OMG!

I have actually stumbled upon my blog .... yes, guilty again of blog abandonment .... just life getting in the way .... mostly in a good way!

I have been wanting to post this little project for a while now to the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge Blog ... they have a wonderful little challenge called "fold it"!

I made this lovely little domino book .... plenty of folding here!  The cover was made with a domino, painted and covered in paper with a small ribbon on the sides.

 The little nest is crafted from burlap strands and faux pearl beads ....

 I loved these bird illustrations the minute I saw them, they are made from vintage drawings.

The little prints are on the front and back of each of the folded pages so there are several images to see!

I hope you enjoyed this little post!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
peace love and paper
Jo

mini ATC's ... a delightful little swap

So .... I did another spring swap over at Vintage Dragonfly ... The time my swap partner was JoAnne of Vintage Dragonfly, and our fabulous swap hostess!

WE each made a little matchbox chest, which is two matchboxes joined and covered together.  We filled one of the drawers with little treasures and the other drawer contained 3 mini ATC's.

I loved doing the matchbox drawers, such fun ... the ATC's were a true challenge ... i have not worked on something so small before.   This is the box JoAnne sent to me ... it was a joy to open!

 and the little chest, with its matchbox drawers open ... look at how pretty her project is, i just love all of the bits that make this chest up!

 JoAnne sent me adorable mini ATC's and lots of sweet goodies!

 Even more goodies came with the chest, i will have lots of yummy things to play with!

This is the matchbox chest I sent JoAnne ...

 It's funny that we were both thinking of nests, but it was a spring swap and nothing says spring like a nest!

 I sent her some goodies to play with and a few Purdy's eggs to nibble on.

 and these are the ATC's i sent to her.

I have to say, this is one of my favourite swaps to day ... it was fun, tiny and challenging ...

thanks so much for stopping by

Peace love and paper

Jo

Another challenge!

Over at Simon Says, the Monday challenge was to create either with a cameo or use something that would make a cameo appearance in your project ...

So I kind of did both, but in doing both I also kind of did neither ... yeah ... one of those ....

I decided to use a vintage silhouette image from the Graphics Fairy .... I printed it out and then sat with it for a few days ... i decided to flip the page over and cover it with strips cut from a magazine ... I used a very victorian wall image as the main portion of her head, then a sea image and finally an image of an ancient brick wall ... Once i had glued the strips down, i let it dry (well almost dry) and then i cut out the silhouette image and adhered it to my background ...  I then added a lovely Jane Austen quote.

But then ...



...



...


I blew the quote ... i wrote down that it was from Sense and Sensibility  when .... *gasp* ...... it is actually from Pride and Prejudice ....

making a cameo appearance on my art journal page is the glaring quote error .... sheesh, i have lost all of my  street cred here with that error!

Thanks for stopping by ....
Peace love and paper
Jo

Simon Says - We Love Stamps Challenge

Today I am participating in the Simon Says challenge ... I do love stamps .... and I think that almost everything i do has stamping on it in some way ...

For this challenge i did stamping that is not very obvious ... but it adds texture and interest to the project as a whole ... I also used my two all time favourite stamps on this project, the French Script background stamp by Stampin Up, and the french script stamps that comes in the French Market stamp set by Tim Holtz ....

I started by stamping a piece of white cardstock with the spun sugar distress ink, I only used a small portion of this paper in a die cut,  but i have saved the rest for future projects.

 I also stamped an old piece of chipboard that has been painted and inked ... i stamped the image while the ink on the heart was still wet, and it all kind of smudged ... which was what i was going for ...

 and here we are!  the white paper is die cut into a snowflake rosette shape (this is one of my fave dies of all times) and i attached a little cherub that i printed, fussy cut, then glittered ... i then attached the whole thing to a lovely set of wings!

Not all stamping needs to be close up and in your face ... I love how this subtle stamping took the "whiteness" out of the white cardstock, and added some extra visual interest!

Once again, thanks so much for stopping by!  and make sure you stop by the Simon Says Monday Challenge to see all of the wonderful stamping art!

Peace, love and paper!

Jo

The other side of Christmas ...

staring through the window of a local coffee shop i am reminded that we are now on the "other" side of Christmas ....

The tree is down ... and in the neighbourhood houses are being stripped of their bright lights ... the roadside is littered with dumped real trees .... all of my much treasured decorations are safely packed away ... and now i don't know if my house looks "crisp & clean" or totally devoid of personality ...

I love Christmas decor and crafts ... so this year I am aiming to create at least one Christmas gift, or decor item each month ... Yup .... thats my plan ...

but before i start ... i just wanted to share a few little Christmas projects from last year ...

I made loads of these paper ornaments using a Tim Holtz die from last year ... they were fun to make but time consuming ... each one was individually inked and then glittered ... but they made gifts or sat in the tree oh so pretty!

little tins decorated and ready to go ... and one sitting in the tree!

I also made loads of paper stars to decorate gifts .... also made with a Tim Holtz die

And finally a tiny altered altoids tin ...

and when the lid is opened ....

who doesn't want Paris at their fingertips!!!  ... a little "desk" gift for a friend ... I printed the little Paris from Made by Joel, which has other pocket sized cities as well as colouring pages for kids ... and hey, big kids as well ... and now ... Paris ... anytime, anywhere!

I have one more project to share with you  ... but that will have to wait until another day .... my pile of laundry is calling me back to reality ...

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Peace, love & paper!
Jo