{KKS113} Handmade Embellishments

It's Saturday and that means another Kraftin' Kimmie challenge. This week Melanie is our hostess and she has challenged us to make our own embellishments! Sounds fun, right?
I used Cheryl Alger's Sugar and Spice for my card.....

Her little dress is paper-pieced (headband stamped twice and on the second, the little centre bow was cut out and popped up and slightly bent for dimension)...I added liquid pearls to the polka dots on the headband and shoe buckles.

Here is a closeup of my hand made rolled flowers and vines...

I put together a quick photo tutorials to show you how I made these easy-peasy scrappy rolled flowers:

Supplies (plus your adhesive of choice..I still have no idea what works best, so don't ask;) See that wierd little screwdrivy-looking-pokey thing? It's a quilling tool (you can buy them at most crafting joints)...I showed another finished flower there too...

First, free cut a circle with your paper snips (I had approx. 2x2 dp scraps left over from my card front, so I used those...the teal flower is obviously made from a smaller square)....you DO NOT have to cut a perfect circle...the more 'off' the better, in my opinion! If you are uncomfortable with a wonky circle, feel free to punch a large circle out)...see the imperfection in my circle? Yep- it's wonky!

 Now just start cutting in a spiral, turning the paper as you cut.

Okay, now stick the tiny end in your quilling tool, with the handle facing in (you can use a pair of fine tipped tweezers if you don't have one of these but I highly recommend buying one- this was about $4)

And start rolling the paper around the end of the tool, wrapping the paper tightly around itself. You want tight- you can loosen the flower up after.

Here's the end of the rolling process. Now you would just pull the tool (or tweezers) out the back of the flower and glue the flower to the end nub (end of your spiral cut).

  Here are two flowers, the striped one 'looser' than the letter dp flower. If you want a looser, or larger flower, just use your fingers to slightly pull the curl out! And with these homemade flowers, it's okay that they aren't perfect!!! They are, after all, supposed to look like you made them!!

Okay- now get to work and make your own embellishments! Check out details on our challenge at the Krafty Blog! Remember that there is always a weekly prize up for grabs! Oh yeah- all weekend we have some great sales on selected Frugal Friday stamps!!

Sketch: CPS 252

Inch by Inch

Hello!! Happy Hump Day! I am off to Edmonton today with my MIL and SIL for a day of kid-free lunching, MIL's Dr appointment, and maybe IKEA (fingers crossed on that one!)....really I'd take any kind of shopping...Hmmmm, just thought of the Gap outlet store that's on the way out of town! lol
Thanks to my other SIL for watching all kids (with my kids, mandi's kids, her regular day care kids and her own son- it might be a hairy day!!!) We owe her!!
So on to my card! I used the Card Positioning System sketch and My Favorite Things is this weeks sponser. I have been wanting to use this WTG Gardening Girl for quite awhile and I knew the exact paper (cosmo cricket's Garden Variety) that I would have to use, so I went diggin' in the paper stash and found it right away! Nothing worse than knowing what you want, and that you do have it, but never being able to find it:( Totally sucks the mojo right out of you. And no matter how good the finished card is, you know it would have been WAY better with the 'right' paper!
Here is the sketch:

Okay folks, not alot to tell here, so I'll make it quick. First of all, I rotated the sketch to make it work for my horzontal image. I coloured her with copics, paper-peiced her shirt, glazed the boots and tomatoes and popped up the gardening box on boosters. Added some red satin ribbon and bow, and topped the bow with an orange button, which I 'threaded' with a tomatoe brad! I added some texture to the yellow panel using a SU! embossing folder.
Here is a close up of the image. I am giving this card to the lady who owns the greenhouse where my mom works. She is super nice and gives me staff discount even though I never have, or never will work there:) She is just one of those plain nice people! I think that it's a great card for greenthumb like her- and she is a crazy talented, knowledgeable horticulturist! Some of my friends were chatting on the weekend at my sons party and I heard one girl say that it's like harps playing and angels singing when you open the door to the main greenhouse! lol And her tomatoe plants are the hardiest:)

I really love the way this card turned out! The bright colours just make me happy- and it was so quick to put together too- Bonus! Thanks for stopping by! I might have something fun to show you tomorrow (fingers crossed!!!)

Curtis Catches a Fish

It's been a dreary few days, so instead of working in my flower beds this weeks like I intended, I was able to get some stampy time in. I decided NOT to be such a procrastinator this week for the Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge. Last week, I started uploading my pic onto her website with 6 minutes remaining...then realized I need a url address to link..Ack!! So quickly uploaded it to my my blog..title and pic- thats it! I literally think I must have had seconds to spare, if that! I didn't win, but thats ok:) I just would like to be a regular participant....Kim gave me a great opportunity in April to be a Guest DT and I don't want to her to think that I am the kind of person who just takes the money (or free stamps in this case;) and runs! And Kraftin' Kimmie stamps are among the very best if you love to COLOUR!! And that is my favorite thing to do! my mom says that she could put me in the highchair, tape a peice of paper to the tray and I would sit for hours at a time and just colour- and that was at 12 months old!! Can you even imagine having a baby that entertained!? No wonder she had a clean house (my baby doesn't like to colour, hence my housekeeping is not trophy-worthy) And you know, I can still sit and colour for hours, although I have graduated from wax crayons to posh alcohol markers and I no longer need my sheet taped to the table!!

Here I used the cute little Curtis! I love him. Look at how proud he is of his catch. I used the layout from CPS #219, which Kraftin' Kimmie is sponsering this week, so double whammy! KK's challenge is 'Text Me'...use text on your project. The DP has numbers and letters all over it, so that should do!

What can I say? As per usual, I coloured Curtis with copics, drew in some long, wispy grass for him to stand in. Added clear spica to the grey parts of his rod, reel and line. Some Buttermilk spica was added to the fish to make him sparkle like real scales can, and I applied some crystal effects to give his eye that realistic, gross fish eye glossy look..ewww! That's the grossest thing about fishing- I get so creeped out by their slimey eyes!! lol

I 'hung' the sentiment by a little fish hook like thingy (actually just an SU clip;) The dp is really awesome- it's super thick and has a bit of texture to it..It's by CratePaper and it's called Toybox. I know that I am defiantely going to have to pick up some more of it for some scrapbook pages of the boys!

Inside kept pretty simple, following the oval theme from the card front. Added a bit of interest with an SU! notebook edge punch (kind of a nice, masculine punch- some punches are so girly).

Supplies: Stamp- Curtis from Kraftin' Kimmie; Ink- memento; CS-SU!; DP- Cratepaper; Dies- spellbinders oval and deckled oval lrg; Punches- SU!; clip- SU!; Ribbon- SU!; Copics; Spica glitter pens