born to fly

joyeaux noel...marie style...

Some pretty eye candy for your pleasure...inspired by some favorite artists...

I've been busy creating holiday ornaments with a Marie Antoinette theme for a swap I am participating in.

The first was inspired by Julie Collings book, Pretty Little Felts. Fave art book of 2009!!!

The second was inspired by the fabulous Andrea Singarella of One Hundred Wishes and her Ostrich Eggs that she comes out with in the springtime...

the third ornament is my favorite...the idea for it came from one of the lovely sponsor bags we received at Silver Bella 2009. (forgive me if I'm wrong here...I believe it was from Whim & Fancy Designs.) I altered the pattern a bit with a Marie image and some silk ribbon.

The last ornament was fashioned into a Marie Antoinette Prize Ribbon. The inspiration for this little beauty came from another fabulous Silver Bella Sponsor and friend of mine, Heidi Wallingford of Birds of a Feather. This gal is just lovely from her finger tips to her toes.

While at Silver Bella, the lovely Heidi gifted me with this beautiful Bella birdie...

So beautiful, right? Miss Bella is sitting atop my white mini Christmas tree in the front foyer.

Hoping your holidays are filled with visions of loveliness too!

xoxo

CS 
 
 
 
 
 

I'm late, I'm late...for a very important date...

ugh. was to have posted this by the 3rd...sorry sweet jessi...oh well, better late than never!!!

December brings loads of goodies, and in our home that always means loads of cookies! Here is one of my favorite recipes that we make each year...

Enjoy!

xoxo

CS  

Naughty or nice?

Deck the Halls with boughs of holly...The holidays are in full swing over at Sweet Pea Ink!

I'm pleased to present the 3rd annual, ever popular "From Santa" tags!

Sold in sets of two, customized with "nice" or "naughty" just for you! I'm happy to report that there is still loads of humor alive and well in the world. More often than not, I have customer ordering the "naughty" version...tee, hee! They are perfect for tying onto wine bottles for hostess gifts.

For the kiddos? We'll happily mark "nice" and customize with their name.

Believe in the Magic.

xoxo

CS
 

Happy Thanksgiving.

hope you spend the day surrounded by loved ones.

xoxo

CS 

giving thanks...

 
 

for a very special lineage of women from the maternal side in our family...

my maternal great grandma, Mary...

my maternal grandma, Audrey...

my mama, Catherine...

me...
 

and my daughter, Sophia... 

My great grandma and grandma have passed on, but three generations of women will gather around our Thanksgiving table tomorrow. I am grateful.

*This "lineage of love" project was from Pam Garrison's class at Silver Bella.*

Hoping you are celebrating in a very special way too.

xoxo

CS

the apron from silver bella 2009...

As part of Silver Bella, Friday night had a theme of "100 Aprons." Each attendee was to bring,create, purchase and/or alter an apron of their choice and wear it along with all the other Bellas. As I'm "learning" to sew, this presented a bit of a challenge to me. I definitly wanted to make an apron, and make it "my own", but with minimal sewing! Here is how my little apron came to be...

I started with the sourcing and purchase of a lovely vintage German nightdress which dated from the early 1900's. (This is not the exact one I purchased as I forgot to take a "before" photo, but it is similar enough.) This is where I found mine. www.touchofeurope.net

The back of the nightdress had a seam directly up the back of it. Using my trusty seam ripper, I simply took the nightdress apart all the way along the seam. Next, to seal the seams back together on each side I used "stich witchery" and my iron. (Love that stuff!)

Next, I gathered favorite bits of vintage millinery, ribbon and bits and bobs. Using Fabri-tac and some decorative stitching, I adhered these items around the bottom of the apron. 

I had found the antique lace running around the bottom about a year ago while out antiquing and had been saving it for a special project. Again, using stitch witchery, I adhered the lace to the apron with my iron. 
 
 

Voila! The front of my altered apron.

For the back, I wanted to keep it simple with a little pop. I attached another vintage rose and yards of seam binding. It's hard to see how the back is open, but basically it closes with a snap that I stitched on underneath the rose.

Here I am wearing the apron at Silver Bella!

My very own "no sew" vintage apron.

xoxo,

CS
 
 
 
 

the ever inspiring pam garrison...

The lovely bella, Mrs. Hope Wallace Karney, of Paper Relics fame, sent me the above photo which was taken at Silver Bella. Rarely do I post photos of myself, as I tend to be so...self-critical...c'mon, I do always look like a Cheshire Cat!...ack! But I do love the above photo as it includes my beautiful mama , who joined me on the trip and the uber-talented Pam Garrison. Sigh...love her. Love. I'm still finishing up my project from her class, and will post as it's completed. For now, here is a photo of one of the other swaps I participated in...the Mary Montage Swap hosted by Gina Grable.

We created (13) 5 x 7 collages using our favorite image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I truly loved the creative process that went into creating these pieces. I used a combination of acrylic paints, vintage papers and ledgers, vintage French prayer cards and canvas reproductions of Mary.

Thought it would be fun to share a bit of the process I used in creating the background:

I started by using matte medium to adhere all sorts of bits and pieces of vintage papers, wallpaper and the prayer cards to the canvas.

Next, I used my Tim Holtz, antique linen, ink pad to age everything. Voila! All the too white pieces of paper are instantly fixed. That's my fave ink pad by far.

Next, I loaded up my brayer with three different colors of acrylic paint...teal, parchment and cream. I simply rolled the brayer randomly thru the paint and then rolled right over the collaged papers. I pressed harder along the outside of the canvas.

I kept a damp paper towel handy so I could dab at any areas of the collage that I wanted to show through.

Lastly, after the paint had dried, I again took my Antique Linen ink pad and reinked all of the image again. I pressed my fingers right into the inkpad and then used my inked fingers directly on the edges of certain parts of the collage.

 
 
Ta Dah! Want to read more about this creative process...??? I highly recommend this book:

Taking Flight, written by the lovely, Kelly Rae Roberts.

xoxo,

CS
 
  

back from Silver Bella 2009 and in recovery mode...

I am just home from the most magnificent event ever put together for us "crafty types." Silver Bella 2009. I have lots to share...just need to find the time to post about it! For now...here are photos of one of the two of the swaps I participated in:

the first was a felt ornament swap hosted by the oh so entertaining, Stacy McGinnis...

I created the above Tree Ornaments using wool felt and vintage sheet music. Each of the 18 ornaments was different and embellished with stitching, glitter, vintage millinery, yards and yards of seam binding and vintage rhinestone buttons. I had such fun collecting everything and creating these tres petit beauties. 

I packaged each one in a glassine bag which was filled with mica flakes to look like snow...yummy!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

xoxo,

CS
 

post halloween round-up...

 Where, oh where did October go??? I think it got blown away with the fall leaves...

I am room mom for one of my sweetpea's classes this year. He is in 3rd grade so I planned a Halloween classroom celebration that was for "bigger kids" (as my son likes to refer to his class!).

We dunked apples into melted caramel...
 

created "Haunted Portraits" using their photos and sheets of spooky eyes and features I had printed out...

I printed the below sheet directly onto Avery full size label sheets so the kiddos could just cut out and stick right to their 8 x 10 black and white photos. (If you click on below it will give you a bigger size...feel free to use for next year!)

 
  
I packaged up "trick-or-treat pillowcase" kits...they included a length of clothesline, a white pillowcase, and black iron on patches which I had traced the face templates onto...

here is the finished product...they LOVED this...credit goes to Miss Martha Stewart...

I brought an iron into the classroom and ironed them right there...so fun!

 

and here is a peek at my costume...can you guess what I went as??? Tee, hee!!! 

I made the nose out of a dixie cup and sheets of felt.

Hope you had a spook-tacular Halloween as well!

xoxo,

cristina
 
 
 

 
 

no pretty pictures today...just some courage...

I'll admit I've had a small case of the grumpiness brewing...nothing terrible...

visitors in town all weekend, sick kids, too much on the "to do" list...you know, daily life. So I'm up and going this morning, head churning with one task after another...and I'm at the sweet pea's school copying and distributing flyers for the bagel sale my son's class is putting on. Since it was Monday morning the entire student body gathers for an assembly. I finished my tasks and was about to rush out the door onto the next "to do" item when I decided just to "peek in" the assembly.

HOLD THE BOAT FRIENDS.

"To do" list...gone! Rushing time frame...gone! Why, do you ask?

Right before my very eyes, I watched as my 3rd grade son, who has very severe dyslexia by the way, walked up front to the podium...in front of the school...and read from a script about the bagel sale happening tomorrow. Now I know for some of you, that does not seem like a reason for the awe and amazement I experienced. But for anyone who has ever suffered from or had a child who suffers from dyslexia you GET it! He was not nervous, read it perfectly and went on his merry way...no big deal to him. For that sweet pea's mama though, who has spent hours of tutoring and reading and homework and encouraging time with that boy...it was EVERYTHING.

I LOVED that it was no big deal to him, I LOVED that he didn't even mention it to me and most of all...

I LOVED that GOD encouraged me to peek into that assembly today.

Sometimes the biggest act of courage is a small one.  ~Lauren Raffo

Life is good today,
CS