An Accountant's Valentine

I know it's a bit after Valentine's Day but with the chaos of family visiting and my daughter's birthday party this is my first chance to post this.  I wanted to make my husband a special valentine this year and since he is accounting I thought it'd be fun to make a card geared toward his specialty. 

 

It's a simple card, with a cardstock base and a couple layers of patterned paper from Bo Bunny's Love Letters line.  I used some Thickers to make the calculator keypad and replaced the bottom keys with I love you.  I attached the Thickers to a piece of cardstock first and then attached that to the card base.  Then I fussy cut a heart and attached with pop up adhesive over the 0.

 

 

On the inside a I printed a poem on vellum and layered it over some patterned paper.  I attached it to the card base with brads.

 

Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

 

Valentine Keepsake Box

If you are like me you have a stash of alterable items in tub just waiting to be decorated.  I love unfinished wood items, frames, paper mache items, etc that I pick up at craft stores.  I also find unique one of a kind pieces at garage or estate sales.  This last summer I found this heart shaped wood box at a garage sale.  It's been sitting there just waiting to be decorated. 

 

First I removed the hinges to I could cover the top without any extra trimming.  Once removed I used a Tim Holtz, distress stain in aged mahogany to cover the sides and the edges.  I love the distress stain to use on wood in place of paint.  It's quick and easy, though it can be a little messy.  I then covered the top with patterened paper from Bo Bunny's, Love Letter's line.  Attach the paper using Beacon's 3 in 1 adhesive.  Trim any excess paper and then cover the paper edges with a bit of the distress stain or matching ink.  Replace the hinges and you have a cute box.

 

Here's a look at the inside of the box.  See how nice the distress stain is on the wood.

 

 

 I added a few embellishments to the top by cutting out a banner piece from the patterned paper and mounting it on a custom cut piece to mat it to stand out more against the background.  It is attached with pop up adhesive. 

I created the flowers using several coordinating papers that I ran through my big shot using the Tim Holtz tattered flower garland die, I layered several flowers together and secured them together with a glittery brad from We R Memory Keepers.  Attach using Beacon's 3 in 1.  I also attached a small handle at the tip of the heart to make it easy to open.  Just use a bit of Beacon's to attach.

Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

Altered Journal Sketch Book

Here is one of my lastest projects, an altered journal.  I used Bo Bunny's, Sweet Tooth line to make this book to keep images / sketches of layouts for inspiration.  If you're like me, you have a stash of magazines sitting on your shelf.  I really don't have the space to save every single magazine so I wanted to take the pieces that I thought I would reference again in the future and have them in one condensed location. This is one of several that I'm making.

I fussy cut the scallop shape in the center, the sweet sentiment and all the cupcakes, cakes, and ice cream.  The Recipe for Sketches is a 3 dimensional sticker from the collection that I altered with alphabet stickers for the word sketches.  Now I just have to add the inspirational pieces inside.

Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

Oriental Orchids Cross Stitch

For Christmas a year ago (2011) I planned on giving this cross stitch piece to my husband.  But with two little ones in tow most of the time, I just never got it done.  Over a year later, I finally have it finished.  This year I made a pact with myself to get all my unfinished projects done before I start any more projects.  This is the first one off the list. 

 It is from a kit by Dimensions that I purchased at Joann's.  Unfortunately, I had to go buy some additioinal gold floss as it did not include enough.  It was worth it though to have it done. Here's a different angle below.

Now on to the next project! Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

Music To My Ears Layout

It's the end of January and with that means that the scrapbook club at Craft Warehouse starts meeting again.  I look forward to this every month, you get to see new product, learn a new technique, see some friendly faces and get a new page challenge.  At the last meeting we weren't given a specific challenge, so we weren't required to use anything specific on our layout.  This worked out well this month as I recently joined a facebook group called the Bossy Scrapper.  This group is given a specific list of items that need to be included on your layout in some way.  I'm glad I found this group when I did as it provdided me with the inspiration to create this layout.

The requirements from Bossy Scrapper were -

1. metal element

2.distressing

3. chevron

4. matted photo

5. the color yellow

6. popped embellishment

7. four patterened papers

8. stitching

I managed to include it all.  For the first time I actually used a sewing machine on my layout.  I love how it turned out.  The paper is from Bo Bunny's Love letters line.  All the paper is distressed with an edge distresser, though it's hard to see, then inked all the sides.  You're Music to My Ears and the fussy cut heart are "popped" up with pop up adhesive.

Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

Love Letter Box

I recently came across a fun new line of paper by Bo Bunny called Love Letters.  Bo Bunny is one of my favorite paper manufacture's so I wasn't surpised, though I dont' really buy "Valentine" like papers, I just had to buy this collection.  I've started working on a few projects using this paper and I wanted to share the first one I completed.  I picked up this little unfinished box at Craft Warehouse a while back and I was waiting for the perfect paper to use with it. 

I love unfinished wood because the potential is endless, however, I'm not a big fan of painting them first.  A great, but messy, alternative is using Tim Holtz distress stains in a color that coordinates with your paper.  Fortunately I had a color that worked on hand and was able to stain the box first and then cover with paper. 

For the sides I cut a 12" long strip slightly smaller than the width of the side.  I then cut them in half and met them in the middle.  I did this with this paper so it wouldn't end up upside down on one side. 

The envelope and "LOVE LETTERS" are stickers, attached with pop up adhesive, and the LOVE forever yours portion is fussy cut from a scrap piece that I was able to salvage a portion of.

The hearts are all fussy cut from one of the sheets of patterned paper and I distressed with a little red ink and adhered them alternating between glue dots and pop up adhesive.

Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

Guest Designer for Home and Garden Welcome

Hey everyone, today I want to share with you the projects I created as the guest designer for Home and Garden Welcome. You can check out the post here on the Home and Garden Welcome blog.  I was supplied a box of goodies to create one or more projects with.  I was so excited when my box arrived.  I received some supplies that I had not used before and got to try out some new techniques.  So go check out the Home and Garden Welcome blog to see all my projects as well as step by step tutorials on how to create each one.

Thanks for looking,

Michelle