Happy Halloween!!

Carved my Jack O' Lantern!!  Seeds are soaking for roasting later!!

Looking forward to all the Trick and Treaters who will be visiting tonight.   I am handing out

packages of hot chocolate!!  They love it and are always so excited!! 

We have had up to 250 but the last couple of years has been closer to 150.  

We have a wonderful bunch who visit our house - always polite - even the larger than average ones!!

Have a spooky Hallowe'en!!

Therese

Little boy birthday!!

How does it happen that babies turn so quickly into little boys???    
Our second youngest grandson will be a year old very soon.  He is learning to walk and loves playing and eating!!
I made him this card with balloons and an embellished little tag house!!  I reverse embossed - debossed  - the white core card front and sanded it to give it a bit of texture and interest.  Added stitching to all the elements, added fiber to the tag house and strings to the balloons, then glued them into place!!  I love the colours and am sure he will be have a wonderful birthday!!

If you are close to your grandchildren - count your blessings!!

Therese

Fall card!!

I hosted the girls last night and it was a wonderful time as we all caught up with each other about our summers and our activities since the kids have headed back to school!!
This is the card I made as the make and take in our Shoe Box.  I made the background paper using brown paper, acrylic paints and ink!! The brown paper was given to me by my SU demonstrator - Catherine.  They receive all of their product packed with this paper so they have it around all the time.  It is strong and thin - love it!!  I started by adding large brown dots using brown acrylic paint brushed onto bubble wrap and stamped on the paper!!  COOL!!  Next, I added smaller orange dots using a smaller bubble wrap and orange acrylic paint.  Afterwards, I added leaves using a foam leaf die cut (TH Tattered Leaves die) which I painted with acrylic paint and stamped in an all over pattern.  I used a mixture of gold, copper and brown paint.  It still needed a bit of something so I added script using a stamp and Old Olive (SU) ink.  To help connect all the design elements I just used a foam brush with clear water and painted the whole surface which caused the green ink to run just a little and it did the trick - a nice cohesive collage!!  Cut it up into quarter sheets and paired it with brown or green cardstock.  The focal element is a digital stamp I downloaded from Meljens Designs and printed on white cardstock with my laser printer.  I watercoloured the images, layered them on coordinating cardstock and adhered them over the fiber I tied to the card front.  I provided a variety of different greetings but several of the girls decided not to a greeting.  They will add an appropriate one when they use the card!!
We have been enjoying the fall colours but with the rain and cooler weather last week they are duller and starting to fall!!  Still seems like a pile of treasure when I walk through them!!

Therese

Little packets of fun!

Here are the little packets I will be stuffing into the pockets in my Advent Calendar for the recipient to open each day of December until Christmas Day!!  I am keeping the contents a surprise until after Christmas!!  I will be updating my Advent Calendar posts to include that information when all the little surprises have been revealed!!
I have wrapped each one in hand decorated paper!!  Once opened the paper can be used for creating with - as background paper or in collages, etc.
I love making everything useful!!

Therese

Mixed Media advent calendar

I have been working on a Mixed Media Advent Calendar for a swap on AFTCM for the better part of a week now - off and on between cleaning up and sorting my stuff!!
I am so happy with how it worked out!!!!!!!!!!
I used heavy weight cardstock - the backs I ripped off of commercial cards before I refurbished them for donating. Check out the cards here and here.

 Check out the process I used for decorating both sides of these papers before I created the little houses.  For the backs - the glossy ones have alcohol ink backgrounds and the matte ones have collage.  All the fronts were decorated with a multiple step paper decorating process that used a handmade stamp, acrylic paint and plastic wrap.  Fun!!

To keep all the houses looking like they belonged in the same neighborhood I decided they would all have black roofs, A's down their sides, a door and windows.  Each also has a number which doubles as a house number.  After all, we need to know how many sleeps before the big day!!
So there are little houses, big houses, skinny houses and everything  in between. Even a few duplexes!!

 Some with chimneys, some with dormers, some with hedges and a wide variety of roof styles.  The scored flaps are folded to the back and tied on the sides with fiber to create a little pocket which holds the surprise of the day as we count down.  The letters on the roofs and down the sides were created with decorative packing tape I bought at Michaels last year!!

 Worked so well - added texture and a funky style to the whole lot!!  It was fun to design doors and windows for each house and hand draw the details.  They were all layered and watercoloured to give them a bit of dimension.  None of the houses are exactly the same.

 So click on the photos and check out the fun little details I added.  A little bit of something below the roof line, something above or around the door, etc.  I used brads and eyelets for the door handles.

They have numbers on the backs as well.  These were die cut from foil lids!!  The little pockets are waiting to be filled!!
It has been a super fun project.  It can be used to count down to any occasion and left up year round should the recipient be so inclined!!
A wonderful little neighborhood!!


I have a few leftover card backs which I hope to use to make another little village.  Maybe I will use different architectural guidelines for the next one!!!  What fun!!  They can stand on a shelf or mantle or maybe could be tied together to stand independantly.
Consider making yourself a fun little advent calendar that you can reuse every year to count down to Christmas and, if you make it fun enough, it will decorate your house or studio all year long!!  A new tradition!!
Would love to see what you have created!  Leave a comment and include a link!!

Therese

Paper decorating!!

I started on a new project last week and decided to use the backs torn off of old commercial cards as a base because they were good heavyweight cardstock.  I picked the largest ones because those  worked best for the final result.
Are you asking yourself what I did with the card fronts?? You can see the cards I have refurbished and donated here and here.

For my project all of these needed to be scored at 2.5" so I used my "new to me" Martha Stewart scoring tool - Thanks Carol.  That was easy!!

For my project both sides of the cardstock needed to be decorated so I decided to use alcohol inks on the glossy ones!  Worked really well!!

 For the matte ones, I decided to create small collages using decorative papers.  I just dug through my stash of papers and picked pieces that seemed to work well together and glued them down.

So that took care of all the backs of these pieces of cardstock.  Now,  on to the fronts!!

Here is my set up for doing the fronts.  I started with this cool looking piece of packaging that I found as I  was going through my "stuff".  I coated the edges of the open weave with gesso to seal it before I started using it as a stamp.  I sponged acrylic paint onto the edges with a foam brush and stamped it on the cardstock.  Repeated 3 or 4 more times until the whole surface was covered, not worrying too much about how well it stamped because it was just going to be texture in the final project.

   Once they were dry I started adding colour using watered down acrylic paints.  Just painted them on pretty willy nilly and covered them with wrinkled plastic wrap to help create interesting patterns. I waited only a few minutes before removing the plastic wrap and discovered that the stamping was resisting the washes better than I expected, so combined with the random pattern of the plastic wrap, some of the backgrounds turned out pretty cool.
I have taken digital photos of all of them so I can use them in my art later on!!

Decorating paper is so much fun!! I love the randomness of it all and it is fun passing the day just mucking with paint and paper.  In this case, it is even better because I started with cardstock that was headed to the recycling bin!!  Now, that is upcycling!!

Therese

Steampunk fat book page

I have been crafting in my new room!!!  It is wonderful.
Here is the project I was working on today - a Steam punk fat book page.  I created this for a swap on AFTCM.  I created a steam punk wind screen using items that I picked up on my walk the other day and a few add ons.  What did I pick up??  The base - a clear plastic with holes in it and the rusty washer.  I added the central piece (inside of a foam brush) from my desk, the little washers and the electronic bits were discovered during a raid of DH garage and the butterfly charm, the rhinestone and the copper piece are from my stash.  I wired all of them into place using wire which I had pulled out from ribbon a while back.  Thinking about it - most of these elements have been upcycled!!  I ended up painting the back of the clear piece after I had started wiring elements into place so I used a variety of mediums until I got the look I needed. On hindsight, it would have been better to sand and paint it beforehand but it sort of evolved so I had to make it up as I went along.  I really like the way it looks!!  Once the windscreen was finished I started looking for a fall scene, a flying machine and a pilot.  The pilot and the windmill I found at Graphics Fairy and the fall scene I downloaded off the internet.  I love how it all came together.  I had to add some details to the pilot and also created the outside of his flying machine.  The back of the page has the fall scene with some verse I wrote about the colours and flying!!  I added some coordinating fiber on the right hand side and my page was done!!

The colours of fall are so awesome here.  I grew up in the west where fall colours go from green to yellow and if we were lucky brown but more often than not, we would get a hard frost in September and all the leaves would fall regardless of what colour they were!!  Bare trees for Halloween and very often snow suits too!!

PS - If you have been waiting for more photos of my craft room - I have uploaded them into the original post - here!!

Therese

Wooden socks!!

For my desk no less!!
After crafting at my desk for a few days in a row I would end up with pain in my shoulders from bending over ever so slightly while I was creating.  So, my DH made a set of wooden socks for my desk!!!  It raised it about three inches.  Works so much better!!  He custom fit them to the legs and they simply slide on the bottom of the leg like a sock.  Pretty cool!!

Therese

More refurbished cards to donate!

 I have been busy cleaning up "stuff" from my craft room and in the process I have taken the time to make up some more refurbished cards to donate.
It has been fun to see how I can incorporate an image from a commercial card and add some handmade techniques and elements to create new cards.  I have added punched greetings, ribbon, embossing, punched borders, etc.
For some cards I used both the inside and outside to create a cards front - works perfectly because they already match and have the same look.
For some it was sufficient to trim the front and glue it to a new card front because they were beautiful as they were.  My previous batch can be seen here.

In Canada, we are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.  I am grateful for the great weather and the time to do what needs doing.  Great walks and a bit of cleaning up in the garden that gives me some exercise and fresh air.  There was heavy frost this morning so the rest of the flower beds can be cleaned up - have a hard time pulling blooming flowers - for winter.
I have a couple of swaps to work on and will continue with the cleaning and sorting of my "stuff" into my craft room.
Check this updated post with pictures of the current state of my room!!

Therese

Cards to donate!

I have been working in my craft room refurbishing commercial cards for donating to a local organization where I have been teaching cardmaking.  It has been fun to create cards with the images from these cards and make a layout that works.  I usually try to add a bit of texture - ribbon, etc to make the cards have more of a handmade look.  I will be dropping those off today.  It is a small step in getting "stuff" out of my room!!
I have a lot of handmade cards I have received in swaps and exchanges that I will be refurbishing as well and donating later on.
I would encourage everyone to consider reusing any cards they receive - either commercial or handmade - by refurbishing them and donating them to a local organization.  Nursing homes and charities are always grateful for something they can use to cheer up the many people that they come in contact with everyday!!

Therese

New craft space!!!

My new craft room - left & right!!!  I have been away for a month - visited with my sister for her vacation, visited with my daughter and her family - lots of time with my grandchildren and got a chance to spend some time with my son as well.  While I was away my DH has been working hard creating my new craft room from scratch!!  There's a only a few things left to be done so I took some time this morning to restructure my Gracious Living storage carts so they would all be the same height.  While I was at it I nipped the stops a bit on the bottom of the large drawers so they can be easily removed which allows access to the whole drawer!!  Been meaning to do that for a long time. We moved the whole bank of carts to under the window this afternoon and zipped them together with cable ties to make the whole thing very sturdy.  We hope to get the large shelving unit in there tomorrow morning which will leave the dresser and the file cabinet for the afternoon!!
The left hand side of my room will be used for storage but that does mean that I have to start sorting and culling before anything gets brought into my new space!!
I am blessed!!  I am hoping to be creating in there by the weekend!!

UPDATED - October 8, 2012
I have been crafting in my craft room - refurbishing cards for donating!  You can see them here and here!  It is soooo nice!!!  I took this photo this morning after clearning up my desk from the last few days.  You can see my bookcase on the left which needs to be filled, my bank of plastic carts, my wooden shelving and my file cabinet lined up against the outside walls.  My desk and the dresser are in the middle of the room and create a island.  I love having everything so handy!!  I am finding it so much easier to just put tools and supplies back in their homes!!
Needless to say the other side of the room is still suffering from clutter so I will have to update that later.
Therese

Thank you cards

I made up these cards to send off to the two great places we stayed at for our vacation this summer.  I folded a 4" x 12" piece of cardstock at 4" and 8" and then folded the two ends diagonally so the folds would meet over the center section.  I added triangles of decorative paper on both front flaps, layered a ribbon over the middle and captured it with the 3D foam tape I used to attach the focal element which is only glued to the triangle on the left hand side.  I watercoloured the stamped image (Magenta) and layered it to a square of coordinating cardstock. Just a square paper insert for writing on.
We had a wonderful vacation this summer in PEI.  We stayed at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast in Edmundston, NB on our way down called the Au NIDaigle run by Norma Daigle.  Large, bright, very well appointed rooms with private baths, lots of common areas, great grounds, great food and a very friendly and helpful hostess.  Check out her website!!
In Prince Edward Island we rented a wonderful little cottage only a short drive to a GREAT beach and situated on a lot next to the owner's house at St. Peters Lake, near Lakeside, PEI.  Ferne MacEwen is the owner of this little gem and she is wonderful to deal with. The two bedroom cottage has vintage decor and is neat and clean and very quiet.  She rents by the week from June to October but we would recommend going in August when the ocean is at its warmest. We checked out LOTS of beaches on the island and the best are facing the St. Lawrence on the Atlantic side - beautiful sand in long stretches that will take you hours to explore punctuated with red rocks and cliffs which are distinctive to PEI.  Check out this link for Ferne's  contact info or check out the 2012 PEI Visitors Guide on Page 181 for more information.  In the future, you can check the current edition under The Points East Coastal Drive, Cottages, Lakeside for her listing.  Most beaches in PEI have some beach glass - beautiful little nuggets of glass that have been worn by the motion of the sea and sand  - but we found the beach at Souris to be the most prolific. Be sure to go at when the tide is going out (low tide) which leaves the shore and sand bars exposed for exploring!!
Needless to say, I would highly recommend a vacation in PEI to everyone!!  It is a special part of Canada!!

Therese

Yet more acetate cards!

These are the final three of the acetates I discovered in my stash earlier. Here and here are the other cards I created with these.   I went in a different direction this time and backed them with restructructed paper which I created a while back.  I really like the look of the random colours behind the acetates so I kept the colour scheme monochromatic.  For a textured accent I pulled out my border punch (SU) and created some lacy strips using kraft cardstock and added some stitching with black thread.  I love it!!  So many possibilities for combining this punch with thread - my head is full of ideas!!  I layered the stitched strips to a black strip that was trimmed with decorative scissors, attached that to the acetate with double sided tape and then attached the acetate to the decorative paper using double sided tape behind the strips.  I used mini brads to attach the whole element to the card front!!  I can see using the little mini brads with the lacy strips as well for creating decorative elements for cards.

More acetate cards!

 I found these printed acetates in my stash and thought they would go well with the paper napkin I used to clean up my alcohol inks when I was creating my previous acetate card.  I used Sharpies,  rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab to colour the images on the back.  I simply applied a bit of blue on the petals with the marker and moved around the colour with a  swab dampened with alcohol. In the same manner, I added yellow to the centers and green to the leaves.  The colour coordinated very nicely with my background paper.

I applied white glue to the back of the acetates - same side as the colour - and placed them on the coloured paper napkin and left them to dry.  Once dry, it was easy to trim the napkin to the edge of the acetate.  I added a white layer below the acetate to help brighten the flowers because placing them directly on the cardstock dulled the colours too much.  I added a length of seam binding between the image and the greeting, gluing the ends to the back and tied on a short piece to simulate a bow.  I attached this element to my card front with four brads.  This was a stash buster!!  The background paper napkin didn't even make it to the stash as it was still on my work surface!!
I really love the watercolour look of the background!!  Save the paper towels or wipes you use to clean up to use as backgrounds for future projects!!

Therese

Acetate and sticker card

On AFTCM, I joined a swap that requires that I create an elegant acetate card that includes a sticker.    It took a bit of time to come up with the layers for this card to insure that no glue or brad tangs were showing but it finally came all together.  I started by cutting a piece of acetate that when folded in half fit in a large envelope.  I cut another piece of acetate for my focal element, applied my sticker - a vase of beautiful sunflowers - to the front.  I used alcohol inks on the back of this layer to create a soft watercolour look.  I lifted the vase part of the sticker and added a piece of yellow vintage seam binding over the acetate and glued the ends to the back.   I layered some decorative reflective foil to the back of this acetate and attached it using some double sided tape behind the sunflowers. I added this element to the card front using four brads through all the layers.  To cover up the brad tangs I added an embellished layer of green cardstock slightly larger than the element to the inside of the card front using four large glue dots on the brad tangs and a couple piece of double sided tape in the center area.  I had punched the one side of the green cardstock using a scallop border punch (SU) and pierced the scallops using a push pin.  To the inside back of the acetate card I added an embellished layer of white cardstock using large glue dots in the corners.  I had previously border punched one of the edges and added some dots and stitching using a coordinating blue gel pen.  To cover up the sight of my glue dots on the back of the card I added four small sunflower stickers.  To finish it off, I tied a small length of seam binding to the piece on the front with a single knot and tied on a sticker embellishment which I created using two round tag shaped clear stickers with a little sunflower sticker sandwiched in between.
Really love the dimension and interest created by that reflective foil I placed behind my acetate.  It has been in my stash for YEARS!!!!!!!!  Saved this foil wrapper from a KitKat bar when Lost World was the movie to see!!
Enjoy the last of the summer before the kids head back to school!!

Therese

Single Panel Thank you cards

I made a few more of these panel cards for my daughter to use as needed for her Stella & Dot
Trunk Show hostesses.  You can see some of the other ones I have made for her here and here.
I used several graphics from the Lattice Collection  from The Graphic Fairy's blog for backgrounds called The Background Fairy as the the main elements for the cards and just added Thanks in a flourished font.  I colour printed these cards - three to an 8.5" x 11" and simply cut them apart.  They are quick and easy!!
Therese

More little fabric quilts

Had the opportunity to make a few more of these little fabric quilts in the car on the way home from vacation.  You can see the first ones I made here and you can check out the link to the tutorial as well.  I expect I will do a few more before I start sewing them together to make a Teesha Moore style journal/book cover.  These are quite different colours and fabrics from the last ones.  With the other sides all different as well it does give me a few options when it comes to creating a cover.
We had a fabulous PEI vacation!!  If you have never visited this little island I would most highly recommend it - great beaches, great food and great people!!
I will have a few more creative posts later as I unpack from vacation and get my photos downloaded.

Thanks for dropping by!!

Therese

Serendipity squares - Christmas

The second card I made was a Christmas one which features four serendipity squares layered onto gold cardstock, a bird image from Meljens Designs which I coloured in with pencil crayons and layered in red and green and a stamped greeting all layered over an embossed card front.
Had a fun afternoon!!

Therese

Serendipity squares card

I had a young friend/cardmaker over today for a play date!!  I made a couple of cards and she managed one and brought home the pieces she had picked out for her second one because we decided to spend some time at the park instead.  I love the way kids are so free to just do art!!
In the process of cleaning a shelf in my craft room I came across several pieces of serendipity collage so I trimmed them down into 1.25" squares to use as the focal points on our cards today.  I cut out some coordinating squares for layering, put out some images and greetings and a few items for embellishing like the border punched accents on this card - like a little smorg for creativity.
This is a quick and easy card.  I layered the serendipity elements on coordinating squares and framed them off with some bordered punched paper lace.  I layered a strip of coordinating card stock below the paper lace to "colour" the flowers and used a glitter gel pen to highlight the center of the flowers and the doily border.
So I encourage you plan a play date with a young card maker and have some fun!!

Therese

Christmas card - O Holy Night

I just love Splitcoast Stampers for the wonderful inspiration it provides for all card makers - me in particular!!  I have seen several cards using a wonderful nativity stamp so I challenged myself to create something similar with digital images.  I started with the Mary, Joseph and baby image from Two Heart Designs and added a stable which I drew in Corel Draw around the figures.  I drew the star and added it to the stable.  I am happy with the way it turned out!!  I layered my digital image over some digital sheet music which I downloaded from Free Vintage Digital Stamps and modified with Photoshop Elements to this earthy taupe colour.  I added O Holy Night in a bold font, colour printed four to a sheet, trimmed them apart and then tore the edges to create this wonderful rustic layer for my card.  I simply added a length of black ribbon between the two elements and tied a short piece to it using a single knot to simulate a bow!!  Voila!  A quick and easy card!!  
I hope you will be inspired to make a few Christmas cards every month from now until the end of November!!  Have fun!!


Therese