Playing with some G45 { and Kelly's birthday gift}

 I  soooooooooooo love me some Graphic 45!  How can you not ? All those gorgeous papers  just begging to be fussy cut  into all those beautiful little pieces! and I love fussy cutting...tedious but yet somehow, relaxing.

So the other night, I dug out the gorgeous graphic45 Birdsong papers that KELLY brought me when she visited last September.  Another thing I love {and collect} is birdhouses. Well this seemed like a marriage made in heaven and I decided to tackle one {of the many} wooden birdhouses that I have sitting around my scrap room waiting to be decorated. This is what I came up with....

 

and a little close up...

 

 

 There is a double thick layer of dimension dots behind the birds and flowers for support.

 Back view... I left this pretty plain actually { Kelly told me not to add anymore lol}.

 

 So if this little birdhouse was for me, I bet you are wondering what I made for Kelly's birthday?
  I can share this now that she has received it... a tea box made with g45's LADIES' DIARY  pps. {Yes the same ones I used for my wall tray a while back... check it out HERE }. Kelly and I share a love of tea ...she has introduced me to some wonderful herbal teas and I have taught her how to enjoy the traditional Newfoundland cuppa... Tetley with Carnation milk! lol. Would you believe she didn't even know tin milk was for tea until I told her???? Fresh milk in tea? BLECH!

I've been sending Kelly selections of Newfoundland Teas made by DARK TICKLE COVE so I thought I'd create a little keepsake box to send this batch in.

                                                                             KELLY"S BIRTHDAY TEA BOX 

and the inside....

 
I sent a variety of teas this time...some Newfoundland teas, a yummy chocolate mint from President's Choice, two kinds from DAVID'S TEA and a Lipton ice tea {she loves that too!}. I hope she knows how much love went into this gift!

Would you like to see how I made this gift box?

I started with a plain wooden tea box that I picked up at Dollarama. I removed the hardware and then painted the box inside and out with black acrylic paint....

 Next I measured and cut out  the floral side pieces for the box. I cut the pieces  leaving about 1/4"
margin so that some of the black paint showed around the edges { I also inked all paper pieces with Distress Ink in 'Black Soot'}. I added sook-wang {aka Skor tape} to the paper pieces to adhere them to the box. I loooove sook-wang...awesome  and powerful adhesive!

Next I trimmed off the beautiful edges of two of the papers in this collection to decorate the top and sides of the box top..again leaving a small margin of the black paint showing and inking all edges with Distress Ink. You might also notice that I mitered the corners... personal preference... I just think it looks neater.

Then I added a row of beads around the edge of the glass with a liquid glue and made and added a TEA banner for the upper corner of the top. I loved the alpha sheet that came with these papers...so gorgeous and elegant!

 

 

 As you can see by the above photo, I lined each compartment inside the box with various papers from the collection...fiddly work no doubt, but I was pleased with the end result!

 

Here's how I made the floral clock embellie on the top.....

Pick out the piece you want to use and fussy cut....

I inked all edges with 'Black Soot 'except the clock face on which I used 'Vintage Photo'. After fussy cutting, I found the piece was too thin so I backed it on to a heavy black card stock and fussy cut again, leaving a tiny margin of black cs all around. I then covered the clock face with Crackle Accents. I rubbed a little more 'Vintage Photo' into the clock face when it was dried to accent the cracks. I added some pearls and dabbed a little Stickles in the center of the flowers for a little bling...a girl gotta have bling ya know! The piece was supported underneath with dimension dots.

 I also fussy cut, layered on black cardstock, and fussy cut again, a teapot and cups to decorate the front of the box. Re-attach all the hardware and fill with your fave teas. Viola!

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial today. Happy Birthday dear Kelly...save me a cuppa for when I come to visit again in September. Thanks for popping by today ! Toodles!

Crop Circles's Blog Hop!

 

Happy first of March  and good morning to all you crop hoppin' ladies out there! Welcome to the first ever Crop Circles Blog Hop!

 

 

Crop Circles is an on-line bunch of mostly Newfoundland ladies {or those who have a tie to the island!}. We love to share and inspire each other and hope that you'll enjoy hopping with us today and maybe even catch a little inspiration along the way.

For every comment you leave on the participating blogs, you will be entered to win a Stampin' Up bundle worth $50!!! Some of us are also offering extra blog candy along the way. I will be sending out a little scrappy gift to one lucky hopper who leaves a comment on this posting { and signing up as a follower would also be greatly appreciated! }

 

 So if you have arrived here from Catherine's Blog then you are on the right track. If you've gotten lost along the way then just find your way back on track in the links below:

 

Cheryl Ashworth - http://cherylane.wordpress.com/

Shar Strahan & Brande Strahan - partner with Cheryl Ashworth
Kelly Klapstein-http://kellycreates.blogspot.com/
Rhea Skomorowski - http://www.rheaski.blogspot.ca/
Natasha Connolly (partner with Rhea)
Catherine Stockley- http://catherinelovesstamps.blogspot.ca/
Michelle Marks - http://michellesscrapbits.blogspot.ca/
Darlene Head Whalley http://cherrytat.blogspot.com/
Corina Mayo Thorne - http://craftycorina.blogspot.com/
Sara Case Strickland - http://wp.me/p280bG-FE
Lori Smith - http://itsabouttimeblogspot.wordpress.com/
Elaine Lambe Beck (partner with Lori Smith)
Liz Davis - http://piecesofmyeverydaylife.wordpress.com/
Rexene Lockyer (Send to Cathy Caines)
Cathy Caines - http://cathycaines.blogspot.ca/

We have decided to use a sketch from Sketchbook365 for our hop today.

Isn't this cute?

 

 

I'm more of a shabby chic kinda girl myself and find it very hard to stick to the clean, uncluttered look... I practically had to sit on my hands to stop myself from adding more stuff! But I persevered and this is what I came up with--- a cute Lo of my adorable pup, Jasper, basking in the sun last summer.Well, pup is probably too loose a description of my Jasper given that he is almost 14 years old and full of arthritis!  I tell everyone he's my little ole man! I figure he's the equivalent of a little 85 year old man lol...but a sweeter, more gentle dog you'd never want to meet! We really lucked into an angel when we adopted him from the SPCA about 7 years ago.

Did you notice the cute dog collar across the bottom of my LO? Wanna see how I made it?

 I first came across this belt-like embellie when it was shared by the super creative, fellow Canadian scrapper, Gabrielle Pollacco on her BLOG a couple of years ago. Now she is one truly artistic and creative lady who absolutely loves to share her ideas with everyone. She is the queen of shabby chic and it would really be worth your while to pay her a visit! She originally used it as a ladies belt .... I just adapted it slightly as a dog collar.  All you need for this embellie is :
two 1" x 12 "strips of card stock in the color of your choice,
one 1/2" x3 " strip of the same color card stock,
 a white marker{ brown works well too! }
Tim Holtz Distress ink in Vintage Photo {or brown ink of choice]
 and a circle tag {I bought mine at Staples}.

 Start by cutting your two strips of  1" x 12" card stock and rounding the end of one piece... I did this free hand.

 

 Using a ruler , draw a white line on both sides about 1/8 th " in from edges...again, I free handed it around the curved tip.

Now start to add dots along these lines to mimic needle holes.

 

 

I also cut {and doodled sewing lines} on a third piece of cs approx 3/4"x 3 " . Ink all edges with some Vintage Photo distress ink..Glue the rounded piece of belt on top of the other  1" x 12' piece at the length you want across the page  and then  wrap the thinner third piece around it to create the belt loop , securing behind with two sided tape.

 

 

I used my Crop-a-dile to punch a few belt holes in the strip but I'm sure a hole punch would work just as well.....

 

 

 And finally, I finished it off by printing Jasper's name inside a circle tag from Staples and twisting it on to the belt loop.

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial for the dog collar.

 

Now hop on over to Darlene's Blog and check out her creation using the sketch.

 

Thanks for playing along today. You have until March 3 rd to complete this hop and be entered for that fab Stampin' Up prize! and I'll be picking a lucky hopper from those who leave a comment on this posting and sending her on a little bit of blog candy too! Good luck everyone. Thanks for popping by! Toodles