Phoenix

I'm staying with the fabulous Maija and her family while we take a couple of classes hosted by Melrose Vintage. Today was awesome. I learned a few new things, including how to play with the torch! Tomorrow is a bracelet that looks gorgeous! We've even sqeezed in a little shopping. Shocking!
I'll include pics and links in a later post since there are limits to what I can do with my phone! I've added a few pics via Twitter (www.Twitter.com\amyhuff).

Weekend fun

My family came down for the weekend and we had an awesome time. It finally stopped raining and was gorgeous weather with beautiful cloudless blue skies and still chilly at night for a fire on the back patio. We managed to squeeze in some great flea market shopping at third Monday, lunch at Jimmy's, shopping on the square and some tasty goodness from the farmer's market. Weekend greatness.

Spooky Charm Swap

I had a terrific weekend with my family in town. We hit all the fun McKinney has to offer and then some! I'm still working on getting those pics off the card. In the meantime, I've posted some timely pics of my Spooky Charm swap. The idea was to create a charm around our favorite Halloween story or trick or treating experience. For me, I'm a classicist and it's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow all the way. I used a cabinet card that looked the most like a nerdy scarredy cat but kind of sweet - my idea of what Ichabod might look like. Add in a little photoshop help, some vintage wall paper with some fun details like the date the story was first published and you've got yourself a new take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I love the vintage/retro feel off this one, if I do say so myself! :)

More Creepy Doll Heads

Latest project to get said creepy doll head attached. I love them but the husband is starting to get a little wigged out about where the might show up next. This one is going into the bedroom, or maybe on the bathroom vanity, for extra jewelry storage.

He's advocating that I make some for the etsy shop. He's sure they'll be incredibly popular and I'm betting it doesn't have anything to do with his hope that they'll live somewhere else. :)

Recipe Box

This is a sneak peek of our baby dining room remodel. It was mostly a paint job with some furniture rearranging and some desperately needed accessories updating. But, you can get a glimpse of my old plastic recipe box that I've had for about 14 years. I was on the hunt for a new one and after a week of searching online I finally realized I was crafty and could take care of this myself. After a quick trip to Michael's with my 40% off coupon (Rolland's new nightmare since I make him go through the line with my other goodies) and a bunch paint - throw in some rhinestones and a doll head - then viola my new recipe box. I think she's going to look great on the book case.

Saturday in Salado

Last weekend we hit the road for Round Top to check out the twice yearly antique paradise but once we hit Austin the skies opened up and there was a major downpour. I didn't have it in my to tromp through the rain and muddy fields in my new pink converse. Plus, I have just gotten over being sick for a month and am not about to ruin the fall for antique heaven. Well, it would also have just been gross.

Hubby saved the day by turning the car around pointing us to Salado which is an awesome little town filled with great shops, galleries and quirky fences. It was awesome and saved the Saturday. I got started on some Christmas shopping and we picked up a couple of art pieces for the house before calling it quits when the rain found us. After a re-fuel at Cracker Barrel, a road trip must have, we made it home before dinner. That is a perfect Saturday road trip and I have the pictures to prove it!

Marie in Technocolor!

Apparently I was missing the crayons and coloring books since this page was all about the old school arts & crafts. Lori gave me a great background to work with since it was just a large page of water color paper so it's super sturdy and held glue like a champ. I dug through my bin of extras and found this neon lime tissue paper that I thought would work perfectly with the really strong colors I wanted to use on this page. Perfect Paper Adhesive is my glue of choice for this portion of the page. Next came the stamps at the bottom (Michael's 40% off coupons will be my downfall. The husband now has to go through the line with 1/2 my purchase so I can use the coupons to the fullest! This is not his favorite activity) the clear kind that stick to the acrylic block are my new favorite things. Again.

Next it was time to work on Marie. I got some amazing stamps from Character Construction when we started this project and they've been my go to on this round robin. There are some gorgeous options over there especially for the holidays. I had to do a little photoshopping on the dress to get the right proportion which gives me another reason to use the super cool new printer to scan. Look, it's all about the price per use here people!

I decided she would be the most likely person to be swinging from the chandelier so these made the perfect border. The final touch was a pass with the gold rub and buff (another old school favorite) to make the crinkles in the tissue paper stand out and my masterpiece was finished. I called in the husband to show of my latest masterpiece. This was met with silence and then "That's something". I'm sure he meant it as a complement. Hopefully Lori will be happier with it than my husband.

Next post, updated pics of the dining room and this weekend's road trip pics.

Marie Pages Continue

Latest page ready to mail. I'm working on a larger page tonight that's kind of fun since it's a much bigger scale. This one was tricky since it's the first time I've actually used an image on photo paper but it came out super clear so definitely using that technique on future projects.

Which brings me to my new printer. Not so new now, but still only a few months old, anyway it's greatness. I'm loving how clearly everything scans including vintage wallpaper so I can make all my goodies last a little longer now.

I hope everyone's having an awesome weekend.