Bling! Bling! and more Bling!

     I so enjoy Somerset Life magazine inspiration!! Because of that magazine, I now have a new addiction!! Bling!! I wanted to create some inspirational pieces showcasing bling such as found in Somerset Life. As we have been antiquing the past few months, I've been on the lookout for inexpensive, beautiful bling. While antiquing in Maine on vacation this summer, I hit the Bling Motherload! I think I bought a piece of bling in just about every antique shop we found. What a fun time I had collecting all this glitz!!  I have several ideas for creative pieces and will post them as I complete them. In the meantime, I am still hunting for bling, bling, and more bling!  

Somerset Life magazine inspiration

     A few months ago I discovered Somerset Life magazine. I have been enjoying their sister magazine Where Women Create since its inception. I now have a complete collection of both magazines thanks to Ebay and Etsy. I have been creating various small inspiration pieces based on SL magazine's style...one of which is this antique book I found while on vacation in Maine this past summer...I simply wrapped some wide vintage lace around the book and added a little chocolate tulle along with a vintage-like Prima flower...I just love the look of the book...it's a beautiful shade of blue with a vintage lady image. The remote controls are now kept hidden away in the end table drawer while this inspiration graces the table top.

Printer's Tray

I designed the following printer's tray to hang on the bulletin board next to my computer at work...it showcases several vacation photos of my husband and I...seeing it makes me smile.

Anniversary Card for Husband

     My husband Shane and I love to take car road trips (we love Route 66!!)...he has a '71 Harley Davidson Sportster (just for short local rides)...so I combined the two ideas to create this anniversary card for him.
     Our anniversary is 7/7/07...not intentionally! For months we were planning a chili cook-off in our yard for over July 4th weekend and seven weeks before the event Shane and I decided to surprise our guests by getting married at the cook-off...we organized our wedding in seven weeks...we were married by our in ground pool's waterfall with all our guests around us...Shane wore jeans and I wore a jean skirt...we announced the winner of the chili cook-off (we had 18 awesome chili entries!!) and then Shane announced that we were getting married so to gather around the pool...their looks of surprise and happiness was priceless...the only thing traditional about our wedding was our first dance together which was in our driveway...we had made arrangements for the ice cream truck to pull into our drive as we finished our dance and all enjoyed a treat...a fabulous day done our way  :-)

First Copic Attempt

I love the look of copics and I love the Rubber Romance Stamps...so I took the plunge and purchased quite a few of both...after watching tons of helpful tutorial videos I gave it a shot...I think it's decent for my first attempt...I need to learn more about shading...wish there were copic classes in my area...Thank God there's You Tube!  :-)

Altered Composition Book Journals

The sunflower journal I created over a year ago and used it as my journal last year...it has a cool little spinner to select which emotion you are currently feeling...I adhered a little paper tube inside to hold a sunflower pen...I was addicted to making flower pens for about six months...the poinsettia ones were fun to use during the holidays.  The purple/leather-like journal is for this year's journaling. Happy 2011!

Mom's Retirement Card

This is a card I made for my mom's retirement in May.  I used Tim Holtz's Tattered Flowers alterations die to create the flowers and added distress ink, diamond dust, and pearls in the flower centers.  These were so fun to make! I positioned the acetate clock face for 5:00 since that time now has a new meaning for my mom.