Iris Garden

pre-school grad gift

2012-05-24T10:58:00.002-05:00

Good Morning!

Today is graduation day for Jasmine, she's going to kindergarten next school year!

She's so excited to start school!

I made her a little gift filled with tags with pictures on them and we'll stuff some cash in there for her.

I used the new cd3 Creating with Vintage Typography from Crafty Secrets. See the little streamers hanging from the flower? I printed those from the CD and I printed all the tags too.

It so super simple to make a quick gift, like I did here.

I used some supplies that were already on my table, the Artsy Banners stamped book page, flower and lace. I love when it works out like that.

I can't remember where I got the bandaide tin, I've had it a long time.

Since I took these pictures, I've punched holes in each tag at the corner and put them through a binding ring. I thought she would keep up with the tags better that way.

I punched various pictures of her into 1 1/4" & 1 1/2" squares and adheared them to the tags, I distressed around each one with Distress Vintage Photo ink and a blending tool, then I added the ribbon and buttons, so easy!

See all the tags, they are gorgeous!

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Have a fun safe weekend!

It's already a mad house around our tiny town!!

flower challenge

2012-05-15T07:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Inspiration Emporium's challenge this month is flowers, anything you want to do as long as there are flowers involved. That was an easy one for me since I've been doing an art journal and playing with Dylusion spray inks and stamps.

The background pages are sprayed with a water bottle and then sprayed with the Dylusion inks. I used bubblegum pink, vibrant turquoise, squeezed orange and london blue, I did my stamping with archival jet black ink and did the outlining with a white Gellyroll pen.

To make the flowers I used one of the hats in the Dylusions Love Struck Lucy stamp set. I stamped it in a circle and put a stamped circle that I had cut out to go in the middle. I did the same thing with the small flower, I used a small circle stamp. I watercolored the the flowers with the inks and Tim's new fine tip water brush. You fill it with water, spray some ink on your craft mat, dip the water brush in the ink and start coloring, super easy and fun, you don't have to be perfect.

I stamped the leaves along the top and sides, it's from the Furthur Round the Edge stamp set and highlighted them with the white pen. The flower stems and bottom edge are from the same set.
The cat is from the Bits and Bats set, I gave him some white polka dots with the pen, just for fun.
The dots on the background sort of magically appeared when I sprayed the pages with water, they came through from another page, pretty cool!
The cute sentiment is from the The Right Words set.

Now, it's your turn to make your flower masterpiece and upload it to the Inspiration Emporium blog. Remember to use my coupon code ieirisgarden for your 10% discount!!

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Have a great day!

Sing for Joy

2012-05-07T10:06:00.000-05:00

Good Morning!

I have another journal project to show you today, are you getting tired of them? I sure hope not because that's all I want to do!

It's Linky Party time again, post any sample you have created with any of our products at our 2nd Linky Party starting this Monday, May 5th and it runs for a week. A random.org winner will be chosen from all the entries to win a $50.00 Crafty Secrets Gift Certificate.

That's a great prize and it's so easy, just post your sample at the Crafty Secrets blog!

For these journal pages I wanted to use Crafty Secrets Sing for Joy stamp set. I LOVE it, there are SO many cute images to use. One thing about journaling you have room for tons of stamps if you want to use them.

The background was sprayed with water and then sprayed with Dylusions bubblegum pink, squeezed orange and vibrant turquoise spray inks, then dried with my heat tool. I used the 5x8 dotted flowers stencil and my snowcap paint dabber to go around the the edges. I used the same stencil and my aqua paint dabber here and there for the dots. I used my Archival Jet Black ink to do my stamping and my white Gelly Roll pen for the little dogwood flowers. I colored the images with the spray inks and my fine tip water pen.

There is baby blue and cotton candy stickles in the flower centers and on the black stamped edge.

I put Glossy Accents in the bird bath to look like water.

That's it, I hope you play along in the Linky Party, you never know, you could be the winner!

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Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

watercolor challenge

2012-04-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday friends!

I've got another art journal project to show you today.

This month Inspiration Emporium is doing a watercolor challenge, perfect for my Dylusions spray inks and my Ranger fine tip water pen!

I've discovered you don't need many supplies at all to do these pages. I aways write down my supplies as I'm working on them and I have very few, just the spray inks, Archival ink and a stamp set or 2! The only paper I use is cardstock if I want to stamp and cut something out. I haven't used any patterened paper yet, the horror, LOL! I did use some pink and cinnamon Stickles on her color and the other ones hair bow.

I sprayed the pages with water first and then sprayed on my inks to get them running, closed the pages to get the ink on both pages and then dabbed off the excess with a paper towel. I used one of Tim's tricks of spraying my fingers and flecking the pages to get the water splotches. I dry it all with my heat tool.

I stamped and cut out the mushrooms and girls and watercolored them with my Dylusional spray inks and the waterbrush filled with water. I outline things here and there with my white Gelly Roll pen.

The sets I used are Dylusionals The Right Words, Love Struck Lucy, Further Round the Edge and Doolally Dorris.

Now it's your to upload your watercolor project at the IE blog for a chance to win $50 IE bucks, WOOHOO, that's a great prize! Don't forget about my coupon code ieirisgarden for your 10% discount on your IE goodies!

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dahlias & sunflowers

2012-04-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

I'm back with a couple more art journal pages, they make me happy :)

I felt like I was in such a rut until I took Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 class and happened on some videos by Dyan Reaveley. Something just clicked for me, learning to use ink in different ways!

Now, I'm an inky mess when I go to work every morning, LOL!

I used the Crafty Secrets Sunflower and Dahlia stamps for my pages, they are so pretty watercolored!

I stamped them with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and used my fine tip water brush and Dylusions spray inks for the coloring. The background pages were done by spraying them with water and the Dylusion inks and letting them run together and I dried them with my heat tool. The white leaves around the edge of the pages were made with the 5x8 Lucious Leaves stencil and the snowcap paint dabber, I outlined them with a black Sakura archival ink pen. I dabbed some Rock Candy Distress Stickles on the flowers, I wish you could see it better.

If you haven't got all inky, I urge you to give it try! I love the idea of art journals, all your pretties in one place. You only have so much wall space and so many cards to send :)

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Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

WARNING ~ grab your shades!

2012-04-06T10:33:00.000-05:00

Are you ready for some vibrant inky color?!

Boy oh boy, did I ever have fun with this, maybe a little too much fun, lol!

I got a little ink happy here with Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions inks sprays, aren't they gorgeous?

I'm still in the learning process with the art journals, but, I'm having so much fun along the way!

The cute little lady is from Dylusions Love Struck Lucy stamp set. Dyan draws all of her stamps and they are so much fun, you can mix and match heads and bodies and wings etc. I water colored her with Dylusions ink sprays in bubblegum pink, squeezed orange, vibrant turquoise and melted chocolate. I used Tim's new watercolor detailer tip water brush. I sprayed my mat with the inks and put water in my brush, dabbed it in the ink and painted away. Lucy's wings are covered with pink Stickles.

The background is done with a spray water bottle and Distress stains. I sprayed my papers with water, I got it pretty wet and then I just rubbed my stains over the watered pages and dried it with my heat tool. I used the Dylusions Basic Backgrounds numbers stamp to stamp randomly on the pages with Archival ink in Vermillion, the hearts and word circles you see are from the Love Struck Lucy set stamped with Archival Jet Black. I added some chipboard hearts covered with Fruit Punch Stickles. I stamped the words from the Dylusions The Right Words set, cut them out and glued them on. After I was all done I sprayed both pages with Goosebumps clear texture spray, WHOA, that's where all the shine comes from, my glasses automatically went into shade mode, HA!

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I hope you try getting crazy with your inks, it sure is fun!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

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the winner is.....

2012-04-03T07:16:00.000-05:00

SuZeQ said...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I thank my lucky stars every time I visit your blog - your work inspires the heck out of me. I have been seeing posts everywhere about Tim's on-line classes. I think it's about time I showed up to class! Thanks for this great giveaway - you're always so generous. I appreciate YOU.

Congrats SuzeQ, you're so sweet! I'll send you an email shortly for your address.

I want to thank everyone for visiting and commenting on my blog!

Art Journal & my anniversary give-away

2012-03-27T12:30:00.002-05:00

Happy Tuesday!

I've got something to show you today that is totally different than my normal paper crafting.

I'm taking Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 online class and I have learned so much about the different Ranger inks and all the ways to use them.

I've also been watching Dyan Reaveley's videos from CHA on YouTube, I love her style of art! I was amazed by her art journals, just gorgeous! I was on a mission Saturday, going to flea markets looking for an old journal.and I found a small one with black suede covers, perfect! I spent most of the day Sunday trying my hand at a journal page, I have never been so inky in my life. One thing stuck in my head from Dyan, you never mess up, just go with it! This was really hard for me, usually everything has it's place and the ink has to be stamped perfectly, etc.

The background isdone with Ranger Distress Stains in Broken China, Spun Sugar, Sage Shadow, Peeled Paint & Fired Brick. I also used my Copic Opaque White and black & white Enamel Accents. Everything was stamped with Archival Jet Black ink. All of the stamps I used are by CraftySecrets, I used ABC Tophat for my letters, Flourishes, Mini Memories and Antique trims. SWEET Campells Soup painter girl is from a new set called All Dolled Up, Sandy said it will be available this Thursday in the store, I adore this set, it's a sweet paper doll set, ahhhh, the sweet memories of childhood! I thought she went perfect with the art journal theme!

In Tim's class he taught how to use the Ranger inks in so many different ways. For my background, I misted the page with water and then I went to town adding my stains everywhere, I sprayed on more water, wiped off the excess and dried it with my heat tool. Then I misted some water in my hand and flicked it on the page for the water marks and dried that. All of the stamping was done after I did the background. The little girl is paper pieced with paper from my Crafty Secrets Creating with Patterns CD.

Sandy showed me a video yesterday by Diane from New Zeland. She uses Tim's ticket die and Distress inks to make the coolest embellishments, you gotta check it out.

So, what do you think? Remember, it's my very first journal page, please be gentle :)

I've really been in a stamping slump lately, I feel so into it now with a new way of creating for me. Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 class and Dyan Reaveley work have opened a new door for me, I'm pretty darned excited about it!

I'm waiting on a HUGE order from Inspiration Emporium, oodles of Dyan's goodies and the Distress Markers.

If you place an order from Inspiration Emporium don't forget to use my coupon code ieirisgarden at check out for 10% off your order.

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I was going to put up this post yesterday on my 5th blogoversary, but, I had an emergency.

Terry was on his way to physical therapy and got sick, he made it to the ER in Heber Springs, I met him there and it turns out he has a kidney stone. I'm not working today, he hasn't passed it yet and he's still in pain, he's staying drugged up, poor guy.

Anyway, I'm doing a give-away for my blogoversary!

I've got 2 bottles of Glimmer Mist, 2 Crafty Secrets Image and Journal Booklets, 2 Copic markers, 3 pages of lace stickers by Crafty Secrets and a Creating with Vintage Patterns CD by Crafty Secrets.

Just leave me a comment and your contact info and I'll pick a winner Monday April 2.

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I hope you have great day, see you Monday with my give-away winner.

Good Luck!

Flapper Fashions

2012-03-23T11:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!

I've got a flapper girl to show you today. This stamp set is by Artistic Outpost and it's called Flapper Fashions, I just checked over at Inspiration Emporium and it looks like they sold out right now. You can contact them to see when it's available again or head over to Artistic Outpost and find it there.

I stamped the lady on cardstock with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and stamped her again on paper from the MME Stella Rose 6x6 paper pad. I cut out her dress and paper pieced it on the girl. I colored her skin and hat with Copic markers.

I added Ranger Distress ink in Vintage Photo, Bundled sage, Broken China and Rusty Hinge to the tag with my blending tool. Then I used 2 stamps from the set, the flapper words and the flower border, I stamped the border 3 times on the bottom of the tag, I colored some tissue tape with Copic markers and put it on the side of the tag. I think it's so cool that you can color this tape any color you need with the Copic's!

I cut the Sizzix Alterations Mini Tattered Floral flower twice and added a black vintage button threaded with black twine to the center. I cut 2 hearts from the Mini Love Struck die and adhered them to the end of the tissue tape. I had a piece of the paper lace that I had cut with the Vintage Lace die and put it along the egde and added the Kaiser pearls on each scallop.

I adheared the girl to the tag, oh, I colored her necklace and bracelets with my Stardust Gellyroll pen and put a tiny Kaiser rhinestone on her ear for her earring.

I stamped and cut out the Jazz-Age and mounted it with foam dots.

I added the vintage photo corners to the bottom and some May Arts ribbon at the top of the tag.

Remember to use my 10% off coupon code ieirisgarden at check out when you order your Inspiration Emporium goodies!

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I hope you have a great day and weekend!

Inspiration Emporium Pocket Watch

2012-03-20T07:53:00.001-05:00

Hi friends!

I've got something fun to show you today.

The Inspiration Emporium team was challenged to use our Idea-ology pocket watches.

I LOVE these pocket watches, they are so fun to alter!

You can add family photos or make a cute little shaker out of them. I turned mine into a fridge magnet by glueing magnets to the back, it's on my fridge now. It makes me smile.

The background is a piece I cut from the Lost & Found Paper Stack. The stamped love & no.9 are from the Little Labels stamp set. I added a tiny piece of tissue tape behind the key hole at the top. All of the embellishments in and on the watch are Idea-ology fasteners & findings. I added the red Kaiser rhinestones to give it a little pop of color. Everything is glued down with E6000.

Now, go check out the Inspiration Emporium blog to see the rest of the teams pocket watches, you'll be amazed! Be sure and use my discount code ieirisgarden for a 10% discount on your order!

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We are in for buckets and buckets of rain the next few days, HAPPY SPRING!

Go Green ~ Inspiration Emporium

2012-03-08T10:14:00.000-06:00

We're going green at Inspiration Emporium this month. I'm doing a St. Patty's day theme with a punched shamrock and a 17 plaquette by Ideaology. I was thrilled to find the 17 in the plaquettes for St. Patty's day, perfect!

I wanted to do an ATC, I love them and have a collection in a book I made for them and I'm always trying to add to it. My ATC's are the lumpy bumpy kind, the more I can put on them the better!

The base of the ATC is made with paper from the Kraft Resist Paper Stash, it's 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. I added color with my blending tool and Ranger Distress Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint ink. I cut some bookprint from the same pad and stitched it along the edges. I cut a strip of Vintage Lace and adhered it to the side and then I added the film strip with my Tiny Attacher. I made the shamrock with 3 punched hearts and a handcut stem. I glued them together and added the Marta Stewart green agate glitter. I popped it up on the ATC with foam dots. The corners are vintage photo corners that a friend sent to me. I love using them, so vintage!

Now, it's your turn! Upload your green creation to the Inspiration Emporium blog for your chance to win a $50 gift certificate. You can use my discount code ieirisgarden anytime for 10% off your order!

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I hope you have a great day!

We're getting lots and lots of rain the next few days, and today is nice and warm, it's supposed to get colder though, I'm so ready for summer!

Easter tag candy holder

2012-02-22T07:33:00.002-06:00

Ahhhh, Spring is finally in the air!

It's supposed be in the 70's this week, close to 80, YAY!

I decided I wanted to make an Easter tag candy holder with the sweet little bunny die by Sizzix for Alterations. It comes with the bunny and the bow, cute, huh?

I had fun dressing him in his bunny Sparkly Fluff, Cotton Candy, Distress Stickles and a pom-pom tail. I attached him to a mini rosette.

To make the tag holder, I used a 8x4" manilla tag, scored it at 5 and 5 1/2", covered it with paper from the Vintage Shabby Paper Stack. I cut some paper lace with my Vintage Lace die and attached it to the front of the tag with about 3" hanging off each side. I folded it around to the back of the tag and stapled it to the back with my tiny attacher. This way it holds the front of the tag in place and open so the candy will go inside.

I used an office supply tag to stamp the sentiment on, it's from the Crafty Secrets Happy Easter stamp set.
Look at the white chocolate bunny with the pink bow, just perfect for my tag holder!

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Well, that's it! I hope I've inspired you just a little today to make a candy tag holder of your own!

Have a great day!

Crafty Secrets Valentine Kit

2012-02-12T17:03:00.000-06:00

Hello friends!

I've got some Craft Secrets to show you today. Everything is printed from the Crafty Secrets Valentine Kit., the card box, card, cupcake wrappers and cupcake picks.

I had fun with this set, isn't the little girl sweet? I found this bouquet of heart lollipops at Walmart for $1, I knew they would be perfect for this card and to use on the cupcakes. I punched the holes in the card to slip the sucker through. I don't have the long reach Crop-a-dile, so I used my awl to make the holes where I wanted them.

This is the card box. You print it on white cardstock, cut it out and its ready to use, so simple. I cut out the cupcake image and put red Damask vintage glass glitter around the heart. I adhered the cupcake with foam squares and made a bow with Martha Stewart ribbon and a vintage button.

This is the back of the box, I used a rosette for the closure and a velcro circle. The center of the mini rosette has Cotton Candy Sparkly Fluff on it.

This Valentine Kit would be cute for a little girls birthday party too, the invitations, everything you need for a party! You don't have to add the sucker, just print, score and fold the card, simple.

The back of the card.

The inside. I cut out the heart image to cover the holes and stick.

Another little image for the cupcake pick.

There is so many images in this kit, they are so vintage and so fun!

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We are supposed to have some winter weather moving in tonight. If we are going to have snow I wish we would have a bunch of it, 12-18", I don't want to mess around, LOL!

Y'all have a great day, and a lovely Valentines Day, thanks for stopping by!

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The give-away winner is...

2012-02-07T07:48:00.001-06:00

Christine Schmidt said...

What an adorable card! Love your blog and all the beautiful creations you share with us. Whenever I get that "crafter's block", I know I can come here and get some fabulous ideas. Thank you! Prayers for Terry for a full recovery!

Congrats Christine!

I'll be sending you an email shortly.

Thanks for playing along in my Crafty Secrets give-away, have fun with your goodies!

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Crafty Secrets Downloadable Valentine Kit & a give-away

2012-01-31T19:21:00.002-06:00

Hello friends!

Have you seen the new downloadable Crafty Secrets Valentine Kit Sandy is offering for only $5.00? It's really cute, the vintage images are adorable! There are some sweet Valentine cards, tags, paper, a box, cupcake wrapper and much more! All you need for a Valentine party, some cute cards, anything you want to create.

I printed off some papers and a tag sheet for my card.

I used my Alterations Mini Love Struck heart die to cut the hearts. I sewed them down the side and pinched the hearts together to give them some dimension. I added some heart stick pins and May Arts ribbon.

I cut out the sweet little clown image from one of the tags and one of the coupons from the tag sheet. I distressed everything with my blending tool and Ranger Distress Vinatge Photo ink. The little heart bling on her hat is a Martha rhinestone and the red corner rhinestones are by Kaiser.

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It's give-away time!

It's been awhile since I've done a give-away. Sandy sent us a couple of the new Creating with Vintage Illustrations CD's, so, it's up for grabs along with a sheet of Love Mail Creative Scraps, Altered Fairies Creative Scraps, Babyland Vintage Cuts, Baby Boy Vintage Postcard Kit and Childhood Images & Journal Notes. That's enough goodies to keep you busy for awhile!

Leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a winner next Tuesday, Feb. 7th. Please leave your contact email in your comment so I can reach you if you're the winner.

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Terry had surgery on his hand today. His joint capsule was torn, the Dr. said the joint capsule holds the bones together from his wrist. He fixed that and put in a graft of some kind, not a skin graft, he said they may have to do that later after it heals. His main concern now was getting it healed. So, he'll be going back and forth to the Dr. for awhile, maybe another surgery and then there'll be physical therapy.

He's very lucky.

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Vintage Cafe Card Challenge ~ chipboard heart

2012-01-27T05:00:00.001-06:00

Hi friends, it's Vintage Cafe Card Challenge time and we are using chipboard hearts.

It's the perfect time to bring out my new Alterations Mini Lovestruck dies!

I sure do miss Tim Holtz's class, I know they are having a blast now at CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) in CA. I got to take his class when I went to stay with Joy a few years ago during CHA and I was amazed at his work and generosity! The whole gang is so nice!

OK, enough of the CHA envy :)

The gorgeous papers I used are from the Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Illustrations CD 2 and the Love Mail Creative Scraps.

I painted the chipboard pieces with Distress Crackle Paints in Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick. After it dried I added Rock Candy Distress Stickles to the angels wings and heart for a little sparkle.

I cut the bottom edge of the blue cardstock with my MFT Jumbo Scalloped die. The Creative Scrap piece is cut with my Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Rectangle die.

The LOVE ticket is from the Creative Scraps. I distressed everything with Ranger Distress Antique Linen and Vintage Photo ink and my blending tool. I rounded the bottom corners with my corner punch. I added the tiny pom-pom trim with my Tiny Attacher. The buttons are vintage from my stash.

Now, it's your turn. Go the Vintage Cafe Card Challenge blog, upload your creation for a chance to win some fun supplies!

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I'm sad to say I'm stepping down from the VCCC design team. I've had a lot of fun on the team, Olga and Lana have been so nice, and it's been a fun experience working with a team filled with so many talented girls around the world.

I'm staying with my mom more, she has a lady that sleeps at her house 5 days a week, and nurses come to see her 3 or 4 times a week so, I'm trying to stay with her on the weekends as much as I can. I live an hour away from her and I work, I'm still figuring all of this out now. She'll be 87 Feb. 10th and she's needing more care now. My daughter is going to help out and stay with her too. I have so much going on now, it's hard for me to keep up. I've been in a terrible funk and haven't been in my craft room much at all. On top of everything else my back is acting up again, my Dr. talked about surgery, but, now is not the time for that. So, more pills to take, blech, LOL. My husband got hurt Tuesday at work, his hand got caught in a wire reel between the reel and the reel frame. We go see the Ortho hand specialist tomorrow, the ER Dr. said there will be skin grafting involved.

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Thanks for hanging with me I really appreciate your comments, they brighten my day.

Giggle pocket card

2012-01-09T20:12:00.002-06:00

Hi friends!

I'm showing you a pocket card I finished up today.

I love pocket cards, they're easy to make and perfect for gift cards.

I used my new bottle of Goosebumps texture spray, this is the coolest stuff. It's a clear spray that leaves your project all bumpy, or smooth when it dries, depending on how close you hold the bottle to your project. It's like clear embossing a piece without all the hassle. I used it on the "giggle" piece and the top center of the rosette flower.You can see it better below. I used confetti tan cardstock and the Lost and Found paper stack and Kraft Resist on the front flap. I used the mini rosette die to make the flower on the tag and the piece sticking out on the side is from the Regal Crest dies.

I used a bunch of Tim's stuff on this and you can get it all at Inspiration Emporium. Remember to use my coupon code ieirisgarden for a 10% discount on your order!

I used The Girls stamp set from Tim's collection by Stampers Anonymous. The tag card inside is one stamp. I LOVE when all of the collaging is done for you with one stamp, so easy! I added a strip of Tim's tissue tape.

The inks I used are Distress Gathered Twigs, Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick and Archival jet black.

You can see the the texture better here. I have rock candy Distress Stickles on top of the cupcake. The cupcake is a chipboard piece from Maya Road.

I know everyone is scrambleing to get ready for CHA, I lot of hard work goes into these events, a lot of good times too. I'll sure miss you my crafty friends :(

Don't forget this month (only) you can order any or all of the 20 new Scentsy Bring Back My Bar scents! If you've never tried Scentsy you should, I know you'll love it! Just click on the purple Scentsy logo on the right to see what it's all about and place your order, it's that simple!!

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Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Cafe Card Challenge ~ thank you and Crafty Secrets Splitcoast Shop Hop Sale

2011-12-30T05:00:00.001-06:00

I have a two-fer for today, a Vintage Cafe Card Challenge and a Crafty Secrets Shop Hop sale!!

The VCCC was to make a thank you card and Crafty Secrets is having a huge sale, so I used their papers from the Creating with Vintage CD and their Vintage Labels and Sweet Kids stamp sets. The only stamping that was done is the frame and thanks sentiment, the rest is the papers from the CD, beautiful papers!

I used Martha's flower border punch along the edge and Tim's tissue tape on the inside edge.

The white seam binding is colored with Bundled Sage Distress Stain. There is Kaiser rhinestone bling and pearls, Antique Linen Distress Stickles are on the the stamped frame edge and the dragon flies wings.

Now, go and check out the Vintage Cafe Card Challenge and play along for a chance to win some goodies and then head on over to Crafty Secrets to catch some great sales!

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Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T05:00:00.001-06:00

I hope you and your families have a blessed Christmas!

Iris tag

2011-12-23T13:01:00.000-06:00

Good Morning!

It's almost Christmas, are you ready? I am, finally.

I'm sad I couldn't play along in Tim and Mario's 12 tags, if I ever retire, I'm on it baby!

I decided to make a tag using one of Tim's older sets, Fancy Flourish that you can buy at Inspiration Emporium. Don't forget to use my code ieirisgarden for your 10% discount!

When I saw the set in their store, the iris popped out at me and then I read the sentiment, that sealed the deal, I had to have it! Wow, it really gets you thinking, you know?

I had so much fun digging in my bellie box for my tag. I used an Ideaology fragment charm, I covered the back of the charm with book paper and Glossy Accents. I put the Philosophy Tag on a Memo Pin. I cut the flower petals with my Tattered Florals die out of Kraft Resist paper, the leaves are cut with my Spellbinders Foilage die. The center of the flower has ideaology Foilage Findings. I glued the flower on top of Ideaology Regal Wings. I stamped the iris with VersaMark ink and poured on the white embossing powder and heated it. I colored my tag and did the distressing with Ranger Distress Bundled Sage, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint and Gathered Twigs ink and a blending tool. My sentiment and flourish are stamped with Archival Jet Black ink. The white trim along the bottom is from Walmart. I did the faux stitching with a tracing wheel.

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Have a beautiful Christmas my friends!

Crafty Secrets ~altered Christmas decor

2011-12-19T17:00:00.000-06:00

Good Morning!

My mom gave me this Christmas decoration several years ago and I hang it from my wreath on my front door every year. I've had to repair it a couple of times, I can't make myself throw it away, I love the vintage look and the memories. The top is a piece of wood, it used to have plastic greenery on it, but, thats long gone. The red pieces are a thin metal, thicker than foil with gold vintage letters and snowflakes on each one spelling NOEL. I've thought about making one from paper and now is the time.

I started out with an empty toilet paper roll for the top, but, it wasn't long enough to suit me. Then I thought paper towel roll, but, my paper towels were not empty by a long shot. I looked around my stamp room and saw my basket of wooden spools and decided that would work!

I printed out some pretty floral paper from the new Creating with Vintage Illustrations CD by Crafty Secrets and wrapped it around the spool. Seems my last couple of Christmas projects have been pink, thinking out of the box I guess. I glued some tinsel in the ends of the spool to hang it by.

The next step was the hanging banners with the silver bells on the ends. I cut some celery cardstock for each letter, printed some pink paper from the CD and attached that to the celery cardstock. I cut the ends of the banners with a double scalloped punch, put in silver eyelets and hung the bells through the eyelets, the silver ribbon was on the bells, they were name tags. I got them a couple of years ago at Pier 1 on clearance. I added Martha White Gold Glitter on the edges. I cut some rosettes with my Alterations Mini Rosettes die and sprayed them with spray adhesive and added the glitter. I stamped the letters with my Crafty Secrets Artsy Alphabet stamp set in Ranger Distress Worn Lipstick ink and punched them out with a scalloped circle punch. I covered them with VersaMark poured on clear embossing powder and heat embossed them. I put them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden, then I bent them so they would crack.

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Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Cafe Card Challenge ~ gift cards

2011-12-16T05:00:00.002-06:00

Good Morning!

Today is another Vintage Cafe Card Challenge and the challenge is to make a set of 4 gift cards measuring 2x3.

I used my Spellbinders labels 8 die, it's almost the perfect size for the cards. I scored and folded my Neenah White cardstock and laid it over the top edge of the die a tiny bit so it wouldn't cut the edge making it open from the bottom. Then I cut my patterned papers from the Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas 6x6 pad with the same die and adhered those papers to the card. I added a line of glitter along the curved pink paper. I stamped the sentiment from the Crafty Secrets Christmas Mail stamp set at the bottom with Ranger Distress Vintage Photo ink. I punched my house with a square punch and added glitter, the roof tops are a square cut in half. I punched the twig with my Martha punch and added glitter to that too. I punched a hole in the upper left corner and threaded Martha bakers string through to make an attachment for the gift. I built some vintage button snowmen and added the tiny pom-pom trim to the bottom.

Now it's your turn! Make a set of 4 2x3 gift tags and upload them to the Vintage Cafe Card Challenge blog for your chance to win some great supplies and get inspired! There are some amazing paper crafters all over the world, you can see some of them on the VCCC blog!

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Remember, if you place an order at Inspiration Emporium from my links don't forget to use my coupon code ieirisgarden for a 10% discount!

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Have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Cafe Card Challenge ~ glitter

2011-12-01T05:00:00.001-06:00

It's the Vintage Cafe Card Challenge again and the design team girls are choosing themes. It's my turn and I challenged the girls to use glitter on their cards. Who doesn't love using glitter?!

The base papers are from the new Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Illustrations CD. I added the frame from Crafty Secrets and the birds are from the Alterations Mini Bird & Cage set and the scroll is Maya Road. I painted the birds and scroll with white acrylic paint and sprinkled on the Martha Stewart glitter while it was wet. I didn't have to paint the frame, it was already white, I just added glue and glitter.

I stamped the tag with a heart from the Crafty Secrets Grand Greetings stamp set in Ranger Distress Worn Lipstick ink and added the white Kaiser Pearl. All of the distressing is done with Gathered Twigs ink.

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Now, it's your turn. Head over to the Vintage Cafe Card Challenge blog, upload your sparkly creation for a chance to win some fab supplies!

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Have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Illustrations CD 2

2011-11-28T12:49:00.003-06:00

Good Monday Morning!

Today I want to show you another tag I made with the new Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Illustrations CD #2.

Have you checked it out yet? You can find all the info about the new CD on the Heart Warming Vintage Blog. You can check out the major changes going on at Crafty Secrets too, Sandy and Scott are scaling down, and that is something we all need to do to keep our sanity, LOL!

This is one of my fave papers from the CD #2. I used a journaling card from a Creative Scrap and added the paper covered chipborad heart to that.

I got the coffee stained flowers from a junk sale, it looks like they are made from tea stained coffee filters. The chipboard heart leaves are coved with tissue tape, I love this stuff, so easy to use. All of the distressing is done with Ranger Distress Gathered Twigs ink.

Check out the designers blogs, the list is on the left, they are wroking up a storm on new samples for this new CD, you'll be inspired!

Remember, Sandy is selling out all of her stamp sets, everything is on sale but the new CD's and Creative Scraps, I'm SO happy she's keeping the Creative Scraps!

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I hope you have a great Monday, thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it my friends!

Crafty Secrets new CD Creating with Vintage Illustrations

2011-11-22T12:10:00.000-06:00

Good Morning!

This week the Crafty Secrets DT ladies are showing you new designs from the second new CD, Creating with Vintage Illustrations!

There are so many fun designs, papers, templates, frames, layouts, wait until you see!

Sandy has some big news too, big changes are coming to Crafty Secrets, more about that later.

This is a tag I made with the new CD.

I printed the paper for the tag base, the floral paper for the mini dress form and the sentiment.

I had these DMC floss cards that I'd picked up at a flea market and I got this spool of string at a junk sale in Mtn.View for like a $1. I wrapped the string around the floss tag and distressed it with Ranger Gathered Twigs ink. I put the buttons on quilting pins with Glue Dots to stick through the floss tag.

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Here's a teacup I made from the template on the CD. I printed the paper design on cardstock, then I turned it over and ran it back through printing the template. I cut it out and folded it on the score lines, it's really easy. I added an Alterations Mini Rosette that I covered with Martha Stewart glitter. I sprayed the rosette with Elmers Craft Bond spray adhesive and glittered away! Wouldn't these be cute name tags for place settings?

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Crafty Secrets is going to change their Clear Stamps to Digital CD’s and all the stamps will go on sale starting this Friday! Why? Owner Sandy Redburn says her husband retired last year and they want to simplify their life. “With over 200 stamp sets and over 100 printed products it’s time to clear the clutter and make room for some exciting new changes!

As the Clear Art Stamps sell out, they will be grouped into themes and sold on CD’s which will include inspiring samples, new images and printable papers.

This will be the SALE pricing on the Clear Art Stamps starting this Friday while supplies last.

Large Clear Art Stamps originally $24.99 on sale for $19.99, Medium sets reg $14.99 on sale for $12.99 and Small Clear Art Stamp Sets reg $7.50 on sale for $5.99!

So head on over to the Heartwarming Vintage Blog and check out all of the details.

You can see many more samples from the new CD on the designers blogs too, they are listed here on the left of my blog page.

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I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!