Just Call Me The Mad Hatter (tutorial)

This is a blast from the past. Its something I made last year before I started my blog. Right now I'm working on a project that's got my mojo a little frazzled (plus I need to pick up a couple of supplies at the local craft store before I can finish this "monster"). But I didn't want you to forget me, so here's just a little sumpin', sumpin'....

You won't believe how fast this fedora comes together. The only thing that's time consuming is gathering your scrap supplies. This hat was a gift for my mom. She loves earth tones so that was my inspiration.

Scrapbook manufacturers are always coming out with new textures and mediums for us to work with and so many of the wonderful products out there can be transformed into wearable art. Now I wouldn't recommend that you wear your fabulous creation in the rain, but certainly it will hold up in nice weather.

Here's what I used for this project:
Straw fedora hat (on sale of course, $5.00)
ZVA flourish bling
Jillibean Soup twill
Maya Road ribbon flowers
Prima fabric/canvas flower
Basic Grey fabric flowers
Creative Imaginations flower brads
Beacons 3 in 1 glue
Fabric glue
Needle & thread



I started with attaching the twill on top of the existing hat band with fabric glue. Once that was set, I placed my largest flower down first then clustered the remaining flowers. Next I carefully applied 3 in 1 Glue to reinforce the adhesive on the ZVA bling flourishes for a little extra hold. And to reinforce the bling a little more, I added the Creative Imaginations "pearl" flower brads sort of on top of the flourish, as seen in the close up. A few stitches here and there to secure all of the sticky-backed flowers and BAM, you're done. Hope you get a little inspo so you can be a Mad Hatter too!

A view from the back...


And here's a little happy music to put a smile on your face.

Skully Love

Yes indeed, I have a passion for skulls. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought I'd show some Skully Love.



Three years ago I participated in my first ATC swap because it was all about skulls and spooky stuff. The photo above is a mini I put together with some of my favorites from the swap. That cool black and sizzling hot pink ATC under the mini was made by my pal Cassie. Here's my very first ATC and my favorite rubber stamp from the Michael deMeng collection at Stampers Anonymous.



And speaking of Michael deMeng, he's a creative genius, pure and simple. He has two excellent books and a cool blog, if you're unfamiliar with him take a peek.

If you're into skully love...you've got to check out Skull-a-Day. Another blog that's totally fun. Sometimes artsy, sometimes silly, always funky.

Don't forget to check out Paper Issues tomorrow (1/14), its time for a new link prompt. See you then!

Thanks For The Inspo, Martha

Enough with the New Year's resolutions to organize, purge, etc. Its time for a little fun. Valentine's Day is around the corner and I'm feeling a little lovey-dovey. I found an old photo of me and the hubs (his new nick name is Rooster Cogburn, we saw True Grit last week). More about the photo later.

I was inspired by an old Martha Stewart VD post for an interlocking heart garland. So I grabbed some Glitz paper, scissors, and black ink (I didn't want white edges on the kraft paper).




Kraft paper is one of my favorite things to work with. Misting and masking seemed in order using Little Yellow Bicycle lace cut cardstock and Ranger Red Pepper Color Wash. I added a few more Glitz goodies...Frosting, stock journaling sticker, transparent stickers. Also used: Ranger Red Pepper Color Wash, kraft paper, misc. mask, assorted mini alpha stickers, and flocked chip letters.







So, did you notice my hairdo in this 15 year old photo? It was taken a few months after I finally completed three rounds, 18 months, of chemo. My hair was soooooo baby-soft when it started coming back. That's one of my favorite memories along with the day "Rooster" showed his support by coming home with a clean-shaven bald head.


Like the layout says... All You Need Is LOVE.

Thanks for stopping by.

First Layout for 2011

Thanks to Sketchabilities for the nice inspo. They have a really nice classic design for the current challenge. I used my favorite subjects for the photos...my bro's family. And this is also nephew #2's first Christmas. The layout's made primarily with Jenni Bowlin products including patterned paper, border & journal sticker, and buttons. With the addition of Thickers, paper poinsettias (from lss), chalk ink, rhinestones, baker's twine and a vintage button.




Now for a little news...I'm so excited! There's a new Anthropology in my neighborhood. I took a quick peek inside and now I know what all the hub bub is about. So many cool ideas came to me. Their displays are just awesome. Can't wait to see what's in store when the seasons change. But for now, I think I've come up with an idea for a Valentine banner. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Good Beginning

Happy New Year! And hoping you have a great 2011!

We had a very quiet NYE due to a self-imposed quarantine. I'm getting well, but the hubs picked up my bug, yuk. No midnight toasts. He did give me a kiss, afterwards I bolted to the bathroom to gargle and disinfect myself.

I celebrated at my work table most of the evening. Although I didn't create anything, I did get a lot of cleaning and purging done. I bought another 3-drawer plastic shelf last week and completely reorganized my space. It was such a pleasure this morning to sit at my table and plan out some lo's and projects. It was definitely A GOOD BEGINNING for 2011.

I surfed a little and found a couple of challenges to work on this weekend. Scrapfit has a nice general challenge to use just scraps. Perfect! I finished up another dozen Valentine's Day cards for Operation Write Home using last year's scraps. That makes a total of 36 cards and for me that's pretty good.



I'm anxiously awaiting the Rose Bowl and watching TCU. I'll be wearing my purple flannel shirt and TCU cap. Since we didn't have Christmas dinner (because of the flu), I'm fixing roast chicken and cornbread dressing, gravy, candied yams with marshmallows on top, and fresh green beans. Yum. Tommy will finally get his Christmas dinner.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy 2011.