A Quick Update

Hello to you all!   Thanks for dropping in here today.  I have a quick update to my project for the challenge, A Time to Stitch.  You can find my post about what I made and the challenge hosts and participants here.  At first I didn't know what I wanted to do about a necklace for the pendant and then I ran out of time to make what I decided on.  I wanted to make a chain that wouldn't distract from the pendant.  The  holidays came along and I didn't get to it.   By the day of the reveal I had a few links done.  Over the weekend I finished all the links and jump rings and tumbled them in my new Christmas gift, a tumbler!!!  Here is the necklace completed.

 

 

 

 

I'm very happy with the finished necklace.  The chain coordinates with the pendant but doesn't distract from it.  I used a finer wire than I wanted but the color was perfect and it fit through the holes of the Delicas. I also used some of the fire polished beads in the links. 

 

That's it for today.  I wanted to share the finished piece because some of you kindly said that you would like to see it finished.  I hope you have  great day and get the time to bead or do whatever your do to feed your creative spirit.   Thank you so much for visiting with me today.

A Time to Stitch

Hello, everyone!  Happy New Year!  It's so nice to have you visit with me today.  The holidays are over, all the decorations are put away and now we can breathe slowly and get back to creating wonderful projects!  I know that's what I'm hoping to do.  I actually got back to beading this week so that I could finish the project for this round of A Time to Stitch!  This blog hop is sponsored by Therese and Christine.  It's always a lot of fun and it often spurs me on to try something I've been putting off doing.  The idea behind it is to try a stitch that you haven't used before.  This time that idea was changed up a bit.  This time we were supposed to use a word chart, a picture chart or graft.  I like working with word charts because I knit and use word charts all the time.  I decided to use a pattern designed by Eridhan Creations.  The pattern I chose was one called Twisted Triangle.  I love peyote stitched triangles and I had never done one based on June Huber's idea of using different sized beads to create a "twist".  Here is what my pendant looks like.

I chose neutral colors so the "twist" would be the focus of the piece.  I didn't know what I wanted to do for a necklace because I didn't want something that was going to be too busy.  I decided to make my own chain out of wire and the bronze fire polished beads that are in the center of each side.  But, the holidays brought the entire thing to a standstill and I didn't have time to get all the links made by today.  I do have some finished.

 

 

 

I'll link them together with jump rings and attach them to the triangle.  I'll post a picture of the finished necklace when it's all put together.

 

 

Thanks to Christine and Therese for hosting this hop.  It's always a lot of fun and I always make some thing that I've been wanting to do!  Below is a list of all the participants.  Be sure to check out their blogs and see what they have created.

 

 

1-Therese Frank  (Host)    

2-Christine Altmiller  (Host)

3-Cynthia Machata

4-Samantha Wescott

5-Karin Slaton

6-Wendy

7-LizE

8-Dagi (Kokopelli)

9-Lola

10-Paula

11-Karin G.

12-Becky Pancake

13-Ana Cravidao

14-Alenka

15-Debbie (Kepi)

16-Nelly May

17-LiliKrist

18-Sally Russick

19-Maryanne (you are here)

20-Kim

21-Amy

 

 

Thank you for visiting me today.  I hope you have a great day and find some time to create!

The Last Few Things

Hi, everyone!  It's so nice to have you visit with me.  I hope your Christmas was wonderful and you're getting some time to yourself before the New Year celebrations!  We had a wonderful Christmas.  Our son and daughter-in-law were here and our daughter and son-in-law who live locally joined us along with some close friends.  It was a lovely time and we had a chance to catch up with everyone!  The busyness continued after the big day, but it's always such lovely busyness that I don't really mind!  But, today I have some time to catch my breath and I thought I would share some pictures of the few things I was able to find time to make before Christmas. 

I kept up with The 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style, just barely, so I didn't get many ornaments and decorative things made.  I always try to make a few ornaments for our tree each year and I did manage to get two done. 

 

 

The first one, as you can see, is a pair of ice skates cut with the TH die.  I used white glitter paper from a pad of different colored glitter paper.  It has become my favorite Christmas paper!  I cut the runners from paper that had foil sticky back paper attached and the heel was cut with black paper.  Both the runners and the heels were glued to the original die cuts.   I used red and white baker's twine for the laces and the hanger and some greenery and gumdrops for the decorations.  The second one is a star shape cut out of the gold glitter paper from the same pad.  I used a tree, Santa and banner from a package of Christmas die cuts from Kaisercraft.  I used some glitter on the Santa to give him some sparkle. 

 

 

The only other thing I finished this year was a top hat!  I love top hats and I had gotten a papier mache one last year and never did anything with it.  This year I decided to get to it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I painted it with black paint and used a red satin ribbon for the hat band.  I used more glitter paper, this time in green, to cut holly from the Holiday Greens die.  I used the new labels die from TH to cut the circle and the holiday words die and gold glitter paper for the word "joy".  The cluster of berries was in my stash.  It sat on a bench in our foyer along with a finial and some greens.  Here are some close ups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really love it and it looks very festive sitting on the bench ready to go with a dashing young gentleman out on the town! 

 

 

That's about it for this year.  There a few things that weren't finished and I intend to finish them soon because if I put them aside it will be a long time before they surface again! 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today and all year.  I do so appreciate your visits and your comments.  I hope you have a very Happy New Year and I hope that 2015 (can you believe that!) is a blessed and wonderful year for you.  







And, for the finale...

Hi everyone, welcome at this busy holiday time!   I'm back with my last entry into The 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie style.   I can't believe it's been 12 weeks since Linda debuted her first tag of this year's challenge.  If you would like to see that tag, or learn what the requirements are for the challenge you can go here.  But, we have come to the last entry and Linda's tag was fantastic!  It was a beautiful ending to the series!  I love it and had much to be inspired by in this tag.  Here is what my piece looks like.

 

 

If you looked at Linda's tag you'll notice that she did a weathered wood background.  I loved that background which was designed by Jennie Marples.  A link to the tutorial is in Linda's blog post for Tag 12.  I'm pleased with the way my background turned out even though I didn't have the colors of reinker that are specified in the tutorial.  I made do with what I had and I think it turned out okay.  Actually, I'm pretty happy with it and I know I'll use the technique again! 

 

 

While Linda's tag represented the side of house with a lovely wreath hanging on a  window with a window box I decided to just do the weathered wood background.   I think of it as a weathered wood fence with a wreath hanging on it.  I cut the wreath with the TH wreath die out of manila CS that I sprayed with a few different green sprays.  I edged it with white flocking and some iridescent glitter.  I used some red gumdrops for berries and seam binding sprayed with Barn Door Distress Spray for a bow.    Under the wreath I used one of the new TH Holiday Sentiments stamps with black archival ink.  Here are some close ups.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that's it for this year!  I hope you'll check out Linda's shop, which is the sponsor for the challenge. 

 

I want to thank Linda for hosting this fun challenge.  Her inspiration is awesome and I love working on this every year. 

 

And, I want to thank all of you who read my blog and comment.  I appreciate it so much.  I wish all of you the most wonderful of holiday seasons.  

 



 



Shiny Bright!

Hello, everyone!  It's so nice to have you here today.  Well, we're into the home stretch with Christmas just a week away!  I hope your preparations are coming along nicely.  I'm whittling down my list with wrapping presents being the last really big thing I need to do.  Fortunately for me, I enjoy wrapping gifts. 

Another thing that is coming to a close is the 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style!  It's hard to believe that Linda has posted tag number 12 already!  If you would like to know more about this challenge you can find the details here.  I'm posting my 11th entry today.   Here is what I made inspired by Linda's beautiful tag which you can see here. 

 

 

 

Linda's tag used foil tape over a tag embossed with a snowflake embossing folder. It was so beautiful that I had to do something similar.  I used a Spellbinders' embossing folder that I just love.  It fit my 5x7" page perfectly and I was able to fill the whole page without worrying about covering the areas that weren't embossed.  I used alcohol ink to color the ornaments.  I just used the dropper in the bottle to get the ink onto the paper and then immediately rubbed it off so that only the barest hint of color was left.  I loved the softly colored effect that I got doing that.  I left the background plain and added silver ribbon bows to the tops of each ornament.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the label and archival ink to stamp the phrase.  Using a glue pen I sprinkled the edge of the label with chunky glass glitter from Stampendous.   I really love this simple page. It's so effective and shiny.

 

 

Here are some details.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so pleased with the way this turned out.  I wasn't sure of the alcohol ink technique but it worked out better than I thought it would.  And, of course, it is my favorite Christmas decoration, the Christmas ornament!  I'm sorry to see this challenge end.  I always discover new techniques and create great things to use in my Christmas decorations around the house.  The challenge is sponsored by Linda's boutique.  Check it out for great products and even greater prices!

 

 

Thank you all for taking the time to visit me.  I know how busy everyone is and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!





Woodland Christmas

Hello, again!  I'm so happy to have you visit.  This won't be a long post but I'm trying to catch up with my 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style!  I got behind in October and I've had a really difficult time catching up.  But, I'm getting there!  There is only one more tag to go and Linda just posted it.  It's gorgeous!  But, that will come later!  For now, I'm up to tag 10!  And, I really, really like this one.  I called it a Woodland Christmas because of the colors.  They are different for me for this season but I love the way it turned out. 

Let me get the particulars of this challenge out of the way so I can show you what I'm talking about.  Linda Coughlin hosts this challenge every year and you can find the details and rules (there aren't many) here.  The challenge is sponsored by Linda's wonderful shop, The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  You can find it here. 

Now on to what I made for week 10. 

 

 

 

I apologize for the picture.  The color is awful but I was using my phone which usually does a better job but the day was dreary and I couldn't find a good light.  It was the colors of Linda's tag, which you can see here, that I loved.  They were a little different, and to me, a little woodland.  So, that was my inspiration.  I started buy using DI to lightly stencil the holly in the lower left corner. A Prima stencil was used in the upper right corner with heavy body gesso.  I then used Tarnished Brass, Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive, and Peeled Paint Distress Sprays on the background.  I left it rather light in  some areas.  I then used Perfect Pearls Spray in Biscotti all over the entire page.  I used some Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls in the area of the embossing and a few light spritzes in other parts of the tag.  The card with the sentiment was from Kaisercraft.  It was the perfect color and I loved the sentiment.  I cut some gold CS with the holiday foliage die and used a glue pen and Peeled Paint Distress Glitter to create veins.  I glued those down and put the card over them.  I had embossed the edges of the card with Lindy's Stamp Gang's embossing powder, Desert Moon Copper Pine.  The edges of the pages were glittered with the Peeled Paint DG.  Here are some close ups.

 

 



 

 

And there you have my 10 entry into the this fun challenge.  I'm off now to wrap some presents.  I always say I'm going to wrap as they come into the house but I never quite make it! 

 

 

I hope you have a wonderful day.  Thank you so much for visiting at the busy time of year.  



Christmas Elegance

Hello, everyone!  I know you're all very busy right now, so I really appreciate you stopping by to see my next project in the Twelve Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style.  Hosted by Linda Coughlin and sponsored by her wonderful shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique, you can find all the details of the challenge here.

Linda's tag for the 9th week of the challenge was so beautiful and elegant.  I loved the black and gold combination.  I'm a real traditionalist with most things, and especially the holidays, but I do like to shake things up a bit within a traditional style.  Here is what I took as inspiration from Linda's tag.

 

 

 

 

 

I started with my usual 5x7" watercolor paper and painted it with Black Soot DP.  Once it dried I used a Prima stencil and embossing ink to make the corner decoration.  I embossed it with gold embossing powder.  I then used another piece of watercolor paper and stamped the sentiment in embossing ink and used the same embossing powder.  I fussy cut it and used foam tape to apply it to the page. The edges of the page were embossed also.  The white poinsettia was in my stash.   Here are some details.

 

 





 

 

 

 

I think this is such an elegant combination.  I was so thrilled when I saw Linda's tag because a few days before I had thought about doing a black and gold tag!!  As I mentioned to Linda in an email, sometime serendipity can be found everywhere! 

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me.  We're almost at the end of this challenge even though I'm behind in my posting.  I hope all your holiday plans are moving along smoothly.  Have a wonderful day and enjoy the season!