Whirlpool of Imagination

Just Checking In

Day two of the craft fair is over and I'm having a great time. It's always fun to see some familiar faces! I haven't done a lot of iris folding lately but with Christmas coming, I wanted to try some patterns. I started with a fairly easy one that can be found at the iris folding section of Circle of Crafters.

I shot this one at a weird angle ~ sorry about that.

I used poly-satin ribbon for the folding and the sentiment is from Paper Trey, stamped in Encore Metallic gold.

I'm pretty spent ~ I was up early working on the kids treats for their classes tomorrow so its an early night to bed for me. The kids are still going strong though. I'm thinking they'll outlast me tonight!

Dragging Through the Weekend

Evening all. This is it - the day before another craft fair. I love the fairs but the prep work is a killer. I have about a zillion ideas of things I want to do (and make) before each one. And leading up to each one, I think I'm going to get it all done. And then as that final week rolls around, my mind is whirling so fast as I try to take a stab at each project in my brain. My stress levels go up and I'm pretty crabby. By the weekend, I finally realize that I have some fun new stuff for this fair and the other ideas floating around will keep until the next fair. I came to that realization this morning and felt so much less stress when I let go of the idea that it all had to get done THIS time.

So yesterday morning, I lived the definition of irony. One of the things I wanted to make this time around were some Tooth Fairy Tins. No lie, I was in the middle of making them when Meghan yells out to us that Conor lost a tooth. Now, Conor is four. He has no wiggly teeth and this is not a planned tooth loss. To make a long story short, the combination of a fall on your face Friday and playing rough with your sister, can make your tooth fall out when its not supposed to. After a talk with (my very patient) dentist, Conor will just have a hole in the front of his mouth for a couple of years but no lasting damage.

If you've lasted through my story so far, you deserve a picture or two.

Here is the little boy tooth fairy tin. I used the silver tins similar to the Altoid tins which I found to be the perfect size.

You know I usually give out measurements but I can't seem to get just the right size when I cut these so I don't want to give out any misleading sizes.

And here is the little girl tin. I love this little fairy sticker. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it.

Inside the tin is a little tooth fairy poem that I found from an upload on Splitcoast (I did not make this poem up, someone generously shared with others).

"Tooth Fairy, Tooth Fairy, please be kind. In this tin, my tooth you'll find."

And yes, the tooth fairy visited Conor last night. Of course, now he says he can't wait for the tooth fairy to come again. I've already warned him that no other teeth are to come out before they're supposed to! Good night!

Fun Friday Challenge - The Color of Leaves

Good morning! I was walking back from the elementary school this morning thinking about the challenge today. I didn't have a plan yet but the riot of color from all the changing leaves gave me my inspiration. The theme for today's Fun Friday Challenge is THE COLOR OF (CHANGING) LEAVES. Changing leaves provide a whole palette of color choices. I'd like you to make something using those colors. And the only stipulation is that it CANNOT use tree or leaf images. Use the leaf colors but think outside the box for images.

Down the street there is this gorgeous tree. When the leaves change, it turns this beautiful deep pink color, pretty much like the pomegranate from SU's In Colors for the year. I used that color as my main focus with some green and a touch of yellow/orange.

The dress, from Pink Cat Studio is colored with prismacolor markers. The background script, seen on both layers is stamped in pomegranate and is from Purple Onion.

Now its your turn. Think about the colors of changing leaves and create something using those colors. Then link it back here so I can see your creations. Thanks for playing along!

Spooky Thanks

Why is it that activities always happen at the same time? With next week being Halloween and well as me having my craft fair, I'm running into a conflict. I'm going to miss both Meghan and Conor's Halloween activities at school since I'll be at my fair. At the elementary school, the kids do activities in centers and as a result, we need parent volunteers. This week I worked on the thank you notes that we'll give to the volunteers after the event.

The main image background is made with the reinker technique on watercolor paper. The haunted house is from Art Impressions, the "spooky" is from Paper Trey and the "thanks" is from Spunky Stamps.

I cuttlebug embossed the orange layer and then used a dry foam brush and black acrylic paint and brushed the paint onto the embossed squares. This is a quick and easy way to add a little interest to the embossed piece and the beauty is that it dries within seconds so no long wait to continue on with your card.

Again here, you'll notice that the background will vary from this reinker technique. I love the idea that even though it is the same card, there will be subtle differences in shade and variations in texture.

I have a bunch of pictures to take tomorrow to show you some cute candy treats. Later!

A Little Birthday Post

Today is my birthday and I wanted to start today's post off with the "card" that Meg made me. She decided she wanted to make the biggest card she possibly could.

I thought is was quite colorful and I like how she spread out the words among all the pieces of paper. I can honestly say that this is the biggest card I have ever received!

I told you I would have some treat boxes to show you. I have previous examples of the tradition red/green theme (or at least burgundy and hunter). Here is a snowflake blue one.

As a reminder the bottom layer measures 3/4x9 in. and this time I used patterned paper.

The top sleeve is 3/4x8 in. The ribbon is attached with red line tape because I am fanatical about things not coming "unstuck". On these small treat tins, I do not bother scoring the sleeve. By wrapping it around snugly, it works just fine. The sentiment stamp is from Paper Trey.

Inside the tins are blue and silver wrapped Hershey kisses.

That's all for today. Conor has been acting a little off and other moms are telling me that something is going around. I'm off to check him out. Thanks for stopping by!!

Best Witches

Here's a another quick Halloween card centered around a cute witch stamp (I obviously have witches on the brain this season).

The card design was originally inspired by one of my pen pals (thanks Gail!). The black layer is cuttlebugged with the tiny squares folder although I just couldn't get it to come out with the picture.

The paper is from K & Co. and the stamp is from Stampin' Up. With the blond hair and head tilt, she kind of reminds me of Samantha from "Bewitched", although Sam's skirts were MUCH shorter!

I was working hard on craft fair stuff today. I have exactly one week until the fair so I will be one busy gal for the next several days. I'm hoping to have some gift and treat samples for you in the next few days. Night!

Here's to Feeling Better

My aunt fell and broke her elbow so I needed to make a get well card for her. I'm still playing with my reinker backgrounds and this card design came from that.

The flourish is from Autumn Leaves and the sentiment is from Onyx Expressions. If you've never tried them, they are an unmounted stamp company with some great quality stamps.

These backgrounds can be as light or as dark as you prefer. If I want it darker, I just pick up more reinker and keep going over it until I'm happy with the results.

Here's an example of three of the same card design but each look slightly different in color.

I've got some more ideas for cards using this background and remember, let me know if you make a card with a reinker background ~ that was one of my Friday challenges.

Meghan is anxiously waiting for the computer to do her Webkins and she's been very good lately, so I'm letting her take over for a while. Talk to you later! 

Fun Friday Challenge - Kids Birthday Cards

The theme for this week's Fun Friday Challenge is very timely to me. Between Meg and Conor, they have NINE birthday parties to attend this month (four this weekend alone). So because of that, the theme is KIDS BIRTHDAY CARDS. I'm kind of in a rut and would love to see your ideas if you participate.

What I realized as I did this card was that it could be used for others besides just kids; I like that kind of versatility.

The cupcakes are from Inkspirations, a great little company out of Nova Scotia. The sentiment is from Spunky Stamps and the harlequin background is from Cornish Heritage Farms. The frosting of the cupcakes is colored with a sakura gelly roll pen for a bit of sparkle and I used the glaze pen on the cherries to give them a bit of dimension.

I have some ideas for a boys birthday card but I have to work on craft fair inventory the rest of the morning. So please, show me your ideas. If you participate, please link back in this post so I can check out your ideas (believe me, I need them!)

Terra Cotta Dragonfly

I mentioned in yesterday's post how I've been wanting to use that Bo Bunny vintage carnival cream patterned paper for a while. Today's goal was to make a card using that paper.

I took a picture of this tonight so there are some shadows and such but in person, I do like this card.

While I enjoy using cardstock from Stampin Up, I find myself reaching more and more for the cardstock I've been getting at Paper Goods. The variety of colors is amazing and the quality is fantastic. No matter what color I want, I'm finding I can get it there. This Arcobaleno cardstock matches the paper perfectly ans so I ran with that. The dragonfly (from Spunky Stamps) is ink with CTMH terracotta. Stippled along the edges is CTMH brown bag. The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs and is stamped in SU chocolate. I reach for that Simply Sentiments set time and again and the quality of these stamps is first rate. I really do recommend you give them a try.

I'm still playing with my reinker backgrounds and hope to have more for you on that tomorrow. It's going to be a crazy, busy day but I'm determined to get some stamping in somewhere!

Autumnal Candle

I've bought candles with the intention of decorating them but have never gotten around to it. This year I would do one up for the mantle in my dining room.

It's simply done but it what I was looking to do.

I started with your basic 3x6 pillar candle (pumpkin spice for a nice little scent). The sleeve on the candle consists of two layers. The cardstock layer is 10x3in. The candles are 9.5 inches around but I wanted to add a bit of overlap, hence the extra 1/2 in. The patterned paper is 10x2in. I layered them together and wrapped around the candle. Since I have no intention of lighting the candle, I added little stalky things and tied with some raffia and there you go. Finally, the candle sits on a terra cotta tray.

The patterned paper is from Bo Bunny Press (vintage carnival cream). I've been itching to use it but haven't decided how.

I got two small pumpkins and 6 mini pumpkins to flank the candle on the mantle. All in all, it looks very cute.

There are several chestnut trees in the elementary school yard so you can bet we have a LOT of chestnuts. I'm thinking I should scatter them around the pumpkins for a more fall look.

My radio install was a fiasco yesterday. Apparently, XM radio does not want to work in my car. After three hours of attempting to install and get it to work, the guys took the whole thing out and told me to return it. I did and went with Sirius radio instead. So today, I was back at the install facility. Luckily, this time we had success (and with a much shorter wait). The kids don't care which one we have as long as we can get Radio Disney ~ its scary how many kids songs I know all the words to!