Cards Cards Cards

I just have some colorful eye candy for you today! I made a ton of cards using my Alpha Stamps Collage Sheets and misc other stamps and paper :) Scroll and I hope you like them. Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

Pink Cat Mask- Warning: Gold Tooth Ahead.

I did, I made another mask. A few weeks ago, actually. I'm just now getting around to posting it!

For those of you who watch that terrible (but strangely fascinating) show Toddlers and Tiaras, you might find the resemblance of my mask to Mackenzie a little unsettling. Oh man, you should have seen it before I added the mustache. It was uncanny, yet also a little awesome. 

And here is a picture of the strange pink kitty with a golden tooth with my dog, Tink, who couldn't appear less concerned...

Pop Pom Farmer Monster & a Throw Quilt

 I decided to take the plunge and make a commitment to NOT buy any new craft supplies for the next 3 months! Well, with the exception of extraordinary yard sale finds and of course, adhesives. So I set to work on my shoe box of small/medium sized fabric scraps.

 Here is the box of fabric that I turned into....

 A throw quilt! I just cut a ton of 5x5 squares and sewed them together. Then pieced together fleece remnants (that I originally bought to make stuffies, but I've got tons of sweaters to cut up for that) to serve as both the backing and the batting. I just used a straight stitch on my sewing machine to "quilt" it. The thing is kind of little. I think it's like 40x50 inches, perfect for the couch.

The edge looked like crap because I had just zig-zag-stitched the edge because I got bored and/or lazy. So the next day I got some motivation back and crocheted a border, using nearly a whole skein of forgotten stash yarn. To make the holes to crochet in, I just used the 1/16'' hole puncher part of my Crop-O-Dile to punch holes along the edge, 1 inch apart.

I had just enough yarn left over to either make a small ball of yarn that would go unused probably FOR-EV-ER, or I could continue with the stash-busting spirit and make a little pom-pom monster. The chose the latter. I made 2 pom-poms, sewed them together, then glued on some craft felt ears, paper eyes and teeth, pipe-clear arms and legs, then a wee straw hat from the stash. And of course he had to be holding a rooster feather because that's country, and I thought it went with the straw hat. I also tied a loop of yarn to the top of the hat to make him into a hanging ornament.

Anyway, much love! I feel like crap today! Here's to a better day tomorrow :)

Big Toucan Mask... and he is wearing a hat.

 I warned you... I would make a bird mask, too. Check out my giant toucan head. I am also pretty excited about his hat. I was yard sale hopping and a super nice old guy gave me the hat for free :) It was olive green, but I had to paint it some other crazy color and landed on orange. Add a big blue ostrich feather and boom, sweet hat.

I was feeling sick so I decided to put my Toucan Mask on around the house. It made me feel a little better. For some reason I feel kind of silly about making masks, which is weird because I'm ALL about being silly. Maybe it's because they're so HUGE and I haven't got many events where I can use them. Halloween, and.... um... that's it. Haha! But they are so funny and fun to make... Bobby thinks they're awesome.

Also, unrelated, but not really. I am having this idea to challenge myself to NOT BUYING any new craft supplies for 3 months (super-unique thrift shop and yard sale finds don't count! I'm talking like Hobby Lobby and Michaels stuff) and crafting my brains out to reduce my outrageous stash. And maybe put more in my Etsy Shop than just Witch Bookmarks. I feel like I haven't been making much lately because of all the busy-ness.

Should I take the de-stashing challenge?

The Language of Flowers ATC Swap

Alpha Stamps is at it again with a new kit for May and a delightful new ATC swap. this month is "The Language of Flowers"

And how fitting for May... yesterday it was April 29th and we had a lot of April showers here. I'm hoping the saying holds true and there are plenty of May flowers, particularly on my tomato plants :)

Check out those moon beads that I love so much at the top. The colors in this bead mix are my favorite...

 And I think this one is my favorite ATC of the bunch.

 Violet Ladies... So go join the swap. It'll be fun and springy!

Product List: Available at Alphastamps.com:

Language of Flowers CS

The Lovely Garden CS

Violets CS

Bead Strands (Green)

Paper Flowers Mix

Iridescent Crescent Moon Beads

Paper Roses (Orange and purple)

Big Pink Monster Mask!

Boy oh boy, have I got a backlog of projects to post! Why does blogging keep getting pushed back on my list of things to do? Because... I am busy. But hey, that's a good thing. I'm happy. Etsy sales have been real steady, I've got plenty of fun Alpha Stamps DT work to do, and I'm doing 2 callings for church. Recently got called to the Stake Young Women Presidency, and I'm still happily doing my duties as YW Secretary in our ward. Spring is a BUSY time, so many things coming up. Especially Girl's Camp... Of which I get to be in charge of teaching crafts :) 4 different projects with 100+ teenage girls. It's going to be crazy... Crazy awesome. I need to do a Camp Crafts post, because there's gonna be some cool stuff. 

Anyway, enough rambling. Let me tell you about this monster mask I made.

I finally got around to making something just for fun (of course, assignments and book reviews are fun, but I get the most jollies out of just reaching inside my head and pulling something out!) I've been wanting to build a big mask ever since Bobby showed me some Harlem Shake videos on YouTube. I wanted to make either a monster or a bird, but couldn't decide, so I asked all you fine folks on Facebook. The votes were about 50/50. But I really felt like making some polyclay teeth, so I started with monster. (I did end up making a toucan mask, too! I'll post on that soon.)

 The horns were oh-so tedious, but ended up really cool. They're just made of cut out bits of cardboard box. I drew the horn shapes first, then the circles using a ruler to measure the right sizes the ribs of the horns, then cut them all out.

Assemble, glue, and let dry! I hot-glued some round foam to the edges of the ribs to make them smoother...I used the stuff that you use to stuff into cracks and gaps in windows to keep bugs out/good air in. It was in the weather stripping section at Lowe's. Pretty cheap, too. I didn't get a picture of that step, though.

Then I sewed some jersey knit material into socks to fit the horns and stretched them over the horn bases. They turned out really light-weight, which is a good thing for such big old horns. The eyeballs are just styrofoam balls cut in half with a bead glued on for pupils. I also had fun making the nose and big teeth out of poly clay! I didn't end up using the little pink nose, but it's still around, waiting to be placed on a bunny mask or something.

 I google searched on how to make a big mask, and had a hard time finding anything until I started to search in the furries community, LOL. Helpful! My favorite helper was this tutorial, and the plastic mesh worked GREAT. It was only $1.79 for a big sheet of it at Hobby Lobby. It's sturdy, yet flexible, and breathes. Plus, hot glue works amazingly well on it.

 Once I started gluing on the fur (recycled from a furry kids sweater I got at a Thrift Store Bag Sale) I knew that it was going to turn out so funny and awesome :) I'm pretty proud of the finished product. It's a little heavy, but really not too bad. There's a baseball cap sewn inside to keep it on my head! Can't wait till Halloween!

Well, happy Thursday, friends. I hope your week has been fantastic.

Rosy Yeti 4x4

 

Good morning! Spring has pretty much come into full swing here... It was about 84 degrees out yesterday and we've had some April showers this past week, too. Bobby and I went to the beach this weekend and it was SO NICE. Nice enough to get roasted, toasted, and burnt to a crisp. That'll teach me to not wear sunblock. But I also heard that a lot of places are getting SNOW! WHAT?! Well, to cheer you snowed-in folks up a bit, here's a cheery yeti in a rosy garden.

He's from one of my new collage sheets, Little Monsters. Currently hanging on my wall, waving at me and telling me to remember to plant my new tomato plants today. FINE! I'll do it. Happy Tuesday\, friends.

Announcing! SIX NEW Collage Sheets by Yours Truly :D

Good morning, friends! I am so excited to announce an "Oops, I Craft My Pants" line of collage sheets available exclusively with Alpha Stamps. There are six new collage sheets full of colorful, funny little drawings of some of my favorite things, like monsters and owls, and of course...Toucans!!! If you haven't had the pleasure of working with collage sheets before, they're available as digital downloads that you can print, or you can order high-quality printed hard copies that are mailed to you. 

I've got a lot of sample artwork to show you using my new collage sheets, and these two projects are just the first :) I used Kira's Flowers and Toucans for this one.

 I like to add a little bit of glitter glue for just a little more sparkle.

 This one is using Kira's Fish. 

 So anyway, I hope you all have a really splendid week full of good news :) Oh, and if you feel so inclined, head over to Alpha Stamps and buy one of my new collage sheets (or two, or three!)

Happy Sunday!

Additional Product List:

Tinted Beauties CS

Lucille Paper Pad

TH Distress Stains - Salty Ocean

Kira's Fish CS

Blue Zigzag Dresden Borders

Colorful Bead Mix

Variegated silk ribbons

Blue Dresden Rosettes

Toucans CS
Kira's Flowers CS
Gold Fleur de Lys Dresden Borders

French Couture 4x6 Postcards

It's April! That means a new lovely kit and swap from Alpha Stamps. This month's theme is French Couture and there's a 4x6 Postcard Swap afoot. I made two pretty cards.

Hehe, that flower lady is pretty cool, huh? If you want to join in the fun, get more info here at the Alpha Stamps Website. 

Product List:

Dressform Couture CS

Vintage French Ads CS

French Fashion Plates CS

Iris CS

Die-Cut Chipboard Dress Form

April Kit Fiber Set

Lyric 6x6 Papers

Seashell Sequin Mix

Buttons

King Easter Bunny Egg Shrine

Easter is ALMOST here. It's this weekend... and I'm kinda sad it's going to be over soon because I've been having so much fun making bunny crafts. This is a wee egg shrine to the king of the bunnies (Elahrairah!)

It;s made from a paper mache egg that has been cut open on the side. They're hollow, so there was a nice little cavity to fill with glitter and bunny-delight.

I tried to shine the light right up in there so you can see the pretty glitter inside :) I think that glitter is my favorite part!

The edges where I cut using a hack saw were kind of rough, so I lined the border with seed beads. Then I glued on some resin flowers. Doesn't that dresden make such a good crown?  Tee hee!

And in other news... THIS! I bought this ridiculous golden crystal-encrusted bunny ring for myself and I'm in love with it. It's so much sparklier in person. It's fitting for this weekend, but I'll probably just wear it all the time. Got it from this Ebay shop: Seperwar. Happy Easter, friends!