Ready for Spring!

I am so ready for spring!  My grass is turning green.  My flowers are starting to bloom.  The climbing mini rose on the back fence is loaded with buds.  They are yellow.  So happy.  Even the geraniums that I really thought were dead have green leaves!  If only the season could last longer!  I love the cool mornings and the warm afternoons.  Hate knowing that the hot and humid is coming back!  Ugh

So let's just enjoy the spring while we have it.  Today I want to share with you a card and tutorial that I designed for Gecko Galz.  All of the images are from their store and I have combined them to make this lovely card:

I love the soft, cool colors.  Images are from the Vintage Tags, French Connection Stamps (the bird stamp), Beautiful Borders, and Coquete Papers 2 from the February Kit Club.  All of these images, and more, can be found at Gecko Galz Etsy Shop

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(close-up of the bird stamp transfer)

On to the tutorial....Begin with a white card base sized 4 x 5.  Cut your pink Coquete Paper to be 3 3/4 x 4 3/4 and mat it with pale grey cardstock.  Size your other images and print them.  Mat the floral frame on pale grey cardstock as well.  (For size reference, the floral frame is approx 3 x 3 1/2 and the bird is approx 1 x 1 1/4)   Print your bird stamp (note it is black and white).  Next we will create an image transfer of the bird.  Using a piece of clear packing tape, cover your bird image with the tape.  Burnish tape to bird very well.  Then spritz the back of the tape image with water and begin "rolling" the paper off of the tape.  Continue doing this until most all of your paper is gone.  You will be left with the bird image on the tape.  Color your bird on the reverse side using acrylic paint or Tim Holtz markers.  I used the markers to get a nice, pale coloring.  My tape was still sticky on the edges so I added a small amount of glossy accent on the bird and stuck the image to the vintage music tag.  Cut your other 2 tags out and add the ribbons and pearls at the top.  Assemble your images according to the pic.  I stamped a friendship saying to pale pink and matted it on grey.  All pieces were distress inked on the edges using Tim Holtz Brushed Cordouroy.  I added vintage lace and ribbons as well.  I also brushed the tape with a matte gel medium to take the gloss away.  You could not even see the tape when I was done!  I also think the little bit of paper that was left on the back of the tape helped give it a vintage feel.  

I really like how the bird turned out.  I think it looks like the image came that way.  This precious piece went to one of my best friends, Susan, for her birthday.  She loved it!  

Hope you were inspired to make some Spring happen in your house today!  I think I have some more of the new February images from Gecko Galz that I need to go play with!  

Have a spectacular day!

Some pretty dangles!

Many years ago I had a successful jewelry business.   It all began because I wanted this gorgeous sapphire cross necklace.  Oh, it was so lovely.  It happened to be a special order and that lead to so many things.  Bead shops.  Silver shops.  Costume jewelry stores.  So much.  But they were all wholesale only.  The only way I could solve that problem was to open a business and get my resale license.  And poof!!  My business was born.  I LOVED it!  It was so much fun.

I have always enjoyed making my own jewelry.  But now I had all the proper tools and oh so much cool stuff to play with.  Oh, and people loved my designs.  It was wonderful.  At this same time I had a daughter that was very small.  An angel.  I sometimes had to take her to a show and people would never even know she was with me because she was so quiet!  Just about the time business started changing (market overflowed with bead makers and people making their own jewelry, and the silver market going through the roof) I had another child.  My adorable baby boy.  Well, enough said.  My jewelry business closed.

Sad you may think.  But not really.  I mean, I have always placed my children first.  The reality is that my loyal customers still came to me.  I had a trickle business just word of mouth.

The jewelry making bug never left either.  I find that I make more of my own jewelry than I purchase.  And many times if I do buy something I take it home and alter it to what I want!

I thought I would share some of the latest pieces with you.

This is a bezel that I overfilled with glass glitter then added some Ice Resin.  This picture doesn't do the color justice!  The light catches the glitter so beautifully.

This piece is a collage inside a bezel.  Lots of fun enameling and topped with Ice Resin.  This one and the one above were made while at CHA in an Ice Resin class.

This was also done in the CHA class.  It was kind of a guess; a test so to speak.  The instructor gave us a big washer from the hardware store.  We could enamel or do whatever we wanted.  It was quite the adventure.  To begin with, the washer is so thick it was difficult to heat properly for the enameling to melt!  I think I tried 3 times before it really stuck.  But I really love the look of it.

This is an older piece that I made from a G45 metal butterfly and some Elizabeth Craft Design pieces.

And the last one.....my favorite....the one I wear the most and people love.....

This is a bezel that I added a Gecko Galz image to.  I then added some glass glitter around the edges and filled it with Ice Resin.  I love the colors and how vintage it feels.

I hope you enjoyed these today.  Stop back by for more inspiration...

New images from Gecko Galz

As you may know I am on the Design Team for Gecko Galz.  I am such a HUGE fan of the images!  They are definitely my go to when I want an image!  Each month design team members  create so many incredible designs showcasing these images.  I strongly encourage all of you to stop by the Pinterest page for Gecko Galz (Just search Pinterest for Gecko Galz).  Major inspiration!

Today I thought I would share 2 of my projects using this month's images.  Gecko Galz has a new Kit Klub this year (you get so many images each month - it is wonderful!).  I have used papers from the kit, Coquete February kit, on both designs.

First up is a retro, vintage beauty!  I decided to make a fun birthday card.  First I found the saloon door image on the Silhouette Store.  I adjusted the image to include a small tab on each side and made 2 cuts (a detailed one from the kraft paper and a background one from the dark brown).  Next I cut the background paper from the Coquete papers.  I inked the "hinges" and added mini brads.  The hinges are just for looks and don't really have a function but I did wrap them to the back of the paper.  I also added some brown fringe ribbon to the bottom of each door.  I then adhered the background paper and doors to the front of a white card base.

I matted the vintage cowgirl image from Rootin' Tootin' Cowgirls 2 image sheet on white and then on blue.  It is adhered in the center of the paper behind the doors.  For my greeting I printed out my words on the computer and matted them on blue paper.  It is just a fun birthday card and leaves the inside blank for your own sentiments!

This month when I saw the mini images I just fell in love with them!  They are flowers and oh so lovely!  I really adore hydrangeas.  They are so pretty and delicate.  The 1 x 1 Flower Garden Jewels has several great hydrangea images and I just had to make a fun altered piece with them.  To make this little lovely I began by cutting 3 pieces of chipboard 3 x 3 and rounding the corners.  Next I wallpapered each with papers from the February Coquete Kit Klub.  I also grabbed the 3 floral images I wanted to use and sized them to about 2 1/2 x 2 1/2.  I printed 2 copies:  one for the square image and one for the fussy cut of the flowers.  I distress inked all the edges with blue ink and pop dotted the fussy cut flowers on top of their original image.  The chipboard panels are held together with a lace sticker that extends to cover the edge of each piece.  To complete my little triptych I added some tiny glittered flowers and some vines.

A close up of each panel is below:

 These images just look like you could crawl in them!  They are so deep with great detail!  Love, love, love.

I hope these inspired you today!  Stop by Gecko Galz and check out the images.  And while you are there check out the monthly kits.  They are an amazing value and the images are tremendous!

Check back soon.......I have so many things to share with you.  Thinking this will go to a weekly posting!!!!!