Dinning Room

Karen's challenge this month is to create either a 'Cutesy' or 'Artsy' card.  I've had the idea in the back of my mind to make a Pull Card with a few of the characters peeping out, so decided to try and make a full-blown character party card!  I used the Rectangle Pull Card die, with a bunch of balloons on the front flap. (I used the balloon from the Props 2 set, with the ears trimmed off.) I used the Happy Birthday from the Happy Birthday PopUp card, for the front, with letters from the Alphabet 1 - Caps set. Inside, I added four of the Pop it Ups characters , and a string of bunting, plus some gifts (with bows from the Evergreen Pivot Card set.) The party hat and party blower are also from the Props 2 set. Most of the papers are from basic Grey's Fresh Cuts Collection 6x6 pad, and We R Memory Keepers Chalkboard 6x6 pad.  I used two of the spinner pieces (that comes in the Rectangle Pull Card set), behind Buster the Dog and Honey the Bear, so that they ...

I said a week or so ago how much I enjoyed the cat2stamp set, from The Stamps of Life, and today a new co-ordinating set has been released, called sayings4cats . I had a lot of fun making this card! I stamped a cat onto Stamping Mask Paper, and cut it out by hand, to create a mask, which I stuck to my card in order to cover up areas I didn't want ink to get onto. This is how I achieved the overlapping of the cats. I then coloured the cats with Copic pens, and added black Enamel Accents to the cats' eyes and noses, to create a lovely 3D glossy effect. For this card, I used the dies that match the cats2stamp set, the Talk Bubble Dies set, and Basic Step-Ups card die set . Ad lastly a card using the Triple Circle Flip-its die set. Some of the products used:    

I just got a couple of Susan Tierney Cockburn's beautiful new flower dies for Elizabeth Craft Designs in the mail this morning, and made this card using the Hydrangea die , and Karen Burniston's Oval Accordion Album .  The hydrangea set is pretty easy to use - I used the little flowers die twice (the dies cut 18 flowers at a time!), and cut two lots of leaves as well, then layered them onto the stem part. I used a ball tool in a foam pad to shape the leaves and flowers, and added ink to the edges. I love it! I added edges to the page with the Oval Flourish Frame Edges  die set. I added wide double-sided tape by Elizabeth Craft Designs to the back of my patterned paper, before die cutting, to make it really easy to stick the frames down. Products used:    

Hello! I spent the weekend gathering up fun items to decorate our dining room table for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  I love Thanksgiving.  It's one of the few times that my family sits around the table for a meal together as one is off at college and the other is busy working and spending time with his girlfriend.  That leaves our youngest at home so we spent the day outside looking for colorful pieces of nature to bring inside for the table.  I happen to love decorating with things from outdoors.  They are beautiful and don't cost a thing. Here's what I came up with... We found a tree with simple but colorful leaves and clipped a few branches to put them in a pitcher of water.  Then we found a few leaves scattered on the ground that we liked and placed them on the table.   Simple, but just the way I like it.  :) The painting on the wall behind the table I picked up at a flea market for $3.  I was completely smitten with it as it ...

Hello!  We recently removed the carpet from our den and replaced it with wood laminate from Lowes and we couldn't be happier with the results.  The room is approximately 12 x 12 and the total cost was around $200.  Not too bad.  Originally, I wanted to remove the carpet and refinish what I thought was hardwood underneath.  But sadly, that wasn't the case.  We were surprised to find the entire room was plywood, not just around the staircase.  However, we like this floor much better.  :) The FARM letters I printed from my computer using different fonts, enlarged them on a copier and traced onto plywood.   Then I cut out using a jigsaw and painted different sections of the letters, then distressed.  Love them and it cost less than 20 bucks for the thin plywood. I've had questions about this before but the umbrella art I made using 1 x 2's, adding a brace in the back and painting each board alternating colors.  In this case I used ...

Hello! I thought I'd share with you today the new breadboards I've put in my shop .  Because I've had so many customers in the past request sets of 6 boards instead of 4 or just a single board, I decided to offer those in my shop to make it easier for you.  And I've also added some new shaped handles. If you've read my blog for long, you know how much my breadboards mean to me.  If not, you can read the story behind them here. Here is my new set of 4 mini breadboards.  I've added a new shaped board to this set and I'm completely smitten with it. And here is the set of 6 mini breadboards that I will now be offering. And now you can also buy a single board or mix and match to create your own set of your choice. I hope you like them as much as I do and I hope it makes it easier for you.  I love my customers and appreciate you all so much.  To shop, click here! Have a great week! Diana

Hello!  Wow, it's been a while hasn't it?  I'm still working on projects but just have been too busy to blog about them.  This past month, hubby and I worked on a couple of dining room projects and I wanted to share them with you here. First up, a longer, more rustic dining room table. Since our home is over 100 years old with our dining room being one of the biggest rooms in the house, I've always envisioned a long, very worn looking farmhouse table to go in the room.  Something that looked like it had been there all those years, with all kinds of history and stories behind it.  I had tried to create that several times with two different dining tables that I had built but I was never completely happy deep down with them.  But I am now.  I love what my hubby and I created, using the beautiful white table legs that my dad turned himself before he passed away. Here's a look..... We used barn wood from a very old barn in the country.  We cleaned and ...