Design DIVAS OBG Blog Hop

Hello Friends!

It is time once again to invite you to the Design DIVAS Oldies But Goodies Blog Hop! If you arrived here from Dru Cabral's blog, you are in the right place! If you would like to start at the beginning of the hop, please go to Cindy Pec's blog.

I have a project to share with you that was challenging but a hoot to do! This "Barn" was a gift to a very dear friend who pastures some horses at our place. It is an exploding album box! Most of you are probably already aware of this box, but I want to share with all who might like to try it! I apologize for the less than clear pics. I have no clue why these are different from other pics I have taken...lol! My inspiration for the barn came from this video. I started with a 12 x 12 inch sheet of weathered wood cardstock from DCWV's Textures stack. The cardstock is scored at four inches on all sides. I then cut the outside corners away leaving a + sign figure. There are two inner layers cut a quarter of an inch smaller respectively in coordinating patterns and colors. I cut the lid 7 1/8" x 7 1/8" from coordinating cardstock. The lid is scored at 1 1/2 inches on all sides. The corners are cut to make tabs for the box lid. This video will show you how to configure the basic box and lid. Once the base was cut, sponged and assembled, the REAL fun started! My biggest challenge was to make the barn roof and loft. After numerous measures and cuts, I finally came up with a template I liked. I used silver cardstock for the roof. I ran the piece through the crimper to give it more of the look of our barn. I also sponged the paper with some Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap and Orange Marmalade ink to give some places the look of rust. I added a weather vane and the "rivets" for some dimension. I adhered the roof at the sides of the lid leaving extra length that I could score a half inch from the bottom. In the "loft", I added some frayed grass rope (used to hold hay bales), cutout critters and other "lofty" items. The hinges on the lid were cut from the Fabulous Finds Cricut cartridge at 1 inch. I added the mini brads as screws. The cut outs on this project were cut from numerous cartridges. If you are interested, I will try to put a list together for you. On the front of the box, I cut a door frame free hand and added doors that attach underneath the frame. The mini brads are used again for screws and door knobs. The opened doors reveal the birthday sentiment. Other embellishments include a mailbox, bluebird, and flowers that are also tiny brads. The fence is hand cut and adhered over the focal images. The little crochet flowers you see were done by my Mom. (She rocks!) All corners and edges were sponged with Frayed Burlap ink. Inside the box, you see a round gift box in the center. This was a fun foam cut outs container. The gift is inside the box as well as some cut out saddles. More crochet flowers are used to anchor the box a little more and add some interest. I was able to place twenty photos in this album. I added pertinent little decorations to the pics. More photos could have been added with swing tabs and pockets, I'm sure. It took many hours to choose, coordinate, cut, edit, adhere, sponge and embellish this project, but it was worth all the time and effort! This personalized gift was great fun to make and my friend was thrilled!

Be sure to try one of these exploding box albums! The basic box is super simple and you can let your creativity flow with the focal points and embellishments. It would be a super project for a grandparent where the kids choose the photos. The box lid can be completed by adding a pretty bow or flower. So go for it!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Hope you enjoyed your visit and you will come back soon! Visit when you have time to explore the labeled posts. If you find some inspiration, please leave me a comment and a link to your creation!

Your next stop on the hop is Linda Payne's blog. There are always wonders to be seen on her blog!

Be good to yourself; and, as always, I wish you....

Blessings,
Vicki

Design D.I.V.A.S. OBG Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome to this month's Facebook Design D.I.V.A.S Oldies But Goodies Blog Hop!

The Facebook Design DIVAS (Divine, Inspirational, Virtuous , Artistic "Sistahs") is a group of crafters who love to share their inspiration, talent and fellowship! We have our "Oldies But Goodies" Blog Hop the third Wednesday of each month. Our challenge is to use products that
have been neglected or forgotten for at least six months. Be sure to mark your calendars and stop by each month to share in the fun! You are sure to see some amazing projects!

Carolyn Bounds starts our blog hop today! If you have come here from Carolyn's awesome blog, you are in the right place.

I have a fun easel wedding card to share with you today. I enjoy making this style card and the way it it is able to sit up for display. Dawn Griffith has a great video on how to make this card here! I started with a white card base. I then layered black, pink dotted swiss and another layer of white. The bride and groom hearts are also an inspiration from Dawn and her video for these can be found here. The base and white layer are cut with a border punch. The easel "stopper" is the same black, pink and white with the sentiment generated on the computer. The card has some added bling with pearls and clear adhesive hearts. There is a computer generated greeting inside the card. All the elements of this card more than meet the criteria for this hop! It has been an encouraging discovery to pull out the "oldies but goodies" for this challenge! It's still amazing what you can stockpile in a couple of years time! But, that is no surprise to any of you, right?

I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today! It is always a joy to have you stop by! You will want to continue the hop by visiting Maria Matter's blog! Maria always has wonderful projects to share! I am sure you will find inspiration at all your stops on the hop today! Join us again next month and I will continue to send...

Blessings to you,
Vicki

A Butterfly Blessing

Hello Everyone!

I'm here today to share the very sweet blessing sent to me by a dear blogging buddy! It is always a special treat to receive a blog award! Cindy Johnsen Pec has included me in the "Butterfly Blog" award! Thank you, Cindy! Sorry it took me so long to get this posted! Cindy is such a hoot! Her crafting is remarkable, her heart is warm and wide open to her friends and she's a nurse! Be sure to pay her a visit at Cindy's Antics Stamping, Scrapping, Nursing, Family! Oh, and be ready for the strange splashing sound on her blog! When I first heard it, I wasn't sure if I should try to catch something or jump into something!!

As with other blog awards, there are a few guidelines that come with the award. I have been asked to answer some questions.

Q1) Name your favorite color? Green

Q2) Name your favorite song? Victory in Jesus

Q3) Name your favorite dessert? Chocolate Chimichanga

Q4) What whizzes you off at the moment??? Politicians

Q5) Your favorite pet? Oh, can't pick favorite...I love them all

Q6) Black or White? Depends if it is day or night

Q7) Your biggest fear? Falling

Q8) Best Feature? Hope it is my smile

Q9) Everyday attitude? Nothing God and I can't work through...

Q10) What is perfection? An unrealistic perception

Now, I am supposed to send this award on to ten other bloggers. Well, I can't! I can't choose just ten!! So, I am going to share this award with all my blogging buddies and hope they know how important they are to me! I have been so blessed with wonderful crafters who inspire me with their creativity and make my heart sing with their love and kindness!

I am so glad you stopped by today! I hope to have some paper projects posted soon, so, be sure to check in later! Hope you have an amazing week! I will leave you now with...

Blessings to you,
Vicki

No Tragedy Here

Hello Friends!

Quite the weekend for the East Coast, huh? Hope everyone came through with little or no damage or injury!

I want to share a card with you today that was made for my nephew. He is a wonderful guy who I dearly love! He has been in the theater many years wearing many "hats"; actor, writer, singer, dancer, you name it! To hear him talk in his soothing Southern drawl warms any heart! But, to see him on stage and speaking a whole different dialect and expressing a completely different persona just blows me away! For his birthday card, my thoughts immediately went to the theater masks, comedy and tragedy.

I started with a standard size card base in Brilliant Blue. I rounded the corners of the base as well as the gold mat layer. Having no stamps for the masks, I went to the computer and found the clip art. I only used the comedy mask for this card. I printed those images twice, cut them out and layered them on the card with dimensionals. I printed the greeting, also on the computer, using Print Shop. Next, I sponged the edges of the greeting layer with some Brilliant Blue ink. As a final accent, I added some copper colored adhesive pearls. I am happy to say he loved it!

I always seem to enjoy the cards made for family much more, don't you? I love crafting cards, but those going to family and friends just make me enjoy the process in a different way!

I am so glad you stopped by today! Hope you have enjoyed your visit and will come again! Who knows which relative or friend's profession I will zero in on next?!?!?

Have an awesome day and know I am sending...

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Design DIVAS Oldies but Goodies Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the August Design D.I.V.A.S. Oldies but Goodies Blog Hop! Our challenge for this hop is to use items in our project that are at least six months old. I know we all have some of those in our crafting supplies!! If you have arrived here from Dru's blog, you are in the right spot. To start at the beginning of the hop, be sure to go to Heather's blog.

The card I am sharing with you today is made up of all "oldies but goodies". I made this card for a friend's great niece. That fact will be important later!

I started with the dress template I found here. It is precious and reminds me of the dresses my girls wore when they were babies. This is a two part template so the variations for this piece are endless. I started with a white cardstock base and covered it in wallpaper. Tacky glue works really well for adhering the wallpaper to the base. For the front, I also cut a vellum overlay which I then embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I sponged the dress edges with rose colored chalk ink. The trim around the top is bakery twine in a coordinating color. At the bodice line, I added a strip of pink grosgrain ribbon. The buttons are actually from my friend's collection! I wanted to include a little heritage in the card! I think it is so neat that we could include the great aunt's buttons! The sentiment strip was computer generated and cut with design scissors. I also used the scissors to cut the bottom edge of the dress. As a final touch, I added a tiny satin bow with the tails falling down the front of the dress. The card opens at the bottom; so if your cardstock or paper has a definite pattern, you will need to cut the fold at the shoulder in order to keep pattern going in the right direction. I also had to make the envelope for this card as it did not fit standard sizes. This card is a little time consuming, but definitely worth the effort.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit here. It is such fun "hopping" with these talented ladies! Your next stop is Mary Harmon's blog. I know you will be inspired by what she has to share!

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope you will join us again for our next hop the third Wednesday in September!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Two from One Design!

Hello Friends!

Today I would like to share a couple of cards made using the same DCWV cardstock design. Once again, I have gone to my favorite Fun in the Sun pack! This has become one of my favorites due to the double sided designs and the touches of glitter on the cardstock.

My maternal grandmother was a tiny lady with a big heart. One of her favorite sayings when we washed the dishes was, "While you have that hot wet rag, how about wiping down this...or that!" She managed to get her entire kitchen cleaned that way!! We use that phrase still today and I was reminded of it when I had this cardstock out. So, while I had this big piece of cardstock out, why not make two cards??

The anniversary card is standard size. I cut the outside edges with Majesty design scissors. The greeting layer is cut with Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangle die and stamped in Really Rust craft ink. The edges are sponged with Ballet Blue ink. I added copper pearls for accent as well as the heart gem brad. I used the SU Bird punch to add some extra interest with the bird and branches. The bird's eye is also a copper pearl. Simple and fun with this card!

The second card was made for my daughter's friend. Military wives are so awesome about encouraging and supporting each other! She needed a card just to say she appreciated her friend's efforts and prayers. Same standard base as before. The greeting is stamped on a strip of GP white cardstock and cut with an MS border punch. The flowers are from a K & Company pack. The centers on the flowers were yellow so I went over them with a copper glimmer gel pen and added the white dots. You are gonna laugh I know, but I thought you would get a kick from the fact that I used the little dot cut outs from the border punch on the flower centers!! How's that for recycling?!?!? The flowers are adhered with dimensionals. I added a rust colored ribbon to soften the card a little and rounded the lower corners. Here again, simple and fun!

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and you have enjoyed your visit here today! Please come back soon! And, remember....put that hot wet rag to good use while you have it!! Hugs and...

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Design DIVAS OBG Blog Hop!!

Hello and Welcome to the Facebook Design DIVAS OBG Blog Hop! So glad you are here! If you came here from Mary Griffith's blog, then you are in the right place! If you would like to start at the beginning of the hop, head over to Cindy Grigiski 's blog!

The Facebook Design DIVAS (Divine, Inspirational, Virtuous , Artistic "Sistahs") is a group of crafters who love to share their inspiration, talent and fellowship! We have our "Oldies But Goodies" Blog Hop the third Wednesday of each month. Our challenge is to use products that have been neglected or forgotten for at least six months. Be sure to mark your calendars and stop by each month to share in the fun! You are sure to see some amazing projects!

My project to share today is a masculine birthday card. These always seem to be needed and seem the hardest to come up with. This time I needed a card for my son-in-law. I even got excited when I came across a stamp set I had not used in quite some time! I started with a card base from My Mind's Eye. I love the brown and blue together for a masculine card! I found some matching cardstock in my stash and stamped/clear embossed the lighthouse in Night of Navy craft ink! This image is from The Angel Company's "Light the Path" set. I then stamped and embossed the birthday greeting from the Inkadinkado's "Greetings" Collection. I cut the image and greeting down to size with scalloped scissors. Next, I cut the mats and sponged all the edges with the craft ink. I also added the Making Memories "Metal Sayings" sticker for some extra interest. The last detail is some baker's twine in Cappuccino color. Then I adhered the image and greeting to the card with dimensionals. I hope you like the result! I was pleased to see these older products come to life again!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! It is always a treat to have you here! Now, you will want to hop on over toDru Cabral's blog! She always has the neatest things to share!

Hope you enjoy the hop and I leave you with...

Blessings to you,
Vicki