Hardware?

Take a few simple ingredients - some 3/8" washers from the hardware store, about a yard and a half of ribbon and the only tool you'll need is a safety pin to get something that looks like this...............

a cool little necklace that you can tie around your neck.

I used some Cherry Cobbler seambinding and 21 3/8" zinc washers and instructions that can be found here.

This was a quick project I put together this morning and gave to my daughter who was visiting for the weekend.  It was so good to have her home even though she wasn't feeling that well.  We got a little shopping in yesterday but today I really felt under the weather myself so while she and her dad made a quick visit to Costco, I put this together for her. 

I've also been working on a little secret Valentine's project I'll just tease with that uses some more hardware.

Sunday Zentangle 1-15

Jingle Belles JB12:01b

Whilst I was attempting to clean-up Christmas around here this past weekend, it occurred to me that the box of Christmas tea that I received from two of the teachers I work with had some lovely vintage holiday images that could be repurposed into cards and the smaller ones, bookmarks.  Then I got busy and almost totally forgot about making my card for the second week in January. 

We are using the same prompt for two weeks, and while I'm sure that it's optional whether to make two cards during that time, I thought that in this case I would.

Here's the large box which contained 9 smaller boxes and all those potential reuses.

I was lucky enough to have received from HWNSNBP the Poppystamps window die that was on my list and was thrilled that the front of the smaller boxes fits perfectly inside the window frame.

The card is on an Always Artichoke base with a layer of Cherry Cobbler and then some dsp that looks like vintage wallpaper to me.  I die cut the window out of textured Creamy Caramel cs and used a dauber with Creamy Caramel ink to bring out the texture in the cardstock.  The greenery was punched out of Always Artichoke and the banner is Cherry Cobbler seam binding. 

There is some stamping also - JOY comes from a stamp I found in the $bin at Michael's.  I colored the letters with my markers to match the cardstock and fussy cut them out.  They are popped up with dimensionals on top of that banner.

I am having the most difficult time this week finding things that I "put away" before or during the holidays. Anyone else out there having that problem?  I know that I need to organize my "stuff" better - a project that will be ongoing for the next several weeks - but this has been really driving me crazy and taking up way too much of my time.  I actually was fearful that my new die and a new stamp set I got as gifts might have been inadvertently thrown out with the recycling or garbage.  Thank goodness I found them!

Well, now I will be meandering over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the lovely creations for this week. I'm sure I will be delighted.

Sharing Their Christmas Creativity

Before we get too far removed from Christmas I wanted to share the homemade cards I received this Christmas.  

First is this beauty from Dana.  Isn't it adorable.   There's also a great stamped image inside that looks just like her and her husband.

My blogging friend Dawn sent me this from North Carolina.  Dawn is an expert color artist.  This Santa is spectacular.

The picture of this card from Sabrina doesn't do it justice.  I absolutely love the silver stamping on the navy background.  And just look at the glittery frame outlining that snowy background.  Love it!

My friend Janet posted this off to us.  Janet loves to use the clear envelopes and let me tell you, they really do make a statement! 

Carol, one of my sidelines, gave me this card that she made .  I really like the three panel layout.  It makes that snowman so special.

Our Teapot Queen, Cindy, sent me this one.  Ho, ho, ho!  Santa sure is a star!

Jingle Belles hostess Lauren sent me this beauty.  I am absolutely in awe over this card.  Very good use of all those wonderful goodies she had in her stash. 

A beautiful tag from Stefanie, our other Jingle Belles hostess.  Look at those sweet little snowflakes stamped on this - so cute!

Sabrina also made me this awesome Twelve Days of Christmas folding book.  Just look at all the detail in the cover alone.   Each of the page backs has this wonderful embossing on it. 

Inside she stamped and colored these fun images for the 12 Days.  Those little holly leaves and berries are just so pretty.  She has such creative attention to details.

See how all the pages are attached with ribbon she added between the front and back of each page. 

I forgot to take a picture of it displayed across the windowsill in the dining room where our Christmas Eve guests were able to enjoy it's beauty.  This will become a wonderful addition to our Christmas decorations.

Sunday Zentangle 1-8

Raptor Trust (Part 2)

As promised, some more of the pictures from our Jan. 2 outing, including , golden eagles, another pic of the snowy owl after he moved, barred owl and barn owl, and a peregrine falcon with an injured wing.

I took close to 100 pictures and a lot of them did not come out clearly because of the netting  you can see in the following picture.

I actually was astounded that some of the pictures where I got really close to the netting with the lens did come out (don't tell the Raptor Trust that I actually touched the cages though!)  Luckily the birds tolerated my determinedness to capture them in the camera only.

This is Jake the Raven - again, not so clear pictures, but he was a bit of a showman.  He made such cackles, whoops, clicks, and whistles.  We weren't sure whether he was showing off or that he was unnerved by the two turkey vultures that were not caged and were flying from tree to tree overhead. 

This pose is just how Kirby tilts his head to see something overhead or on the ground - very inquisitive looking.

And very noisy, though entertaining.

Speaking of vultures.  There were a couple of them sharing a cage.  The turket vulture with the red face and a black vulture.

I think we will try to go back in the spring and visit the indoor educational facility perhaps when we start thinking about gathering our annuals for planting. 

Looking out the back window this morning, despite the unseasonably warm temperatures I was a little sad not to see any birds at the feeder.  Stranger still is the lack of squirrels who always have to be chased away.  I'm afraid without the leaf cover of the trees our little friends will be very wary of visiting.  Right now we're only getting the occasional woodpecker at the suet feeder.  I wonder if the hawks move on to other territory if the food becomes scarce?  Should have asked that question last Monday on our visit!

Teapot Tuesday 179

I seem to have lost all track of time already this year.  Yikes!  It's Thursday already!  We're starting another year of teapot challenges and there seems to be a neverending supply of beautiful teapots to inspire us.  If you would like to read about the challenge, and you should if you have the time, please click here to check out Cindy's story for this week.  In it she asks us to use teal and flowers, angels and hearts.  Well, I guess I stopped reading after flowers, because unfortunately you won't find any angels or hearts on this card. 

There's plenty of teal though and enough flowers, I think.  The flowers were stamped in VersaMark on glossy white cs and then embossed with white embossing powder.  I then took a couple of drops of water and added a drop of teal ink and swiped my paintbrush over the flowers allowing the watered down ink to sink into the paper nicely.  I then did the same with the leaf image and Garden Green ink.  It was easy to cut around the embossing to get both those images by themselves. 

The base is Island Indigo cs as is the ribbon.  There's a layer of Certainly Celery and the circles in the background are also of that color.  They were punched and then crumpled up to give them some texture.  I snuck them in behind the ribbons then I popped up the flowers and added the leaves.

I took a peak at the gallery and there are some real beauties over there.  This I'm afraid, is going to be rather harsh compared to some of the lighter and softer cards I've seen.  I think I need to find my Teapot Tuesday rhythm again!  Oh, and if you look at the ribbons just right, you might see how the pattern forms a couple of hearts.  Kind of reminds me of our garden gate. 

Punched Up Thank You Notes

I had a number - more than 30 - thank you notes to write after Christmas.  Some people have said that Thank You's are not necessary for all gifts.  Well, I like to thank the staff members and the students and their families for the gifts I receive for the holidays, even the smallest of them like a candy bar.  I had to draw the line at creating this number of cards from scratch though. 

What I did was purchase some blank inside notecards from the $1.50 bins at Mike's and even got some on clearance for half that price.  I like to "punch up" the notecards with a little extra creativity.

This.......

Becomes this with a bird punched from silver glitter paper and brushed silver cardstock wings.

And this....................................

Becomes this with a red glitter paper punched flower with a brushed gold punched center. 

I know it may not look like much of a difference in the pictures, but IRL they are so much prettier with those sparkly additions popped up.

There are so many blank notecards out there that you can really add that extra something too!  Hope you give it a try.

The Raptor Trust (Part 1)

Just before Christmas there was an article in the newspaper about the Raptor Trust.  The Raptor Trust is a rehabilitation hospital for raptors and an educational center for humans to learn more about them.  During the week before Christmas there had been a break-in on one of the outdoor cages and a little owl was stolen.  Like some of the other residents, this owl was permanently disabled and needed constant attention so a plea was made in the paper for the culprit(s) to return the owl - no questions asked - in order to spare his life.  Thankfully, it worked and he was returned to the Trust. 

It was very sad thinking that someone who probably wanted the owl for themself or perhaps wanted to give it to someone as a gift for Christmas might be actually responsible for the bird dying.  We were so glad to see that the issue had been resolved.  We have visited the Raptor Trust before, many years ago, and in fact, when Christopher was a Cub Scout, we had arranged for them to come to a Pack Meeting and make a presentation.  At that time Christopher had his picture taken with the owl that they brought and it was in the local paper.  (I think I'll have to locate that picture!)

We pass by the Raptor Trust when we get our annuals from the Great Swamp Nursery in the spring and have meant to go back and look around, but with the recent newspaper article and the fact that our local raptors are keeping all the songbirds from our feeders we thought it might be a good trip during the holiday break, so we bundled up today and headed up there. 

The outdoor buildings are solid on two or three sides and the other sides and top are enclosed with chain-link fencing with a layer of some sort of nylon netting on the inside, presumably to keep smaller birds and animals out of there.  It was more than a little difficult getting good pictures through that netting, so if they look blurry or hazy at all you'll know why.  I've tried to pick out some of the better ones. 

I should have noted the names of the birds as I was taking the pictures because I'm not remembering all the different species just by the pictures but I didn't think that there would be so many or that I would be taking 100 pictures today.  Here you see several hawks, a great-horned owl, a snowy owl, and a peregrine falcon.

I'll have more to share at a later date, but in the meantime, those of you that live locally, if you're looking for a little diversion on the weekends coming up, check it out.  They ask for a minimal $2.00 donation to go in and look around which is worth the trip there, though you are free to donate more should you wish. 

Under the Tree - Creativity

Under the tree I found some new black Zentangle tiles, white gel pen, and white charcoal marker.  Also under the tree were some new "sidelights" for my light box so hopefully my photos will look better with less shadows. 

I didn't do one of the refective posts that I've seen many bloggers doing this year.  Looking back through my blog posts for 2011 brought back some good memories though.  I have set some personal goals for this year and hopefully I will be sharing the end product of some of these goals on a regular basis.  But for now here is my first creative project of the year. 

Happy 2012