Lens

WOYWW 191 | Making Valentines

Good morning! It's a very mild day here, especially for January. It's 47 degrees out, in contrast to last Wednesday when it was -10. If you feel so inclined, please join our WOYWW blog hop hostess, Julia, over at her blog for the scoop and a list of other folks around the globe who are also posting pictures of their desks today. 

I got out a bunch of Valentines stuff to make cards with -- doilies, stamps, dies, leftover bits from last year, such as punched borders and that red embossed piece half buried there. I die cut some hearts out of dictionary paper, stamped glossy cardstock, and cork. I like the look of the one cork heart I stamped on in the middle, but the other one looks like it has the chicken pox or something. lol I'm sure I'll find a use for it. 

Found a sweet pad of patterned paper on sale a few weeks ago. Really like the wood veneer embellishment trend, so have a little pile of hearts and arrows there. 

Made this card last week: washi tape, My Mind's Eye patterned paper, Hero Arts stamps, wood veneer, a bit of old ribbon, and the strip at the very bottom was a freebie from a vendor. 

Decided to use up some hoarded bits from the short-lived Girl's Paperie -- the background is a piece of patterned paper, letters, large heart & flower are all premade die cuts, and I added punched gold hearts.

This one, for Gabi, is tucked away in my desk drawer. She likes polka dots. :) I stamped with Versamark on glossy cardstock and then rubbed distress ink over the top for the background. Added doily, letters stickers, and a cork heart. 

Thanks for visiting! I'll visit everyone back who comments here, of course, and will try to do some other visiting as well.  Hope you're having a good week.

~ Laura

12 Tags of 2012: December

This is my tag inspired by Tim Holtz's first December tag. I used the Broken China distress stain, but didn't have the metallic one, so used Picket Fences instead. I didn't have the snowman stamp, so used a Hero Arts set. I did have the Rock Candy Distress Stickles to add at the end as an accent. I wish I hadn't gotten adhesive on the front of the shiny letters -- oh, well! I had used my Cuttlebug to cut them and didn't feel like getting everything out again. I just ordered an adhesive eraser, so perhaps I can fix it!

Thanks for visiting,

~ Laura 

December Daily 2012: Album Cover

This is the cover to my December Daily album. I painted it with Martha Stewart acrylic paint, added ribbon, AC Thickers, and die cuts from gold glitter paper. I put Glossy Accents on the Thickers and when it pooled in the center of the zero, I decided to leave it. :)

My "sharing" of my December Daily album will be sporadic because I don't print photos from home, so I'll be getting prints each weekend throughout the month. But I'll try to share something each day (we'll see how that plan goes!) 

Thanks for visiting,

Laura

Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge: Thank You

I had intended to make something along these lines for Thanksgiving this year, so it matched up serendipitously with SSS&S's weekly challenge! 

I sandwiched a piece of burlap between cardstock and thin cardboard. A very appropriate piece of Tim Holtz paper is adhered to the cardboard (it features Thanksgiving recipes!) and strips from another sheet provides the "sentiment." Using gold Ranger acrylic paint and a Hero Arts stamp, I stamped a floral design on the paper. I sprayed the kraft leaves with orange glimmer mist and stamped words on them with a Hero Arts alphabet set. They are attached with copper brads. The fifth leaf was stamped with a Prima script stamp. I added a bit of twine from The Twinery and some punched hearts. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

WOYWW #181 | What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! If you've no time to read my verbiage, just scroll for pictures of what's up in my craft room/den. 

To those on my side of the Atlantic, happy day-before-Thanksgiving when we should be accomplishing things but we might, perhaps, be posting to WOYWW first as a procrastination technique. {{imagine innocent look here}} I'm not really panicking, although I am hosting 13 including myself, because dinner is tomorrow at 6:00 (assuming both sisters and families arrive on time). So today is for cleaning, making the stuffing, making the pumpkin pie (don't be too impressed, the pie crust is from the store), and visiting WOYWW friends in between. 

I'm giving the wide view today so you can see my mess. (Yes, in any other context, this would be an odd thing to say.) 

Potential Christmas cards are waiting on the chair while I finish something for Thanksgiving. I've die cut every last scrap of a piece of gold glitter paper and embossed some cardstock. Maybe they'll be cards by next week. 

I'm reasonably happy with this bit of home decor. Not too grungy, not too cutesy is where I was aiming. I had to laugh because I had to be thankful only for things that my stamp set could stamp on the leaves -- hence the reason that "family" is not on the fifth leaf. I tried letter stickers, but the black was too harsh. So. . . . 

Thanks for visiting me virtually, dear crafty, artistic friends. I'm thankful for you, too. :)

~ Laura

Christmas Ornaments . . . very simple

I've painted laser cut wooden ornaments from Michael's with gold and silver acrylic paint. I had originally planned to use Martha Stewart red glitter paint. I thought the paint would allow for an opaque glittery finish. Instead, the paint was almost clear, with bits of glitter in it. Maybe with many, many applications I could have gotten the look I wanted, but who's got that kind of time? So I then tried using Versamark and silver embossing powder. It was difficult to get a uniform layer of the Versamark ink on the wood. So, in the end, I used Ranger paint with a brush. :-)


On this one, I've used silver Stickles. (This was the one that had originally had the MS paint on it, which left a reddish tinge after I wiped it off.) 

Another year I might try white glue and glitter for an opaque glitter finish. But I think the painted ones for this year will be pretty. 

~ Laura

A non-edible Easter Egg

This took longer than you might expect, but I'm glad I made it. :-) The frame was originally black and I've learned a valuable lesson: either buy an unpainted frame or make sure you buy one that doesn't have a smooth surface! Between trying to cover a darker color with lighter colors (originally tried white) and the fact that the paint didn't want to stick to the slick surface, the paint job is not what I envisioned. But I decided rather than sand it down, prime it, and repaint it, it was good enough as it was! And I decided I'm also okay with the fact that the "egg" isn't perfectly centered, either vertically or horizontally. It's pretty and it's festive. :)

~ Laura

Valentines

Materials lists to be added later

Recollections cardstock, Cuttlebug Heart Squares embossing folder, vintage sheet music and dictionary papers, Hero Arts sentiment stamp, Imaginisce ribbon, Stazon red ink, Papertrey Ink vintage button, EK Success edger punch and heart punch

GCD Studios patterned paper, American Crafts cardstock and ribbon, Martha Stewart heart stamp, polka dot paper, and tiny heart stickers; Versamark ink'; embossing powder, glitter paper; EK Success heart punch, corner rounder punch, and bracket shape punch, Hero Arts sentiment stamp

GCD Studios patterned paper, Recollections cardstock, Cuttlebug Heart Blocks embossing folder, American Crafts ribbon, Martha Stewart cupcake paper, EK Success bracket punch and heart punch, Papertrey Ink vintage button, twine from stash, vintage sheet music paper

 

Watercolor paper; Jet Black archival ink (Ranger); Hero Arts "Hugs and Kisses Birds" stamps; glitter paper; EK Success heart punch; Copic markers

December Album: Ornament Layout

I was inspired by Lain Ehmann's posts this week on Write, Click, Scrapbook.  She wrote:  "There is only done and not done -- perfection doesn't exist."

I'm putting together an album for December 2009 and did this whole layout this evening. (Thanks for the encouragement, Lain!)

 

Supplies: card stock (green: Bazzill Basics; white: Recollections); watermark ink (Versamark); Vintage Ornaments stamps (Papertrey Ink); Thickers letters, Flair button, chipboard tree and ornament (all American Crafts Merrymint collection)

[Layout inspired by the 2nd layout here: kbwalker.blogs.com/random_relfections/2009/12/two-more-jy...]

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Twelve

The final day of the 12 Tags of Christmas!  I'm glad I did it, but it was a time commitment, even though (due to lack of product) I couldn't truly emulate most of the (time intensive) techniques Tim Holtz demonstrated.  My flower doesn't really look like a rose, but it's pretty.  I'll have to try this again sometime.

 

Supplies: Card stock from stash; vintage sheet music; Diamond glitter glue (Stickles; Ranger Ink); Enchanted Evening hybrid ink (Papertrey Ink);silver cord (Trim Pack); Pine dye ink (Craft Smart); Blazing Red ink (StazOn); sentiment stamp (Vintage Ornaments; Papertrey Ink)