St. Patrick's Day - Getting Caught Up Part 5

I have really come to appreciate St. Patricks Day in the last couple of years.  It wasn't something I ever really celebrated until I did a little research on St. Patrick and decided that I really respected him as a missionary to a place where he had been kidnapped and enslaved, and a man who was a fellow sinner saved by grace.  Knowing that, I personally celebrate St. Patrick's Day much differently than the rest of the world. No leprechauns, luck, or beer for me, but lots of green, shamrocks and focus on the blessings in life.

That being said,  I do know that everyone else doesn't necessarily go along with me. ;-D So I keep that in mind when I am designing.

I have a source for a TON of book innards. So I wanted to think of something I could do with them. Well this crazy, silly idea is what came out of that designing session.

I dyed some trim with Lucky Clover Distress Stain, The bow is a scarf from the Dollar Tree, all of the clovers and shamrocks are cut from American Crafts green burlap and cut using the Tim Holtz Heartfelt Die.

I also made rosettes using the Tim Holtz Rosette dies, and the photo mat on top is the Time Holtz Prostage Stamp die and lg. rectangle mover and shaper die. The little clovers are the Tim Holtz clover punch

I made several kits that were on sale at my local LSS. and I actually made the rosettes for the kits.  This was a big hit with those who bought the kits.

I was also pegged to design the Make n Take for my LSS's March crop.  At first I thought I was going to use the Charmed collection by Authentique, but didn't have any when designing to I just used scraps to see how the design would work.  This was the scrap paper planning version.

 I liked it! I used the Tim Holts ticket die, shield die, pinked medallion die, clover punch, and lucky word die. I felt like this was going to work well, but once I got the Authentique paper with the little bingo cards I knew I needed to change it.

 There were two bingo card types. some with just words and some with words and people. I gave croppers a choice between the two. If it had a person on the card they only got one medallion and word, otherwise they got two.  Everyone took a make n take and exras were put on sale for a steal in the LSS.

 To maje this ticket I used the Sizzix banner die by Lori Whitlock and the lace die by Tim Holtz, and well as his lover punch and pinked medallion punch. The hastag stamps are Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous.

 I framed mine for people to be able to take a photo to refer to when assembling their make n take.

This little hanging cutie was just a sample I used when I did the February make n take with the hearts spilling out of the envelope. It is hanging as a sample in the St. Patrick's section of my LSS. I used the Tim Holtz postage Stamp die, heart punch and clover punch along with the Sizzix Eileen Hull envelope and gift tag. The paper is some old green corrugated paper, Graphic 45 March paper and a piece of Echo park paper as well as some other scraps from my stash.

I had grand plans to make other things with my Authentique paper collection pack, but alas, time got the better of me and this was all I got done.  I'm not worried though. Now I have a package of stunnin paper for next year.

Valentine's Day Banner - Getting Caught Up Part 2

January and February proved to be just as busy for me, but as the foster kitties got adopted one by one, my life was slowly getting back to normal.  Of course there was CHA in the middle there but I decided to plan a Valentine's Day Decor piece to teach at my LSS as a quick and easy Friday night craft.

I has a lot of fun designing this piece. The main piece was the Tim Holtz Heartfelt die.  I added a couple of other die cuts to it. The base die is from Sizzix and it is by Lori Whitlock.  It is urrently one of my FAVORITE dies.  I'm using it on everything! Scrapbook pages, mini books decor pieces....I want more big dies like this one, please SIZZIX!  Please make more big affordable dies like this!

 I found these Christmas baubles in the  sale bin at a local crafts supply store and bought two packs. 

 I wanted them to be pink for this project, but a special pink and not as pinky pink as the Pink Sherbet Alcohol ink and not as peachy pink as the Shel Pink, so I mixed them.

 To color the beads, I left them on the thread and put the whole string into the plastic bag, then squirted some of each alcohol ink color in with them, worked them around in the ink until everything was covered.

 I let them dry on my nonstick craft mat. and then I separated them into the kits.

 I wanted to use some grey corrugated paper I had but it was just too dark, so I used Spun Sugar Distress Paint and Candied Apple Distress Paint on top of it and that lightened it up and made it fit the project a littte better.

 One thing I really wanted on this project was to have texture. So I cut hearts out of burlap, corrugated paper, felt, ticking, and canvas that I colored with Spun Sugar paint and stain as well as Candied Apple paint and stain.

The only other thing I colored in the kit was the grey lace.  I dyed it with Hickory Smoke Distress Stain.  The kits were small, but organized into columns for easy assembly.

 Everyone finished their project in class 

and they were very happy with it!

Including my youngest student who not only finished her project but she finished first AND posed for a picture with me.

 

It was such a fun, creative night!