Friday, March 4, 2011

Keep em comin'...


You know when you get one of those bursts of creativity and all of a sudden you can't stop thinking of projects you want to try, I 'm having one, YEAH! I hate to say luckily I have been sick but because I have been sick and not doing much after work, I happen to have the time too, Yeah again:) Thanks to G45 for their inspiration again and good old Grandma and Mom, I bring you this next piece.


I printed this dress form picture over a year ago and fell in love with it, finally I found something to do with it. It is surrounded by my Grandmothers laces and fabric swatches, some more of her vintage pattern paper and old buttons and some of Mom's embroidering floss, I wound onto spools to resemble thread and a few of her buttons as well. The star of the piece is the dress form but a real close second of course is the lovely Graphic 45 pattern paper as the back ground, the fashion cards to the left, the mock pattern packet to the right and the necklace in the middle. All are part of the Fashionista collection, other than the backgrounds which are Renaissance Faire and Domestic Goddess. They can all be found here. I am really lucky a couple of my LSS carry their collections but Scrapbook.com also has their products, yeah again!



A close up of some of Grandma's buttons and fabric swatches and some of the beautiful fashion cards from G45.





Since I planned to use my Mom and Grandmothers pieces, I knew I wanted the LO to go into a window box frame to protect it, so to get dimension in the piece, I attached the dress form picture to layers and layers of chipboard and foam core to make it the focal point and pop in the LO. I painted the foam black so it would blend a little better and not be seen on the sides.

As I mentioned, the miniature spools of Embroidering thread are my Mom's thread but the mini spools are from Michaels, where you can buy all sizes. They make a great gift to a fellow Crafter too, especially if you are into Matchbox exchanges :)


A little shout out to my friend Julz who shared some of her Grandmothers vintage bias tape (the pink to the right) I pleated it and just glued it down to keep shape, thx Julz :)


These little gold buttons were my Mom's, I am pretty sure I was with her when she bought them, we took a lot of trips to New York fabrics when I was a child :)



One of my favorite elements is this necklace. After using some alcohol ink to darken up the charm piece, I simply cut out a button from the Fashionista paper , positioned it on a the charm, filled it with diamond glaze, let it dry for a few days and then strung it on the ribbon, instant necklace!




The final piece in it's window box, now I just need to find room to hang it!



Thanks for stopping by today, TGIF!!

Kristin xx




Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Graphic 45 inspires me...

When I heard Graphic 45 was having a design team call I was so excited! I love G45 so much. Not only is everything they do or create unique and beautiful but it really allows all types of Crafters to use it for a wide array of projects. I quickly broke out my G45 stash to see what I had. After falling in love with all their products all over again I felt very inspired to gather up a few existing projects, create a couple new ones and throw my hat in the ring. For a long time I had strictly admired G45 from afar, in fact for the first year, I think I strictly collected papers, too afraid to cut into the beautiful designs :) However once I dove in and realized all that their products had to offer, I couldn't stop thinking of ways to use them. Below are a couple:



First up, a greeting card created using a vintage Valentines Day postcard and a lovely cut out from the new Curtain call collection....it's quickly becoming one of my favs!



A Layout of my beautiful daughters using the Fashionista collection, perfect for them :)



Al altered canvas with a peak into my Steampunk mind...




A Mini bird house turned Cirque tent, thanks to the new Le Cirque line, check it out, it's awesome!



An altered cigar box I made awhile back. I think this may have been the first time I actually cut up anything and used it, boy was I nervous :)




A few tags inspired by G45 and Tim Holtz, how can it get better than that!


A wall hanging inspired by this Dragonfly Duet paper.


A Travel Album cover using my absolute favorite collection, Transatlantique, a must for any traveler!



An altered purse using the new Curtain call and the Le' Romantique collection, what's more romantic than Paris!



A thank you card for future use, I love this collection too!



An altered gift bag for some unsuspecting friend, I can't wait to fill it up!



This is a new project and I have to say, an instant favorite. The mini album is made of recycled old wood and cork coasters and the close ups of my hubby were taken awhile ago with a project like this in mind.



Another recycled altered item, this time a mini basket became a thank you card/basket :)



A layered Friend card inspired by the new Curtain call collection, I was looking for a reason to use these feathers.




Probably my all time favorite project using G45, a vintage wall hanging inspired by my Grandmother, an avid sewer and lover of fashion. I felt very honored to use her antique doilies and vintage sewing pattern paper.



I hope you enjoyed the collection, thanks for stopping by today :)



Kristinxx