Two new goodies...

Here are two of the projects I've been working on.  My first full sized crochet blanket.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  The blanket is for my niece who graduated high school this year.  The colors are the colors of the college she will be attending.  I'm so proud of you Sam.

Here is a close up of the stitches.

And here is the first project I've finished in a while that I am so proud of and want to show off to everyone.  I took the bag class with the fabulous Cheryl Wiederspan.  She was a great teacher and made making this bag so easy, especially considering it's my first major sewing project. 

Here is a shot of the inside where I added lots of pockets to hold stuff.  In nice bright fabrics so I can see what I'm after.

And one of the best parts is you unbutton the buttons and flip the bag around for a totally different look.  And did you notice the outside pocket has a zipper... yes a zipper and I put it in all by myself!  Amazing.

America the beautiful!

Our Challenge for this week is to make a patriotic card, and to use glitter.  I chose the America the Beautiful stamp (318E).  I stamped the stamp on a die cut, and inked the edge in blue and added a thin black border.  Then to make it pop a bit more I colored the leaves in red, white, and blue.

For the base of the card I masked it off and inked blue and red in the patter of the American flag.  And then I brought in the glitter.  For the white stripes I used a super sparkly glitter.  I think it really makes the background pop.  Then I mounted the die cut with foam tape, and added a black card stock border to the back.  

Be sure to check out all the other amazing designs:

Sue's Blog

 Miriam's Blog
 Kathie's Blog
 Jenny's Blog

Jeanne's Blog

And as always don't forget to check out Serendipity Stamps! Mary runs a great site, has great sales, and links to the gallery and blog.

Spring Blog Hop...

Thanks for stopping by my blog on the hop.  Be sure to check out all the blogs before the 25th and leave a comment and Mary will draw a winner randomly from all the comments.  We are showcasing Serendipity's new stamp and die combos.  The beautiful butterfly and dragonfly. 

 First off I created this wonderful spring door hanger.  I used the outline die and then stamped the dragonfly on top in a rainbow pattern.  Then I attached them all to a pretty silver ribbon.

Then I used the butterfly dies and made this card.  I just love the yellow and orange of monarch butterflies and chose to use those colors on my card.

And finally I used the butterfly die and cut it out of shrink plastic.  I colored it in sort of tie dye pattern with my copics and then hit it with the heat gun.  When I went to shrink it the air from the heat gun blew the fine bits around a lot.  So not sure what I'll be doing with this little guy, but I'll be thinking about it.

Serendipity also has a guest designer for the Spring/Summer release!  

Kris Breach

Check out her blog here: Ink Something 2

And see what the other Serendipity Designers have created on their blogs:

Sue's Blog

 Miriam's Blog
 Kathie's Blog

Jeanne's Blog

And as always don't forget to check out Serendipity Stamps! Mary runs a great site, has great sales, and links to the gallery and blog.

Stash Raiders! Spring cleaning!

This month Mary challenged us to use something in our stash.  So I began to dig... and found these tiny canvases and easels.  And thought they would make cute little art pieces.  I used two stamps from the Cupcakes cling set (1161QCL).

 I stamped the images on the canvases with staz on ink... and then colored them with random markers from my stash.  Tried to really take the challenge to heart.

 Here are some close ups of the two tiny canvases.  These will look great sitting on the counter in my kitchen. 

And see what the other Serendipity Designers have created on their blogs:

Sue's Blog

 Miriam's Blog
 Kathie's Blog
 Jenny's Blog

Jeanne's Blog

Place an order between now and May 21st and get 40% off of the most expensive item in your cart!

And as always don't forget to check out Serendipity Stamps! Mary runs a great site, has great sales, and links to the gallery and blog.

Butterflies....

 Our first May challenge was to create a card using butterflies and this sketch....

I used the Cloisonne Butterfly II (607D) and for the sentiment I used For All You Do Small (784B).  This is the card I came up with.

A Closer view.  I layered up the cardstock, added some pretty velvet ribbon, cut a shape with spellbinders, and stamped the butterflies in the corners.  Then I used colored pencils to add a little pop to the stamp!

Serendipity also has a guest designer for the Spring/Summer release!  

Kris Breach

Check out her blog here: In Something 2

And see what the other Serendipity Designers have created on their blogs:

Sue's Blog

 Miriam's Blog
 Kathie's Blog
 Jenny's Blog

Jeanne's Blog

The special at Serendipity is free shipping on all orders over $10!  This sale will be running through May 7th!
 

And as always don't forget to check out Serendipity Stamps! Mary runs a great site, has great sales, and links to the gallery and blog.

With a Flourish...

The challenge that Mary laid out for us this week was great.  To use one or many of the Flourish  stamps that Serendipity carries.  I chose two stamps and their mirror images.  I'd been thinking for a week of what I would do with them, and then one day I laid them out on the desk and it hit me!  They would make a perfect butterfly!  So stuck them to a clear block like this and started to play!

I stamped it in several colors and decided on this burnt orange color then went to my stash and found some papers to match.  After I stamped the butterfly I simply cut around the shapes, and then added some inking that matched my papers.  Then I just cut out a butterfly body shape, and curled some orange wire into antennas.  And for the final touch I added some clear stickles to the body and edges of the wings.

 Serendipity Stamps used: Flourish (022D), Flourish Mirror (023D),

Parallel Flourish (034C), and Parallel Flourish Mirror (035C).

Be sure to check out all the other great creations from the Serendipity Designers:

Sue's Blog

 Miriam's Blog
 Kathie's Blog
 Jenny's Blog

Jeanne's Blog

This week word stamps are 20% off and be sure to check out all the great new spring and summer stamps in the new stamp section!

And as always don't forget to check out Serendipity Stamps! Mary runs a great site, has great sales, and links to the gallery and blog.

Birds of a feather....

This months challenge was to use one of Mary's fantastic bird stamps.  I chose the Eagle (047H) which she said doesn't get a lot of use.  I have had the privilege to go to Alaska twice in recent years on Mission Trips and eagles are just everywhere there, it's amazing!

 

Here is a close up of the stamp. I stamped it in black ink, and colored it with colored pencils and gamsol.  It's just such a fantastic looking stamp. 

Check out the other designers as well:

 Miriam's Blog
 Kathie's Blog
 Jenny's Blog

Jeanne's Blog

And as always don't forget to check out Serendipity Stamps! Mary runs a great site, has great sales, and links to the gallery and blog.

And speaking of those great sales.. Now through the 9th if you buy 3 items you can get the 4th one free!  Awesome deal don't miss out on it!