Valentines and Inspired Sunday

Whew! Is January zooming by for you? It sure is for me. It seems to be taking all month for me to get back in the groove, and I really have decided that a woman's work is NEVER done! Do you feel that way too?  I didn't have much time to work on a post today, so I brought out some Valentine's cards that I made a while ago:

Chalkboard style is so trendy right now, and I just love it!  I  rub black card stock with a piece of chalk, and then stamp with embossing ink, add white embossing powder, and melt with a heat gun. I added some precut Victorian scrap and burlap and layered onto card stock:

 

Another of my favorite "techniques" is paper dolls. I used stamps from Mad Rat Rubber to make this cat doll.  Mad Rat has lots of great doll stamps! 

Now I've got to get back to cleaning!  I am really looking forward to seeing what you are working on, so please link up with the blog party!  :-)

                                                                                                       Laura

Inspired Sunday Blog Party

Link up any project, craft, vintage find, or anything else you think would inspire us!  Please link back to my blog and please leave comments for some of the other bloggers.

My First Samples for Pink Persimmon

Wow, could the relaxation of my two weeks in the South have left me me so quickly????? I hardly know what has happened since my feet hit the ground here in So. Cal.  I tried to post on my trip, but the internet was too slow in most of the places we visited to make it practical. (And I was dealing with a new lap top with Windows 8! :-O )  

I sure have missed visiting your blogs and so appreciate your leaving comments on mine.  I will keep going with the Inspired Sunday blog party, so please stop by on Sunday and link up anything you think might inspire us to live with beauty, art, and inspiration.

Before I left, I finished these samples for the first new release of Pink Persimmon stamps for 2014.   My goal was to use some trendy elements to make cards that were not too difficult to be easily replicated.  I wanted the first one to have a postal kind of look, using washi and bakers' twine:

"Hey Girl" Stamp Sheet

For this next one I wanted to use aqua and coral - very fifties colors:

"Hostess Girl" Stamp Sheet

And for my last sample I wanted a chic look, rooted in the forties.  The chalkboard look is one of my favorites--this fancy girl's must have pearls!

"Sassy Girl" Stamp Set

Thanks for viewing and please do come back and link up on Sunday!  Happy New Year to everyone!

Laura

Tag Tuesday: Christmas Card Tag

Happy New Year to my dear blog friends! We are visiting family in the South, and I took no supplies with me.  It was just killing me to miss Tag Tuesday this week, so finally I went through my sister-in-law's Christmas cards and set to work. (Love that I found one with a piece of ribbon and a sentiment so perfect for Christmas and the New Year!) I first cut a properly sized tag from one of the large cards. I fussy-cut the birds and the tree on the right from remnants of the card and added dimension with foam tape (hard to see in the picture). There is also a lot of sparkle from glitter, also hard to see.  The plaid strips were from part of another card. You can see the dried glue on the left where I detached the ribbon from the original card.

Wishing everyone blessings, joy, peace, and many more beautiful tags in the new year!

Laura

Merry Christmas!

Christmas activities and life took me away for a few days, so I didn't post the blog party on Sunday, as you might have seen.  I hope you are well into celebrating Christmas, or maybe you're at work or are still preparing.  We will leave on Christmas Day to fly to the South to visit our families.  So for us, the excitement is yet to come.

As I looked through the last blog party posts, I so enjoyed the variety of styles we use to express the beauty of Christmas.

Sally at Salmagundi decorated with a rustic, folkart style:

Debbie at Debbie-Dabble decked out her kitchen in a retro-vintage 50s style:

Aimee at Refresh-Renew styled her decorations in French white and gray:

Sherry at Charm of Home incorporated Christmas decor in a traditional, cottage style:

Patti at Ivy and Elephants celebrated with the elegance of silver and crystal:

All unique, all beautiful, and all representing the joy of this season of grace.

Merry Christmas!

Laura

Tag Tuesday: Starry Night

This was a special challenge for me as it marks my first time using the "Christmas House" stamps as an official member of the Pink Persimmon Creative Team!  They have wonderful photopolymer clear stamps that cling to clear blocks and take ink amazingly well. I am so happy to be making projects with their fresh, vintage designs. (Two of my previous tags were made with these here.)

I envisioned this tag looking like a 1950s Christmas ad or ornament box design. The "gray" stars are really silver glitter that doesn't show well in the photo.  It was simple to put together, and here it is displayed with some Christmas boxes: 

 

And here is a higher-res version:

 

I also have a bonus tag to show you. My beloved job is to teach reading to dyslexic students.  Most truly dyslexic students are extremely intelligent and/or extremely creative.  The students I currently have are both, and they love my craft room.  My twelve-year-old student desperately wanted to make a shaker tag, and it had to be a French girl holding a bird, an Eiffel tower and stars--good thing my craft room is bursting at the seams!!!! :-)  So with only a slight bit of coaching, she made her idea into this tag, which I thought was perfect for the Starry Night theme:

She made it as my Christmas gift, which I didn't know until she had finished. I just love it!
Wishing you and yours peace, love, and joy in the simple delights this holiday season.

Laura

Inspired Sunday: Little Christmas Boxes and Blog Party

Happy Sunday! This has been a very exciting week for me, but it has also put me a little behind with today's blog party.  In addition to an unexpected invitation to a party with a dear old friend, I received an e-mail from the owner of Pink Persimmon asking me if I'd like to be on their creative team. It didn't take me long to answer that question! :-)  I own a couple of their 50's style vintage girl sets and used them in my Tag Tuesday samples:

 


In the coming months I will be showing projects with their stamps, including a few tutorials. It's very official, contract and all, and I am SO excited. My first deadline is December 30, but I will probably have my samples made before then. My mind is creating already!

But now, back to Christmas! I had planned to photograph an antique store's Christmas displays, but with eight goody boxes to finish for a Christmas cookie exchange tomorrow at work, I had to save that for another weekend.  For the goody boxes, I started with eight  plain kraft boxes from JoAnn:

After lots of glue and paper and glitter, I have transformed them into these:

 

Now I just have to finish  the baking and tying up box and goodies in a cellophane piece with a pretty bow. 

I hope everyone will like them!

In last week's blog party there were so many beautiful Christmas posts.  What really stood out to me were ones with decorations that keep fresh long-cherished memories of loved ones and times past.

Reading through Celestina Marie's post almost brought tears to my eyes as she shared the remembrances associated with her lovely things, including these beautiful red vintage glasses made by her family who worked in the Pennsylvania glass factories in the 30s and 40s. What a lovely tribute to the people in her life!

Another post full of Christmas memories is Sally's from Salmagundi. Her beautiful vintage decorations and her story about the Christmas elf and her child's tantrum made me smile. I think most of us can relate in some way!

And last but not least, is the little unexpected surprise that brought a magical Christmas moment to Judy. If you haven't already, check out her post for the delightful little discovery.

If you were featured, please put my badge on your blog.  Thank you, everyone, for linking up each week. I will try to leave comments from last week's link ups if I haven't already. And thank you for being patient as I get posts up on Sunday, some time.  I do love seeing what you are up to.  I hope you are well and are finding time to enjoy the season.

Warmly,

Laura

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!

I am entering this in the All Things Dollar Tree blog party at Debbiedoo's!

Laura