June 2010

June has been a busy and interesting month.  School let out for the summer, of course, so now I find myself challenged with keeping my grand-daughter busy - daily.  We've been doing some crafting.  She's quite creative and enjoys making cards along side me.

My oldest daughter celebrated a milestone birthday.  She wasn't pleased about it, but she did enjoy the surprise party that her dad and I put on for her.

One of my friends, who's son is my grand-daughter's friend as well, moved away.  Far away.  It was sad.
But her best friend is now more available!  So there are day visits and overnights to enjoy.  And that's not only fun, but a lot of what summers are supposed to be about!

And I'm still creating.  I've done another pair of earrings.  Trying out some different shapes this time.  Also a card.  A card challenge on Paper Craft Planet asked us to use words - something that inspires us - to create the card.  I don't know the author of this because I found the words on some paper I purchased.  I liked the way it sounded and saved back the paper for the right occasion.  It seemed perfect for a new graduate or someone who has received a promotion.  And I used bold colors and patterns to match the idea.  I also hand penned the sentiment, because after all, I enjoy writing!

 

Quilled earrings.  I used teal and brown papers and shaped them into a diamond.  The dragonflies are antiqued gold looking and swing freely in front of the diamonds.

Show the World Who You Are! card sports fall colors, but they are bold.  Based around brown, you have cream polka dots and multiple colors, then a rust card stock layer with a splattered cream with rust and gray layer.  I used royal blue and deep brown ribbons to break up the lines and topped it with the sentiment on a light blue card stock.




So June has been a good month.  I'm getting better organized, finding ways to meet the time challenges and enjoying time with my grand-daughter.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful summer and that you find ways to meet your challenges as well.

Best wishes,
Shelly

Quilled Jewelry

Well, as everyone knows, it's never good to put all of your eggs in one basket.  And as an artist, you can't do the exact same thing and never try new things.  So, with that thought in mind, I decided to try some quilled jewelry.  Nothing complicated.  It is just a basic daisy pattern flower with a metal embellishment.  I love earrings that have a lot of movement.  So I put the metal pieces as free moving additions.  I also made sure to seal the paper so that daily wear and the possibility of humidity or rain wouldn't allow harm.  So I'm pretty happy with the results.  I might try a few more!

Let me know what you think of them!



Have a great week!
Shelly

I made a Treasury!

I just have to brag for a minute - since this is the very first time I've made a Treasury!  Here's the link:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c07c71bab056d915c00ddce/sun-and-sky

I feel so happy!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Shelly

Trying a New Medium

Hello!  As a paper crafter I have found that it is definitely a good thing to try new techniques and new mediums from time to time.  Since I love paper, I wanted to play with something I had not used before.  Vellum is a cool paper to me because it can incorporate sparkles or natural elements.  I had purchased some earlier, but never used it.  It just didn't seem to fit anywhere.  But since I've been stamping a little lately, I thought I would try stamping on it.  I had used embossing powders in the past, many years ago, and thought that using them would be interesting as well.  So, I took one of my favorite stamps and used white ink and stamped for as many colors of embossing powder as I had available.  It worked great!  I was excited.  So then I had many beautiful and colorful dragonflies, but they looked lonely just flitting around the page.  I have a couple of different flower stamps, but I needed one that fit size wise and not too cutesy! I found the magnolia and it also stamped well.  I colored in the pedals so that it blended well with the page and didn't look too blue (as you can see through the vellum pretty well).  

I also decided, since I was experimenting, that I would add a bow.  I like the look of a bow, but often feel it's just too much on the front of a card.  So a thin ribbon in a matching shade of blue and I liked it.  Then I needed a sentiment.  I wanted that to pop off the page so that it didn't look so flat.  I layered the stamped and embossed wording with a slightly larger piece that I embossed in silver only.  

So here's the results of my experiment!  I encourage you to play a bit as well.  You never know how much fun you could be missing out on!

Best wishes for a fun week!

Shelly