Handmade Happiness!

Front view

Over the years some of my favorite gifts from friends and family have been handmade.  Those are the gifts that have come from their heart and shaped with love by their hands.  When a friend or loved one takes the time to create something special for me, I'm certainly going to appreciate their efforts!  Nowadays it seems that most people are in a rush to get from point A to point B, there's sports practices and games, dance, orchestra, scouts, church, work, and tons of other reasons we don't have time to get crafty and creative.  Today, I hope you will find some projects that inspire you to take that much needed time-out and create some handmade happiness for yourself or someone you love.  I've created a candle holder that is so simple to re-create, I hope it will inspire you to give it a try yourself.

I took a transparency (acetate) and using my VersaMark ink pad, I stamped the Stampendous Jumbo Cling Dahlia, I covered it with Stampendous Detail Gold Embossing Powder and heat embossed the acetate.  Once it cooled I cut the flower out, flipped it over and colored the backside with my Copic markers. I adhered the flower to the glass with Zip Dry. When the candle burns down, the light glows through the flower!  I took the swirl that comes with the stamp and did the same process twice with the VersaMark pad, powder, heating, cutting it out and adhering it to the glass with Zip Dry.  Just no coloring this time!

Other side view

Side view

                                                       

Back view

I love how this came out and I love the way the light shines through the flower.  I wish you could see it in person!  So, how about some handmade happiness in your day!?  Be sure to hop along with my teammates for more inspiration.  Here's the complete list:

Cyndi Bundy

Janelle Stollfus

Krissy Fossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Melinda Gleissner

Pam Hornschu

Tenia Nelson

Wendy Jordan

Wendy Price

Jennifer Ingle (Jingle)

Lea Kimmel

AND don't forget our Saturday Challenge continues - We're sharing embossing techniques all month! Here's what we've been working on (most recent inspiration first):

Melinda Gleissner	Kristine Reynolds	Melinda Gleissner	Kristine Reynolds
Rhea Weigand	Jan Garber	Kristine Reynolds	Taylor Usry
Cyndi Bundy	Lea Kimmel	Taylor Usry	Tenia Nelson
Melinda Gleissner	Asia King

InLinkz.com

You can link your creations here until Thursday, October 4th -

Hugs,
Lea

Hey Friend!

How now, cute cow!  So it's September and that means a new month of challenges for Stampendous.  This months challenge is embossing.  There's a few ways to emboss but my favorite is with embossing powders and enamels.  I love doing the Encrusted Jewel technique which involves mixing powders and glitters and micas, oh my!  What's your favorite technique?  Create a project that uses your favorite type of embossing and link it to Stampendous for a chance to win using the link button down below.  You can get all the details here.   Okay, so on to my card!

I used Cowlik Butterfly as my main image with Happy Messages as my sentiment.  I stamped my image with black ink and colored it with Copic markers.  I cut and matted my image on a piece of red Bazzill.  Next I created my card base with red Bazzill and cut a piece of my Reminisce cow print paper to fit as a background.  I cut a thin strip of the same paper for the "moos" on the other side and layered the three pieces together.  I added my May Arts ribbon and went down the middle of the ribbon with a piece of Timeless Twine in black and white.  I then stamped my sentiment with a VersaMark pad and using red embossing powder, I embossed my sentiment, cut and layered it on just a skinny mat of red.  Using pop dots I added my matted image and my matted sentiment.  A cute and fast card to create!  Easy peasy!

Here's another view of the image and the embossed sentiment:

So that's it for today!  I do hope you will play along with our challenge this month and I'm going to post lots of cards using the amazing embossing powders Stampendous has.  Thanks for stopping by!  See you soon!

Hugs,

Lea