Jeweled Necklace

I made this necklace this morning. It is so pretty and sparkly! I saw another necklace on display at my Michaels store and I used that one as a template but used a few different beads that I liked better. Here it is on the bead board:

The bead board is very helpful to lay out the beads in your pattern before you string them. It is also helpful because it has measurements on how long your necklace will be. I made mine to be 12 inches for the first strand and 10 inches for the second strand.

Each strand has 4 different types of beads. I like to have a mix of natural, gemstone and metallic. It gives a nice flow to the design and adds sparkle! I am also loving the toggle claps lately! I have been struggling with the lobster clasps and and am not that confident in magnetic clasps yet.

Thanks for looking at my design!

Snowflake

My daughter's nickname is Snowflake, given to her by her Uncle because the day she was born it snowed (it rarely snows here!).

My friend Maria created an art piece she called Snowflake. She hand painted a beautiful fairy and reproduced it into greeting cards. I turned that greeting card into a wall hanging charger plate.

I glued the rhinestones, added scrapbook paper in the center and added pipe cleaners around the center circle. This was a quick and easy gift for my daughter.

You can join Maria's fan page by CLICKING HERE! You can also go see all of her other art, which is stunning by CLICKING HERE!

Thanks for reading!

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #33

I made this for the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #33 at Studio L3. I can't say how I used the inks, you will have to purchase Tim Holtz book.

I did not have anything metal so I used aluminium foil and ran it through my Cuttle Bug. I also used the ink to color the ribbon and the rhinestones. I am so excited I can color them now! Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE THE BLING!! I have a 3lb bag of rhinestones in my drawer just waiting to be used, lol!

I also received my Cricut Swap back today, so I used 2 pieces from the "Things that fly" group. I am sorry, but I don't know who made them because the names where not on the back.

I wrapped the ribbon onto the inside of the card so I would not have to cut the ribbon, so I hide the seam with a cut out stamp and another cut from my Cricut Swap group.

Thanks for the challenge Studio L3! I learned alot!

My Happy List

My husbands Cousin runs a blog call Dandelion Wishes and she posts her Happy List often and offers others to post their Happy List, so this is mine =o)

I like to think that I am a happy person, I just do too much stuff that wears me down, lol! I do believe in the power of Pay-it-Foward and I see everyday how a simple act of kindness can change a persons attitude or day. I work retail and, on a slow day, my store sees approx 700 people come through our doors. We see people of all sorts, the good, the bad and the ugly! The simple act of saying "HI" is free and can be uplifting to a total stranger. I recently finished a book called "365 Thank Yous" by John Kralik, which I already blogged about. This ties into the Pay-it-Forward effect and creates happiness. There are so many ways to create happiness and they are often small and take no time at all. What are some ways you create happiness in your life or others?

I love my Cricut! I love to Craft! I meet so many people because of my crafting. I love the Cricut because I can create anything I want. I love the online community, it offers so much inspiration. It is so much fun!

Meeting Tim Holtz made me REALLY HAPPY! I had so much fun with my manager and being part of the event was awesome! I did feel like a teenager and promised my District Manager I wouldn't squeal like one and I promised not to scare Tim away, lol! I definitely was on my best behavior!

My two cats make me happy! The are so calming and so pleasant. They are full of character and personality, so much fun to be around!

My kids make me happy! Often parents say that their kids get more distant everyday or that they give them headaches or they miss the younger days when they were better. Not me! I do have the best kids in the entire world who still want to be with me and hang out. I am so blessed and grateful! I enjoy every second and I love how my son texts me so much!

My husband makes me happy! We are lucky to celebrate 14 years in a few months and I couldn't imagine them without him!

I have so much more to share that makes me happy but I will save that for another post ;o)

What's on Your Happy List?

Re-Born Shrinky Dinks Fan!

I am participating in a charm swap held by Ink Stains. I have never made charms before so this was a challenge for me.

I after researching how to do this, I decided to go with Shrinky Dinks because I loved them as a kid. I looked in my stash of clipart and found a winged heart image (if anyone knows where to find it, please let me know so I can give proper credit! I downloaded it a while ago and I did not include any information).

I printed the image on Frosted Shrinky Dink paper, cut it out, used a standard size hole punch and then watched it shrink in the oven. I then made a little wire and bead accent to go with it and added some silver Stickles (dimensional glitter glue).

The back of the charm, I had to add Glossy Accents as sealer because the ink kept rubbing off on my fingers.

This was a fun, new challenge for me and it did not take long at all!

My daughter also created charms with me. She hand drew her winged heart on white Shrinky Dink paper, colored with marker an cut. I loved how they turned out!

I did purchase a book by Roni Johnson called Teach Yourself Visually, Collage & Altered Art because she has an entire chapter about charms. This books is AWESOME! I am carrying it in my purse and it has come in handy at work so many times! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more techniques using other products!

Thanks for reading my post!

Easter

I made this bunny at work last year and when Easter was over, we wrapped him up to save him for this year. We just set up Easter so we were able to bring him back out, I forgot how adorable he is!

He is about 3 feet tall and made from foam board and daisy flowers, lots of flowers! I loved making him and I am glad that we kept him =o)

I made this cutie yesterday as a display at work. It is from a craft egg, pipe cleaners, moss, a birds nest, a bird and a bow. I carved it with a Versatool and then hot glued everything. This was fast and fun!

Mini Album 2

Here is my second Tim Holtz mini album, I think I am addicted =o) This album is a gift as well. I still have 2 more albums I worked up but need to embellish. What a terrific gift idea!

Mini Book

Tim Holtz posted mini book video on his blog and I had to try it! I have not made book before and this looked quick and easy. I am glad I tried it. I was able to cut, fold and tape 4 books in an hour. It took me longer to design this book than it did to create all 4!

I did have a small problem with the tissue tape rolling on the edges. You can see a little bit in the first photo. Michael from the All About Tim group helped me and suggested to use a touch of Glossy Accents where it was rolling and it worked perfect! Thank You Michael!

Here are the pages:

Inside the book, there are 3 pouches the I put tags in. Here they are:

I love this book! I made this one as a Thank You present for my friend. She gave me a huge box of scrapbooking supplies from her mother's house. It was like getting a present from Santa Claus, lol! Tons of goodies that will last a while. The next book I will make will be for her mother. If you are looking for a heartfelt, quick gift, I suggest this book! CLICK HERE to go to Tim's site and watch the short video.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #32

I participated in a challene at Studio L3 using my Tim Holtz book Compendium of Curiosities, page 59. I am so glad I did, I love what I made!

Since the technique I used came from the book, I can not go into detail. But, I can tell you that used my mask flower as part of the finished result, this was an awesome technique and I wanted to use every part of it.

I did use Glimmer Mists, chaulk ink, walnut ink, Glimmer Glam, a rhinestone, strings from my fiber stash and beads from my bead box. Below is the tag on my wood table. I wanted to show you this because of how different it looks on another background and at a different angle, cool!

Feel free to visit Studio L3 and participate in the challenge. You will need to have Tim Holtz's book, Compendium of Curiosities available!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I got these cute sock monkey's with unfinished hearts at Micheals the other day and thought it would be a great little gift for my kids. I painted the heart pink, used silver & red stickles for the border, stamped "because I love you" and glued a small bow. The sock monkey has a "clip" arm, so he can hang on to tons of stuff. This was quick and easy and fun. I hope the kiddos love them!

Gratitude

This is a little off-topic but it is worth it. I have never had an large interest in making cards until I read this book. Now, not only do I have I been shown how to express my gratitude to others and how important it is to do so but I have the opportunity to give others a little piece of my art.

I heard about 365 Thank Yous by John Kralik from a friend. I was looking for a new book to read. I had already read all of the Percy Jackson novels, Fabelhaven novels and Septimus Heap novels (which are all fantastic, by the way!).

This book has so much meaning and is an excellent example on how a little act of gratitude can change your life. While I am not a divorced, middle-aged man at the lowest point in my life, I can still relate to him and his desire to be better and life a better life. I am a huge believer in The Secret and the power of positive thinking but this book has show me another way to bring happiness to someone else' life and to my own.

I have always known it was important to be grateful for what I have and to be polite and say "Thank You". This book has shown me that by taking that simple act of gratitude and expressing it in an old-fashioned Thank You note, you can bring unexpected joy and happiness into someones else's life and that, in turn, can improve someone's day. The Pay-it-forward effect begins.

I have already begun to see the effects, not as life changing as John Kralik's, but positive to say the least. I started to become aware of people in my everyday life and see the small light that appears when I hand them a card. Their day seems to be alittle bit better and they seem to forget about the hard problems in their life, if only for a short time. That is worth it to me and I will keep writing the notes and I will keep making the cards, probably not the 365 project in the book, but enough to make a difference.

I am so thankful for this book, it has changed my life and it will help change others. I hope you are able to read this book and experience the effects in your life!

Thank you card with Glimmer Mist

I am LOVING Glimmer Mist! I made this card using the paper towel/napkin flower technique, ScrapEmboss paper emobosser, ribbon and a few blingy rhinestones. It turned out better than I thought. Every time I turn this card, it looks different in the light, pretty cool! I get a little scared when I start to random ink or spray paper but I will soon get over it. I think the randomness is what makes this so pretty.