Card with a Sweet View

A simple card for a birthday:

This began with an 11" x 4.25" strip of cardstock. This was scored at 5.5". I cut 4" off of what would become the front of the card. I cut a one inch strip off that piece (1" x 4.25") to use at the bottom of the card. The size of this opening can vary with the image that you wish to display.

Using a plastic sheet that came with cling stamps that I've stored elsewhere, I made a window that was 4.25" wide x 4" tall. I wasn't sure what height I would use, hence the 4" even though the finished viewing window is 3" tall. 

I used Redline (double sided) tape to adhere the plastic to the wrong side of the upper part of the front of the card. With the card closed and a line of this tape applied to the top of the 1" strip of pink cardstock, I lined up the bottom pink border on top of the plastic, having the bottom edge meet the back of the card. Because the plastic window is cut shorter than the total card height, be sure to apply the adhesive to the top edge of the cardstock you use for your bottom border. You don't want to accidentally seal your card shut.

The greetings were done on my computer in a shade of brown that matched the cupcake wrappers in the printed paper. The stamped image of the baker is from Leigh Hannan Impression Obession #MC181 "Cupcake", the cupcake is from There She Goes "A Little Treat".  I used Prismacolor pencils to color the image.

I was originally going to color this with Copic markers. I stamped the image on X-Press It paper with the intention of cutting it out and layering it on top of different paper. After deciding to use pencils instead, I cut the image as a rectangle, rounded the corners and shaded the edge since the paper is a different white from the cardstock inside.

I will do this again, possibly with a scene inside and the outside made to look like a window or a camera viewfinder.

Creatively hiding candy

Yesterday was Halloween. The weather here was lousy. Cold. Windy. Rainy. Just plain miserable. Guess who has a lot of candy left over?

If you didn't know this, I am following Weight Watchers. While I don't feel deprived, having candy around can be a problem. Not all of it calls my name, but the little Hershey bars do. Make them shut up! Please!!

This won't work. I like broccoli. Besides, if I hid it, I would remember. My memory isn't that bad yet!

This won't work either. Our bowls are all transparent glass.

This is true, but I didn't go door to door with anyone last night. Did I mention that it was cold, windy and rainy?

Given the age of my kids who are adults dealing with their own leftover candy issues, this doesn't apply. But it may have once or twice in the past....

I am SO GLAD that I saw this before trying it! Some who live here (just hubby and I live here, you figure out who I mean) think I rarely cook anymore so the oven would seem to be a good hiding spot.

I guess there is only one thing to do. I need to find a child with a chocolate deficiency and come to their rescue!

Forty-eight hours from now is my Weight Watcher meeting. I can do this! I will either leave the house or wear mittens until then!

Friendship card

A simple card to let a friend know I've been thinking of her.

Sizzix Circle Flip It die #657586 was used to cut the card base. I trimmed it down to fit an envelope. The card, as cut from the die, requires a square envelope which costs 11 cents more to mail. It isn't so much the extra postage as not having the right stamp on hand that bugs me.

The stamps used are from Inky Antics, #11171 Coffee Mouse. I used various Copic markers to color the images.

Next time around I will stamp the phrases directly onto the card or hand write them. The phrases and images were stamped on X-Press It paper. Ideally, I could or should stamp the image and phase to fit the circle and then die cut or punch the entire area to adhere to the card base. 

Live and learn. 

Mixed media experiment

When I don't know how to classify something, I guess I will label it mixed media. In this case, it is definitely an experiment, but it was also fun.

It began with a 6" x 6" canvas. I had Ranger alcohol inks from a Christmas bulb project a few years ago. I dripped inks on the canvas. Okay....this was interesting....  

I had rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle to spritz on top of these colors. Uh-oh....that went too far and got muddy.

I blotted off a lot of the still wet color. I should have saved the paper towel as that was pretty.  This was getting better, but I wanted more blooms of white from the alcohol spray. 

Ahh...getting closer, even though I still had no idea what I was going to do with this. 

Time to call the background done. I let it dry overnight to contemplate what I would do next. 

I used the flower from this Stampendous set (Cling Blossom Beauty - CRS7004) on scrapbooking paper that had words on it in faint print.

I wasn't going for realism, so I matched not one but all of the colors from the background, using Copic Markers to color the flowers. The print shows through somewhat, which is what I wanted. I fussy cut two flowers and discovered that I matched colors so well, the flowers were lost on the background.

I've been working on a lot of Halloween themed projects lately so black paper scraps were at hand. I liked black better than white behind the flowers. I used Mod Podge to adhere the flowers to black paper, then torn the black around the blossoms for a soft, tattered edge. 

After choosing their positions, I needed to fill in some space. I used a Copic Multi-liner pen to add the words Happy and Joy on one side, Charlene and Create on the other. I used Mod Podge to adhere the blossoms to the canvas, then covered everything with more Mod Podge. The pen ran a bit. Look at the R in "create".

For no reason in particular, I decided to add some glitter to the still wet Mod Podge. The first glitter was tinted and had fine rectangular shapes to the mix but that didn't really show. I attempted to add fine glitter by fingertip. My advice....don't do that. Adding candy sprinkles to a cake might work that way but glitter is too fine to control by fingertip. The colored pearl embellishments were on my desk and since the colors matched, they were added too. 

I painted the sides of the canvas with black acrylic paint. This is the finished whatever. 

I don't know that this will hang anywhere in my house, but it will be propped in the craft room to remind me to experiment and that stepping out of my comfort zone can be fun. 

Let them eat cake!

I think fondant cakes are beautiful, but they aren't something I've learned to do. With all the craft supplies that I do have, I am hesitant to venture into one more arena and run out of room, even if assured that fondant tools are bulky.

I used to enjoy cake decorating more. The time spent standing still gets to my legs after a while, and my hands ache after squeezing the decorating bag on some icings. I choose simpler projects now, and am not ashamed to use short cuts.

Today we have a neighborhood party, celebrating fall, good neighbors, good friends and three birthdays. This is a yellow cake with white icing. The letters are from a Wilton Sugar Sheet.

The centers of some of the letters had to be coaxed out with a toothpick but weren't difficult to use. I did rip the upper bar on one E but only needed one for this cake and three were provided. The price for this sheet was $3-something at Joann's. The letters are edible, but I wouldn't call them tasty. They aren't bad tasting though. 

This cake is double chocolate, or quadruple chocolate to be specific. The bones are white chocolate, made with a Wilton candy mold. The dirt is crushed Oreo cookies, minus the filling. 

As I look at these cakes as photographed, I think perhaps I should have made a smoother surface. That would have looked better here, but to be honest, I don't mind the homemade look as long as it all tastes good. I have taken a lot more care with previous cakes, but didn't think it was necessary for these two. 

More Halloween candy holders

A few weeks ago I made my first Ghiradelli chocolate holder. I've made quite a few since then based on directions provided Here on Dawn's Stamping Studio. I've used the same measurements for cutting and scoring except not all of the bands are 3/4 of an inch. I cut some based on the design in printed paper and did not use the scalloped tab topper.

Did I say I made a few?

These are going to my knitting group tonight. Each has yummy Ghiradelli chocolate square inside.

Each one begins with a strip of paper 3" x 8.5". This strip will be scored at 2.5", 2.75", 5.5" and 5.75" to wrap around the foil wrapped candy. The band of paper holding this together is cut at .75" by 9.25", but as I said above, some strips are wider. Dawn does a great job of showing all of this on her video in the link above. 

The green fences were done with a Martha Stewart punch that I've had for years. Frankenstein starts with Stampin' Up's Decorative Label punch. Each face is one green label, the hair for both was trimmed from one black label. Noses, eyes and collars are from the Builder Owl punch, the collars being the owl's stomach cut in half. The bolts were free hand cuts.

The vampire and black cat use circle and scallop punches. The eyes were from the Builder Owl and the collar is the same as Frankie's, the owl's tummy. For the vampire hair, I cut two small circles side by side on the edge of black paper before punching out a larger circle. His ears are a heart cut in half. The cat bodies and ears used the Tree punch. The cat face used the small oval and upper half of a heart punch. The tail is part of a 2" circle punch. 

Pumpkins are three ovals, shaded on the edges and glued together. The black triangles were cut from the scraps using the tree punch. The leaf is a punch I've had for a long time but I don't think it is from Stampin' Up while the other punches are all theirs. The stem is just a scrap of paper but to size. 

Spiders were done with scallop circle punch. I made a template for the legs, cutting them with a joined middle to make gluing them behind the spider easier. I wish I hadn't run out of the black and white spider print paper. The green is printer paper too but not as effective here. The web on the other paper is flocked.

Last but not least, these were made with the Builder Owl punch. That certainly is a useful punch and for much more than just owls!

I can't pick a favorite. It is just like mother love....they are all cute to me.

Earth and Sky Shawl

I have admired Stephen West's patterns for quite a while. I bought Earth and Sky recently, made it and love it.

From the Westknits website

I made the largest version of this pattern, roughly 24" from cast on edge to the point, and 70" wide. I probably could have blocked it wider but I ran out of room on my blocking tiles. I think more tiles will be on my Christmas wish list.

I used Trendsetter Yarns Merino VI in Ash (a discontinued color) and #100 White. The aqua-like shade is Frog Tree sport weight alpaca, color #98. I did re-pin and block this better than this photo shows, but managed to delete the good photo and save this one.

No one was around when I wanted a model or a photographer so my desk chair subbed. Funny how I didn't notice how cluttered the background would look as I took this photo. Turning the chair around and taking the shot from the other direction would not have worked because there was bright sunshine streaming in the window. I will never complain about sunshine, this shot will have to do.

The white and gray balls of merino wool were 50 gr/1.75 oz each, 136 yards. The aqua alpaca yarn was the same weight, 130 yards per ball. I used two balls each of the white and aqua, three of the gray. I had two yards of aqua leftover and not quite two yards of gray. There was slightly more of the white. While it was nice not to have a lot left over, I was sweating it on the gray and bottom border is two rows shorter than I had planned.