H2H challenge - techniques. homemade filters

So i got the new sunglasses that are red. and they so change everything red. except for red cars, for some reason those become pink. shrug. Walking around base with these glasses changes my view of my normal walk. And I had a thought, what if i was to take pics with a red filter. Now with someone who has a SLR (which i will be getting soon since i will be taking photography for my major) this is easy. Buy a red filter and screw on to lens. Now what about us who have the point and click cameras. I can't just get a filter. So what to do?

This is where I got creative. I used acetate and my bic marker. thats right. OK, some of my ideas don't work to well. So I had to try it out.

First things first. I went outside to try this out on the bushes we have outside of our house. Fort Irwin is in the high desert which means it gets really windy at night. This is what came out.

Very hard to take photos when wind is blowing the flowers. I guess i could have done it. would have made for 'artistic' photos.

Here is the photo without the filter.

My homemade red filter. just colored the acetate with red marker. Did it twice so the marks didn't show. I love how the white flower seems to glow. That is all from the lens. I didn't alter these photos after taking them (except to add my watermark)

So since this worked, I tried doing a frame. This again turned out cool.

Tips on this tho. I have a camera the lens comes out. At first my thought was just to tape the filter to the lens. then I watched the lens come out. This will not work. So I just taped my filter to a larger piece of acetate and just held it in front of the lens. Next time I will just cut the acetate longer.

Just imagine what you can do with this idea. Filters in whatever color you want, frames in shapes. You can even write on stuff, just remember to write backwards. You can also use stamps. Oh the ideas.

I know the H2H challege is on scrapbooking techniques, but this is great for photos on your scrapbook.

EDIT:this morning i triedthe stamping filter. it can work but is difficult. it has to be a small image. this is a 1 in circle, i think, and ihad to hold it out from the lens to get it to show up. that is why there is some glare in the photo. i also changed the direction i had to take the photo since the sun was ruining the photo.

Spotlight Blog Hop - Buttons

Welcome to this months blog hop. you should have come from the Scrap Wench. I am the last one in the hop, but you haven't seen everyone you can go to Wendy's blog.
*note - sorry if some of my typing is off. hard to type with dog cuddled up against you, pinning down your left arm*

Yay, I actaully had this card down before it was due and writing this post early today. Nevermind that is card is for my gramma for mothers day and i still haven't sent it out. I can't be on time for everything. LOL.

I so CASED the card from the newest Papercrafts Mag. I mean, I did change the color, the size of the card and of course used CTMH items. But thats why they make those mag, right? My mojo was MIA for the longest time, and I have to ease myself back into it. Mojo still isn't 100%. But I was able to make my own buttons. Yep, thats right, and didn't even use a i-top to do it. Wanna learn how?

I made two buttons for my card. The first one was the large cork button. I mean, if you want to call it a button. in my opinion, the term button is being used 'loosely' in the crafting world. Its just a holeless button. I took adhesive cork ( I have had this my stash forever. not sure why it never got used before. maybe its because I hate to handcut.) and stamped the corner design on it four times to make a circle. Using our clear stamps made this so much easier, but i was still unable to line up the last stamp. I used my second try and hid the small gap i had. i need to pratice more. then I used my nesties to cut into a circle. I did end up removing part of the stamp that made it square.

My second button was a little more detailed. If you have our new canvas buttons, you wouldn't have to do this, but i didn't. I used cross stitch fabric from my stash. This stuff lasts forever since i only bought one sheet. it think it was around the same time i bought the cork. I stamped the heart twice to make sure it stamped well on the fabric. Make sure you do not have ink on your hands while glueing this, or it will end up ruining you button. again, i had to do this twice because i ruined the first one that way. Cut the fabric larger then the button you are covering. (this is a great way to use buttons that you would never normally use.) You need to make sure it will wrap around the edge of the button to adhere on the back. Apply liquid glass to the front and back of button. Center your design on the front and start wrapping the fabric nicely around to the back. Trick for the back, let the glue get a little tacky, then wrap. It will help the fabric hold better. I put a cardstock circle on the back to make sure the fabric was secure. You can do this with any type of thinner fabric. Don't think thick fabric would work too well. You could probably use paper too, but I haven't tried yet.

I dyed the doiley with Hollyhock ink, both with a sponge and with direct to paper. The sentiment was hand written, sorta. I printed it out, scribbled on the back with pencil and traced the font. Then I went over it with a black marker. It looked alot better then my handwritting. For some reason I cannot do cursive r's. they just look silly. But I can trace like a pro.

That is all for my post. Again, this is the last blog of the button hop. If you need to start at the begining, go to Wendy's blog.

I also happen to be entering this into H2H. So nice of them to do a challenge the same as our blog hop.

Recipe: Close to my Heart unless noted

Cardstock - White Daisy
Ink - Hollyhock, Black marker
Stamps - Lucky WOTG, Circle Together
Buttons - Pink Assortment Buttons, cream and covered button from stash
Liquid Glass
Waxy Flax
Cork - Karen Fosters Design
Fabric - Cross stitch fabric from whoever makes it
Nesties - Circles
White Sheer Ribbon
Text from Wordpad

Doiley from whoever makes the cake stuff walton i think
Idea from Papercrafts - Card Creations vol 9
(sorry about the vague brand names.)

H2H bunny hop

Welcome to Heart to Heart Bunny Hop. Anyone is able to join (as long as you use CTMH) but you can only your project today, April 18th. I wanted to do this but i didn't think i was gonna have the time. Well..... i came home sick today so i was able to do a quick card. I pulled off a CAS. i don't know how it happened. I must be sick. But it is a CASE too. that probably helped alot. I used an old sotm for the argyle that is stamped in key lime. the green circle and butterfly are inside the card, so i created a window with my spellbinders. On the butterfly is stamped happy spring (its kinda hard to see here, sorry) from an upcoming sotm. I just masked the bunny that was on top of the phrase. I used our new clear buttons, they worked awesome for this. The original design didn't have the ribbon on top, but i thought it was a little to plain up there. It was suppose to be an A2 card but i cut wrong so its 4 1/2 x 4 1/4. Here is my great inspiration. Its from Damask Love (yay for watermarks on photos. i would have never known it unless it was there. I just save photos in a folder, whatever it was called is what it says. ) Now don't forget to H2H to check out the rest of the bunny hop.

Spotlight Blog Hop - My Creations

Hello and welcome to April's blog hop. This month we are featuring My Creations. This includes albums and cubes and our newest item, pennants. I hope you enjoyed Adeline's creation. Next in the hop is Haley with her crafty item. I chose to spotlight our newest item, My Creations Pennants. These are made out of sturdy chipboard and can be used together or seperate. I decided to make just some art for my craft room useing only one pennant. I might make this into a series and make more. I love that I have that option. Here is my creation. Its a little bit of mixed media. There is alot going on but its not too busy. Great thing about this being chipboard is you can emboss this with a plate and your cuttlebug. I wet it down with water before embossing to get a better image. I used PTI Giga Guidelines Impression plate. It has that damask feel to it. Plus its metal so it embosses better on thicker items like this.

(my attempt of detail shot of embossing. didn't really work)

In crafting, you don't make mistakes. There is aways an opportunity to cover them up. I started this project with Vineyard Berry. Then I looked up. I swear my craft room was decorated with a wine color, not red. But to my surprise, there is red staring back at me. Darn. Its ok. I can fix it. Out comes my cranberry ink pad. Just ink over the vineyard berry (which made the color more a blood red, YES. Love it even more) and now you would never know. MUHAHA (thats my evil laugh, not sure why I even try). Yes, the rose ribbon (or just one part of it) is from CTMH. But we don't carry black roses. Again, ink comes to the rescue. I just took out my handy dandy spray pen in black ( this is made by mixing create a shade, black reinker and rubbing alcohol) and sprayed. I also did that on the scrap paper I used to make the bottom part of the rose. It is a spiderweb border punch. Just scrunch into a cirlce and its makes a cool looking flower. (if you haven't quite guessed, my style is a little gothic. a skull might end up on the project somehow). The stickers i used to spell create, those started off kraft with swirls. I inked them (yes, ink was my friend on this project. my hands are still a little inky) and kept the swirl idea by stamping damask tiles and embossing in white. ( i wished i had white CTMH embossing powder. what i have didn't melt as smooth and can't really see the detail of the stamp. guess what is going in my next order) I told you this had a lot of details....I'm not even done. UGH. I will make the rest of this simple. Colored rhinestones black and added the to my stickers. Ribbon was mesh so i was able to push it up and down and make a different look to it. I punched out the ticket, stamped and embossed in black. Only one part of it is adhered, and that is with foam tape. I gathered ribbon at the bottom to hide the seam where im impression plate ended. The buckle I had from my jewlery making stash, and so is the chain I used on top to hang. Did I forget anything? SOrry if i did, but Im gonna end this because my dog decided to lay on my lap and this is hard to type. I will the deets later if you would like. Again, next on the hop is Haley

Hope for Japan - Use it Tuesday

Use it Tuesday is doing a great challenge this week. Not only do that want you to use red and a forgotten item on your card, but they will donate money to Red Cross for Japan. I used Hope for Japan which is a stamp set from CTMH that only cost $5 and all procedes go to Red Cross for Japan. So I'm so doing my part to help as a crafter.

Here is my card for the challenge. I chose to use red as a small part of my card. I didn't want it to be too much. I was digging thru my craft drawers when I came across the metal mesh. It was just subtle enough to work and pull the card together. The background was embossed with dots and then stamped with a script stamp.

All Items Close to my Heart unless stated:

Cardstock - White Daisy, Kraft

Stamp - Hope for Japan, Universal Background

Ink - Versamark, Cranberry,

Embossing Powder - Black

Cuttlebug Dots Embossing Folder, Machine

Metal Mesh from Stash

Join us to help

OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO THE VICTIMS OF THE EARTHQUAKE AND tsunami in Japan, and like so many of you, we’re eager to help. And helping has never been easier!
During April, purchase the exclusive “Hope for Japan” A-size stamp set for the special price of only $5 (retail value $7.95) and Close To My Heart will donate 100% of the profits to the American Red Cross efforts in Japan. This beautifully designed stamp set reminds us of how our hearts are hopeful for those who are in need.
Contact me today to get involved in this heart-worthy cause.


Plus as a thank you, I will entry you into a drawing to win a free D stamp and a free 3x3 block

i might not be posting for a bit

i am home for a while but i have a bad ear infection that is causing me vertigo so i don't think i will be able to sit and craft. which i am sad about cuz i got new goodies from ctmh i want to play with. they also from a nodule on my thyroid when they did the ct of my ear. they said its probably nothing but i have to get an ultrasound done and maybe a biopsy. im hoping they just found what was causing me tobe sick all the time. until i can craft again, have a great day