Monday, July 30, 2012

Week 125 Sweet Summertime in the Tea Room

Happy Monday!!
It is Week 125 in the Shabby Tea Room, and it REALLY is my last week as a Guest Designer..LOL.
The challenge this week is "Sweet Summertime" we would like to see you use the beautiful image below for color inspiration.  We would also like to see flowers and a stamped sentiment included in your project.
 Here is the yummy inspiration photo.

Here is what I decided to create.
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It is a decorative tussie mussie that I created using the "B is for Banner" Digital collage sheets from Gecko Galz.  I used two of the banners, the lavender and the green.  I LOVE how it turned out!
The heart tag was created with a die and stamp that I won in the Tea Room when "just rite stamps" 
was the sponsor.  I LOVE the set of dies and stamps!  I also used some pink and blue roses, my favorite Champagne flatback pearls and a purple cameo. I tucked in some May Art's leafs and ivory pearl sprays all from Pro 31 Designs.  I LOVE the Blue and silver trim (also from Pro 31 Designs) at the top!
I used some Tim Holtz paper tape that I purchased from my best friend Ginny's store in downtown Dexter to attach my banner pieces together to form the tussie mussie.  I then added the flatback pearls in Pink around the edges (yummy if I do say so myself).  I then placed a little hole on one of the green banners at the top, and where the purple and green banners met in the opposite corner.  I attached the blue seam binding for my hanger.  Then I covered these holes up with the fabby blue and silver trim!
I used my crop o dile to punch a hole in the top of the purple banner.  Used a grommet there and on the heart.  I then attached the heart to the banner with another blue seam binding bow.  I attached a pink chandelier drop and another blue seam binding bow with beading wire to the bottom of my tussie mussie.  I also added the pink roses on each side at the bottom point.
I hope you will have some time to play with us in the Tea Room this week!!


I will be sharing this with
Make it Monday
Thank you for visiting!!
Hugs!!
Heather

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Week # 21 Sugar Creek Hollow

Happy Saturday!!
It is "Christmas in July" at Sugar Creek Hollow and we have a wonderful sponsor
Sassy Cheryls Digi stamps.  Cheryl will be giving the winner at SCH this week a $5.00 gift certificate to her store.  We were each given a stamp to work with this week.  I received this cute Primitive Santa Image below.
I thought I would make a card.  It does say "Ho Ho Ho" but I did it in Ranger's Perfect Pearls, so it doesn't show up well for the camera :0)
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I chose to paint my image.  I have been getting the "painting bug" lately so I did a really simple paint job.  I painted everything a soft pink, then shaded with a darker pink and then again with red.  The beard and fluffy hat stuff were done with a cream and shaded with a raw sienna.  I used Ranger's distress inks in old paper, antique linen and vintage photo to distress the painted stamp and background to give it an older look.  The tiny holly was done in green, and I used Ranger's Stickles in Red to add as a holly berry.
The ivory mulberry roses (medium and small) were distressed with Ranger's Vintage Photo Distress ink.  The mulberry roses, burgundy rosettes, brown blingy bling mesh, red acrylic mini flowers are all from Pro 31 Designs.
My Favorite Champagne flatback pearls, and black drop pearl trim were used as well.  I added an ivory pearl spray as well.  The peppermint candies, and holly leaves are images that I painted in GIMP and created into die cuts a while back. I had these sitting around and thought they would be perfect for the "Christmas In July" theme.
I hope you have some time to create a little something to mark off your "Christmas Have to List" 
and you can join us in our challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow.  I can't wait to see what you create!
I will be sharing this with 
Thank you for visiting!
Hugs!!
Heather

Monday, July 23, 2012

Week 124 My last week in the Tea Room

Hello Friends!!
"Oh so Pretty and Pink!"
I LOVE pink!!
This is my last week as Guest Designer in the Tea Room (July just flew by).
Create your project inspired by the colors in the photo below.  You need to include a flower too (this won't be too hard for anyone that I know...LOL).

I decided to create an altered composition book.  Here it is.

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I started out with "The Sounds of Paris" digital stamp from Gecko Galz.  I changed the background color from White to Pink, which I used GIMP to pull the pink color right out of our inspiration photo.
I made this treasure for Leanne, she is the owner of Gecko Galz.  I inked the edges of this sheet with Ranger's old paper distress ink.  I then used the "Paris Flea Market" digital stamp as well.  Changed it's background to pink.  Used GIMP to add the white script, dark pink eiffel tower & crown and the white bird (another Gecko Galz digi stamp).  I colored in the flowers with white and shaded them with some green (all done in layers in GIMP).
The lettering for "Leanne" is from Gecko Galz.  Here you will see the pink blingy bling mesh, round crystal trim, pink flatback pearls as well as more tiny white flatback pearls from Pro 31 Designs.
I covered the edges of the cover of this composition book with some of Ranger's Paper tape.  I then used the distress stain in white on the edges and binder.  I bought both of these items from my Best Friend Ginny's store in Beautiful downtown Dexter.
I did add some paper to the inside covers and back, but I forgot to take pictures of them!  Leanne it is happily with Leanne now.  Above you will see how I used the blingy bling mesh (pink) to create little flowers.  I just used 4 gems and then put a tiny pearl in the center.
Well I hope you will join me for my last week in the tea room!
Enjoy your Monday!
You can see this on my YOUTUBE!!

I will be sharing with 

I will be playing along with these challenges

Hugs!!
Heather

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Get rid of the WHITE highlight behind your text

Hello Friends!!
Happy Sunday!!

This is just a quick post to say Hello...and share with you a problem I have been having in blogger.  Blogger is aware of the problem and working on it.  But I thought maybe some of you could benefit from how I am currently getting around the problem.  

It seems that once in a while, I will have WHITE highlighted areas behind my text.  It is is random.  I normally don't copy and paste, but somehow it shows up.  So one way to avoid this is to use the FIREFOX browser the other is to check your HTML.  That may sound a little scary to us non techy ones, but here is a video below showing how to fix it easy peasy.  
Hugs!!
Heather


Saturday, July 21, 2012

Sports at Sugar Creek Hollow Week 21

Happy Sporty Saturday Friends!!
It is week 21 at Sugar Creek Hollow and we would love to see your Vintage or Shabby Chic creations involve some "SPORTS" this week!
I found some fabulous "Sporty Images" at Gecko Galz, and chose to use them for my card this week!!  I chose Baseball as my sportiness!!
Here is what I came up with.
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I stared out with the Graphci 45 patterned paper for my card base that I picked up from my Best Friend Ginny's Store.  I then used GIMP and INKSCAPE to create my other pieces.  I used the Play Ball Collage sheet and a vintage photo I found online.  The "all star team" was done in inkscape and I created an offset around it so that the pieces could be cut with my black cat cougar.
I inked all my edges with Vintage Photo Distress inks.  I used a kraft knife to distress the edges of the baseballs and photo.  Used the brown twine I received from Really Reasonable Ribbon and buttons from my stash.
Pro 31 Designs Blingy Bling mesh in brown, as well as the black with silver were used.  Pop dots were used to create a little depth in my card.
I am happy how my sporty card came out!
Thank you so much for visiting, 
I can't wait to see what kind of Vintage or Shabby Chic "Sports" themed creations you come up with!
Link them up at Sugar Creek Hollow!

I will be sharing with the following sites

I will be playing along with these challenges
Thank you for visiting!!
Hugs
Heather

Monday, July 16, 2012

Shabby Tea Room Week #123 Sew Crafty

Hello Friends!!

Welcome to another fun week in the Shabby Tea Room.  It is week #123 "Sew Crafty" and we ask that you use the photo below for color inspiration, and add buttons, twine/ribbon and stitching.

I stopped by my Best Friend Ginny's Scrapbook store in Downtown Dexter Michigan and picked up some of my favorite Cosmo Cricket paper, and a Picture frame chipboard book.  I used the blues, greens, yellow, magenta, pink ...lets just say a lot of colors from the inspiration photo.  Here is my creation below.  I will have to say that I LOVE it!!
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I specifically chose this paper for the colors, and the fact that it looks like stitching (even though it is an old school paper pad pattern).  I used some of my antique buttons, and created them into flowers.  I did some hand stitching to the right and the left of the front cover.  The ivory mulberry roses, may arts ivory leaf trim, ivory ruffle ribbon, pink heart  and Ivory drop pearl trim and the pink flatback pearls all are from Pro 31 Designs.
The tiny pink roses are from my stash.  I distressed all my edges with a craft knife, then inked with Ranger's Peeled paint.  I made the slit in the front, and curled back the edges so that when I added the tag, it could have embellishments to fill the space.  Yummy!!  I have not done any hand stitching, but this button hole stitch is one of my favorites!
I put the ivory drop bead trim on first.  Then I glued on the ruffle trim, and topped with the pink heart pearl trim.  I then glued down each heart, otherwise they were tending to stick straight out, instead of laying flat.
Awww....Look at these gorgeous little girls!!  These beauties are from this month's set of Gecko Galz Ephemera called "Monday's Child".  They can slide out the top, so they can be replaced with real photos.  I used Ranger's distress stains in white, to cover all the edges and parts of the chipboard that would show.  I got this from my Best Friend's store: Polly's Paper Studio.  The lovely pink and cream vintage seam binding came from Debbie's (she runs the tea room) Etsy store.  
The base of these tags are ones I made back in my silhouette sd days.  I made them as journal tags on one side, and the other can hold a photo.  You will notice the embellishments are slightly different, because I put them on there to fit the front and cover specifically.  YUMMY!!  I colored the edges with my copics and a pink color a LONG time ago...LOL.  Here is the reverse side below.  I pulled the raspberry color from the ribbon wheels in the photo.
I of course embellished both the front and the back of my tags :0)  Last but not least, here is the back of my little photo frame album.  I used a one of my nestabilities dies.  I stitched on the back as well.  I think it turned out just darling! 
 Thank you Ginny for the paper and the photo frame book!!
I can't wait to see what you create for our Tea Room Challenge!! 
I will be sharing this with

I will be playing along with these challenges
Thank you for visiting!!
Hugs!!
Heather


Feel free to see my video of this on Youtube!


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Pro 31 Designs & Gecko Galz Layout

Happy Sunday Friends!!

Well today you will see something that I rarely do...LOL.  That would be a LAYOUT.  It is  not that I can't do layouts.  It is more the "I have boys" that don't really want photos taken, or act goofy in the photo, and frankly I like pinks and greens, so boy pages done in those colors work..but are not my thing.
Why am I doing a layout?  Anna at Pro 31 Designs, set a design team challenge, to create a Layout.  Right up till this morning, I was not planning on participating..lol.  All of a sudden at 8am, an idea came to me.  Here is what I came up with.  I will have to say,  I actually had fun!  But don't tell anyone, because I don't want anyone to think I am becoming a Layout kind of gal...LOL.
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I started out with a sheet of Graphic 45 (black  patterned paper), then used two patterns from the "Neverland Digi Paper Pack" from Gecko Galz (blue & green patterns).  The Frames around the photos are from Gecko Galz Frame's Collection.  I distressed all my edges first with a craft knife and then inked with Ranger's Vintage Photo.  I used dimensional squares to elevate each of my layers.  The boys are in their Boy Scout Uniforms.  I used Inkscape and my Black cat Cougar to cut out the frames and all my text.
I have some of the medium ivory mulberry roses, black drop bead trim, clear crystal flowers vine spray and ivory pearl sprays.  I did stitching in the upper left and lower right by hand.  I LOVE how this turned out!!
I just love how all the colors look so rich and go so well together!  Yummy!!  I used a hot glue gun to apply glue for all of my embellishments.
The clear crystal flowers are off a a flower sprig, and I simply added some brown blingy bling mesh or pearl for the centers.  I also used some of the bronze pearls by the yard.  Overall I still think it looks masculine...and yet beautiful.
Close up of the frames and the boys.  I used regular card stock to print these out.  
Thank you for visiting me today!!  I hope you enjoyed my Layout.  Thank you Anna for the fun challenge!  I will put this in a vintage frame and hang it on the wall next to the other "3" layouts I have done...LOL.


I will be sharing with
Make it Monday
Have a great day!!
Hugs!!
Heather


You can see it on Youtube here

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Sugar Creek Hollow week 20 Sympathy

Hello Friends!!
Happy Saturday!!
This week at Sugar Creek Hollow our challenge for you is to create a vintage or shabby chic style "Sympathy" project.  Our fabulous Sponsor Robyn's Fetish gave me
 the Cross & Flowers image  to play with.  This week if you play along, you will have a chance to win 5 images from Robyn's Fetish!!  How fabulous is that??  I decided to create a card.
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You know how I work, I used GIMP to color in the image!  You can visit my YOUTUBE channel to see my tutorials on GIMP.  Here is a close up of the image from Robyn.
I chose to shade and highlight on the cross itself, but the flowers, leaves and grass I just colored easy peasy, no shading involved.  After I colored the image.  I found a few digital papers from Gecko Galz "Neverland Digital Paper set ."  I also Used Inkscape (a free vector program) to create my cut lines around the digi stamp and to create the window in my card base.
The flower flatback pearl trim, and drop beads on the cross, ivory pearl trim (photo below) & Ivory felt leaf trim (photo below)  are all from Pro 31 Designs.  The tiny pink roses are from my stash.  
Here you can see my sentiment "With Hearfelt Sympathy."  I used Inkscape for the text and to create the offset cut line.  I used the same Gecko Galz paper behind the text as I did as a shadow layer for the cross (so it would stand out from the blue background).  I used my Black Cat Cougar with Sign Cut to cut out my shapes.  Ranger's Old Paper and Peeled paint distress inks were used on my edges and for stamping.
I used my favorite edge stamp that I made, to add some pizazz to the inside.
I printed out the base of the card and used inkscape to form the window.  I created an offset for the cross image, and then an offset of that, to create the window shape and ivory background behind the cross.  I used pop dots to add depth to my card.  This same technique can be done with the Silhouette SD, Cameo, Make the Cut and SCAL.  
One last look at the front.
I can't wait to see what you create!!
Make sure you leave a comment below saying you are playing along so I can come and visit!

I will be sharing with Make it Monday.

I will be playing along in the following challenges
Have a great day!!
Hugs!!
Heather


Monday, July 09, 2012

Shabby Tea Room Elegance & Lace

Hello Friends!!
I hope you are ready for another GORGEOUS challenge in the Tea Room!!
This week our challenge at the Shabby Tea Room is "Elegance and Lace" we have this fabulous inspiration photo and ask that you use White/Cream, Pink, Kraft and Lace!!  Here is the Gorgeous Inspiration photo!
Don't you just LOVE this photo??  I want that room!!
Here is my inspiration piece for my second week as a Guest Designer in the Tea Room.
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I think my card turned out just Scrumptious!!  I used a manila folder for my card base, embsossed it with a cuttlebug folder, then inked the edges and raised areas with Ranger's Vintage photo distress inks.  I added some vintage lace at the top, as well as some little precious pink roses from my stash.

I used my favorite Champagne and Pink flatback pearls as well as the Ivory drop bead pearl trims all from Pro 31 Designs.  I also used the ivory leaf trim, and ivory pearl sprays.
The crochet flower and vintage buttons are from my stash.  I painted the wooden dress form from Kaiser Craft with Ranger's Distress Crackle paint in Antique linen.  Then I inked it with Vintage photo distress ink.  I used some vintage lace to create a skirt, and pink vintage seam binding to create a belted bow.  Added a drop pearl bead, and part of a pearl spray and tiny rose to dress up the dress form.  I painted two leaves on the bust, and then covered the whole piece in UTEE.
The Pink and cream stripe patterned paper is by Glitz Designs, I used the Square and Rectangle Fleur De Lis Nestabilities from Spellbinders.  These pieces were inked with Ranger's Old paper.  I hand wrote "Leanne" on the card (Leanne own's Gecko Galz..she is a sweety).
Here is a peek at the inside of the card.
Leanne is the best!!  I joined her Design Team last summer, I just LOVE LOVE playing with the images she sends me each month!  She is SUPER GENEROUS!!  I hope to be on her Design Team Forever :0).  I didn't start playing digitally till a year ago, and was inspired by Leanne's images.  It opened a whole new world up to me!  We all know I love making my own digital collages, and die cuts!  Thanks to Leanne, that is where I started.  I will be sending her this card along with some goodies for a swap!
I can't wait to see what you create and share with us in the 
Shabby Tea Room this week!!


I will be sharing my creations this week at Make it Monday!
Thank you for Visiting!!
Hugs
Heather