Victorian Scraps, butterfly wings and Stickles...

I had planned to use flower Victorian Scrap (die cut) images in my tag class. I printed off a collage sheet of the flowers, cut them out with finger nail scissors to get in all the little nooks and crannies and tried to come up with a design idea. In the end I went a whole other way with the tags. Which left me the Victorian flower scraps to use in making cards. The Victorian Scarps are resting on this young girl wearing a bonnet, along with a punched tissue paper flower with a beaded center, purple Stickles, butterfly wings and a few paper flowers in her bonnet.

Decorative or Useful

At Scrapbook Barn we have be playing with canvas. We each received a Donna Downey canvas apron, butterfly and flower iron-ons plus some canvas flowers. We painted the canvas flowers and apron using Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints...created fabric flowers, added ruffles and ribbon...each apron showed off the different style of the designer. My apron was displayed in the store on this lovely dress form.

Having been a floral designer in a previous life I went wild with the flowers...

I kept adding more and more. You can never have too many flowers!

I have been asked how I plan to wash the apron... I don't cook, so it will never need to be washed.

Somethings are decorative, somethings are useful and somethings are both.

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is here and Easter is not too far off...in honor of the season I have been working on some new tags ( and you were wondering what had been keeping me away from bloggin') This Spring tag is created with Tim Holtz's Caged Bird die cut, and Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime collection. I placed the "blue bird" outside her gold embossed cage...Hey, it's Spring...nobody should be inside!

I used an embossing folder to create the leaf pattern for this tag. The little girl hatching out of the egg is from a vintage postcard.

I had used these chicks on my last years Easter card. The are so cute they are making another appearance.

I know you are saying to yourself..."these tags are so fun, I wonder if they are a class?"

Yes, the tags are a class! They will be taught Thursday April 7th 10:00am to 11:30am and again Tuesday April 12th 5:00pm to 6:30pm at Scrapbook Barn...give them a call to sign up!

3 Gypsies on Portobello Road

A few years ago...now that I think about it MORE than a few years ago, mom and I flew over to London...met up with mom's sister Mary for a grand adventure. When we returned, I had all kinds of plans for a fantastic scrapbook of the trip. Of course life got in the way...the trip... photos, journal and all the trip ephemera are still sitting in a box, waiting for me to find the time to create the fantastic scrapbook.
You can imagine my excitement when the new 7 Gypsies Lillie paper came out and I was asked if I wanted to create a design using "Adventure and Elen" paper, the paper tape and a 7 Gypsies Shadow Box tray.

Finally I would have a chance to get a bit of the London trip archived. I sanded the edges of the tray to give it a well traveled look...the outside of the tray and the sides of the little ledges inside of the tray were covered with all three of the paper tapes. The Shadow Box tray has a brass handle with "7 Gypsies" stamped on it...I covered the 7 over with a large 3...because after all there were three of us on this adventure.

While we were in London we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel for a day trip to Paris. Of course we visited the Eiffell Tower.

Back in London we did all the touristy things...the British Museum, Harrods, Westminster Abby and the Tower of London with it's huge black ravens.

I had never heard of London's Portobello Road... Aunt Mary had found us this adventure.

It is the home of the Portobello Market. On Saturday the street is full of people exploring the antique stores, sidewalk flower shops, pubs and wonderful bakeries.

The ideas for the scrapbook are still sitting in the box with the photos and travel journal...but I'm glad a little bit of it is seeing the light of day after all this time.

Going GREEN!

I have been creating Heirloom Tags again, this time they are all GREEN.
St Patrick's Day is on the 17th of March...I'm sure it's not too early to decorate your house from top to bottom in GREEN.
I will be teaching these festive tags at Scrapbook Barn this Thursday March 10th 10:00 am to 11:30 am and again Tuesday March 15th 5:30pm to 7:00pm.

We will be playing with GREEN distress ink, lace, Stickles, gold embossing powder, vintage images (Thanks to Suzee Que at Flickr and Karen at Graphics Fairy for sharing) GREEN butterflys and glittered shamrocks.

Could it be any easier to go GREEN?

Now for something really different

This is what you get when you combine Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante patterned paper, some copper Stickles, a few layered Tim Holtz Gadget Gears...

Wild Honey Distress ink, Kaisercraft Turquoise Acrylic Paint and Shadowbox frame, and a handful of amber rhinestones...

It was fun to design...but I don' think it will go with the decor in the living room!

Happy Valentines Day

Thank you Graphics Fairy for sharing this fun image!