Winter Jar Swap

Caroline, over at Glitter Tart Designs, hosted her first jar swap, with a winter theme.  I love everything that this super talented girl does, so I of course had to join in!  Plus ever since seeing an artist at Alpha Stamps (Nicola, I'm sure I probably spelled her name wrong, sorry!) do small little jar scenes (and I'm talking small), I have been utterly fascinated with trying it on my own.

Here is an overall look at what I created...

I ended up using a rather large sized jar, in fact I purchased the Ball Art Jar just for this purpose...but honestly I would say that I was disappointed with the quality of the jar, and won't be using another one for something like this in the future.  It wasn't poured very well and is very wavy and warpy, which I didn't realize until I started putting my image into it and by that time, it was too late to do anything about it unfortunately... (live and learn right?!)

I wanted to add some pizzaz to the top of the jar, so I adhered some white felt, painted and glittered a chipboard snowflake and rimmed the top with a sliver braided fiber.

Inside of the jar, I put a vintage image of a lady decked out for the cold weather that I found and emphasized the feathers in her hat through the addition of tall white feathers in the background.  I used some iridescent buffalo snow on the base inside and also on the fluff around her neck.  I added some pearl stick pins to add a little variety to the colors and textures found inside.  

The bottom of the jar on the outside, I used the more of the fiber and another added another snowflake, accented the snowflake with a pearl (to tie in with the inside) and instead of white felt, used a white gathered crepe paper to finish the bottom of the jar and to disguise the lid.  I have really been fond of using crepe paper lately, I think it really adds a lot of nice volume easily.  

I was partnered with Tabitha who can be found at Kluckingbear.  She created this wonderful jar scene for me that I absolutely LOVE.  The pictures just do not even do it justice, but I will let her explain her work on her blog, but I wanted to give you a sneak peak of it!  

  

Valentines Day Cards -- 2013 Edition

Hey all, it's been awhile since I've posted on here.  Don't ask me what I've been doing because I can't even tell you to be honest.  And whatever it was, I don't really feel like I have anything to show for it.  BUT, I did manage to squeeze out some time over the past week or so to make my valentine cards.  I do try and make cards for all the major holidays, and birthdays (although, I'll admit, I've REALLY been slacking on the bday cards...), but I'm really serious about getting back on track.

I just need to learn some serious time management skills...

Anyways, here are the cards that I made this year and sent out to my friends.  I hope they enjoy them!  I honestly was not really inspired by the product that I saw in the store this year.  The lines that the stores around me were carrying were just not that exciting, or they were the same exact stuff as last year...boring!  So, because I'm a classic overbuyer of materials, I had plenty to work with this year even though I had nothing significantly new that I purchased.  The only new item was some American Crafts foam letter stickers.  I have always admired these and really wanted to have an excuse to use them.  You can see how I integrated them on the "Sweet" and "Love" card in the top photo.  All of my stamps are from a variety of sources, as is the decorative paper.  If you have any questions about where I picked something up, please do ask and I will be sure to share my secrets...

I ended up making 8 different designs, so I had to split it into 2 pictures.  Enjoy!