Something Wicked This Way Comes, Haunted House Greeting Card

This is a favorite! It is simple only because the My Mind's Eye "Wicked" papers made it so easy to design. The three pages flowed together so well. I spent my formidable years in a town with a big historic cemetery and a Victorian house similar to the one on the inside.

The house is made of the peacock grungeboard and cut out using a Tim Holtz Sizzix die. I crinkled vellum paper to give the effect of broken glass. The smoke coming from the fireplace is actual peacock feathers. The little girl is a digital vintage image. Shh... we won't talk about the ghostly rhinestones coming from the window; they might hear us.

This card is available for purchase via my Etsy paper shop. Thanks for visiting!

Cheers,
Susan

Beach Album And Keepsake Box, Graphic 45 "On The Boardwalk"

Hello beach bums! Ok, maybe not all of you are beach bums... I'm not either. Even though I'm 30 minutes from the ocean, this pale face skips the beach during the summer. I don't look --or feel-- good in a bright red skin tone. :P

I have a vintage beach themed accordion album and keepsake box to share with you. It's made from Graphic 45's "On The Boardwalk" papers and a G45 Staples box.

Click the photos for a larger view. I love this box. Teal excites me, and add touches of orange and lime and I'm vibrating! See the polka dot beach umbrella in the top left corner? It's custom made for the box.

Since the front panel has the two open frames, I tailored the inside panel to give the bathing beauty a nice background. Speaking of her, in order to keep her from getting squished or bent with handling, I roughly cut around her and glued that to a pieces of thin cardboard. Once dry I carefully cut around her with my super sharp scissors. She has stability!

Inside is an accordion-style mini album. The front is layered in my usual fashion and has a similar twirly "on the boardwalk" flag as the box front.

Here's a view of the inside panels. There are 4 pockets for printed photos and ephemera.

Click for a bigger view

This was a fun project for me. I hope you like it, too! Here's a quick link to it in my Etsy paper shop.

Thank you for your visit today.  I hope your summer is starting off with a great fun bang!

Cheers,
Susan

The Queen Of Last Minute Altered Wood Block

Hello hello! I always say I do my best work at the last minute. The pressure of a looming deadline certainly focuses me. The irony of this altered wood block isn't lost on me... see, I started it some time in 2013, I think. When did I finish it? Last month. Yup. April 2015.

Vintage tatting and watch parts. He head is a sprung watch spring!

These parts swirl around the clock face, as if time doesn't matter...

The queen likes her lacy bits

As time goes by...

The papers are from Tim Holtz's first paper pack. You know, from way back when. The body form is a Sizzix die and I think the wings were traced from a grungeboard cutout. The base is custom colored with about 5 different paints.

Thanks for your visit today! As always, I'm just on the other end of your keyboard if you have any questions about this or *any* construction or materials. I love to share!

Cheers,

Susan

Matchbox Fairy Garden

Hello hello! When I saw these Graphic 45 matchbox boxes, I knew one would eventually be a fairy garden of some sort. I love fairy gardens!

The matchbox is 3" x 5",  and with tiny feet and a handle it stands 6" tall. I used Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden - remember that gorgeous paper? I have just a little bit left these days. Perfect for small projects like this!

I can't seem to get the coloring right on this photo, but you can still see the full garden. :) Since the matchboxes are snug, I simply painted the insides a very light peach color, then distressed a bit with fine sandpaper. That way it still slides.

Thanks for visiting today! I hope you find time to get a little creative, too!

Cheers,
Susan

Destination: Paradise!

Hello, hello creative friends! Since I didn't make a lot of paper projects last year and yet didn't stop buying (is that considered hoarding?), there's a lot hanging around. Here's how the leftover scraps of Graphic 45's Tropical Travelogue inspired me this week.

 
I cut out the lady and set her outside the window frame, as if she's showing off her fantastic South Pacific view.

I wanted to clip the "destination" tag and the "paradise" ticket together but the chipboard ticket was too thick. I used a Cricut spatula to cut the thickness in half. It seems so simple but I was pretty thrilled to think that one up. It's the little things!

Here's a view of the inside. I really like the fold on the left - you'll see a lot more like it.

I ordered a sheet of the floral background paper to use as gift box top - hopefully it will arrive today, 'cause you know there is more fun stuff in that order!

Thanks for visiting today! I hope you have a creative weekend. :)

Cheers
Susan

A Skeleton's Cure?

Hiya folks! Have you seen the My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Halloween line? It's delicious!

I used a sticky canvas sheet for the background and MME Halloween papers for the rest. The skeleton is a Tim Holtz stamp that was stamped, cut with a teeny tiny blade, and embossed with clear powder.

I used Glossy Accents on both the potion bottles on front and the skull inside. It's a nice and creepy effect! The black paper swirl on the right edge is cut with a Sizzix On The Edge die and roughed up with Picket Fence Distress Stain and brown ink.

Of course there's a gift box to go along with it!

This is the second time I used a wee blade to cut the skeleton. I swore last time that I wasn't going to do it again... Eh, whatever! It was much easier this time and I'm glad I took it on. :) Speaking of glad, I do love having the card fold on the left edge. It is taking a little time to get used to, though. What do you think? Can you imagine your cards on the left?

Thanks for stopping in today!

Cheers, Susan

Magnificent Men a la Sarah Engels-Greer

Hello! While I've been buzzing away the last few weeks it seems I haven't shown you any completed projects. Gah! I've been making hundreds of hat pins but cutting very little paper. *sigh* How does this happen?

Anyway, I have a story to tell you. Christmas 2010 I "gave" my Husband his library, a large room off our bedroom that really had no purpose. We had a wall of bookcases and a chair, but not much else. While he was at work one day I outfitted the room with library-type stuff including a 12' rug, library table, more furniture and assorted other bits and pieces. It turned out beautifully!

So, how does one top *that*?

Last December, as I'm floundering away at finding The Perfect Gift for my husband, I ran across a project made by Sarah Engels-Greer. The sky lit up and I could hear the angels singing! Of course, I could make something for the library!

I tried to take inspiration and make my own but her original design is so darn perfect for Husband's space that I couldn't "improve" on it. Sarah and I emailed about it a few months ago and she gave me her blessing to post. I've waited until after her piece was published in Craft Stamper to show mine. It's important to both of us that credit goes to her for original design. Please visit her blog (you'll never want to leave!) to see gorgeous details about her Magnificent Men!

So, without further ado, here are my Magnificent Men:

The box is Configurations with the acrylic front

Left side close-up

Right side close-up

On the bookcase

This project was an incredible amount of work - Sarah called it a "labor of love" and I definitely agree. It took a long time to make but it was worth it. Thanks Sarah!

Thanks for visiting today!

Cheers,
Susan

G45's Botanicabella and Tuesday Morning sale alert!

Hiya crafty cohorts!

If you're a Tim Holtz fan and have a Tuesday Morning shop around, there's a TH weekend special starting Friday, February 10. My local opens at 10 and you better believe I'll be there before to stake my claim on whatever they have to offer. Or, at least I'll look! (They'll also have Martha Stewart and K&Co.)

Today I'd like to share a project made using Graphic 45's Botanicabella line. I've been hemming and hawing (do people still say that?) over using it for a while and finally found the right project. I don't know if I've ever told you, but a red poppy is my favorite flower. This isn't quite a poppy, but it gave me inspiration non-the-less.

It's a 5x7 canvas that started out as a card. Once I decided to use the lettering, I had to go bigger than my normal 5 1/2" card (since I don't have smaller letters). I think it was a good decision. :) The paper is wrapped around the edges and the back is finished with another design. I haven't decided if I want to use a ribbon to hang or just add a sawtooth hanger on the back. I almost want to just leave it alone so it can s1t on a shelf in peace. :)

As you can probably tell, the flower samples are popped off the canvas. I used 1/8" dots for the big pieces and 1/16" dots for the red flower and stamp.

The letters are from TH Mixed Minis grungeboard set. I threw them all in a little baggie and dripped caramel alcohol ink in to stain them brown. Once dried, I covered the tops with Vintage Photo Distress Stickles.

The butterflies are from the same sheet as the red flower. I cut them out, inked the edges, used Diamond Stickles on the light bits and covered it all with Glossy Accents.

The Dusty Attic ferns were colored using Peeled Paint Distress Stain. 

The antennae are made from black craft wire. I dip small (around 1") snips into white glue and hang upside down until they dry. Once dried I dip into glossy black paint. I usually do a bunch of them at a time to have them on hand.

Thanks for stopping in today and see you next time!

Cheers,
Susan

Mini Christmas Tags

Hiya folks! In honor of today's start of Tim Holtz's annual 12 Tags of Christmas frenzy, I want to share a couple of tags I made last weekend. They are small - 4.5" x about 2.5", and three are inspired by tags from his 2010 collection.

I made them as free gifts for shopping in my Etsy store on Small Business Saturday. The wonderful customer who received these has been very kind to me throughout the year and I think I gave her more than she bargained for... in a good way!

I had a lot of fun with these, using scads of Tim Holtz and Ranger stuff I've either not used before or used in new ways. The only one not inspired by the 12 Tags is the blue "Snow". I had the letters from a different project and paired with white embossed TH snowflake stamps. The cut-out flakes are from a Cricut cartridge - maybe from Joys of the Season since that's the only Christmas one I have. Oh, and the rosette is a 1/2" x 12" strip of paper scored at 1/4" intervals. Easy do-it-yourself!

If you're not familiar with Tim or his tags, check out his blog - today is day 1 of the 2011 tags, and if it's any indication of what's to come, I might just play along. They are great for learning new techniques and you definitely don't have to use his products. At the bottom of his posts you can see where other people have uploaded their versions of his tag. It's fun to see the inspiration!

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Hey there crafty folks! This week the Beary Scrap design team is continuing with whatever strikes our fancy, since it's a challenge Free for All!

I'm having loads of fun with my chunky Halloween houses - there's a village now! This week's house is made using Authentique's Glowing paper. Sadly, I didn't realize it was sold out in the shop and I don't have another project to inspire you. I hope this can give you an idea or two anyway. :) There are tons of available 6x6 pads to choose from!

It's a simple house, really... with a big, hairy occupant. (No, I'm not talking about Aunt Hilda, the poor dear...)The spider web was "painted" with Glossy Accents, as was the spider body (which was then covered with a Swarovski crystal). I covered the chimney with a scrap of the same paper left over from another project, so the right wall has a spider, also. This was a fun project and I'm really looking forward to a Christmas village!

Thanks for visiting today! Our Free for All / Anything Goes challenge continues through Friday the 14th. Come join us - you could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: There's a cure for what ails you...

Hi crafty folks! Welcome to October. Here in Maryland October blew in on a brisk wind. It's oh-so-cold right now, and the sun doesn't even have the decency to push away the clouds. Over in the UK our friends are experiencing a record-breaking heat wave. C'mon Mother Nature, get it together! This week also rings in a new challenge. At The Beary Scrap Challenge blog, we're putting our monthly sketch challenges on hold for a while and replacing them with fun theme-based challenges similar to the ones we always do on the 15th of the month. What better way to celebrate than to have a crafty

Free For (F)All!

Haha! Yes, I do think I'm funny. My little play on words makes me giggle. :)

Now, let's set aside all this fun and frivolity and get down to business. This week I have a little bit of spooky art to share with you. I'm participating in a "Chunky Halloween House" swap over at Craftster and this is one of my houses.

The skeleton was stamped on the My Mind's Eye Haunted "Halloween Checklist" paper and another was stamped on a separate piece of paper to cut out. Honestly, I'm pretty proud of this cutting. I have a lot of patience for this kind of fussy cutting in general, but the ribs on this guy really had me taking deep breaths. I decided before I started that I would try it only once. If I cut through or made a boo boo I couldn't fix or hide, I would not start another one. I'm happy with the results and really glad I had that patience.

Once he was cut out and all the edges were colored with a brown marker, I patted him on my Distress Ink embossing pad and sprinkled with clear embossing powder.

The vintage apothecary labels were printed on the computer and the edges were inked. The "A cure for what ails" letters were individually stamped and covered with Glossy Accents. The back is pretty simple - with more of the MME Haunted "Raven" paper and a fun pharmacy label with my info on it. The font was a free download (found ages ago...) called "Traveling_Typewriter".

Thanks so much for visiting today! Our Free For (F)All! challenge goes through midnight EST October 14th. Come join us - you could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Project Recipe

Image: TH Skeleton Stamp, vintage apothecary labels from Just Something I Made and Graphics Fairy
Paper: My Mind's Eye Haunted "Raven" and "Halloween Checklist"
Medium: Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo; Glossy Accents; Ranger Distress Embossing Ink; Stampendous clear embossing powder
Embellishments: Dresden trim, black ribbon and TH tape from stash

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: Travelin' Teddy

Hi there crafty friends! Happy Monday to you. Before I chat up this week's project, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Guest Designer Brenda, who posted her last project this past Saturday. Sweetie, thank you so much for bringing such fun projects to our challenges. You and I have very different styles yet I learned something new from you almost every week over the last 3 months. It's been amazing to see what you design, and I am completely honest when I say you've taught me to think differently. Thanks Brenda!

This week the design team is continuing with our DIY embellishments to go along with our Do It Yourself Embellishment challenge. Seeing all the different embellishments by the design team last week was very inspiring to me!

For today's project I decided to make a mulberry paper "Tear Bear" as my DIY. It's been a looong time for me - at least a year! You may not know this, but Tear Bears are what brought me to The Beary Scrap in the first place. I was a novice bear maker and our very own Kimm was incredibly patient while I learned. I peppered her with a million questions and she answered every one of them with kindness. These days the Beary Sweet Designs acrylic patterns make it *so easy* to whip up a Tear Bear, and the written instructions HERE are brilliant.

I used the Tattered Teddy pattern on this card. Since Tattered Teddy came out, I've been playing around with the idea of making him slouch against a dress form die cut on a very shabby chic styled card. It turned out that my dress form die is too small for Teddy, so I went in a different direction with this project. (One day I will do it, but with the Baby Bear pattern instead.)

Here's Travelin' Teddy, working his way around the globe!

Card Recipe

• Paper: Prima 6x6 pad - Botanical; Mulberry paper in "Caramel" and "White"; Bazzill Basics; suitcase printed on textured Canson Mi-Tiente paper
• Medium: Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo
• Embellishments: Beary Sweet Designs Tattered Teddy acrylic pattern; Mulberry Paper 16mm white roses and rose buds; Tim Holtz Filmstrip Ribbon; Kaisercraft pearls; lace, pink flower, charms, ribbon from stash
• Tools: Complete Tear Bear Making Kit; Honey Bee scissors; Scor-Pal; sewing machine
• Adhesives: 1/4" Scor-Tape; Fabri-Tac; 1/8" and 1/16" 3D Dots

Thanks for visiting today! Our DIY Embellishment challenge goes on through Thursday night - come play with us! You could win a $20 gift voucher to The Beary Scrap! Thursday is also the last day for Guest Designer Debbie. *sob* It's been a thrill to have both Debbie and Brenda with us for the last 3 months. I can't believe it's almost over. Ladies, thanks for all your wonderfully inspiring projects!

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: Nature's Flutters

Hello hello and happy Monday to you! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a birthday... and it was good. *wink*

So, this is Week 2 of our Beary Sweet Nature Challenge, where you can enter any project that you think conjures up "nature" in your noggin. As a bonus challenge to the design team, we have to include a charm in our project. Easy enough!

Kimm just got this fun filmstrip ribbon into the store, and I decided to use that as my jumping-off point. Here's what happened when it all landed:

Card Recipe

• Paper: Bo Bunny Gabrielle 6x6 pad; Bazzill Basics Lily Pad and Walnut
• Medium: Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain; Stickles Star Dust and Patina; Ranger Glossy Accents as a top layer on the bitty butterflies; Irridescent acrylic paints on the Pink Paislee wood butterfly
• Embellishments: Tiny butterflies cut from a sheet in the Gabrielle paper pad with homemade wire antennae; Tim Holtz Idea-ology film strip ribbon (available soon in the store!); Pearls; Assorted Prima flowers; Hand made decorative stick pins; crochet lace from stash
• Adhesive: 1/4" Scor-Tape; 3D Dots - 1/8" black 
• Tools: Scor-Pal (check out the Scor-Pal Mini!); Ranger Blending Tool; sewing machine

Thanks for visiting today! Come back all week for more great design team samples of our Nature theme. I hope you can enter our Beary Sweet Nature challenge, too. You could win a $20 voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

GM #2: What Color is the Wind?

Thanks so much to the great folks at Allsorts for choosing this for their Top 5 "Anything But A Square" challenge!

Click to see all the winners!

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Hello hello! I'm here with this week's Grungy Monday challenge over at Studio L3. It was actually donedonedone Thursday, but I've been mucking about with the Beadfest show in Philadelphia, so this is the first chance I've had to post. Heh, better than last week when I posted 1 hour before the challenge closed. Ha!

Anyway, we were tasked to use a Ranger technique demonstrated by Tim Holtz HERE (it's a video tutorial). It's all about using Distress Ink with Studio Multi Medium to create this cool color resist effect.

To start my design, I reviewed the TH dies I have and decided to use the Tattered Leaves. I found the calender strip unused in my paper bits and went with an Autumn theme. I suppose if I had Spring months this would look completely different!

(Click to enlarge)

I made a foam stamp from TH Tattered Leaves dies and stamped with the medium. Once that was dry I used Distress Ink in to color the page around the leaves, and wiped the ink off the leaves themselves with a damp paper towel. I don't have that specific medium so I used something else then covered it with Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I like the effect, even if it was to cover up the other stuff. *wink*

What's this about the wind, you ask? I wanted the grungeboard swirl to represent the wind and spent a lot of time debating the color of wind. Weathered Wood Distress stain won out! I spritzed it with Pearl Glimmer Mist once dry. One other detail to share: The lace is vintage tatting I scored at an antique shop. Cool, huh?

Challenges, Please

• Grungy Monday #2 (4/10): Distress Ink and Multi Medium
• Allsorts #98 (4/15): Anything But A Square
• Gingersnap Creations #96 (4/24): 3rd Annual Copper, Ginger or Rust
• Simon Says Stamp and Show (4/10): Anything But A Card

Thanks for visiting! If you want to learn more about this Tim Holtz guy, check out his site HERE!

Cheers,
Susan

GM #1: This Card Describes Me to a T

Hello crafty friends! So there's this brand spankin' new challenge for those of us who like to dabble in The Grunge. It's called Grungy Monday and it's run by none other than the lovely Linda of Studio L3 fame. It's all about being inspired by Tim Holtz - whether it's a technique or product, each week Linda throws down the gauntlet and challenges us to be inspired.

For Grungy Monday the First, we were sent to this Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas 2008 post to inspect the techniques. Here's what I did with the masking technique and a Perfect Pearls concoction as well as wet embossing.

The Queen of Last Minute. Oh yea, that's me. Here' it is Sunday night and the challenge closes in one hour. Queen of Last Minute? Who, me?

I used purple Perfect Pearls spritz on the crown mask (and wide crochet ribbon), and the wet embossing for the pen nibs stamp was done with Versafine black ink and clear detail embossing powder. Here's a somewhat better photo of the pen nibs. I painted them with a little mixture of Perfect Pearls and water, but the purple is faint.

Ok, I'm going to post and  rush over to enter the challenge. I'll come back to waffle on about this card more in a bit.

Challenges, Please!

• Grungy Monday #1 (4/3) - Tim Holtz Techniques
• The Stamp Man #19 (4/7 ) - Anything Tim
• The Artistic Stamper (4/30) - Build It Up with Layers (stamped image is pen nibs)

Cheers,
Susan