My Fairy Garden

 

 

 Welcome to my fairy garden. I made a smaller one a few weeks ago and there was just something missing. I realized it was too commercialized and I hadn't used plants as my backdrop. This weekend I was at a greenhouse that had several fairy gardens and quite a few supplies. I used a 26" pond formation, that I got at Lowe's, which allowed my imagination to go wild. The main structure in the back is a form that is meant to be put on the wall. I liked the openness and decided to use it as my fairy's house. I had spent quite a bit of time looking for a house. There are some out on the market but they run around $20 - $30. An arbor I saw at the greenhouse was half off at $37. My fairy is on a budget so she will have to live within her means. The DH said he is going to make one for me out of twigs and wire that I will put over the stone steps along the front left side. I found quite a bit of my fairy items at Hobby Lobby. They aren't categorized as such but I just kept and open eye and a big imagination. The black thing you see in the front right is a solar light that I thought would look nice shinning on the fairy at night. I removed it before I took the rest of the pictures.

 

I used a Japanese Fern behind the tea house. The tall plant to the left of the house is a house plant called Lemon Cypress. I also used several different ground covers that come in little pots that are just perfect for a fairy garden and I also planted some herbs for different textures and heights. Click towards the bottom of  the images for a closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a lantern that I set up as a tea house. I made the table out of an orange juice lid and a wooden spool. I found the tea set at Hobby Lobby in the doll house furniture section and I glued them down with glue for glass beads. I am keeping my eye out for a chair that I can also put in there so she has a place to sit and enjoy her tea.

 

Below is a birdhouse that I painted and then put a gigantic seed pod on top. I found these pods on clearance in the floral section. I glued some glass tiles around the house to give it some whimsy. The blue dish is a pedestal planter that I sunk into the dirt and filled with glass marbles and water as a pond. You can just see the copper faucet sitting up over the edge of the dish. I put some slate pieces as steps. I built up the left side of the planter so I could get some elevation.  The little red dish on the left side is a birdbath and there is a designer Shepard's hook on the right side of the house. The cream object is a chess piece.

 

 

 

This another image of the tea house.

 

 

In this image of the tea house you can see another chess piece and a gazing ball in a wire holder. It is a glow in the dark so she can find her way. I used small pebbles as a stone path and tucked a saucer in amongst the plantings on the right as another water feature.

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the fairy in her house. She is sitting on a twig chair. I made the flower pots by using hot glue to fill the pot and just stuck flower pieces  in it. I glued the pot to hexagon glass tiles for stability and then glued them to the floor of the her house.

 

 

 

Below you can see a fairy riding a snail that is on a long pick. It gave some balance to the height of the house.  You can also see another one of the seed pods in this picture.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed a tour of my fairy garden. I really enjoyed making this one. If I attempt another one I want it to have a river and bridge with trickling water by using a pump. This fairy is going to have to work if she wants to become a landlord.

~Have fun and enjoy!

 

 

 

Ornate Hanging Sign

 

Back from a wonderful vacation in Florida and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. As usual I had a fantastic and relaxing time in the sun and pool. I think I saw more manatee and dolphins this trip than I have all the other trips put together. It is just so awesome to see them swim by as you are laying around the pool. Nothing beats a trip like that. My friend Carol and her husband Jean Paul always make me feel so welcome and he makes the best margaritas- Thank you!

I did a fair amount of shopping while I was there (Ok, I did a lot of shopping). Went to my favorite stamp store The Owl and The Pussy Cat and picked up several things that I don't find around here in town. I found this new Sizzix die called Ornate Hanging Sign at Jo-Anns. They had 40% off all the Sizzix and I took advantage of it since we can't use coupons on any of the dies anymore. This card is a 5x7 so the die is very large. I cut the hanging sign out of an old color from SU called Vintage Violet. Then I layered a white Spellbinders Label Twenty on top of that. The Happy Birthday is actually from a die. The company is Elizabeth Craft Designs and I am in love with these word dies. I was able to find Thank You and Congratulations also. The two pieces that look like arms under the Birthday are actually pieces that were left over when I cut out the sign. I thought it added an extra touch. The designer paper is from Karen Neuburger called Chesapeake Vintage Bleu.

 

 

I got back late Monday night and haven't really done much of anything this week- hence why you haven't seen anything new on my blog until today. I had a lot to catch up on at work so I put in a few late nights. Today I enjoyed playing in my studio which was much needed. I had to make eight cards for birthdays, graduations, a thank you and a sympathy. It gave me the perfect chance to use some of my new items. I can't wait to make some things out of the new stamps I got at The Owl and The Pussy Cat. If only I could remember the samples she made with them. The rest of the weekend will be spent out in the gardens. The humming birds have already been here at the feeder and I know they have been looking for some of the real stuff but I haven't planted any flowers yet. Good thing since we've had frost a few times in the last two weeks. Sorry guys I just keep supplying the sugar water for a bit longer.

 

~have fun and enjoy!

 

Lady Jude

 

 

I have had this stamp called Lady Jude by KaiserCraft for quite awhile now but I had only used her once. I stamped her in black and colored her dress pink but is was so black that I put her back on the shelf and never used her again. I happened to see her on a card in a magazine and she was stamped in brown on kraft paper. Wow what a difference. I fell in love with her all over again. I decided to see what she looked like stamped in brown on vanilla paper and she was just as lovely.

  I used a MS punch for the fan part of the tag and gold sticker trim along the sides and bottom. The sentiment stamp says it all. It is from the line Funny Bones by Riley & Company and they are hilarious. I used Spellbinders Label 16 to cut it out. A piece of black satin ribbon and a few black rhinestones finished her off. The polka dot paper is actually Halloween paper from Carta Bella called All Hallow's Eve.

 

The card below is a different version of Lady Jude. I stamped her on kraft paper as I had seen in the magazine and then cut her out (not my favorite thing to do) layering her on a piece of black card stock that I had run through the Cuttle Bug using Tim Holtz's new embossing folder Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately she is placed directly over the tower which was poor planning on my part. This time I used Spellbinders Decorative Label 1 to cut out the sentiment and used black seam binding as my ribbon. The designer paper is from the Poetic Postage pack by The Paper Studio which is a favorite of mine.



 

 

 

 

 

 

I won't be posting for two weeks while I am in Florida. Off to spend some time with my gal pal Carol. I think I am more excited for this trip than I was the Hawaii trip. I fly out Friday and I will be there in time for an afternoon by the pool. I am looking forward to visiting The Owl and the Pussy Cat stamp store when I get there. She always has unique stamps and her cards and altered art projects are just beautiful- truly inspirational.

 

We are just starting to get our nice weather here in Michigan. The DH and I put out the deck furniture today and got the fountain running. He cooked chicken on the grill while I made potato salad. It was nice to sit out on the deck and have a nice summer meal. Nothing like grilled chicken, iced tea and potato salad to kick off the season.

 

~Have fun and enjoy!

Heirloom soldered pictures

This is an altered art project I did a few years ago and I realized I never shared this you. I was looking at it  because it was my father's birthday this past week and I was feeling a bit sad because he lives 10 hours away I couldn't be with him to celebrate.

This was a class that I took that involved soldering. These are glass pieces cut in the shape of a house that are about 3x5 and are beveled which you can't really see in the pictures. I had to photograph them so the light didn't reflect off the glass which in turn didn't show the beveled edge. I decided I wanted a vintage keepsake of both of my parents so that is the theme I went with. The one on the left is of my dad when he was about 10 years old and my grandmother on vacation in Europe. I made copies of the photos onto regular copy paper and then sponged some sepia ink on them to make them look old, then I started to collage with stamping and collage pieces which are sandwiched between the two pieces of glass and then soldered together. The other image is the back side and is of my father when he entered the Air Force.

 

 

 

This one is of my mother when she was a teenager. I didn't think I would ever be lucky enough to find sentiments to fit the images, but I did. I remember I found this sheet of sayings at a stamp store that was going out of business and I bought it not really knowing what I was going to use it for. Figuring out where I stored it when I was going to make this project was a whole other story and a few days of hunting. The image on the right is a picture I have used before on another project. It is a picture of my mother and my father's mother and me when we came to New York from Spain where I was born. Below is a larger image so you could see the detail in what I used to collage. Along the left side of the image below I used a bronze metallic beaded sticker and a piece of ribbon along side it. The "Espana" is an old stamp and the numbers were stamped along the right side.

 

 

The image below was to show you how thin the piece is (about 1/4"), not to show you how terrible I am at soldering. It was a fun project and it showed me a whole different technique and media for altered art. If I got good enough at the soldering I could attempt some jewelry pieces- maybe!

These two pieces sit on a shelf over the love seat in the front sitting room of my house. This is the room that I like to watch TV in because it is more cozy and the ceilings aren't as wide open as the room that has the big screen TV the DH watches. It still has 18 foot ceilings but it is angled and not open to any other room. I love to curl up on the couch to read a good book and with several of the altered pieces I have tucked here and there in this room it feels like me and is comfortable. I guess that is the key in life-Be in a place where you are happy and brings you comfort.

~Have fun and enjoy

Believe- in a rhinestoned frame

 

It finally happened, after a week of rain we are actually seeing the sun this morning. I guess we had better take a mental picture because they are calling for more rain this week. It sure was a welcomed sight this morning though. I almost want to go out and lay flat down on the deck just so I can soak up some of that warmth but being that it is only in the mid 40's, I think I will wait. I will be heading to Florida next month so enjoying the sun isn't too far off. I do believe there are better days coming!

 

Today's card is very simple even though it may look lavish. The image is a clear stamp from KaiserCraft called Vintage-Believe. I stamped it in brown and then used a rhinestone frame from Prima that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby. The package contained this frame and  a rhinestone bird on a branch was inside the frame. They were two separate pieces. I am sure I will find a use for the bird on some other project. I wish I could say I had the patience to make the frame myself but there is no way I could get all those rhinestones evenly spaced without pulling my hair out first.

 

 

 

I just had to include a picture of one of my twin nieces that I took the day before I left for Hawaii. This is one of Lara and I am so in awe of their blue eyes. They almost look they are white around the pupil. Anna wasn't feeling the best so she was a little fussy. The one nice thing about identical twins is that if you have a picture of one, then you don't need one of the other because she looks almost exactly like this one. I did end up getting some nice pictures of them together but not close up like this one to show the color of their eyes. At least you have a have decent chance of getting some good pictures out of one of them. They are 10 months already. Hard to believe they will be a year old next month. I am sure it is even harder for their parents to believe. They thought the endless sleepless nights were never going to pass. I guess I might be a bit bias but this picture to me is the epitome of a baby- the wide eyes with long eyelashes, the pudgy rosy cheeks and the baby teeth showing through their little lips. I do believe this could have been a Gerber baby- that's just an auntie's observation! 

 

 

 

 

~Have fun and enjoy!

 

A Zig-Zag card

 

 

 

You will have to forgive me for my photo editing today. I don't have access to photo shop which is on my computer. I am still posting from my DH's laptop which has Windows 8 and it takes some getting used to.

 

I found this card on a blog that was in German but there were some pictures and the measurements were in English which helped. It wasn't difficult in fact the hardest part was figuring out where to start the scallop punch along the sides. It is called a Zig- Zag card if you do a search for instructions.

 

 

I used two different papers from Authentique. The sage paper is from the collection Renew called Spring and the rose floral paper is from the collection Lovely called Fancy. I used the Martha Stewart Doily border punch along the sides. The belly band that holds the card closed was created with the same punch, some seam binding ribbon and a fancy brad that I cut the tabs off of. The image of the woman is from a clip art collection of fashionable women. There is a slight alteration that can be made to the card and that is to create a flap so the whole inside would lift up for the sentiment. I figured I would just write on the side panels that I left cream. This area could have had the same sage paper if wanted. The sentiment could also be made into a fancy tag that goes on the band. I think I will try another one and do just that.

 

The DH and I went to see the OZ movie this afternoon. Quite different than the Wizard of Oz that I grew up watching. Those darn monkeys always use to scare me. It was pretty awesome that it was filmed about 50 miles from here. I don't remember seeing the Emerald City anywhere around the Detroit area. They must have had that well hidden! We had to get home right after because University of Michigan is in the final four of the basketball tournaments. That gave me a perfect opportunity to hide in my stamping studio and create today's card. Tomorrow I am going over to a friend's house to help her make one.

~Have fun and enjoy!

Back but tired!

 This was card I made awhile back but I always like to have something in my stash in case I haven't been as creative (or ambitious) as I would like. This 6 hour time change from Hawaii has really kicked my butt. I didn't get home until midnight a week ago Saturday only to open the Sunday paper and find out a dear friend of ours had died. She was like a grandmother to my children, in fact they even called her Nana Sue. She was elderly and not in the best of health lately, but it was still a shock to see it in the paper. I was thankful I had made it back in time to attend the showing as tired as I was. I realized just how much the kids meant to her when I saw their pictures up on her picture boards at the funeral home. They loved her just as much.

 Honolulu was beautiful but we also flew over to Kauai and spent a few days there. Kauai was even more beautiful. The locals said that is where the Hawaiians go to vacation and I can see why. It was only a 35 minute flight from Oahu- much more relaxed and a much slower pace. It is also greener and less metropolitan than Honolulu.
It looks like I need a new video card for my computer so I am using the DH's new laptop to post today. Aside from being so tired the computer issues were also a reason I didn't post when I got back. For today's card I used Spellbinder's Shapeabilities Venetian Accents and French Frills. The designer paper is from Pinkpaislee's London Market. I put some silver accents across the bridge of the Eiffel Tower to add some bling. You can see it better in the picture below.

 

I had to include one of my pictures from Honolulu. We climbed Diamond Head on St. Patrick's Day. Still can't believe I made it all the way to the top. This is the view of Waikiki in Honolulu once you have made the climb- very much worth the pain of getting there.

 

 

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed my altered book in the last post. From the hits to my blog it looks like it was.

 

~Have fun and enjoy!