Happy Birthday Mom!

 As usual, I'm running a little behind with my family gifts:).  My mom's birthday was February 23rd and I'm finally finished with her birthday present.  I created a configuration to celebrate the life of this amazing woman.  I apologize for the picture heavy blogpost, but there's a lot to this labor-of-love project.

I started this project with a 7 Gypsies Mini Library Drawer.  This was the perfect backdrop for my mom's birthday present.  She started our church library when I was in high school and is still working as our church librarian.  My mom is never without a book nearby.  She instilled in me the love of reading and has always been the biggest champion of education.  It's no wonder that all four of her children ended up involved in education:  PTO presidents, tutors, teachers and administrators. So you will see words, book pages, and letters as an integral part of this project.   With that in mind, I'm entering this in Country View Challenges Paper Chase Challenge and  The Artistic Stamper's March Challenge ~ Letters, Words and Numbers

 I covered the exterior of the drawer with a fairly thick layer of gesso.  I love the texture you can get from the brush strokes.   I then painted it with a coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  I adhered some strips of  Tim Holtz tissue wrap (memory definitions) with Ranger Matte Multi Medium.  I added some grunge with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I finished the top with a bookplate die cut from gesso-covered cardstock.  I used some alcohol ink to give the bookplate a teal color.  Then I sanded the edges, added some Walnut Stain Distress ink, and then covered the whole think with multi medium.

The front facing was painted with Antique Linen and covered with Tim's Tissue Tape (love this stuff!)  Some of the drawer's was covered with grunged pattern paper and a "library" die cut.  Mom loved that!  I also did some stenciling with Antique Linen Paint using Tim's Schoolhouse stencil!

 At the very top is my one wish for my mom ... "know in your heart your are loved". 

The top shelf of the drawer is devoted to my older brothers (aren't they cute!).  I found these great "library-card" style journal pockets and fell in love with them.  I cut one to fit the top shelf and added my brothers' pic.  You can see their initials added to the shelf along with a button, light bulb and nut.  I used some more Tim Holtz paper on this shelf and his hexagon stencil(with a thin layer of modeling paste) to cover this top shelf.

The next shelf is my favorite.  I found a great locket from Industrial Chic and added my mom and dad's wedding photo (from over 60 years ago).  Along with the locket is an owl pendant suspended in a Tim Holtz bird cage, some pearls that my mom strung for my senior prom dress, and metal heart.  The shelf is covered from the February 23rd devotion from "Streams in the Desert" devotion book (one of my Mom's favorite books). 

 Yes, the next shelf belongs to me and my youngest brother.  Our initials are displayed as well.    You will see the shelf is covered with some library information and definitions tape.

 The bottom shelf is devoted to the library and books.  She used an old typewriter to type up the library cards and accession numbers for the books.  I love this die cut from Tim Holtz and Sizzix!  The background is actually and old library card pocket from a church library discarded book.  I lightly stamped it with a Tim Holtz classic stamp.

I added some Tim Holtz Idea-ology metal feet.  I used Caramel alcohol ink and Broken China Distress Paint to add some color to the feet.

I seriously have to thank Sizzix for major help with the exterior sides and back of this project.  I glued together three copies of each die cut that was adhered to the sides and back.  After all of the die cuts were glued into place on the drawer, I covered everything with a thick coat of gesso.  Since I was up to my eyeballs in paste at times, I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Paste Challenge . I then used Antique Linen and Broken China Distress Paints, various colors of distress ink and multi medium to add color.  I also did some stamping, covered surfaces with paper, tape and remnant rubs, and used some altered metal embellishments to decorate the exterior.

This side was devoted to my Mom's love of music.  Before she married my dad, my mom sang in a gospel trio and she continues to sing in the church choir today. 

The back is devoted to my mom's love of birds.  She has several bird feeders that she watches from her kitchen window.   The heart on this side says "good life".  That is what my mom (and Dad) made for our family. 

 The final exterior side is devoted to my mom's sewing.  She made most of my clothes when I was a child.  Although she doesn't consider herself an artist, I think I get a great deal of my creativity from her.

 
 One of Tim's On the Edge Dies is the focal point of this side.  I decorated the scissors to look like the metal pair that my mom used for years in her sewing room.  I covered these with some of Tim's paper that has dress patterns on it. 

My mom used her creativity everyday to make our home a great place to be a kid.  We really were blessed.

I'm going to leave you with one last photo of the front of this project and a very heartfelt "Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you!!"  -- Mary Elizabeth

Valentines Day with Tim ... Holtz February 2014 Tag

Happy Valentines Day to you all.  I hope the day is filled with people that you love.  My take on Tim's February 2014 tag is also filled with love, along with hugs and kisses, hearts, lots of red and even Cupid and his arrow.  If you haven't done so already, go take a look at Tim's blog and his February tag tutorial for all the details.  Gorgeous!  This month's tag has stenciling, embossing, and that amazing chalkboard effect ...  just loads of inspiration to get your hands inky.

I'm including a few closeups of my February tag.  At the top, I've included my "x" and "o" kisses and hugs from some of Tim's Idea-ology cirque alphabet stickers (part of my January win prize pack -- thanks Tim!!).  I also had a red gem brad that I absolutely had to include with this tag tie.  I thought it really went well with the sheen given off by the clear embossing over the stenciled harlequin pattern.

 I love the stamp that Tim used for his sentiment.  While waiting to purchase that stamp, I decided just to go with the simplicity of "love" for my chalkboard sentiment.  I added some flourishes for detail.

 However, I just couldn't leave well enough alone.  I wanted to add something to the chalkboard.  I went for some hearts cut out of dictionary pages and then drew some hearts on them with my Distress Markers.  After adhering them to my "chalkboard", I outlined them with a black archival pen.

 

 At the bottom of the page, Cupid is (die cut out of some romantic music score) is pointing to love.  His silver arrow charm has pierced through my Distress glittered grungeboard heart.

I need to get back to work.  Hugs to you all on this wonderful day.  Mary Elizabeth

Remembering a Paris Romance

Instead of your traditional Valentine's Day card, I'm opting for something a little different to celebrate all things heart and love.   I started to think about how interesting it might be to buy an old book at a flea market and find someone's pressed memories of a long-ago romance.  That's the inspiration for this piece.

I started the project by taking a piece of Tim Holtz Distress Core'Dinations CardStock in pink and embossed it with Tim Holtz's Eiffel Tower Texture Fade by Sizzix.  I used a Seedless Preserves Distress Marker and a water brush to add a darker "purple" color in the recesses.  Then I took a thin black pen and added some shading.  It didn't give me deep enough "shadows", so I went back and added some thicker shading with the Seedless Preserves Distress Marker.  I lightly sanded the raised surfaces and distressed the edges.  I went over those edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink using a blending tool. The embossed cardstock was adhered to a piece of printed paper with music on it. 

Now to add all of the fun memories.  There's a necklace charm, hung lovingly on an open heart (that has been distressed with sandpaper and Vintage Photo Distress Ink).

We have a vintage description of the Eiffel Tower (also distressed with sandpaper and Vintage Photo Distress Ink) paper clipped with an old paper clip.

A piece of rosette trim from a very special dress (from Tim Holtz trim colored with Victorian Velvet and Old Paper Distress ink) was added to the top of the cardstock.  The top and bottom of the music printed paper was trimmed with some velvet ribbon that I distressed with sandpaper to make it look like it has been taken out and handled several times.  At the top, a metal medallion was added to the velvet ribbon. 

 At the bottom of the music printed paper, we have more velvet ribbon.  It's topped with a chipboard embellishment that I painted with Antique Linen Distress Paint and spritzed with water to give the element a sort of white-washed look.  I sanded the raised elements and edges.  Then I stamped center with "amour" in Coffee archival ink.  I gave the entire thing a light coat of Walnut Stain Distress Ink using a blending tool.

I stamped Paris with the same coffee ink on some printed paper that I distressed and some tassels that I distressed by pulling some strings (as if the tassels had been caught on something during the many times the piece was handled).

Then there is the letter that has been folded and unfolded and some pressed pansies from underneath the Eiffel Tower.  All of these pieces are backed by floral vintage paper to showcase all of the memories.  With all of this distressing, I'm entering this into the Artistic Stamper "use Distress" Challenge.

And that is how I saw this very special Paris romance remembered.  I hope you have some special Valentine memories this week to chronicle and save for years to come!  -- Mary Elizabeth

A Small Slice of Home

Welcome to my newest followers and thanks to all my friends for your kind comments.  It's so good to be back in the creative loop.  I have found some time to play in my craftroom and loving every minute of it! 

This latest piece comes with a story.  For some time now, I've been interested in the genre of "primitive crafts".  They harken back to days when people made crafts to bring beauty and enjoyment to a home of meager beginnings.  When you don't have much, things that we typically discard today were kept, reused, re-purposed, and rarely thrown away until there wasn't anything left to throw away. These craft pieces have an organic feel to them simply because they are made with found objects, pieces of someone's life (that could no longer be used for its intended purpose, like a burlap bag that ended up with too many holes), scraps of this and that leftover from a sewing project (a handmade dress created from fabric purchased with nickels saved over months and months), and free objects found in nature.

The reason I resonate so much primitive crafts and the history behind them is because my father grew up in this sort of environment.  My Dad's family were caretakers of a mountain in hills of North Carolina.  They were given a small cabin on the top of the mountain where they took care of live stock and made sure that no one else trespassed on the mountain.  My grandparents, great-grandmother, and three children (my Dad and his older brother and sister) lived in a house with no electricity and no running water.  They lived hand-to-mouth and appreciated the gifts that nature provided them.

My grandmother, a Godly woman who loved providing for her family, worked hard to make this cabin a home.  I thought of her a great deal as I worked on this project.  My family still has the teddy bear that she made out of scraps for my Dad when he was a child.  She tried to teach me to sew and always had some sort of hand-crafted "play pretties" (or toys) for me to play with as I grew up.  She made me one of my first dolls (which I still have), a stuffed clown named "Sammy".

Anyway, here is my first attempt at some sort of primitive craft.  I thought about some of the things that my grandmother may have had for such a craft as I chose things from my stash.  I started with some burlap (from a small gift bag that I had) and some paint.  Now I confess, I used some of Tim Holtz's paint (Granny never had anything that good to work with!) and some of Tim's stamps to create my design.  But she would have had several buttons, threads and pins hanging around to embellish such a project.  I added some lace around the edges to soften the burlap.  This could have come from an old slip that was too worn to wear anymore or left over from a dress that she made for someone else.

I thought about the format of this project and decided to do a framed wall-hanging. To give a more rustic feel, I used the back side of the frame. Then I was left with the question of what to put in the background.  I remember my Dad talking to me about using newspaper to stuff in the holes of the cabin walls to keep the wind from blowing in on cold winter days.  So, I took some vintage newsprint, covered it with paper circle masks (a primitive shape), and roughly painted it with Walnut Stain Distress Paint.  After I took the circle masks off the newsprint,  I used some Antique Linen Distress paint to wash over and soften the newsprint circles.

To continue the circle theme, I grabbed more buttons, the top of a spool, and a pop bottle cap (topped with some of Tim's vintage paper) for embellishments.  I used some threads that I pulled from the burlap, brown rope, some muslin fabric (from an old laundry bag) that I stamped with a TH checkerboard stamp and  Walnut Stain Distress Paint, and a vintage safety pin that used to finish off the above corner embellishment. 

Simple house shapes and stars are also popular in primitive crafts.  A hand-cut star adorns this Sizzix Tim Holtz Artful Dwelling house that I die-cut out of Core'Dinations card stock and then backed with cardboard.  Each of my houses were painted with Distress Paint (Walnut Stain above, Broken China and Seedless Preserves), sanded, and then edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  You may notice some vines connecting my button embellishment down to the houses in piece.  The mountain that my Dad grew up on had several wild grape vines that they would swing and play on.  I didn't have any wild grape vines handy, so I went out and grabbed some cuttings off my Wisteria vine.  I love the movement it gives.

I decorated the vine cuttings on the right side of my hanging with more scraps of stamped muslin.  I really love this look.

I used some Tim Holtz Idea-ology grungeboard elements to spell out the word "Home".  I actually cut the letters a little to make them a bit more stream-lined and rustic.

 My granny made that cabin a home for her family.  I hope I can contribute to a sense of home for my family with my crafts as well.  I have to thank Jenny (Buttons) for her "Just Three Colors" challenge over at Our Creative Corner.  The color choice blue, brown and purple really gave me the impetus for my primitive crafts project.  This has been such a great stroll down memory lane and a time to be thankful for my family and what they've taught me.  -- Mary Elizabeth

Looking Ahead with Tim ... Holtz January 2014 Tag

I am going to just make it under the wire for Tim's January 2014 Tag.  If you haven't taken part in any of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags Challenges, you really should give it a shot.   I've learned so much and have been so inspired by his creativity.  This month's tag was no exception.  In fact, it has to be my favorite tag to date.  Tim started off the year with a "time" theme.  He reminded us to "remember the now".  Thanks Tim!!!  What a fabulous theme and amazing vintage-techniques tutorial.  I'm not going to go into all the steps.  You can see it all here on his January 2014 Tag Tutorial.

As you can see, my tag has some bonus features :)  My take on Tim's January tag took a detour to the future.  After extended illness and a trip to the Chiari Institute right before Christmas ended with another surgery on my agenda, I thought about taking another look at 2014 through a different lens.  Instead of bemoaning the trials, I wanted to bask in the treasures that 2014 can bring to me.  So here is my very own Steampunk "Pre-ViewMaster" and the tag containing my personal 2014 futureview disc. 

As you can see from January tag, I see hope (a brand new surgical procedure that can help my symptoms), courage (for the hard months of work before my surgery and the hard months of healing after), laughter ( life always has its silly moments), and inspiration (because I know I can always count on this community's creativity to inspire me).  This year looks pretty good to me.

Here are a few closeups:

 I wish this post could be a little longer, but I am pretty tired tonight.  So I will leave you with this thought .... "what will you see" in your own 2014 futuredisc?  -- Mary Elizabeth

A is for ... At Last ...

Things at work have settled down and I am finally getting around to completing some projects that I started ... and stopped ... and started again.  And that explains the "At Last" part of the title of this post.  At last, I'm finally finishing one of my unfinished projects.  It's about time!  You see ... this is a birthday card for my sister-in-law.  Her birthday was in mid-December.  Sigh!  Better late than never.

 

Once again, I've been playing with my Distress Markers, a detail water brush, and some watercolor paper.  I love Tim's blueprint stamps.  I used some glitter paint pens to add some hand painted borders around each stamped image.  I then used a square Die from Sizzix to cut out the images (ok ... the "present" image is a little off-center, but at least I didn't have to cut the squares by hand).  The fun part came when I started searching for some coordinating paper from my stash to put in the background of my card.  I found paper that I don't remember buying (sigh ... confessions of a hoarder!)  After that, I went through my stash and found some ribbon, gems and other embellishments.  I completed the card with some punched stars from extra paper (outlined with Distress Markers and adhered with foam dots and squares to add more dimension to the card) and a fussy cut stamped "party" that I colored with Distress Markers.  Voila!  A birthday card.

So, to celebrate the completion of this project, I am entering it in the "A is for ..." Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (since 'At Last' I finished this card) and Claudia's "No More Shopping Sins" Challenge at Our Creative Corner (since I managed to finish the card using forgotten paper along with many other items from my stash and without committing another shopping sin).  Thanks to all the wonderful challenges and their Design Team members who continue to inspire us to create :)

And now if I can just finish my sister-in-law's birthday gift.  Alas, that must be the topic of a later post.  Happy creating to you all and thanks for stopping by.  --  Mary Elizabeth

Let the Snowflakes Fly!!!

Ok ... so I took the idea of "flying snowflakes" rather literally this week when I added some wings to my focal snowflake for this piece.  We have seen quite a few snowflakes lately in the NC mountains.  It feels like the wind has added extra sets of wings to them these days.  So, here is my attempt to celebrate (rather that complain about) the beauty of the flying frozen flakes.

Here is the completed project.  I think the swirls look a little too much like horns (even though I really meant them to be eddies of air currents behind the fast moving snowflake). 

I've just finished our first week of classes at the university and I'm pretty tired.  I really didn't feel up to spending time in my craft room, so I packed up my Distress Markers and waterbrushes and left them beside my bed.  I love snow and I have several snowflake stamps. One evening, I stamped some watercolor paper with these snowflakes and added some Prima swirl and wing stamps.  I spent some time before I crashed each night to add some color with  Distress Markers (just love these!!!) along with a few  glitter, archival and gel pens (the focal snowflake was outlined with a metallic silver gel pen.) I'm finding ways to create that don't require hours in my craft room.  Ah ... joy!

 Here are a few more close ups:

 

 

I have the day off from work tomorrow.  Hopefully I will have some energy to expend in my craft room and make the rounds to your blogs.  Wishing you all the best!  -- Mary Elizabeth