A craft FOR me, BY me

Hey y'all! Thanks for stopping by to check out more of my creations. I've been getting a LOT of visits lately, and I like that! You're also free to leave comments. 

For this craft, quite often I find that after making a card or something, I like it SO much that I don't want to give it to the person I made it for, so I end up making a duplicate for myself. LOL I've known plenty of crafters who do the same thing! 

Here's a sneak peek, Click below to see what I came up with!

Altered-Creating Magnets

Quite a few years ago I created some Magnets for my beloved Grandma (now departed but always in my heart). A few months ago our Daughter saw them in one of my memory posts on Facebook and really liked them. She asked that I make her a set sometime. I was working on a birthday card for her Son (our Grand baby who's turning 1!) and I figured while I had my SU! Decorative Label punch out, I would take the time to make her magnets while trying to figure out the details of the card for our Grand Son... I made her magnets similar but very different than I did for my Grandma. I didn't want them to look too close as I always try to keep everything OOAK (one of a kind).
Anyhow, click below to see the cute set of magnets!

Teabag Holder Card...

I made this cute little teabag holder card for one of my friends. I hope it travels well through the mail and the box doesn't get crushed. I've made some of these before, they take quite a bit of time to make, there is a lot of measuring and folding, but they are so cute, it's totally worth it! 

For this little cutie, I gave her a blue gem flower. SO CUTE! I outlined part of the teacup in glossy accents to give the cup a little shine when you turn the card. I also put glossy accents on the heart on the tail, her eyes and her nose.

 I just put one part of the sentiment on the left and the other part on the right (see next pic). I put the tea bag in and folded the top over because it was sticking out of the card. You can't tell very well, but I used a punch to make an indented round curve to the dotted paper to give an easy way to slide the teabag in and out of the holder.

And here is the sentiment for the right side. I just love this set!

 A better look at the inside. You can also see how I did the eyelets here. I put the top, non-rough edges of the eyelets here on the inside and the outer rough edges on the outside of the spine since they were going to be covered up.

I hope you like my creation. Please come back soon, I'm posting more crafty fun things!

Keep on Craftin'

~Melisa Marie

We're STICK-ing Together! Anniversary Gift for My Hubby

So mine and Hubby's 9 Year wedding anniversary is on March 18th. We are also coming up on 19 years together! Time really flies and sometimes faster than we realize.

So this year I'm working on 2 gifts for him; however, after finishing the gift I am posting here now, I had an accident and ended up fracturing 2 of my fingers and a knuckle. In total I have a fractured knuckle and 3 fractures on 2 fingers (index and middle) so I won't be able to finish the sewing project for a little while. I have to not use my most hurt finger (left Index finger) as much as possible to let it heal. It's very swollen still, and it's driving me crazy!!!

Anyhow, here is the only gift I've finished for him (I've not even made him a card yet! Usually, I have it done at least a week early. :-/ but not this time!) I hope you enjoy this cute gift. I saw something a little bit similar (but a bit different) on Pinterest, and I drew my own inspiration for a bigger project from that.

Here's a preview... Click below to see the rest...

Best Girlfriends B-day!

My GF just had a birthday, and I made this "Faux Card" for her! It's something I've wanted to try for a long time, I've never seen it done before, so I figured now was as good a time as any because I knew I wanted to create a cute little 'scene' for her to enjoy. I figured she could put this on her desk at work, or hang on the wall, or whatever.

Instead of making it an "open and close" card, I made it a "faux card" and instead of having an inside she will just pull the tag out from between the front and middle layers of the scene. It came out SO freakin' cute and MUCH better than I expected.

Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the rest of the pics!

**NOTE: This is a VERY image heavy post, so if you don't have high speed internet, or you're viewing from a cell phone or tablet, pics may take a few moments to load, so please be patient!

WOOD you still be mine? A cute beaver Valentine!

I had a lot of fun making this Valentine's Day card for my hubby! Though I was having a very difficult time with my bipolar at the time I was working on this card, I put my mind to it and I got this done!
It's sometimes difficult making "cute" cards for my hubby that don't turn out 'girly'. I know a lot of my card making friends have this same problem. I actually had to turn to my card making friends in one of my Facebook groups to get help with the colors for this card. Thankfully, several of the ladies threw out the same color suggestions of red and yellow or red and gold.
That helped me greatly in picking the papers for this card. I originally had teal, rose pink and brown picked out. ICK! I'm so glad my friends were able to help me out in the color selection.

Anyhow, I got to use this CUTE beaver stamp that I have to make hubby's card, and I added a lot of other cute elements to make the card complete, including getting to use my new sewing machine that I got for Christmas, to sew some borders on the card (inside and out).

Here's a sneak peek at the card, click below to see the rest of the pics.

Legend of Zelda Bookmarks, Please!

I needed a gift to give hubby for Valentine's day with his card, since I wasn't able to finish the sewing project that I had started for him. I didn't have any money to spend, because I had already saved up money and gotten him something else.

It's no secret to most people that know my husband and I, we are big video game fans, but we are picky about our Characters. We are major Legend of Zelda fans. NO, the little boy is NOT Zelda, his name is Link.
We have played almost all the games, and we are currently working on Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess, on our Nintendo Wii. We got this game as a gift last Christmas.

This isn't our Favorite LoZ game though, that would definitely have to be Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

Anyhow, since hubby and I are both working on Twilight Princess at the same time, but we don't always play as much as the other, we sometimes get ahead or fall behind of each other.
Since we are using a game guide I thought it would be fun to make some bookmarks.
Click below to see the ones I've created. They turned out great!

Holiday Sweets...Halloween Sugar Skulls, that is! Also--A Sneak Peek!

Sooooo, as I stated in my last few blog posts, I'm far behind on posting all of the 20, YES, TWENTY Halloween cards I did!!! whewwww, I worked for the last 2 weeks of September and the whole first week of October making these cards so they could get out to the recipients.

Then, I guess because I had made SO many, I sent 2 people the wrong cards, then I realized day before yesterday that 1 person never even got a card sent to her (I'm SO very Sorry, Monique!!!!) and I sent my friend's daughter a different card than planned, and later found her original Monster High themed card, sitting on it's drying rack (I set stickled cards aside to dry, out of reach of my cat, who likes to lick the stickles. LOL). Anyhow, I felt bad and ended up not sending it, and now I guess I have it for 2015, which I'm sure will flyyyyyy by as fast as 2014, has! Sorry, Gracie, but you'll get it soon enough.

So, here are 2 of the Halloween cards I made. The black haired sugar skull went to my baby sister, and the red haired sugar skull went to my friend Emmy. They both loved them!
Here is a sneak peek, click below to see the rest!

Cards come in boxes, too!

Woo Hoo, I'm actually updating on a regular basis over the last week! LOL Hopefully, this will continue to happen, because I have SOOOOOO much to share with y'all, the stuff I've done over the last few months!

And, to keep me company, I have my little Stormy kitty. This is pics of her, RIGHT NOW, that I jsut took. She's helping me write this blog post. Well, mainly she is telling me to stop taking pics of her and get back to writing this blog post. But, she is really saying, stop writing that blog post and PET ME!!! lol

 

Anytime I'm in my "craft cave" (my craft room, I call it my craft cave, cause sometimes, I lock myself in here for DAYS crafting!) she is always in here, SOMEWHERE. Usually, it's either on my lap, or on my counter somewhere. I really do try hard to keep her off the counter, and/or off the items I'm working on, because I don't always know if someone is allergic to cats. She is the only one allowed in here with me, out of all our furbabies, because she doesn't play with my stuff, or STEAL IT, like her sister does. LOL

Anyhow....So, My baby sister had her 22nd birthday on December 2nd. WOW, weird! 22 on 12-2-14 LOL. Anyhow, I've always just made her regular folded cards, and this year I wanted to try something different.

I made my first ever CARD IN A BOX! These things are all the rage right now. Well, I guess they were earlier this year, and I'm not really seeing them as much now. Anyhow, this was my first one, and I LOVE how it turned out!

I would have much rather liked having used a cupcake stamp, but I thought something other than a stamped image for the major focal point, would be best. So, a fuzzy cupcake it ended up being! lol

Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the rest!!

Lots of Butterflies... 2 cards

Here are 2 cards that I made about a month or so ago. I hope you enjoy. here is a sneak peek, click below to see the full pics...

Happy Spring ATC's (for a swap)

So I had another ATC swap this month. I signed up for the ATC swap for next month as well. I really do LOVE the ATC swaps. they are so much fun and I love getting cards back that I can hang up to decorate my craft space with. :)
So, for this ATC swap, I decided to go with a "Spring" theme. All of our ATC swaps are 'pick your own theme' and I chose to go with spring because I know so many people are sooooo tired of winter. I personally, wished it would have snowed more this winter. We had a very mild winter for Kentucky weather. It snowed some this past week, and I wish more would have fallen.

Anyhow, here are the cards I ended up doing. This card isn't complete, click below to see the rest of the cards, and the completed project.

A couple handmade items for swaps (4 THINGS!)

We have a "handmade surprise" swap in one of my groups. We had to make 2 handmade surprise items for our partner. I've participated in all the swaps so far, and I have had so much fun. For this swap I decided to go with a magnet theme. :)
I made 2 different sets; a 4 piece set with my Stampin' Up! Four Frames stamp set, and then I made bottle cap mini pie magnets, set of 4. Of course, for each ones I made, I made more than 4, but I'm only giving 4 to my partner.

THIS POST IS PICTURE HEAVY!

I've included the pics of the additional items I made to include with my swap.

First, here's my swap items. :)

Together Always-Anniversary Tag for Hubby

On the 18th of this month, Hubby and I celebrated our 7th 'wedding' anniversary and I wanted to make him something nice, but not a traditional card. Though we've been together for almost 16 years, we didn't get married until 2006.
Initially, I didn't want to make a traditional card, but then I changed my mind and started working on a card. But then, I changed my mind again. LOL Kinda like how I changed my mind about my wedding dress 2 times!! So, I ended up doing a tag. This is actually a double sided tag, but I was kinda upset that I couldn't figure out a way to incorporate a place for me to write something. so, I had to write a separate letter and include it with the tag.

anyhow, here is the first side of the tag, click below to see the rest of the pics. :) Thanks for looking! (click any pic to make it bigger for detail)

More ATC's for a swap

Long time no post, huh?!?! I've been under an abundant amount of stress this past month, and my bipolar issues have been out of control! On top of that I've been dealing with severe neck pain. I've had this pain so bad ever since my car accident last year, uhm, 2011. man, 2012 flew by!
I've been going through physical therapy again to see if it will help anymore than it did last time, and so far, for the last 3 1/2 weeks, it hasn't helped at all. :(

Unfortunately, I am going to have to have neck surgery and will be having a neurospinal stimulator implanted in my neck. the one that was implanted in my back after the accident has helped some, but nto as much as I had hoped it would. But, hey, even the 30% or so of pain relief I get is enough!

Anyhow, I had to do some ATC cards for a swap and here is what I came up with. I LOVE how they turned out!!! a few different things done to them, they came out so pretty!! :)

Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the rest of the pics.

Handmade For A Swap

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. I've been under an extreme amount of stress, going through a LOT of pain with my back and neck (as a result of my recent surgery from my accident in 2011), and my Bipolar has been acting up something awful!! On a higher dose of meds now and hoping soon it will help, but so far no luck.

Anyhow, for one of my craft groups I was recently signed up for a few swaps. I signed up for the "Winging It" Stamped Images, Dry Embossed Cardstock and Handmade Surprise Swaps. For the "Winging It" stamped images swap I sent my partner 20 (plus an extra 6 or so) stamped images of different birds that I have, 2 of each image (yes, I have a LOT of bird stamps!). I also sent her some fairies and some other things. For my partner for the Handmade Surprise Swap, I made this ADORABLE little teabag holder/card combo. I LOVE how it turned out, and I'm super excited for my partner to get it. :) I really hope she likes it as much as I liked making it for her. I actually made 2 of these, I'm sending one to my Ma since she liked it so much.

So, Here is the item I made, and a handmade card I made the same day. Sneak peek, so click the link below to see the rest of the pics.

Quick and easy holiday gift tags!

Even when I'm not feeling in the most craftiest mood, I always try and do SOMETHING small. But, last night since I was already making a card for my sis, I decided to make these cute little holiday package gift tags.

In a matter of about 20 minutes I had all of these punched, stamped and colored. :) So, even if YOU aren't feeling the craftiest, you can always do something really small, and pretty quick and it doesn't have to be the most elaborate thing that you put hours of frustrating, second guessing yourself, hard work into. LOL ;)

So, I made these and sent them to my ma with the card I sent to my sis. There are 40 tags all together. 20 with red scarf and 20 with green scarf.

See more below...

Christmas Crafts Galore!!

WHEWW it has been a BUSY week and weekend!! in 2 days, I've created 22, yes, you read that right, 22 different themed cards! I had to get everything done for my secret santa swap! but this post isn't about those cards yet! I'll get to that later this week or this weekend.... I have my back surgery in the morning, and I'm SO very nervous, to the point to where I'm physically ill from my nerves. My klonopin is definitely NOT helping my nerves, nor is my valium. So, while I couldn't sleep I figured this was as good a time as any to do an update on a few of the "Christmas" crafts I completed mid last week. I had a few things I had to do for "swaps" in my craft group and i had SO much fun doing them!!!!

I'm not going to post all of the supplies I listed right now, I'll update the post later with that info. For now, just pics and a little info.
So there are 3 ATC's that I did, though I'm only really pleased with 2 of them. LOL Hey, we are always our own worst critic!

Alcohol Inked Cards--AND A LESSON ON ADHEREING STUFF TO THEM!!!!

So, I showed you my alcohol ink backgrounds the other day. I made 2 cards with 2 of the backgrounds.

Here is a preview, click below to see the rest of this card and the other one.

Fun with Alcohol Inks-Creating Backgrounds

It has been a ROUGH week! So, I was supposed to have back surgery yesterday, but I've been dealing with an impacted wisdom tooth for about 3 weeks now. I went to my dentist monday afternoon and they did an exam and took some x-rays. I have a MASSIVE infection all in the back part of my gums, up into my cheek bone and down in my ear. So, my back surgery has been pushed back to mid November. I'm not happy, but gotta deal with it. I will have my tooth surgically removed next tuesday. I'm not looking forward to that!

Anyhow, since I didn't have to get up with the roosters tuesday morning, I was able to stay up and have some fun with glossy cardstock and alcohol inks. Ok, I lied, so, I actually used glossy photo paper. same thing, right? almost, but not really. LOL

So here is what I came up with. (just one of them, but click below to see the rest). I'm really pleased with how these all came out! :)

So that one is more of an artistic piece rather than an actual background that I'll use. I'm going to make a few more with these same colors and just alternate the order of the colors. :)

Click below to see the rest that I made!

My Halloween ATC Swap Card

I used to do ATC cards (artist trading card) and ATC swaps a LOT, but don't do them very often anymore. I recently joined an ATC swap in one of my craft groups and had to make 1 card for my partner. I ended up actually making 2 of this card and am going to send one to my auntie for halloween.

this is the ATC I came up with. Here is a preview, clickety click below to see the whole card.