New Crafty Adventures

Lately I've been working on some different crafty things here and there. I'm so thrilled how they both turned out and wanted to share them with everyone....

Toothbrush rug

I made this one for my new craft room and I just LOVE it! I found out about Toothbrush rugs while scouring the web for homemade rug ideas. These are so easy to make, no sewing, no special tools! The rug is nice and thick and "cushy" and completely washable. Here are links to a couple sites I used for reference.
Aunt Philly Toothbrush
Rag Rug Cafe
 I didn't buy a pattern or directions and my sweet hubby made me a cool little wooden "needle" for my rug. I'm now working on my second rug and have plans for more.....

"Quilted" Altered Naked Album

Recently I got a couple "naked" chipboard albums and have been dieing to alter them. Last weekend I was blessed enough to go to a wonderful scrapping retreat with Susan and some other friends so I thought that would be the perfect chance to work on the album. I decided to make a quilt block on the front of this one. I scoured the web looking for quilt blocks I could replicate using my Gypsy and E2. Here's a link to the original post showing this square: The Prfait Cafe  (found this one on Pintrest).

 I covered all the bare chipboard with Tim Hotlz Picket Fence Distress Stain - love this stuff! I made a file on my Gypsy to recreate the diamond shapes as best I could-this was the hardest part of the whole project, but it wasn't bad. Once I had all the pieces cut out I inked around their edges and added pen stitching. I mod-podged the pieces onto the cover, I know they aren't perfectly aligned but none of my projects ever are! I used my E6000 glue to adhere the button to the center because I wanted it stuck on there really good. I used scor tape to adhere the the ribbon and lace to the binding, the ribbon wraps around to the inside and overlapped to finish the ends. I'm very happy with how this turned out and can't wait to try something else on the next one.

Thanks for looking and have a very blessed day!

Masculine Birthday Cards

Hi Blogger Friends! Last week I was able to make a birthday card for my uncle and brother (at my mom's special request.) I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and how easy they were to make. I sure don't have a lot of time to craft anymore, but this was a great challenge for me.

This is the card I made for my uncle (my mom's brother). The picture is an actual family pic he sent my mom, I just printed it off my computer and inked it up a bit. It was so much fun using a "real" vintage picture and I know it means a lot to Uncle Ken. I used some old buttons I've been collecting, twine I dyed myself, a page from an old book and the base of the card is some Core'dinations embossed paper that I sanded.

This is the card for my brother. He lives, eats, breaths, and dreams fishing...need I say more?!! Thankfully I found the fish image at the Graphics Fairy (her site always comes thru for me!). I printed it off on some tan textured paper, inked it up and it was as easy as that! I've done every kind of fish card I can think of and this was such a nice change. The other papers are from my collection of Basic Grey goodies.

Thanks for looking and I hope you have a very blessed day!
Connie

Vintage Inspired Tags

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends!!! I made these quick tags the other night as an escape from my mounds of paperwork. All the sweet images came from The Graphics Fairy as usual. I did add some sentiments and other things in PhotoShop a month or so ago. The lace is left over little pieces I had laying around and colored with some Distress Re-Inkers. Quick, simple, and easy, that's what I'm all about this year.

I linked this post up to The Graphics Fairy "Brag Monday" and  Free Pretty Things "What ever you want Wednesday."

I hope you all have a very blessed and peaceful Christmas!
Connie

Pretty In Pink

I made this card a while ago for my friend's daughter. She is a girly-girl so this gave me a chance to go over the top with cuteness.

The purse is from Kate's ABC's and I just welded two of them together to make the base. The handle was embossed with Wood grain folder after I inked up some plain white paper with distress inks, and the "fabric" was white paper I embossed with Starry Night (which I inked directly on the folder instead of the paper.) The sweet quilled flowers are from the Flower Shoppe cartridge. Again, white paper I inked with alcohol inks first. These are just the small centers of the flowers and were cut at about 4 inches. As a finishing touch I added lots of adhesive pearls on the front of the card.

Hope you have a very blessed day!

 Thank you Grace for this very sweet surprise!!!!

Antique Tooth Brush Cards

Recently I decided to make thank you cards for a couple dentists we provide support for. These people end up being family to us and we wanted to let them know how much we appreciate them. I didn't want to make the card a typical "tooth" card so this is what I came up with....

 Aren't these antique toothbrush drawings so amazing?! I used this original image from Karen at the Graphics Fairy. I've got to say I love my Photo Shop and Graphics Fairy!!!The tan worn paper image was also from Karen's site as well. The flower was made using a Gluber and my favorite red gingham ribbon. This was my first attempt making one of these and I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

The inside of the cards were pretty basic. I used some clear border stamps for the images and printed the messages on my printer (I edited them out of the picture...)

Hope you like and have a blessed day!

Sweet Tooth Pics

My friend Missy and I were stewing the other day about how we can't see the handbook for the new Cricut cartridges coming out. How do we really know if we want the cart without seeing the little books? Missy received her new Sweet Tooth cart today and lovingly scanned all the handbook pages in for me so I could help her decide what project to start with, plus I really really really wanted to see it! She and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to post pics of the main pages here on my blog so the rest of you out there can see them too. I hope PC doesn't get mad at me, I just know how frustrated I am by not being able to see all the cuts before I purchase a cart.....There are a lot of pics, so sit back and enjoy with some chocolate! Thank you Missy for all the time you put into scanning and cropping these pic for me!