Saturday, April 26, 2014

Mixed Media.. The Voice of Hope

 (This is my little project that I worked on last month for spring.)


Hope..
gives me courage.

It speaks to my heart and
gives me strength.
 It helps me
look ahead
 to...
 possibilities~
***
Hope is a thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune
Without the words
And never stops at all.

Emily Dickenson


Hope is a waking dream~

Have HOPE   Be strong
Laugh  loud     and       play  hard
Live in the moment
Smile often    Dream Big
R E M E M B E R
Y o u **  A r e ** L o v e d
AND NEVER GIVE UP


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be of good courage,
and He shall strengthen your heart.
All you that hope
in the Lord.
Psalm 31:24


There is always hope.
Wishes for a beautiful weekend with
HOPE- filled hearts!


Blessings,
Tamara XO




Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Peat Pot Baskets for Easter

Hi Everyone..
I hope you're having a good week.
The weather has been
 beautiful here in the AZ. mountains.
I'm sure many of you are preparing heart and homes for
Resurrection Day.
 
Honestly, I haven't done too much.
 Our son and his family were visiting from Oklahoma and then we all
drove to Phoenix for a little re-union. It was the first time the cousins had been
together. All 8 of them. What a sweet time we had! I'm so grateful.
And my heart is full.
 
 
***********************************
Today, I wanted to share with you a little project that I
put together for my grand kids. I would have liked to sold some but
I ran out of time.
 
They are little Easter baskets made from peat pots.
I had more of a nature theme in mind for them but they were the
perfect size for little gifts.
I bought the pots at Wal-mart for $1.50. There were
14 in the package. They measure about 3 inches across.
 

 The first thing I did was brush them off.
And then I dry brushed them with a linen color acrylic paint.
After that was dry, I cut pieces of natural and off-white burlap
measuring 2 1/4 in by 2  1/2 in. I then dry
brushed the burlap with the colors I had chosen.
When the paint was dry, I glued them onto the pot using
Tacky glue.
 
I wanted to embellish them around the rims and you can
see that I used Ric- Rac and some deco trim for the girls. 



 
The buttons and butterflies worked perfectly for
the girl's crosses. I also used buttons on the
littlest guy's.

I had this idea and tried something new with the boys trim.
I painted some jute string and then just made the little scallop
design with it.
How do you like it? I thought
it turned out really nice and I'd like to try it
with other colors for other projects!
 Hot glue worked perfectly for gluing
on all of the trim.

It was fun picking out the metal pieces to make
the crosses. My husband offered his collection
to choose from. Thanks, Honey!
He always teases me by saying,
"What a gal. She doesn't want fancy cars.
Just give her rusty junk!" 
It's true, but the last time he said that,
I told him that the car would come later. Just kidding.
What I'd really like to have is an old pick-up!
 
Anyway, I think the boys will really like that stuff.
I used E600 to glue the metal on.
Hot glue nor the Tacky seem to hold. 

For the boys handles, I used some rusty wire that I had on hand.
I'm pretty sure it's about 12 gauge. And for the girls, I used
a 16 gauge, silver jewelry wire.  The measured pieces were
from 8-10 inches. I tried to fit the length of the
 handle to the child.
I bent the ends with a pair of pliers and
then poked through the inside
of the pots on either side.
I wanted to put some special little touch that
identified each one as their own. 
Kids really like that. I thought that the
bottle caps with their initials would be fun.
I used a medium-sized nail to punch a hole through the bottle caps
and then put a 1/4 in jump ring on them.
I stamped each initial on a circle that I had cut out and glued
it inside the bottle cap. Then I just tied each one
to a handle with a strand of burlap string.



The filling is just made from a thrifted book that
I colored with the co-ordinating color of ink. I
colored the pages, cut them in thin strips and then
holding several strips at
a time, I accordion folded them.


 
I ran out of time but I thought that adding torn strips with a mix
of co-ordinating fabrics to the handle would have
added a soft touch to the girls' baskets.
Next time!
 
What a fun project.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
 And have a very happy Resurrection Day!
 
Blessings,
Tamara
 
I'm joining these parties this week!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Simple Versa-Mark Stamp Pad and Glitter Image for Papercrafting

Hello everyone and I hope that your week is going well.
We have our kids visiting from Tulsa.
We are here for a few days and then we're going to the valley
where we'll all have a sort of late New Year's celebration.
 ( 5 of the 9 kids will be there.)
Some of the cousins will be meeting for the first time!
All 8 grandkids will be together in the same
 place. Finally.
Won't that be quite a time?
 
***********************************
 
Today, I wanted to share with you just a little something that I
stumbled on. Sometimes that happens when I just get stuff out
and start playing. I'm sure you know what I mean.
 
I was making some cards and
playing around with
my Versa- Mark stamp pad.
If you're not familiar with this, it's
a sticky, clear, ink-like substance that you use with rubber
stamping. When used by itself, the stamped
image comes out just s few shades darker than
the paper it's stamped on. It has a kind of
silhouette appearance. You can also color your
image with chalk pastels.
 
I really enjoy working with glitter and I have this
very fine type that I bought at JoAnne's.
It comes in many colors and it's glistening
adds that dainty, pretty sparkle to my projects.
 

The process is really very simple. The only care you really
need to take is if  you're using different colors on your
stamped image. As you can see, I used three
different colors to cover my stamp.
 
I have only done this once. I had forgotten how
pretty it turned out! I'll have to play with it some more.
I particularly liked this image because it had
such a delicate look to it.  
 


I recently bought some of that
very popular glass glitter to try.
I'm probably one of the few who haven't
used it yet! Anyway, that will be fun to work
with, I'm sure.
 
I hope that you liked the idea.
I love finding new ideas and techniques to try
and there are so many out there
among the talented people
in Blogland!
 
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Blessings,
Tamara
 

Friday, April 4, 2014

A Simple, Thrifted, Spring Bunny Tablescape

 
Hello and welcome! As so many others,
I have been adding
little touches around the house for spring.
Isn't it so enjoyable? The change of the season is always
so renewing to me. It's a fresh start.
 
Recently, in my travels to see my daughters,
I stopped at the thrift shops that are along the
beaten path. I've always been a nature lover and have lately 
been very drawn to looking for little animals.
The really cute ones.
 
lambs
ducks
bunnies
and birds
 
(Birds have
always been a favorite and I have
 a small collection.)
 
So as I was looking,
this little guy caught my eye.
I thought it might be a Thumper Rabbit.
But I don't think so.
 
When my little grand daughters were visiting,
I thought it would be fun to put a sweet little
tablescape together for them.
 
All the items were thrifted.
 



I had been wanting to try to make some grass from book pages.
And I had several thrift store books to choose from.
The little rose spray was just stuck in drawer at a local store.
The colors were so soft and pretty.
I added it to my pile knowing that I'd be able
 to use it for something!
 
The carnations were NOT thrifted. Haha!
 
I like to keep my decorations simple and
inexpensive. I thought it was perfect for the little girls 
ages 2 and 4. They loved it!
 
 
So, there you go! Thank you for stopping by.
I'd love to hear about some of your spring finds.
 
A happy day to you!
Tamara xo


Joining the parties @ :

Shabbilicious Friday

Junkin Joe

Feathered Nest Friday

What fun and inspiration!