Some clever ideas. . .

. . . from the design team at Mystic Paper.

Our fearless leader, Patty, started by altering and berry-adorning postcards and then decided to turn them all into the most darling banner.

Jenna got to use a beautiful Webster's Pages line. She used some of Mystic's wonderful vintage glass bottles in a way I never would have thought of.

I just have to say, Jenna reminds me so much of Kimberly Williams-Paisley. You know "Annie Banks." - - - - That is, the daughter in Father of the Bride. :) Did you know she is married to country singer Brad Paisley? I just found that out myself, thought I would share. Jenna is just as cute as Kimberly and seems just as sweet too!

(You can check out more on their blogs by clicking on their names.)

Glitter Glass and Graphic 45 @ Mystic Paper

Oh wow! I discovered my new favorite "bling-ing"addition for all my paper crafts at my favorite scrap store, that I also happen to design for, the lovely Mystic Paper.

The new bling I speak of. . . Vintage German Glitter Glass. It comes in lots of beautiful colors. Clear was perfect for my Christmasy design team project. Don't you love how it looks as snow? I used Glossy Accents (also available at Mystic Paper) to adhere the pretty glass. On the tree I went right over the top of the glass with Distress Stickles - the more sparkle the better huh?

I also used some 7-Gypsies acetate packaging with the Glitter Glass inside to make a cute little "snow globe." Let me know if you would like a how-to on that. ;)

The cute little carolers image is from a booklet of Crafty Secrets images - also Mystic. Hee hee, you gotta love the stuff they carry. I sure do! Can't get enough in fact. Ha!

I decided to make a Fold-up Accordion Song Book including the 12 days of Christmas lyrics. I love this Graphic 45 vintage-feel paper line. It's so perfect for eclectic looking cards, projects, and layouts. I can't wait to get more at Mystic to use for a little mini album with Christmas pictures of my girls. Payson had SNOW!!!

I made a Slide show for you with lots of pictures of My First Design Team Project below and I'll post soon with links to my fellow design team member's projects. You should see the awesome variety of paper lines Mystic has to choose from. Cheers!

I'm dreaming of a Vintage Christmas

I did this card for Priscilla Styles' Midnight Madness #32. She posts a sketch every week and I was so excited to get to play again. (My 2nd time.) Anyway, I used lots of K&Co. paper, including the little Christmas kiddo. The lace Prima stamp was perfect to make some of the diagonal trim and added a different texture than layering another real ribbon on top. (It's my favorite part of this card.) ;)

The circle pulls out and you can use it as an ornament for the tree. Kinda fun! I cut her out carefully with an exacto and then used tiny pop dots to, well make her "pop!"

I decided this one turned out well enough to send to my monthly (one card) swap pal. Hope she likes it.

Marie Antoinette Ornament Swap

I was recently accepted into an online group of crafters called the "Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group." I saw a beautiful apron on a blog of a member who linked to the group. Oh how I have been obsessed with Marie as of late (Thanks Alex! and Mystic Paper [Mystic has this gorgeous Marie Christmas Tree]), so I hopped on over and submitted my request to join.

And here we are. These are the first lovlies I have ever created using a Marie Antoinette theme. Be assured there are many more to come. Each base is different, but I tried to stick to the same materials.

First I painted the ornaments with gold acryllic paint. I have fallen in love with gold in my Obsession. I love it with the blue and pink. Next I traced the ornament shape, cut out Marie theme papers (K&Co and 7Gypsies), and glued them into place. I left one section uncovered, plain gold paint.

Then I punched out and attached my vintage dictionary page (yardsales are wonderful for these!!) After that I glimmer misted the entire ornament. Even over the paint, where some areas turned almost crackley. Don't freak (like I did) when the paper sections wrinkle, because (I swear) if you just leave them alone they eventually flatten.

I printed a Marie image on photo paper and punched it with a scalloped square. Glossy Accents (my favorite!) was used to attach pretty much everything on these. I really wanted it to stay together for my swap gals. I Glossied on the lace, then the sequin strand over that.

My favorite part of making these was pulling out my tackle box full of beads for the extra glitz. I used a pearl, a real chandelier crystal, a Swarovski crystal, and a sunburst sequin from a Making Memories Vintage Finds set all stacked up on a decorative pin. Which I then poked into the paper mache.

I also printed a few more MarieEsque images on photo paper. For the piece of her signature and the chandelier, I attached them to gold or blue cardstock, inked and even stamped (a Christmas Tree or Snowflake) on the back. Then I cut out and attached her monogram "MA," with an exacto (while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance, I had to keep rewinding, gotta love DVR.)

For the second set of ornaments, I decided to use something different than the paper mache. I found chipboard shapes that I liked an had two of the same shape. I glued them together for sturdiness, and used the same steps as above, minus the papering and Glimmer Misting.

Add a little lace, a lotta bling (rhinestones, glittered chipboard, Stickles, Mica Flakes) and Voila! An ornament fit for a queen.

Thanksgiving Treasure ~ A real life French vintage postcard!

Y'all,

I had the pleasure of spending the long Thanksgiving weekend at my parents house. I took some time (okay, quite a bit of time) to go through some old boxes of keepsake stuff from my dad's dad.

The stuff in there was a lot older than I expected. To quote myself, "This is like covered wagon days Dad!!"

Anyway, here is my favorite favorite! I was written to my great grandmother, Mamie, before she was married to my gg-pa in January 1909!!

I hope you enjoy it's beauty as much as I do. Wow my relatives left a legacy for me to find and I am so proud to have some of their treasures. Can't wait to share more of them with you!

Anyway, since Turkey Weekend, I have become obsessed with Vintage Postcards. That's why I am sitting here surfing and savoring at 45 til midnight when I promised myself to hit the hay at 10:15 PM. Ha!

I found a wonderful blog http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ which does a Postcard Friendship Friday. I just happened upon it today, Friday, so I decided to play.

Proud Parents

Another 2-fer I did for my parents 35th anniversary book.

I love this picture of my brother and I with our new babies. It's so fun to have him close (really close, they live with us now). It's odd that we have not lived in the same town for 11 years and how we are still SO much alike. Especially when it comes to our kiddos. We dance and sing and be loud and goof around. Anything to put a smile on the munchins!