Martha Stewart Does It Again

I'm such a sucker for new gadgets.  This one is pricey and you MUST use 50 off coupons to make it more reasonable!  Martha Stewart has come up with a terrific new tool for punching decorative circles or doilies if you wish.  AND you can punch them in sizes from 5.5 inches to 11.5 inches.  Pictured below is the starter kit which comes with the eyelet punch.  The pink and white doilies are from a punch I purchased separately.  It's very easy.  Once you do one, you'll have no trouble with subsequent ones.  At first I thought "oh this is too expensive to be practical" but then I was reading on line and looking at videos of things to do with it.  You can use the circle as a stencil and spritz or paint through it on your scrapbook pages or art journals.  You can make flowers, a Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas trees, angels and many more cute things with this tool.  If you have any questions, please email me.  I suggest you try it.  If you hate it you can always return it.  I was hesitant at first but now I'm a convert!

Miss Tilda x Three!

 Since last weekend I have occupied myself with sewing and dressing these three Tilda dolls.  If you are not familiar with Tilda, she (and all of her friends, accessories and accoutrements) are the brain child of Norwegian designer, Tonne Finnanger.  Her things, including a line of fabric, are sold all over the world and these dolls and other fun characters she has designed are all the rage.  She has many books out and this is the large angel from her book, Tilda's Studio.  Making these dolls is not for the faint of heart but, like me, after you make the first one, it will give you confidence to do your own thing on the subsequent ones you make.  I think the pattern and her directions need "tweaking!!!"

                                                        This doll is very long, about 24 inches from head to toe.  The limbs on the body as well as the head require stuffing finesse.  Her clothes are actually very cleverly designed.  The jacket looks like it would be hard but it actually wasn't.  I don't have the real Tilda hair so I used that curly hair you can find at most craft stores.  On all Tilda dolls, there is kind of a standard hairdo that uses what appears to be a fine nubby yarn.  The lady with the jacket is my Southern Belle.  She is very polite and has fancy trim on her pantalooms.  Her light hair makes her look rather timid and she is properly dressed for afternoon tea with her pearls and jacket.  The purple doll is a bit of a flashy dresser.  Her bodice is a cream on cream print which you probably can't see.  Enlarge the pictures and it's better.  She has a large rhinestone brooch on her chest and matching ribbon on her skirt and around her neck.  One large flower offsets her skirt.  She's sassy don't you think?  The last one is pretty much a basic everyday Tilda.  I made the skirt shorter and her pantaloons have trim with little pink roses on them.  A bow at the back waist is about the only thing I added. 

I'm not exactly thrilled with these pictures but for some reason these little women were hard to photograph or it's just the rather gray day we are having here.  Is spring never coming?????

The final Miss Prima!

Here is the last Prima paper doll.  I did a rather "collaged" background with spritzing Dylusion white through a stencil of a tree by Crafters Workshop.  Then Suede Glimmer Mist and Dylusions chocolate.   Doll is paper pieced with SU paper.  Colored with Copics.  I put a stamp sentiment on the side which says "Heaven knows you are special.  I know it too."  Then a couple Recollections flowers, a Love chipboard piece and one of the new Prima mini wood clocks.  Her headband is Stickles.  These have been so much fun.  I think I'm going to try a banner with them next.  Of course, there are only about 25 other projects waiting too.  Isn't that the fun of this hobby!

Little Miss Sunshine

 

This is one of the younger members of the Prima paper doll family.  Isn't she cute!!  The background was done with Adirondack and Perfect Pearl mists spray.  Her outfit was paper pieced.  The body was colored with Copics.  She has butterfly wings which I tried to make a little shappy even though they're glittered.  And blooming behind her head are some Recollections flowers.  The bee skep and bees are some ancient stamps I've had forever.  She reminds me of summer......and I sure am ready for that.

To all my followers, please have a happy and blessed Easter!  Don't eat too many chocolate bunnies and jelly eggs....lots of that delicious ham is OK!

#4...and counting!

On this paper doll I decided to work basically within a monochromatic color scheme.  I wasn't sure how it would work but I watched the values carefully and it worked.  The background was an old piece of K&Co. paper and her dress was paperpieced from one of the Lost and Found mini pads.  It helps with these to find small prints for the clothing to look more in proportion to the size of the figure.  The banners were from a PTI set.....so cute!  and The stamped words were all Wendy Vecchi.  You may have noticed I use a lot of her stamps. I love her style and her stamp sets have great sayings on them.  A few little dots of Liquid Pearls on the dress and .....done!

This girl is home from a shopping trip to the mall.  Another Prima sweetie!  The background was done with Adirondack Color Sprays with a roll over of paper towels. The entire paper doll was colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The sentiment, to which we can all relate, is a Wendy Vecchi.  I made the little shopping bag with the books in it and the Kusadama fabric flower.  The small word stickers at the bottom are Tim Holtz.  Enjoy....more to come!

Glitz and Glamour

Here's the next Mixed Media doll and I glamoured her all up!  The main color looks like Emerald green in these pictures but it's really a nice turquoise.  I put her right on the background of the Prima tags made for these stamps and stamped a few Wendy Vecchi sentiments.  Some Recollections bling and a rosette I made myself many moons ago....worked great for this project.  The seam binding ribbon at the top is real vintage seam binding, rather sheer, that I found a whole roll of when we cleaned out my mother-in-law's house.  I'm having so much fun......even if we did have five inches of snow today!  Is spring coming......really???

Remember Paper Dolls?

I don't think I've ever been as excited about a new product as I have been about these Mixed Media doll stamps from Prima.  There are six stamps in the series (and more to come I hear!).  Prima also made a special acrylic stamping block for these very long stamps.  And the large tags are also extrea heavy and long, also by Prima. They were designed by Julie Nutting ( she has a video on You Tube about them) and she also has a book out called Collage Couture.  AND, she has a new book coming out next year.  Can't wait!

I used LOTS of products on this little miss.  She was paper pieced and her jacket was colored with Copic markers.  Her skin was colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with their colorless blender pencil.  Her headband is gold Stickles.  Papers are SU.  Flowers are Prima and Recollections.  Stamped sentiments are Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz.  I defined her features and her outfit with a .01 Pigma pen.  The punch used on the tan paper is a Martha Stewart.  The scalloped green is a small section of circular notepaper that SU made a few years ago.  I dyed the seam binding with Dylusions and Adirondack sprays.

These stamps flew out of stores and online stores as soon as they were made.  I think some places are getting them in again.  I got mine from 3 different sources!  I hope you will give them a try.  I'm thinking of a banner with a different doll on each pennant!  Or a scrapbook page for a teenage girl.  Tags, cards, so many possibilities!  Have fun!

Napkin Transfer

 Check out this beautiful image.  Would you ever guess it came from a lowly napkin!  I picked up these napkins at Tuesday Morning about a year ago.  They are the type you'd put in your powder room.  The best part about this particular napkin is that each one had SIX of these images on it! 

It was such a busy and complete image that I didn't do anything to it in the way of embellishing.  I just triple mounted it with some dimensional stickers and let it stand on its own.

I found a video on this technique on Pinterest.  Th video is on You Tube by michelle's rubber room.    It's quite simple.  You use a paper pad or notebook or several sheets of newsprint.  Lay your cardstock on top, a piece of Saran Wrap on top of that making sure the cs is covered.  Then, and this is the most inportant part, you separate the plies of your napkin.  Most have three and you only want the one with the image. Then you place your napkin, right side up, more scrap paper on top.  Then you iron, making sure you do not touch your iron to the Saran Wrap.  Big mess!  I used a medium setting and only a small amount of steam.  Let it cool.  Open it up to check the adhesion.  If it's not complete, you can touch up with the iron.  When cool carefully peel the image and cardstock away

Such a great and simple technique and the possibilities are endless!.

Tea Anyone?

 

                                                         I told you in my last post that I was working on more Tilda people.  This little person is known as the Teacup Lady.  Not for the faint of heart I tell you!  I made two of them this morning and it took me over three hours.  I had these little cups from a neighbor who passed away and they worked perfectly.  They are really smaller than a normal tea cup, more like  a demitasse.  You can leave the spoon in or out.  This was a baby spoon from my kids I think.  You can also just use her in the cup, stitch a hanger to the back and hang her from a tree or whatever.  She is just the cutest thing, VERY small, but a bugger to sew!  She is from the new book, Fairytale Wonderland.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope those Irish among you are enjoying some Irish fare today and having a great time celebrating.  We have one Irish pub in our town that has tents set up outside and open grills---I think they are expecting some revelers from morning till the wee hours.
I'm spending today working on a card and some other projects, including more Tilda characters.  I just seem to be in love with them right now. 

Anyway here is a little card using my latest Spellbinders die, Grateful Lattice.  I saw a card with this on a web site and fell in love.  This is all Stampin' Up paper, 2 Prima leaves and a burlap rose I made.  A little bit of Irish bling was added but not because this is a St. Pat's card, just that it went with the leaves of the same color.    And the other pic is a new tool I just purchased, The Envelope Punch.  I HIGHLY recommend this gadget.  I have made envies with the Martha Stewart board, the envelope tool with the Score Pal and just tracing and cutting on my own.  I know by looking at it, it's difficult to tell how it works.  Take my word for it, it's worth every penny.  Makes 60 different size envelopes.  You can make any size you want in way less than a minute.
I also think I will be making more cards since it's so easy to make the corresponding envelope.

Have a great day!  Hope to see you sometime this week.

Uh-Oh....

I might need an exterminator!!!!!

TWINS!

Sweet Tilda

I've had an itch for a long time now to make a doll.  I LOVE papercrafts but my first love is dollmaking.  This little cutie is from the Tilda books, a series of craft books by Tone Finnanger.  She's called The Bug.  I had some problems turning her after sewing because I used an upholstery remnant.  Don't do that next time!  Her little antennae are just wire with a button threaded on the end.  Tilda dolls are easy to make and you can have so much fun with the outfits.  JoAnn's carries the books and so does Amazon.  I just ordered her latest, due this week. Can't wait!

A Quickie Piece of Art

Just felt the need to do a small piece of art late today.  I used Dylusions sprays on the background and maybe you can see the faint shadow of the little girl and the dressform is even more faint.  At that point I wasn't liking it but I try very hard not to give up on something. I added the border, flowers and leaves and the butterfly sticker up on dimensionals, the tin star and the words.  I can live with it.  I LOVE the Dylusions sprays!  Have a great week.

Easter at our house.....

 Just a few little things around my house as we prepare for Easter.  The large bowl of Pysanky were done by me over several years.  I haven't done any in awhile and would love to do some more but the time seems to just float away!

The other picture is something new this year.  The crown of thorns was inspired by a blog article I saw on Pinterest.  It's very simple, just a 12" grapevine wreath with toothpicks you have died with black Rit liquid die.  It's a little mess but very striking when finished. 

Another version using Shaded Lilac, Spiced Marmalade, Pine Needles, and Brushed Corduroy for the edging.  This is really a fun tag to do.  Those eyes are intriguing!  Enjoy!

While we wait for the white stuff.....

Well here we go again.....waiting for snow to arrive.  We can't complain.  It's been an extremely mild winter here and this one MAY bring more than we've seen so far.  In the meantime, I'm finally getting back to "playing."  This tag was CASED, or shamelessly copied colors and all, from Candy Colwell on Pinterest.  Like her I love the Wendy Vecchi stamp set An Eye for Art.  As Candy explains very well on her blog, she used Distress Inks and an ink applicator to cover the #8 tag with ink, misted it, then used Wendy's stamp set for the eyes and the sentiment and finished off with some flourishes and a white pen to add some pop to the tag.  I loved it and had to make one myself.  Now I want to do one of my own with different colors and a different layout.  Stay tuned........and warm!

Here's the link to Candy's post.  Thanks Candy for the inspiration.  http://candycreates.blogspot.com/2012/01/simon-says-anything-but-card.html

A Giveaway!

http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com/2013/03/maja-design-new-collection-giveaway.html

Be sure to check out the above link for a really nice giveaway of some new and especially gorgeous paper!  You won't be sorry.

A challenge!

I haven't been much on challenges in the past but my friend, Diane Hover, insists I should try.  Impression Obsession has one going now.  You must use their stamp.   The theme is My Hobby.  Since one of my hobbies is gardening, I crafted the card above showing a beautiful garden. The above card uses their "Colonial Spring.  It was colored with Copics on watercolor paper after stamping with Memento Tuxedo Black.  Flower is Prima with die cut "wing" leaves.  I added a doily cut in half for some contrast.  This card is 5 x 7.  Be sure to check out the challenge if you are so inclined.  Their link is http://mitrafriant.typepad.com/impression_obsession_news/.