Still trying to coax out some SPRING!

I'm still at it!

I'm NOT giving up....

I even dragged another Just Us Girls project into the fight! I'm DEMANDING spring to perform, at ONCE!

Luckily for me, there is a PERFECT place to harvest some spring beauty....
Just Us Girls have a MOST wonderful challenge going this week! ZIPPER flowers!





This technique is SO addicting! Start grabbing your OLD jeans, jackets and sewing kits:

You'll be pickin' for parts in no time! This is SUCH an fabulous technique!





That's RIGHT! Get your 3D glasses out! {But ... don't ACTUALLY put them on...!}

The, ever so lovely, DANA, is challenging us with a smokin' hot, 3D template idea!
I'm SO excited! WHO doesn't love a hand crafted flower, AM I RIGHT?
In case you didn't hear me gushing about the incredible sights of Winter CHA 2011 -
PAPER and FABRIC flowers were EVERYWHERE!

So, imagine my delight when not only did Dana decide to host a JUGS challenge,
she created a step by step tutorial for us to follow on our BELOVED place for BLING,
Want2Scrap! I hope you'll check out her work there, as well as on the
Just Us Girls website and indulge yourself by viewing ALL the fine work
of the HUGELY inspirational corral of fabby design chicks....

Dana
Andrea
Kathryn
Maria
Lisa
Kristin

&

please don't forget our lovely and talented guest designer for this month

Alyssa!

Meanwhile, let me tell you just a smidge about my Zipper flower journey!

First of ALL - there is a WONDERFUL craft/thrift shop not far from my home
and I was the lucky companion of, none other than Paper Daydream, herself:
Dana, just a few weeks ago! The lovely store that benefits a local senior center was
having a 50% off sale, on their ALREADY way-reasonable prices, so I GOT me some
zippers! {And a whole sackful of "hoardables!"} Yeahoooooooooo!




The zippers were LONG, and the twill was neutral, and the possibilities ARE endless....

So, I ABSOLUTELY could NOT us those!

{'Cause... I might NEED 'em! Later! In a zipper flower EMERGENCY!}

Soooooooooooo, I went through a vast hoarding.. ur, I mean STASH, of zippers I have
collected ... just BEcause... Some of them are brightly colored {remember the
zipper craze in Scrapbooking down there, round about '04? OH, yeah!}, but had
nylon teeth... {Maybe NOT quite as charming as metal teeth...} AND some of my
previously hoarded zippers are WAY manish! {From the Nash Bridges booty of 2001}

So what's a girl to do?

PAINT!




That's RIGHT, babies! I painted my zippers with acrylic paint, let them dry
before running a stitch along the bottom of twill. I used strong nylon thread
and pulled those suckers HARD! Although, Dana's technique is FLAWLESS
in it's presentation of a beautifully rounded "Ranuculus" type of flower,
I immediately fell in love with the more disheveled look of the puckering and
gathering that occurred, so I decided to go with more of a crazy, mutated
kind of Carnation type of look! Yes, FOLKS! You'll have to believe me, OR
perhaps you'll join us - and then you'll know what kind of zipper flower
YOU are! {Trust me on THIS - you'll BE glad you did! I LOVE this technique!}

Thank you, SO much, for stopping by!
Having you here was like a ...
{wait for IT!!!}
breath of SPRING air!

OH. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Supplies -

C/S - Stampin' Up!
D/P - Basic Grey; Echo Park
Stamps - S/U! - Flower stems; Banner shapes - Waltzing Mouse
Ink - Stampin' Up!
Dies - Banner pieces - Spellbinders; Ric Rac - Sizzix
Tissue Tape - Tim Holtz
BLING - Want2Scrap

Baker's Twine - Timeless Twine
Fuzzy Letters - American Crafts

More BUTTONS and a lil' bit-o-NASH!

Hiiiiiii, dear friends!

It's extra late, or EARLY, depending on how you look at time... So, I'll make this brief and hopefully not too sloppy. Today {uurrrr, YESTERDAY...} was Nona's birthday. She's "Great Granny" to my kids and husband's maternal grandma. We've been through a lot together ~ much of it, not too pleasant. But without trotting all of that out, I just want to say, that in spite of everything, it's hard not to feel a lil' warm and fuzzy about, Nona, on her 95th birthday. She's recovering from hip surgery and will soon be back "hiking Mt. Everest...." or some such adventure... And today, I was moved to make something in honor and TO HONOR her many years. This is what I made:



It's another BUTTON celebration craft! Wahooooooooo! More buttons that I got from this guy:



If you read my last post, then this will make sense, if not... Giddy up! We'll wait for ya! Here's another shot of this layout from LONG ago!!!! (c. 2001! I USED to scrap "current time!" OMG!}



So, yeaaaaaahhhhhh. Photographing layouts is a whole different sport and I'm neither GOOD nor INTERESTED at this time, but I just had to show you this funny little scene. It cracked me up how many of you WATCHED that show! My dear friend, Subie, pictured here with the CAR and in the car.... Well, let's just say ~ you'd have a lot to talk about! hee hee Wasn't Don a love to agree to be photographed... Too bad he's a smoker, huh!

Oh, yeah. That was from a magazine. {Sorry to disappoint!} No photoshop. Old school, baby. Just glued that sucker right to the photo and I was off to the races! {Sometimes I miss the "olden" days of scrapping on the RANGE... sigh} ANYWHOO... speaking of photoshop! Lookee:

Here's Nona {Coila} with a lil' tear in the background....


And after!



Okay, I know you can still see a little discoloration, but HEY, I'm such a PS newbie... and doing this made me feel like SUCH a big girl! {I did something! ~ WITH Photoshop! It's a FESTIVUS miracle!}



Oh, and I'm finally jumping in with the JUGS challenge BEFORE it ends! Hey! That's different!

And, for composition fun, I used THIS sketch from the Sketch Artists.... at Card Patterns!




And HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE's NONA!




To tell you the truth, making this card for dear GRANNY was a nice way to honor her. I really felt happy to be quietly toiling away, threading buttons and thinking of all that she's seen since this photo was taken.

Happy Birthday, Nona!

Thanks for visiting, friends-o-blogland!

Supplies -

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin' Up! & Anna Griffin
Buttons - NASH Bridges! hee hee
Gold Cord - S/U!
Die Cut circles - Sizzix & Coluzzle

Oh, DEAR! Oh, dear! Oh, DEER!

I cheated on y'all today.

I went to the Petaluma Vintage Holiday Craft Boutique... without you. HELLO! I wished I could have scooped you all up and taken you with me, REALLY {!} because if I did, YOU, too, would be all swoony and lit up to GET 'YR CRAFT ON! There was some of the most breath taking and superbly made craft ~ well, that I've seen IRL, probably EVER! Sadly, I didn't have the MOXIE to take photos of, or even dare to ask permission... for LOTS of reasons. Mostly, because, I'm a wimp. But also, because there feels like this code... that we have to protect each other's discoveries... I mean, I want us all to be wealthy, or get wealthy by doing what we love - but then, SOMEONE needs to buy the stuff! So, it was kind of a mixed bag of totally admiring the beautiful pieces and yet, secretly {well, not NOW!} wanting to go home and MAKE stuff! And of course NOT copy, but be lifted by the inspiration...

So, I guess, I needed to confess THAT!

Additionally, I need to boast about this site, by my new friend, Cathe Holden! She has the most AMAZING eye for collecting vintage artifacts and turning them into treasure.. But, also, Cathe is a MOST talented graphic designer. You've seen her work ALL over the blog-o-sphere, and right here, my most PRIZED "Would Rather Be Blogging," the forlorn, vintage vacuum babe, came from Cathe, as a freebie, from her site. She does SUCH breath taking work. SHE designed the logo for today's show and since it's late and I didn't ask her permission to include it in my post, I'll just encourage you to check out her blog for HOURS and HOURS of insanely creative inspiration!

At the Holiday Boutique, I stumbled {literally} into the ladies who have created Pink Persimmon Stamps.. I can't link you to them {it's a long story and has NOTHING to do with them} but I can say that they can be googled or you can e-mail me, PRIVATELY, for more information..... Anywhooo, I've been seeing their name and products around and TODAY I ran smack dab into Judi and Darcy and the most GORGEOUS display of samples, kits, holiday dec AND their complete line of stamps... So, um, I bought "a few"sets {HA HA! ~ try 5!} ...And from the fumes of creative inspiration from these gals, and all of the fabulous magic at today's Holiday Boutique... I made this:




Just a little festival of these joyful images and these COLORS, brought to you by Dawn McVey!



Aren't these deer, DEAR!



Had a lil' bit of fun with the button thing. These babies didn't come from the store... no, indeedy they did NOT! They came from a little stash {if you scrap with me IRL you're yawning from this OLD story...hee hee} that came from the NASH BRIDGES TV SHOW! Yep, perhaps one or two of you recall it... Anywhoo, I got SOME buttons (okay, MILLIONS, possibly BILLIONS! from the Wardrobe department of the Nash Bridges production company... ) after the show ended. My hubby bid on the "sewing lot" and while, sadly, there were no actual sewing machines, I have enjoyed the most incredible booty-o-supplies, that have been such a blessing in my crafting pursuits.... SO, (golly, gosh, I'm WORDY tonight!) I have SOME buttons. About 10 million white/pearl buttons, to be sure. This evening, it suddenly occurred to me that a little alcohol ink could create A LOT of fun with some plain buttons ~



I mixed three different colors of alcohol ink from my BUD {*sigh* and all of YOUR'S, too!}, Tim Holtz... ANYWHOO, trying to make the raspberry color of Dawn's challenge... { I'm hoping I got close..., but this picture ~above~ was taken before I hit the perfect recipe...}



These shots show the "after" effect of the alcohol ink recipe...



I'm digging the font of the sentiment... GORGEOUS! (I "stacked" the stamping to fit my oval)



And finally, one last shot... If nothing else to break up the wordiness... Doh! Thanks for indulging me... It was a SINCERELY inspirational day, I hope yours was, TOO!

Supplies -

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Pink Persimmon; All Night Media (woodgrain stamp)
Ink - Stampin' Up! & Staz On
Punches - Stampin' Up! & Martha Stewart Crafts
Embossing folder - (Swiss Dots) Sizzix
Buttons - Nash Bridges Booty!
Alcohol Ink - Tim Holtz