Showing posts with label Holiday Crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday Crafts. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Washi-Covered Easter Eggs

I wanted to "color" eggs this year in a nontraditional way, so I pulled out 
my favorite washi from Tim Holtz, tore it into small strips, and covered some 
wooden eggs. I also painted a few with blush-colored acrylic paint and flecked 
dots on them. I plan to do a tutorial on the weekend for this quick "decoupage" project.
Do you have a favorite technique for "coloring" Easter eggs?







Laura
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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Vintage Halloween Decorations and Creations

My FAVORITE season is finally arriving, and I have pulled down all the boxes of folk art pretties:
From Bethany Lowe's company - Nicole Sayer
A vintage thrift-shop frame with a vintage reprint.
Some things I have made:
r
A closeup of my banner

Love this decoration designed by my friend Heidi
A carton I m ade for Halloween treats

This is my favorite time of year to decorate:

The sideboard in our entry
A fun way to celebrate and remember my child's Halloween celebrations through the years. (Gonna find some more pictures!)

My inexpensive way to decorate--put a Dollar Tree creepy portrait in a thrift shop frame:

 


Did you know you can paint a leather boot with regular acrylic paint? That was an experiment that worked well! A black and white gingham ribbon completed my witch's boot.  I made the "Boo" blocks several years ago, and they are still some of my favorite decorations. I have pictures of my great aunt and uncle on them. I suppose it's a Scots-Irish version of Dia de los Muertos! lol!


The Tom and Jerry set below were actually made for a Christmas drink, but I think this orange lusterware version is perfect for  Halloween!

 All the decorating and creating and photographing have kept me pretty busy these past few weeks. Stay tuned for an anthropologie-inspired decoration coming soon!
Laura
Linking up this week with these great blog parties:
Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Tweak it Tuesdays at Cozy Little House
Wow Us Wednesdays
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage
Creative Things Thursday @ The Vintage Farmhouse 
Blog Stalking Thursday @ The Crafty Blog Stalker
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Tag Tuesday: Twelve Days of Christmas

For this tag, I chose "Two turtle doves."  It's probably more of an ornament than a tag, but my definition of a tag has expanded to include pretty much anything with a string! :-)  I would put this on a gift or hang from a gift bag, though.  I cut chipboard with my die cut machine (dies from Tim Holtz) and made use of  vintage book pages. All the pieces are mounted on a gold glitter wreath from the Dollar Tree.  Composition and construction were the main tasks for this tag.
On a chalkboard

Wreaths from Dollar Tree
On a tree branch.

I hope your holiday season is going well!


Laura
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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Paperback Book Pumpkin and Inspired Sunday Blog Party!

Happy Sunday! The winds that felled a tree onto my car have died down, I have almost recovered from a mild bout of the flu, and dear son has moved out! Life is looking pretty good, as does my paperback book pumpkin! Have you seen these on Pinterest?  I fell in love with them about a week ago, and since the only thing I felt like doing yesterday was cutting things (paper with scissors), I found two old paperbacks that were headed to Goodwill and tried my hand at making a pumpkin. Here's the tutorial, and here's the finished product:


I think I'm kinda in love with it. Here's another view:

And another:

For the tutorial click here! Happy pumpkin making!

Inspired Sunday

I really enjoyed all the link ups this week and am so glad that you keep coming back even though this is a teeny weeny blog party.  I just don't have enough time to promote and build it at this point, but I am so happy that you keep joining me.  Perhaps one day I will really work on it, but for now, my hope is that we can really get to know each other better and possibly meet a few kindred spirits. 

Besides Pinterest, several of your clever ideas inspired me this week.

One was the very brilliant way that Debby Ray of My Favorite Things made her own dried hydrangeas for her Fall decor. This idea was genius! You just need cheap hydrangeas, spray paint, and a fire stick-- but just be careful playing with fire!  lol!  Don't these look fantastic?


Another brilliant idea was Penny's use of Scotch tape to keep her roses in place.  Like her, I love flowers in my kitchen but sometimes can't get them to look nice in a vase without taking tedious measures like running out to purchase Oasis foam or using pounds of glass pebbles that end up getting nasty from the rotting stems and leaves.  She used the Scotch tape to make a grid for the flowers to fit into--kinda like the way an old glass flower frog worked.  Thanks for this easy peasy and inexpensive tip, Penny! Visit her at Penny's Vintage Home to get the full scoop. I'll warn you, you might leave her blog  with kitchen envy!


Now let's see what you're up to this week!  If you join the party, I would like for you to follow me. (I will also follow you.) In addition, please be sure to link back to my blog from your blog.  Thank you!
Laura

Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Tweak it Tuesdays at Cozy Little House
Wow Us Wednesdays
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage
Creative Things Thursday @ The Vintage Farmhouse 
Blog Stalking Thursday @ The Crafty Blog Stalker

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Halloween Travertine Coasters

Halloween is oddly enough my favorite holiday. Perhaps one reason is that it seems to be the one holiday that requires so little and gives so much in return. There is so little pressure to meet expectations, and that lets me be free to enjoy and do what I feel like making or doing (or not)!  I love the dark evening, the cool air, all the Halloween folk art and colors, the neighborhood sounds of laughter and music, and the 80 or so little guests all dressed up for festivity who come only expecting a piece of candy!  What's not to love?

 So to kick off my Halloween crafting, I made these coasters with new Danse Macabre rubber stamp sheet from Oxford Impressions at the Austen Gallery.  These stamps come as an unmounted rubber sheet that you mount yourself (tutorial here).  The macabre images work well on travertine, which looks like crumbly old cemetery stone.  All in all, this style is a little creepy for me, but I think perfect for those with edgier tastes.

So what do you think? Are they your style or do you know someone who would like them?
                                                                                                                                                  Laura
I'm linking up with these parties:
Inspire Me Tuesdays at a Stroll Through Life
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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Tag Tuesday - Wings

I am SO happy get back to making tags after a brief  hiatus. The late summer heat and unusually high humidity was just a bit much for me. But with the cooler weather, I revive! Here is my attempt to carry out the theme of "wings." I had no intention of making it a Christmas tag, but creative pursuits often take you in an unplanned direction, which is the fun and surprise and sometimes frustrating part of it!

This involved a lot of "fussy cutting," but I enjoy that.  I thought she would look cute hanging from a package or even from the Christmas tree. The doll stamp is from Character Constructions. The wings are from Mad Rat Rubber--perfect wings for this size of doll!  The sentiment is a retired stamp from Stampin' Up.

I plan to make quite a few more of these in deeper colors for Christmas ornaments and gift decorations, but for now I need to work on the next theme and get some Halloween items made for Oxford Impressions new Halloween stamps: Danse Macabre. 
                                                                                                             Laura

I'm linking up with these parties:
Inspire Me Tuesdays at a Stroll Through Life

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Monday, October 29, 2012

A Cute Little Treat

Getting away from spooky Halloween, I designed this test tube holder using stamps from Oxford Impressions' "Masquerade" collection and orange and black bakers' twine from Trendy Twine.
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Time to Get Spooky!

It's eepy, creepy time.  So that means time for some fun Halloween projects with rubber stamps from Oxford Impressions' two new lines:  Masquerade and Dr. Coffin's Apothecary.  Thanks Suzanne for your fabulous vintage stamp line and for your wonderful support of your fellow artists!



 Test tube holder and bottle made with stamps from Dr. Coffin's Apothecary collection. 

Back side of bottle
Card made with the Masquerade collection

In the card above, a skeleton peers into a window where a crow perches on a withered branch against a background of Poe's "The Raven" printed in gothic type.  Chunky silver glass glitter and small black beads rest below the crow's feet ready to shift when the card is moved.  A framed portrait of Lenore as a child finishes the tale.
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