Bordering on completion

Happy Sunday Everyone!

I added a border to the start to finish piece...it was a lot of fun to do because I got to be a little messy.  I started with blank tracing paper:

And I stamped it with these stamps (I used a black stamp pad):

Here's after one stamp:

Here's after all of the ones I used:

No rhyme or reason, just all over the place (hence messy).  So fun!  It's nice to not have to be so precise all of the time.

Then I added a little paint (same blue I used on the main piece):

Then I ripped the paper into strips and Mod Podged the strips onto the edges of the piece:

Here are all of edges done:

And one last surprise:

A pop of color!  That's not the last pop we'll see either... :-)

I have one more thing to do on the front and then I'll do a couple of things to finish the back...then it will be done!  I'm getting closer and closer...so exciting!

To close today, I want to send out a big "THANK YOU!!" to those of you who read my blog.  I discovered a couple more people who read it that I didn't know about and that was a wonderful surprise!  So thanks to EVERYONE who reads it...you have no idea how good that makes me feel.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy sharing these things with you.

Have a great week everyone!

Some bunny to love

Happy birthday to our little granddaughter, Maylee!  Her party was this weekend and the official day is tomorrow!  In honor of her special day, I crocheted her a little bunny:

Not super happy with the pictures, but you at least get the idea.

You might be asking yourself why the green on the bunny instead of pink...well, she was born on St. Patrick's Day, so I thought I'd honor the day of her birth with the green.  Trust me, I'll make her tons of pink stuff along the way, too (I made her a pink elephant for Christmas).  :-)

Happy Birthday, Maylee...may this be the beginning of many, many, many more beautiful years ahead!

Love notes

Happy Saturday everyone!

What a great day it has been!  We slept in, getting some valuable rest (feels like forever since we have gotten any rest!), and then have been spending the day in our "happy spots"...me in my studio, he outside messing with his cars.  We check in periodically with each other, just to make sure all is well (and to catch a quick smooch :-) ), and then return to our fun.  Awesome!

So, I have something new to share with you with my start to finish project.  I have always been fascinated by notes written with clipped out letters from various newspapers and magazines.  Most of the time, those letters are for nefarious activities like ransom notes.  I wanted to put a new spin on that and use them to add some beautiful words to the start to finish project.  No longer nefarious, but sweet and kind.

I went to my stash of magazines (I don't recycle many magazines any more...I keep them so I can cut stuff out them) and found a few to search in for letters and words in styles that I liked.  I found some great styles in Yankee magazine and Travel with Rick Steves:

Once I had my words/letters, I started cutting them out to make the words I wanted.  As my start to finish project is about the love between two people, words like love, devotion, have, hold, honor, cherish, forever, and ever were what I wanted to create.

Then I used Mod Podge to paste them onto the piece:

So now I have love notes that surround the ampersands so you have "have and hold," etc.  Nice!

The other great thing is that I got an idea of what to do next with this piece, but for now, it will have to wait for a bit.  It is time to check and see how my sweetie is doing.  :-)

Have a marvelous Saturday and rest of your weekend!

The long and short of it

Hiya peeps!

Well, I'm long on tired and short on focus today, but I wanted to share something fun.  My first batch of tumbling rocks is complete!  Here are some photos:

Some are shinier than others, but they are all smooth and very cool.  The tumbling really unleashed the pretty in all of the rocks.  Now I am excited to find uses for all of them!

I just started tumbling another batch of rocks as of yesterday.  They are rainbow fluorite, and I am already eager to see how they will look when they are done.  Here's how they are in their rough state:

There are lots of purples and greens in these.  I think I'll be very happy once these are smooth and shiny.  Time will tell!

Now it's time to relax...I hope you'll be doing the same, too!  Happy Sunday!