Love, Death and Roses.......and tattoos, sort of.

According to the cliche, the only sure things in life are death and taxes.
Well, maybe that is true somewhere, but even Scrooge and Maleficent (according to Disney) experienced love in their lives before they went off the rails, right?
A couple more cliches.....
Love is timeless
Love never dies
Love is eternal
Etcetera, etcetera and so on. So I'm adding love to the short list of sure things.
And then there are tattoos.

In the last few years I've become pretty interested in the art of tattoos. Not because I have a desire to get one, I do not have a personality suited for something so permanent. I'm the kind of person who likes to move furniture around a lot and never have the same hairstyle. A tattoo for me is like making Bobby Flay eat waffles for the rest of his life.
No, what fascinates me about tattoos is that just about everyone knows someone who has one.
Another saying I've heard many times (though it's not in the cliche category)  is 'no human is ever more than ten feet away from a spider'.
Perhaps the same could be said about tattoos.

They are everywhere and while some of them are tasteless, spelled wrong and just down right awful, there are some masterful, magnificent, beautiful tattoos out there.
So I'm adding tattoos to the short list of sure things. And possibly spiders since I brought them up.
I know there is a cliche in there somewhere. Maybe the cliche is that most tattoos always seem to have roses.
So all this wordiness is an explanation of where the inspiration for these  pieces came from.
Love, death, tattoos.

As usual, most of the supplies are from the wonderful Alpha Stamps.
Go HERE for links to what was used.

Complete Supply List:
1 1/2 inch red paper roses
1/2 inch red paper roses
Mini Rose buds-red
Old Fashioned Roses (in black)
7/8 inch Fancy Fan Black Lace (on the sides of the tombstones)
Star-Crossed Novel Scrapbook Paper
Star-Crossed Honeycomb Scrapbook Paper
Plastic Skeleton
Red and Pink Glass Heart Charms (the little heart glued on the skeleton ribcage)
Antique Gold Fancy Flower Filigree
Clock Face Button
Large Red/Gold Glass Heart Bead (in the hand inset in the tombstone with the heavy stamped frame)
Paper Mache Tombstone Set
A Gilded Life- Love Wings Pendant-Gold

Additional:
Heavy Stamped Brass Frame
Six Pointed Snowflake Filigree
Vintage Hands (2)
Oval Frame in Brass (bent in  half and used as a bracket under the hand holding black roses)

A couple of quick notes....these awesome tombstones are paper mache and about an inch thick. The one pictured above I cut a hole in to inset the hand holding the heart. I put a block of cardboard scrap inside the bottom of the tombstone to elevate the hand to the right height and glued it down.
Easy peasy!
All the banners were printed on stiff white scrapbook paper, cut to the shape they are and then aged up with paint.
The bases the tombstones are sitting on are all scrap chipboard I covered in matching paper, painted and then glued to the bottom of each tombstone.

Merry Christmas to all!

My best wishes to everyone for a peaceful holiday season.

Oh, Christmas Trees...

A little trio of tiny trees for a table top. Sometimes simplicity offers us a bit of serenity in a crazy season.
Wow.
There is so much alliteration in those two sentences, my old fifth grade teacher Mrs. Koniknik would be proud.
But seriously, my intention was to keep these simple to remind myself that although glitter and glitz is grand, (see what I did?) 'simple' reminds me to pause, slow down, take a breath.

As usual, most of my supplies come from the wonderful Alpha Stamps. I think this might be a fun project to with children...there's not a lot of cutting to do and the supplies are pretty simple. Paper, findings, wooden blocks, glue, glitter and some trees.

Supply list at the bottom of the page
BUT WAIT....THERE"S MORE!

It's a Santa Stack! And by gosh, by golly, the whole thing is made of blocks and looks kinda like a Christmas tree.

Yep, I've had blocks on my brain (no jokes about block heads, please) what with all the ornaments I make for the holidays. (see some of them HERE) and really, I like blocks. The shape is pleasing and you can do so much with them in any size you want.

This would be another fun project to do with kids. Once again, the same materials used...just a totally different look and configuration.
So if you've got any kidlets around, go play with some blocks with them. I bet they come up with some spectacular stuff!
Psst.....the Santa hat was made with some red paper cut in a Santa hat shape and some fluff pulled off a Q-tip. 

Supplies link for the Oh, Christmas Trees HERE
Supplies for the Santa Stack are HERE

Supplies:
Santa Stack Supplies:
Retro Bottle Brush Tree Set-Green
German Bouilon-Red
1 Inch Wide Wooden Finial
Medium Wooden Finial
Small Wooden Finial (turned upside down and use for the tree)
Bo Bunny Double Dot Vintage Wasabi Scrapbook paper
Double Dot Vintage Wildberry Scrapbook Paper
Twas The Night Before Christmas Scrapbook Paper (the flip side of the title paper..used for the background stripe behind the middle Santas)
Christmas Stocking Stripes Collage Sheet
Silly Santas Collage Sheet
Santa Toys Collage Sheet
Round Pendant Collage Sheet  (used for the top block)
Mother Goose Checkers Scrapbook Paper
2 Inch Wooden Cube Block
1-1/2 Inch Wooden Cube Block
Lime Green Stickles
Christmas Red Stickles
7mm Flower Washers



Oh Christmas Trees Supplies:
Retro Bottle Brush Tree Set- both Green and Dyeable
Wooden Blocks-
2 Inch, 1-1/2 Inch, 1 Inch, 7/8 Inch
White Pearl Mix Tin
4mm Fused Pearls-Gold (for the smallest tree)
Crystal Stickles (but could use Diamond)
Red Round Fire Polished Glass Beads (top of Trees)
Fancy Swirl Bead Cap (inside the crown)
Fancy Star Bead Cap 
Star Filigree
Mixed Gold Filigrees
7mm Flower Washers
Small Flat Dragonfly
Small Flying Bee Charms
Medium Bee Charms
Any color papers you choose for your blocks!

Cigar Box Beauties

I've got some pretty plaques inspired by a trio of vintage cigar box beauties! Alpha Stamps has an awesome kit with gorgeous papers this month all in the very rich, vintage theme of old cigar box art and design.

I started out with some scrap wood cut into ATC sized blocks. They're about 1/2 an inch thick, but you could also use a couple of the Chipboard ATC's glued together with the ribbon sandwiched between them. Or an ATB Wood Block and make them stand alone pieces.

All the papers I used are from the kit. I covered all the backs with the blue side of the Cigar Box Secrets Corona Scrapbook Paper, the sides with Cigar Box Secrets Robusto Scrapbook Paper. For the center block in the first image I used the back flip side of the Figurados Scrapbook Paper and for the two ladies on the ends Perfecto Scrapbook Paper was used.

I inked all the edges and then glued this beautiful Dresden trim down the center of the block....it reminds me of the fancy gold foil on cigar boxes and gives the image in front of it some visual grounding. The trim is from the Gold Ric Rac Dresden Border trim Set.
I used foam tape on the back of the beauties to make them stand out a bit, glued ribbon on the sides of my plaques and added some pretty paper roses to dress up the ends of the ribbon and add some extra ornament.

I sparkled them up a wee bit with some Diamond Stickles, glass micro beads and a few flat back crystals, but in the end I decided to keep the embellishments fairly simple. The images are strong, rich and speak for themselves and I thought just giving them a bit of a boost was all they needed.
And okay, I couldn't resist a crown and a couple of pretty  Antique Bronze Fan Charms to add a little extra something!

SUPPLY LIST:
Cigar Box Secrets Papers  (click left to view the complete collection individual sheets used are below)
Cigar Box Secrets Robusto Scrapbook Paper
Cigar Box Secrets Corona Scrapbook Paper
Cigar Box Secrets Figurados Scrapbook Paper
Cigar Box Secrets Perfecto Scrapbook Paper
Cigar Labels Banner Collage Sheet
1/2" Paper Roses
Antique Bronze Fan Charm
Diamond Stickles
Gold Ric Rac Dresden Border trim Set
Center Stitched Ribbons
Narrow Striped Ribbon

Small Cigar Labels And Bands Sheet
Glass Micro Beads
Swarovski Flat Back Crystals
Die-Cut Crown

Halloween Chunky House (plus three)

Just a few pics of some fun Halloween Chunky Houses......

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Christmas Tags and a Cute Crate!

Halloween has been (temporarily) booted to the curb whilst I show you this fun Christmas tags and cute crate project. Yep, that's what I'm calling it.
Just work with me on this one.
All of the fab supplies came from the wonderful Alpha Stamps.

For a complete list of supplies, click HERE.

All of the papers are from G45's Twas the Night Before Christmas 8x8 Paper Pad. The tags were cut from 12x12 Chipboard. I used Tim Holtz Tissue Tape Set- Merriment on the front of the cute Wooden Vintage Mini Crate-White.  The wee feet are actually four of the Medium Wooden Finials painted white with acrylic paint.

The numbers and cards I used to count the days down to Christmas are from Tim Holtz Countdown to Christmas Coins and these cute Alpha Cards.
I used lots of glittery Stickles-Christmas Red and sparkly Stickles-Lime Green to trim out details and make things pop.
Don't forget the Dresden Trim!  I used Baroque Dresden Borders - Gold and colored it with Copic Sketch Marker- Lipstick Red (one of my favs!!) or Copic Sketch Marker - Salad.

I made the wee envelopes with the awesome Pint Sized Envelopes Template. I LOVE this little thing and I use it a lot. It's quick, it's easy and it looks great. The space is super for tucking a chocolate coin into or maybe a little extra cash.
Very handy, having a space for extra cash. And chocolate.
Can't go wrong with cash and chocolate.
Just sayin'.
We will now resume our regularly scheduled Halloween program.....