The ART and Musings of ShellyRaeWood: December 2010

Tuesday, December 28

Valentine's Day ART....

Woot! Woot! My fave ART holiday is on it's way. The new swaps for one of my ART groups were just posted and I have completed 3 of the 5 so far. I still have an easel card and a cupcake recipe card to finish.

First up is a Tag that must feature the word "love" on it. Okay, I have tons of love stamps. So, I grabbed a fave pink paper and a fave image and began to build from there.

LOVE Tag front

LOVE Tag back

LOVE Tag close-up

LOVE Tag front

Next up was an altered Cabinet Card. I really like making these. Back in June I made 3 patriotic ones. I knew that I wanted a wedding pic since it was for Valentine's Day. I placed the image on a BINGO card and replaced the letters with LOVE and a heart. I made a heart background from a vintage hymnal and outlined it with white buttons. I added my 2 fave trims: glitter and baby rick rack. It still needed "something." I was standing there gazing at my embellishment jars when I saw "THE" perfect thing. I have a jar of little gold interlocking wedding rings. I added them with some Diamond Glaze and she is finished. I LOVE how it turned out! :)

Altered Cabinet Card

Finally we were to make 3 "Kissing Dangles". I had never heard of them but that's never stopped me before. I did mine a bit differently (yeah, like that's a surprise). I used copper wire with my beads and made the dangles longer. I used coordinating images for each and layered their papers and added in some glitter (GASP!).I can see where I would change things up next time, but not too bad for a first attempt.

Kissing Dangle

Kissing Dangles

Kissing Dangle

Kissing Dangles - Bad pic I know bu you can "see" all of them! :)

I'm hoping to find some more ART to swap for Valentine's Day! If you're interested....give me a holler! :)

Thursday, December 23

12 Days of Christmas Ornie and Book

Once again I was fortunate to participate in a 12 Days of Christmas giftie swap and also new this year a 12 Days of Christmas book mingle. Here are my contributions:

The ornie I made was created from repurposed Pageant Numbers I found at a yard sale. I thought the lovely shade of green was perfect fro Christmas! I distressed them down with brown ink and brushed on some diluted glue and glitter for a bit of sparkle. The Santa images were repurposed from old Christmas Cards. The centers were vintage dictionary pages with a satin red ribbon for trim! I was happy with how they turned out. I may make more for next years tree! :)

Don't they look cool on DH's hanging poinsettia baskets out by the pool??

For the mingle we were to make a tall skinny book with our interpretation of the song the 12 Days of Christmas. I took the traditional approach to the song. I made black sillhouettes of each days icons and used co-ordinating papers, snoflakes and some bling for mine.

Friday, December 10

New Repurposed ART to share....

......over on my ARTful Salvage Blog. We are doing a big show this weekend. Hop over and take a peek! :)

Wednesday, December 8

Some new ART and Christmas goodies......

So, DH needed a B'day card for one of his Co-workers. I needed to make it in a hurry. So, I grabbed my DCWV Mariposa stack and whipped up this puppy. I actually like how it turned out. The flower was white so I fixed that up with a few swipes of an ink pad and covered up the bright yellow center with a nice button. I was happy, he was happy and she was happy. Done! :)

So, next up on his list was 15 Christmas Cards and gifties for his co-workers. I think it is always nice to give a small gift that says, "Hey, we were thinking of you.... Merry Christmas!" For the cards I used half sheets of white or blue cardstock and contrasting trim pieces. I ran 2/3 or so of the card stock through the Cuttlebug with a snowflake embossing folder and added the embellishments. Easy Peasy. For the envies I took several acrylic snowflakes and placed them on one large block. I used a multi blues ink pad and randomly stamped on them. Simple, but effective me thinks. Again, he was happy and I was finished!

For the gifties I bought the jumbo size Hershey Bars and wrapped them up Santa Style. I think these are simply adorable. Besides, who doesn't smile when you get a big ole hunk of Chocolate....sure beats a hunk of coal. This time I am happy too.....and I "mistakenly" bought an extra Hershey Bar......hmmmm....what to do....what to do......

Monday, December 6

It's beginning to look (and FEEL) a lot like Christmas here in Florida.....

Well, decorating now that I live in the South after 45 years in Illinois is still weird. The last 2 years in Georgia I really didn't do much......this year in FL with the new house I decided I really should give it a whirl. So, I planned to keep it simple....just the tree and my nutcrackers. Ha! I say again Ha! It's like rabbits......you just can't stop 'em. Geesh! I have now OFFICIALLY quit.............'prolly.

So, here is the mantle with the glitter cones and the rest of the sparklies. I decided the 2 short ones were getting lost so I put them up on candlesticks. That decision led to more candle sticks and the matching glass balls. I am thrilled! I LOVE how it looks....of course way more sparkly in person but you get the idea. It's killing Hubs that I wouldn't let him "hang" the mirror. I really like it just propped up there. Whatcha think? Propped or hung? The stockings are heirlooms. My Aunt had them made for her family and ours by a little old lady who hand knit them. Aren't they amazing? And now, for the first time....they can hang on a mantle....who knew?? :)

So, after putting the 9 foot tree up in the formal living room (funny how it looks so small now with 12' ceilings) I felt that the fireplace looked lonely. So, up went the 6 foot tree (I simply LOVE that I, yes short little me, can put the topper on while standing on the ground). Hey, it's the little things people!! :) Since the pressies will be going under the big tree I decided to put some of my snowman collection under this tree. Can you say first year the kitties have access to the tree? Yeah, that is what this tree is decorated with only silver balls and my hand-cut snowflakes. I am so happy to see these are holding up so well. They are cut from regular copy paper and then ironed on both sides with wax paper to keep them clean and flat. I made them at least 6 years ago...pretty nifty, right?

After that, well I knew I had to have my fave silver tinsel tree with the hand blown ornies....so to the shrine it went. Yes, we have this weird lit shrine like alcove outside one of the master bedrooms. Never really knew what to put there.....but my little tree looks perfect! Good idea award goes out to Hubs. I LOVE the vintage felt tree skirt I found at a tag sale!

My nutcrackers are my fave collection.....not crazy about their location this year, but it will have to do. They are hard to enjoy way up there on top of the cupboards.....but I like the few that are down on Gpa Frank's cabinet. This little gem is one of my treasured possessions. It was hand made by my Great Great Grandfather. Isn't is gorgeous?