The Best is Yet to Come!

Good Morning All!

I just wanted to show you a few of the things my Aunt Jane gave me yesterday during our first (of many to come) craft day!

 Here is my haul! Man all kinds of stuff I love, but didn't have...maps, postcards, stamps, monopoly pieces...even ration stamps!

As you can see, "Enter Text", I tried to add a watermark, but couldn't get it to work correctly...I will keep on until I figure it out, lol!

My Aunt and Uncle have a load of old postcards! I chose a few I really liked, some are very old, with postage marks and spidery handwritten messages!

Here are a few of the old maps, most are from National Geographic magazines! I am very excited to have my own stash of maps, because Joseph (my 16 yr old son) has a whole box of these maps that he refuses to let me craft with!

There are several wax paper bags filled with old  postage stamps! Love, love, love!                      

Here are reproduction photos, I know exactly what I am going to do with these! You will have to check back to see!

Most of the above items were saved from my Grandparents belongings,

Nettie Bell and William Silvernail.

The Silvernails owned a dry cleaning business, and my grandfather picked up the most amazing things during his delivery route! They loved everything antique, their house "tinkled" when you walked through it, because of their cut glass and crystal collections.

We had such fun!

 My Aunt Jane and Uncle David Chris are both artists. They love all things neat and vintage.

 My Uncle Dave works with wood, carving images straight from his imagination! Amazingly lifelike in every detail, human forms and faces, animals such as whales and flounder, all the way to whimsical and fantastic hot air balloons, and Mr. Toad in the cutest clothes ever!

Aunt Jane, on the other hand, works with paper, pen and pencil, fabric, paint and glittery objects to create mixed media pieces, altered books, quilts, and Artist Trading Cards among a whole bunch of other creative endeavors!

The Best is Yet to Come

Here is the card I made with some of the items, in the close up you can see the old postage mark, 1941!, the red stamps, and the buttons came from my grandparents dry cleaners! I can just imagine the clothes the buttons came of off, blouses, ladies dresses, coats, and work uniforms!

I named it "the best is yet to come", because my Aunt and I have many more craft dates planned.

Also, super cool!, my Uncle has promised to teach me to solder!

xoxo

PK

Cute Cards

Good Morning All!

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

I really believe that it does take a village!  I used vintage book page, from a book I found recently printed in a foreign language, the little girl and boy stamps from Pink Persimmon, October Afternoon paper, and printed the quote from my computer.

I actually created two of these cards, one for each of my two sons Confirmation sponsors...I am so glad that these special people are in our "village"!

Who are your special people in your village? Write back and let me know!

xoxo, Paula

Happy Mothers Day Weekend!

Whew! It has been a whirlwind week! 1 sick kid, 2 kids made Confirmation, 3 finals, 1 flat tire, and  the dog, well maybe you don't want to read what the dog did!

I am so glad for this weekend to arrive. It's raining here in Texas, so my home is full of rambunctious boys, bustling around, getting on each others nerves!

Hoping the sun comes out and they will run out to play in the mud. In an effort to stay out of their way, I have been in my craft room this morning. I made another "Happy 4th" banner!

I hand painted the letters and background with acrylic craft paint. The flowers were made from upcycled fabric, old shirts and napkins, the blue twill ribbon I used to string the banner pieces together is new though.

Most of the buttons, like the ones above, were from the jar full of old buttons featured in my last post!

I am thinking I just might keep this banner for myself!

xoxo PK

My Favorite Crafter Artist

* SQUEAL *  I just recieved a package from my Aunt Jane (a fellow artist also)!

 An autographed copy of Lisa Pace's Delight in the Seasons

I am so excited! I want to just pour over the book, and absorb all the good techniques Lisa Pace has to share. Her first book is a standard guide for me Delight in the  Details.

This book is wonderful. I found Pink Persimmon stamps among many other wonderful products in this book. I also credit my love of glitter to this book and Lisa Pace!

This is Lisa Paces newest book! Again, filled with all sorts of new products and ideas I never knew about!

So a big Thank You to Aunt Jane and Lisa Pace!

XOXO, PK

Tip Toe Thru Tuesdays Mothers Day Give Away

 

Wow! Please check out

Tiaras and Bowties and Crayon Freckles

Tip Toe Thru Tuesdays

 

MOTHERS DAY GIVE AWAY!!!

Look to the right and click on the second button to go straight to the site and register!

You will find one of my Banners included in the giveaway. It is "LOVE" handpainted, with sweet flowers made from a creamy, pale yellow, vintage linen napkin I rescued from a local thrift shop, and garnished with vintage buttons.

The vintage buttons were purchased from a new antique mall in our local town of Sour Lake, Texas with the money I made from my first banner sale!

Here are a few of my favorites!

Hop on over to Tip Toe Thru Tuesdays and see all the goodies you can register to recieve!

They would make purr-fect Mothers Day presents for someone special...or dont tell anyone you won and keep them all for yourself!

Luv ya! PK

Linking Up !

Hey guys! Guess what?

As I was hopping from blog to blog, I came across a cute blog, Tiaras and Bowties. I read through a few posts, and found the site to very down to earth and heartwarming. Well, I saw that they also have a link up...Every Tuesday you can link one of your posts/projects, etc with two blogs that co-host the link party, Tiaras and Bowties and Crayon Freckles. They then pick from the links several items to feature the following week.

It is called "Tip Toe Thru Tuesday with Crayon Freckles and Tiaras and Bowties"

Please go by and check it out!

I followed Kimberly's easy instructions and figured out how to link up, and grab a button!

And...

My link was chosen to be a feature! It is my Dream banner project, Which was a super easy project to accomplish, and can be replicated easily, so I think it is the perfect project of mine to be chosen.

I placed Tip Toe Tuesdays button on my side bar...go by and check it out!

And a great big Thank You XOXO to Tiaras and Bowties, and Crayon Freckles!!!

Bittersweet

 I make art, because it makes me happy. Sometimes, the items I make coincide with an event, and are appropriate, so I will give them away; a card, or banner usually. However, I have been presented with an opportunity: potentially sell my crafts.
 I am excited, yet also dread this. The recipients of my crafts love me, therefore they support what I do. As I pondered what items to present to the shop that will be handling my art, I thought, "what if nobody likes my stuff?" "What if they don't like 1/2 of what I show?" ....
 And then I realized, I was being a half glass empty kind of girl...I don't want to be that kind of girl, I will think positive, a glass half full, if they like 1/2 of my items, then that's a good thing!

 Another thing that occurred to me...I am going to miss my art! I usually give my crafts to my family. And they keep them. I get to see them every time I visit their homes. My Mom has a big stash of cards I have made for her...my daughter-in-law has all their cards displayed on the chicken wire frame I made for her. If I sell my things, they will be gone forever...

 So, here are a few pix of the cards I will be selling, just in case someone likes them well enough to buy them, I can look back on this post and see them!

 Basic Grey paper, vintage book pages, Pink Persimmon stamp, vintage buttons, the pink button came off my grandmothers housecoat many years ago...I remember watching her cut them off and add them to her button jar!

 Pink Persimmon stamps, the banner and Happy lettering....the flowers and hearts at the bottom were a little stamp from the dollar bin at Michael's. I embellished with book page leaves, colored pencils and markers

 Basic Grey papers, and Pink Persimmon Stamps

This is one of my favorite cards, made with one of my favorite stamps, the little girl from Pink Persimmon. I saw this stamp in Lisa Paces' " It's in the Details" craft how to book, and searched online until I found it! I love Pink Persimmon stamps!


 So, I am thrilled to be asked to sell my items, it is also bittersweet...my pieces are like good friends, I will miss them.

Sweet Banner

Yay! The weekend is here...time for some relaxation! The weather is lovely in Texas, warm and sunny, although a bit windy! After my sons ballgame (he scored his first home run today), I decided to craft a little.

I have put away my fabric for a while and gone back to crafting with paper. I created two girly girl banners, perfect for a new baby or little girls room.

Sweet and Angel Banners

I made my banners with My Minds Eye products, chipboard letters from Basic Grey and Recollections from Michael's, prisms from Hobby Lobby, vintage buttons, hemp twine, and vintage ribbon.

I used My Minds Eye precut banner piece, from the Lost and Found collection.             

Using the Martha Stewart score guide, I scored my 1 1/2 " x 12" paper strip every 1/4th inch. You then fold accordion style on each score line, glue the edges together to create a circle. Actually like a little tube.

When this piece is pushed flat, a pinwheel is created. You have to glue it together quickly, or it will pop back up....

I use a hot glue dollop on the backside, and add a circle of scrap paper to hold it together. When I make these with thick paper, I will place a scrap circle over the front center also to make it stronger

Here is the pinwheel front. I also have a Big Shot Die by Tim Holtz that cuts these out already perforated...the are really cute too, but are rather small...I like make really large pinwheels with 2 paper strips - 2 1/2 in wide, and scoring every 1/2 in, gluing the strips together...and you end up with a pinwheel 5 in across.

The next steps are basically just layering, and embellishing. I kept these banners pretty simple. The paper products already had some glitter, and for the "Sweet" banner I used a glitter chipboard letter. The color is a brighter pink, and it really pops!

Here I just punched holes so the pieces could be strung together...I tried just about every ribbon I had in my stash...

Finally, I went for simple...a plain white hemp cord. I threaded vintage buttons through in between each banner piece. This was not only for the look, but also to keep the banners from sliding around on top of each other.

On the "Angel" banner, I used a vintage silky cord to string the banner pieces together, and a piece of embroidery floss to string the crystal pieces (the crystal holes were too small for the cord). Also, I used cream chipboard letters, for a softer look.

Below are a few other projects I made...

A Christmas "Peace" banner for my Mom

Joy Banner

Party Decorations

These are the large pinwheels I mentioned earlier in this post. These pinwheels were strung together to make a birthday decoration for my granddaughter, along with the "Happy Birthday" banner made out of coasters below...

I hope you all are having a relaxing weekend also!

xoxo

PK

This project shared here:

Creating my way to success

Sugar Bee Crafts

Odds and Ends

Our Easter weekend celebration went so well! We had a lovely time, lunching with all my children and my Mom, where I ate soooo much! I thought I would post a few pix of Easter, and then add a few pictures of past cards I created...

Here are our Easter eggs are cooling after boiling, so my boys can dye them...and below are the eggs made into deviled eggs after the hunt!

Bunny Garland

I made a sweet simple bunny garland for our celebration... 

I drew a simple bunny outline on a scrap of thick paper, traced it onto a multitude of pastel colors, cut them out, and attached them to yellow gingham ribbon with tiny clips

A Sampling of my Cards

Below are a few of my past cards I handmade for my Mom...

 This sweet card was made with my fave, Pink Persimmon stamps, the little girl, wagon, and Happy Birthday banner.

 A Christmas card, I honestly do not remember the products

(this was a card from two Christmas's past)

 My pink and orange phase!

The crown was made with Spellbinders die, inked with Stampin Up inks, and then I used Stickles and baby pearls to glitz it up! The orange and pink tag in the background, along with the pink zebra print ribbon id Theresa Collins.

Sew Sweet

Ahh, this is one of favorite cards, I actually saw a very similar card in a stamp magazine, and searched online to find the stamp, and then dug through my scrap box to find papers close to the picture...

I like the card because I have many "sew sweet" memories of my mother and grandmother sewing for me! When I would complain of boredom, my grandmother would actually stop what she was doing, search through her quilt scraps and sew me up a new Barbie outfit lickitysplit!

I was one lucky little girl!