Gift Box

Hi all, I hope you are all having a great summer, it's been a busy one for me. So let's get started, first I want to thank Sheila, aka Sassy Lady, for giving me the opportunity to share with you something that has a very special meaning to me. Today I would like to share with you a box that I made for my niece's wedding and a small gift to go inside.

I started with a paper mache' box purchased from Hobby Lobby. I added little wood feet called Candle Cup that I also purchased from the wood section at Hobby Lobby.

Using the French Manor cartridge and Cricut Cuttables, Adhesive-backed Stencil Material, I cut out a stencil for the top of the box. The size was 2.5 inches and I set the pressure on high, blade at 5 and multi-cut at 4.

I cut another stencil for the front and two sides of the box using the border function. The size is 1 inch, multi-cut at 3, blade at 5, pressure at max and speed at slow.

I laid the stencil on the box and then added Spackling Paste. The paste is very rough so you will need to smooth the paste as much as you can with a trowel. The top of the box had a few sections where the paper had separated so I added paste around the edge to seal up the seams.

Remove the stencil and allow the paste to dry. After the paste dries, lightly sand so that your image is completely smooth.

I then painted the box using Anita's Acrylic paint in Cream. After the box dried I added delta paints in Village Green and Think Pink. When applying the pink and green paint, I used water to thin the paint.

Using a sponge paint brush I applied Martha Stewart Copper ink to give the box an antiqued look.

I lined the box with decorative paper.

I then added the embellishments to GLAM it up. This is always my favorite part of a project. Now for a peek at the gift.

The gift was a garter that I made for my niece's wedding. I smocked it with hearts and added a pearl at the bottom of each heart. The pearls that I used came from the brides great grandmothers jewelery. This was just a small way to have our grandmother with us at this special event.

I hope I have inspired you to do something creative that has a special meaning for you or someone in your family. I would love to hear how you will incorporate this idea into your crafting style so please leave me a comment.

Monogrammed Wall Art

My sons girlfriend is doing a room makeover. The theme of the room is zebra stripes. She found some zebra striped material and three pictures frames. She decided to put her initials in the three frames. Using the gypsy so that we could size her initials correctly we cut them out using Provo Craft Pink Vinyl and the font from the Winter Wonderland cartridge. They turned out so cute applied directly to the zebra striped material. This is a very quick and easy way to make a big impact on a room.

Thank you Bridget for allowing me to share your idea on my blog. Thanks to my readers for stopping by to visit. Leave me a comment and let me know how you will take this idea and make it your own.

The Journey

This is my 3rd sassy lady post for Sheila aka Sassy Ladys blog. I have found that my favorite projects are altering items. I have a passion for picture frames. Over the past few months I have acquired quite a collection to alter. Today's project is a frame that I bought for just a couple of dollars because the mat inside the frame was damaged. Here is a picture of the damaged mat:

I covered the damaged mat with pink paisley paper by The Paper Studio and then inked the edges and around the corners of the paper for added shading.

Around the inside edge of the frame I added my favorite "Spare Parts" by The Paper Studio as embellishments. These diamond shaped gemstones are my absolute favorite. I think I could add them to every project and never get tired of them.

I wanted the frame to have some dimension to it so on the outside of the glass I added my lettering "the Journey". I cut the letters using the gypsy font on vinyl that I picked up from Wal-Mart.


I cut a corner scroll using the Home Accents cartridge, covered it with Glossy Accents and added pop-dots to the bottom of it so that it would be slightly raised off of the mat board.




The frame was all pretty and white but I favor the distressed look. Sanding down the inside and outside edges gave the frame exactly the look I wanted.


I decided to use the frame in my craft room so using the Forever Young cartridge I cut the dress form using Best Occasions card stock and added it to contrasting green card stock also by Best Occasions. I love the way this card stock cuts in my cricut and how the final project turned out.


I hope I was able to provide you with some inspiration. I would love to hear how you will take this idea and make it your own. Before I close, I would like to thank Sheila aka Sassy Lady for allowing me to be a part of an AMAZING TEAM of designers she has put together. Until next time, enjoy the Journey.

"Three SASSY Ladies"

Hello all, it's time for my 2nd "Sassy Lady" design. WOW, it's been a busy few weeks for me but hopefully things are winding down so I can get back to my craft room. My inspiration for today's post came from a sales ad I recently received via e-mail from Kirkland's, a Photo Holder.


They are really quite simple to make. I started with Sculpey III Oven-Bake Clay from Hobby Lobby. It looked like this before I started.


Since I had never worked with clay before I wasn't sure how to shape it. I decided to slice it into three pieces. I took 1/2 of the block and kneaded it into one large piece. I sliced the other half into two pieces and left them as they were. Polk a hole in the clay using 16 gauge aluminum wire. Bake in the oven on 130 degrees for 30 minutes.


While the clay is baking I shaped the wire. I tried several different gauges and found that I like the 16 gauge best. The wire can be found in the jewelry section at Hobby Lobby. I started the circles by wrapping the end of the wire around my finger.


Continue wrapping the wire using your fingers to slowly shape the wire into circles.


By the time I finished shaping up my 3 wires, the clay was ready to come out of the oven. After the clay cooled I inserted my wire into each clay piece.


Now to the fun part. Using the Forever Young cartridge I cut 3 different ladies out. Since I haven't mastered cutting chipboard yet, I cut 5 each and layered them to be the same thickness as chipboard. I then used scrap paper to cut the clothes, umbrella, flower and hat. After adhering everything together I added glossy accents head to toe.


Then I hot glued the Ladies to the wire statues for three very Sassy Ladies.


Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on this project and how you will be altering this idea to make it your own. Also, I would love for you to become a follower. Until next time, have fun creating!

Baby Wreath

A young lady that I know is having her first little one. It's a girl. She is decorating her baby's room in pink, green and brown, flowers and butterflies. I went outside the norm and decided to use brown feathers instead of pink.

I made the flowers using Forever Young cartridge. I made 4 layers of the daisy and alternately used a solid color and a patterned color paper. I curled the petals using my finger.


I made the butterflies using Home Accents cartridge and embellished them with stickles.


I made the baby carriage with "It's a Girl" on it using the New Arrivals cartridge.


So that the wreath can be interchangeable I used mini cloths pins to attach the flowers and butterflies to the wreath.


I then added a bow with flowers on it and here is my gift:


I hope you all had a great weekend. Check back on the 19th and see my 2nd Sassy Lady post. I hope you leave a comment, it keeps me inspired. I love to hear what you think of my projects and how you will alter them to fit your needs.

My First Sassy Lady Design

To say that I'm excited about being chosen as a member of the Sassy Lady Design team is an understatement. I want to say a big THANK YOU to Sheila for giving me this opportunity. I hope that I can bring you some creative and unique designs.

For my debate I decided to make a baby gift for someone very special to me and my family. Since the baby is a boy, I thought it would be exciting to do something with the Animal Kingdom cartridge. So, I got out my gypsy and started to design a name stand to display in the baby's room. Selecting the font from the Ashlyn's Alphabet cartridge was the easy part. Using the weld feature made it easy for the letter and the selected animal to be one image. My original idea was to cut the images using chipboard. It didn't take me long to figure out that I needed to research cutting techniques for chipboard. I had to re-route my thought process and decided to use the layering effect that I used on a previous project.


I cut 6 images from brown cardstock and layered them together which made them the same thickness as chipboard.


I cut all of the images again using Wild Life paper and layered it to the top of my chipboard.


Next, I used the creative features on the Animal Kingdom cartridge to embellish the animals.


Now on to building the base. You will need an unfinished wood plaque, dowel rods and wooden toy wheels.


Using a hot glue gun, I glued the toy wheels to the plaque and inserted a dowel rod into each toy wheel.


Spray paint everything white. I used Krylon white primer and white paint for a really good coverage to the unfinished wood.

Now take each letter and hot glue it to the dowels.


Here is a close-up of letter A


Close-up of letter L


Close-up of letter E


Close-up of letter X


Put it all together, add ribbon and Wild Life epoxy fasteners as embelishments and we have Alex's name to display in his new room.

I hope I was able to inspire something creative in you. If so, I would really love to see it so please leave a comment with your blog address under this post. I'll leave you with my favorite words: It is the Journey not the destination.

Easter Wreath

This pink wreath was my submission to the "My Pink Designer". It was the one that was chosen to be showcased in Robyn's gallery.


I made this one for my mother...

This item would be considered "going green". I used items I had on hand instead of buying new.

1. Grapevine wreath (I had for about 10 years)
2. Martha Stewart Pastel papers (stock)
3. 2 Pink Boas (previously purchased for baby shower decorations)
4. Double sided tape
5. Hot glue
6. Embellishments

I cut 5 layers of each item with my cricut and used double sided tape to secure them together. This layering effect made them thick enough to stand up. I wrapped the wreath with the two boa's. Last I added embellishments and hot glued the decorations to the boa's. I hope everybody had a Happy and Blessed Easter!