One of our son in laws has a birthday coming up - same as my Mom's!!  I started with a large beige envelope and I created a sandy card to fit inside.  While in the drawer for cardstock I found the packaging for a neutral cardstock pack and I thought that maybe I could emboss it and sand it like white core cardstock.  It worked very well.  I trimmed the other edge and taped it to the other edge which added a strip of beige and brown.  I trimmed it to fit on my card front.  I added a small piece of decorative paper (gift wrap) with a driving theme just gluing it over the background.  I found the watch and scarf  image (Beccy's Place) in my stash and the greeting as well.  I watercoloured the image to coordinate with the paper and distressed its edges when it was dry.  I also distressed the edges of the trimmed greeting.  I mounted them to a coordinating rectangle of brown cardstock and added a leather looking fiber in between.  I tied a shorter piece to the front to simulate a bow!!  I mounted this large element to the front of my card using 3D foam tape.  Really like how this one turned out and it was fun to use free supplies!!  Therese

 In anticipation of bringing our own dishes to our family reunion this year I worked on making carriers for them this weekend.  I had thought I would make them square but when I got started it seemed that round would work better so they are round.  I made one for me and one for DH.  I used polyester/cotton upholstery samples and included some mesh in order to allow the dishes to dry if they are stored away wet or damp.  I included a zipper just above the middle making sure it was going to be wide enough to insert my plate.  I cut the back 12.25" and then used the scrap to create the top of my front and inserted a zipper.  I thought the zipper in the mesh might not work quite as well.  I added the mesh and trimmed it to be the same as the back.  I used the small scraps to make a hanger and positioned it at the top and then with right side facing each other I stitched all the way around double stitching where the holder was.  I turned it inside out and ironed it flat ensuring that the seam created a nice edge.  I added two lines of stitching - one about 1/8" from the outside edge and one about 1/4" from the outside edge.  Worked out really well!!!!!! I stitched a napkin from fabric and added it to my carrier.  It works well to wrap the utensils in the napkin which prevents the tines of the fork from poking out of the mesh!!
All the girls at Guide camp have to bring dishes to camp which they use for all of their meals.  It produces so much less garbage and each girl is responsible for her dishes and for washing them after every meal.  It creates an awareness of environmental responsibility as well a personal responsibility for their own "stuff".  We are encouraging everyone coming to the reunion to bring their own dishes in order to drastically reduce the amount of garbage we will be producing.     Therese

I made up this beach cover up for my grand daughter who is going to a Guide camp out east this summer.  Her Mom thought a beach cover up would be a good idea, bought several coordinating t-shirts at the thrift store and provided the instruction in the way of a library book with ideas for teen sewing projects.  I was more than willing to do the sewing.  I combined two t-shirts to make the cover up using a more lightweight pink one I had on hand from a garage sale for the bottom.  It was more comparable in weight and fabric which will mean that they should dry at about the same rate when it gets wet.
I cut the sleeves off the navy one and simply turned over the edge and used pink thread and a triple zig zag stitch to finish it off.  I left the navy one as it was and cut the pink one long enough to make the cover up just above the knee on me so it will be a little shorter on my grand daughter as she is grown a lot this year.  Once I cut the pink t shirt I ran a basting stitch along the cut edge, gathered it just enough to fit in the bottom of the navy one and folded the seam allowance over on the stitching line.  I pinned the fold to the inside of the navy one to line up with the stitching on the hem.  I used the same triple zigzag stitch using pink thread to sew the two together which put the decorative stitch just nicely within the two lines of stitching on the hem of the navy shirt.  It helps to make it look like it was originally all one piece and coordinates with the stitching on the arm holes.  I cut a strip off of the remaining piece of the pink shirt to make a tie knotting each end and fringing the ends.  I dug through my stash and found a piece of trim that coordinated so I made two loops and hand stitched them to the cover up on either side of the middle just a bit lower than the natural waist line so that there would be a bit of extra on the top when it gathered.  I embellished the loops with pink buttons.  These will be easy to move should they not be in the right place as I did not have my grand daughter around to try it on when I was sewing!!  I am sure it will do the trick for her trip and will be a good thing to have for the summer when they got to the beach.        Therese

I have been working on a Mixed Media Advent Calendar for a swap on AFTCM for the better part of a week now - off and on between cleaning up and sorting my stuff!!
I am so happy with how it worked out!!!!!!!!!!
I used heavy weight cardstock - the backs I ripped off of commercial cards before I refurbished them for donating. Check out the cards here and here.

 Check out the process I used for decorating both sides of these papers before I created the little houses.  For the backs - the glossy ones have alcohol ink backgrounds and the matte ones have collage.  All the fronts were decorated with a multiple step paper decorating process that used a handmade stamp, acrylic paint and plastic wrap.  Fun!!
To keep all the houses looking like they belonged in the same neighborhood I decided they would all have black roofs, A's down their sides, a door and windows.  Each also has a number which doubles as a house number.  After all, we need to know how many sleeps before the big day!!
So there are little houses, big houses, skinny houses and everything  in between. Even a few duplexes!!
 Some with chimneys, some with dormers, some with hedges and a wide variety of roof styles.  The scored flaps are folded to the back and tied on the sides with fiber to create a little pocket which holds the surprise of the day as we count down.  The letters on the roofs and down the sides were created with decorative packing tape I bought at Michaels last year!!
 Worked so well - added texture and a funky style to the whole lot!!  It was fun to design doors and windows for each house and hand draw the details.  They were all layered and watercoloured to give them a bit of dimension.  None of the houses are exactly the same.
 So click on the photos and check out the fun little details I added.  A little bit of something below the roof line, something above or around the door, etc.  I used brads and eyelets for the door handles.
They have numbers on the backs as well.  These were die cut from foil lids!!  The little pockets are waiting to be filled!!
It has been a super fun project.  It can be used to count down to any occasion and left up year round should the recipient be so inclined!!
A wonderful little neighborhood!!


I have a few leftover card backs which I hope to use to make another little village.  Maybe I will use different architectural guidelines for the next one!!!  What fun!!  They can stand on a shelf or mantle or maybe could be tied together to stand independantly.
Consider making yourself a fun little advent calendar that you can reuse every year to count down to Christmas and, if you make it fun enough, it will decorate your house or studio all year long!!  A new tradition!!
Would love to see what you have created!  Leave a comment and include a link!!

Therese

I started on a new project last week and decided to use the backs torn off of old commercial cards as a base because they were good heavyweight cardstock.  I picked the largest ones because those  worked best for the final result.
Are you asking yourself what I did with the card fronts?? You can see the cards I have refurbished and donated here and here.
For my project all of these needed to be scored at 2.5" so I used my "new to me" Martha Stewart scoring tool - Thanks Carol.  That was easy!!
For my project both sides of the cardstock needed to be decorated so I decided to use alcohol inks on the glossy ones!  Worked really well!!
 For the matte ones, I decided to create small collages using decorative papers.  I just dug through my stash of papers and picked pieces that seemed to work well together and glued them down.

So that took care of all the backs of these pieces of cardstock.  Now,  on to the fronts!!
Here is my set up for doing the fronts.  I started with this cool looking piece of packaging that I found as I  was going through my "stuff".  I coated the edges of the open weave with gesso to seal it before I started using it as a stamp.  I sponged acrylic paint onto the edges with a foam brush and stamped it on the cardstock.  Repeated 3 or 4 more times until the whole surface was covered, not worrying too much about how well it stamped because it was just going to be texture in the final project.
   Once they were dry I started adding colour using watered down acrylic paints.  Just painted them on pretty willy nilly and covered them with wrinkled plastic wrap to help create interesting patterns. I waited only a few minutes before removing the plastic wrap and discovered that the stamping was resisting the washes better than I expected, so combined with the random pattern of the plastic wrap, some of the backgrounds turned out pretty cool.
I have taken digital photos of all of them so I can use them in my art later on!!

Decorating paper is so much fun!! I love the randomness of it all and it is fun passing the day just mucking with paint and paper.  In this case, it is even better because I started with cardstock that was headed to the recycling bin!!  Now, that is upcycling!!

Therese