I've moved!

Hello Paper Crafters!

I know I have been away a lot longer than I expected but I have some wonderful news! I have started a new adventure with Fun Stampers Journey and hope you will join me on my personal journey with this new company. Find me at my new blog

 www.mybloominjourney.blogspot.com 

and on Facebook at

Patricia Dolinsek-MyBloominJourney.

I am looking forward to sharing this new journey with you all!

Trisha

I'm back!

Hello Crafters!

I apologize for my absence but life threw me a curve and I have had to make some adjustments. Since my last post in November of last year I have injured my arm which is almost healed now, helped my oldest find & participate in 2 job training programs and have lost 5 family members including my father. It has taken some time to pull it all together and i have come a long way. I am still not ready to post on a daily basis but, I promise I will be posting more often for your viewing pleasure. So check back often to see what I am up to and please, by all means, leave a comment. I love to hear from all of you.

Happy Crafting!
Trisha

EclecticEllapu Challenge #55 - Anything But a Card

Hello Crafters!

We have another challenge from the purple team this week at Eclectic Ellapu. Andria has chosen for us all to make "Anything But a Card" this time around. Great theme. I am anxious to start posting Christmas projects and that will come pretty soon. But, for now, I have chosen this week for my last (I think) Fall project for this year. This is also a perfect project for My Sheri Crafts theme of Fall/Thanksgiving for this week.

I needed a wreath for my front door and fell in love with the burlap ribbon that I saw at Hobby Lobby and Micheal's. So, I picked some up along with a wire frame and started cutting the burlap down to the size I wanted. I didn't want to do the usual looping through for my wreath. I wanted the edges to be "raw" to add a more rustic feel to the overall project. I used hot glue to attach the ribbon strips and alternated the colors. the light colored ribbon here is cream not white. I need to work on my photo exposures.

 Now, I have to tell you. This was a pretty messy step because the burlap needed to be trimmed after it was all glued on. I had burlap fibers flying everywhere (picture an Edward Scissor Hands screenshot here - lol). I still have bits and pieces of it all over the floor in my craft room. Oh, BTW, I had to remove the wires from the ribbon too so my scissors would go through. It just killed me to have throw the wire away but, I couldn't find a good enough excuse to keep it so in the trash it went.

Next I made my layered accordion fold paper flowers. The large ones were 1-1/2" x 12" scored every 1/4" and the small ones were 1" x 12" scored every 1/2".  The buttons in the center were from my button box. I couldn't decide whether to make them all the same or not so, I ended up with the same style button in two different colors. I, again sticking to my commitment of using up my stash, used papers I had on my shelf. I used  hot  glue  to attach the flowers and buttons to each other and the burlap on the wreath.

The bow was made with some silky brown ribbon that has been in my ribbon rack for at least 2-3 years. I know, it's sad. That's why I am using my stash. Anyway, I added some pretty rust colored organdy ribbon and some striped ribbon for contrast in color and texture in the ribbons and contrast to the roughness of the burlap. I found an extra large brown button and added a little bling to the center, after all there was a dip in the middle just made for it.

Truly eclectic, don't you think?

I'm pretty happy with the way this project turned out. Hope you like it and are inspired to use different textures in your projects.

Now that you have seen my project, I hope you will stop over at Eclectic Ellapu and check out the other wonderful projects that the DT have made to inspire you. The challenge has begun so link up today!

Happy Crafting!

Altered Electics Challenge #5 - Anything Goes

Hello Crafters!

I'm a little behind in my blogging this week but I'm hoping you'll understand. I am keeping things simple this month for Altered Ecletics and posting a couple of Halloween projects that I made. The first one is pretty much a copy from Pinterest. I have a picture tutorial I made below with brief explanations. The things I did different than the original was (1) painted the rolls black so they would be better hidden, (2) added the wax paper to hide the glow sticks, (3) used glow sticks instead of Christmas lights so no plug-ins were needed, and (4) used plastic pumpkin eyes from last years pumpkin carving kit on a couple of the rolls.

start with paper towel roll

cut out eye shapes

paint black with acrylic paint

adding wax paper to inside hides glow sticks

cut several and even add plastic pumpkin eyes

add glow sticks (instead of Christmas lights)

snap glow sticks to activate and put inside each tube

this is the plastic pumpkin eyes placed in bushes

  Sorry about the glow from the left, that would be the garage lights shinning on the bushes.

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Now, here's another project I was inspired by Pinterest to make. The original was a plastic pumpkin bucket that the kids use to gather their goodies. I looked all over town for a white one that would give me a more "ghostly" look and never found one. So, I took 2 empty gallon milk jugs and cut the handles and bottoms off. I also cut up the back sides as suggested on the Pinterest inspiration project so that the milk jugs would fit over my outside light fixtures. Then I took a permanent Sharpie pen and colored in the eyes and mouths of each "ghost". When that was done and dry (almost immediately) I taped a white kitchen trash bag to the inside around the bottom (top) of the milk jug. Then with my scissors I cut the trash bag into strips up to the bottom of the milk jug. The first picture is with the light on and second one is with the light off (hubby replaced bulb in time for Halloween). The first one is a little wind-blown as it was put up earlier in the day (a wet and windy day I might add).

 

Well, there you have it. My crafty Halloween projects this year. Be sure to stop back next week as I will have another fall decor project for Eclectic Ellapu. Then I will be on to my Christmas projects. Whoo hoo! I am ready for the new season. Only the crafty part - I could do with out the snow. lol. Anyway, be sure to stop over to Altered Ecletics this week and check out the AWESOME projects the DT have come up with. Much more gorgeous than my projects this time. We would love to have join us as well. You are our inspiration!

Happy Crafting!

Eclectic Ellapu Challenge #53 - Inspired by a Movie

Hello Crafters!

Jacki from the purple team over at Eclectic Ellapu has chosen a pretty cool theme this week. Inspired by a movie is a great theme and I took advantage of the holiday that is just around the corner (Halloween) and chose The Wizard of OZ for my project. Now, I have also up-cycled this project. The bag below came from my eye doctor's visit. I love the bags we get from them (I get four new ones each year!). There was a sticky label with the doc's logo on it that I removed then decorated the bag to fit our theme this week. Take a peek:

I just love Graphic 45 and their Wizard of Oz paper was just the ticket for this project. As this was in my stash for a year or so, I am keeping with the promise to myself to use up the products I have.

These "stamp" images were distressed and popped up on the upper portion of the bag. Had to add a little glitter in a couple of places.

The group picture was distressed as well and backed with black tulle. I used hot glue to attach the tulle (that I scrunched as I went along) and foam tape and hot glue to attach it to the bag. I then added a little red glitter glue to Dorothy's shoes and the Tin Man's heart.

At the bottom of the bag I added black rose ribbon across the width with hot glue and used foam tape again to attach the distressed witch stamp.

I hope you like my project this week. But don't stop here. Get on over to Eclectic Ellapu and check out the rest of the DT's awesome projects. We would love to have you join us too! And don't forget, only a couple more days for the treasure hunt before the big draw. It's not too late to join up.

So what are you waiting for?

Happy Crafting!

Guest Designer for Blissful and Domestic

Hello Crafters!

I have been chosen to be the guest designer over at Blissful and Domestic this week and was asked by Danielle to do a Halloween project for you. There are so many great projects out there to choose from but, choose I must. So I started looking around on Pinterest a bit to get some good ideas that I could incorporate into my project. I have to tell you, you can spend hours "blissfully" going from one pin to another. Ultimately, I decided on a banner for my piano or mantle. Won't you join me for a tutorial?

As a mom of two teenagers I keep pretty busy taking care of my boys and hubby but I love to craft every chance I get. I have been crafting ever since I can remember. I especially love rubber stamping and paper crafts. I have a stash of yarn and jewelry as well. I also enjoy up-cycling projects from things that would normally go into the recycle bin. So coming up with a project for Danielle wasn't hard but I wanted the perfect piece.

OK, here goes. I have recently discovered that tulle in my crafting can really make a project pop. So I gathered some orange, purple, and green to get started. Oh what fun! I also wanted to use some ribbon. Now, anybody that knows me knows that this is a textile I just can't resist. I also gathered up some papers and card stock to create some accordion flowers. The banner I made here is using some banner panels from Stampin Up that I picked up recently. Mostly I used stuff from my stash. 

I cut 1-1/4" & 3/4" strips from Graphic 45 Halloween papers to make my flowers. They are 12" in length and scored every 1/4". Ends were glued together with strong sticky tape. If you haven't made these before they can be a little tricky. Just push the top of the folds on one side to the center and use hot glue to hold them in place. I topped them with filler brads from Stampin' Up and added colored bling dots from my stash to the centers then glued them to the paper flowers. The orange bling wasn't quite a dark enough orange to suit me so used an orange Sharpie marker to color it a bit darker. Loved the way these turned out.

Next I embellished the canvas banners. They were pretty light colored so I inked them up a bit using a sponge and some gray ink. I decorated these as I might a card front really. I used up quite a bit of the embellishments in my stash, not to mention my new fence punch from Martha Stewart (found at Michael's).

The punch for the little ghosties is from Stampin Up. It's actually the owl punch turned upside down. I positioned the eyes on two of them so they would look like they were looking at each other. The stamps I used on these banners were from the dollar bin at Memories on 5th when I worked there a few years ago. All my embellishments were sticky backed but I added some Aleene's Clear Tacky glue to make sure they would be there for a long time. After all, this project is a keeper. I added the ghost eyes and the ghosts with tacky glue as well.

The next thing I worked on was the little witch legs. This is a similar idea to one I saw on Pinterest. The difference here is that I used heavy card stock for the legs instead of cloth and added tulle in the next step. I made the boots first from a pattern I got several years a go from a crafting magazine. You can also use this boot pattern for an elf''s boot with some minor adjustments(don;t cut out heal and curve it at the bottom). I have two of these little witches so I traced and cut four boots and legs. I punched holes and laced with orange ribbon that I tied in a bow. The boots were hot glued to the bottom of the legs and the legs were folded over at least a couple of inches onto my "tulle rope".

To add some "cuteness" to my witch I wanted more than what I saw on Pinterest. So I gathered up some black tulle and made a skirt. Too plain. A purple bow with a button center was the perfect fix. Hot glue in to place.

I started cutting the tulle I bought into 1" strips. This was not an exact science. It was a guesstimate. I also looked through my hoard of ribbon, chose an assortment I thought would look good. Definitely eclectic. So, now I have all my supplies and I get start assembling.

Just a thought worth mentioning. I wanted all my ribbons placed somewhat evenly throughout my project and didn't always have the exact amount to each of every ribbon all the way across. So I laid out my project on my craft table and started dividing up my treasures.

Time to assemble. I took a  piece of orange tulle that was about 6' long and bunched it up so that it was a sort of rope for me to anchor my project on. I tied a knot on the far left and started attaching ribbon and 1" tulle pieces with and overhand knot.

I had a section of ribbon then added my paper flower with hot glue. Again, somewhat tricky. I have the blisters to prove it. Hold your project CAREFULLY while the glue cools. After the flower I added some more ribbon.

The first banner piece was next. I just used some black organdy ribbon to attach to my "tulle rope".

Then more ribbon, another flower, more ribbon then the first witch.

Repeating the pattern add more ribbon, a paper flower, more ribbon and the next banner piece.

You guessed it, more ribbon, a flower, more ribbon and another witch. After that add more ribbon, a paper flower, more ribbon then the last banner piece.

Add more ribbon a paper flower, more ribbon and tie the tulle rope in a knot. Ta Da! The only other thing I did was add some string to hang it with. This turned out to be such a long banner I had to pull it up in the middle when I hung it on my piano.

I will say, if you choose to do a project of this type with all the embellishments I have here, give yourself plenty of time to get it done. I wanted to give this away as a gift or sell it. However, I fell in love with it so I'm going to keep this one. I hope you'll give it a try. It's fun!

Thank you Danielle for letting me be your Guest Designer. It was a lot of fun coming up with this tutorial for you.

Happy Crafting y'all!

Blissful and Domestic post today

Hello Crafters!

I have been chosen to be the guest designer over at Blissful and Domestic this week. If you have not been to Danielle's site you must check it out. She has everything from menu plans to tutorials to thrifty living for your viewing pleasure. I was asked to do a Halloween project for you. There are so many great projects out there to choose from so I started looking around on Pinterest a bit to get some good ideas that I could incorporate into my project. I have to tell you, you can spend hours "blissfully" going from one pin to another. Ultimately, I decided on a banner for my piano or mantle. Won't you join me for a tutorial? Here's a teaser of my project you will find over there. Just click on the picture and you will go directly to her site.

 I will have this posted in full next week as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Eclectic Ellapu Challenge #51 - 1st Birthday

Hello Crafters!

The Treasure Hunt is still on over Eclectic Ellapu and I hope you all are playing along in all the fun. We still have a couple of weeks to go so if you haven't gotten in on the hunt it's not too late. With prizes everyday you sure don't want to miss it.

I am a little late posting (should have been yesterday) but I took a little mini road trip to see my sister and go on what we call "Scenic Drive" this last weekend. It's like a county wide craft show. Boy is it fun. The weather was beautiful and we scored a few items for ourselves. Sis likes to collect antiques so she found a few quirky items and some barn wood signs that I wish would go with my decor. They were pretty cool. I did score 3 little primitive items that I think I can incorporate into a wreath for Halloween. Might not get done year but that will give me something to look forward to for next year.

Ok, so on with my project. As you know we are celebrating our 1st year blogaversary at Eclectic Ellapu so this week Elisa chose a 1st birthday theme for us. I chose to make a telescoping card with a pattern I got from Vicki at Crackerbox Palace blog. Awesome pattern. She has some pretty cute stamps too if you would like to check them out. I so love cards with movement and special folds so this was really fun for me.

The first layer of the card is 4-1/4" square and the tiers get about 1/2" smaller than the one before it. I promised myself I would start using up my hoard of papers and supplies and that is just what I have done here.

 When you pull up on the tab at the top your second layer pops up.

Keep pulling and you discover the flame on the candle is your pull tab. The embellishments are cut outs from paper in my stash and the flower is a sugared flower from Prima that I picked up last year. I used Stampin' Up's small star punch for the stars on the middle layer and the Happy Birthday is from Stampin' Up's Birthday Banter stamp set. When I cut out the candle the stem of the flame seemed a little weak to I backed it with the yellow cards stock for a "glow" to the candle and it worked better as the pull tab.

I love the way this card turned out and I am absolutely sure that I will use the pattern on this card again. It really wasn't hard to make and only took one piece of 12x12 card stock for the base of the card. All I had to do after making the base is add the embellishments and that's it. Cool, huh? I may have to so this as a demo for my monthly card club. What do you think?

Ok, time to get your crafting groove on and join up in the challenge over at Eclectic Ellapu and get registered for those wonderful prizes that are being given away.

Happy Crafting!