Saturday, May 28, 2011

Operation write home blog hop


Missing you card
celebrating Memorial day



I wanted make a card using a military photo of my grandfather. I thought using his photo would be a nice way to honor his memory.
I have posted two different looks for this card by adding or changing one thing.

Supplies used
K and Company - Americana collection- Glitter Pillow Stickers- Stars
Paper Studio - Patriotic collage 12X12
The Girls Paperie - on holiday "Vintage travel" 12X12
Red & Blue card stock 12x12
flower soft - Peel off sticker 306 - Silver
Tim Holtz - die- Paper rosette
Silver German glass glitter "90 grit"

Glitz teeny alphabet "cream'

*I started by adhering all of the patterned papers (see list above) to my card base which is 5X7

*Using flower soft peel off stickers #306 - Silver, and attaching the strips around each piece of paper "creating a border".

*The final step was to add the photograph and
K and Company Americana collection "glitter pillow stickers". Easy as can be!



I removed the rosette and attached the soldered ornament to the front of the card for a different look. The ornament makes a nice little gift on the card.
Become a follower or leave a comment on my blog for a chance to win a bind it all and accessories. I will announce the winner on Thursday June 8th.

Happy hopping, http://stamperstouch.blogspot.com/

Blog Candy!



Become a follower or leave a comment on my blog for a chance to win a bind it all and accessories. Prize package is worth over $100 and includes; Bind it all, 5 wire sets, and Zutter corner rounder. Limited to U.S residents only
Winner will be announced on Thursday June 8th.

Have a fantastic day!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Memorial day ornament


Memorial day soldered ornament

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to solder! So I decided create an ornament using a military picture of my grandfather Miriam Ferguson Ellis for Memorial Day.
When my Mom got a look at it she loved it..... Needless to say I no longer possess it because she took it home. Lol

Supplies used
Vintage photo
K and Company - Americana collection- Glitter Pillow Stickers- Stars
Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Muse tokens "courageous"
16 gauge silver craft wire
Navy blue rhinestones
Copper foil tape
Lead free solder

Become a follower and leave a comment on my blog for a chance to win a bind it all and accessories. I will announce the winner on Thursday June 8th.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Velveeta box part four


Here is my finished altered Velveeta box for Paper Cowgirls! It took me a little longer to bring it to life but I am happy with the way it turned out.


I decided to solder the roof of the birdhouse, perch, and door "opening". I also used vintage looking lace to trimmed the eaves out.


The rest of the house I covered in pieces of scrap paper and then soldered the house to the branch.
By soldering it I made sure this little abode isn't going anywhere. Lol



Keep your fingers crossed that it does well in the auction on Saturday, June 11th.
You can visit http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/ for more information on the event.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011


Velveeta box part three


What's up Crafty friends! Here comes part three of the Paper Cowgirl Velveeta challenge so grab the Elmer's and follow me into The Trishlicious Art Studio or as Andy calls it the "Shrek room".



I found these fun little plastic eggs after Easter at Hobby Lobby for 80% off. I paid under a quarter for a bag of 25!
But the best thing about these are they are an extremely hard dense plastic.



The drawback to the great pricing was they look like Easter eggs and since this isn't an Easter project I needed to change that.
I had originally planned on soldering them but decided that my project needed some bling so I ended up covering them with vintage German glass glitter 90 grit.
Just rolled the little guys in good old fashioned Elmer's glue and dipped them in the bag. Looking at these little puppies now you'd never know they were .01 each now would you?


After the egg's turned out looking like a million bucks I couldn't just stick them in a plain old nest now could I?
But before I get to the next part let me assure you that I spoke with our Minister and he ASSURED me I will not be going to hell for this next part. So I am officially going on record as saying..... If you have a problem with this I am giving you his email and you can take it up with him. I bought a box of church hymnals at an estate sale for a .25 each! I bought four books and they are a nice vintage yellow with the pages falling out so I think of it as recycling them or "spreading the gospel".
Back to the nest.... I cut some thin strips of a blessing and curled them around a chop stick (creating little curly Q's) and filled the nest with them.




Then I arranged the eggs, and bingo I have this sweet little birds nest.
Only one more part to go before I assemble this box and ship it off to the gals over at Paper Cowgirls.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Velveeta box part two

Woot, woot.... Welcome back for part two of the Paper Cowgirl Velveeta challenge.

Let me start by saying I finally needed something that I did not have in my art studio :( So I had to get dressed, put on my shoes, brush my hair and grab the car keys and venture a whole fifteen steps to the front yard for that one of a kind, most excellent of all found.............

No peep's your eyes are not deceiving you it is a STICK!
Now I bet your wondering what I did with this little gem of a find?





Why, what else would you do with a stick but solder it. Lol

Let me tell you soldering a stick isn't as easy as you would think. It took me about an hour and a half to two hours to solder this stick.
The most difficult part was getting in between the branches and making sure ever inch of the branch was covered with solder.


Here is a close up of the branches. I will have part three up this weekend and I will give you a little hint (It cost me .25 for 25 and I used 3 at a cost of .01 each). Yes.... I spent a whole three cents on part three!







Sunday, May 8, 2011


Velveeta Cheese box Paper Cowgirl challenge and auction!

Over at The Paper Cowgirl swap blog they are hosting a Velveeta cheese box challenge and I am happy to be participating in it.
The money raised at the auction goes to the Tina Wright memorial art scholarship fund. For those of you who didn't know Tina she was a very talented altered artist and solderer who was an inspiration to me.
Tina was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in September 2009. Tina lost her battle to cancer on January 3, 2010 at the age of 44.


The challenge is to make something out of a Velveeta Cheese box. It can be anything decorative or utilitarian. The main rule is that the bottom of the box (brown corrugated part) must retain it's form so that it will still be recognizable as a Velveeta box. You can cut holes in it, or take it apart and reassemble as long as it keeps its shape and appropriate size. The lid can be used or not, but can be cut up to use in any way. The lid should be incorporated into the design, not as a separate item.

I have decided to break this up into four different parts because I plan on going (OVER THE TOP) with my design! I am not going to detail my vision for the Velveeta box right now, but I will tell you that I dreamt the idea. Now this isn't the first time I have had a dream about a project, believe it or not it happens a lot. That is why I keep a note pad on my night stand so I can jot things down when one gets my attention. Sometimes the ideas are a hit and sometimes they are just plain CRAZY!



Part one: The box

First thing I did was cover the cheese box with balsa wood. I did this for two reasons; One being I have TONS of balsa wood left over from building Architectural models for various jobs. I have so much that I could give Hobby Lobby a run for their money in the wood department. Two being the box was too soft as it was to withstand the moisture and the weight of the next step.



After letting the balsa veneer dry I started to mosaic the box with vintage broken china. Some of the pieces I used on this project were very special to me because they were pieces from a broken plate of my grandmother Edith's china. A few other pieces were from a bowl that belonged to my husband Andy's grandmother Nadine. I used a popsicle stick to spread the mastic "then adhered my tiles".



I let the mastic dry overnight before moving on to grouting it. As I was digging around the craft dump (other wise known as the massive walk in closet that not only holds my world but isn't organized ) I found three different shades of neutral grout. So I decided to mix them and create my own one of a kind grout color. Using once again my handy dandy popsicle stick to spread the grout a section at a time.


I took the box outside and let it set for about 10 to 15 minutes to give the grout a chance to dry and set. Then I took a paper towel and "buffet the excess grout off" leaving a nice smooth finish.


Part two should be up if a few days so check back to see the "CRAZY" part of this project. After seeing it you will be asking yourself "what the h*ll" is she doing? lol