Christmas Tag

I LOVE thinking of ways to make my own embellishments using my stash. For this Christmas tag I made the embellishment using metal stamps and a bottle cap. First I ran the bottle cap through my cuttle bug to flatten it out. Then I stamped the word "Jolly" using a brick, hammer and the metal stamps. 

  I think using the brick makes it easier to stamp a clear image. After I stamped the letter I took white craft paint and dabbed it over the letters. I used a paper towel to wipe the excess paint off. Lastly I put a Tim Holtz star below the words, punched a hole in the top and tied it with bakers twine. I got the Santa image from the Silhouette store, the tickets were from my stash and I punched out the white boarder. I used Tim Holtz mini attacher to staple the ribbon on the top and lastly I inked the edges of the tag. I love how it turned out, and it's my favorite vintage style ta boot!

Happy Creating,

Melissa 

Previvor, BRCA and Breast Cancer

It's been a crazy few months. In Jan my sister was diagnosed  with breast cancer. She got tested for the BRCA gene mutation, and it turned out to be positive. I got tested and I am positive also. We inherited it from my Dad. This means that we have a link in the tumor suppressing BRCA gene that is broken or mutated. According to BeBrightPink.org my risk of breast cancer is as high as 87% and ovarian cancer 54%. My genetic counselor said I am a "previvor", a survivor of a predisposition for a disease such as cancer. I found a couple FB groups that have been so informative and helpful. There are so many women going through the same thing I am. After meeting with oncologist breast  surgeons, plastic surgeon and oncologist gyn, and much research.. I made the decision to have a hysterectomy and preventative bilateral mastectomy (PBM).  I want the best odds of not getting cancer. I had other problems  related to gyn, so I am relieved to have had a my hyst a few weeks ago. Menopause hasn't hit me yet, but I'm sure it's on it's way! I am going to have my PBM in Jan/Feb time frame. One gal said on the FB BRCA Sisterhood group..you wouldn't get on a plane that had a 54% or 87% chance of crashing would you?  or It's not elective when the alternative is cancer.  I am a part of a FB group The Documented Life and did this page in my journal back in Jan. This journey has really changed me..and how I see the color pink!

Cool Labels

 I recently bought some plain white labels and wanted to jazz them up a bit. While I was finishing up a project my son Jack (who LOVES to play with my spray mists and color with paint) asked if he could "spray" as he calls it. I had the big stack of white labels and thought sure why not..let see what he can come up with. I gave him a few and he had a blast spraying all kinds of colors onto the sheet. For a few of them I dotted them with Tim Holtz distress stain dobbers (I need to get some Bingo dobbers too!) While I was at Micheals I saw Heidi Swap came out with a small circle stamp with an interchangeable circular saying stamps. Adorable and perfect to stamp on top of where I stamped with the dobber!! I made some to label my craft storage bins, notebooks and of course envelopes. So many uses! 

Happy Creating,

Melissa 

 

Halloween Tree Ornament

I've been looking for a frame of some sort to use in my most recent swap group for some time! The swap is Halloween Tree Ornament. I knew I wanted to use a picture I had of a black crow reading a book. I made several trips to the Dollar store to only find one or two frames of the same design. I needed 12 of the same design. I was at Michaels on Sat before I went to my monthly crop and score! I found a 3 pack of chalkboard type wood frames. Bonus..they were only $1.49 (on clearance) per pack!! I was super excited! 

I like to keep the swap items inexpensive because I also have to pay shipping to and from the host. The best part is that they are really light, so they won't weigh the tree down. First, I needed to paint the frames as they came in pink, teal and light green. I used a basic black craft paint and did two coats with a foam brush. 

I printed out the crow picture and cut it down to fit each frame. I used wash tape around 

the crow, and then embellished with Echo Park Chillingworth Manor. 

I cut the plastic ring part off of  spiders and glued them on last. 

Since the frame will be hanging and the back will probably be exposed I used the same line of paper and embellished with a tag, black polka dot washi tape, and a black button.

 I really like how they came out and can't wait to get 11 different ones back to decorate my Halloween tree! 

Happy Creating,

Melissa

Handmade Birthday Hat

A fun tradition to start when kids are young is a birthday hat. (I wish I would have thought of this one when my kiddos were babies) Make a sturdy birthday hat that you can take a picture of your child wearing each year on their birthday! It would be so much fun to look at the succession of pictures..young to old. One of my very crafty friends Jennifer makes adorable hats..and I got the idea from her :)  For this one I started by cutting a piece of 11X14 watercolor paper the size of the hat I wanted. I love watercolor paper because it's sturdy enough to hold up to a lot of crafting. I actually had a store bought birthday hat that I took apart and saved for a template. To start off with I cut out the name on my Silhouette and lightly adhered it to the hat.

I misted the hat with Maya Road misting spray. After it dried I peeled the name off. 

I folded tissue paper several times and then using my little flower punch I punched out the flowers. I glued them to the hat along with a little pearl in the middle with Glossy Accents. 

I trimmed the edges of red party cray paper to make it slightly fringe and glued white ric rac in the middle.

For the top I layed out a strip of white tissue paper and then cut fringes. I then rolled it up and make the "pom pom". I separated the layers by gently pulling on them. 

The banner is made of double sided triangles joined at the top. I cut them this way so I can fold them over bakers twine. I wrote Happy Birthday and secured each end with a pin. (I taped the pointy end to the inside of the hat). This hat was fun to make, my friend requested "not too girly". Thank goodness she said something to me or I would have gone a little crazy and did the whole nine yards of princess, ribbon and tulle!  Happy Creating,

Melissa  

Pinwheel Fun in My Scrapbook Layout

We recently went to my works Summer picnic. I did the decorations for the picnic and created some pinwheels for the candy bar. I also included one in my scrapbook layout to remember the awesome clown that did the kids face painting!  Nothing says fun summer to me than a pinwheel.  I started by cutting a square (any size will do--it just needs to be equal on all 4 sides) For the sign I did 4X4in and for my layout I did 1X1in. Then I cut along each corner going towards the middle halfway or 3/4 of the way to the middle. Using a hole punch I punched a hole into every other corner. I brought each corner into the middle one at a time (lining up the holes in the center) and secured it with a brad. Here is the template for the pinwheel in case you need a visual like I do...

I've also made them to go on notebooks, paper pads and for party center pieces. They are really fun when you have double sided paper..happy creating,

melissa 

Scrapbook Journaling Cards

 I'm working on my next swap due on my list! It's a journaling spot. I love journaling on my scrapbook pages! That's pretty much the reason why I scrapbook..to tell my version of what happened in the photo I'm scrappin or to tell a story about something. I love the project life cards that have journaling prompts and then have space for writing something..I used that for my inspiration. First, I practiced writing words a whole lot on regular white paper. I originally wanted to do thicker words, but it was really hard for me to write the words and have them be continuous with the boarder  lines. I switched to a thinner pen and it seemed smoother (and easier!). I wrote the words at the top of the card, then continued the line around the card to make the boarder. It took me a few tries to get a smooth continuous line all around the card. I thought about putting lines on the card. But decided against it, thinking it would  limit the journaler to how many words they could write. This way they can squeeze as much (or as little) as they want. I matted each card with black cardstock then I stapled paper butterflies I had in my stash to one side of the card. They were tan, so I sprayed them (with black Maya Road Mist) the color I wanted. I wish I would have gotten a ton more when I bought them years ago..they are so versatile.. they soak up whatever color you stamp/spray them! I then put washi tape on the opposite side, snipping the ends (I LOVE making the ends like that..I don' know what it's called though-LOL!?) Here's the link to my Google drive with all my blog PDF files,

 newest one being the journaling cards.

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5EHbpKDNr1mX0J5bFV2LUtJNmc/edit?usp=sharing

Happy Creating!