"Family Traditions" Scrapbook/Glass-Like Tags

This is a beautiful victorian Christmas picture that came from a wonderful blog Kissed by an Angel. I just love it and had to share it.

I finally put together a scrapbook that will be for truely "throwing" things into. I want to keep all of our traditions in one place, especially our Christmas Advent count down activities, verses we read together each day, recipes and some pictures of each year's, special gingerbread houses.
I love the pull I was able to attach. It came from one of my mom's cabinets. Too bad I let her throw a handful away last year.
The clay pieces I made and posted last year. They now have a home on our new book.
Click on the pictures for a closer look. The clay wings have a blend of perfect pearls powders for the shimmer.

These are a few more of my resin epoxy tags. This butterfly tag has sprinkles of clear twinklets over the butterflies and around the edges (looks like bubbles in the picture but it's just the sprinkles). An example of using these on a scrapbook lay-out is in my November post. I really love the look of these on the pages and other projects!!

If you have tried any projects with epoxy, I would love to get some tips and see what you have done. It's messy stuff!!

Whimsical Christmas Jars

This a close up of the first picture. Gold and green leaves with berries, mitton and candy cane.

I can't stop making these!!

I love using the real pinecones and cedar for a touch of that Maine woods charm .

This is the other side of the previous picture...the stocking.

I add use extra snow on top of the pieces along with twinklets and microbeads.

Whimsical Christmas Jars/Glass Glitter

This weekend at our craft fair one of the ladies had a small display of German Glass Glitter. I was very excited to pick some up from her. It is so pretty on art pieces but never took the time to find it for myself. I think I will have to share some of this with a few artsy friends of mine. I just love the color of the bird.

Here's to finishing all 12 toppers for my mother-in-law!!!! I'm a bit obsessed though. I don't think I'm finished for the season.

Whimsical Christmas/Winter Jar Tops

I have been having a great time creating my jar toppers this year. I love how the details all come together. Sometimes it's hard to stop adding "mini" details!







The trees are decorated with mini strings of lights and red and gold mini tinsel.
Lace adorns the red bird house. Real cedar and pine cones along with all the snow and sprinkles of twinklets and glitter give the look of our rustic Maine winter. I still 4 more to create for my mother-in-law. She wants to fill them with her yummy fudge for her 12 cousins. I'm so glad she wanted me to be a part of her gift giving this year.



So the key to these toppers...sheetrock compound under the glitter snow and hot glue when I can't count on the compound to "glue" the smaller pieces. But I cover any trace of the hot glue with more snow.
I hope to put some on my Etsy soon, after I finish my mother-in-law's order. If anyone has any requests, let me know!!!

Scrapbook pages/Glass-Like Tags

So I finally used the epoxy "glass-like" tags I made a long time ago. I was waiting for the perfect pictures and I finally found them. I went to a CM crop and was able to finish 8 pages in two evenings and part of one day. Not bad since I sometimes get a little crazy about details! I did a little paper tearing and curling, sewing and used some wire on these pages. This is my favorite lay-out of the crop. (check my labels for "tags glass" for the "how to make the tags")

I have some dried pressed flowers on order so I can make more tags. I didn't have any of my own this year. I'll leave the link to the great on-line shop I found when I post them.

I'm working on some Christmas toppers to glass jars for my mother-in-law. I hope to post those before Thanksgiving. They are pretty cute, but I love minitures anyway.

Glass-Like Quote Minibook/Bookmarks

After a busy summer and fall I'm excited to finally have a project to share, it's been a while. I made another quote book filled with 17 of my favorite quotes which includes a few of my favorite Bible verses. I have used several of them for scrapbooking and minibooks for my girls personal collection. The first one I made of this design, I traded for scrapbook supplies. That was really cool. The covers are altered chipboard coasters, sanded, gessoed, painted, stamped and the finishing touch is epoxy for the smooth glass-like finish. Within the epoxy is a dried, pressed lace flower. A more detailed description is with the items on my Etsy.

This bookmark is also finished with epoxy.

This bookmark is protected with layers of modpodge.

Bookmarks

So remember the BrainQuest deck of 300 questions and answers. My kids outgrew the decks we have so what better way to "recycle" them than to make them into collage bookmarkers. After sanding and painting a layer of gesso......

I went crazy with a collage of vellum images, stickers, fabric, ink, glimmer mist, ect. These are layered with UTEE. After putting them in the freezer for a couple minutes, I was able to get the cracks for a more vintage feel. (The others in my last bookmarker post were covered with epoxy. That seems to have better coverage for protection).

Recycled Frame and Wallpaper

I had two wooden frames personalized for previous owners. This picture shows the dark colored frame I used the light colored one and edged it with alcohol ink. Sanding just wasn't working very well and the alcohol ink sticks to anything.
I also had a bucket of wallpaper samples. These are great because they had alot of different textures and colors.

Using decoupage, I resurfaced the front of the frame with several different pieces. For blending of colors, I edged the inside of the frame with green and the outside with copper as well as the edges of each piece of cut or torn wallpaper. The textures really made this a fun project and I actually finished it the same day I started!!!!

Nest Home Art Card

I have to apologize to those who may come over from the Gothic Arches Challenge. I found the challenge on a different blog and thought it was an "egg" challenge. And I can't take my link back off the list. I have, respectfully, posted the challenge with the link on a new post. I enjoyed checking out all the beautiful art within the egg/arches theme. That is when I knew I had it "wrong". Thanks and enjoy!


This little picture is nestled in fiber and yellow homemade paper made from Sherry at "If I Could Set My Soul Free"" I also sewed mulberry paper trim and ribbon. Within the paper is mini yellow feathers peaking out from the edges. I backed the card with an old postcard and tulle.

My Thanks/Jesus by Beth Moore

ch40 speaks of receiving freely from God including His grace so we are to freely give. How has grace caused you to freely give of yourself recently? (is the question).

In Psalm 103 King David wrote about thanking and praising God. "all that is within me bless His holy name". He meant "I want to thank God with everything in me". The New Living translation says, "with my whole heart".
I have said, "with everything I have, and everything I am" this past week. My mother survived a serious motorcycle accident and is well on her way to recovery. With this extreme thanks I have for God, I have also been trying to (as in day 40 of the book study of "Jesus") "freely give as I have received" as much as I possibly could this past week. I am learning how God pulls together my life and my understanding of how He works, one step at a time. Is He working in her life here? It's hard to understand pain that is given to us but I also know it is never wasted as I have learned from my wonderful pastor friend. Sometimes it is to force us to rest, call out to Him, surrender the things we cannot control, finally let Him work in our life instead of working against Him.

"With the comfort I receive, I can comfort those in trouble". Our sufferings overflow but so does our comfort. We are distressed in order to have comfort and salvation which produces patience, endurance and perseverence. Mom, may you endure and find comfort and peace.

2cor.1:4 for more on comfort.



Into Scrap'n News,Issue#7 Is this months issue from Autumn's Love-My-Scrapbooking-Ideas. She included a few of my techniques and ideas for a Maine rocky coast beach lay-out.

I am unable to post the July or any of the newsletters but you can sign up to receive those e-mail on her site. Have Fun!!

Glass-like Bookmarks

This bookmark is epoxyed for a special glass-like appearance and texture. Glitter mist and acrylic paint is the background for layers of paper,vellum, dried flowers,and lace stickers



This bookmark is covered with layers of UTEE,ultra thick embossing enamal, for a smooth glass-like finish. I then cracked it in a few places for unique vintage design. Acrylic paint, stamping, mask stamping, spring mint glitter mist is the background for layers of paper and stickers. The right side shows the opposite side cardstock color which has been inked for an aged look.A gold and black rose charm uniquely holds the fibers.


Sold (on Etsy)

Clay Buttons

I couldn't resist these 2 adorable buttons made by my clay artist friend, Sara, at the town's art show this past Friday. We have such wonderful artists here in Bowdoinham.
These buttons go really well with my K&Co. paper and stickers!

I have finally been able to use my clay, pasta machine and made some cool buttons with gold perfect pearls powder.

I made these extra wings when I was working on my "Healing Wings". I may make a "family traditions" scrapbook to hold all the recipes and crafts we typically do during the holidays.

Excited to see my clay piece published

I just received 5 free magazines in an envelope because my clay wings are on page10. Very exciting!!! All the info. on why I created the wings is under "clay wings" down in my labels. This issue seems to have alot of sewing projects and one cross-stitch project but it's not always the case. If anyone is interested in a free copy, just let me know in your comment. I will send one to the first 2 people interested!! The link for the "Homearts" is on my sidebar.

Ebay

I removed one of the pair of jars from my etsy to give My Ebay another try.
I really hope to play in clay soon. I just bought an craft pasta machine on sale. Can't wait to give it a try. It also embosses metal...woo hoo!
Have a great week!

Whimsical Spring Jars

Here are some more of my cutsie glass jars with resin minitures. I have been recycling glass jars with screw-on tops. This little one has glittered hot glue around the edge of the top. It's small enough to hold easter egg shaped chocolates inside.

This one is inspired by Pooh's friend, Rabbit, and his charming garden. I placed real stones on top along with some Twinklets for some sparkle. There is a third carrot behind the rabbit partially buried, not seen in this photo.

Each jar holds three packets of seeds. I may put these on my etsy as well. So cute for holding ribbons, scraps of fabric or fiber. Hmmmmm, do I want to keep these? I am having too much fun with these little minitures!!

Whimsical Spring Garden Jar

Just another little jar full of packets of seeds. Again, the top is colored joint compound. I pressed the resin birdhouse, petals and tiny river rocks I collected in northern maine into the wet compound. Hanging on the side is a resin butterfly on two flowers.
This is going on my etsy. This is fun!!

My Top 10

It's time to pass on the award to some great gals. I would like to make all of you a "link" from my side bar because I really enjoy visiting you and sharing ideas. Happy Spring!

Debra at Sparkling Scrapbook

Jessica at Kidsnapping ImScrapping

Scrapper Mom

Jen Lowe Designs

Amy at Kids Love Learning

Laurie's Charming Designs

Scott's Average Joe Photography

Lani Healing Expressions

Sherry

Catherine Art From the Heart

Whimsical Spring Garden Jar

I loved making these little gardening jars. They are decorated with gardening supply minitures, flowers and filled with packets of seeds. They will make an adorable gift for Easter,Mother's Day or a spring birthday. I used glass jars and spread colored sheetrock compound over the top. I was going to use my sparkly snow but since I was going to add acrylic paint, I just used the compound.
I was so excited this morning because I sold the top jar to the owner of a local shop where I find the little resin minitures, rake, ribbons ect. This second jar decorated with the hose and tools are now on my etsy. Soooo fun!!