Fabulous Friends Friday: Valentine's Treats from Marlene!

Happy Friday!  Today, for Fabulous Friends Friday, I thought it would be fun to share some Valentine's treats I received from my amazingly talented friend Marlene last year!  

First is a treat holder with a really fun closure:

Marlene also created this beautifully altered gift bag, which was filled with wonderfully decorated goodies:

I also love this sweet pop-up panda treat box she created:

And, here is another beautiful gift box, created to hold three square treat boxes, and finished with gorgeous ribbon and sparkly heart tag:

Thanks so much to Marlene for these beautiful works of heart!  And, thanks so much to you for taking the time to visit my blog!

- Michelle

Tropical Chic Card and Boxes

It's another rainy day here in San Jose, so thought I'd share some tropical cards to brighten the day! 

The first project is a variation of a card I showed you last summer, using the same technique to create the flowers.  I used Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper for the three panels behind the Tropical Chic flowers, and chose flower colors to complement that:

The next two projects are boxes with hinged lids that I created following this tutorial by Dena Rekow.   Dena's tutorial is for the smaller size box.  I did some math to upsize it for the larger, Daffodil Delight box.  These were very fun to create and decorate! 

I used the Delicate Lace Edgelits around this box, as well as Lemon Lime Twist Ombre Ribbon.  The smaller box is tied with Calypso Coral Ombre Ribbon.  The "frames" and centers on both boxes were cut with the Layering Circle Framelits.  The frame on the  larger box is stamped with an image from the Swirly Frames set. 

I found some fun "Flavor of Hawaii" Hershey Kisses to put in the smaller box -- and those inspired the color schemes for both boxes as well!

Hope you like these.  Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Merry Monday: Watercolor Techniques Cards and Snowflake Ornament and Gift Box

Happy Monday!  It's been a bit of a cold and rainy day here in California, so that maybe inspired my choice of projects to share just a little bit!  I have two Christmas cards with some fun watercolor techniques, plus a snowflake ornament with a matching gift box!

The first card features the Faux Bleach Technique with the Timeless Tidings Stamp Set.  I heat embossed the poinsettia image repeatedly on a piece of Shimmery White Card Stock, then sponged on Real Red and Mossy Meadow inks.  I used an Aquapainter to blend the color inside the petals.  I also used the Aquapainter to remove color on the outside of the images, then drew with a Mossy Meadow Stampin' Write Marker to add some leaves.  Finally, I gently flicked the Aquapainter to add speckles onto my artwork: 

I finished the card by layering my painted piece onto a piece of Gold Foil, which in turn was layered onto a piece of Whisper White embossed with the Tufted Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and that was layered onto one of the Gold Foil Edged Cards: 

The greeting is stamped on a strip of Vellum Card Stock, and I finished the card with some scattered mini gold sequins and a piece of Real Red Mixed Satin Ribbon.

The next card is a gatefold created with the Still Night Stamp Set, uses the borderless watercolor technique for the owl, and has a background created with washes of Balmy Blue and Silver Shimmer Paint on watercolor paper.  The foil behind the watercolor paper is embossed with the Tin Tile Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The Balmy Blue Card Stock on the opposite panel is embossed with the Layered Leaves Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder:

The last project is this 3D ornament, created by glueing together multiple snowflake die cuts (6 large and 6 small) from the Snowflake Showcase bundle.  These were actually cut from velvet paper, so have a wonderful, soft texture to them as well.  I added a small rhinestone in the center of each of the small snowflakes for some sparkle.

I created a coordinating box to hold the ornament, with snowflake die cuts on the top and a bit of the Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon :

Hope you enjoyed these projects!  Thanks so much for visiting!

Michelle

Merry Monday: Christmas Cards

Happy Monday!  Because I have quite a few Christmas projects I'd still like to share with you, I decided to start a new feature on my blog -- Merry Monday!   Last year, one of my resolutions had been to create at least ten Christmas cards a month in order to avoid a flurry of last-minute creating in December -- that resolution didn't work out last year, but maybe this will be the year!  I'm hopeful these Merry Mondays will inspire you and me to keep the spirit of Christmas crafting going throughout the year.  :)  What do you think?

Today's first card is a clean and simple creation, using the Wishing You Well stamp set, stamped in Tranquil Tide and Merry Merlot:

I dressed up the card a bit with a bit of scoring around the stamped layer, and a Faceted Dot in the center of the wreath's bow.

The next card is one I CASED with a few little changes from this beautiful card I found on Pinterest by Christy Gridley.  Like Christy, I used the now-retired Still Night Bundle, Dashing Along Designer Series Paper, and Striped Burlap Trim.  For the Cherry Cobbler piece behind my owl, I used the large label from the Stitched Labels Framelits Dies.  My sprigs of leaves and berries were cut with a die from the Sweet Cakes Framelits, and I added some snowflakes cut with the limited edition Snowflake Showcase dies.  The label with the greeting is cut with a die from the Petals and More Thinlits.  The green rhinestones were left over from the Timeless Tidings card kit:

 

For the next card, I did a fun emboss resist technique with stamps from the Snowflake Showcase -- I first embossed the tree with white embossing powder onto the Gold Foil-Edged Card, then I sponged on two shades of blue ink (Pool Party and Coastal Cabana) and two shades of Green (Lemon Lime Twist and Shaded Spruce).  I spritzed with a bit of water to leave some specks and blend the ink just a bit:

I added a few rhinestones to the centers of some of the larger snowflakes for a finishing touch.

And, last but not least, is a "bare midriff" card I created for a swap, using the Signs of Santa Bundle, In the Woods Framelits, and Blizzard Thinlits.  I had fun using lots of Frost White Shimmer Paint on the background and tree, and for highlights on the signpost, Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Images were colored with Stampin' Blends.  The greeting is on a label from the Stitched Labels Framelits Dies.

Here's the inside of the card:

Hope you enjoyed these!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Altered Book Christmas Trees

While browsing Pinterest one day, I came across this Pin, which inspired me to learn how to create Christmas trees from old paperback books.  I found a very helpful tutorial here.  I ended up making a few trees, the first for a Christmas swap with my friend Marlene:

For this tree, after folding, I sponged the pages with Frost White Shimmer Paint.  I created a topper with Sparkle Glimmer Paper cut with die cuts from the Snowflake Showcase bundle and a Snowflake Element on each side:

Around the tree, I used more Sparkle Glimmer Paper die cuts, along with rolled roses created from card stock and sponged, plus leaf die cuts from card stock and book pages created with some of the Sweet Cake Framelits Dies, and flowers from the Detailed Deer Thinlits Dies:

I added pearls from the Metallic Pearls and Share What You Love Artisan Pearls to the flower centers.

After seeing a sneak peek of the Butterfly Beauty Thinlits dies  (also available as part of the Beauty Abounds Bundle from the new Occasions Catalog, I decided to create some trees adorned with butterflies.  I made one for the SUper Friends swap (as you saw a peek of in yesterday's post) and another tree for a friend who is our librarian at the school where I work (that one was made with an old copy of Winnie the Pooh, and I was able to incorporate some art from the cover into its decorations as well).  I again sponged the pages with Glimmer Paint after folding.  The die cuts for these are from either book pages (water colored with dye ink to add color) and some retired Brushed Gold Card Stock.  I also cut book pages into circles and then cut and rolled those into roses, which I spritzed with dye to color.  Here are how those trees turned out:

I am planning to offer a class or actually classes sometime soon on how to make and then how to decorate these.  Please let me know if you would be interested in attending!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Fabulous Friends Friday: SUper Friends December Gathering and Yankee Swap

Happy New Year!!!   I'm back and have some fun photos to share with you for Fabulous Friends Friday from our SUper Friends December Gathering and Yankee Swap!  It was so much fun to see the amazing homemade creations everyone came up with for our swap! 

Here we are getting ready to swap, chatting about the new catalog, and exchanging a few treats (those who are sharp-eyed may spy some mini coffee cup treats Judy created for us on the table . . . will try to post close up photos soon of those and other treats that were exchanged!)

Everyone brought some seriously yummy goodies to share:

"Santa" Connie M. had goodies from the new Occasions Catalog for everyone:

Here are the gifts all lined up and ready for our Yankee swap:

First gift opened was this felt scarf made by Kallien and some cozy coffee drink mixes:

Nancy went next, and opened up a beautifully labeled jar of homemade overnight oat mix:

I opened up this gorgeous votive jar created by Connie M., which had a multicolored battery operated candle in it (and was quickly stolen from me!):

Next opened was Judy's gift of Sorrel Tea and Punch!  That caused a bit of stealing as well!  :)

The next gift I opened was these super-yummy caramels made by Nancy!  Luckily, I succeeded in keeping these out of sight and out of mind for the rest of the swap!  :)

Margery opened a gift with jewelry created by Agnes:

When that was stolen from her, she opened a package containing some earrings and jam also from Agnes:

Kallien opened a wonderful hand-stamped calendar created by Connie S.:

Connie S. opened a book tree I created (apologies for the blurry photo here, will try to share more photos of this soon . . . ):

Kallien had the chance to open another gift, and this time, she opened these adorable treat boxes created by Margery:

 Our group photo with our goodies from the swap at the end:

Thanks so much for the fun afternoon and wonderful treats, SUper Friends!  

And, thanks so much to you for visiting my blog and sharing in our fun!  If you would like more information about how you can join our SUper Friend group, please contact me!

Michelle