Wednesday, December 9, 2009

I'm back again...

....with some more stuff I've been making to sell. I've had these little paper mache boxes in my stash and thought they'd make cute little containers to hold treats or a small present like jewelery. I took a pencil and dipped the eraser end into white acrylic paint and stamped polka dots all over the box. The snowflake was a plain chipboard one, which I painted white and then coated with Ranger glossy accents and then sprinkled with some coarse glitter. After everything was dry, I added lace around the edge of the top, some ribbon, buttons and a tag. I really like how they turned out.

If you want to see the rest of them, you can check out my new Etsy shop (link is on the top right side of my blog page.
Thanks for visiting!
Anette

Yikes, it has been a LOOOO.....NG time....

...since I posted anything. Life has been keeping me busy. I have had a few orders for my altered wooden letters and I've been working on some other stuff to sell. More on that in the next couple of days. Today I'm showing you some of the letters. I've made these for baby gifts for family and friends and everyone always loves these.
I buy my letters at Walmart (I like the style they carry and they are easy to cover with paper).
I paint the letters with acrylic paint, then cover the front with patterned paper using Yes glue. After the glue has dried I sand all the edges and embellish the letters with ribbon, buttons, stamped images and anything else I can find. The girl letters get a nice dusting of fine glitter after I spray the letters with a sealer.
That's about it.
I'll be back with some goodies I posted at my new Etsy Shop either tonight or tomorrow.
Have a great day !
Anette

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Just some other stuff....



....I've been working on. Like I need any other hobbies to keep me occupied. LOL! It is fun to play with different toys once in a while though.

My niece has 2 little girls and she told me how hard it is to find cute hair bows that are affordable, so I thought I'd try my hand at making some hair bows. I had a ton of wool felt that I bought for different projects (and never used, of course) and I started by cutting some felt flowers and circles with my nestabillities and cuttlebug. Most of the wool felt went through easily - a couple of the thicker pieces didn't quite cut all the way through, but a couple of snips with the scissors and they looked fine. I sewed the barette (the flat metal snap ones)  between two felt flower shapes and attached the smaller felt flowers and button by sewing them on. A few stitches around the outer edge and we have a felt flower barrette. I also made the button myself out of some polymer clay. I do need lots more practice with both the bows and the buttons, but I do like how they turned out. The other two bows are made from some wire-edged ribbon with a button added and a barrette sewn on the back.


Sorry for the funky colored pics. I had a hard time taking pics of these for some reason.

Thanks for pooping in and let me know what you think of my newest crafting ventures.
Anette

It's been a while.... and Cosmo Cricket Cards!


Hello, I'm still alive. I hadn't planned on being gone from my blog this long. But I guess that happens when life intrudes! We've been hit by the swine flu in our house- or that's what we think it was. First my youngest came down with it (there have been a ton of kids sick with it in his school), then my middle one got it and a week later both hubby and I caught it. I stayed home from work all that week and pretty much all I did was sleep. Yuck! I hope we are done for the rest of the year with this!
Anywho, on to the cards. These are cards I made for advanced card class at my local scrapbook store. I had a hard time coming up with "advanced" cards since I didn't have any stamps to work with. I ended up using rub-ons and a bunch of embellishments. Each card uses Cosmo cricket paper.
See the little crochet flower on the first card? I made that. A while back I taught myself how to crochet these little babies and I just love them. It is amazing on how much information you can find on the internet. you can teach yourself how to do just about anything.
Well, I better run and get busy doing some laundry or nobody will have clothes to wear tomorrow.
I might have another post later today.
Anette


Sunday, September 27, 2009

Happy Sunday!


And what a beautiful one it is - the sun is shining and the temperature is perfect. I might have to go outside and clean up my flower beds today. Today I have a card and a frame for you to look at. It was my parents golden wedding anniversary this Saturday and of course I had to make them a card and a present. The card is a complete case of this one http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1070307?&si=golden anniversary by Love Stampin!!!!!!!! on splitcoaststampers. I loved the white embossed background with the gold. Stamp set used is petal prints by SU. I stamped the flowers and leaves with Encore gold metallic ink, embossed with gold and cut them out. The white background is a piece of  CS that I embossed with a cuttlebug folder. I decided to make a matching frame. I hope they like it! Sorry for the poor picture of the frame. It is so hard to get a good picture with the glass. Well, I'm off to enjoy some of the sunshine. Until next time!
Anette

Friday, September 25, 2009

It's a gloomy day.....


today here in Minnesota. Rainy and blah! Oh well, that's Fall for you, I guess. I am just getting ready to go to work and had a few spare minutes. So, I thought I'd post a card I made a while back. I was going through my mountains of stamps and came across this pretty wreath (I don't know who makes this stamp- I think I bought it at a garage sale a few years back). I stamped the wreath, colored in using my prismas and gamsol, added the sentiment from Papertreyink's Vintage Picnic sentiments set and used antique linen distress ink and a stipple brush to add some shadow around the wreath. I really like this sentiment set, nice sayings and because they are acrylic stamps it is very easy to curve the sayings. Gives you a little more variety instead of just using  straight sentiments. I distressed the edges with my Heidi Swap edge distressing tool and sponged ink around the edges and matted with brown CS. Background stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Added some orange plaid ribbon and buttons tied with twine from my stash. A pretty simple and quick card, but I really like how it turned out. Well, thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a good Friday. Maybe I'll have something new to post later this weekend.
Anette

Monday, September 21, 2009

Goodness, I can't believe.....

.....how fast the time is going by! I haven't posted in over a week, so I figured I'd better pop in with a card or the few followers I have might give up on me. The card I have today uses Autumn Abundance from Papertreyink. I love the set, but was kind of surprised how small the images are. It is kind of challenging to color it in. My wonderful and generous SIL gave me this set (among many others) and I made this card for her as a Thank You . Image was colored in using Prismas and Gamsol and I added some polka dots to the pitcher with a white gel pen. Patterned paper is also from Papertreyink. And I added some dew drops from the Robin's Nest. Sorry for the crummy picture- I just have a very cheap camera and sometimes the pics don't turn out very good.
Well, I better run and get ready for work. Hope you enjoy today's card!
Anette

Sunday, September 13, 2009

What to do...


....when you have a stamp set you don't particularly like. I was asked by my local scrap book store to be on their design team and make 4 cards with one stamp set. Well, the set is one that I wouldn't have purchased for myself because I didn't really like it and would not often (if at all) use it. The stamp set is by Fiskars and it is the Toss the bouquet set. http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tools/t_ministamps-wedding.aspx
The cake image is actually really cute. I came up with 3 cards (forgot to take pics before I dropped them of at the store- sorry) and had to come up with one more. The first 3 were more or less wedding cards, so I wanted to make something different to show that you can think out of the box and even though it is a set for wedding, you can use it for other occasions. Since Halloween is just around the corner (YIKES, that's scary!), I came up with this card. I really like how it turned out. It would also be real easy to turn it into a birthday card with different papers and colors. Papers are BoBunny and the image was, once again, colored in using Prismas and gamsol. I added some googly eyes just for fun.
Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you think!
Anette

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Just for fun!

Just a quick post tonight. I am pooped! I got up at 5am, took a shower, got the boys up and made sure they had breakfast, got one off to school on the bus, went to work by 7am, came home at 3pm, made a quick dinner, went to pick hubby up from work, went to hockey rink to sign youngest up for hockey, came back home, worked on some more Halloween tins, signed some school forms, had a snack, worked some more on Halloween tins and now I'm adding this post. Then I am going to bed!
I came across this Changito stamp set from Stampendous in my stash the other day and just had to make a card with it. I had forgotten how cute these monkeys are. The "You make me smile" sentiment is from Inkadinkado, I think.
Just stamped and colored in with prismas and gamsol (of course). Sponged a little antique linen right around the images and some brown ink around all the edges. Added ribbon and buttons to finish it of. I think it turned out cute!
Thanks for visiting! Until next time!
Anette

Sunday, September 6, 2009

As promised....

I actually made it back as promised with my Halloween project. Anyone know how to move these dang pictures to where I want them on my blog? They seem to have a mind of their own- especially when I post a bunch in one post. I have had these tiny tins for a couple of years now(found them on clearance at Joann's) and have finally found a way to turn them into cute Halloween candy tins. I found this clear stamp set at Michael's (can't find the packaging with the company and can't remember who makes them, but they just started carrying this kind not that long ago). The circle saying and the Witch's feet were one stamp, but I took an x-acto knife and carefully cut the feet apart from the saying so I could use the saying with other images from the set. Easy peasy- a good mass production project. I just stamped a bunch of the sayings on kraft CS and punched them out with a 2" circle punch. I then stamped the different halloween images(bat, spider, feet and pumpkin) onto white CS, colored the pumpkin and the pumpkin and the witch-y socks in with prismas and gamsol and punched them out with a 1 1/4" circle punch. I then punched a few 1 7/16" scalloped circles out of different colored patterned paper to add behind each image. For the outside of the tins I cut 1/2" strips of the polka dot paper (My Mind's eye)
and adhered it with the red double sided sticky tape. As a finishing touch I added a cute bow with a button tied on and some ribbon around the top of each tin. Oh, and I added googly eyes to the spider. I like the spider tin the best.Which one is your favorite?
Well, I just previewed this post and I guess the pics all aligned them selves on the left once I post it. Why can't it look like that as I am typing this?
I'll have to play around with that some more.
Have a great Labor Day everyone!
Thanks for poppin' in!
Anette












Saturday, September 5, 2009

Phew! busy, busy....


....around here. Just a few more days until the boys go back to school. I think in a way I am looking forward to getting back into more of a routine. And surprisingly I think my boys are looking forward to going back to school.The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous the past week. I wish it stayed like this all the time! Well, on to my card.
I really like the color combo of the mustard-y orange (it really is more of a mustard color IRL) and turquoise. I stamped the mums from Papertreyink's Autumn Abundance set on rustic white CS and colored in with (what else!) prismas and gamsol. I then used one of the classic circle nesties and cut out and embossed the image. With the nestie still in place I lightly sponged some ice blue chalk ink around the edge. I really like the look of that. Added a cut and embossed label behind the focal image, some ribbon and of course some buttons and the sentiment which was also cut, embossed and sponged. Patterned paper is from BoBunny.
Thanks for taking a peek! I should be back tomorrow with a Halloween project!
Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Well, I made it back......

....not quite as soon as I had hoped, but better late than never! I am still trying to figure out this blog thing. I am having a heck of a time getting my photos and text to go where I want it. Maybe one of these days I'll figure it out. Anyone have any hints, I'd appreciate it. Now on to today's card. I am definitely in a Fall mood these days and I seem to be having a great need for Thank You cards lately. For this card I brought out one of my favorite Papertreyink sets - Vintage picnic. I stamped the image on rustic white CS and colored it in using colored pencils and gamsol ( my all time favorite way to color), sponged around the image and around all edges of paper with antique linen distress ink and then cut and embossed the image using a classic square nestability die. Matted it with a piece of patterned paper which was cut with a classic scallop nestability die. All patterned paper is by BoBunny. The ribbon is actually a piece of fabric torn into a long strip. Lastly I had to add some buttons and a little bit of lace from my stash to spice things up. Voila, a finished card! I really like the oranges and blues together. Well, thanks for popping in for a visit- until next time!

Anette

Saturday, August 22, 2009

A new adventure? (or another headache? LOL)...

..... starting a blog that is! Some of my family and friends have been buggin' me about starting a blog for quite some time now and I have finally caved in. I am a little nervous about this new endeavor - will I be able to: figure out this whole blogger thing?, keep up with blog posts on a regular basis?, will anyone even be interested in my humble little creations?
I guess time will tell! Please be patient with me while I work out the kinks.
I have had a lot of help from my sons just getting to this point on my blog. My oldest helped me set up all the links and tried "very patiently" to explain the whole thing to me. My middle son designed and made my blog banner and (soon to come watermark). I have a feeling though that from here on out I am pretty much on my own!I am not sure how frequently I'll be able to update my blog- especially in the beginning, but I am going to try to post at least a couple of times per week. So, if you found my little home on the web, have made it this far in reading my first post, took a peek at my cards and liked what you saw-
PLEASE check back every once in a while and visit with me.
Thanks for popping in!
Anette



Card recipe:
Paper: Cosmo Cricket-Early bird
Stamps: Lockhart Stamp company
Ribbon: from Joann's
Other: Spellbinder's nestabilities,
Cuddlebug embossing folder-Swiss Dot,
Buttons: from my stash
Technique: Prismas and Gamsol
Sentiment: computer generated


Card recipe:
Card Stock: Ripe Avocado- Papertreyink
Kraft - from my stash
Stamps: Warm Happiness- Papertreyink
Ink: Palette Hybrid- Papertreyink
Buttons and ribbon: from my stash