Upcycled Dia de los Muertos Artist Collaboration Crowned Sugar Skull

Happy Halloween if you are in here in the US and celebrate that kind of thing! I know our big plans for the evening involve homework & dinner as we are all too old to be off getting candy! Thank goodness 'cause I hear it's gunna snow in the Twin Tiers tomorrow!

I've been having fun with hot glue, paper flowers, and putting some upcycled pieces together. I've always wanted a sugar skull so I was really excited to play along with a Dia de los Muertos Artist Collaboration. (Excuse to make something with lots of bling and fun flowers)



The only thing I actually bought new for my project was that mercury glass skull bottle. The black candlestick was originally gold & got a quick coat of black matte spray paint. The gold Christmas plate just got flipped over to make a nice base & I added a crystal stopper to the bottle. The crystal crown was something I had been saving in my stash, especially since it was already pretty shabby!

Currently my version of a sugar skull is hanging out with some like minded individuals on display in my living room. I've got a thing for mercury glass & vintage.

Those pretty flowers really pull in the color of that stained glass lamp. Love it! This project makes me smile every time I walk by.

Goodness, really enjoyed making this piece! Are you ready for some more art?  Links below to check out fellow collaborators!

Terefunken Ru Ba

Tracy Krueger

Kim Collister

Peggy Gatto

Melissa Johnson

and our HOST:  Tina Walker!

Thanks for coming to hang with me today & for taking a peep at my fellow collaborators! THEY ROCK!!! 

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Five

Oh goodness. We are almost half done with the Funkie Junkie tag challenge!!! It is starting to feel a bit like winter around here too! It's cold and rainy today. A good day to be snugged on the couch & a good movie!

My "tag" was inspired by Linda's plaid ribbon, the holly, and the Santa! I added a little sparkle to mine with the gold paper and little gold sparkles on the red flowers. I really like the background tree ring stamp on Linda's tag. She always has so much detail. She is selling that stamp along with everything else she used over at the Funkie Junkie Boutique, her store that is sponsoring the challenge.

I'm really enjoying using that little glittery snow to accent the tops of these jars. As this jar was upcycled, I sprayed the top of this one with black spray paint.

Well, I'm back tomorrow with another project! It's super sparkly too! Happy Happy!

Colliding Holidays

It's that time of year in my craft room where the holidays collide. Right now I've got Christmas jars hanging out on the desk all pretty and another collection of Halloweenie stuff and it's all a sparkly crafty mishmash of happiness.

The ReStore in our area looks similar. Right now they are gearing up for Christmas so all the new (old) stuff is emerging yet Halloween & Fall are hanging out. Found those sequin appliques there the other day along with that really pretty rose & gold plate. I think the little snowman & poinsettias will work nicely on a scrapbook page. The plate is stashed for holiday cookies. I love a little shabby and add in gold, rock star!

That skull is something I ordered that will be added to the Halloween collection and is part of a collaboration group I'm a part of. I can't wait to work on it this weekend!! I'd say I'd start it this week in the evenings, but I've got work things after work (huh, how does that work!? LOL) all week.

Another recent find at my local ReStore was this floor lamp  that was heading to the scrap metal pile. It needs to be rewired. Unless the lamp is brand new, I pretty much figure I'm rewiring it. In this case, the base is rusty, so it might also find a coat of spray paint. I'm on the hunt for a really cool stained glass lampshade which I am sure will turn up at some point.

Off to work on a house today with a bunch of volunteers. Send us your good energy as we've got a lot of work to do! Getting ready for tile.

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Four

Happy Monday! I'm so pumped to be playing along with the 4th Funkie Junkie tag challenge. I've got my "tag" here to show you!

This one took inspiration from Linda's tag which was very musical. In fact as I didn't have any carolers, I used a bird who also sings!

I dug out some very old sheet music that I cut up for inside the jar and then added some to my little bird. I skipped using holly this time 'round and went with some pine cones as I felt like I had used a lot of holly lately to decorate. I didn't have any jingle bells either, so I added the word jingle bells. I got a little crazy with the snow as I had it drip down over the edges of gold jar edge. I really had fun with this one! Only eight left to make!

A huge thanks to Linda's Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge. This is a joy for me this time of year and I'm looking forward to my January shopping spree!

Back again tomorrow with a little pile of stuff I'll be working with soon!

Broken Baby Shabby Clock for THE CUTTING CAFE

This little silver & black clock has been spray painted for quite a while. I was just waiting for the perfect inspiration to make it a little shabby! This time 'round, Regina asked us to use any file we wanted! I opted to make some of her awesome flowers from the Paper Flower Template and Cutting File. I am always so pleased at how these turn out. The cutting file has a huge amount of bloooms and if you double them, you can really make quite a few flowers!

I like to use double sided paper. Sometimes I opt to roll the centers tighter so they are just opening, like I did here. Having used these too many times to count, I'm always pleased on how they turn out and wish I had made double! What's not to love about left over flowers.

In case you are curious, this is what I started with for my clock. I had picked it up late last January in hopes to make a Valentine's Day project out of it, but I was waiting for the perfect clock insert to show up at some point at the ReStore.



When it finally did, I then had to remember to buy a battery to make sure the clock actually worked....then had to wait until I felt like spray painting...months later I have the best little desk clock ever!!! All shabby and pretty.

Happy Saturday!

Last Layout for Cape Cod: Greetings from the Canal Bike Trail

Alas, camping season is officially over. I mean I just scrapped the last page so it must be over! Leaves are falling here in NY and I officially broke out the coat today. Fun times. I also used up a piece of paper that is ancient from my stash and I love the vintage pile of picture look I created!

We all really enjoyed this bike trail that ran along the Cape Cod Canal. Luke and I biked a portion of it while we were waiting for the dinner train to cross. See the railroad bridge went up & down to accommodate either the canal boat traffic or the train that had to cross. It was super cool and in fact we went down just to see the dinner train one night.

I upcycled a bike reflector I found there for my title. I have been waiting to use it and in fact planned on it when I found it! Happy Times! The purple stamp is real too. I found a couple of those recently and saved them for a page too!

Happy Tuesday!

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Three

Oh goodness! The third Funkie Junkie tag is upon us! It's a riot of red with splashes of white....wonder where I got inspiration for my jar!

Love those candy stripes on Linda's tag, so pretty! They reminded me of candy, which is why I added a little candy cane to my jar on top of a little wooden ornament.

I spray painted my jar red to match the theme of Linda's and then added a splash of green with some vintage holly. Of course the poinsetta is vintage too. I've been hoarding it for a while!

I do hope you get to check out the sponsor of these tags, Linda's store The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Lots and lots of yummy things! Some of my favorites are the flowers she carries.

Happy Monday! Only nine more tags to go!

It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like....

Fall with a side of Christmas!

Mass production of silver streaky vases ensued last weekend. Must make some progress on the centerpieces for Civil Air Patrol. This year they are having their party at a musuem so I have uped my game! I'm still rolling with red, white, blue, and probably sparkly. Yes, sparkly is a color.

Wish me luck as I'm trolling our ReStore waiting for something cool to add to those star boughs...I brought home some white pointsettas but they are probably too big...Mom's on the hook to make some really cool bows for me, so I'll have to plan on those too...

It's nice to have the spray painting done before the cold weather though!

Happy Tuesday which is officially Civil Air Patrol Day in this house!

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Two

Goodness gracious, so far I'm keeping up! Usually I start these a lot later & I like a little pressure with my crafting...so I'll see how I do! This one was made possible by that really pretty decorative base that someone thrust in my hands at work and demanded I take home. I'm not kidding. They loaded the scrap pile at work into the dumpster and selected a few items for me. I was going to keep these jars all at the same level so they got progressively bigger, but then that seemed boring...especially when that gold jar worked so well with that base...

My inspiration for Jar 2 came from Linda's tag over at the Funkie Junkie. I was really excited to work with cream, gold, and some stars.

I added some purple to mine, mainly because my Victorian Santa was well, purple. I like it though, makes me happy. Those vintage holly leaves and the snowflakes came from the ReStore as well. At some point soon, they start bringing down all the Christmas boxes they have been hoarding all year so I'm anxious to see what they have! It's kinda a tradition of mine!

Another tradition of mine is to hop over to the Funkie Junkie after this contest is over and STOCK UP for the year. I do see Linda is running a Columbus Day weekend sale though at the moment...hmmmm......

Happy Monday to you!

Nuts About You Card for THE CUTTING CAFE

THE MAN has an upcoming birthday so I wanted to make him a funny card. By funny, I mostly meant funny to me.

At the current moment THE MAN and the dog aren't on the same page as the dog believes he should spend every possible minute chasing the chipmunks and squirrels who are frantically getting ready for winter. They don't wish to be menaced and must take precious time to say rude things to the dog when they aren't dropping nuts on his head. THE MAN thinks the dog should chill and come when he's called, not ten minutes later with his nose all dirty and attempting to look innocent.

I think THE MAN appreciated the humor of my acorn card although he did grimace a bit and reminded me that red squirrels are the worst. It was supposed to be a treat cup card, but I thought it would make a cool shaker so ran with that idea. Shimmer hearts, how can you go wrong!?

Regina has a full range of awesome treat cups to celebrate fall & Halloween, or in this case...a fall birthday! The Halloween & Fall Treat Cup Cards at the Cutting Cafe really are very versatile! Well, I'm off to do some yard work and play mediator between the dog and the chipmunks....and then time to make a birthday pie!

Happy Saturday!

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar One

Maybe some year I'll actually make tags, but as you can see, I opted to go with little glass jars. I have quite the collection of them. In fact, I have been hoarding this green one for quite a while. I think I got it at an after Christmas sale at Michaels, but certainly not last year...so it's nice they are out and ready to get prettied up!

Linda's tag inspired me of course to use a deer, but here's where her tag and my jar differ. My deer is Rudolf and doing a happy tag dance 'cause I'm super excited that the 12 Tags has started! I did also use pine trees. Lucky me I have quite the stash of Jolees to use up so I'll be making good use of them.

Really like that vintage holly. Found that at the ReStore. Matches nicely with Rudolph's nose!

Well, I'm off! First "tag" done and dusted and for once I'm actually starting them when I should!

A huge thanks to Linda who hosts us for this challenge & runs the most amazing store called the Funkie Junkie that you really must check out! It's a must visit for crafters!

Come back and hang with me tomorrow, I have another CAPE COD page. Only one more to go and I'm officially caught up from the summer!

Day 4 in the Cape: Love Life

Completed this page a couple of weeks ago and just didn't get around to blogging about it. It's easy to make pages when you use a photo collage like this one and have the backgrounds premade. I made a bunch of matching backgrounds while camping so when I got a chance, it was pretty easy to get a page put together. This also means I'll actually scrap the whole trip. ;-)

On Day 4 we ended up in Wood's Hole, MA which is also the home of NOAA. We visited a free aquarium, checked out the cool ships in the bay, and then went home to have seafood pizza. It was a neat little town and one of my favorites from the trip.





































I'm enjoying playing with some new flowers I got that match the paper. They are inspiring me to finish the few pages I have left from the trip!

Happy Tuesday!

Cape Cod Day 5 Dream Big Layout for Another Freaking Scrappy

Our challenge this time 'round over at Another Freaking Scrappy is to use words of Thanks on a layout. Words like - Thank You, Gratitude, Grateful, Thanks as a title or in your journaling all apply!

I used the opportunity to talk about something I almost lost out on. We had our trip to the CAPE planned for ages until a kid needed to change the week around for school. I then got the opportunity to go to some training which due to moving the week around, conflicted. We tried really hard to change the camping trip, but couldn't. So, I had to make a choice. One of my main rules is that Pratt Inc. is always first and everyone was very excited to head off for a week to explore, so I couldn't let them down. At the very top, my journaling talks about that choice. 

I was also thankful this layout turned out pretty flat! I produce about two very full scrapbooks a year and I'm always happy to conserve space!

Stop back tomorrow, I'm posting my first Funkie Junkie "tag"!