The Happy Room

Happy upcoming 4th of July! Here is a shaker card I made. Enjoy!

Here's a card I made for some friends who recently lost their beloved cat to heart failure. I felt the least I could do for them was make a card. After all, isn't a card a hug with a fold in the middle? I hope it brings a smile to their faces. I used the Michael Strong cat image along with another Michael Strong image, Silhouette Fan. I embossed them with off-white embossing powder and then colored them in with Distress Inks. The images on the inside of the card were unmounted stamps purchases at rubber stamp shows. I'm woefully neglectful when it comes to keeping track of the manufacturer, so I apologize for not knowing the source of these. They're so wonderful, it's a shame I can't tell you where to find them. *sigh* I hope you enjoy the card and thanks for stopping by. Go hug a kitty! Kathie

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, I'm sharing a little gift box project filled with chocolates for a friend. The box is a Stampin' Up die which I covered with some metal sheets from Add A Little Dazzle. I cut the metal sheet pieces to fit the sides and top of the box and then ran them through the Cuttlebug with a Fleur-de-lis folder. I sanded each piece to expose the silver-colored core of the metal. Easy!! I attached the pieces with Fabri-Tac fabric glue. The candies are Hershey's Nuggets and they're wrapped with some text weight copper colored paper which I Cuttlbug'd. A fast, easy, and inexpensive gift for a friend who thinks it's worth a million!! Happy Crafting, Kathie

Hello Friends!

Today's project is an oldie-but-a-goodie and a favorite fold of mine. This is called a pocket card. It's made by simply marking the card front on both outer edges at 2". Make another pencil mark at the bottom center of the card. Then, just score a straight line between the 2" mark on the left to the center mark on the bottom. Repeat that score from the 2" mark on the right to the center mark on the bottom. Fold the outer corners up a to meet each other at the center, and add some foam mounting tape to hold it closed. You've created a little pocket! I added some pre-purchased embossed white paper on top of the triangle.

I added some glityz shred to mine to give it an airy look since my small dragonflies from the Michael Strong Mini Wings set needed a place to nest. I stamped these little critters in VersaMark ink and embossed them with Verdigris embossing powder. It was easy to do so many because there was no cutting required. The mini dragonfly has a coordinating Mini Wings Die, so I die cut them in seconds flat. Easy!

The large dragonly was created the same way. The stamp can be purchased HERE. I added some small beads to give it some interest. The white cardstock layers' corners were pierced with a template.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

Today's project is one of my old favorites. It's a go-to when I'm stumped for a design--it's easy, fast, and is always so colorful and cheery. Today's card features two Michael Strong stamps.

Here's how I made the main image: I sprayed water (in a mister) onto white cardstock. Then, I inked up the Cloisonne Hummingbird stamp in a Calypso Kaleidacolor Ink pad. I stamped onto the very wet cardstock, let the ink run in wild patterns, and then dryed the cardstock with an embossing heat tool. Next, I ironed my cardstock (yes, ironed. Remember yesterday when I said neatness counts? It still does today!) until it was nice and flat again (the water and the heat gun make it curl). Then, I inked up the stamp again in the Calypso Kaleidacolor pad and stamped onto the cardstock in the same place as the first stamping. The results are always different, always spectacular.

Next, I took a stamping sponge and inked around the edges of the cardstock with the same Kaleidacolor pad. It's a cheap-trick way of really making things coordinate. Then, I added some Crystal Effects (sometimes called Dimensional Magic) all the way around the edges, right on top of the inked areas. Then, I poured clear beads onto the Crystal Effects. It makes a very nice, colorful framed edge around any image.

I stamped the small hummingbird image from the Mini Wings set on the background layer, then ran it through a Cuttlebug folder for a "floral" feel. Last, I tied on a coordinating multicolored ribbon.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project and maybe even learned something new. Thanks for stopping by!

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

Hello Michael Strong Fans (and everyone else!)

Today, I'm sharing a card I made using a Technique Junkie background called Faux Washi Paper. I used a Stampin' Up Word Window punch to punch out a slot for the bookmark and then attached it to the base card.

The Cloisonne Panel stamp is from Strong Stamps (Michael Strong). It was stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with white embossing powder. Then, painted with Distress Inks. If you're a Technique Junkies member, I wrote a tutorial there for the "secret ingredient" to get these lovely blended colors!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

Some decorative clips I made with the Mini Wings Cloisonne Dragonfly from Strong Stamps.

Thanks for looking!!

Kathie

CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR A LARGER VIEW

Hello TJ Girlfriends (guys, too if you're out there)~Kathie McGuire here today with a Decorated Clips project from the 3D and Fun Folds CD. Wait, what? Don't I make anything else besides these clips? Truth is, no--not much. Well, not as much as I make these because they are so adorable, so useful, and such a fantastic personal gift.

This small assortment is for a fellow-makeup and fragrance lover, my Avon lady. She loves pink, so I chose a background paper with pink in it along with a few of the other colors which would match the buttons. I found these buttons from an online store called Shelly's Buttons and More.The cosmetic theme was perfect for her, so with very little effort, I had a coordinated, personalized gift for my wonderful friend.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a few more of these Decorated Clips. Have you tried them? I have to warn you, once you begin making them, it's hard to turn back. LOL

Happy Holidays, Dear Friends!!

Kathie

Hello Friends!

Thank you for stopping by today for the Michael Strong Stamps Blog Hop. If you've arrived here without seeing the other artwork by our fabulous participants, please go back to Hetty's blog HERE and start at the beginning.

My Christmas tag features the Cloisonne Christmas Trees. I stamped them onto maroon card stock and embossed them with PSX Brass Embossing Powder. I loved being able to cut them out in seconds with the coordinating Christmas Tree Metal Dies. Last, I added some glitz with Stickles Gold.

I embossed the green and gold cardstock in a Cuttlebug folder and added some gold metallic rub-ons over the swirls. The "snow" is white Flower Soft. At the top of the tag, please notice the Strong Stamps Triangle stamp from the Cloisonne Accents stamp set. When I had it securely in place, I used a Crop-A-Dile to set a brass eyelet to thread the fibers through. The last elements are a bit of gold cord and a brass snowflake from a pile of Christmas doo-dads in my stash.

The next stop on the hop will take you to Michelle Williamson's Blog. Click HERE to see what Michelle has in store for you.

And don't forget to take the following letter along with you for the scavenger hunt: H Collect all of the letters and put them together to spell the secret phrase. If you think you know it, send your guess to Hetty Sanders at her email address: buzzy4you@hotmail.com

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

Hello Friends!

I'm so excited to share one of my latest projects with you here today. I've created a gift box for a friend from Stampin' Up!'s box die cut and filled it with some coordinating chocolate candies decorated to match.

I added some flair to the box with some metal sheets from Add A Little Dazzle.Once I had the measurements figured out, the project was fast and easy. And the next box will be even easier!! I used the Gold Nugget sheet and ran it thru the Cuttlebug in a folder for some texture. Next, I sanded the raised areas with a sanding block to turn the gold to silver. What a fast and easy way to acheive two-tone metal! (for some excellent ideas, visit Add A Little Dazzle's website. It's fabulous!)

The chocolates inside are Hershey's Nuggets covered with two different stamped images (wiggly-line image is unknown, other image is Stampin' Up!)

As a note, I attached the metal to the cardstock with ordinary fabric glue.

To finish off the box, I added a gold button type embellishment with a center gem.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Kathie