Altered Bluebird

Hi all!

What a month!  Is April really over?  I planned on using April to sew as I am behind on a lot of projects but I did not get as much done as I would have liked!  We found out last week we have another grandSON on the way!  He is due in September.  We are quite excited to meet him.  They live in New Hampshire so not quite as far away as Brennan who is all the way in San Diego now.  We had hoped to see Brennan this summer but that is all up in the air now.

I have a project and tutorial up on the ColourArte blog today:

We are featuring Silks Acrylic Glazes in May - love these paints!  Come check out my Altered Bluebird as well as all of the other incredible projects by my fellow DTs!

Party Bag!

Hi all!

Is everyone enjoying the arrival of Spring?  I know I sure am!  We have completed our overhaul of the front porch and front gardens that we started last year - I will have pics of that in the next day or two for those interested!  I have also been doing a little sewing I have gotten behind on for little Brennan and we have another grandbaby on the way!  Drake & Dianne this time, due on 9/11.  Not only that but we also have NEW FURRY BABIES!  Pics at the end of this post!

My project for you today is a gift bag for a party Pez is going to this weekend.

I usually make a gift tag but I have 2 very oddly shaped packs of Perler Beads and wasn't sure I could wrap them adequately so a gift bag was a better option.  I thought Hey!  Why not make something for the front of the bag instead of just a tag - tags are like cards but smaller, gift bags are like cards but larger!

This bag uses several cool techniques.  For starters I really liked the sort of split negative sketch posted on SCS:



I also wanted to try a technique I saw in the SCS gallery called Embossing Folder Stamping - now this is not anything new to me, I have done this lots of times but this person used shimmering mists and I have such a fantastic array of gorgeous shimmering Radiant Rains shimmering mists from ColourArte so I pulled them out and started playing around.

It works fabulously!  While playing I wanted to try it out on both the positive and the negative sides of the embossing folder and then I realized it would be perfect for the sketch!  It is cloudy here so I was not able to catch the shimmer quite as well as I would like but you can see glimpses of it around the pink hat and on the right side.  The shimmer is stronger where the mist was more "puddle-y."  The last technique I used was also a challenge on SCS - Negative Glitter.  I cut out the row of party hats and before I glued them together I covered the bottom layer in Scor Tape and glitter.

I am also entering this gift bag project in the following challenges:

• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
• Creative Knockouts - Birthday Wishes
• Our Creative Corner - Color Your world (Spring)
• Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Welcome Spring (Colors)

I made several backgrounds and they are all gorgeous!

Now let's see those babies!

The momma's name is Chai so these are the Little Javas!  Meet Cappacino, Latte, Machiatto and Espresso.

The babies are nursing well and gaining weight.  this time the momma came to us from an owner and was with me getting fresh water and plenty of food for 4 weeks so she is nice and healthy and it looks like her babies are too!  A nice change from my usual sickly litters.

That's Latte doing a great big yawn!  I am pretty sure they will all be long haired like Chai.

I hope y'all have a great day!