Wedding Over

 These are the final photos of my album. I am also back from the wedding. They didn't open gifts at the reception, so I don't know their reaction yet. They did go on a honeymoon. Funny how much this album suited both of them! Must have had a heavenly hand on my shoulder! I need to get busy as I have 3 birthdays in the first 10 days of September!!! I am just dying to try some stuff out with my vagabond and also remembering some lacy things on my Cricut that absolutely need to be on at least one of the new cards. I also have a bunch of cards to make for Operation Write Home so I can actually mail some off and make it official that I am participating. Its been quite a long time since I got to color with my copics and that has to be remedied!
While we were driving to the wedding, my husband made the remark that I wasn't "knitting"?  You have to know, he calls EVERYTHING I do, knitting. But that reminded me also that I was going to try knitting some cancer caps. So last night, I got out stuff to make one and started it. I used to knit (really) on every trip we took. Since we were traveling on average of 20 hrs a month to see his kids while they were growing up, I did make a lot of knitted things.  It is the only thing I can do without looking constantly at it (hence, it didn't make me car sick!). I have quite a bit of yarn left from the last baby afghan and its sport and very soft - will post it when I get it finished and if I think it's nice, I will make more and take them to the local hospital for distribution. It gets pretty cool up here in the winter time so if they can't use them (can hardly imagine that), there are plenty of shelters. I should be back on track fairly soon. Have some more cleaning to catch up on. Hugs to you all and thanks for hanging in there with me! Barb F

Gift Album

Along with the wedding card for my grandson, I made an album that they could use to put photos of their honeymoon and whatever else into. I used the method I watched from Margaret of    http://margaret-ilovecrafting.blogspot.com/     Honestly it wasn't nearly as easy as she makes it look!! Guess I am not the real crafty person, but I did like how it came out. It was truly a labor of love. I took a lot of photos - with the tags in the pockets and without and if the tags were decorated, I took a photo then also. The couple is mixed racially and I wanted to be sure not to offend anyone, hence the people in my stamps are not colored in. Also I am not very adept at different skin tones. That is something needing practice. So here is my book - it is about 6 x 7 in size. Let me know how you like it and be sure to check out Margaret's youtube videos if you want to make one. It would have been a whole lot easier to just make one the same size as hers - dumb me!

 This is all I am able to upload at this time. You are halfway thru page 9 and there are only 10 pages in the whole thing. Blogger will not let me upload anymore photos - maybe there is a daily limit. I have never done this many before. The binding was done with a piece of tyvek which was white. If I had known how awful it would look inbetween the pages, I would have colored it with my copics BEFORE I put the pages on it. It was pretty hard to do after, but I managed.  The very last photo shows a bird. I "fussy" did this page as I really wanted that bird to show. Next time I will just stick to embellishments. That was a difficult process. I felt very uncoordinated making this. I added all those ribbons so they would know those tags were really a part of the album, then I decided to include a note of "instruction" so they would know my intent. I probably won't be there when they open it. The colors are the colors they chose for their wedding. Thought it would be better than just white and then I wasn't so sure. Not planning on making another album for a very long time - very long!! Hugs to you all, will add the other photos next time if blogger will let me. Barb F

Wedding here!

My grandson is getting married! I have been working on an album for him as well as a card. My time is really limited right now, so I am just posting the card. I spent hours trying to come up with something I liked that wasn't colored as I knew I wouldn't get that one just right. The wedding is still to come, and I am almost ready to go. If I have time, I will post the album before we go. I have two images for weddings - a Magnolia one and the Bildmalarna one I used. I just thought this one fit the couple better. I took two photos of it so you could see it in different lights. Here they are and then I will tell you how I got those looks.

   I stamped the image on cardstock first, then I cut it out. I find that way I can really center the stamp and if I mess up stamping, there isn't much to do. I just turn the cardstock over and try again. While I was stamping, I made a mask of it on computer paper. This one took several steps that I am not sure would all need repeating, but I will let you decide that for yourself. Then I cut it out using a Spellbinder's die. I am not sure which one right now. I put the mask over the couple, and sprayed the background with a sparkle spray - didn't like the way it came out over the white background. So then I decided it was maybe because I didn't have anything done to the image. Awhile back I made a Tim Holtz pallet of my perfect pearls. You could look that up on youtube if you wish. You just mix the perfect pearl powder in the little pallet cup with a tiny bit of water, let it set and close the top of the pallet. So I painted the bride's dress and veil with perfect pearl color. Then did the flowers and leaves with the purple and green. After it dried, it looked yellow and I really didn't like it!! Then I decided to sparkle the background using that new glitter I bought for the last class I took. Ritz. I used a glue pen so I could get up close to the image. That helped a whole lot! I burnished it just a little to be sure it wasn't going to rub off. But I still really regretted painting the dress because now I didn't like it. I pulled out my Ranger pearl acrylic paint and put a little on my craft sheet and painted it with a tiny paint brush. I immediately noticed that I could get a raised effect as because I had the perfect pearls behind, the paper wasn't absorbing the paint at all. So I made sure my brush strokes followed how I thought the dress would fall. I took my time as paint doesn't dry quickly at all! Once I liked the look, I set it aside to dry. I had no idea what I was going to do with this! After it dried, I really liked the way it looked. Their wedding colors ended up being purple and green with a little brown. I found some very pretty paper that was silver over white making a neat design and I thought, I wonder how that would look embossed. So I tried it - loved the leaves in that embossing folder!! You really didn't notice it much, so I inked over it with the new purple distress ink from Tim Holtz - I think it was in the spring group. It was the absolute perfect color though!! Thought it needed a little fancy so I did the edge with a Martha Stewart punch.  I added the darker purple cardstock to set it off from the actual card and a ribbon and there wasn't anymore I needed to do to it except add a greeting to the inside.  Sure hope they like it. Sorry I have been absent. Have been on vacation and a little under the weather. Hugs to you all, Barb F