Table makeover

Well I'll start off with a little history. Hubster and I bought this table from the local classifieds about 8 years ago when we bought our house. I fell in love with it. I loved the color, the design, the everything. When we bought it, I knew it would need to be refinished eventually. But I had no idea how to recreate this fabulous 1950's blonde look. So one day while eating at the local mexican restaurant I fell in love with their chairs. It was the inspiration I needed to tackle this project. I got to work right away stripping the chairs first.

Little did I know that this wood was actually MAHOGANY! I was certain the old lady who purchased this Drexel set back in the day was rolling over in her grave when I was applying the turquoise stain! It was a long lengthy process. Because it was red mahogany, I couldn't simply apply my stain. Thankfully, my BFF- Google, helped me find out that you bleach mahogany in order to get it lighter. So after many phone calls I found someone who actually stocked the special wood bleach and away I went.
6 weeks later, the set is complete. I couldn't be happier with them. They were 100% worth all the work and frustration I put into these. And I do mean I. Hubster helped me get the table out the garage and I did the rest.
I learned a lot about furniture refinishing during this process. It was a lot of fun to re-route my creativity to a new direction!

August

Hi friends. So sorry for my delay in updating this blog! I'm so sorry it hasn't been every week like I committed to!

My friend decided in August to start doing monthly theme colors for all projects, like a presenter at convention does. She picked the color scheme and I followed her. She picked: Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, I added accents of Tempting Turquoise and Basic gray. It was interesting how this combo was very feminine, but yet also funky and cool. I also made a scrapbook page and another card to display, but the scrapbook wasn't anything exciting, so I decided not to show it. So the card below is a total case from another one I fell in love with. Unfortunately I don't know who I got it from, so I can't give proper credit...so sorry.

products are all Stampin up. Stamp set: Extreme Elements, Extreme skateboard, Teeny Tiny Wishes. I used the star punch with a tempting turquoise brad for a little bunch of turq. Love this card.

We made these little bookmarks for August club. It seemed appropriate since school was starting and there would be lots of reading. I am so in love with this Aviary set!
Rich Razzleberry card stock, Rich Razzleberry and Pumpkin Pie 1/4 grosgrain ribbon, Old Olive DSP from the Brights DSP tablet, Old Olive Button from the Brights button assortment, curly label punch for the top.

3x3 Thank you's

As a gift for my friends at convention I decided I'd make a few tiny thank you cards. We can always use thank you cards right? So, here they are. Everything of course is Stampin up. This first card I sewed the tiny ribbon on my sewing machine. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I used the Greenhouse Gala DSP, Old Olive ribbon and CS and a little strip of Daffodil Delight CS across the top of the ribbon.

This one below also features the Greenhouse Gala DSP, Chocolate chip and Daffodil delight CS with some early esspresso 1/8 taffeta ribbon. The stamp set used is Teeny Tiny Wishes for the Thank you and Friends Never Fade for the flower.
This one also features the Friends Never Fade stamp set. I randomly selected a color scheme from the new and fabulous Color Coach. The colors are Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzaz, and Tempting Turquoise. I used markers to color the bloom, and then used the tiny tags stamp set with the tiny tag punch for the tag. I used linen thread to tie it up.
This last one uses the Artist Etchings set. I used Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze and Black. I brayered the Newsprint DSP in Baja Breeze. I LOVE that technique! I wish I came up with it, and I wish I would have saved the name/blog of the person who did so I could give them credit
So there we have it. Sorry to my blogging group friends because I haven't been blogging every week! I'll try harder!

This or That

Convention is in TWO WEEKS! I can't believe it's here already. I wait for this day for 365 days! and now it's finally here! So in preparations for convention, I have to design swap cards. I am participating in a shoebox swap, and I can't decide which one of these cards I like better. What do YOU think??

I like the above because it seems sort of regal with it's colors. Which by the way are Riding hood red, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, and Very Vanilla card stock and then DD RR and EE ink. Paired with EE ribbon! I love that itty bitty ribbon.

I also like this one too. I like that it's softer (sort of) colors and honestly I'm using that tower way too much, and I needed to figure out a way to use the rest of the stamps in a focal point sort of way. This card I used Riding Hood Red, Marina Mist, River Rock and Very Vanilla card stock and ink.

So tell me! Which card do you like better??

June Club

So sorry for my delay in posting. I have had a little bit of drama with my camera situation! I am so sad that this Stampin' Up! stamp set, Nursery Necessities, is retiring this month! It's my favorite baby set EVER! I have never done a baby card for our club, so I thought this would be the perfect time! I also wanted to try a "functional" card. So this is a "spinner" card. The little star spins down the card. It's so cute!

Supplies: So Saffron Card stock, Bashful blue DSP, Buttons sizzix die, abc roller, nursery necessities stamp set, Basic Gray classic ink, Versamark, two pennies, star punch, a gazzilion dimensionals.

At convention year before last they demonstrated using paper towel rolls for little cups, then of course cover them with cuteness and there we have it. Well, I have been sporatically saving my paper towel rolls to do something with them. I saw somewhere someone made a little firecracker with this set, so I thought that would be the perfect project for my PT rolls!

Supplies: paper towel roll, star punches, Red, White, Blue jumbo roller, Real Red and whisper white 1/4 grosgrain ribbon, not quite navy, real red classic ink pad. All Stampin' Up!

love at first sight

Okay, when I saw this set in the catalog for an early preview i was in LOVE! Then when I saw (at midnight june 1st) that i got to preorder it i was in HEAVEN! This might be one of my most favorite sets! I've already made 4 cards with it and I love each one of them! I love the new in colors...this card features Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzaz and the returning Baja Breeze and a smidge of So Saffron. I love that we have markers for everything. So anyway, Here's my card....

Marker storage

I know I can't be the only person in the world with a dilemma right now (well not really me anymore) but when Stampin Up comes out with 18 NEW markers and the case (that I didn't have anyway) only holds 48 and you now have 76 markers! That's a problem. I took matters into my own hands and purchased a $2.68 piece of foam board and went to work. It was a little tricky since I've never in my life worked with it (and if I did it again-and I might- I would use a new blade in the craft knife). There were a couple of tutorials for other items similar to this, so I decided my dimensions and got busy. Here is my end result. Good thing my picture is low quality, so you can't REALLY see how scabby it is :), but it houses my markers in a nice visual way. I love it. I think I may cover it with some DSP or something. For now I love it just the way it is!

Preview

This time of year is like Christmas for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators! I got this set as a preorder with the new core colors. I LOVE the new colors. The renovation was SOOOO needed. Anyway, this set has several other cool items, but the eiffel tower was my least favorite so I told myself I HAD to make something with it. I had a vision of the tower at night so I thought I'd play with it. It turned out okay I suppose. I stamped the keys out in Pear Pizzaz, Peach Parfait, and Daffodil Delight, then cut them out and stuck them on the tiny 1/8" Marina Mist Taffeta ribbon.

New header....and a card

I made my first header with MDS. It's not 100% the look I was going for, but it turned out cute, and happened to match my current blogger background! YAY.

Anyway, here is the card that i accidentally posted last week then deleted...but it still showed up as there. My great uncle passed away a couple of weeks ago and I made a handful of these cards cards to give to my grandma and his family. He lived a long life and it was okay that he passed.

Fathers Day

I procrastinated....I worked just hours before club to create, design and prep for club! Naughty Naughty! I hate to do that, but yet I've been doing it lately. Anyway. Here is what I came up with for Fathers Day. Seems like we always give my Dad some sort of Nutty gift.....Sunflower seeds, bulk cashews, etc. So I thought, for club, we'd make a little box that has a window perfect for a nutty gift! I actually got design idea through inspiration of our own beautiful catalog. Imagine that ;)! I was looking to guess the dimensions of the party favor die, and there was an amazing sample with a window on that very page. So I modified my size and figured out what would work best.

This particular box starts out as a 4 1/4 x 10 peice of cardstock. It gets scored, 1 1/2", 4 3/4", 6 1/4", and 9 1/2". Then long ways 1". I used Night of Navy for the box, then a piece of 3x3 More mustard ran through the big shot with the lattice folder. A piece of Brocade Blue (retiring, SAD!) 5/8th Grosgrain ribbon, tied with linen thread, and then a cute little tag from "Tiny Tags" that says "4YOU" punched with the tiny tag punch.

To give examples to my customers I whipped up this 3x3 card that fits inside. We aren't making it for club (because we are making the card below), but I wanted to show them how perfectly a little card would fit in there.