Flashback Friday 6.0

It's time again for Flashback Friday from Tsuruta Designs!

"The first card you blogged about that featured an unexpected find from your home"

This card actually isn't too old- I posted it in June, and you can see the original here. It was fun to use two of the many safety pins I have laying around in a new way.



Thanks for checking it out, and head back to Flashback Friday to see the cards from everyone else!

Paintings

I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted! I feel like I've really been slacking off- but I havn't! This time of year is crazy for everyone, even more so for crafters like me trying to make cards and presents (I made about 100 Christmas cards to send out this year!), and even more so for crafters who are music teachers. Since I teach at 2 schools, I have a grand total of 6 separate holiday concerts. I love them so much, but it is time consuming and physically draining at times!

I don't have any of my usual cards to share today, but I will show you 2 paintings I did recently. They are both available as print-your-own Christmas cards in my Etsy shop, including a free 8.5x11 print-sized jpeg as well. Click on the pics below for a direct link.

Handmade Gift Exchange!

Have you ever been to Craftaholics Anonymous? Linda blogs about all things crafty, and twice a year hosts a handmade gift exchange. I decided to participate for the first time, and was paired up with a fellow crafter in the US.

Through email, I discovered that my partner has 3 kids, a loving husband, collects nativities, and loves neutral colors (with a touch of red!). I tried to incorporate all of these into my gift. I started with this card (blogged here):

And although I wouldn't consider myself a sewer, I was brave enough to actually use my sewing machine for fabric (not just paper!) and made her a small pouch. The tutorial was found here, and I figured out how to alter it so I could avoid putting in a zipper- that would have been too scary! I'm quite proud of how it came out :)

Lastly, I made a necklace. I made the pendant from polymer clay, and it was pretty simple to do- if I get a chance one day, I'll write a tutorial on it. I'll bet you didn't know I make jewelry-I pretty much only post paper crafts on this blog, but my first craft love was jewelry! The 5 Swarovsky crystals represent the 5 people in her family.

I'm looking forward to seeing what I receive in the mail from her!!

Thanks...for always being there

Happy Friday! Today's card (as I frantically try to post this before work) is for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge. The inspiration shop is Heartsong. Below is a pic of one of her paintings, which I thought would be perfect for a card!

I went with a pretty literal translation on my card. I used acrylic paints to paint the sunburst, then die cut the tree/people from black cardstock. The foam adhesive makes it pop off of the painted background. I also found this sweet sentiment that I have never used before! Here it is all together: