Gill's for the Love of Pink Blog Hop

Welcome to Gill's for the Love of Pink Blog Hop! This fabulous hop is brought to you by Gill at Creations by Gill. If you stumbled upon this hop by coincidence you can start at the top with the hostess Gill. If you came from Jaimie's blog--Jaimie Lindrstrom Designs, you are in the right place!

Today I am sharing with you the art of felting. I love making needle felting projects--they are very calming to me. You create pictures with beautiful fibers and felt. It is a great craft for the perfectionist as if you don't like how it is going you can pull it up and start over. It is a great stress reliever as you can think about the cause of your stress and poking needles into it repeatedly as you work!  I hope you like my project today!

A needle felted pouch

For this project I created a pouch to wear around my neck to protect my phone. Often I do not have pockets in my cloths to place my phone and rather than just carrying it or putting in my bra, I decided to create a little pouch to wear around my neck.
I began by measuring my phone to make a simple pattern

I then cut the base of my felted piece out of regular felt like you can buy at your craft store. I die cut some flowers to "felt" onto the base. I folded the tops of my pocket over about 3/4" and felted it down, edging it with yarn.

Then I felted the flowers and centers and heart onto the front of the pocket.

  

Now that I have all the elements felted into place, I trimmed up the sides of the felt so that they matched up nicely. I basted the edges so that when I sew the edges together they won't move. I used a simple blanket stitch to attach the yarn as I went along the edges. Now I have the perfect pouch for my cell phone to protect it and to wear it when I need a pocket!

Continue On.

Thank you for looking at my projects! There are many great artists in this hop start over from the top with Gill!

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Sometimes on a Saturday | A Season to Hoot

summer

 Lately with the end of school, the craziness of summer and the business of my day job I have been spending all of my "spare" time on my crafty commitments--design team work, crafty/scrappy/odd show commitments and blog hops. It is rare that I have time to work on something just for the non-project related fun.
You have been aware of my art journal work--that's for me too but it's different. With that I'm trying to chronicle my year--have a place to plot and plan. That project is more of a necessity than a just-for-the-fun-of-it type of project. Today was different. I finished my blog hop project early--tomorrow's post--and had time to work on this artsy set of hoot-owl coasters!!

A Season to Hoot

It's no secret that I love needle-felting. I began playing with this art last year and it is a favorite past-time of mine. I've grown as a felting artist over the year incorporating felt and roving in its various forms but my favorite is mixing roving with felt and yarn. This winter while working at a craft show my girlfriend Holly and I played with felting, She made a small set of owls in trees on a red background to serve as coasters. They sold to a very happy customer. 

While sitting at an artisan market this spring and summer I began my own set of owl coasters. I decided my little set would reflect the seasons. I finally finished them today! I hope you enjoy them!

spring

fall

winter

Thank you for looking!

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Project Profile | Freezer Paper Stenciling with Amanda Marks

I am inspired by my friends and fellow bloggers every day. With the advent of Pinterest, this has only become more prevalent. I try my best when crafting an inspired project to give you all the low down on where my inspiration came from as it is important for artisans to support each other and give credit for our inspiration.
There are many times that I see a project and think WOW that's really cool and the project leaves me wanting to one day give it a whirl. But in the mean time I want to share with my friends and blog readers the coolness of the craft. Until now that cool project would have sat on a shelf until I created my own version of it to share. The problem...I have a BOOK SHELF worth of inspiration and while I'm chiseling away at it, there is no way some of the more recent fun projects will get done anytime soon! The solution? A Project Profile Post. This will be a random post of amazing artists/designers/crafters that inspire me and I know will inspire you too! So today I present :

Project Profile | Freezer Paper Stenciling with Amanda Marks

Amanda Marks is my co-host partner on The Odd Show Live. On her weekly live stream Who Are You Calling Crafty Live this week she shared with her audience a terrific project. She crafted a t-shirt for her son with the image of his new favorite artist on it. After tracing and transferring the image to the dull side of some freezer paper, she "thickened" the lines, cut them out by hand with a craft knife and stenciled it on a shirt. Very cool! Enjoy the playback of her show!

 

More from Amanda

Amanda has many great tutorials on her website...be sure to check them out~ my favorite is her paperclay dolls and ornaments...but this project is being added to that list today!
Thank you for looking! I hope this video inspires you to try your own image stenciling too!

~leslierahye

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Weekly Challenge | Celebration

 It's time for a new challenge with Digital Delights by Louby Loo! This week at Delightful Challenges our challenge is Celebration! This next week in the US we will be celebrating our nation's birthday I think Luvin' the USA Bongo is perfect! He looks like he could be at a parade! I made him into a shaped card by cutting around the exterior of the image and cutting a rectangle piece that fit into that shape and affixing it to the back of the card to make it stand! I hope you enjoy my  card.  Thank you for looking!

for this card you need:

Digital Stamps : Luvin the USA Bongo

Card Stock : Bazzil Card Stock

Markers : BIC Mark-Its

Accessories : Sakura Hobby Crafts Crystal Lacquer

You are not required to use a Digital Delights Image to join in on the fun

but if you do you can enter TWICE.

To enter twice you when using a Digital Delight image your

1st entry use your card link

2nd entry use your blog address and add 2nd entry after your name

We have a wonderful Sponsor this week


£10.00 store voucher

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leslierahye's Wedded Bliss Blog Hop | Celebrating 20 Years

Welcome to my leslierahye's Wedded Bliss Blog Hop--Celebrating 20 Years. Today is my 20th Wedding Anniversary to my friend--my soul mate. A few friends wanted to share this occasion with me so we have a small blog hop for you today!
A milestone such as this brings about reflection of the past and hope for the future. I decided I wanted to share my thoughts with an art journal page.
I hope you enjoy sharing a part of my life with me today!
Happy Anniversary Bill!

The Art Journal Page--20 Things I Still Like About You

The complete spread

detail of song

detail of journal quote

another detail of journal quote

detail of journalling and artsy background

I have made available for you a download with the quotes I used on my journal page and several other quotes that I love for the topic of Love & Marriage! Enjoy!

Love & Marriage

Continue On..

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Wedded Bliss Blog Hop | coming tomorrow!!

Come celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary with several of my friends!

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Independence Day ATCs with Want2Scrap & Sakura

With Flag Day and Independence Day quickly approaching, I knew I wanted to create some red-white-blue Altered Trading Cards using the Want-2-Scrap items that we were working with this month. My favorite line in the Want2Scrap products--besides the Dollar Bling--is all of the wonderful Mixed Media surfaces from Donna Salazar. For this project I focused on the Embellies products --canvas and chipboard ATC blanks.

 

For this project you need:

     

AlteredPages.com Collage Sheets

Sakura Hobby Crafts 3D Crystal Lacquer

Buttons, fancy fiber

Bazzill Basics Card Stock

Ranger Distressed Stain

Independence Day Crepe Paper

I began by cutting the canvas into ½" wide strips and then in half again so that they were 3½" long. I inked them with Ranger Stain in Brick Red. I dried them with the heat gun. 

I rolled the strips around a bamboo skewer and glued them closed with Sakura Hobby Crafts 3D Crystal Lacquer. Some beads were finished off by tying a piece of fancy fiber around them.

I also rolled some 3/8" strips of blue card stock into little cylinders.I used Crystal Lacquer to hold the coil closed.

Sakura Crystal Lacquer was used as the only adhesive for the entire project.

I glued the blue card stock onto the chipboard bases with Crystal Lacquer and used the stain to edge the chipboard base.

The beads were then threaded onto a piece of fancy fiber and used as embellishments for my ATCs.

For this ATC, the striped crepe paper was gathered on the red side to form a bunting shape. Images were cut out of the alteredpages.com collage sheet and layered on the background with crystal lacquer. The bunting was gathered in the corner and adhered with crystal lacquer. The beads were wrapped around the card and tied. The buttons were glued on with crystal lacquer and bling was added as a final touch.

For this ATC, the striped crepe paper was gathered on a line of crystal lacquer on the side of the card. The beads were wrapped around the ruffle and tied on. The buttons and collage sheet cutout were adhered using crystal lacquer. Bling was added for a final touch. 

Thank you for looking! I hope you enjoyed my ATCs!
~leslierahye

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Firecrackers and sprockets with Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer and Want2Scrap

The laser-cut cover and nest-a-bling

Happy Monday! Today I am sharing with you another awesome product from Want2Scrap--Sakura Hobby Crafts is teaming up with their products this month for their projects. I saw this laser-cut chipboard album in their inventory and immediately knew I wanted to use it for Will's Firecracker 100 photos. For the last 3 years Will has participated in an annual cycling race/ride that occurs in our area. His first ride was 10 miles, he was 9 and he rode with his Dad. His last ride, last year he rode 26 miles solo. I am always amazed at his determination for this sport and proud of his accomplishments. This album was perfect for sharing that story and creating for him a book of memories.

I hope you enjoy my project!

The Firecracker 100 Album

[for the process and photos of the entire album, hop on over to the Sakura Blog]

inside cover with title

detail of year 1 spread

detail of year 2 spread

Thank you for looking!

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Nicolette's Red, White & Blue Blog Hop | Day 2

Happy Sunday!! Today I am delighted to be hopping along with Nicolette and friends as we celebrate the Red-White-Blue Season in her 2Day Red, White and Blue Blog Hop! I say season as for me Red-White-Blue denotes not only the United States of America Independence Day but also Memorial Day in May, Flay Day in June and America in general.

If you happened upon my blog on in the middle of the hop and would like to start at the top, Go to Nicolette's blog Beyond Scrappin. If you came from Cheryl's Blog Cards By CG then you are in the right place!

As promised today I am bringing you a video on how to make the fabulous homecoming bow! I hope you enjoy it!!

The Homecoming Bow--method

Continue on...

after I cleaned up the buttons a bit!

The next hop on the stop is Jamie at JME Creations. Hop on over and check out her fabulous creations. 

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Gill's Another Fairy Day Blog Hop

Welcome to Another Fairy Day Blog Hop! This fabulous hop is brought to you by Gill at Creations by Gill. If you stumbled upon this hop by coincidence you can start at the top with the hostess Gill. If you came from Jearise's blog, you are in the right place!

Today I am working with beautiful collage images from Altered Pages.com to make a Fairy Spellbook! Jean has a number of wonderfully illustrated New Age pages that work perfectly for this project! I have enhanced the mini with some additional fairy collage images available through Altered Pages. I also created a fiber fairy using a wonderful Want2Scrap chipboard doll embellie from the Donna Salazar collection. I hope you enjoy my project!

The Mini
Back in March of this year I joined a wonderful design team for AlteredPages.com. Altered Pages has a ginormous collection of digital collage images to use in all of your altered projects, along with a wide variety of stamps, embellishments, papers, tools and mediums. I like to spend time just browsing the collage section for unique items to create with. 
This spring, I noticed there is a wonderful selection of fairy images--both drawn and photographic--and a set of spell pages to attract fairies! I knew immediately that a Fairy Spell Book was in order for Gill's Fairy Day Blog Hop. I chose to work with the Fairies Mini Images, Summer Fairies, New Age Floral Crown, New Age Fairies and New Age Rosemary pages. I used walnut Paris Trunk Ink, Copper Penny Mixers, German Paper Scrap, and Book Pages to complete my project! I hope you enjoy my little book!

Cover

inside cover and page 1--introduction of the spell to see fairies.

pages 2&3--the fairy spell

pages 4&5--rosemary infusions instructions and uses

pages 5 and inside back cover--Floral Crown instructions

Back Cover

 The Fiber Fairy
Initially while constructing this book, I was going to make a fairy out of a Donna Salazar chipboard doll embellie and add it to the cover of my spell book. Once completed with both the doll and the book, it became apparent that the fiber fairy--I'm going to call her Jacinda--would not fit. I really like her and especially the smirk on her face and wanted to have her near, so she now sports a fancy magnetic device and is connected the file cabinet beside my creative space! I hope you enjoy her!

The Fiber Fairy

Thank you for looking at my projects! There are many great artists in this hop and I know you'll just love the next project at Tori's Blog!

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