key keeper

hi all!

i thought it was about time to take down the thanksgiving banner decorations and decorate for christmas - with digi elements from my most fave digi designer kimberly stewart at scrapbook elements.

yesterday hubby and i took pezza to the christmas parade here in town - a bit of smalltown americana :)  it was the first one we have gone to even though we have been here 7 years.  my neighbor convinced me to go - she said they do a really good job and it's a really long one with lots of groups that participate - dogs, horses, bands, they throw candy, etc.  so i thought huh, i guess we should check it out.  now, i grew up in south louisiana - with HEAVY mardi gras participation.  needless to say this was NOT mardi gras scale.  then again - what is.  BTW mardi gras is something i believe EVERY person should experience at least once in their life.  BUT it was still a good little small town parade and pezza had a great time which is all that counts.  we just happened to set up near another of our neighbors that she likes to play with so they were all happy to be near each other.  the funniest part was the focus on the candy - grabbing up candy (the throwing was far less than a mardi gras parade too!)  i kept trying to get her to focus on the "floats" and stuff - at one point i said honey we can buy a bag of candy at target - seriously.  but nope - the joy of the mad scramble was too much for her.  well except for the moment when she grabbed a snickers bar, looked at it and threw it back out in the road!  hubby was like hey!  i like those!  so while it wasn't mardi gras it was fun and i think we will have to go to the other ones they do during the year.

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before we get to my project i wanted to plug the next Color Me Creative challenge - these have always been for copics but suzanne & i would like to get a challenge going for those of us who are pencil users.  so for now she is allowing us to join in on the cmc challenge and the timing is perfect because she has put together an amazing list of prizes for the holiday challenge!  these include a cricut mini and kindle fire!  the challenge is to use white, gold and cream.  get all the details - CMC Challenge.

i will post my project for tomorrow!

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ok on to my project for today - i have been wanting to make a new key keeper/hanger for near the front door.  i made two which i hated and finally got one i liked:

i started with a blank wood plaque from Michaels and some really cool metal objects i picked up at hobby lobby - love that place!  i took cream colored paper and stamped with a large script background stamp in black.  next i stamped some flourishes with versamark and covered them in clear embossing powder.  then i covered the paper with various distress inks using the foam blending tool. then i stamped a few floral images with aged mahogany distress ink.

next i took a couple more tim holtz stamps and stamped the two circles and the saying (a fave of mine) and added those.  the keyhole and grungeboard key are also tim holtz.  the key is covered in perfect pearls.

the fleur de lis door knob and big metal flourish are the pieces from hobby lobby.

i also found a fleur de lis in my stash of chipboard so i colored it with distress ink and stamped it with one of tim's flourish stamps.  i mod podged my background paper to the wood before adding the elements.  the edges are painted a sage green and then covered in aged mahogany crackle paint.  i think it turned out pretty good - what do y'all think?  i'd like to do some more, larger, mixed media projects for around the house.