The Happy Room

This Brown Bag Gift Pouch was a project inspired by one I saw that had been made by a friend. Hers was quite different, but it was great to get the general idea and then make it my own personal design. I used a lunch-size brown bag purchased at my local grocery store. I folded it down and then zig-zag stitched it with my Janome Sew Mini sewing machine on the sides to make the pouch portion. The doily was pure white, so I aged it a bit to make it coordinate with the brown bag. The heart is a Sizzix die cut and the flower is from a local mill-ends fabric store. The sign post is an olive pick from the dollar store and the image is Stampin' Up! The gift inside the pouch is a dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe's. It's a perfect size: 4" X 4". I wrapped it with some kraft gift wrap and added the cord to complete the packaging. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you've enjoyed the Brown Bag Gift Pouch project! Kathie

Hello Friends~

Today's card features a Strong Stamps image; the Cloisonne Dragonfly and the small dragonfly from the Mini Cloisonne Wings set.

This was a fun card to make. The background is an orange flocked design on a kraft-colored base (background paper--a gift from a friend). I wanted to add a bit of interest without detracting from the dragonflies, so I stitched some copper cord with my Janome Sew Mini sewing machine in a zig-zag pattern around the edges. The copper cording was simply wound around the card vertically and anchored on the back with scotch tape.

The dragonflies are painted with Distress Inks. I added some colored gems to the dragonflies. Why? Because they're girls....and we girls love BLING!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

Today's project features a square 6" X 6" card showcasing the Cloisonne Hummingbird Stamp and the Punch and Spell Alphabet stamp set from Michael Strong Stamps.

The beautiful foliage on the top layer the card is a flocked background paper. It was a gift from a friend, so I'm unsure of the source. I thought it would be a nice background for the Cloisonne Hummingbird. I stamped the hummingbird with VersaMark ink onto white cardstock and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. Then, I colored the image with Distress Inks and an aqua paint brush. I didn't make note of the Distress Ink colors, but I can attest to the fact that it was probably ten or more different colors. I blended and painted and blended some more to achieve the array of colors you see here. A lot of my coloring is experimental, ever evolving and changing as I paint. Keeping a list of colors most of the time is impossible since I change and blend and basically create a few new colors along the way! =)

I stitched the layers with gold thread on my Janome Mini Sewing machine in a zig-zag stitch to add a little frame, and then stamped the letters F-L-Y from the alphabet set. They were also stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I added some gold half-beads in some of the flourishes on the letters as well as some colored gems on the bird.

This card will be "flying" across the globe with Michael Strong to the stamp convention "Stempel Mecca" in Hagen, Germany. I hope they both arrive safely and have a wonderful time in Germany. Wish I could be there with them, don't you?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

I made this card for someone dear to me who lost her husband recently. I used some lovely background paper that was a gift from a friend. Same friend gave me the peach/gold swiss dotted paper that coordinated nicely. (Gotta love great friends who give paper as gifts!)The design was case'd from one of my stamping heroes, Tosh Leyendecker of Stamp Talk With Tosh. Her blog is so fabulous!! You can see Tosh's card HERE.

I added the stitching with my Janome Sew Mini sewing machine. The die cuts are all from Spellbinders, the flowers and lace are all from a local mill ends fabric store.

Thank you for stopping by!!

~Kathie