Altered Card Box

     Good Morning on this beautiful Memorial Day! I hope you all are enjoying beautiful weather and are not too stuffed from all the cookouts, lol. Today the Erica's  DT has some beautiful projects to share with you so I hope you will take a moment to see what we have been working on.

     I have been exploring the CCR and had just purchased the Banners digital download so I thought I would show you what I came up with. Of course I also used my Imagine!!

     I found these plain boxes @ Michaels' and thought they would be perfect to hold some handmade cards of mine. The boxes are about the size of a cigar box and are ready to paint, decoupage, stamp etc. I didn't take pictures as I went along so let's just jump into the details.

      First I painted the edges with a gold dauber and then used gel medium to decoupage my paper on the box. The sides and bottom have a faux wood looking paper. This gave me the idea to make the banner wood looking also. I started by making the banner at 5" long out of a cream card stock in the CCR. By adding another mat in the CCR, I was able to add the "Cards" font by using Divine Wedding cart at .75". I used the separate layers feature to print the font first and then cut the banner.
     I cut 3 banners and then adhered them together before I inked the edges. Once the ink was dry I applied some paper glaze to give it a little protection. Would you like to see the finished project?

     I told you you could paint, stamp and decoupage these boxes so I did all three, lol. I even added a braided ribbon and some Tim Holtz adornments to the corners. I'll show you a few more pics of the details.

     I used some Zing copper embossing powder and some Imaginisce bling for the top and bottom right hand corners.

     I have so many left over beads that I made a hanging charm to peek out of a corner of the flowers.

     Speaking of flowers I love how these turned out. I used distress inks and found I had some that even matched my paper. I even love how the leaves turned out.
   Erica is so generous with her DT that she sends us some really neat stuff to try for our projects. In one of my orders she had sent me some cuttlebug dies that had these great leaf dies. They are 2 pieces sort of like a blackout and the top part of the leaf. They look beautiful with a chalk glimmer. You can find all sort of supplies at Erica's Store and she has fabulous prices as well.
     I hope this project inspires you just a little. Please check out my team members projects back at Erica's Blog and see what else they have to help your mojo.Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who gave their lives to keep us safe.

    

Love Always Album

     Surprise I made something not nautical, beach, ocean or water related, lol! I've been working on this for a while ( I am soooo slow). Anyways here are the details.
     First I started with Spellbinders Creative Pages by Donna Salazar.This is cut out of Corrugated card board by Zutter. I used Donna Salazar's technique with a combo of paint and embossing powder to create this great background.
     I also made this fabric flower out of satin and added some stickles to the petals. The small flowers are premade out of mulberry paper but, of course they needed some bling. I had just got some of Donna Salazars Fairy Dust. Wow, does this ever sparkle!
     I dug into my stash and found this great ribbon and also a roll of this flower ribbon.

     I can't remember which paper stack I used but some of the smaller pieces are from DCWV girls stack. More satin ribbon but this has a nice picot edge. I also have a nice pack of these pearl flowers from Recollections. The circle on the left is Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities scalloped circle.

     Isn't this paper cool? I love the silver foil effect. I had some silver card stock left over from a previous project so I made a pocket to hold my tag.
     The tag is a shipping tag that I spritzed with glimmer Mist and added a quote from Donna's crafty Chronicle: "A journet is best measured in friends rather than miles.I added this by using Liquid laminate by Beacon. The cute butterfly brad is from a Creative Charms value pack. I also had some rub ons that I had hanging around and used them throughout the book. This one says "I am going your way".

    
          I love to add a little interactive play to my albums and this one is no exception. Here you find a pocket that another tag is hidden in. Again I used Creative Charms, this time a felt flower. The tag inside is so cute. It has a shoe, pearls, shopping bag and purse on the left hand corner.

     This is the back side. Love all those girly things! The right hand side has a picture of a tube of lipstick.
     That's it for now guys. As always thanks for stopping by. ( I hope you enjoyed your visit!).
     BTW, this album is currently for sale in my etsy shop.http://www.etsy.com/listing/79254242/love-always-album

Wedding Flowers

     I have been super busy with projects at home as well as wedding consults at work. Thankfully all the brides I have been working with have been wonderful to work with. No bridezillas at all. ( Believe me that's amazing!!!)
     I had the honor of designing the wedding flowers for an amazing young woman I have known for years since she danced with my daughters. I thought I would share these since the colors were so vibrant and there were some touches that are kind of a signature of mine.

      The above picture is the brides bouquet. She wanted all white with roses but one of her bridesmaids reminded her that she had also mentioned callas. These white callas are just the greatest to work with. They are the perfect size and shape and this particular grower is outstanding. It has taken us literally years to find the right source for these. We are VERY picky about our wedding flowers. They may be just for the day but the pictures last a life time.

      The bridesmaids were wearing all black and the bride wanted hot pink and a nice mix. These roses were the perfect shade of hot pink and they had a wonderful fragrance. If you have noticed that the roses today are not quite as fragrant as in years past you are correct. Although they have come up with different colors and varieties (including a chocolate colored one, lol) they have sacrificed fragrance in the meantime. That is why I was so pleasantly surprised when I was putting these bouquets together at the wonderful aroma they had. The pale pink flower is alstromeria or "peruvian lily". It does not have a fragrance but is so long lasting. It last as long as a carnation.

      She decided to use real flowers on hair combs for the Maid of Honor as well as the bridesmaids. The small pink flowers are waxflower with a delicate scent of its own.

      I also added some waxflower to her bouquet for a little color. The signature I like to use in my wedding work is the heart made of bear grass. I use it in the brides bouquet, grooms boutonniere ( his was a single calla) and, in this case the Mother of the bride and the Mother of the groom. They carried a small bouquet of 3 white roses with a little greenery.

      This is the hair comb the bride will wear with white dendrobium orchids. I love to use these orchids for hair adornments because they are sturdy and long lasting and hold up so well in hot weather.

     Last but not least is the small white rose pin on corsage which all 4 of the garndmothers will receive at the wedding. It amazes me that it is rare to have grandfathers, sometimes even just one, still alive to see their grandchildren wed. We know they are there in spirit. Hope you enjoyed this look into this special wedding.
     Congrats Kim and Matt!

DCU Patio And Flower Show

   This is an exciting time of year for us in the flower industry. After the holidays (especially Valentines' Day) now is the time we can show our creativity. This year I'm playing with the big boys, lol. I chose the category of sing the song of spring. This has to be at least 6' tall with mainly fresh composition and minimal other materials. I say I'm playing with the big boys because they put my category with the landscape guys so while setting up I was surrounded with backhoes, bark mulch and all kinds of landscape and plant materials. What a welcome change from this long, cold and snowy winter.

                                               I thought I'd give you an inside view of my project.