V-day! BEEP BEEP! special delivery.

So I thought I would enter the Valentine day swap on weddingbee.com. You exchange three cards with fellow readers and also get a card from a bee. I've been wanting to do an online swap for sometime and well this is my first. This is the card I made in the Valentine card making spirit. The way it was made is I found an old Victorian valentine day card online and painted the car to resemble that car. Then I found a little lady who could drive :) online and decorated her with crepe paper. I made the wheels out of glitter and attached some heart shaped brads from MM I got at Micheals. Then I found some Victorian flowers online and filled the car with "special deliveries". Well I think it is a cute card. Stay tune for my other Valentine day designs :) !
before complete embellishments and after :

I'll be home for Christmas

So in the interest of paper crafts I decided to do some projects that were significant to the family. I realize this is what a lot of scrap booking is about but, maybe I have mentioned that I don't scrapbook for various reasons. So I took a twist on this and have two projects that I have planned. One finished and one not started. The first is a winter house. I bought the paper mache house at micheal's and have embellished it with rickrack, paint, tinsel, and old paper. All the pictures are of my dad's parents and siblings. I tried to find some funny and charming pictures of the family. I'm not sure if I will add to the house later (maybe it just needs a bottlebrush tree out front ;) ) but I enjoy having it on display. I love the significance of the project.

fanciful paper projects

So I bought Sandra Evertson's Fanciful paper project book and have been working my way through the book's projects. I really took a liking to paper crafts because of my advent calendar and thought these projects would keep me busy with something a little different in the new year (besides being a couch potato). I've been following most of her directions with some slight changes here and there. But I'll slowing update my projects from the book as I finish. Anyone else looking for a fun craft book check this one out. I have to say actually doing the projects helps more in realizing what else can be done than just looking at the book so think about these books as educational.
These 3 girls are probably one of my favorites.

This cupcake box guy was one the main reason the book caught my eye in the store. I added button embellishments and Im not finished decoupaging the bottle of the box.
Petunia the flower witch was an okay project that I 'm not in love with

and then the classy ladies was fun but rather bulky and not really my thing.

They have all been fun projects though and have giving me some ideas. Always good. Stay Tune

More after Christmas sales !

Okay, I'm a clearance JUNKIE! I so similar tendency with coupons and sales. I just simply hate buying things at full price. I do of course do buy things full price but I'm not as impulsive or haphazard about it. Here are a few last Christmas stuff I got on sale. The Dresden star ornaments came from home traditions. They weren't part of a Christmas sale just a general discount. I would never buy these ornaments had they been full price but they are gorgeous!! I love the work and colors of these. The guys at home traditions were also very fast at processing my order. One am be familiar with them as the sellers of the gorgeous feather trees that I am in envy of. I also got this christmas box. I dont know much about the box . But I like it and I assume its one of Bethany Lowe's artists. ANyone else find some good holiday items on sale?

Can you have too many bottle brush trees?

Probably. But I took to really loving these little trees. Plus an After Christmas sale forced me to up my collection. I also got another cute cody foster house! This one is smaller than my others. I also got another white church (so my catholic christmas citizens had a place to worship) and the mint green cottage for Christmas. My collection of Cody Foster houses is probably complete :(! I believe the three smaller trees in front of the house are all Cody Foster but I am not sure.

This big white and blue tree is one I made with some ornaments I found at the flea market. It was surprisingly easy and cheap to find these ornaments and they are all I believe glass or something that is a bit better quality than the plastic balls that are found on the reproductions. Just a tip for anyone who enjoys these little trees as much as I do.!

I really like the vintage star ornament on top that was found in a flea market grab bag of old ornaments.

I also did the tiny tree here, the blue one with the garland and the Valentine one. All the items on them were again picked up from the flea market.
Including these miniature bottle brush trees:

These really aren't that expensive to just buy the antique and vintage items and make yourself. The white trees I got at Kohls for maybe $4.00 and then I just ripped off the ornaments that were on there. Some might not be ready for Christmas crafts in January but I maybe ! I'm just wrapping up on some stuff I did over the Holiday.

Chicago Dec 15th

Before I left for Christmas I went into the city. The day I was there a blizzard dumped down on the city and left me and my non-waterproof shoes miserable with blue toes.
Last time I went into the city my camera battery died. I hate digital cameras for this reason. But I thought I would post a few pictures of Macy's that I didn't get the last time I was there. I also got the large Martha Stewart tree in the Walnut room. Unfortunately every experience I have had with the Walnut room has been negative which is sad because Macy's has always been one of my favorites and Chicago really has been negative towards this store for taking over the beloved Marshal Fields building. Oh well I shall not preach about how a store should treat their customers, as either way I will probably end up taking my money there

Debrina Pratt

One thing I have always thought is that fairies should exist. I'm not obsessed with fairies but I always thought why shouldn't they? I find them so charming and felt life could use some charm. SO anyways the point is that I got some great little characters from an artist named Debrina Pratt. I bought them off ebay (insert ode to ebay here). Her ID is *spark*your*imagination* and I would suggest anyone looking for some charm in their life to check her out. I think the one in the round box reminds me of an old woman, it's funny when children do that. They came in this adorable hot pink box marked FRAGILE. Who doesn't want an adorable hot pink box mark fragile in the mail! Thanks for some charm in my day!