Presents!

Lets get one thing perfectly clear.
On my birthday BRING PRESENTS!
I'm easy. Art supplies, plants, flowers, anything you make yourself, cake-food in general and if all else fails you check my Amazon wish list.
I never had a bridal registry-so humor me.
This weeks Created Byhand Challenge is Buttons/Orange.
Friday night was Ladies Night Out at my LSS
A Stamp Artist Place. Love the ladies, love the food, love the creative energy and sharing. We made gift boxes. I forget what Spellbinders die this is on the top. I mixed orange peel and paprika stickles to get the color I wanted. I got these button stick ons at a yard sale and they fit perfectly with the challenge and this box. All folds created by Scor-pal.

Lift the lid to reveal the butterfly popup and Happy Birthday tags. I used Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio two and one of the elements from the Nested Pennants. Lots more stickles, Stardust pens and distress ink. The sentiment   one of the new 10 tiny tag sentiments- was heat embossed using Versafine sepia and clear powder and Versamark and Ranger embossing tinsel powder.
Plenty of room inside for an additional presents-chocolate, small inkpads-I'm sure you'll think of something!

Thanks for leaving a comment-maybe you know what set the die on the top comes from- and please post your own entry!
To read what is on my heart please visit Still Waters Refuge

Storms

As I am typing, a huge storm is doing it's thing here in the mountains. It is truly awesome to watch. Full trees in motion.
Each time the electricity goes out, I wonder,"Is this it? Was that my last post?"
This weeks theme at Created Byhand is Sun and Moons/Yellow, in honor of the Solstice. My daughter in Chile reminded me that there, it is the shortest day. Must think Globally.
The background is mustard seed distress ink, put on the craft sheet, spritzed with water and lay the card into int, dry and repeat till you like it.
The quote is stamped in Versafine sepia and thermal embossed clear.
Lots of stamping to round off the theme, I colored with stardust pens and glaze pens and some watercolor just for fun.
I hope you take some time to listen to the trees.
thanks for leaving  your comments and please post your own entry for the challenge.

10 Hours is Nothing

No offense intended. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee just wrote about driving 10 hours there and back to see her daughter- lots of knitting time.
My daughter is in Chile working for VE Global being her amazing self-her blog here- and it will be three weeks before she can wear this sock.
I knit as much love as I can into each stitch.
This is Cat Bordhi's Personal Footprint sock, with some hand dyed yarn I've had around for a long time.
You can knit this sock with any size yarn, no turning, picking up stitches or kitchner stitch. you don't even have to purl if you don't want to.
And- it fits perfectly!
I can help you through it with a class at Nice Threads starting with spinning the yarn, plying, dying, designing and knitting.
All fun- no stress.
The things we do for love!

Soft Cover Journals and Filling Them

I taught 11 imaginative and creative woman-including 2 intergeneration mom-daughter,grandmom-grandaughter teams yesterday.

 In three hours, we made a simple 3 hole pamphlet stitch woven journal, a pocket pod folder out of a single sheet and a cover for it, and a box case for a multi-fold text block and journaled to fill them.
The NC Arboretum provided a comfortable room to work and play.
Great job all!
Everyone left feeling productive, positive and supported.
We began by leaving our judgment at the door and forming a kindness community for our work/play.
Everything improves with practice and that includes being kind to each other.
Thanks for admiring the journals, please leave a comment and get in touch if you would like to take a class.

Just for You

When Suzanne was working on the newest rubber plate, she asked what sentiments we were wanting and I'm thrilled to have this set of 10 tiny sentiments, including this one.
This card started as an ATC and morphed into a  gift tag, gift and recipient TBD.
I've never been a big fan of tags, and when Wanda sent me her post, for this weeks Created Byhand Challenge-Circles and Dots, I was converted, and I shamelessly copied.
I Just got the new distress stains and am still working on using them. I pounced some spun suger on to the tag, dried it and added wild honey, dried it and added antique linen. I used the top of the cover of the stain bottle as a stamp in distress ink( I forget what color-sorry) to stamp the circles. I spattered water over the background to get some dots.
The tag is Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 2, with more spun sugar and wild honey applied with the ink blending tool, while the paper is still in the die.
Thermal embossed the sentiment, clear, stamped with Versafine sepia. the pearls are drops of Liquid pearls.
Also new to me are the Faber-Castell Gelatos. I mixed them on my craft sheet with a bit of water and spread them around the tag for some glimmer. A nice medium and I like the way they are packaged-a lot less messy than my watercolor sticks. Shout Out to AJ Scrapbook Essentials for their generous prize certificate. Watch this space for more on gelatos.
I put some dots on the ribbon with Stardust pens- they have been feeling neglected.
Thanks for your comments and questions and please post your own entry in the challenge.
To read what is on my heart, please visit Still Waters Refuge

Knowing When to Stop...

is Art.
I will be featuring the new rubber from Quietfire in all of the next challenges. This Quote is one of my favorites and I probably will say that about each one.
I stamped and thermal embossed and lit the Light with Mustard seed Distress ink that I put on with my spouncer from Plaid. I hope they still make them as this one is loosing it's spounce.
The rose stamp I got at the yard sale at my LSS. This weeks theme is Flowers/flock so it was a natural. Stamped in Verafine sepia and watercolored. I put a mask cut out of a post- it over the quote when I stamped.
I used the Quickie glue pen to put some flock on the stems and everything screamed STOP!
Added a bit of Distress antique linen and Brilliance Gold and stopped.
Sometimes the best technique is restraint. I will take suggestions (I'm still feeling the corners are a bit bare- maybe more texture in the background?) in the comments.
Please take a moment to post your own entry.
******Later***** found the first day lily blooming in the garden and I brought in some pollen and rubbed it on the center Light section of the card. Natural Flock!