Seriously? for Pinque Peacock and Friends With Flair

It's Friday, and time for a product spotlight at Pinque Peacock. I'm spotlighting the large fabric buttons.  They're big, they're bold, and they're beautiful.  I was given two of them to work with to showcase today.  Both of them are so pretty all by themselves.

Pink Snakeskin

Summer Safari

These 1 1/2 inch buttons work so well for 3D projects because of their size.  Here's what I created with the Pink Snakeskin button:

This cute little heart-shaped box was cut out on my Silhouette. I found the shape in the Silhouette Online Store. It's by Snapdragon Snippets.  I made a floral ribbon to support the button from 3 Girl JAM Tuxedo Black crinkle ribbon from the Celebrations Bundle.

Here's another view:

I had a great time with the Summer Safari 1.5 inch button.  I made another box.  This one, I cut out on my Cricut, using the Cricut Artiste cartridge:

Isn't that owl just the cutest?  This is Bernie, a Unity Stamp Company Itty Bitty. I colored him with Copic markers, then used some Stickles glitter glue on his hat and a Viva Decor Pearl pen on the snow on the branches. The paper is a retired paper from Close To My Heart, but I thought it was the perfect match for this Summer Safari button.  The ribbon is once again 3 Girl JAM.  I used Cherry Lipstick from the Pink & White Bundle.

And, another view of the button, owl, and box...

I love these buttons! There's a great variety of them in the Pinque Peacock shop.  Check them out and see where your creativity takes YOU!

I also want to share a few pictures from last Saturday.  My husband and I were on the Northern-most tip of Wisconsin, at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.  These are ice caves, formed by the waves of Lake Superior and sandstone cliffs.

 We had a perfect day for our adventure -- blue sky, no wind, and 17 degrees.  It doesn't get better than that in January in Wisconsin!

 We weren't the only ones that hiked 2 miles across frozen Lake Superior to reach the caves.  There were probably over 1000 people there that day.

 I think a troll or hobbit lives in this cave!

My very strong husband had to hold up that icicle or the whole side of the cliff would have fallen down.  Good thing he was there!
I shared a few different pictures in yesterday's post, and I'm saving a few more for Monday's post.  I hope you enjoyed them.  It's a very beautiful, unique experience.

Friends With Flair, Giveaway Winners and new Design Team Announced

If you're looking for the 3 Girl JAM Holiday Hop, please go HERE, or just scroll down.

Happy Friday, everyone!  It's been a long, busy week for me.  By the time today is over, I will have 50 hours in at work. Ugh! Next week will be better, though.  Both my husband and I are taking Monday and Tuesday off to celebrate our 30th(!) wedding anniversary.  I may do nothing but sleep!

I made this card a couple weeks ago and saved it until today.  I knew I'd be too busy this week to have any time to create.  It's a new card design for me, called a flip swing card.  What do you think? 

 

 

If you want to try one yourself, I cut it out on my Silhouette, using this file I found in the Silhouette Online Store. Then, I used a couple different Unity stamps on the front of the card: "Gingham Christmas Greetings" and "naughty.nice.not sure".  I used ink from an ink pad and a water pen to get the watercolor effect on the holly and berries.

And, here's the inside, "flipped" part:

 

 

I used a Close To My Heart image and sentiment stamp inside, and more watercolor painting on the bird, then dressing the bird up with some Stickles and a Viva Décor Pearl pen.  After all, it's Christmas, and he needs to sparkle and shine! I also paper pieced his hat to give him some more dimension.
First, my design team announcement.  I've been just waiting to spill the beans on this one! I made the 2014 Timeless Twine Design Team!  I can't wait!  The chance to play with twine for a year! And with some really talented gals! Yeah!

And now, to announce the giveaway winners!  I did it, I did it! I made it to 300 followers! To celebrate, I chose 3 winners, one from each of my 3 posts last weekend (2 Friday, 1 Sunday).  Using Random.org, here are the 3 winners and their prizes:

JP Scraps -- grab bag of Unity Stamps, and because of my recent DT success, some Timeless Twine.

Donna K -- Unity Stamps, Timeless Twine, and 3 Girl JAM ribbon

Iris --  blog candy of 6x6 paper, stamps, ribbon, twine, embellishments, and whatever else I throw in. 

Congrats, winners!  Please contact me with your addresses and I'll get your things in the mail ASAP.

I'm linking up early and heading to work for a 12 hour day.  Wish me luck!

 



 

Hurray! The All About Fall Blog Hop is finally here!

The entire talented Joy's Life design team is hopping today, sharing projects that are "All About Fall."

Here's the whole hop order, in case you just stumbled across this hop:

 Joy -- http://joyslife.com
Laura -- http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com
Lori -- http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com
Maria -- http://asimplefive.blogspot.com
Stacey -- http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com
Kendra -- http://luv2scrapnmakecards.blogspot.com
Julie -- http://muddypawsinkyfingers.blogspot.com (you are HERE)
Dawn -- http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com (go HERE next!)

 

I have a project to share with you that has lots of pictures, so bear with me.  It may make for a long post, but I think you'll like the end result. And, of course, there's a story. I seem to always have a story, LOL!  One of my dogs, Sophie, is terrified of thunderstorms.  My craft room is in the basement, and she seems to be the most relaxed there.  So, when it storms, we often craft.  Several Friday nights ago, it began storming around midnight.  I started working on this project for today's blog hop.  At 5 in the morning, it was still storming.  Wave after wave of thunderstorms came through all night.  I stayed up all night, and had this project just about complete when the thunder finally faded away. At 5:30, with Sophie snoring at my feet, I finally went to bed for a couple hours. And, what did I make on that all-night crop session?  A Fall banner.  Tell me what you think...

 

 

There's a lot to see on this banner, so I have pictures of the individual panels.  I'll tell you more of how I made it as I go along, too.

First, a close up of the top square of the banner.  Each of these 4x4 decorative squares is from a mini album that I took apart.  Close To My Heart used to make them.  They were called a Mix & Mingle album.  I love them for banners because some of the panels are acrylic and some are chipboard -- perfect for something like this!

 

I used a stamp from the Joy's Life stamp set "It's All Fall Puns" on the first panel, the "Give Thanks" sentiment.  The #4 and all the letters were cut out on my Cricut, using the Cricut Classic font cartridge.  The designer papers are from the Jillibean Soup Apple Cheddar Soup 6x6 paper pad. The white and cocoa cardstock are from Close To My Heart.

 

 

I used various Spellbinder dies to cut the shapes throughout the banner.  Here, you can see an acorn cut from a Tim Holtz die, painted with Creative Inspirations paint.  The leaves are from a cutting file from The Cutting Café using American Crafts Autumn cardstock.  The twine is from Trendy Twine, and can you see that jute string on all 4 corners?  That's the new jute string found in the 3 Girl JAM store.  It worked perfectly on this banner because of the wonderful Fall colors.  I used the Jute ribbon found in the 3 Girl JAM store at the top of the banner.

 

 

the "a" is decorated with more leaves from the Tim Holtz die. They've all been painted with various Creative Inspirations paints.

 

 

On this first "l", you can see another of the acrylic pieces that I used. There's some more Trendy Twine here, too, along with leaves cut from The Cutting Cafe's file and the Tim Holtz die.

 

 

This final "l" gives you a good look at the pretty jute string from 3 Girl JAM.

At the bottom of my banner, I used another Joy's Life stamp, from the same stamp set -- It's All Fall Puns.

 

That cute squirrel is cut from a die.  I didn't use my electronic cutter during the stormy night, so I stuck to metal dies as much as possible.  The Spellbinder ones were perfect for this project, as was this squirrel die from Cottage Cutz. I cut the squirrel out on white cardstock, but used TH distress inks to ink him up.  The eye was made with a Viva Décor Pearl pen.

I have one more view of the whole banner for you, since it was a few pictures back when you saw the whole thing.

 

 

In honor of today's hop, and the fun I had making it (it's been years since I've pulled an all-nighter!), I have some blog candy to give away.  I have some stamps, a 6x6 paper pad, some embellishments, and brads.  To be eligible to win, please follow my blog and leave a comment on this post.  I'll pick the winner with my Joy's Life post on Monday.

Now, off you go to the uber talented Dawn's blog. It's All Fall and all beautiful at http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com.  Off you go!