Have A Nice Trip!

Greetings craft friends!  I'm back with one last sample for Craft Hoarders Anonymous. Many thanks again to Gloria and her fab team for allowing me to join them this month!  This time around, the challenge is all about Travel!  I love to travel and when I go places I collect little things that I can put into my craft projects - whether they are to go specifically into a scrapbook or be used in a project in some other way.

Many of us travel around the holidays, so let's celebrate our adventures!

I am also in love with creating mini-albums of all sizes and shapes and so my project this time around is a mini travel album.  I used Tim Holtz's Destinations papers, Chipboard, and kraft cardstock along with a few tags I've picked up along the way.  It's always a fun challenge to figure out proportions and how to make everything work.

My mini this time around is inside of a tri-fold album.

the album is held in place with a ribbon that is glued under the gusseted pocket inside the center back.

here you can see the pocket.  On the left cover are 3 pockets and the right cover has 9 photo flaps held down by a strip of paper.

and a couple of shots of the inside pages.

Now it's your turn!  Dig into your hoard and find some items that are vacation or travel themed.  Do you have a hoard of cruise ship ephemera?  Do you have a box of transportation stamps?  Do you have a stash of camping themed papers?  Or piles of Disney embellishments?  Show them off!  Create a vacation or travel themed project for  us!

Whatever it is, create it and then link up on the Craft Hoarders Anonymous for your chance to win a great prize from this month's sponsor - Spellbinders!

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Guest Design

Hello Friends!  I am delighted to be able to share this post with you today.  I am honored to join the fab DT from Craft Hoarder's Anonymous as a guest designer for the month of December.  

Raise your hands if you hoard Christmas or other winter holiday items! Who has a drawer full of  "retired" holiday papers and embellishments? Who goes crazy over the candy cane ribbons or the sparkly embellishments? Share a winter or seasonal holiday project with us. We would love to see your Christmas projects, but you may also enter Hanukkah, Kwanza, New Year's, other holiday celebration projects, or any winter-themed projects. Celebrate the season with us!

This challenge is right up my alley - not only do I hoard holiday papers and embellishments, I have enough Christmas decorations to decorate at least 5 trees and 2 houses!  I love the Christmas season - the lights, the trees, the decorations and most importantly the celebration of the birth of our Lord & Savior Jesus!

So, when given the challenge to create a seasonal project I thought - cool! now I have an excuse to make another Christmas decoration (or two...or three...)  I love all kinds of decorations, but there's a special place in my heart for anything traditional or vintage and  I have a little something from my heritage for you today.

These little beauties are a traditional Polish ornament.  The tradition of paper ornaments in Poland began with the vibrant peasant culture.  As paper was more widely available and, most importantly, affordable, families came up with innovative ways to create beautiful decorations without breaking the bank.  

Sometimes referred to as the Polish porcupine, the Polish star can be made with just about anything paper - leftover wrapping paper, old magazines, even newspaper!  They look great on trees and add a beautiful touch to gifts.

I used Christmas papers from my stash to create ornaments in 3 different sizes and then to add a little bling (because everything is better with sparkle!), I hit each of the star points with a coordinating color of Stickles.

There are a zillion different tutorials out there on the web for this traditional ornament - search for Polish Paper Star Ornament and make some of your own!

So what holiday items do you hoard?  Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for this challenge!

Blessings,

Steampunk Canvas

Update:  Thank you ladies of the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge Blog for selecting my project as one of your favorites!

Good morning!  It's a cold snowy day here in Minnesota - so I'm home crafting today!  My latest project is this altered canvas.  I am a HUGE lover of all things steampunk, so I tend to hoard gears, clocks, computer parts and all kinds of odds and ends...they always eventually end up on a project!

A couple of close up shots of the pieces & parts...

I'm entering this project in the latest challenge at Craft Hoarders Anonymous - check out the challenge blog to see the details of the challenge and some uber-amazing art from the DT!

I created some texture on the canvas using my favorite - Paint N Patch.  Yep, drywall patch compound :)  It works just like any other kind of craft modeling paste and it's cheap!  Plus it dries really fast so I can get on with the creating!  I colored the canvas using a few shades of Perfect Pearls pigments and then spritzed the canvas with water to make it "stick", then topped it with all the gears and chains and miscellaneous pieces from my stash.