Wednesday, May 22, 2019

A Case of the Blues


It is time for the new challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  Suzz is our hostess for this one and she is calling it Mother May I?  She describes the challenge this way:

May in the U.S. is when we celebrate Mother's Day and honor our mothers. I am challenging you to create something that is vintage or shabby chic which is inspired by your Mother or any mother figure in your life. It can be a favorite memory, something based on her style, something she said/says to you, or anything that reminds you of your mother figure. Make sure to share with us how your mother inspired your art!

By the time you read this Mother's Day will have already passed - it was on May 10th here in Canada.  This card has no sentiment for a Mother because my Mother passed away 27 years ago and my Mother-in-Law died 2 1/2 years ago.  When I made the card, it was approaching Mother's Day and I naturally felt some sadness  however, I did make this with my Mother in mind.

She loved the colour blue and she used it everywhere.  Her walls were painted blue, her clothes and her dishes were blue and she collected blue glass.  Oh, did she ever collect blue glass.  When she died I inherited everything in the house and I thought I would save a few pieces I liked and sell the rest since I had no use for 800 (yes you read that correctly) pieces of blue glass.

So my husband and I packed it all up and brought it to our home but since I didn't have any idea how much the collection was worth, I spent money to have it appraised only to discover that most of it was not worth anything and what she thought were valuable antiques, were reproductions.  It was the polar opposite of an Antiques Roadshow episode - really disappointing and I felt badly mostly for her because she thought she had something but then I remembered her joy every time she told me about a new piece and decided I wouldn't fret about it.

In the end I sent it to an auction house and they started to sell it in small lots.  After the first two, they went out of business and took off in the middle of the night with all the goods in their possession.  I was super annoyed to say the least but then decided I would look at the bright side - I didn't have to pack it all again and find a new way to sell it.

Here is how to make this card:

  • Cut two squares of patterned paper from the Secret Garden and Botanical Tea Collections (Graphic 45) making one smaller than the other.
  • Distress each panel and adhere to a card blank.
  • Add a strip of lace across the middle of the card.


  • Alter two filigree leaves by coating first with Snow Cap Mixative Alcohol Ink (Tim Holtz), then Versamark (Tsukineko) and then two coats of Aegean Sea Baked Velvet Embossing Powder (Seth Apter).


  • Die cut a couple of flourishes from blue card stock, coat with Versamark and then emboss with two coats of the Aegean Sea Baked Velvet.


  • Use a variety of blue shades of Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) to colour a scrap of card stock.  Note:  I had a piece already coloured in my stash and can't remember exactly which shades of Distress Ink that I used.
  • Die cut leaves with the Garden Greens die (Tim Holtz).


  • Stamp two each of three different Wendy Vecchi flowers with Cornflower Blue Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi.  I used flowers from Daisy Art and  Mix and Match Art.
  • Use a water brush (Tim Holtz) and Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) to colour the flowers.
  • Shape and layer the pairs and add centres (seed beads (my stash) for the top flower,  gems (my stash) for the little flower and Bliss adhesive pearls (Kaisercraft) for the flower on the right).



  • Colour a scrap of plastic packaging with Denim, Cloudy Blue and Aqua Alcohol Ink (Tim Holtz) using Blending Solution or Blending Pen (Tim Holtz) to move and mix the colours.
  • Use Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) to stamp the detail butterfly from the Country Flowers stamp set (Wendy Vecchi) and then die cut with the accompanying die.  Note:  I wanted to include a nod to my Mom's blue glass collection and this was a suggestion from my wonderful teammate Jenny Marples.

To assemble:

  • Add the flourishes first, then the leaves and then the filigree leaves.
  • Top with the flowers and then add the butterfly last.
I hope you will share a project with us that is inspired by your Mom.  One random winner will receive a gift certificate to go shopping at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and the Design Team will choose their top picks with the overall winner receiving an opportunity to be a Guest Designer at a future date.

Links to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for products used to create this card:

Seth Apter Baked Velvet - Mediterranean Kit
Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Blending Pen
Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART Stamp, Die, Stencil Set - Country Flowers

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Burlap and Lace


It is time for the next challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  Jenny is our hostess for this one, she calls it I Love It Because ... and describes it this way:

How often do you create something just for you that makes your heart sing? Doesn't it feel great when you do! My challenge to you is to make a vintage or shabby chic piece of art, be it a journal page, a tag, a card, a home decor project etc, that fills you with happiness and makes you smile - don't forget to tell us why you love it so much.

So for this challenge I have made a canvas and I love it because it is a little bit frilly, a little bit funkie, a little bit vintage, a little bit shabby, a little bit mixed media, a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll.  OK forget the last two because I am not a fan of country and it sure isn't rock and roll.


For my canvas substrate I used a piece of mat board that I found hiding in my craft room when I made a halfhearted attempt to purge.  I used Collage Medium (Tim Holtz) to cover it with a piece of lace fabric from my stash.  When it was dry I painted it with some khaki paint but it was way too dark for my liking so I dry brushed White Gesso (Dina Wakely) over it but didn't get carried away trying to cover the khaki paint completely.


Next I cut a piece of corrugated cardboard and ripped the top layer off around the edges.  Using a palette knife I randomly scraped Texture Paste (Ranger) over the exposed corrugations.  When it was dry I adhered it to the lace canvas. I will link to the corrugated section at The Funkie Junkie Boutique because you don't need to rip off the top layer with the kind carried in the shop - I only had one piece of the light left in my stash and wanted the tradition brown colour so this time I grabbed a box and chopped it up.

Four different panels of patterned paper were cut from the Old Lace paper collection (Stamperia) and distressed.  Strips of lace were added to the back of the largest panel and then all the panels were mounted on top of the cardboard panel using fun foam (Dollarama) for dimension.  I fussy cut the dress from the paper pad, added a tiny Latte Adhesive Pearl (Kaisercraft) and then mounted it on top of the panels.

The burlap flowers came next.  The top one is some wired burlap ribbon from my Funkie Junkie Boutique stash.  I pulled one of the wires to ruffle it and then tied it off in the centre.  Once I had the shape I cut the out edge away to allow it to fray and then added a pearl brad to the centre.


The large loopy flower was made by cutting a length of burlap and pulling all the centre threads out along the length making sure to leave at least 3/8" on each side.  One edge was glued to the other edge and then it was rolled along the glued edge, gluing along the way.  Once it dried I spread the loops out to form the flower and sliced off as much off the bottom as I safely could to make it lie flat.  A button was added to the centre.

The bottom flower was made by spreading school glue over and piece of burlap and letting it dry.  Then it was die cut using the Shabby Posies die (Tammy Tutterow), shaped and layered.  Another pearl brad was added to the centre.

I made a loopy bow from the burlap threads I pulled to make the middle flower and added it to the left side and then topped it with a loopy seam binding bow.  To finish it off I added a few buttons to one corner and a filigree piece to the opposite corner.

I hope you will join us for this challenge and create something you love and let us know why you love it.

Links to products The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Corrugated Cardboard
Stamperia - Old Lace 12x12 Paper Pack
Dina Wakley Media Mediums - White Gesso MDM41689
Ranger Texture Paste Opaque Matte INK44444
Venise Lace Trim - 5/8 inch
White Jute Mesh (Burlap)
Antiqued Bronze Corner Filigree Metal Pieces - Set of 4
Rayon Seam Binding
KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive - Latte
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDA47933
Tim Holtz Tonic Studios Paper Distresser 370E