Triangle 3D Christmas Tree Card

Hi faithful readers. I hope that you are having a good weekend. Oh my gosh! This started out as a simple Christmas card and I was having so much fun with markers and my eBrush yesterday and today that I forgot to quit.

I used Kraft card stock for my card base. I cut a scrap of Christmas card stock for the panel. All the shapes were cut out of one piece of Vanilla Card Stock. I'm getting low on white and wanted to keep it for printing and cutting.  I cut out triangles, stars,rectangles and squares. Then I got busy with my eBrush and markers.  First I did my tree and the tunks for outside and inside. Then using embossing folders I embossed them. I brushed the stars with a metallic marker.  As well as used it to do a border on the pattern card stock.

The border was cut from an old Christmas card.

After painting the ornaments with metallic water colors I wrapped gold thread around for garland. I love how the water colors gives the ornaments a distressed look.

For my tree which popsup when the card is opened I folded triangles in half and glued them to each other. I used six triangles for my tree but I think next time I may go with four instead. I air brushed my packages and then adhered ribbon. On the large packages I used Simplicity gem ribbon. Alas I have not been able to find anymore of it. Since I didn't have more cards to cut the border out of I cut photo paper into strips. Embossed with a retired Sizzix snowflake  border. Then airbrushed using a Sharpie metallic marker.

After air brushing the base of the small packages I used the airbrush with a dot stencils. I airbrushed the gems on the bows with the same marker as I did the dots.

In case you can't tell the eBrush  by Craftwell is the best present I've ever bought myself. It is so fun to see what I can do with it.

Wishing you Happy Frugal crafting till we meet again!

Pocket Santa Puppet Card

Hi everyone! I can't believe that tomorrow will be Thanksgiving which means that Christmas will soon be here. Of course all of my good ideas seem to come the week of Thanksgiving and I never seem to get all the projects done.

Last year I was going to make my granddaughters pocket Santa puppets. However when I opened up the file from Silhouette I realized it is a paper piecing file. I don't do paper piecing that well. Before taking a book on card making back to the library on Sunday I decided to look through it some more and there was a Santa pocket puppet card.  I decided to use the base for the chimney  from the file and to use a print and cut Santa. Of course with my ton of images I didn't have one suitable Santa so it was look on the internet for a free image.

I cut out the chimney pocket from that gray card stock I'm still trying to use up. LOL!  I wouldn't  necessarily needed a pocket in the front but I was thinking if I goofed up really bad stenciling my bricks I would have a backup. Lol! As it is when I masked the top with painter tape one of the bricks got a chip.. ;-) I am loving my eBrush for stenciling. I get such a clean stenciled image. I brushed white acrylic paint on the top and then while still wet sprinkled glitter over it.

The speech bubble was a free store file. It messed up cutting it out of the gray so I cut out of  a scrap of white card stock when I cut out my snowflakes.  I took my eBrush and a gold marker and changed the color. I used a scrap of black for the backing. It is pop dotted on the card. The snowflakes are heat embossed with what else but Winter Wonderland embossing powder.

Here is Santa with his head just peeking out of the chimney on the inside.

Here is Santa pulled out of the chimney. The original card used a piece of card stock glued to the card and to Santa. However, I thought it would be more durable to glue a craft stick on the back of Santa. Although I noticed today the dollar store had colored craft sticks I didn't have any so I used my eBrush and a marker to color the stick. Then I glued an extra snowflake from another project on the stick. I took a cotton swab and edged Santa using Vintage Photo distress ink. I think that edging an image gives it a little more dimension. Also if the cut is a little off you can mask the line.

Lol! I showed a friend the card and he asked if it was for him. When I told him no he started pouting. Lol! Maybe I'll have to make him a Santa Dog puppet. By the way you could take this pocket puppet idea and do cards other than for Christmas. I think it might be fun to do a cake pocket and have a puppet to pull out of the cake for a birthday. Or hw about a  chick being pulled out of a egg for Easter.

There is one more fun card I want to make from the book and then I have some ideas for making some decorations for outdoors. Our complex is once again having an outdoor decorating contest. I also need to try out some gift ideas before having my granddaughters attempt to make them. I like to make up a prototype so I'm aware of what pitfalls there may be. There is nothing worse than having an idea for something which ends up instead of being fun being poor frustration. Especially for children.

Do you do decorating inside or out for the holidays?  If you do do you like to make your own decorations.

For those in the U.S. Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. For all the others wishing you a wonderful weekend. Hope you get a lot of crafting done.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Altered Playing Cards Week 12

Yeah! We are now at week 12 of the altered playing card challenge and I'm actually keeping up. I don't think there was really a theme this week but Claudine did use pattern paper on her cards. She also did lines for writing but I didn't really want to do a lot of writing on mine. However I . did use her phrases as my jump start.

This card here took a little bit of thinking on my part. I started yesterday thinking about what I like about myself. I didn't really want to make a list and I decided this afternoon to go with one thing. One thing I like about myself is that I have the ability to have fun no matter what is happening in my life.

I don't  have much in the way of pattern paper. However, a few years back I was able to find some pattern paper of Monet's waterlilies. I always loved that painting. I had a scrap and decided to use it on this card.  I took a gold Sharpie and drew my border. I decided to print and cut out Peter Pan and Wendy from a image.  I have a stamp with have fun as part of the sentiment. I decided to mask and just use the have fun part. I stamped it on a scrap of plastic from a page protector. Then after using a drop of glue on the corners to adhere it I placed gems at the corners. The gems reminded me of water drops.

 As I said I don't have a lot of pattern paper. However, while I was prepping my cards I was also playing. I had inked a stamp and stamped into the wet gesso. I thought it would be perfect for this card. I was playing with my eBrush and metallic Sharpies. I discovered that if I held the eBrush up high that I got nice metallic speckles. The I am thankful for is from a journal tag which did not cut right. I cut it from the top. I printed the this momeent moments to come with a Brother's label maker. For the leaf which was print and cut I painted gold paint on it and then  

used a wrinkled plastic bag on it.

Next week there will not be a challenge but do come back the following week to see what week 13 is. Also come back soon to check to see what my next project is. I'll give you a hint it is another Christmas card but this one for children or for those who are children at heart.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Cards For Caring Heart Drive and Last Card

Hi everyone! I wish I would have had time to have made more cards for the Caring Hearts Card drive but the deadline is the 28th and I wanted to allow time for the cards to get there. From my neck of the woods it usually takes about four days for mail to get to Texas or Ohio. If you are interested in participating you might still have time. http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/2014/10/caring-hearts-card-drive-2014.html

I just finished the last card today. As well as did messages inside for the person getting the cards wishing them a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays depending on what stamp I used.

Here are the six cards I'm sending along with envelopes of course. 

Here is the last card I made today.Sorry I forgot the flash was on when I took the picture and was in a hurry to get things ready to mail.

The star background is one I made when I was playing with "moulding Paste" and a brass template.After the paste was dried I painted glitter paint over. Because the template was smaller than the card stock I went ahead and also covered the edges with the Moulding Paste.

The angel is a stamp by Hero Arts. I don't think she is still available. I have fond memories of stamping her and my son coloring her. As well as using glitter when we would make Christmas cards together.( We were eating glitter seasoned foods for months afterwards.) Although doing several moves I've purged my stamps she is one that is a definite keeper.

I colored her with Spectrum Noir markers and a gold sharpie for her trumpet and the stars on her dress. I did use chalk for her hair as the brown I have is too dark.

There you have it my rainy day crafting. Yeah! I got a ride to the post office before it closed so they are on the way.

On a personal note the reason I wanted to send cards is in memory of my husband. He loved watching me make cards and loved Christmas. Every year he would hand me a list of the people he wanted me to make cards for. I swear the list got longer every year but I didn't mind. He taught me the true meaning of Christmas which is to spread some joy in whatever small way you can.

I'm off to do some print and cuts so my granddaughter can make some cards this weekend. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again..

Altered Playing Cards Week 11

Wow!  We are already at week 11 of the altered playing card challenge. You still have time to join in the fun. Just click on the image on the right for details. There is a theme and every week Claudine shares the techniques and products she used. Don't worry you don't have to do your cards like hers or even use the same products. This challenge is all about having fun.

This week the theme is snow. Here are Claudine's cards.

This was a fun challenge for me to do. Like usual I did some experimenting.

I used gesso on the card and then applied texture medium to bottom part and added salt for my snow. Since the salt had color from using it with water colors after the medium had dried I had to use white acrylic paint. I used my air brush for the top part. Then I stamped my snowflakes with an old foam stamp. In fact it was a cheap "Made In China" stamp I bought when my son was young. I bought the snowman stamp at the same time. I stamped the snowman and then hand cut him. I did a little bit of coloring using Spectrum Noir markers. The sentiment is a stamp from Fiskar. I colored the border with a Sharpie marker.

Claudine used a paper towel for her hot cocoa card. Her's she had color mists from spraying projects. I decided to practice with my air brush for mine. I used Mod Podge to adhere it to the card. This card I did not use geeso on so you can see the background of the card. I used a couple of snowflake stamps from the same stamp set as the Peace stamp.

There is no snow in my neck of the woods yet so I printed out a photo I took last winter. I decided to stamp the word Peace as that is what I feel walking through the park in the snow with my dogs. The cardinal came from a Dover sample. I just cut it out of another image. As far as I know there are no cardinals in this area.

Don't over look using common things like salt and paper towels. You can do all kinds of things with salt.

What common things do you use in your crafting? Do you ever experiment with different things?

Wishing Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Update On My Craft Room

Hi everyone! After my last post I had to go and redo a few things. Sometimes finding space and getting things to work is like doing a jigsaw puzzle. I also wanted to show you some of my ideas for storage. As well as some of my personal touches to make it truly my little piece of heaven here on earth.

 I did today buy a set of drawers which are perfect for under my work table. I will be buying another set as they will work back to back.  Anyway my oldest granddaughter had seen my craft room a couple of weeks ago and she was impressed with the changes I've made.

Over the door rack using mini bread pans to hold ink pads. I think this was originally intended to hold VHS tapes. I' know it has traveled all over the U.S with me as I've found it to be so handy.

M & M candy rack holds my spools of ribbon.  I figured when I saw it out by the curb I could find a use for it. Alas people where I live now do not put unwanted items out by the curb.

I was going to put up the thermal drapes but alas my car broke so I could not get to the store. My son fixed it today so I went and got a curtain rod so will hang them tomorrow. The big box is for donations and I'm still filling it.

My youngest granddaughter loved my angel hanging on the computer cabinet which houses my desktop computer. The white machine is an air purifier which I plug in when I'm using things with fumes. The doll is waiting to be wrapped for Bug's birthday. Lol! She doesn't know it is for her but she wanted to take her home today. Luckily she didn't see her birthday card as I didn't know they were coming over. The metal box on the top shelf my dad brought back from England after World War II. Right now it has some of my late husband's things in it. I will be sorting through it and sending his daughter some of his things.

My  fabric cutting mat and a shoe organizer hangs on the side of the computer cabinet. You have to find space wherever you can. Also things which don't work for one thing may work for something else.

K Cup Carousel holding Distress Paint ,liquid pearls, and Stickles. Rubber stamps which did not fit in the dividers decorates the top.

I want to redo the two larger wooden divider drawer inserts. Perhaps that will be one of my winter projects.

Clear pocket organizer I found at a dollar store a long time ago houses my most used supplies like scissors, rulers and some of the different adhesives I use. The small black box holds the adapters for my eBrush. It is perfect size and holds all six of them. The roll top wooden box I found at a thrift store and it is perfect for storing my most often used letter size card stock.

Look how clean this work space is.  And it still is even after my grandchildren came and played with me today.

 The Sharpies and eBrush are out because I want to practice using the eBrush with Sharpies. I find the laptop tray works great for working on things as I can move it aside if I need room for something on my work desk. I thought of placing the power strip on the side of the desk but then realized that it would be in the way. It will probably end up going in one of the nearest  cubby holes.

I still have a lot of work to do still but my space is starting to look really nice. Also it is getting easier to find things. Of course now that this room is not so chaotic I may not want to leave it.  In fact I may forget to set my pig timer for x number of minutes to craft or turn my small Mickey Mouse  mood clock around so I can not see the time. Only the changing colors.

You don't have to necessarily go and spend a lot of money to  fix up a craft room. My Ikea Cubby Shelving unit and desk was my one extravagant purchase and that was after I did lots of looking and thinking about my needs and my available space. I have probably more than gotten my money's worth from the wooden file cabinet which I've had for over fifteen years now. I don't have the paperwork I had when I first bought it so one drawer was perfect to dedicate to housing letter size card stock.  If I could find a couple of inexpensive metal file cabinets though I would trade this in as they would be more practical. For now though this works and you know the saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it.."  Don't be afraid to look at things and think how you might be able to use them. /When I saw the M & M candy rack I actually brought it home for my ink pads but it didn't work and then I decided to see if my ribbon would work. I didn't want to donate my K cup holder and thought I could come up  with some way to use it. Eventually I'm sure it will hold a collection of Distress Paint and Stain.

I'm tired and it is past my bedtime. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

The Good, Bad And Ugly My Craft Room

Hi everyone! I had to laugh when I checked out the Moxie Fab blog and discovered that there is a challenge for you to post a photo of your work space just as it is. The reason I was laughing is I had just cleaned mine. I have another apartment inspection Monday and the manager was not happy with my craft room a couple of weeks ago. Or at least I hope it was only my craft room as that was the only cluttered area in the apartment.. Anyway I thought I would post some pictures of how it looks right now. I'm still working on it and will be all through the weekend.

This is what my desk looks like. The roll top box holds the card stock I use most often. I had some rice paper on top but that has since been put away. I didn't take a picture but on the front of the desk is a clear pocket holder which holds scissors, and things like my most used adhesives. and tapes.

The rack on the door is  a VHS rack from way back. I had to take a shelf out so the door could be opened all the way. I.  have put in the wire baskets mini loaf pans which hold my ink pads  The ink pads are organized according to type of ink and by brand. This way I can take a pan to my table if say I only want to use distress ink. Cotton balls, cotton swabs and cosmetic wedges are also stored here as usually I use them with my ink pads.There are also a few rubber stamps that there was not space for above my cubbies.

The box holds my laminator. So far I haven't used it much but perhaps if I quit having apartment inspections I can actually work on some projects. 

The roll around stand holds my 12 x 12 card stock,. The top drawer holds some of the adhesives I use like Creative Magic and extra glue sticks,etc. Also my colored pencils, chalks, and punches are stored in drawers. On top is a clear folder which holds scraps of papers and envelopes with extra shapes in them. Also some craft magazines and books are piled on top.  One drawer of the file cabinet holds card stock, colored copy paper, sheet protectors and things like that. The other drawer holds things like owner manuals and other important papers.

On top of the filing cabinet is a on top of the toilet tank rack. It would not work in my bathrooms so I decided when short on space go up. The  green basket holds my reinkers, color mists and things like that.Right now the other basket is holding my playing card for the altered  playing card challenge. Eventually I'll come up with a way to display them. The two clear containers holds finished cards and my most recent ones are in the metal letter holder. I'm keeping the Marker Maker in its' original box. The empty space is where my airbrush goes when I'm not using it.

I decided to put my one cup coffee maker in storage as it takes up too much room in my kitchen. My French Press Mug takes up a lot less space. I was thinking there had to be something I could do with the K Cup Carousel. I don't have that many Distress Paints, Liquid Pearl or Stickles but what I had kept getting lost. Carousel to the rescue. One of these days I'm sure it will be full of either Liquid Pearls or Distress Paints. LOL! 

Yes my sewing machine is finally out of the box. If I wish to play my keyboard I can take my sewing machine off and the top folds flat and put my keyboard on top. The big box on top is one I'm filling for taking to a thrift store. The one on the floor is one I'm filling to put stuff in storage right now.  I hate to put nails in walls so the bulletin sits on the window sill, The blue painted piece was one of the last things my Mom painted so I don't really want to put it in storage where it might get ruined.

Lol! As we get over here you can start to see the ugly. I need to organize some of the things on top of my computer cabinet.  That is another on top of the toilet rack which again would not work. Right now it holds containers with yarn  and laces.I did put a  shoe pocket holder on the side to hold things.. This must have been meant for children shoes as mine sure didn't fit in it.

 I plan to have the blue container and boxes emptied before Monday. I may not get around to cleaning the cubbies but I don't see where they would be either a safety or fire hazard.Well maybe a safety issue if something falls and hits me on head but I have a hard head.

I had to take ribbon spools out of the door basket so I plan to put it in the M & M candy rack I found by the curb. I think it will fit on the windowsill.

A lot of my rubber stamps are displayed and stored in wooden drawer dividers. I don't have any drawers they will fit in so this is a good place for them. Yes there are a few bare places where I need to put stamps back away. Not even as a child was I good about putting my toys away. LOL!

O.K. I will confess I did not take a picture of the overflowing box and plastic container under my work desk. That is what I' have been been working on today. A lot of what is in the box will end up in the donation box.

O.K. Now you know my dirty secrets. I'm challenged  when it comes to organizing. I'm a messy who is trying to reform and I'm a pack rat.

Are you organized? Are you a "Messy"? Do you have any organizing tips which does not have to do with get rid of everything?  Would you be comfortable having someone come in and help you organize?

Back to work for me. No rest for the wicked and as you may know I'm really wicked. ;-)  Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Week 10 Altered Playing Card Challenge

Hi everyone it is freezing in my neck of the woods. I thought it would be a good time to play inside with all of my toys and fun stuff. This is already week ten of the altered playing card challenge. The theme is think outside of the box with quirky and whimsical. I'm afraid that my muse deserted me when it came to those two themes. Of course if I would have had one of Claudine's stamp sets or even magazines to cut up it would have been a little easier. Having neither I had to go with what I had. Here is what Claudine's cards look like.

Here are mine and this is as whimsical or quirky as I could come up with.

I did a nice watercolor background of yellow and blue. Alas when I tried to glue down a loose edge I got a spot of glue on it. When I rubbed the glue it took the watercolor up with it. I carefully took my elements off and repainted it. Of course the blue and yellow turned to green. It was a Christmas green and I didn't really like it so I went and painted turquoise extreme glitter paint over it. It really softened the green. 

My lady here is a composite of three different images.  I thought it would be fun to give her the boots that the man in the image was wearing. More down below on the third image I used.

After I got the woman and the sentiment adhered I felt like I needed to do something else. I took a piece of white craft foam and cut it with a Sizzix flower die. Airbrushed color on it and then adhered microbeads  which I never seem to use. I think now it would have been better for me to have used the fuchsia color of beads but oh well.

O.K. I told you I would tell you about the third image. The original lady had very demur downcast eyes. I cropped a pair of eyes out of the image I used on my second card.

I did my sentiment in Studio the software for my cutter. I did an offset to get the shape. Originally I had drawn around it with a marker but had gotten some of the marker where I did not want it. The shade of blue was all wrong anyway.

Good thing with saved files and a little bit of ingenuity I can do re-dos. I think that is why I don't usually use commercial products as it can be more difficult to do things over.

For this card I covered it with gesso. Then while it was still wet I placed a cake texture plate in the gesso and removed it before the gesso had a chance to dry. (You can sometimes find  interesting cake texture plates on sale.)

Taking my e-Brush I airbrushed with markers. Alas I was going to just use the dark color around the edges but it went where I did not want it to on low. I used a blender pen in the e-Brush and then went back and e-Brushed with the lighter gray and the taupe color. This was one of those happy accidents and I love the result.

The flower was a free file from Silhouette. I went and filled it in with part of a digital copy of the cover sheet music of "Hello Beautiful" by Walter Donaldson.  It is interesting that there were two versions of this cover one with a man in the center and this one with the woman.

I took corrugated cardboard to make my stem and leaf. Then I took a scrap of Kraft cardstock and a white gel pen and wrote out my sentiment. When I was playing with my flower image I did the sentiment around it but I did not like how it looked. I printed out the sentiment on a scrap as well as wrote it out and went with the script. Even though I feel like my hand writing could use some improving. LOL

Frugal tip: Scour thrift stores for old sheet music to buy for crafting. A lot of old sheet music has wonderful images on them. Many of them the copyrights have run out on and never been renewed, Especially if they were copyrighted in the 30's and 40's. I  prefer to scan in the sheet music instead of using the original piece. Maybe I'm afraid that the sheet music police will arrest me. Lol!

This is all for now and it will probably be next week until I post again. I have a ton of cards which I want to finish on the inside. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Birthday Card For A Dancer

Hi everyone I hope you are staying warm. This month my dancing granddaughter has a birthday. She loves to dance and loves wearing a tutu and her ballet slippers. In fact if her mother doesn't pay attention she will wear them to school. Lol! This is the card I just finished today.

For the background of this card I was experimenting to see if I could tie dye with my eBrush airbrush. It did not work but being the frugal crafter I am I went ahead and finished eBrushing all of the tissue paper which has sequins.  I then went and glued the tissue paper to a piece of cardstock which I had covered with a piece of kitchen foil.

I could not find my paper doilies but did find one which I had tried to stamp on but didn't like. I've been using it on my gelli plate but thought I could go ahead and use it for a stencil.  I used re-positional glue in order to affix the doily down on my cardstock before using my eBrush. I used two different turquoise markers.

I found this tutu image while searching for free clipart and thought it would make a fun card for my little dancer. I turned it into a print and cut. The ballet slippers was a free rhinestone file from the Silhouette store. I went and traced it in Studio. Then filled in with color and a pattern, Before printing it I made sure the inside of the slippers was not set to cut. After I got it cut I didn't like how they looked so I went ahead and colored the outside of the slippers with a glaze pen. Then I used Liquid Pearls to dress them up.. I slipped the slippers on the hook of the hanger and pop dotted the tutu onto the card.

I used a metal embossing folder for the Happy Birthday. I had been playing with markers on the folder and had not cleaned it off good so some of the colors transferred to my embossing giving a speckled look. I then using my eBrush with the pale lavender marker I had used on the tissue paper. Then I hand cut around the Happy Birthday instead of leaving it a rectangle.

I hope my Diva Dancer will like her birthday card. Now I need to start on this week's altered playing card challenge. This week it is a 'tough one for me because it is thinking outside the box.

Wishing You Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Snow People Christmas Card

Hi everyone another weekend is here and believe it or not the holidays will be here before we know  it.. Don't kill the messenger but there is only six more weekends before Christmas and they will fly by fast.

The card I made this week is not a fifteen or thirty minute card so it is not one which I would be making a lot of to give out. It was fun to make though. I had seen the card in a book and decided to put my own spin on it using the basic idea of the popup circle snowflakes.

I airbrushed the embossed panel first. Then embossed using a Darice embossing folder. Then heat embossed with Winter Wonderland Recollection embossing powder. Over that I used clear embossing enamel which although it doesn't really show in the photo gives  a pebbly icy look.

For the snowman panel I masked off with painter's tape and then airbrushed in my sky. Took the tape off and stamped and then  carefully airbrushed in any white spaces. I then colored in with Prismacolor markers the small details.  Then I used glaze pens for the buttons and for the carrot noses to add some dimension.As you can tell it is pop dotted on the embossed panel.

For this  part of the card I took my basic card base and added cut lines to make the pedestals the snowflakes would be adhered to. The snowflakes were a weekly free file from Silhouette. I added a circle behind so that the pedestals would not be seen. They are cut out of a silver paper and the snowflakes were heat embossed with winter wonderland powder. The photo doesn't do them justice.

The Merry Christmas is texture medium used with a brass template on plastic. After it dried I airbrushed it. This was an experiment to see if the texture medium would work on plastic as I have some stencils which would make nice embellishments. Plus I now know I can cut shapes out of plastic and use the medium on them.

The bottom border is a retired Sizzix border folder. I used embossing ink on the folder and then ran the card base through my eBosser. Then heat embossed once again with the Winter Wonderland. 

 I masked the bottom portion of my card base as I didn't want to get any spray on it. Then stamped my snowflakes with embossing ink. I'm not sure who the stamps are by. Then I airbrushed my sky.

All that was left was adhering everything together. Hint: If you make a card like this make your inner base a little smaller than the outside card base. I had to do a little bit of hand trimming after the two pieces were adhered together.

Now my only problem is who to give this card to. I'm already having a difficult time to decide which card to send my sister.  I may have to close my eyes and then point a finger to one.

I know some areas have already had snow. Have you had snow yet? Are you ready for the cold? I went to a consignment shop with the cute name of Cranberry yesterday. I was in search of jeans since mine are holey. L0L! I found a lot of jeans there in the same condition and they were pretty much brand new. I did find a flannel lined pair of jeans. Wish they would have had more than the one pair that fit. My pet peeve is that women's jeans are usually made of such lightweight denim unless you want to pay a lot of money.

Off to work more on my craft room. It is more organized and less cluttered. Especially since I've been either putting in storage or donating non craft items. I even have my "demon" sewing machine set up. Now to see if I can tame him. If not then I'll take him over the my daughter'in-law with the manual and see what I'm doing wrong. I just can't seem to get the tension correct.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Altered Playing Cards Week 9

Hi everyone it is Tuesday and yesterday was the start of a new challenge for altered playing cards. Even though we are now in week nine you can still join in the fun just click on the icon on the right side.

This week the challenge was to do one card in bold, vibrant colors and another in more subtle colors using the same color families. Lol! My challenge ended up being how to salvage things without starting all over.  Lol! I probably should have taken some pictures of my messes and then you would appreciate the final outcome as they were a mess. I wasn't sure I could salvage the second card.. Here is Claudine's cards.

Drum roll and here is mine:

Claudine had drawn circles in her gesso  During prep of the cards I had used gesso with a circle stencil on a card. I love how some of the card background shows through. I airbrushed with yellow and green. It was really looking nice until I decided to airbrush the smaller circles with orange using a Sharpie. The ink splattered and dripped making a mess. I went and used an alcohol blender marker. Then airbrushed again with yellow and green. It wasn't vibrant enough so I used neon markers and colored the circles by hand. I had to keep cleaning the markers on scratch paper but I like the effect on the smaller circles I got by coloring in circles. I then stamped with Ranger's Archival black ink my flowers in the larger circles. Used a white gel pen to make dots in the centers and then colored  the petals with a yellow glaze pen. I took a black sharpie and scribbled around the orange smaller circles. Then printed out my quote and cut it apart.

This card I prepped using gesso and foil. The crumpled foil left pits when I removed it. I thought it would be perfect for this card. I didn't have Antique Linen distress paint so I used the ink. However, it still looked too white to me so I went and used Wild Honey Distress paint on it. I then took a stencil by DCWV named "Tiles" and used a portion of one of the stencils. I used a sponge dauber and Peeled Paint Disterss ink.  Then I took a bristle paint brush I had dipped in water and splattered water.

I then with markers inked up just the large poppy on a Hero Arts rubber stamp. Stamped on my card. The definition wasn't that good so I drew around with a black sharpie. I had also gotten a smudged line with the stem. Which I was able to cover up with the marker. I didn't really like how the background showed through so I took an alcohol blender marker and that is when things got messy.. Opps! Alcohol Blender markers and Sharpies don't play well. The black bled and made a big mess around the poppy. I kept playing with the alcohol marker until it looked more presentable. (I did learn that using a fine point on the blender pen I can get a soft blurred effect) I then took my finger and wild honey distress paint and covered some of the gray. softening it more. I then masked everything but where the poppy had been and re-stamped it . At this point I went and watched television thinking that I was going to start over when my show was over. However, when I came back to the craft table it didn't look all that bad.

The fairy is one from a CD I had at one time which had different costumes and different fairy bodies which allowed you to custom design fairies.  After printing and cutting her I colored her with Prismacolor markers and her outfit with a green metallic pencil.  Or at least the pencil said it was green but it looks blue to me. She is pop dotted on the card.

The Believe is from a Fancy Pants stamp set. I stamped it on vellum with Ranger's Black archival ink and then cut it out free form. I decided to staple it on the card but not sure that I like how it turned out. I did not realize for one thing that the staples were so big as I have never used my stapler with color staples. Oh the shame!

I challenge you to create a project using vibrant colors if you usually use subtle colors and to create a project using subtle colors if you usually use vibrant colors. If you are into card making you might even want to make the same version of the card. One vibrant and the other subtle.

O.K I'm off to work more on my craft room. I've been told to clean it up so I'm working on it. *sigh* non-creative people don't realize that most of us creative types need some chaos to help us create. As long as there is nothing flammable by the heater and nothing which will topple over and bury me  I  don't understand all the fuss. I will be back with another card as I just bought a snowflake embossing folder I can't wait to use.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Nativity Accordion Card

Hi everyone! For those of you who just went off of daylight savings time did you enjoy your extra hour?  I decided to go ahead and post this card I just finished. When I saw in a book an accordion Nativity card I knew I wanted to make one. I didn't have the stamps used but I knew that I could probably find online some clipart which would work. I already had the sweet angel I used.

I placed twine on front of the card base before adding my background paper. The twine is to tie the card shut. For the background paper which I used both on the front and inside I used an eBrush with a Sharpie marker. I discovered if the Sharpie is too far in the holder you will get a splattered effect. Then I went and used aquamarine metallic watercolor paint over the marker color.  I used Spangles for the stars. The only bad thing was that glue had a tendency to come through the hole. I wrapped twine around my tag before adhering it. The angel is pop dotted. I made the "Holy Family" smaller than inside as I originally was going to use two tags on the front but changed my mind after not having room on the scrap of Kraft paper to cut out a narrower tag.

I used the card base from a balloon accordion card  file which Debbie at Paper Pulse had shared. a couple of years ago. Except for the shelter which I drew in Studio everything is a print and cut. I did add glitter to the star and black glaze pen to the eyes of the donkey and sheep.

Now to show this to my oldest granddaughter to see if she wants me to print and cut the images so she can make her own card. Too bad I don't have a mantle as this would be cute sitting on a mantle. Of course you could make any scene you wanted using an accordion card base. It might be fun to create a winter scene.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!