A Very Over the Top Birthday Card

Anyone who knows me knows I would never can sometimes go a little overboard with my card designs...especially for those I love! 💗 And anyone who knows my good friend Lesley knows that she loves to garden (and loves, loves, loves flowers!)  So it should come as no surprise that this birthday card I made for her is aptly titled "Very Over the Top"...

VOILA!!!

The bicycle was really just to look whimsical...not sure that Lesley has ridden in a bike since 2006...but that's another story for another day! 

Below you can see the inside of the card.  I used some Ranger Distress Crackle paint (that might have been approximately 82 years old...and I don't think is even sold any more!) with a brick stencil and also used some old Blue Fern Studio brick chipboard throughout the card for a vintage, nostalgic look.  

Flowers galore!  Plus a few trinkets along the way!!!

Below you can see a close up of some of the flowers and "bricks", along with a beautiful butterfly from Renea Bouquets shop! 

More flowers, a metal butterfly, and some distressed edges with inking.

Below you can see some of the chipboard painted with Tim Holtz paint and "weathered" with some white paint as well.

Below is yet another Renea Bouquets butterfly tucked in behind flowers on the front of the card.

And finally, a sentiment that has rung true for our more than 20 years of friendship...She is everything a gal could hope for in a friend! 💗💗💗

Thanks for looking around!  And if you're wondering...I still have PLENTY of flowers for the next card that will more than likely be equally over the top!

xoxo,

Mel

 

Shadow Box Frame Birthday Cards!

Hey, everyone!  I'm doing some "stuff" for the Air Force right now, and I really meant to be posting more of these blog posts while I was here, but believe it or not, I got totally busy and I'm just now getting around to post some pictures of a few things I finished up over the spring and early summer. 

I bought a really cute die from Spellbinders that now lets me create these cute little Shadow Box Fame Cards.  I love the die and if you're anywhere in my circle, or if you regularly receive a birthday card from me, you'll probably be seeing one of these cards in the near future.  

Without any further ado...

VOILA...

What's really interesting is that this is the first one I made, and rather than making it square so all my die cut strips for the frame would be even, I decided to make a rectangle!  Y'all know if there is a hard way to do it, I'll give it a shot.  Also, there is a different size of this die cut that only requires you to cut strips of paper that are 3" wide for the frame sides...the die I own is a different size and requires the strips of paper to be cut into 2.15" strips.  I strongly recommend starting with this Spellbinder Shadow Box Frame die while you get your bearings underneath you.

Below you can see a close up of some of the details I put in this card.  I loved the beautiful, whimsical paper so I went with a heavy shabby chic influence here.  Several of the items used (including the paper, I believe) came from a few Tres Jolie Kit Club kits over the early months of this year.  I think the pink and cream colored beads are from a kit that is about a year old (I remember using the beads for an Easter project last year.)

Below you can see some more details including a ReneaBouquet flower and RB Dragonfly!  I also added plenty of paper pieces and some more of the beads.

Better closeup of the Dragonfly and some of the other details!

Thanks for checking in!  I'm here for a few more weeks and I'll try to share a few more of these cards.  Right after I made this first card, I had about 4 birthdays to celebrate, so look for several more of these in the upcoming weeks!  

xoxo,

Mel

 

My First Teacup

Hey, everyone!  Today I'm sharing a post about a paper teacup I made for a co-worker to "celebrate" us all making it through 2020 and COVID-19 response without losing our minds completely!  The teacups are a ReneaBouquets product, and you can find them here and here!

I used a TON of Renea's products on this and I will do the best I can to provide links to most of them as I go along in this post!  💓💓

Here is the teacup:

Below you can see a closer view of the things I put inside the teacup.  This was the first one I ever made and I was pleasantly surprised with the ease in which it came together! Some of the ReneaBouquets products in the cup are the angel, the beads, and the broach.  Some of the flowers and the pink dragonfly are from the ReneaBouquets store as well!

I started by using tons of cheesecloth to build a base for all my "things" and I think I'll continue to do that in the future just to keep everything placed in the teacup visible.  I realized pretty early on that if I tried to fill the entire teacup, there would be treasures unseen at the bottom of the cup.  However, that's always a fun way to share a secret surprise!  😍

Below is a different angle on the cup, showing the handle, some more cheesecloth (thank God that stuff is cheap! 😂😂😂),  and another butterfly from the RB shop.

And the other "side" of the base (do circles even have sides?) featuring a spoon from the RB store. 

So there you have it!  Lots of stuff from Renea's store (the stuff there is SOOOOO pretty), but you could fill these cute little teacups with just about anything you wanted (I don't think it's recommended to actually drink tea from them though...)

Thanks for looking and have a happy (and very SAFE) 4th of July weekend!

😘😘😘

xoxo,

Mel

 

Tough But Sweet

I'm still working on getting all my artwork moved into a digital folder so I can post them here, and I know I promise all the time to post more frequently...but I'm going to promise to try again as well.  This is another LO that I made last year while surviving (and often thriving) my way through 2020.  The blue paint swirls were my attempt at re-living the late 80s/early 90s paint dribbles I used to make on t shirts before using a hair dryer (especially on the puff paint) to finish off my awesome one of a kind attire! 😉

Here's the finished product:

One of the papers in the kit had the words "Tough But Sweet" on it in several places so I cut those words out and used them all around the page!

Below you can see a close up of a flower cluster and an amazing butterfly from Renea's Bouquets!

Below some of my great paint swirls (the paint is even a little metallic which added to my happy mood!) and a few of the "Tough But Sweet" cutouts.

Another small flower cluster and an equally awesome dragonfly from Renea's shop.

Finally, one last paint swirl.  For these swirls I just turned the tube of paint upside down and gently squeezed.  I was a little worried at first that I'd end up with a mess, but it turned out really nicely!  I was very pleased with the final result.

I can't remember where I was going the day I took this selfie, but I can remember that I was pretty pumped because my hair looked GREAT! 😍 Good hair days are good days, indeed!  Thanks for looking and I promise I'll try to post here a little more often!  

xoxoxo,

Melody

 

A Memory of Christmas Past

2020 has been interesting for most of us.  I don't have a single person in my inner (or outer) circle that has been rehashing this past year with words and phrases like:

"Just like clockwork..."

"According to plan..."

"Exactly where I thought I'd be in 2020 when I did my 5 year plan in 2015..."

"Best year ever..."

That being said, we've made it! We're here at the end of the year, the holidays are upon us, and we have much to look forward to.

This is a LO I did earlier this year (and didn't get around to posting it...probably because I was too busy working).  I think I finished this LO somewhere in the July/August timeframe.  I used the March 2020 Scrapbook Kit (and probably pieces from the Cards, Tags, and More and/or Mixed Media Kit from the same month) from Tres Jolie. 

We took this picture in a time where social distancing wasn't a "thing" yet, when you could still hug people who weren't in your immediate family, and when dropping in to visit friends in their home was a cool thing to do.  Luckily we've been able to responsibly visit with these friends over the past year, but not as much as we'd like to.  We took this picture after delivering some yummy liquor to them from their favorite liquor store (that is about 7 states away).  Since we were out of town and passing by their favorite place, we picked them up a little Christmas (2019) Cheer!

Here is the LO:

I used a Heidi Swapp stamp set from my stash to stamp (among other things) this phrase that says "My Loves".  I have a great circle of friends and these two are certainly some of the top notch folks I'm honored to have in my life!  Truly great people whom I truly love! 💕💕💕

Here's a close up of my stamp set with a view of my messy workspace in the background.

Below you can see a close up of some flower clusters and elements that I used on this LO.  Green is one of my favorite colors (and coincidentally golden yellow is also) so I had a great time layering all the great shades of green and golden yellow while working on this project.  I also incorporated some peach-y colored flowers (I might mention that the aforementioned favorite liquor store is in Georgia, so I thought peach colored was appropriate!)

Finally a few more flowers and some of the green accents on the paper as well as some accents that I added with paint.  I also used one of the small glass balls (included somewhere in the kit or in another kit) and filled it full of glitter...a ticking glitter bomb, if you will.  The glitter hasn't escaped yet, but I feel certain that it's always a possibility! 😂😂

So there you have it!  Once again life got a bit in the way and I got a little sidetracked away from posting to my blog.  But I'm quite certain that in a little over a week I'll make another resolution to do better.  I did much better at posting my projects this year, and in a year where progress was sometimes hard to come by, I'll take it!

Wherever you are, stay safe and stay strong!

Thanks for looking!

xoxo,

Melody

 

Things I Did In August (And Didn't Post Until September)...

Since it's now September and my Tres Jolie kit for this month will be here soon, I figured I'd better show off what I did with last month's kit!  Last month was a little hectic for me with some military training, severe weather (to include Hurricane Laura), and some more COVID-19 stuff I didn't really get much done.  I am working on a mini-album with the rest of this kit that I hope to finish up tonight!

Here is the LO:

I really loved so many of the elements that came with this kit to include the mold and modeling paste.  I used the mold to make the fairy below then colored it blue with some Shimmerz mists.  Added some flowers and a little bit of gold glitter to make some sparkle.

I absolutely LOVE resin pieces.  I used the bench from the kit and sprinkled it with some blue and purple mists from Shimmerz (Ahoy Matey and Grape Escape)

Used a couple of the tag cut outs and seam binding to make some tags (some of the rest of the tags will be in the upcoming mini-album).  More sprays from Shimmerz (same colors) If you look closely you can see some stenciling work to add texture behind the cards.

Finally, I used all kinds of paints and sprays to color the chipboard before adding some more glitter and a little gold paint.

There you have it!  My goal is to post at least once a week this month.  Hopefully things will slow down just enough to let me do that!  Hope everyone is staying safe out there!

xoxo,

Melody

 

Living in the Past

Oh, the days! Back in the past when I wasn't working almost every single day to manage COVID-19.  Back when vacations were a given (hoping that Mexico will be permitting visitors from America before October).  Back in the "good ole days"!

Last week I was looking for a picture to scrap and came across the pile of pictures from Walt Disney World and my friend's wedding.  Why in the world I thought I would scrap 5,726 all these pictures I had printed, I'll never know.  However, this one caught my eye and I was in the mood to make something beautiful!

Here it is in all is splendiforous wonder:

Below you can see the obligatory flower clusters (really, what would the world be like without flowers?)

Lots of layering & distressing.  The ceramic tile seen below has been sitting on my table for ages just waiting for me to create this specific layout!

Some Blue Fern Studio chipboard that I had been hoarding saving for YEARS for this LO! 😂😂

I took a bunch of different Renea Bouquets beautiful beads and put them in a vial.  I love how the beads' different colors bring out the different colors in the LO!

The bottle cap below didn't really match the color scheme, but it totally fit the sentiment of the LO and since it didn't clash I tacked it on at the last minute!

There it is!  It's hard to find the time and energy to scrap these days.  Most of my month was spent working on my first ever DIY mini album.  I made it for a dear friend whose sister passed away in May.  I'll be giving it to her next week, so hopefully I can reveal it then!

Stay safe, everyone and don't forget to be kind to others...whether they are wearing their mask or not!

xoxo,

Mel