Fleur de lis coasters

A friend showed me how to make these. I just LOVE them! I love things that have more than one use. I get bored with decor easily, always wanting to change things around. So, I can use them for more than just coasters. Like put them on a mini stand, or hang them on the wall with ribbon, twine, or nothing at all. This project was right up my ally!


 I used tumbled marble tiles. I am still experimenting with different tiles and inks.

Sports theme banner

A dear friend of mine has the most precious baby. He is such a sweet chunk of love. I offered to make a banner for his room. She is going with vintage sports as the decor. Now this is my first 'boy' banner. I looked at it for the longest time wondering what to do or add other than balls. I wasn't thrilled. Almost everything I make that needs that 'something', usually involves something sparkly. And sparkles wasn't gonna cut it this time. Naturally, it was something that's right there on my desk that I use plenty of....INK. All I did was ink the edges to give it more dimension and a bit of an aged look. It made a big difference and I was satisfied, not wanting to overdo it.
I used MTC for the collegiate letters and Sports Mania cart for the balls.


Time Flies ATC

'Anything goes' was the theme for August. I didn't get to go to the swap, so I played catch up. These were super easy. I got the stamps from Michael's, just inked heavy on the left and lighter everywhere else in silver and gold, added some sparkle in blue (which you can't see) and done. I got twelve done in less than an hour.
 September's theme was 'pets'. I think I'm gonna skip that one.

I lost Happy

Last night I pulled the banners out of the box and realized that Happy was lost on this one. This was my 3rd banner and all hand cut (pre-cricut). Just thinking about it hurts my hands. Ouch. But it really SPARKLES! My son's birthday fell on Mardi Gras that year. He had King Cake and pizza and I decorated with Mardi Gras stuff (super easy) and we decorated plain Mardi Gras masks for an activity.

Girly Birthday Banner

My daughter couldn't make up her mind on a color scheme for her 13th birthday party, so she picked quite a few papers from the same line. I made white cupcakes (118) with pink K's and 13's. And we made the pom- pom things ( like Martha, except hers were gorgeous naturally) to hang on the wall and ceiling. Let's not forget the absurd amount of crepe paper for streamers. It was everywhere. I made 13 - 13's to hang randomly and 1 huge 13 for the door.  My house reminded me of a pinata / festival. It was such a pretty party. My girls love to be so involved with the decorating/planning part of their parties now and so do their friends.

my latest obsession

My latest obsession has been making these necklace charms for my girls

  

which turned out to be addictive...like mint chocolate chip ice cream (for me anyways) This is only some. Many more to come. I think I'll be stuck on this for months!

I've even sold a few pieces which really made me excited to know that even though it may be few, some people like them other than myself and of course my girls!!
What I like about them is that each piece is different and they can be personalized. My girls like having something that goes with almost every outfit. Multiples on 1 chain make it even better..Too cute.

Baby Banner

My daughter's teacher was having a baby and wanted to give her teacher something special.
Naturally, she wanted me to make a banner. So she brought home something that went with the decor of the baby's room to give me an idea of where to go with it. After much going, this is where I went..

(I'm not a photographer, so the pics aren't great ; )


You can't see the detail in the pictures but there are many.
And the colors didn't come out true. I have much to learn when it comes to taking pictures.
I think this is one of my favorites as of yet.
And her teacher loved it, so it was good!

Birthday card


This is a b-day card I made for a friend a few months back.
Paper is MME (Laundry Line) and sentiment was printed and punched.


Father's Day card

It seems when I make something, I usually like the outcome better when I don't plan and just let myself go. The prettiest stuff I have made has been the fastest. I think it's weird. But hey..whatever works, right?
This is the card I made for my Daddy. Patterned paper is MME, stamp is 7 gypsies. I stamped it in dove gray Stazon and embossed it. Last years was so pretty and naturally, I didn't take a pic.

We had a wonderful Father's day. My Dad and daughter had an adventure in his mater mobile that broke down and no cell phone. They have had a few adventues together and made some pretty cool memories. The man refuses to buy a new car, or one that's 5 years new. I mean why buy a new car when you can have like 5 that are on their last leg, right?!? I don't get it. But he obviously does and so does my daughter, who LOVES old, rusty, mater-looking vehicles. Like I said..I don't get it. Don't suppose I'm supposed to.


DH even got to go to Bass Pro Shops and ride that Nascar thing. He and the kiddos had fun. 
You know he had to wear the DAD shirt..lol 

April, May, June, and July ATC's


Can u believe that I was a month ahead? Wow! Though I was 2 months late. April's theme was Spring. May was patriotic. Something masculine for June. And Christmas in July. These are the ones I made. I'll try to post the others that were made by the ladies in the group for June.
Dang it! I knew I was forgetting something! I forgot March..Geez

Eggs

Behind again! And so that was the case with the eggs. It happened again this year. The eggs didn't get dyed til after midnight Easter morning. The kids were up.Well, Corey wasn't, but didn't mind getting up to see who had the ugliest egg and try to make one of his own. So it wasn't like I had to drag them out of bed or anything. 1/6 isn't bad. lol.

I did get a chance to get crafty with my own eggs. I hunted every place I coould think of for the container that was supposed to contain the Easter stuff. Alas! The container was found! But in it was not what I was hunting. Go figure! No eggs and 5 missing Easter baskets. Huh!?! What did I do with it? I still don't have a clue. I get so ticked off at myself for that. Especially when you know you have something, can't find it, have to buy more. Don't you hate that?
So, off I went to HL on another egg hunt and left with more than just eggs!
I know you see these things on soooo many blogs lately, but I wanted to do it too! : ) 


I didn't get a shot of the paper mache eggs before.
I painted a base coat of white acrylic paint, then the robin's egg blue.
On this I didn't like the look or the feel (chalky), so I added a little bit of gel medium to the paint.
I liked the sheen it gave the eggs.
With an old toothbrush and a little bit of water added (enough to make it thinner) to the burnt umber paint,
I tapped the brush on my hand for the bigger splats,
ran my finger across the bristles to get it to splatter the brown like a mist.
That's it.

The tray and the green flowers came from the $ Tree.
I LOVE those trays. I use them whenever I have the chance.
(And oh the ideas I have for them!)
Lime green stickles went on some of the green petals (not crazy about it)
I cut flowers on the cricut after buying punches that just wouldn't do it.
Crumpled them up. Uncrumpled(?) them, inked them and used the glue
so the layers of the flowers would stay in place.

Now, the eggs are in a baggie in the Easter Container
with baskets that I had to purchase once again.
How much u wanna bet that next year, I'll find what I was looking for this year
and won't be able to find the blue eggs and baskets?


ATC Feb/Valentine

Yes, I know Valentine's Day is in February.
Yes, I know it's March now.
I looked at this for days and days 

before I could get some idea of what to do next.
I finally gave up trying to plan and just started to play.


I'm not happy witht he hearts. My kids helped me so..on they went!
The background stamps are Stampabilities. I'm not sure about the others.
Ink is StazOn, pink cardstock and some glimmer mist (which you can't see from the pic).

Fleur de Lis ATC

Geez, it's been way too long since I've posted! I haven't been very creative lately. But I did manage to make a few things since November. Ok....so, remember how I went to that stamp group meet up/ ATC swap? And I enjoyed myself so much that I was definitely going back? Ummm..yeah..I haven't made it to another swap since. I'm really really really hoping to go next month. But I did manage to make some cards for the Jan. and Feb swap. January's theme was the Fleur de Lis in honor of our N.O. Saints.