Sisters Hideaway

This was our second time to go stay with the sisters. It is a great place for a retreat. It is out in the country, just a beautiful area. The food is the best. Three days of heaven. I hope we are able to continue to go every year. Twelve of us from our church group went this year. We have all been scrapping together for so long it's just really great. They are my best friends. The sisters have this one wall that they hang up things that people make for them. I had made a page for them the first time we went and decided to make something new this year.It was woven embossed metal. I think it came out pretty well. I made some other projects but will post them later. Oh yes, the first day that we were there this dog showed up. It actually lived a few houses down the road but came and stayed the entire weekend with us. He was a really cool dog. We named him Cricut to go with our scrapbooking theme. We have such a great time at the retreats I wish I could go every weekend.

Awesome Classes

On June 26 I took the cert class at Ten Seconds Studio. Cheryl is so great, she takes time to make sure everyone is learning all she can teach in the time allowed, and just makes you feel so comfortable. I absolutely love working with metal. It was the best class I've ever taken. To make it the very best weekend ever I took the Tim Holtz class on Sunday the 28th. He is so great his classes move along so fast it leaves your head spinning. But when he says everyone will finish he means it. The project ws this cool looking shadow box frame. Tim did the inside and Cheryl taught the metal part on the out side. I have a picture of the one Cheryl did it's way more awesome than mine. The three of us(me, Deb, and Kalen) all took this class together and we all loved it. I now have almost all of the molds they sell!

Bi Tri Sometimes quarterly Update

It's my first update since June but I've discussed what a bad blogger I am before so I'll skip that and just do some catching up. GASC was a blast. Me, Deb and Kalen took several classes together the best of which was the Crafty Scrapper and Ten Seconds class. Of course. The crowds were a little smaller than in the past ( bad for shops good for shopping) that is not to say that there was not still a ton of people there.

Altered Gift Box

On Valentines a few years back Debbie got me this little mail box covered in hearts and stuffed with goodies for me. It was one of those things you really don't know what to do with but at the same time it was a special gift. So I kept it but it ended up getting stuck away someplace. I came across it a while back and decided to change it up a bit. I used a glossy black aluminum. The panels that make up the outside were run through cuttle bug embossing templates and adhered to the mailbox. Then I painted it with flat black paint and sanded. In the end you are able to see the glossy black, flat black and the bare aluminum. No disrespect to the original gift, but I like it better this way.

Love Cross

I really like this project. I don't mean that like I'm bragging or whatever. Every crafter or artist that creates things has certain things they like better than others. Anyway the canvas I used is this dense corrugated paper board. Where I work we sometimes get material shipped in with this under the incoming material. Our monthly crop was that weekend and it was my turn to come up with a make and take. So when I saw the cardboard I knew some how it was the project. Granted the cross is not the project the photo frame was the project. I precut pieces of aluminum for the matting to save time at the crop. I offered a choice of colors of paint for the "canvas" and the aluminum if desired. On the Love Cross I used Adirondack Inks to create the pattern on the aluminum. The cross was embossed with a Cuttle Bug embossing template. The letters for the L O V E were cut with a Sizzix over foam adhesive.

Scrap Paper Frame

Well the title says it all. I've been on a kick lately, and I've been trying to use up some scrap paper. We end up with these boxes of paper that get bigger and bigger. So I dug into it and started tearing and Mod Podgeing to the frame then repeat till covered. By the way, the horse in the picture belongs to a neighbor down the road from our place in Jacksonville in East Texas.

My little red barn

At our last church crop I spent the day playing with different things. The barn I built with plain chipboard and coverd with aluminum that had been put through a crimper. Then I added paint. I was planning a trip to our place in east Texas to start builing our barn there. I guess that was my inspiration.

Once again I find myself apologizing for being a bad blogger. This time of year is always so busy. I have been doing some crafting and went to GASC. I have made it as far as taking pictures of some of the things I have been doing but they are not yet on the computer.Oh yes my really great news is I am going to the Tim Holtz class at Ten Seconds Studio next Sunday, as well as the Ten Seconds certification class on Friday. Can't wait. Tomorrow me and Deb are going out to Crafty for a while, perhaps upon our return I'll get some pictures posted. I hope life is treating all of you well. Later!!

My Altered Object

This is without a doubt the biggest altered project I have ever done. At least as far as crafts and scrapbooking goes. We remodeled our front office where I work. All of the pre-existing wall art was being done away with. Anyone that wanted anything just had to put their name on a list for the specific item. At any rate I got several of the items I signed up for. One of them was a framed print of a seriously outdated southwestern print. I took the frame apart and made something new. I covered the matting with some hand embossed aluminum using several different molds and a few pieces of copper embossed using the Cuttlebug embossing templates. Once that was done I covered the existing back board of the photo frame with some cream colored burlap. Once this was all done I took a couple of Upper Case Living phrases and adhered them onto the actual glass on the front of the frame. I hope all of you like it.

My Jar From Kandy

Thank you so much for the jar Kandy. I love all the goodies. Charms are a personal fav of mine. Ribbons, bobbins, wood spools and so much more the large rose brad is beautiful. I have never used the beaded ribbon before and I can not wait to give it a try. The stamp with the horses is great. I have many photos of horses from around our land in the country. We went out to the store last night and picked up my jar. We had a really great time there. We did not have anything else going on so we just hung out for a few hours and shopped off and on. The jar swaps are so much fun. It is so neat seeing what others work with. The jar swaps are the most fun swaps I have done. I love making them and getting them.

Record Album Class

Last weekend we went to the Crafty Scrapper and took Brook's album scrapbook class. Not only did we really enjoy the class but me and Debbie really liked the results of the class. The cropped album itself is inside. I just really like the picture on the cover and did not want to cover it up. Before we left that day we bought one of the Bind it All's. I look forward to making more similar books in the future. Yay Brook.

Copper Photo Frame

This is my personal project from our last crop. It was made using a Ten Seconds embossing plate. Hand embossing is more work than running the metal through a machine but it also has a much different look. I chose not to ink, or paint it. I want it to develop a natural patina. The photo is from a trip we took to Las Vegas.

My Make and Take

At our last home group crop it was my turn to come up with a make and take. I tried doing an embossing project once before, but it did not go over too well. Embossing by hand can be more challenging. My make and takes usually turn into classes. Some of the ladies are not so fond of my more challenging projects. However I love to work with metal. That being said, thanks to the Cuttlebug embossing plates, I was able to come up with a metal project that everyone liked. Two pieces of metal run through the machine, a little adhesive onto some wood crosses I had cut out earlier that week, a little paint and this is what you get. I had been working on a personal project that day using copper so I used the leftovers from that and the leftovers from the crosses everyone else made to do the cross with the mixed metals.