Pearl Journal

This week's challenge #31 at Michelle Perkett Studio is Circles & Ribbon/Lace. I altered this journal using Michelle's beautiful Pearl digital stamp, available from Michelle's Etsy shop HERE.

Pearl was printed onto Xpress Graphx blending card and coloured with Copics. She was then highlighted with lots of  bling...SU Dazzling Diamonds, Kindy Glitz, Stickles, glitter pens and glaze pen...then cut into a circle with my CM cutting system. The front panel has SU Basic Black CS as the base with DP from the Kaiser Spirograph collection as the background for the image. The ribbon is Kaiser grosgrain, which matches perfectly!! with the SU Certainly Celery CS, which I used to mount Pearl and the believe panel. "Believe" has been computer generated and traced over with a clear glitter pen.

Inside the front cover:

I made a ribbon marker from the leftover grosgrain and attached a punched circle element from the same DP collection. I attached the ribbon marker to the back cover, before adhering the DP to the inside.

A close up of the lovely Pearl:

As soon as I read about this challenge I thought of this DP...it is perfect for a challenge using circles...and I love the colours.  When I went to look at the DT projects I realised Nancy had used it on her gorgeous card...great minds think alike lol!

Flowers Galore!

This week at Michelle Perkett Studio we are having a Flowers Galore challenge.  Most of the time I really struggle with embellishing my projects...and especially with flowers! I love them on everyone else's projects but don't seem to be happy when I try them on mine :(  Perhaps it's because I do mainly 3D projects, not cards?? Anyhow, this is what I came up with for my DT project for challenge #30 :

This is a storage jar for flower embellies...now my BIGGEST challenge will be to use the flowers I've made to put in it lol! When we had our Earth Day blog hop, my lovely friend Helen came up with this idea but didn't use it...so I asked her if she would mind me making one of these for one of our challenges...thanks Helen...*waving* :)

The jar is a recycled Moccona coffee jar. I have a number of these that I've collected from friends over the years as they make fantastic pantry storage jars. I decided to use Michelle's beautiful Lily image...available from her Etsy shop HERE, along with lots of other gorgeous art :) Lily was printed onto Xpress Graphx blending card and coloured with Copics. Sections were highlighted with glitter pen...I'm having a frustrating time with my clear Spica pen, which I used for the wings, as I can't seem to get it to flow properly. I was quite disappointed with it on this image as it has blurred some of the wings :(  Lily's 'leaves' were coated with glaze pen for a little dimension. She has been cut out and popped up on foam dots. The orb behind her has been cut from JAC paper and glittered with AED Golden Sunset superfine glitter, then adhered to the jar. I scattered a few rhinestone flowers around the completed image.

For the lid I wanted to make an organza embroidered flower with my embroidery machine.  I photo'd it before I put it in the lid so it's easier to see :)

Then I set to work to make some flowers to put in the jar...some are crocheted, using different fibres, the fluffy paper ones have been created with my SU scallop circle punch and scraps of DP, and the others are punched shapes, layered to make the flower. I had fun making the flowers...now let's see if I can bring myself to put them on something LOL!

Here's a close up of Lily:

This is a fun challenge...I hope you'll come and join us this week and show us what you can do with a 'galore' of flowers :)

In The Dog House

The challenge this week at Michelle Perkett Studio is "Distressing Techniques". It's definitely not my strong point! I'm Little Miss Neat LOL! I'm slowly getting better with free-form work but mostly I have to have balance and symmetry. I love the look on everyone else's work but can never quite manage to mess my stuff up a bit! So this was a real challenge for me...and there's really not THAT much distressing on my project, compared to some of the other wonderful entries this week.

I had the idea for this door hanger when I did the door hanger challenge, as a bit of a laugh. We have a beautiful beagle boy called Barney, who can be quite naughty at times :) Mostly he is good these days...thank goodness...but when he was a puppy there were a few days where hubby came home to "we're putting an ad in the paper and selling him!!" I wouldn't part with him really...we love him to bits :)

For the hanger I used CM brown CS for the base and Kaiser DP from the Country Grove collection. The caption is computer generated.  I used Michelle's Jasper for Barney...he's the closest I could come to a beagle (thanks Michelle!)...and tried to colour him as close as possible to Barney's colouring...not the easiest task lol! Especially when the image is only 2" high!!!! The kennel is Coredinations from the Vintage collection, embossed with a Fiskars texture plate and sanded back to look like aged timber. The iron roof is CM silver CS, put through a crimper and sanded lightly. All the pieces have been chalked to add a little more dimension and aging. "Barney" aka Jasper, has been cut out and raised on thin dots. The kennel has been popped up with thick foam dots. Then I summoned up all my courage and inked the edges of the DP with a sponge and SU Close to Cocoa ink. Phew...I did it :)

Here's a close up of the cute doggie..........

There's still a day left to play with this challenge, so hop on over to Michelle's challenge site and join in the fun. There are lots of beautiful images to play with in her Etsy shop HERE.

Mother's Day

This post is dedicated to my lovely mum, who passed away last year, aged 85

It is thanks to my mum that I have a love of handmade things. She taught me how to knit when I was 8 and how to sew when I was 11. She encouraged me in all things creative and was my biggest fan :) My mum was an amazing lady who was very creative and could turn her hand to just about anything. She could write verse, sew, knit, paint and in later years, taught ceramics.  I have a photo of my 3 older siblings when they were young and everything they are wearing in the photo was made by mum...except the shoes!! I bet she's spending her time in spirit being as creative as ever :) She was a lovely lady...we all miss her very much......

This week at Michelle Perkett Studio the theme for challenge #28 is Mother's Day. I wasn't really looking forward to doing a DT project for this challenge. I think when we lose someone near and dear to us, the "special" days...birthdays, Christmas, etc... are difficult for the first few years. Mother's Day will be a bit weird without my lovely mum this year.

After contemplating what to make for the challenge, I decided to make something for my daughter, from her 3 beautiful kidlets :)  This is what I came  up with:

 This is a little book measuring 6 1/2" square. The caption across the top of the front cover says: Children are the flowers in life's garden..... I printed the caption onto the DP before adhering to the book.

The first double page inside has a verse that my mum wrote many years ago, called In My Garden and a greeting from the children to their mum:

This is followed by a double page from each child, with a photo and a drawing done by them:

When I had my grandbabies overnight last week, I asked them to draw a picture for their mum and gave them a piece of CS with a 5" square drawn in pencil. They were asked to draw within the lines so I could mat the drawing in the book :) Jake is 10, Kate 5 and Amy 4. They did a great job!!

The covers for the book have been made from chipboard and painted black. The inside pages are heavy weight black CS. The book was bound using my Bind-it-All machine. The DP is from the Kaiser 6" paper pad called La-Di-Da, with the exception of Jake's pages which are from a digi paper kit.

The image I chose for the front is from Michelle Perkett Studio. She is called Mary, Mary and is available from Michelle's Etsy shop HERE. I think this is the perfect image to go with the In My Garden theme of the book. She has been coloured with Copics, highlighted with glitter pens, cut out and popped up on foam dots. The flower borders are from two 3D border stickers.

With hindsight, it would have been much smarter to photo the book on a light coloured background instead of black...would be much easier to see!!!

I thought I'd include the verse mum wrote here, for you to read...it's my favourite out of all the ones she penned...........

                                                In My Garden

                                                 In my garden

                                                 I saw the sunshine

                                                 in my children's eyes,

                                                 picked the flowers

                                                 of their smiles,

                                                 watched the rain

                                                 of falling tears

                                                 help them blossom

                                                 through the years.

Wishing you a Mother's Day filled with love and laughter.....................