~ It's A Banner Day ~ The Craft's Meow

You are going to love these stamps!! it's preview day for the TCM team to show projects using the new banner stamp set Nina Brackett designed to fit with a Spellbinder's die set.

This card features the banner, stamped and fitted with some patterned paper...


The sentiment comes from this set, and the patterned paper can be found here. The fabric blossom was kind of a mistake...... a rather fortunate mistake I guess.... :)

Places to visit today:

The Craft's Meow blog

Amy Tsuruta

Amy Young

Debbie Pamment

Jean Martin

Jenny Suchin
Jessica Fick

Julie Ranae

Kim Yu

Lindsay Amrhein
Lynn Miller

Miesje Flach
Nina Brackett
Ren-Yi Lo

Wherever you go along the line, leave a comment, and you just might be one of three happy people picked from all the blogs to win this banner stamp set, and announced at The Craft's Meow blog tomorrow.

i'll be back.
~ vi

~ Lovely Birds ~ The Craft's Meow

I have never been in love with such cute little birds as these! And they're a wonderful little part of a new stamp set The Craft's Meow DT is showing off today called "Lovely Birds."

My oldest sister (who is 28)... became so enthralled by that little bird bath that she keeps declaring that she'll want those bird baths on her wedding invitations. I in turn, am not amused, and tell her that she will do all the cutting and paperpiecing. (and then she says that if I start cutting now, by the time she decides to get married, they'll all be done). 

sigh.



Oh, but let me tell you, that bird bath was SO. MUCH. FUN. to cut and trim and paste! I simply stamped the image on cream cardstock and then carefully cut it out. Softened with a little creamy brown ink, and pale color pencils, it looks perfect. The "Love" sentiment is actually a section of a larger sentiment that you will get to see on the actual stamp set......


Patterned background stamp is this set, an earlier release by The Craft's Meow and Nina Brackett. I added color pencil details and more inking to soften the whole card. The blossom is by Prima, with a few fabric leaves added (snipped out from the fabric mentioned here)

All right, go stop by all these fun little places to check out the other team-members' projects. They are sure to blow you away!

The Craft's Meow blog

Amy Tsuruta

Amy Young

Debbie Pamment

Jean Martin

Jenny Suchin
Jessica Fick

Julie Ranae

Kim Yu

Lindsay Amrhein
Lynn Miller

Miesje Flach
Nina Brackett
Ren-Yi Lo

Wherever you go along the line, leave a comment, and you just might be one of three happy people picked from all the blogs and announced at The Craft's Meow blog tomorrow. Fun giveaways over the next three days till the release on July 1st!

happy hugs,

~vi

~ Crafty Secrets Design Team Challenge ~ Childhood Theme

Back today, with some special projects for Crafty Secret's DT June challenge. We got to pick what we wanted to make, so long as it fits in the "childhood" theme. I guess that wasn't too hard for me as I'm kind of barely out of that phase of my life!!! Haha.


Made with my favorite things! stamps, ink, pearls, twine, ribbons, and lots of other goodies. Can't just pick one.
This is also my last week as guest DT member for the shabby tea room! *weep* ...
and this card fits that challenge perfectly, My Favorite Things.


Crafty Secrets supplies: Love Mail creative scraps (pale aqua and floral image), Little Blessings creative scraps (little girl image), Artsy Banners stamp set (banner and text background), Angel Blessings stamp set (sentiment).

One more childhood project!


See that beautiful floral patterned paper? and the one with dotty green ferns too? those are from the new Creating with Vintage Patterns CD!! it is FULL of gorgeous prints, great for both digital art and printing. I ~love~ it so much, and will be using it endlessly. Pretty little image is from the Little Blessings creative scraps.


Another snippet of the beautiful new paper available in that CD. I simply accented the digital lace with pearls. The stamped sentiments come from the Tea with Alice stamp set and Material Girl stamp set. Just did a little bit of "sneaky" stamping, using some tiny text images from both sets to create my custom sentiment.



Visit the other Crafty Secrets girls for more fun projects!

~ Vicki Chrisman Team Leader
~ Pam Hooten
~ Heidi Blankenship
~ Linda Duke
~ Michele Kovack
~ Julie Campbell
~ Victoria Warren-Mears
~ Jan Hennings
~ Debbie Marcinkiewicz
~ Tammy Roberts
~ Gini Cagle
~ Fauve van Maanen

Heartwarming Vintage Blog
Crafty Secrets

That's it from me today. I'm going off to wage war on a flu bug and fever chills that are trying to take over my week!!

~vi

~ Thinking of You ~ blossoms and birdcages

I will be quick today ..... rushing out the door in a few minutes to have lunch with some of my good friends.



Just a simple card with plenty of Pink Paislee goodness... I love the 6x6 paper packs, and this set is Butterfly Garden, from which the die-cut birdcage also comes. Just added a little key, plenty of trimmings, some clear crystal "danglers" ;) .......... and pretty flowers. I have a couple more packs of the large flowers from the second trip I made to the store, so if you want some of them, let me know. The rosebuds are allllllll gone!!! *weep*


Ok, if I don't run I will be late for the lunch, and that will be bad of me :)
many thank-you-alls for your visit here.

hugs,
~vi

Oh, check this out!! it has a peek of the creative scraps I designed with Sandy and Cindy for Crafty Secrets. And they're having happy giveaways everyday this week at the Heartwarming Vintage blog, so drop by if you can.

~ Raspberry Cupcakes ~ The Shabby Tea Room challenge

A gorgeous inspiration photo from The Shabby Tea Room this week ~


I picked out the raspberry red, fresh spring green, and polka dots to mix in the recipe. Not to forget the white frostings...................


The raspberry image comes from Crafty Secret's Garden Creative Scraps, and the sweet little bird cage and "Love" sentiment from Birdies Clear Art Stamps.


......happy monday to you. it's my sleepy day. I always feel dreadfully, dreadfully sleepy after getting up in the morning for music lessons. *yawn*

~ vi

p.s. some flowers for you, from sunday past ~

~ Fabric Art Journal ~

Last week I picked up these beautiful japanese quilting fabric bits from a millinery store. I actually didn't have anything special in mind...

I thought it might work for a pillow -- (what was I thinking? I've never made a pillow before, and I certainly don't need one). Later as I stared at it I thought of making a camera strap cover -- still considering that one (b/c I'm not sure I want to walk around with a pink strap for my black camera, it would be STRANGE).

Then I got a brainwave this afternoon, started digging in my terribly disorganized drawer, and found a notebook I could cover. It was SUPER!!! I was so excited.


First I wrapped the chipboard cover with the pink fabric and stitched all over it to secure the cloth.

Then I layered more fabrics and some tea-dipped trim on top, and stitched again (I am paranoid about the "things" fallling off the notebook).


........made a faux seed-packet using a pretty vintage image from Birds and Botanicals notepad and a little brown paper sack, and then stitched all over it again..... trimmed with a resin applique from Melissa Frances, and a little clock face.


The flowers are made from more tea-trims, and some of the cream fabric, messily bunched up and stitched ---- embellished with little crochet pieces, pearls, and baubles. The leaves are olive green cardstock, scrunched up, distressed and stitched.



there it is -- a simple, romantic fabric art journal. I'm not quite sure if I'll use it or give it away or what... I'm just going to keep it for looking at for a while ;)

I'm working on a few fun pages inside... will be sharing them next week sometime I think.

hope your weekend is going LOVELY!! mine sure is :)
~vi

~ Smile ~ Crafty Secrets and other goodies

~ a little spring wreath from Melissa Frances ~ a locket from Blue Moon Beads ~



~ crinkled paper flowers ~

(I was inspired by a little something I saw on pinterest I think, but for the life of me I can't remember what... please tell me if you see something like this that I may have "stolen" the idea from!)

:: hand-cut / punch mini circles of patterned paper :: squash and crumple them up :: shabbify them with some ink :: add pearls ::



I used the lovely vines from Art Blooms by Crafty Secrets. Filled in the details with simple white and olive colored pencils... (persisting in my copic rebellion here) ;) ...


Something small to brighten a dear one's day, remind her to smile.

I have a bunch of lovely, lovely fabrics that I want to mess with, so I'll take my leave now. Be back for the weekend post.

beautiful thursday!!!

~ vi

~ Clear and Simple Stamps Group Challenge ~ Background Tweets

Hello Tweets! the CSS design team's June project is with the awesomely cute set Tweet Notes... creating backgrounds with stamping.

And I have never been so brave with stamping before now. Usually my cards consist of just a teeny little stamping bit, or simply the sentiment in vintage sepia / smokey grey ink. The last few weeks, I've learned to pull myself out of my creative rut and LEARN TO STAMP!! ha.

For this card, I twisted the vines on the stamping block before inking with olive ink and stamping onto the cream cardstock. The leaves were filled in with a simple color pencil. I don't know WHEN I'll ever take the plunge and get some copics --- perhaps never. Pencils must suffice.


The vines were accented with pearls, and the flowers are just layers of Prima petals and a simple rosebud in the middle. Trim is from Little Red Cottage, and the sentiment is from CSS' Kind Deeds set.

Now go visit my DT friends and see what they have up their sleeves:
~ Dana ~ Kim H ~ Lori ~ Cristina ~ Amber ~ Kim D ~ Laurie ~ CSS blog ~



Well, I hope you are having quite a special day. After all, it was twenty years ago, minus 365 days, that I let out my first scream after entering the world. Perhaps today I'll mark the occasion by letting out nineteen shrieks?
that would be more likely if a cockroach / lizard makes it's appearance before me today. Through all these years, my fear of bugs have somewhat increased.

(True story: when I was 2 years old I bit the head off a beetle and it was never found again)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SORRY TO GROSS YOU OUT!! :) :) :) have a super day like I am having!

hugs,

~vi

~ Pink Lemonade ~ The Shabby Tea Room challenge

** IMPORTANT NOTE: Yay everybody who asked for flowers! I went shopping today and found plenty of beautiful posies to share with you all (and my arm almost fell off carrying 70 packs of flowers home) ... I got enough to fill all the requests, and a few extras, so go ahead and email me if you would like some! **


The Shabby Tea Room this week -- some fresh and fun inspiration with this gorgeous photo. Look at that cake: simple, imperfect, and yet beautiful! and those glasses of lemonade make my mouth water. Pink lemonade tastes so much better than yellow lemonade (at least in my mind).

All right, on to my humble contribution for this week:


The fabric blossom came from Prima's Melody-Whisper collection, a new favorite of mine. I'm so glad I caved in and got the Prima blooms that day... pretty things are so worth it. at least, most of the time.


I also got some new K&Co patterned papers from the Watercolor Bouquet collection. I trimmed the florals from the Yellow Blossom paper and tucked them behind the Prima bloom. The sweet sentiment is from a Clear and Simple Stamps set, and the acrylic doily is recycled from a Prima packaging ;)




Oh! these photos were taken last week with the silly old point-and-shoot cam, but over the weekend, my KIND AND AWESOME big brother brought over one-of-his-many DSLRs and lent it to me. YAY!! (I'll have to try it out soon, because it looks like a good camera but I'm not sure) heehee ;)

Ok, I'll be back tomorrow with a fun stamping project... see you then.

~ vi

~ Rosebuds and Raindrops ~ Blossom Project

***The flowers were snapped up really quick! I will be going back to the store on Monday to see if they have more, and will update you when I get back. Thank you ALL so much for your interest in the flowers, this was super fun. Please email me if you'd like to get your name on the waiting list for the flowers. I so hope I won't have to disappoint anyone! Thanks again! :)***

Hello and Happy Saturday!

A couple weeks back I posted two cards with large floral embellishments, and I got a couple of questions about the flowers ... so to those of you who asked, I emailed you back and planned a little "spree" for these roses. Today on my trip to town with mommy and sisters, I dropped by the little millinery store and grabbed up whatever flowers they had left for you lovely ladies ;) ...

I am asking for those who wanted these flowers to email me (viola.mahr@gmail.com) so I can mail you the flowers and we'll figure a way to do payment (either an etsy listing, or direct through paypal). If you didn't ask previously but want a bit of pretty posies for your crafts, just let me know!! I'll be glad to add you to the list.

~ d e t a i l s ~

US$5/pack -- each pack has six different bunches of flowers (pictured above) with crystal-like vines... each floral spray measures approximately 4" tall.

Last week I also posted a couple of cards using some sweet little rosebuds that more of you asked about...

~ d e t a i l s ~

  
US$4/packet -- each packet has three different colors (pink, peach, and blue)... and I counted: there are 20-25 of each color. That makes for 60-75 flowers! Yum!

If you want any of these flowers, let me know via email. I didn't want to list these as "free for all" in my etsy shoppe as I don't plan on becoming a flower-supply store. HA.

And I have a little card to share... using some of the little rosebuds.

It mixes wonderfully with Prima blossoms, big and small.......... a lovely floral-collage.




That's it from me today. I hope you're having a beautiful weekend where-ever you are!

~ vi

~ Sew Lovely ~ Crafty Secrets sewing project

I was over at Miss Betsy's blog yesterday reading this fun post about sewing notions. Just like her, I remember watching my amazing seamstress of a mother sew. My mom (like Miss Betsy's mother) had her perfectly good pair of sewing scissors that I was not allowed to cut paper with.

Now-a-days, I do a good bit of sewing like mom does. And my brain is actually grown up enough to know why I shouldn't cut paper with the sewing scissors. I guess in a few years time I'll be the fearsome mom --- "DON'T CUT PAPER WITH MY SEWING SCISSORS!!!!!" ---

(my mother isn't fearsome by the way. It's just my healthy imagination that makes me think I'll make an awesome-fearsome mom)

 The super sweet little ribbon card and scissors stamps came from Crafty Secrets' Material Girl set, and yesterday I managed to drop by a scrappy-store to pick up some pretty Prima flowers... and I saw the rock-crystal pins and tiny bobbins, and couldn't resist!! I love them so much.

This is my own sew-special card, created because I love sewing and cardmaking. When these two worlds meet they make me SO happy. Here is a super fun challenge where I'll be sharing this card.

Thanks for putting up with me today! happy middle-week to you.

~ vi