Julie Nutting Dolls--Valentina

This is a blog series I will be doing on my Julie Nutting doll projects! Julie Nutting doll stamps--first of all, LOVE. They are stamps that are meant to be crafted and played with like a paper doll. They have no faces, but I think they look all the more cuter for it. They are designed for mixed media, so really, anything goes with these dolls!

Today I'm showing off my Valentina projects. I LOVE this doll. With her boots, she's great for winter projects. Her dress is also super cute, and I love her hair!

Generally, I tend to "paper piece" my dolls, which is what you see above. You stamp out the skin on a neutral piece of paper, then stamp out the clothes on designed scrapbook paper, then cut it all out and glue together. I also then color in the hair and add highlights to make her more lifelike.

First, I have an Advent Pocket Letter I made for a swap. There's 4 pages of Pocket Letters, with numbers to count down to Christmas! There's goodies in all of the pockets. I added Valentina to the top of the "book" with a Christmas dress and boots. Here I made her blonde.

This was also for a swap, a Christmas Fairy was the theme.  Again, with the winter theme, Valentina was perfect for this! I had fun adding wings, glitter, and I even colored her hair green with blue highlights! Adding a Santa hat was the final touch!

And finally, I have a coffee themed Pocket Letter I made. I went with a very neutral colored dress, so the colors in the background could stand out. It also goes perfectly with the elements in the page.

Those are my Valentina projects! I'm sure I'll be making many more next winter! I also think she'd be great for fall, too!

If you want to be further inspired with Julie Nutting, you can check out her Facebook page HERE

You can find her products in most craft and scrapbook stores, and if all else fails, they have many of them on Amazon.

Pocket Letters!

Today I'm going to show off a few binders of the Pocket Letters I've received over the last year! What are Pocket Letters? Glad you asked! Pocket Letters are a new craze developed by Janette Lane. Basically, you take a pocket page (like what you've use to store baseball cards in) and you decorate it however you want. You add some goodies for the recipient, as well as a hand written letter, and swap it with someone on one of the many websites or Facebook groups affiliated with Pocket Letters. So fun, and so easy!

Find out more about it, and check out my collection!




Pocket Letters are so much fun, and I've made many wonderful friends through swapping these! I hope it inspires you as well!

Game Board Inspired Mini Accordion Books

Hi, fellow crafters! Its been a long time since I've posted on here! Don't worry, I've been plenty busy crafting, just not enough time for blogging!

Today I'm sharing some fun mini accordion books I made for a swap! The swap was "Altered Game Piece", so we had to make something out of a game piece(s). It was also a St. Patty's Day themed swap, so we had to include lots of green!

Here's what I came up with!




These were so much fun to make! My original video that explains how I make these is HERE

Everyone have a craftriffic day!!

Egyptian ATC Swap

A recent swap we did in Art Exchange, Happy Mail was the Egyptian ATC swap!  This one was so fun!

Here's the ATC I sent to my partner, Veronica

And here is the ATC she sent me in return!

I thought it was hilarious we both did the Eye of Ra! I like hers much better :)

Daily Drawing

I've gotten inspired to go back to basic drawing as of late. It started with my mom finding a beautiful picture I drew in high school. She's cleaning out her house because she just moved, and she wanted to know if i wanted it. Of course I did, it is a beautiful large picture that took my 4 months to do. Here it is if you're curious:

So I posted this on my Facebook, just because I am proud of it and I'd completely forgotten about it! And a bunch of my friends really encouraged me to pick up a pencil and start drawing again!

At the same time, the admin in my Art Exchange group started doing daily sketches and uploading them to our group for opinions. I thought this was a great idea--if you want to improve something, you need to practice! So I decided I would try to draw something every day.

I am through my first week, and I did draw every day but Friday. So not bad! With the exception of Lorraine, these drawing were all done on regular copy paper, with  No. 2 pencil and regular eraser. I added colored pencils to Lorraine's drawing. Proving that art can be really simple!

"Celeste"
7/21/14

"Lorraine"--Vintage Fashions
7/22/14

"Lorraine in Winter Wonderland"

7/23/14

"Rose"

7/24/14

"Keys"
7/26/14

"Polar Bear"
7/27/14

I'm not sure what my favorite is...I really do love Celeste, but the Rose turned out great too! On Tuesday I drew Lorraine, but decided there was too much white space, so I drew her a background on Wednesday.  The Polar Bear was my least favorite, I was having issues with him. I actually spent Sunday night working on him for 2 hours, before I gave up..I finished him on Monday morning and eventually, just had to call it good. Maybe I'll go back later and try to fix him up a bit, but for now I just had to leave it!

I'm really enjoying the practice, and plan on trying to continue this sketchbook for awhile!

Bird Postcard Swap

A fun swap that my art group, Art Exchange Happy Mail did in May was a bird postcard swap! This one was so fun and easy!

I made 3 different postcards--one for my partner, Keigh Juarez, and the other 2 I sent randomly.

This one was just different papers I had collaged...then I had a really cool card with feathers on it that I cut out and added. The birds nest and eggs are 3D miniatures I bought and glued those on. Then I added a few stickers.

 This one was also some decorative paper I had, and I just added a gelli print to it and a stamped image I received in happy mail. The Peacock feathers I cut off of a wedding invite sample I had, and then I added a craft feather. The orange dots--I dipped the end of a colored pencil into some orange paint and stamped on dots. 

This was also some decorate papers, plus a light piece of vellum in hot pink. The mandala I received in happy mail. Then I just added on a feather and a couple of charms.

And this was the postcard I received from Keigh!

I love this beautiful hummingbird postcard! I've already placed it in one of my journals!

Fairy ATCs

One of my favorite things I've made over the last few months have been fairy ATCs.  They are so gosh darn CUTE!

I started by making some for a swap: then I had so much fun, I made extra. I made some more even more recently!

They are pretty simple...first I make some colorful gelli prints, and cut fairy wings out of those. Then I take a black silhouette image of a girl, shrink it down on my PC, then print it. I use this to do an image transfer right onto the ATC. Then I go back with my black paint pen and fix anything that needs fixing. They come out kind of imperfect, but I like that. Then I paint the background with watercolors, add some glitter. After they are dry, comes the really fun part--naming them! They each have a unique name. I write that on the bottom of the card, then edge each card with distress paint--and Voila!--Cute little fairy ATCs!

My favorites are Celeste, Fawn, Adalynn, and Lola. I have a dear friend named Lola who lives in The Netherlands, and I sent her my Lola fairy, which thrilled her!

Anyways, very fun fun project, and I can't wait to make some more!