the edges.  Once all the papers were layered together I lightly rubbed the German Silver on them.  I love the German Silver Gilders' Paste because it gives a tarnished vintage look to what ever it's used on. 

 

For embellishment I used a little tag that expresses how I like to spend my winter nights!  Cozy blankets and hot chocolate sound like the perfect antidote to the frigid temperatures we've been having.  I used a dark tan velvet ribbon for the bow and some glittered chip board snowflakes to dress up the hanging. 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had fun putting this together .  It really summarizes my ideas of the best way to spend a winter day.  A great book,  soft blankets and hot chocolate!  What more can you ask for!

 

I'm entering this in the Frilly and Funkie challenge which is The Warmth of Winter. 

 

Thank you so much for spending your time with me today.  I really appreciate it so much.  I hope you have a wonderful day and that you stay warm and safe!





Time to Stitch 4 Blog Hop



Hi everyone!  It's been really quiet here on the blog the last week or so.  After putting away all the Christmas decorations I went on a much needed clearing out/organizing binge.  I'm not finished yet, I've made a lot of progress and things are looking better already!  But, today I'm participating in the blog hop put on by Therese and Christine.  These two great ladies have done this hop for a few years now and it's always great fun.  The idea is to urge beaders to try new stitches, or to revisit stitches they may have used once and not used again.  This time around the stitch that was the focus of the hop was netting.  Then we all had the opportunity to vote on another stitch we would like to work with as an extra.  The winner was spiral rope!  That's one of my favorite stitches so I was very happy.  Here are my two necklaces.

 

 First is the netted stitched lariat.  I love lariats and I wanted to stitch one using the netting stitch.  The beaded beads that are part of the fringe were the color inspiration for the beads I used.  The netting was done with size 15 seed beads in bronze and aqua.  The fringe was stitched using bronze and aqua crystals, daggers, and bronze flower end caps.  The beaded beads were done a few years ago and I wanted to use them in this lariat fringe.  Here are some close up details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spiral rope necklace I made is actually a variation of spiral rope created by my good friend Kathy, the owner of the bead store, Bead Soup.  She used the new Rula beads as part of the spiral.  Rula beads are another of the new two hole beads that are coming out now.  Here is my version.

 

 



 

 

 

 

I used a pretty soft pink size 8 bead for the core and bronze 15s along with the Rulas for the spiral.  The Rulas were a beautiful iris finished bead and the pink core picks up some of the pink tones in the finish.  It was very hard to capture that in the pictures.  Here are the  details.

 

 

 

 



 

So, there you have my entries in this challenge. I want to thank Therese and Christine for hosting this hop.  They are two very wonderful people I've gotten to know because of this blog.  Thank you so much for visiting me. 

 

Here's a list of the other participants and   I hope you visit their blogs and see what they came up with. 

 

 

1.  Amy Severino

2.  Janet Bocciardi

3.  Cynthia Machata

4.  Alicia Marinache

5.  Paula Kramer

6.  Kim Hora

7.  Dee Alcalde

8.  Dagi (Kokopelli)

9   Maryanne Gross

10. LizE

11. Sally Russick

12. Becky Pancake

13. Jasvanti Patel

14. Karin Slaton

15. Alenka

16. Sarah Sequins

17. Tanya Goodwin

18. Debbie Rasmussen

19. Shirley Moore

20. Crystie Willard



21. Nelly May

 22. Ana Cravidao





Thank you #2 and the end of the challenge

Hi everyone!  I'm happy to have you visit.  Today I'm going to share the last tag of the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.   I'm sure by now you all know that Linda extended the challenge so that we have until January 8th to post all our entries.  The last two tags which made up the extension were to be thank you notes.  That way we all got a head start on the holiday thank you notes!  All the rules of the challenge can be found here.  And, Linda's second bonus tag can be seen here.   One of the things I liked about Linda's tag is the way she folded it.   I like the matchbook folded note and I hadn't done one in a long time.  Here is a picture of my tag.

 

 

While my tag is much different than Linda's I did take inspiration from what she did. I loved her  wintery theme and  I used her fold idea.  I also used another of the Clearly for Art foliage from Tim Holtz' December tag technique.  Linda cut a snowflake border, which I want to try sometime.  I love the almost icy look you get from using the frosted film over the clear Clearly for Art.  By the way, that's a product from Wendy Vecchi which you can find in Linda's boutique.  Anyway, on to the details of the tag.  I used Bundled Sage, Picket Fence, and Brushed Pewter Distress Paint to color the background using the marbling method.  I dried it and then spritzed it with Perfect Pearls mist.  Once I had it folded I used clear embossing ink on the edges and embossed it with silver EP.  A cut apart from Authentique's new winter collection seemed perfect to add to the front of the note.  I used Kaiser Kraft Sparkles on the tabs.  I added a larger Sparkles dot to the hole at the top of the tag with the foliage under it.  The gem topped paper clip keeps it closed.

 

 



 

 

For the inside of the tag I stamped the thank you using TH Simple Sayings set and the label stamp that comes with it.  I embossed it with silver EP and cut it out, leaving enough space on one end to punch a hole and thread some vintage look tinsel through it. 

 

I really like the color combination I used for this tag.  I wanted something wintery but I've gotten tired of using blues and silver.   Here are some close ups.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

So, that's it.  I have loved this challenge and I want to say thank you to Linda for hosting it.  I'm looking forward to next year.  And, I want to thank all of you who have stopped by to see what I did and left such wonderful and encouraging comments.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! 

 

I hope you have a wonderful week and for those of you enduring unusually cold temperatures in the US take care and stay as warm as possible.  Thanks for stopping by!

 







Happy New Year and a little more!

Happy New Year to all my blog friends!  I hope you have a wonderful, creative 2014.  I can't thank you enough for all the kind comments and support you all have given me this year.  Reading your blogs and seeing all the fabulously creative projects you've made has been a real joy. 

The "little more" in the title of this post is the first extension in Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style.  I was so happy when she decided to extend the challenge.  The rules are the same, take inspiration from Linda's project and create you're own version.  The difference for this extension was that the tags were "thank you" tags.  That served the purpose of getting a head start on thank you notes!  Here is what Linda's tag looks like.   And, here is my tag.

 

 

 

Linda used the technique Tim Holtz demoed for his December 12 Tags of 2013 to make her holly cluster.  I decided to use the poinsettia, as Tim did, because I wanted to use this card stock for the tag.  I had wanted to try making the poinsettia before Christmas but didn't have time.  So, this gave me the opportunity.  It's a fun thing to have in your bag of tricks.  If you check out the link above you'll be able to find out how to do it.  As I said, I wanted to use this card stock and feature the poinsettias so I traced a number 10 tag on it and cut it out.  After punching the hole in the top I folded it into thirds.  I used Tarnished Brass DP along the edges and taped the ribbon around the card bringing it up through the hole and knotting it on the front.  The poinsettia was attached using Glossy Accents.  Here is the inside.

 

 

 

 

The message was stamped on a kraft paper ATC using an old Hero Arts stamp and gold ink.  It was embossed using gold embossing powder.  I used some word stickers from Authentique on the flap. 

 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, one more to go and then we will be finished for this year.  Linda's wonderful shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique, is the sponsor of this challenge.  You should check it out because there are wonderful products at great prices. 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today.  I hope you are having a great day and that you get to spend some time creating!  See you soon.