More Soldering Fun...

Practicing more with the new soldering tools I have. I tried a few different designs here, just to see what works best when soldering. When soldering, you need to be sure and choose your decorations wisely or else they will melt or show thru your patterned paper. You may not be able to see it in the photo, but I have a piece of double sided tape to hold the Hello Kitty in place on the paper and when I went to solder, the tape melted slightly and showed thru. This is why its good to use two pieces of paper(front and back) when "sandwiching" all your pieces together. For the Hello Kitty tag I had a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper and I just cut out the kitty and taped her on the patterned paper. I used my Karen Foster Snap Stamps for "Addison". I'm still working on the soldering the "jump rings" so its always a little clumpy in the middle...lol This one is a bit better since I added the jump ring from the back instead of the middle. You just have to play around with them.
I had some leftover colored images for this princess tag so I just placed my glass over the stamped image and trimmed the edges. Again, I used the snap stamps for the name as well.

If you're just starting out with soldering, this is a very easy template to use. I took some old SU! patterned paper here and stamped it with my Dew Drop(Jumbo Java) and used my PTI stamps. Be sure to let it dry completely before putting the two sheets of glass together or it will smudge.

All these tags were originally made to use at key chains, but my little girls prefer to use them on their backpacks.

American Cancer Society--Relay for Life...

Yes, there is more to paper-crafting then just making things for family and friends. I don't know if its been pure coincidence or not, but the last few months there is someone close to me that has been stricken with cancer. And a few weeks ago I was reading "The Globe"(that is our local military paper here) and there happened to be a young man featured with his two young girls inside. Well, it wasn't just anybody, but a young man whom I went to HS with back in Oklahoma. He had recently passed away from cancer and there was a tree planting memorial in his honor. Also, for my friends like Mark Fry who have a Mother-in-Law and Sis-in-Law both battling the disease together. Cancer does not just affect its victims, but also their loved ones who are their caregivers. I decided to join my local chapter of Relay For Life here in Onslow County. It's my turn to GIVE BACK!I made a few items to be used for fundraising events. If your interested in the "Cancer is so limited" stamp, you can purchase it HERE! A few yummy chocolate boxes! These were a BIG hit!
Cards for the ladies AND gents...lovin' that polka dot card:)
This was the second batch of chocolate boxes I did! I made them a little simpler for mass production. I'm proud to say ALL 66 boxes SOLD and 25% of the proceeds will be going toward cancer research!!

Wishing for a Pocket FULL of Sunshine..

...beacause it has been raining for 2 weeks here now! Mother Nature can be a bit over-rated if you ask me...lol The rain has done wonders for the back of our property, which was recently cleared and seeded...it looks like a beautiful green pasture now:) We have approx. another 1/4 acre that needs tilling and seeding but it will have to wait until Spring.

Anyhoo, on to this snazzy little notebook. I love My Favorite Things stamps simply for paper piecing...its like "dress-up" for the grown-ups! This particular set, Rain or Shine, is a fun one for your girlfriends who many need a little pick- me-up! I used some SU! cs along with some fun patterned paper that was sewn on. The raincoat and ruffle trim on the bottom are paper-pieced. All the coloring is done with Copic markers and the doggie's little coat is shimmered with my Copic Spica pink pen. I added just a few extra embellishments for some bling. The top of the umbrella is a pink Foo-Fa-La button with an adhesive rhinestone in the middle. The sentiment is attached below with a nice pink matte that I ran thru my wizard machine. I have a few different patterns I'm going to be working on this week...I'll share them as they are finished!

One for the Boys...

aHere's a fun little way to include the GUYS too! Doesn't this color combo remind you of a BBQ? I suppose the only thing its missing is a nice, cold beer...lol! The gingham paper is some from my old stash of CM papers, which goes well with the black and red cs. I was trying to think of a neat way to cut out the house but not use my frilly Nestability Dies, so I opted to slip some black cs underneath and just cut a close trim on the edge...looks spiffy! To kill the spaces on the outer edges, I decided to add my SU! Jumbo eyelets...oh boy are these things fun! So there is my little ensemble! The box is empty for now, but it can hold some candies, gift cards, or cash etc.

Monochromatic Boards & Beams...

Tired of "Boards & Beams" yet?? Well, I've got several more projects using this set so there will be at least a FEW more posts:) I'm working with my Realtor(and now friend) at Century 21 and have picked up a few of her co-workers who'd like a few things made. I'm really excited about this opportunity, but more excited to just create! You can see I even broke out my sewing machine which I haven't done in a long time. I forgot how much I love to sew on my cards...its the little things! This design is pretty simple, but elegant. Since I used a pastel pink on the house, I really needed something to help bring out the house and make it pop, so I decided to take my Cool Grey copic marker to help highlight the edges of the house. I then used my new Label One nesty dies to matte the focal image. The bg stamp is my Polka Dot Basics from PTI and I only sewed thru the layer of white paper. You can sew thru both the white and pink cs, but you will have to add a liner to cover the stitch marks on the underside. Lastly, I just added some bling and ribbon to the card and notebook!