Another Friendly Challenge

Or perhaps  this post should have been titled  " A Challenge Between Friends" ? Oh well, however you say it, my good friend Cindy recently suggested a challenge for the two of us to complete.

Cindy challenged me to use some of my Gelli Print Papers to make anything but a card or a tag and to post the finished item or items on our blogs.
Go visit Cindy's blog "Stitches In Time" and see what she created for this challenge.

Cindy and I both have Gelli Plates and have been spending time printing paper. The paper  printing is fun but coming up with uses for the paper is another matter.

 This is what I created and they are called Artist Trading Blocks.

I made them in only two sizes because I only had two sheets of printed paper that would work for this.
 The paper was printed using orange, cream and yellow acrylic paints.  From snippets of black card stock I cut out Southwest images using my Cricut.

Those snippets qualify this project to be entered in Pixies Playground Challenge 

Here are some more views of the Artist Trading Blocks.

If you're wondering why I used the Southwest designs on the blocks, we have now made the move from Minnesota to Arizona.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. I hope you will try some of these Artist Trading Blocks. Leave a comment to let me know what you think of my project and sign up as a follower and please  come back again soon.

Have a wonderful day.
Kathy

My Mini Butterfly Book

Today I put the finishing touches on my new Mini Butterfly Book.

This little book is about three and a half inches square. For the covers and the inside pages  I used  papers that I printed on  my Gelli Plate using the colors  purple, rust, gold and green. I punched the butterflies from small snippets of glitter paper from my scrap drawer.

 

This is one of the inside pages of my book, which were also made from small bits of left over card stock and covered with Gelli print papers.

I punched  large and small  butterflies to embellish the pages.

I'm playing in Pixie's Snippets Playground today  and I am also entering this little "Butterfly Book" in The Butterfly Challenge #15 in autumn colors.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I would love to have you become a follower and let me know if you like my little mini book by leaving  a comment.

 Have a wonderful day!
Kathy

Did I Say That I Love Butterflies?

This is the card that I made using  the scraps of paper left over from the mini album that I shared yesterday. I love using this  Memory Box "Pippi" Butterfly die. It's the perfect size for this card.

I used snippets of gold glitter paper for one of the layers, the butterfly and the sentiment. This card is being entered in the Pixie's Snippets Playground #143 Challenge.

This is a view of the inside of the card. I left it blank because I want to write a short note to the recipient of this card.

I've tried many different techniques for making flip cards and found them all to be rather difficult  but when my friend Janet showed our group this Sizzix die and how to use it, I ordered a die for myself and love it. Check out this You Tube Video Thinlits Card Die with Extended Flap by Dawn O.
  These cards are so much fun to make and they are great for using some of those small pieces of designer paper from other projects.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Hope you have a wonderful day.
Kathy

Hobbies Past and Present

Years ago my hobbies were flower gardening, quilt making  and taking pictures. I had many, many  flower beds and when I wasn't weeding my gardens I was sewing quilts.  I took lots and lots of pictures of  what else, but my flower gardens, and my quilts .

Now  the time has  come for me to get some of my old photos, like the one above, into some albums.



I just finished this little mini album today and it's going to hold some of my photos of butterflies in the garden. I can't decide what I want to  use  to decorate  the cover so I'll  wait and think about it  for a little while longer .  What do you think, should I use a butterfly?

 This is one of the inside pages, which I made from envelopes and I used  designer  papers from  a DCWV  Mariposa  Matstack to decorate the envelope pages.

I just love these butterfly papers.

Now all I have to do is make some photo mats and fill the pages with pictures.

I am glad you stopped by my blog today and I hope you'll become a follower and come back to visit again soon. I'll be sharing some more  old photos of my flowers and quilts.
Have a great day!
Kathy

Bags & Tags and a Surprise Birthday Celebration

A couple of weeks ago I challenged my friend Cindy, whose blog is "Cindy's Stitches In Time", to make a "Bag & A Tag."  We both  agreed to reveal our creations at our  next CQE gathering and then post pictures of them on our blogs.

We also  sent out emails inviting  our friends from our CQE (Crafts, Quilts and Eats) group to join us in this challenge. We asked each one of them to make a bag and a tag  and enclose in the bag a gift for our friend Jeanette's birthday. This challenge was to be kept a secret because we wanted it to be a birthday surprise. 

 Today our CQE  Group gathered at my house.

Here are the Bags & Tags! Isn't this a great looking assortment of gift bags?

Here is Cindy sharing  the darling Origami Bag and the Butterfly Tag that she made for Jeanette.

 The bag contained "Mr B's" Chocolates.

 Next is  the muslin wine tote that I made for Jeanette. I stamped the muslin with black Staz On ink and fabric paint.

 Sally,, who loves to sew and quilt,  made  a  fabric bag for Jeanette which contained quilt related gift items.

Bev brought  Jeanette a bag made of a very heavy, textured  hand made paper and filled with fabric quarters and a cute pumpkin which was made from a spool of crochet thread.
 

Jeanette was very surprised!

It was a great day!


Evy we missed you!

 

This Jump Rope Kiddo is "Seriously Cute"

This is a card that I made using my newest rubber stamp from Stampendous, "Jump Rope Kiddo".

This card will go into the box  of cards that I'm donating to  Send A Smile 4 Kids. If you would like information about this great charity click on the link.

I'm entering this card in the Pixie"s Snippets  Playground Week # 142 Challenge. The background layers used to make this card are from my scraps and are embossed with an older Sizzix embossing folder.  The white picture frame is actually a snippet left from some square die cuts  that were used on another card.  The twine is also a scrap from a book that I made. The sentiment was stamped on  some left over white card stock.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my card today. I hope you will come back and visit my blog  again soon.

Have a great day!
Kathy

Using New Schtuff and Leftover Snippets

I just finished making these Artist Trading Cards. The 2 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inch ATC's are fun to make and a great way to use left over snippets of paper.

I made a total of four because I just can't let any of these bits of  gelli print papers go to waste. Look closely  and you can see that I used an old woven wicker, kitchen trivet as a texture plate to make the print for  these papers. 
 There are  lots of  trims, beads and ribbons in my craft closet because I spent years doing crazy quilting and   using these as accents on  my cards only seems right.

I'm entering these in the "Pixie's Snippets Playground #141 Challenge".

I'm also  entering these in the NBUS Challenge.

 
 NBUS stands for "Never Before Used Schtuff". My brand new, never been used Sctuff is the "Moonlit Fairy" stamp from Rubber Stampede. I used clear Versamark and Silver Zing embossing powder for these.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and comments are always welcome.
Have a super day!
Kathy