FUN stuff today!

It's been a rough week at our house, with a miserable summertime virus making the rounds, so crafting and blogging have taken a back seat to sleeping and recovering. But we're all fine now, and getting back to our lives!

LOTS to share this week, so let's get started. Today is a sneak peek of the wonderful Crafty Secrets new releases. Ooohhhh, if you love vintage and Victorian, you should SEE the fabulous goodies coming up! Here are some things I've created.

I did this card with paper from the "Pastel Paper Pad" collection, matched with stamps from the quirky "Wonderland" stamp set. I paper pieced Miss Alice's dress, to meet the "Wee Memories" challenge) and used a little gold mirri cardstock to create the corner embellishments with Nesties. Hmmm, Alice looks a bit like she has an Alien "glow" around her...the crown? My photography? (lol)

For this birthday card, I used the same paper background, paired with one of my very favourite images from the new "Birds and Blossoms" paper scraps set, and a June calendar image from the double sided "Seasonal Calendar" set. Don't you just LOVE those wee birdie hats!? (lol) The current Theme Thursday challenge is to use something beautiful...I think these little hats qualify! I used a multi-coloured, multi layered organza grunge rose with a button as an embellishment (to meet the current Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge...buttons and blooms) . If you like the rose, read further down, you'll see how to create these little beauties.


Now this next card is a tremendous feat of accomplishment for me! I am spatially challenged, and experience great difficulty doing anything even remotely 3-d. But my online stamping friend Kerry has a challenge on her blog, so I decided this would make a lovely birthday card and gift for a dear friend of mine, and would allow me to combine a fun project with my new Crafty Secrets goodies. Kerry's challenge is to create a card with a box attached. She provided a great little template, but that didn't quite work for me, because I needed to use measurements to fit the "Birthday Wishes" panel at the bottom of the card. It was really easy to amend the dimensions of Kerry's template, and even though this little project took me ages to finish (lol), I'm tickled pink with how it turned out. I'm posting card views of the outside, the inside, and a side view so you can see the dimension. I love the sentiment on the image. It's tiny print, it says "Let us grow old like beautiful lace, cherished and treasured and cared for with grace." I used the new "Sew Nice" double sided creative scraps sheet, and stamps from the Flourishes and "Garden Girls" sets, with lots of gold and glitter and crystals. Now Kerry created her box template to fit tea light candles...great idea 'eh...and she has it posted on her blog, so if you'd like to do one, it's all there for you. I'm using my little box to hold a handmade necklace and earrings set. THANKS Kerry, this was a FUN challenge to do! I'm entering this card (with its square central image) in the current Wednesday Stamper challenge...it's hip to be square.





All the Crafty Secrets designers have fabulous new release eye candy for you today...I hope you can take the time to stop by to see all their crafty beauties!

· Vicki Chrisman
· Pam Hooten
· Heidi Blankenship
· Marisa Grosson
· Linda Duke
Michele Kovak
· Melissa Phillips
· Flo from France

Okay, on to more artsy fun! It's my turn to do a tutorial for the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, and I've taken a spin about ruffles this weekend! Organza grunge ruffled flowers, to be precise.

I know these are all over the web now; this is just my version.

To get started, I picked out three delightful colours of organza...aren't these delicious!?

Then I cut a wee scrap of cardstock with one of the old Cuttlebug flowers dies, scanned it, enlarged it, and printed it to 4" square to use as a template to cut my floral shapes.

Folding your fabric in four layers, one colour at a time, pin and cut. You don't need to be precise at all, because the next steps will fix any errors in cutting...or at least make it look like the errors really don't matter at all (lol)

Cut till you have a nice stack, as you'll need four to five layers per flower.

Now here's the fun part! Light a candle, and start gently waving your organza over the flame. Be careful! Don't go too close!

The fabric melts quickly, and will reward you with the most delightful grungy edges!

Now all you need to do is to stack the layers one atop the other, stitch them together, add a brad or a button or a ribbon, and voila! Grunge flowers!

Now all you need to do is decide how you'll use them! There are all sorts of possibilities...here are two, just to get you started...a very simple card, and a gift wrapped box.

If you decide to play a little, we'd love to see what you create over at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog!