Bella Carta

I got Etsy inspired! EIC51

This week's Etsy inspired was one I found the time to play along wtih!  Our "job" was to check out Red Crow Arts pottery and raku on Etsy and then go be create!   Well, I was inspired by the beautiful colors and this set of raku leaves:

 

and created this!  I used the "faux bleach" technique and the stamp set I used was the SU/Country Living magazine exclusive from two years ago:  Country Blessings.  I heat embossed the sentiment in black for a little extra pop.  Oh, and its on shimmery white cardstock for that little extra sparkle!

Congratulations Ashley, on your one year blog-o-versary for the Etsy Inspired Challenges!

Oooooey gooey! Monkey Bread!

I made monkey bread this weekend ...... and forgot how good its ooooey, gooey caramelness is!  I pared down this recipe from a bigger recipe to make a smaller sized batch better suited for one or two persons.  If you are making it for more than two and/or just want to make a big ol' huge one ... use this recipe here from Pioneer Woman for the regular sized treat that's the "best use of a bundt pan" ever, lol!

And I added a Granny Smith apple - which is completely optional, but made it more like a big caramel apple baked treat!    Ummmmmmmm, it was good!  

 

bevy of butterflies {WANDER} for the last HHH!

Today is the very last ever Hip Hop Hangover! But Angela assures us that the next thing will be equally as great or better than hip hop AND Fridays will continue to be a day for to showcase customers!  How wonderful is that?  So, this isn't a day of sadness, its a day of celebration!   The new thing will be Friends with Flair Fridays!

This project was inspired by a project on the Club Scrap showcase, and it features the Unity Stamp Co. stamp set "Bevy of Butterflies" on Tim Holtz grunge paper (like grunge board, only lighter and flexible!) and distress inks.  I punched a few smaller butterflies to match, then doodled them with my pigment ink pen.   Its in a shadow box style frame from IKEA (this is RIBBA in 5.5 in x 5.5 in) and features a metal tag {wander} also from Tim Holtz, and I removed the glass from the frame. 

I sponged the inks on the grunge paper (inks in Dusty Concord, Broken China, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Orange Marmalaid and Worn Lipstick) in a ROY G  BIV pattern, then stamped over it and cut out.  I found my Tim Holtz/Tonic scissors works great for cutting the grunge paper! 

 

ETA:  I was inspired to do another project using  butterfly's after reading this over the weekend on the  Craft Critique's blog about the Butterfly project for the Houston Holocaust Museum.   You can read more on the Butterfly Project here <----- click.

sneak peek!

Sneak peek at my project for tomorrow - which is Unity's "last ever" Hip Hop hangover {I'm looking forward to seeing "what's next" from Unity!}

I felt a change coming on .....

I loved my butterflies :-) but I felt change coming on!  So, I've got a new blog header, featuring "Cucina" from Scrap Girls and Pen & Ink Artists, fonts used include Papyrus and Pablo. 

I thought the paper was just yummy in cherries and apricots! 

BOO to you!

As I noticed yesterday on Margie's blog ..... Halloween is right around the corner.  For a while now, Halloween decorations have been in the craft stores but I hadn't started any projects, till now.  

Here are some earrings, featuring the new UV resin from Judikins and some earring findings I purchased at CHA.  The paper is scraps (don't ya love using your scraps!) and stamped with some chocks from Stamps by Judith - the spider and the boo.   I can't wait to wear these!  

(note to my readers:  ignore the little piece of cat fur that seems to have statically attached itself to these!  I hadn't noticed that when I photographed them).

added my pics for TTIC44: Books

I added the pics of my altered book project for TTIC 44 click or see the post immediately below this one.

TTIC #44: its BOOKS that brought us all together!

ETA:   I am working on an altered book :-) this is going to be a work in progress as I alter a book into a scrapbook album, but I do have a few pics to share with you!

Its my turn choose the challenge topic and this week, I choose BOOOOOKS!!!!!!

Reading the Twilight saga books is what brought us all together .... so this week is really dedicated to books.   I hadn't stayed up all night reading anything in a very long time, yet that was exactly what I did with the books - I couldn't put them down!  Many of you have shared similar stories with me on that topic.   Each of the books have their own sub-theme throughout the series.  Wuthering Heights is discussed many times in Eclipse, in fact - bookstores have been reporting that their sales of Wuthering Heights were through the roof after Eclipse came out.   Check out the "new" cover for Wuthering Heights:

Each book in the series was inspired by and loosely based on a different literary classic: Twilight on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, New Moon on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Eclipse on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and Breaking Dawn on a second Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Meyer also states that Orson Scott Card and L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series are a big influence on her writing.  (quote from Meridian Magazine: http://www.meridianmagazine.com/books/080806vampire.html)

Bella discusses some her books (this is from Twilight)
I had a small collection of books that came with me to Forks, the shabbiest volume being a compilation of the works of Jane Austen.  Outside in Charlies small, square yard, I folded the guilt in half and laid it out of the reach of trees' shadow on the thick lawn that would always be slightly wet, no matter how long the sun shone.  I lay on my stomach, crossing my ankles in the air, flipping through the different novels in the book, trying to decide which would occupy my mind the most thoroughly.  My favorites were Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

Craft Challenge:  Make any project that celebrates your favorite book!  It can be a project about a book, for a book, inspired by a book title or cover.

Comment  Challenge:    Which novel would you put in Bella's hands (classic or contemporary) for her to read? Did Twilight,  New Moon, Eclipse or Breaking Dawn inspire you to read (or re-read) any of the classics?  Do you compare Edward and Bella to that of Wuthering Heights Heathcliff and Cathy?

Here is my project!  I am not much of a scrapbooker :-) in the traditional sense - although I am really like digi-pages!  But this combines a project I've been wanting to do:  an altered book with a scrapbook layout.

Here is the cover - the scrap paper is from Prima, the colored cardstock is from Core'dinations.  The PTI colors Melon Berry and Ocean Tides, matched my project well.  The stamps are from Unity Stamp Co.

 

The inside cover features a mat (dark orange/salmon) that will fit a 4 x 6 picture.  The inside pages are inked in verdigris, but appear to be more "blue" in my photos than what they really are.  

The book I'd have Bella read???  Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. 

Synopsis from Amazon.com
Everyone knows that Galileo Galilei dropped cannonballs off the leaning tower of Pisa, developed the first reliable telescope, and was convicted by the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief--that the earth revolved around the sun. But did you know he had a daughter? In Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel (author of the bestselling Longitude) tells the story of the famous scientist and his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Sobel bases her book on 124 surviving letters to the scientist from the nun, whom Galileo described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and tenderly attached to me." Their loving correspondence revealed much about their world: the agonies of the bubonic plague, the hardships of monastic life, even Galileo's occasional forgetfulness ("The little basket, which I sent you recently with several pastries, is not mine, and therefore I wish you to return it to me").

While Galileo tangled with the Church, Maria Celeste--whose adopted name was a tribute to her father's fascination with the heavens--provided moral and emotional support with her frequent letters, approving of his work because she knew the depth of his faith. As Sobel notes, "It is difficult today ... to see the Earth at the center of the Universe. Yet that is where Galileo found it."

Incidentally enough, today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope invention!    While the book is entitled of the daughter, there is an enormous amount of interesting work covered about Galileo himself.   While he was imprisoned as a heretic, he published large amounts of his scientific theory as plays .... yes, he wrote his theories as a play between three main characters, discussing the sun and moon.  I found that incredibly interesting! It also gave me all sorts of interesting places to visit in Italy, including the Universities of Pisa and Padua, both were he had taught.   It was fun to go and stand in the places he had stood centuries before!  {and I don't think that makes me the biggest geek on the planet, but probably right up there :-) !}

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 As always, our Design Team has fantastic projects to display for this week’s challenge - please go and check them out!

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Julie ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

(*Julie and Beth are taking this week off)

with Guest Designers:

Alison ~ Donna ~ Jacquie ~ Erica (filling in for Margie)

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Please join in and play along with us! If you do, here are a few guidelines to follow:

For posting to a blog: Please indicate that you are playing along with the Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge on Twilighttuesday.com and please provide a link back to our site.

For posting on another gallery, such as Splitcoast Stampers or Flickr: Please indicate that you are playing along with the Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge on Twilighttuesday.com and please provide a link back to our site. Please use the appropriate keywords for our challenges; an example is TTIC44for challenge 44. No number signs (#) or spaces are needed in the keyword. You can also add in more general keywords for Splitcoast/Flickr (such as Twilight, Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge, etc.). Thank you for your help with this!

Comments/Posting your link: Please leave a comment with the link to your challenge piece to tell us that you played along with us! Then we can all visit you and leave lovely comments for you. (We are no longer using Mr. Linky as we were having quite a few spam issues and downtime.) We are big fans of comments around here!  And don’t forget — leaving a comment on this post will get you entered into this month’s blog candy giveaway!

I've been shopping .... when I probably could have been stamping!

I received this week my special order from Audrey {aka Mootsie} on Etsy <---- click to go see her shop. 

I saw the bracelet in her store - a little knitted silver wire birdsnest with these gorgeous peacock pearls, and quickly snapped it up with a request for matching earrings!

Aren't they fabulous???

And she's a paper crafter!  Check out the sweet little pill boxes she packages here jewelry in.  Isn't it just fabulous!  I wore this set to work on Thursday and received many, many compliments!

have I told you how much I love copper????

I made this bracelet and wore it to CHA .... I adore "jingle jangles" in my jewelry and holy cannoli I love it even more with COPPER!!!!

Here's a cleaning tip for copper, if you have copper jewelry that's tarnished - just place it in some ketchup.  The acid cleans it lickety split, with no nasty chemicals - pretty cool, huh?