Beautiful Pockets of Art and New Friends

Over the past year I discovered a fun and wonderful way to meet new people while exchanging fabulous little pieces of art.

They are called Pocket Letters and there are several communities that support the exchange of these fun and unique creations.  The one I discovered was Pocket Letter Pals.  You can find several communities on Facebook and other social media sites as well.

Here are a few of the letters I received.

Steampunk - From Ivy - Germany

Tim Holtz - From Sherri - Georgia

Where I Live - From Trina - Australia

It's basically crafty pen pals from all over the world.  I have received many gorgeous pocket letters and have gotten to know some very special and talented individuals through these swaps.  

Here are a few that I sent.

Steampunk - Sent to Ivy - Germany

Tim Holtz - Sent to Sherri- Georgia

Vintage/Favorite Quotes - Sent to Susan - Michigan

Vintage - Sent to Kelly - Canada

So far I have participated in 25 swaps.  Each piece is so unique and great inspiration for future crafting.  It's fun to see each person's individual style, as well as the unique craft products available in other parts of the world.

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”   ~ Coco Chanel

Always be different!

Kym

A Picture Post

Wow, hard to believe another year is almost over, or that it has been almost a year since my last post.  Since there are so many projects I have been working on this year and haven't shared, I thought I would make this post mainly pictures.

There are so many new and fun products on the market, and I want most of them, but I've officially run out of room.  So, I've been very selective on what I have been purchasing lately and trying to use up the items that I have in my stash along with a few newer items.  Many of the projects pictured include retired SU product as well as newer items.

 My niece's wedding invitations and thank you cards. (sorry for the crummy pics)

The pictures don't do these justice, they were gorgeous in-person.  The colors are very vibrant and rich.

Cards

Tags

3-D items

Craft Fair items

These adorable snowmen, I just finished today and gave them to a good friend as a birthday present.  She collects snowmen. :)

They are made from mattress springs.  I saw these and decided to try and make them myself.  There were no instructions with the ones I saw so it was a bit of trial and error.  You would think they would be pretty self explanatory and easy to do, but not so much for the first one, or two.

You need some good industrial wire cutters to get those springs out and cut.  You also need a vice to bend the top of the spring in to get those little heads to be even and not slanted.  Hot glue is your best friend when making these.

I covered the styrofoam balls with liquid glue and then covered that in epsom salts.  I let them dry overnight before doing anything else. 

This is a great repurposing project.  The scarves are made with fabric from an old jacket.  I used retired Stampin' Up! buttons, but you could easily use buttons from an old shirt and old jewelry/gems for the face.  I used a combination of brads and large pearls for mine.

 Hope you have a wonderful day!

Kym

Amazing Opportunities & New Projects.

Well, it's been a busy and interesting few months around here!  I have so much to share with you.  I will try to make it as brief and as painless as possible so that we can get to the projects I want to show you.

He is doing fine now, but my Dad had a heart attack a couple of months ago.  If not for a quick thinking co-worker, it might be different.  Of course there have been a lot of changes for him, most importantly of which he had to quit smoking (YEAH!!), and so far he has been doing great.

I recently finished up the two annual craft fairs that I participate in and ended up with some surprising opportunities.

During the first event, I was asked if I would be interested in selling items on consignment at a local art center.  How could I turn that down?!  I now have several items on sale in the gift store at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, IN.

It's a wonderful little place and the staff are friendly and so helpful.  They teach classes and hold special events throughout the year, as well as sponsoring and participating in local outreach programs.  If you are in the area, please stop in to check out the wonderful exhibits and the beautiful gift shop.  All items in the gift shop are made by local artists and, in my opinion, there are some fabulous pieces in there.  I am very humbled that I will have my little paper craft and mixed media pieces along side beautiful sculptures, handmade boxes and many other amazing pieces.

At the second event, a returning customer asked if I would be interested in teaching some classes at her new business, Harvest Circle Workshop.  The owner, Apryl, is also very involved with non-profit organizations and outreach programs.

If you've read this far, thank you.  I have some projects that I would like to share with you.

These are some of the gift tags that I made this year.  These little gingerbread men were very popular at the craft fairs. 

I used the Apothecary Framelits to cut the base for the tags.  I put the straight edge of the card stock up against the blade of the framelit so that I would only have the one half circle on the other end.  It was much easier than cutting off the other half circle on all of them.  I was able to cut through 2 sheets of card stock at a time.

For these tags I used the Two Tags Die to make the base of the tag from Soft Suede card stock.  Santa was stamped in Real Red and then punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and then popped up with dimensionals on a Real Red scallop.

These chalkboard tags have also been a big hit this year.  I can't seem to make them fast enough. :)

I found the shapes for these chalkboard tags at the local Hobby Lobby.  I punched the holes using my Crop-A-Dile and then spray painted them with chalkboard paint.  They do take a bit of time, as you have to wait for the paint to dry, but they make a fun little addition to any present.

The paint instructions say to use at least 2 coats; I used 4 on each side.  I still managed to get several sets of tags from one can of paint.

Here are the different shapes that I have made so far.

Thank you all so much for continuing to follow me, even with such random postings.  If you have just stumbled across my little blog I hope you will stick around. :)

As a thank you for sharing in my excitement for these new opportunities and for your continued support, I would like to give away come blog candy!  I will be giving away a set of the chalkboard gift tags.

Please leave a comment on this post by midnight (CST), December 13th.  If you'd like, share a unique or unexpected opportunity that happened to you. The winner will be chosen by random.org on Saturday, December 14th.  Please make sure to leave a way for me to contact you, otherwise I will have to select a new winner.

Thank you,

Kym

Epic Birthday Set

I made this set for my daughter's birthday.   I really like the Epic Day DSP.  It has some of my favorite colors in it and that shabby/grungy style.

For the bag I used the set Affection Collection. I stamped the banner in Pool Party and the wings in Sahara Sand and then cut both of them out.  The grungy label stamp from the set  was stamped in Calypso Coral on Calypso Coral and then I used my oval Coluzzle to cut it out.  Remember those?  I then roughed up the edges and used pop dots to adhere the wings to the oval.  The oval and all the banners were adhered to the bag with Sticky Strip.


The inspiration for the card came from here. 

The Epic Day This and That line includes some wonderful Washi Tape.  It's a fun product to add a little extra to a project; and SO easy to use.  I simply stamped the sentiment on it and the taped it to the card.

To get the "spots" on the card I put 2-3 drops of Pool Party ink in an Aqua Pen and then filled it to the top with water.  For the larger spots I let drops of the water/ink mixture fall on the card, let them sit for a minute and then dabbed off the excess water with a paper towel.  For the smaller ones I tapped the aqua pen across my finger so it would splatter.

Using the Bitty Butterfly punch, I  punched a butterfly out from the center strip; and then also one from a scrap of Pool Party Core'dinations cardstock and sanded the edges, layering them to add a little more dimension to the card.  I sponged around the negative space on the strip to help highlight the butterfly; and added the rhinestone for a little bling.

Supplies-Card
Stamps: Bring on the Cake, Script Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pool Party refill, Jet Black (Ranger Archival)
Paper: Pool Party Core'dinations, Epic Day DSP
Misc: Epic Day Washi Tape, Bitty Butterfly Punch, Basic Jewels Rhinestones, Aqua Pen, Sponge Dauber

Supplies-Bag
Stamps: Affection Collection
Ink: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Sahara Sand
Paper: Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Epic Day DSP
Misc.: Calypso Coral Bakers Twine, Pool Party 1/8" Satin Ribbon (Retired-SAB), Sticky Strip, Pop Dots, Coluzzle 

In-Color Emboss Resist

Finally playing with some of the new catalog items.  The new in-colors are great for summer projects and are a great compliment to Stampin' Up!'s core colors.  Warning-you may tend to get hungry when you use them though. :)

Using a paint brush and some Versamark refill, I "painted" areas of the white cardstock for embossing.  I decided to use white embossing powder instead of clear to make sure the white really popped against the colors.

After heat setting the embossing powder, I sponged the in-colors over the card.  Starting from the bottom, I sponged Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, and then Coastal Cabana.  I then edged the piece in Baked Brown Sugar and added a little in the center.

Then I took a soft cloth and wiped the ink from the embossed areas and stamped the flowers.  I inked up only half of the sentiment from Feel Goods and then cut it out with the Apothecary Accent framelit; sponging around the edges with Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar.

Finally I used pop dots on both the sentiment and the focal point when adhering to the card base.  When stamping over embossed areas be sure to use a solvent based ink like Staz-on or Ranger Archival so that it doesn't rub off the embossed area.

Supplies
Stamps: Feel Goods, Field Flowers
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Versamerk Refill, Jet Black Archival (Ranger)
Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White
Misc.: Apothecary Accents Framelits, Big Shot, White Embossing Powder, Paint Brush, Heat Gun, Sponges, Pop Dots

Just a Reminder

Beginning July 1st Google Reader will no longer be available.  If you are subscribed to mine, or any other blog, through Google Reader make sure you change by June 30th.

I am far from an expert on what the best reader option would be, however, I have done a little research and have asked around.

The ones that come up the most on lists from fellow bloggers to tech sites as being easy and having flexible options are:

Freedly
Bloglovin
Networkedblogs

Today I switched to Freedly and it was simple and quick; they have a one click import of your Google Reader list.  In less than 10 seconds I had all of the blogs I follow transferred over.  It also has some really nice options for sorting and how you view the posts.


Kym

Collage Money Holder

Well, once again it has been a while since I posted.  It's frustrating when the daily grind gets in the way of my creative time.  I have several projects lying around my studio just waiting for the finishing touches, but I just can't seem to get them done.  While I am grateful that I have a paying job, said job has been literally sucking the life out of me lately and in turn my creative spirit.

As my daughter so eloquently puts it, "Life rips the creativity right out of you and repeatedly stabs it to death".  Yes, a little dramatic, but she is a teenager after all.  :)

I did manage to complete a swap for a demo meeting and am extremely happy with the results.  I didn't feel like making a standard card this time so I created a money holder.

I adapted the size of this money holder from previous ones I have made.  We can only use current product for these swaps and since the slit punch has been retired for awhile now, I needed to find another way to keep the money in place.

This holder measures 3 1/4" x 7", and the inside slider measures 3 1/8" x 6 3/4".  I used the 1 3/4" circle punch to make the "holders" for the money on each end.

I used an Aqua pen filled with re-inker and water to make the splotches on the front of the holder.  Lay your project flat.  Make sure that your work area is protected and items that you don't want colored are not close at hand; I use an old lidded box when I do this so that I don't get ink where I don't want it.  I then took the pen in my right hand and knocked it against my left hand, moving it around the project.  For the larger dots, I let the pen drip onto the project. I also used the Spritzer tool to get a fine mist in some areas.

The flowers were colored by rubbing them over the ink pad and then misting them with water for a softer tone; I used Pool Party, Island Indigo and Midnight Muse.  The doily was folded and torn into fourths, then lightly sponged with Island Indigo.


Stamps: That's The Ticket
Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Naturals White, Fan Fair DSP
Ink: Island Indigo, Midnight Muse, Pool Party
Misc.: Fabric Flower Trim, Pool Party Bakers Twine, Victoria Crochet Trim, Paper Doillies, Ticket Builder, Itty Bitty Butterfly, Scallop Edge, and 1 3/4" Circle punches, Basic Pearls, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Crop-a-dile, Aqua Pen, Color Spritzer tool, Sponges, Mini Glue Dots


ETA:  I started this post a while back, many of these items are retiring.  Today (5/31) is the last day to get items from the Spring Mini and Monday (6/3) is the last day to order retiring items from the 2012-2013 Annual Catalog.  If you are interested in purchasing any of the retiring products, click here.