Zippers, zippers, everywhere

I saw the challenge yesterday on the Just Us Girls blog to create a flower from an old zipper. (There's a link to a tutorial!) Well, I used to sew A LOT. I made most of my girls clothes when they were little, most of mine in my younger days, and once made a suit for my hubby. I taught Costume Design for 8 years at the same university where my hubby still teaches Scenic design in the Theatre and Dance department and have made some pretty unusual garments over the years. Consequently, I am no stranger to zippers and a zipper flower intrigued me.

I haven't sewn much recently except for my grandsons' Halloween costumes but I knew I had to have a stash of old unused zippers somewhere.....but where? I finally unearthed them late last night in an old sewing box in the bottom of a closet! I won't admit to how many I found but only 3 had silver metal teeth and I chose to use the yellow one. Here's how it turned out. I think you may be seeing more of these from me. :) I posted a card last week that I made for a friend undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from her pancreas. The surgery went very well, they are very hopeful that they got all of the tumor and she is recovering well from the surgery. The surgery was last Tuesday and she's hoping to be released from the hospital late this week. The scripture quoted on this card says it all.
The "details":
Scripture quote - Paper Makeup Stamps
Patterned papers - A day at the Beach paper pad by The Paper Studio
Nesties - Circle, Peony, and Labels Ten
Opaline pearls by Basic Grey
Quote was smudged with VersaMagic chalk ink in Sea Breeze

Have a great week and thanks so much for stopping by!

Sending a little encouragement

Everyone can use a little encouragement now and then, right? Today my card has a great Paper Makeup Stamps quote/poem that you can find here. I've always liked it but I think this may be the first time it's ever seen ink. Shame on me! I used the Mojo Monday 183 sketch and flipped it on it's side.
I paper pieced the butterfly with the same paper as the backing of the sentiment. Here's a closer photo of the sentiment so you can see it better (and it shows the sparkle in the ribbon more. :)


Here are the "deets":

Papers: All four patterned papers are from the Mirabelle paper pack by The Paper Studio
Stamps: "I'll just be me" wordart and Danni's Flutterbies by Paper Makeup Stamps
Nesties: Circle, Lacey Circle, and Labels Fifteen
Ribbon: Ivory Sparkle Organdy Ribbon by The Ribbon Boutique

I have a charming little 5 1/2 month old guest all day today while her mommy and daddy are working so my crafting time might be pretty limited. Hopefully I'll have something new for next week.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Providing a little "lift".

I was quite pleased with the way this card turned out if I do say so myself. The image and the sentiment is from Paper Makeup Stamps Oo La La stamp set. This is actually the simplest of the 3 corsets in the set and one of the 7 sentiments.


The layout is the Sketch Saturday #147 and I'm loving this layout. I'll be using it again I'm sure. I paper pieced the corset and colored the stripes and ruffles in with copics. The "buttons" are teeny little rhinestones that match the larger ones on the purple panel. The colors are the CR84FN Color Challenge. I really need to work on my photography skills as you can barely see the ivory lace under the purple grosgrain ribbon.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

The JUGS Challenge with PMS

Paper Makeup Stamps is sponsoring the Just Us Girls Challenge this week! Now most of you who read my blog know that I'm PMS owner-Katie's mom. I've only been stamping as long as PMS has been in existence and almost the only stamps I own are Paper Makeup stamps. So what to choose?!?!?I looked through my papers for the challenge colors and all these yellow suns made me smile. Hmm, there's still lots of stamp choices of Beautiful Day Fairies that would be happy being out in the sunshine but I decided to go to one of my favorite sets, Sailing By. I paper pieced the smallest of the two sailboats and the lighthouse. I created a landscape of sorts with paper and added the sentiment. It's one of 5 sentiments that come with this set. The sun, 'water', and lighthouse papers came from a day at the Beach paper pad by The Paper Studio. The pink and 'sand' papers were in my scrap drawer.

This card is for a friend who is having surgery tomorrow for what we are hoping is very early stage pancreatic cancer. I'm praying for "smooth sailing" for her recovery.

Hope your week goes smoothly and thanks for stopping by!

Let's Swing!

I had a great afternoon in my craft room making cards. My craft room now looks like a mini tornado went through but clean up can always come tomorrow, right? Challenge #58 this week at Raising the Bar was an inspiration challenge based on this adorable little image:

I immediately thought of one of the Beautiful Day Fairies at Paper Makeup Stamps called "Greg". You can find him here. I used the colors in the Color Throwdown #133. I colored Greg with Copic markers. I used a Curved Rectangle nestie to cut him out, distressed the edges with Adirondack eggplant ink and mounted it on eggplant cardstock.The quote is also from PMS. So are you ready for spring? Let's swing!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Feeling a little blue?

I'm not blue/sad, just working with blue for the Copic Creations Challenge. My image today is Sally Sheep from Paper Makeup Stamps. Isn't she sweet? She can be found here. Copics used here were B32, B34, B39, and B21 for her dress and hat; W00, W1, W4, for her face, ears, hands, and feet; and E41 and E30 for her fleece.


I used the Get Sketchy #78 layout (and I'm almost too late to enter that one!) My dp is from the Max and Whiskers Basic Grey paper pad. My sentiment is from the Little Moments Sentiment Set at PMS.

Enjoy every moment of your day and thanks for stopping by!

A Tree for Earth Day

Here it is the middle of March already! Hubby and I had a wonderful spring break last week in NYC. We saw 4 Broadway shows and also saw our own college senior Theatre students perform in their NY Showcase for NYC agents and casting directors. It was a little rainy and not as warm as I hoped, but being in "the city" for a few days is always fun. I don't think I'd like living there but we have good friends who do and they wouldn't live any where else!

Since I was away from home all last week, I didn't get any St. Patrick's Day cards done. So, my family is getting store bought cards this year. (Shame on me!) My husband's grandmother was born in Northern Ireland and came to the US as a young girl. Our oldest daughter is married to an Irishman (their name is O'Keefe) and my mom has some Irish heritage too. Erin Go Bragh!

I'm submitting my card for today to two challenges. Crazy 4 Challenges is to use a tree in honor of Earth Day. My tree is the Willow Tree from Paper Makeup Stamps. I stamped it with Rich Cocoa Memento ink on green cardstock. The more patterned paper is from the Kioshi paper pad by Basic Grey, the background paper is an individual sheet I picked up at Hobby Lobby. The base is Bazzill Rain Forest.

My layout follows the Mojo Monday 182 sketch. The purple organdy ribbon is from my ribbon stash (actually left from dd's wedding decorations 5 1/2 years ago!). Opaline pearls from Basic Grey finish the top corner. Enjoy your St. Patty's Day and remember to go green and preserve our earth for the next generation!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Thinking Spring!!

Are you thinking spring? We had a wonderful week-end in SC helping our grandson celebrate his 5th birthday. Boy, do they grow up fast!! He (and his little brother) get sooo excited when we visit. It really makes my heart happy. And as a bonus, it was warm and sunny. We played outside all afternoon on Saturday (party in the park!) and were outside again on Sunday until we had to leave for the airport. It was 78 degrees!!! Now the trip home with tornado warnings in Indiana is a story for another time!

Today I'm playing along with the Cardabilities Sketch Challenge using a great sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps that you can find here. I got my color scheme from the CR84FN challenge to use light pink, bright pink, and chartreuse. The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch. The butterfly papers and the paper backing the sentiment are Echo Park and they are in the Mon Cheri card kit you can get at Paper Makeup Stamps. The kit has enough paper to make several cards. My green and light pink cardstock is Bazzill. I used Memento ink in Bamboo Leaves to stamp my sentiment and I cut it out with a curved rectangles nestie. I popped the sentiment and the butterflies up on dimension dots that you can see a little better here.Thanks so much for stopping by!