Dolphin Dreams

A few weeks ago, Anna, one of my fabulous SBS12 Sisters, posted a lovely card. I absolutely fell in love with the image, Dolphin Dreams by Stamp Oasis. Anna being the fabulous woman that she is mailed me the stamp so that I could play with it.

Life got pretty hectic at the time the stamp graced my home so I am just now getting around to creating my pieces. I almost forgot what it felt like just to let go and stamp…thank you Anna for giving me the tool to take my mind off of life for a weekend.

Here is what I came up with.

The first piece is my favorite, “Under the Sea” I used a background stamp from Stamp Out Cute to create the underwater plant life effect. The paper is various shades of Sparkeling H2O’s sponged on, so of course it is all shimmery. I painted the Dolphin Dreams image using the same shades of H2O’s. Cut everything, mounted Dolphin Dreams on black cardstock and 3D mounted the plant life. I added round page pebbles to achieve the bubble effect.



The Second one is my DH’s favorite. “In the Stars” I silver embossed the stars, hero arts, all over a dark blue piece of cardstock. On a separate sheet of white cardstock I stamped Dolphin Dreams multiple times. I painted all the dolphins using sparkeling H2O’s, one of the images I colored the woman in using colored pencils. I cut out that image in it’s entirety and attached 3 blue star charms. The other images I cut the dolphins out. Along the bottom of the card I weaved blue toile, in attempt to look like clouds, and have the dolphins jumping out of them mounted with 3D tape.



And the last one, my least favorite and the one I spent the most time on…always works out that way…Anyway, I glued wood sticks together and painted them with green and blue alcohol inks. I then painted over that with blue shimmery paint. Next I stamped various shell’s from Paula’s Kit Club using a dark blue ink. I sanded this down.

On a separate sheet of paper I stamped Dolphin Dreams numerous times, colored one image with color pencils and another I painted the dolphins and coated them with Diamond glaze. I cut the dolphins out and mounted them on the colored image. I then mounted that onto the blue planks and surrounded the image with various sizes of blue rhinestones. DH drilled small holes in the plank for me to place wire through, I added some beads and thread then curled the exec wire and placed a dolphin where the wire meet at the top.

I think that I will continue playing with this last piece…I have some ideas that may make me happier with it.

Thank you Anna for allowing me to play with your fabulous stamp.
Enjoy
Caro

Divas are a Girl's (& Guy's) Best Friend--April Diva Swap

I received my Diva box! For those of you who do not know what the Diva’s are it is a group of PBSers that exchange a box of goodies each month. Here are this month, April’s guidelines…from the most awsomest hostess with the Mostess Hunter…

This month, you will be required to send at least one item relating to either something floral (flowers, an item decorated with flowers, floral scent, etc) OR an April Fool’s gift (gag gift, humor related game, puzzle, book, etc). You may send more of course, but at least one. The minimum amount required for your Diva box is $25.

I was paired up with Nita…a Rockin woman! And this is what she sent me

There is an adorable card with flip flops on it (some of the flip flops have glitter accents!) and a sweet note…

-2 bags of Starbucks! Yum…I was almost out, now I don’t have to go to the grocery store
-A bag (small brown lunch bag) of lose leaf Darjeeling Tea
-A giant box of Whoppers and then a small box of the New Reeses’ Peanut Butter Whoppers and a small box of the Strawberry milkshake whoppers…Can’t wait to try them.
-A bag of hot tamales…already eating those J
-A Kokopelli bookmark from Arizona (metal tortuous shell colored)
-Aveno Daily moisturizing lotion…use this all the time!
-Dove body wash…I needed this too…and I need a shower (been at the park all day)
-400 Rhinestone Stickers! I love love love these!
-A gorgeous wooden box with an Indian woman on the front reaching up into a tree picking fruit…very pretty. Inside is lined with bright blue velvet.
-A glitter cards book and kit
-Gerber daisies…which I have been enjoying since last Friday when they were deliverd to my doorstep
-3 Wish List Books Jumper, The Big over Easy and Abundance

Kudzu received The shining stars pink poodle. Once I got it opened she carried it around the house hugging her tightly. So cute!

Thanks Nita…You Rock!

The following pictures are of the box that I sent to Nita...

This is what she wrote about the box on the Diva Board

Anyways, to come back to my great Diva box from Caroline, it had this pretty painting outside with flowers painted along the bottom edge.
Inside were silk flowers.
Then A very pretty pillow with Zoya's name and pink flowers painted on it and pink and black feathers all around the edges. Zoya also got a crown-shaped keychain, fit for a princess.

There were also 6 Oscar shaped cookies which Zoya declared to be "sooo good".

Next was a wonderful hand-made card reminding me of summer on the beach with a really sweet note in it.

Then there were all these goodies for me!!! Caroline sent me:
-Six Diva cards with envelopes - awesome!!! Caroline even included 6 first class stamps.
-Brand new Terminator (Special Edition) and Terminator 2 (Extreme Edition) DVDs - Love these!!!
-WL book - When Red is Black by Qiu Xiaolong - Yay!!
-A tea-for-two tin of Earl Grey with Bergamot tea silk infusers from Tea Forte
-A set of two ceramic trays for servings silk infusers in celery green from Tea Forte
-And last but definitely not least "Gift of Persia" scentennial drawer liners - AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Celebrity Bunko

Last Night was Celebrity Bunko and boy did we have a blast! In attendance we had (from left to right) Jaclyn Smith aka Kelly Garrett (from Charles’s Angels), Tom Cruise aka Joel Goodsen (from Risky Business), Paris Hilton, Dolly Parton, Ellen Degeneres, Portia de Rossi, Britney Spears and Tina Turner. Behind the camera is Mary Kate Olsen.

If you don’t know what Bunko is…go check it out HERE…it is fabulously simple dice game that give us an excuse to get together one a month and roll for prizes.

Speaking of prizes last nights winners were.
Most Bunko’s = Ellen Degeneres…she picked wine glasses & Glitter Tart Design coasters.
Most Wins = Portia de Rossi…bottle or Red wine and a wine opener
Most Losses = Kelly Garrett…copy of Girl with a Pearl Earring book and DVD
Most Mini Bunko’s = Dolly Parton…2 desert mixes and a pink spatula from Stonewall Kitchen.
Last Bunko = Mary Kate Olsen…Glitter Tart Designs Cards

But to top it all off…everyone was a winner…I gave out swag bags to all the celebrities that graced my house with their presence. Everyone received a note pad and pen, Glitter Tart Designs card, Homemade Oscar shaped cookie, chap stick, Kleenex, Bayer Asprin, and a decorated bar of soap.

Thanks ladies for making it such a fun night. Can’t wait to see ya next month!

Scarf

I finished my scarf last Wednesday but since I have been running around like a chicken with her head cut off I have not been able to upload the images until now. I really liked this lesson although I do have to admit that I have never been more scared to stamp on a piece of fabric before in my life…and I had plenty of extra scarves…I think I could have messed up about a dozen times and still had scarves to work with LOL

For those of you that missed my pillow…this scarf is for an online class I am taking through Joggles taught by the fabulous Lenna Andrews.



I decided to use the square scarf but there are a billion different sizes and shapes out there to choose from. I took this wrought because I typically do not wear scarves and know that this shape would be easy to turn into a pillow if I decided that was what I wanted to do later.

I followed the same stamping instruction that I did for the pillow (you will have to take the class to get this fabulous info) and then I drenched my scarf with ink…this was/is the scary part…you should see the mess I made, I still have ink on my fingers…I put gloves on a few minutes into the process but it was already to late…sigh…



Once my ink dried I followed the ink setting instructions and then I rinsed out the excess ink…OMG I thought I had ruined my scarf…so much ink came out but it was all good…
Scroll down to see the finished product…I really like it…

Enjoy
Caro

Adoption Prayer

A friend of mine asked if I would do something special for the prayer she had read when she adopted her son. He will have been in her family for a year come May 1st

Here is what I came up with.

Like the majority of my pieces you can not see the shimmery effect. The background is a cloud pattern with various shades of Sparkeling H2O’s starting at the top with the darkest I used and gradually getting lighter. Next I embossed the swirls using Silver Embossing powder. The Prayer is printed out on Velum (it too had sparkelys in the paper). I cut the prayer apart and attached it to the background by sewing it on with shimmery DMC floss in silver and blue. The doves were stamped, cut out and then painted with sparkeling H2O’s.

The prayer reads as follows:
Blessed art thou O Lord our God,
Who art Father/Mother to us all:
I thank thee everyday for the blessing of this child,
And for the family that thou hast created through adoption.
Lend me thy strength to build a bond of love unbreakable;
Thy wisdom to prepare this child for the path you have set before it,
And thy forgiveness for my imperfections as parent.
I ask that thee watch over the birth parents of this child,
Who by thy guidance, helped bring this miracle to pass.
And for all your children still awaiting the blessing of adoption,
We pry thee speed their journey
To the arms of the family who will love them.
Amen.

I hope she likes what I have done…blue is not a color I work with very often but I thought I needed to since she has a son…

Enjoy!
Caro

Tallulah swap Received

A few days’ ago I received four wonderful swap pieces for the Tallulah Swap hosted by Lenna Andrews with Alpha Stamps as the sponsor.

Go Here to see the pieces that I submitted for the swap.

Okay onto the marvelous works I received

From Gayle Gross I received a lovely Hot Pink Passion Fabric/Paper Post Card. She sewed on the man and woman image, the flourish, the words and the button. On top of the entire post card is hot pink tulle (giving it a marvelous effect) and she trimmed the bottom with a lovely lace and the top with a fabulous coordinating velvet ribbon…I will have to get some of this.

From Frieda Oxenham I received a fabulous Black and Red Fabric post card. The background is a black velvet with I think gold paint splattered on. I will have to ask her because I love the effect this creates, I’d love to try it out…if that is actually what she did. She sewed her womanly image and heart on (the Heart has mini beeds sewn all over!) The smaller harts along the bottom are a wonderful sticker product that you can get at Alpha Stamps.

From Shannon Sawyer I received the blue Fabric and Paper Post card. The background is blue felt. The two images with women’s faces are fabric collage sheets all other images are paper. I love the way she combined all the different textures and elements to create her piece…Although I am not a huge blue fan I find this piece the most intriguing and keep coming back and looking at it.

Last but not least…
From Vicky Martindale I received a paper post card with warm tones and fabulous Ribbons. The Word Dream is stamped along the bottom. She also covered her entire post card with Tulle, either a cream or light orange shade. It is a much tighter tulle making it hard to tell what color it even is. To hold this to her post card she used black brads so it is not tight against the card which gives a very soft overall effect. The back of hers is also stamped on with a fabulous swirl.

You can see all the participants’ pieces at Creative Swaps

For participating we all received a great collage sheet with fabulous women…I can’t wait to play with these!

Thank Lenna for hosting such a fabulous Swap and thank you Gayle, Frieda, Shannon and Vicky I love your pieces!

Caro

Fabric Painting/Stamping Pillow

My fabulous DH bought me a wonderful online class with Lenna…one of the fabulous Design Team members at Alpha Stamps. The class is an online class hosted through Joggles, my newest find for stamping supplies! Anyway, the class started last Wednesday and our first project was a stamped pillow case. Being the thriftmyster that I am I decided to learn and nock out a present at the same time. My niece’s birthday is coming up so I thought a girly pillow would be fabulous…here is what I came up with.

First I gathered all my supplies…I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do so I pulled out a slew of stamps. I had a test piece of fabric that I worked with before I settled on this design.

Living in the middle of no where really limits your supplies so instead of being able to purchase a ready made pillow cover I had to make mine from fabric, which in my opinion worked out better b/c I was able to add a fabulous black with grey fabric on the back and a boa…what little girl doesn’t love boa’s?

You can see the progression of my work with these photo’s. The only thing I think I will do next time (I am planning on making these for my other Nieces’ as well) is to leave the background white. I like the yellow but I think white will be a better contrast against the boa.

Hope you enjoy!
Caro