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.....................

Door Hanger Challenge Winner

Hello everyone...thanks for playing along with the Door Hanger Challenge for Michelle Perkett Studio's 300 Member Celebrations!!

All the entries were stunning and I'm soooo pleased I didn't have to choose the winner...thank goodness for Random.org LOL! So, without further ado...here is the winning number.........

True Random Number Generator
Min:  
Max:  
Result: 5   
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

And the winner is....tah dah..........Martin Verner! Congratulations Martin :)

Here is Martin's Amazing door hanger:

Martin, please email Michelle and let her know which images you'd like so she can send them to you.


Note:  I DID put 8 as the maximum number in random.org but for some reason when I copied it into my post, the max box is still showing 100?????? Grrrrrrrr...technology!!!!! As you can probably guess, this is my first time using this feature and I've obviously got something wrong :(

Michelle Perkett Studio Earth Day Blog Hop

Over at Michelle Perkett Studio we are having an Earth Day Blog Hop. The brief was to use something recycled and the colour green somewhere in the project...not a hard ask for me...I LOVE green; it's my favourite colour :)

If you have arrived here from the brilliant Betty's  blog, then you're on the right track. If not then you might like to go back to the start at Michelle's blog HERE so you don't miss any of the wonderful creations on show.

Here is my project. As soon as I heard about the hop I knew I wanted to make a book box, using an old cloth-covered hardback book. And I wanted a magical theme...not hard to achieve with all the beautiful images Michelle has available :) This is what I came up with:

Front:

Open, Spine and inside box:

This is what my book box started out looking like:

I used the tan coloured book in the middle of this stack, cut the pages from inside the spine and painted the cover with green gold metallic craft paint. The DP has been made with a digital paper kit called Impossible Things from Scraporchard.  I loved this digi kit the minute I saw it and just had to have it! I made the background papers by combining  different elements from the kit and printing them out.

The images I used are: Magical Alchemy, Moonrose Fairy and Believe...all available from Michelle's Etsy shop HERE. They were printed onto Xpress Graphx blending paper and coloured with Copics. The fairy and moon were then spritzed with Glimmer Mist, before being cut out and adhered to the inside of the box. The alchemist was cut out and popped up on dots, as was the Believe panel.

The box was constructed from chipboard, painted and papered, then adhered to the inside back cover of the book.

I have to say, this project developed a life of its own and grew beyond what I'd intended!! I'm really happy with the end result but disappointed that I haven't used more recycled bits...which was my original intention :(

Thanks for looking......now hop on over to the creative Kerri's blog to see her wonderful creation.

Princess Lotus Tissue Box Cover

This is an order I received for a large tissue box cover. The requirements for this order were that it had to co-ordinate with a white, silver and pink bathroom...and have Princess Lotus Flower on it.

The tissue box cover is a Kaiser wood form which has been painted with metallic silver craft paint. The DP is from a digi kit called Spring in Hooville by Jady Day Studio available from Scraporchard.  SU Choc Chip CS has been used for the scallop oval on the top of the box and for the panel mount on the front.  CM silver CS has been used for the base mount on the front panel. The scallop oval and DP oval were cut with my KNK Maxx and finished with Kaiser rhinestones.

The image is Princess Lotus Flower by Michelle Perkett and is available in her Etsy shop, along with lots of other beautiful images :) Princess Lotus has been printed onto Xpress Graphx blending paper and coloured with Copics.

Ballerina Bunny Easel Box

Challenge #26 this week at Michelle Perkett Studio is to use the above colour combo to make an easel card. 

For my DT project I wanted to use a silver gift box that I've had sitting around for some years (getting in practice, recycling, for the Earth Day blog hop hehe ) and mount the easel card on the top.  I decided to make an easel card with a difference. Instead of having an 'art' board mounted on the front panel, I wanted to mount a 3D image.

I chose the Ballerina Bunny from Michelle's Etsy shop, printed her onto Express Graphx blending paper and coloured with Copics. Her 'organza' petticoat and wings were created with Stickles and glitter pen was used to highlight her flowers. She was then cut out and mounted with foam dots.

The base card is SU Old Olive. The DP is Kaiser from the Spirograph Collection. I used one of Michelle's captions from another of her digital images for the mount on the top of the box...it reads: A true and special friend makes your heart feel like dancing

Door Hanger Tutorial & Challenge

Michelle Perkett Studio at Paper Craft Planet has just reached 300 members!!!  Woo Hoo...congratulations Michelle...this is so well deserved! Your artwork is beautiful :)

As part of the celebrations, I have posted a Door Hanger challenge & tutorial on the group discussion board. If you would like to play along you will need to join PCP (it's free), go to the Groups heading (top RHS of the Home page), click on Michelle Perkett Studio and join the group...easy :) The girls there will welcome you with open arms...they are such a lovely, fun group! Once there you can find all the challenge requirements and the free tutorial under the Door Hanger challenge heading on the group's home page :)

Anyhow, now to the important stuff...I am offering a $15 gift voucher for Michelle's Etsy shop to the winner of the challenge.  Here is a little inspiration for you.........

The door hanger is a Kaiser wood form. The hanger was painted with copper metallic craft paint and the front papered with CM DP from the Vintage collection (been in my stash for a while!) The image is Michelle's beautiful new Amore Fairy, available from her Etsy shop HERE. She has been printed on to Express Graphx blending paper...LOVING THIS PAPER!!!...and coloured with Copics. Glitter pen was used to highlight the flowers and the wings have been glittered. The wording is computer generated. Amore has been cut out and mounted with dimensional dots.

A close up of Amore..........

I hope you will come and play along with us...it's going to be a lot of fun! Can't wait to see all the amazing creations :)

Challenge closes at midnight Monday, 26th April. Winner will be drawn by random generator and posted on Tuesday 27th...good luck!

Note: Please link your entry to your challenge post...not your blog home page...so it's easy to find your project :) If you don't have a blog to link to, please email me your photo and I'll post it for you.
You must be a member of Michelle Perkett Studio PCP group to qualify for the challenge prize.

Summer Lace

Here is my entry in the Michelle Perkett Studio challenge #24. The challenge this week is to use a favourite colour combo with pearls and lace. The DT did an amazing job with their cards this week...they are all beautiful. You can check them out HERE. 

Talk about cutting things fine...there's only 11 hrs until the deadline...and I'm going to be sleeping most of that away :) I've been wanting to play in this challenge all week but haven't managed to get the time. This isn't the project I wanted to do but it's better than nothing at all. I hope you are all sitting down...IT'S A CARD...LOL!!! And it's not green & purple!!  I ran out of time to do a 3D project :(

The base CS is SU Old Olive (one of my favourite colours). The DP is Kaiser from the Devonshire Collection 6 x 6 paper pad...yummy, rich autumn colours. The image is Summer from Michelle Perkett. You can get her, and lots of other beautiful images, from Michelle's Etsy shop HERE. She was printed on Express Graphx, Express It Blending Card, available from Sammi at Mad for Markers.  This is my first try with this new paper and I LOVE it...will be buying more! Summer was coloured with Copics and highlighted with glitter pen and glaze pen. The image was cut out and mounted on dimensional dots.

The lace frame was made with my embroidery machine and a design from Ace Points Embroidery. I cut the middle from the frame with a scalpel and finished with Kaiser pearls in the large flower centres. The large rose and leaves on the DP were spritzed with Glimmer Mist.

It's very hard to read but the words across the top of the DP read: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams...so true!

Here is a close-up of Summer...