MOVING....

Hi folks, Just wanted to let you all know that Sizzle aka Christianne is moving to a new blog.  You can find her at cardstockfabricwood.blogspot.com.  I hope you'll find me there and say hello.

Happy Holidays,

Sizzle

Reverse Confetti - SFYTT

I am playing with the Reverse Confetti SFYTT challenge today.  Here is the sketch:

I decided that I needed to get a head start on some Christmas cards this year so I used Believe from PTI and some old paper from Basic Grey.

I colored the Santa and wreath with Prima Colored Pencils with the blender.  I inked around the frame with antique linen distress ink.  Pretty simple.

Sizzle

Reverse Confetti - Sketch for you to try - SFYTT

I am playing around with a sketch from Reverse Confetti:

I have three sisters having babies this year so I thought I'd try to use this sketch to create a welcome baby card.

I made my own plaid with a snail shaped mask for the sentiment.  I also masked off a frame.
 Did I mention 2 of the 3 are having boys and the third we just don't know yet.   - Sizzle

Recent Projects

I have gotten so behind on posting since my kids started not school but soccer!  It seems like we are so busy that adding content to this blog is next to impossible but I have created several cards since SAF but it seems I only took photos of two but here they are:

This one I made for my wonderful Grandma.  I stamped on tissue paper and then applied it to a piece of card stock.  The technique makes it look like silk but it's just tissue paper.

This one was my brother's birthday card.  He is a drummer and is part of a band.  He just started a movie making company so I might have to go camera type theme in the future.  I paper pieced the card front from several pieces of patterned paper and then die cut the guitar out then I embossed it in silver on another piece of card stock and lined it up.  This is a camera photo (sorry) so you can't see the dimension as much.  It looks manly I think so that its what I was going for.

I really loved a sweet sixteen one I did but I must not have taken a picture. Darn it.

See ya next time

Sizzle

PTI SAF 2013

I am participating in PTI stamp-a-faire this year.  There were 10 challenges and I completed all ten projects and I will upload them all here.  Thanks for taking a look.  I had a lot of fun together with other ladies in the DFW area.

Here is a photo of our group and our creations, Joy (the hostess) is taking the photo.  We had so much fun together and got a lot done!

This is my breakfast bake and take, you got to pick a sketch and a color scheme and go with that.  I tried to do a little boy birthday card.  

This is my flower I made out of tea dyed fabric and burlap.  I stamped the fabric with pure poppy and sewed the button on to hold it together.  

Here is my flower made into a project.  I utilized the same text stamping on the strip of vintage cream card stock

This is my use of the paper clay.  We had a difficult time with the stuff but we got a nice project out of it.  I used one of the sketches from the Take and Bake earlier in the day. We finally figured out that if you leave the die in the clay until AFTER you scrap it off then it works a lot better.  We had to cut the edges though.  This was not a favorite activity.

Here is my make your own mist.  We had fun with this one and whipped up a couple of colors including Royal Velvet and Pure Poppy which ended up looking more raspberry red.  I used both over a mask and finished up with a frame and a flower.  

This is my sprinkle of salt project.  There are so pretty good dots on the watercolor underneath the vellum but it was SO bright so I had to put the vellum on top.  I liked this one though- it looks better in person and was a simpler technique than the paperclay.  

This is my Galloon-Quart-Pint project.  I used a gallon of Hawaiian Shores, A quart of limeade ice (a new favorite) and a pint of Aqua Mist.  (In the photo you can barely tell the AQ from the HS but if you look closely you'll see it.  

This is my shrink plastic project.  I made the snowflake and heated with my heat gun (actually Debbie's heat gun) and it fit nicely inside the mini Polaroid frame.  I love that little guy.  I was happy to find out you could use a heat gun instead of heating up your entire house.  I live in Texas so if you can avoid that you do.  

Scent-Senational project.  This was so fun and we scratched a few and they worked such a great technique and so simple.  Now I have a reason to buy Jell-O.  Our group loved the gingham with the cherries so we all did our twist with the same paper.  

Limited ingredient challenge.  We weren't sure if we were allowed to use dies but it seemed like the design team did so we did but we tried to limit it as much a possible.  

Last but not least is the Sugar Coated embellishments.  I couldn't think of what I had on hand (away from home) that I could glitter so I tried the score tape technique.  It is pretty impressive glitter.  I thought this one would be good for one of my sons.  It was a long day but 10 whole projects- WOW!

 I hope you enjoyed Stamp-a-faire as much as I did.  See ya next year :)

Thank You

To  a great mom who came for three weeks to help my kids with their reading skills.

New Stuff

Sizzle here, Today I wanted to share some cards that I have done in the last month.  We are finally settling into our new house and I am getting it together.  I forgot to take pictures of some of the cards I made and one of them got lost in the mail *gasp*.  So I have been trying to do better.  I also finished up a few more woodworking projects that I need to share (5) so I am behind but I am trying to catch up.

I really loved the look of these two cards.  They were fun to make.  

This one I inked the background from bottom to top  (Slate (CTMH), winter wisteria (PTI), amber rose (PTI), and melon berry (PTI).  I then embossed the dandelion stamp from Botanical Silhouettes.  My vision was sending wishes in the form of dandelions.  A brighter twist on a sympathy card.   

For this card I used Rosie Posie (PTI) and Say it with Style (PTI) , twine and pearls.  I wanted to use a modern, non-relastic color combo and this card is beautiful in person.  My photos don't do it justice.  

 Have a great weekend!!

House to Home: DIY furniture project 1

Hi, It's Sizzle with the latest installment on my house to home series.  One of the first things we realized when we moved into this house was that we lost a lot of storage.  Our old house was a 1950s build and it had a TON of built in storage.  Here is our newer 1990 house there are not built ins.  We needed storage.  I have a ton of books and games and my craft room - well I had a lot of storage in our old house and here I am utilizing the loft area so I knew I couldn't get organized until I had somewhere to put stuff.  

I have wanted to build my own furniture for a long time and I have studied the blog of ana-white.com (she gives free plans).  I have a folder full of projects I wanted to do but I needed some tools so I saved and when we moved here I got a sliding compound miter saw, a power sander and a kreg jig (a pocket hole jig).  

Here is my workshop:

Lucky for me my husband bought a truck that was too big to fit in the garage so I took over!  He has gotten into it too so don't worry.  This bookcase was built using Ana Whites new book the Handbuilt Home.  I want to build every thing in the book.  Here is the link.  The guys at the hardware store all ask me where I got it and say what a great book it is.

My first build wasn't perfect.  I decided to make it higher - 6 feet instead of cutting the 6 ft boards by an inch but I forgot to adjust the side trim and because of that the sides are a little off.  Here she is put together but unfinished.

The hardest part of building your own furniture is finishing it.  It took me a week to finish this one but I learned that if you are doing a stain/paint mix that you should do it before you assemble!!   Here she is finished - I still have to put cabinet doors on the bottom section but I got the wrong kind of hinges!  I will post a new photo when she is 100% done with doors and everything

I used Kona stain by rust-oleum and General finishers gel stain in Java.  The Java stain is warmer.  I just filled in with the Java plus that stain is thick and can cover any oops with the paint.  The white paint I used is Behr Polar Bear - It was in the garage when we moved in so I used it up.

Can't wait to get the right hinges and build the second one.

Hope you enjoy.

You can do it too.

Sizzle

House to Home: Door

Hello,

I recently relocated with my family to Texas to a house and area I had never seen before and we are starting to turn this house into our home.  The first thing I did when we moved in is add some color to the front door. You can't tell in the pictures but it was really dingy and worn with scratches all over it.  Here is the before photo.  





















 I loved the blue I painted my last door (Mark Twain by Kwal) but this house seemed to be calling for red or yellow.  I didn't go with red because tons of people have red doors and then our house would be red, white and blue and although I love America that would be a little over the top.  I decided on a sunny yellow that seemed to go well with the blue shutters and the brick color.  I got it at Home Depot and I think it is called Autumn Moon.

Here is the after picture. 

 I might go back and paint the side panels the same color as the trim but I can't decide.  I kind of want to paint the shutters black but we couldn't get them off so that might be a professional is needed project in the future but for now I have a fresh, sunny face on my new place.  :)

I am trying so hard to just tackle and finish one project at a time but it is difficult for me but I will try to keep you updated and I turn this house in our home.  

Sincerely, 

Sizzle

PTI Anniversary Color Challenge Entry #2

This is my 2nd entry to this challenge.  I used the same color combo for both cards and I am sorry that I took these photos in the dark of night and they don't show true - you will just have to trust me and be happy with me that I have finally participated in one of the challenges.  I have just barely unpacked my craft supplies and don't have a place to keep them but it felt good to use them to complete a project I've had on my to-do list for a couple of week (eek) and that is to do some Thank You cards for my neighbors who have been so sweet since we moved in a couple of weeks ago.

I used Color Scheme #1

Maybe next week I'll set up a picture taking area so I can get a decent photo.  Thanks for looking.

Sizzle

PTI Anniversary Color Challenge Entry 1

Hello fellow PTI fans and followers of this creative blog.  This is my first entry in forever!  We recently moved across the country to Texas and I am just unpacking all my craft supplies and this challenge really helped me to get out my stuff that has been gathering dust over the last several months of selling a house, moving and unpacking and all that goes with that.  I never want to move again!

I chose color scheme #1 and did two cards with the same scheme and mat stack.  I've linked them as two separate entries for more chances to win.  I'll admit that my lighting is back and I took this pictures at 11 pm so just imagine they look 10x better than they photograph and the colors are more like the ones on the inspiration.  I am so happy to get my creative juices flowing after a long time on "vacation."  I knew I had to do some Thank You cards because a couple of my new neighbors brought over goodies for us.  So appreciated and I knew I needed to make them cards.

Thanks PTI for getting me going again.

Sizzle

Modern Art Canvas - KK

OK, it's time for my tutorial! (Bet you didn't think I'd get this up this fast.)

I decided I wanted some new art to hang in my new apartment and luckily I had a few blank canvas in my craft supply that I could paint. I knew I wanted something graphic and modern, so off to Pinterest I went.

What I found was this piece from the blog younghouselove.com.

I decided this design would work for me. It was colorful, not too distracting, but still had enough interesting details. 

I headed to Home Depot to get paint (and a few small items I needed.) Thank you to Christianne for telling me a few projects ago that you can get a little sample of any paint color for $2-3. This will last a WHILE! 

I decided I wanted to incorporate some yellows and grays and found three colors I liked. After running a few other errands, I went back to my basement and set to work following the instructions on the tutorial. 

First, I used a pencil and straight edge to mark off the columns.

Then I used the corner of a 3x5 card to randomly section off the lines and create the pattern. I used both inverted and ... what is the opposite of inverted?? ... angles to add more variety. 

I started painting and decided I should probably decide what color would go where. So I put a dash of color in each section. And this kinda turned into a color by number project. Except there were no numbers. 

For the first round of painting, I didn't focus too much on the lines and being precise. 

I missed pictures of a few steps here, but after my first color (light grey) dried, I used painters tape to cover any overlapping sections of colors 1 and 2. I then painted and let dry.

After THAT paint dried, I removed the painter's tape and reapplied (yes, I reuse tape. I'm that cheap.) where the 3rd color would overlap with the others. 

I could have been a lot more precise with this process. (I watched two movies while I worked on it...while doing a few other things and waiting for paint to dry.) But I wanted to move things as quickly as possible and undoubtedly cut a few corners. 

A look at my setup while waiting for the final layer to dry. 

I wanted to have a bigger piece so I actually used two separate canvases and designed them to hang side by side. I would have gone even bigger if I had the materials on hand. Here's one finished and another in the works. I could have done them at the same time, but I wanted to make sure the process worked on Canvas #1 first.

I also used the yellow paint to cover the canvases on the sides. These were previously painted black with lovely swirls some say resembled DNA. :P Here's what they look like on the wall. The lighting is horrible.

Some tips and thoughts:

I used a mechanical pencil for my lines, but it ended up kinda dark, and I had a hard time covering the lead. I would think a soft pencil that was lighter would work better.

I think it would look cool with thicker columns. Mine are just less than an inch because that's the width of the stick I used to measure. I'd love to see it done with 2 to 2.5-inch rows. Plus that means less work!

Again, I would have loved to go even bigger with the canvas size!

Cover Your Couch with a Sheet

My husband and I decided not to buy new furniture when we were married.  We had two more years of school and we didn't want to drag a lot of furniture around with us place to place. Plus, our sense of style and color is kind of thwarted with our attention on everything but our house.

As a result, every piece of furniture we own was either given to us or bought at a garage sell. The "gift" items usually were pieces that would have ended up in the dumpster if we had not intervened.

Needless to say we don't have the nicest looking furniture in the world. Our couch for example, is green, brown, and red plaid. It didn't bother me the first year we were married but when we moved into our new apartment the colors and worn out spots in the cushions started to gross me out.

So I decided to do what any other starving student would do and cover it as cheaply as possible.

Materials:
1 King sheet
2 matching pillow cases
1 twin sheet (a complimentary pattern/color to cover the pillows)
1 package of safety pins

All of these items were purchase in the AS IS section at IKEA

The pictures demonstrate my process. Basically, I used the King sheet to cover the front of the couch and the pillow cases to cover the arms. I cut the King sheet in half and pinned each half to the bottom of the cushions in the seat. I did not cut the pillow cases. I pinned them on as they came.