Sizzix Triple-Play Blog-Hop Week 4: Christmas Greetings

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Sizzix Triple Play Blog-Hop Week 3- 1st Birthday Headband

You'll need to use your imagination... and a little simple math to get the full effect, but here's my 3rd installment to the Sizzix Triple-Play Blog Hop. WARNING... This post is a little heavy on proud grandma bragging, but I figured I could get away with it, since the designer of the Beauty Bloom Die just became a Grandma to her own little pink princess! Congratulations to Brenda and the whole Pinnick family!



Many of you know I'm head over heals in love with a little bundle of joy. Our first and only Grandbaby, Grace Ashlyn Phillips, who will be turning ONE in just a few weeks. I can't believe how fast this milestone birthday has come! We won't be with her on her actual birthday, December 24th, but we'll celebrate with her a couple weeks from now. When I saw the Beauty Bloom Die I knew instantly I had to make Grace a flower headband to match the Birthday dress I'd sewn for her.

ONE Birthday Headband + ONE little girl +...


ONE birthday dress + ONE year ...


EQUALS...

A little ONE YEAR OLD FAIRY PRINCESS whose Grammy thinks she's the sweetest thing ever! (Picture to follow after the party... use your imagination for now)

Here's how I made the headband...

Supplies:
Flower, Beauty Bloom, Originals Die #655455 by Brenda Pinnick
Fabric Scraps
Iron-on Adhesive (HeatnBond)
Ready-made headband (or make your own with ribbon)
Green ribbon 1" wide: two 3" pieces
2 small buttons
Scrap pieces of toile
Sewing machine with thread
Fabric Scissors

Instructions:
1. Iron HeatnBond to the backside of fabric scraps, peel backing off and iron matching fabric to backside. Repeat with two or three different coordinating fabrics.
2. Die-cut fabric with Beauty Bloom Die. You'll need three 3-petal flowers and 1 medium sized flower for each blossom.
3. Free-style stitching on petals of flowers. (optional)
4. Cut petals of one of the flowers into strips.


5. Layer 3 large flowers and one medium flower together with green ribbon folded in half and toile. Stitch in place on headband with machine or by hand. Repeat for second flower.
6. Stitch buttons in center of flowers.


Be sure to hop onto the next blog to see what creative ideas the other designers have come up with!

Time with Daughters... Priceless!

Daughters...everyone should have at least one! (or one to borrow!) Lucky me, I have been blessed with two! ... and a daughter-in-law, to boot! And recently, a week and a half to spend with the two I raised!

Leading my way, Autumn leaves drifted onto the roadway reminding me of a flower girl dropping petals down the aisle to lead a bride to her sweetie. Traveling through the Blue Ridge Mountains is truly spectacular this time of year! And my destination, even sweeter!



Although I can’t claim to be a vegetarian, we eat many meatless meals at our house. I’m married to a successful hunter, so we have a freezer loaded with plenty of totally organic totally delicious wild game and we will eat organically grown, humanly raised pastured meats. We’ve taken time to learn what goes on in our country’s food industry... and folks... it ain’t pretty! If you are interested in learning more, start by reading this and watching this.

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, the girls and I took a Vegetarian Thanksgiving cooking class at Mise en Place in Richmond, Virginia. Surrounded by a dozen foodies and lead by a very talented Chef, we made a feast “to die for.”





I thought to take a few pictures while we worked together in this well-equipped classroom, but totally forgot to snap some shots of the beautiful food we’d prepared. Sorry. But let me tell you....no-one missed the Turkey or the Ham one iota! How could you when there is so much to be thankful for on a menu like this...

-Onion Leek Tart with Fresh Tarragon
-Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Vegetable Gravy
-Acorn Squash stuffed with Brown and Wild Rice, Cranberries and toasted walnuts
-Mushroom Spinach Galette
-Fresh Sauteed Kale with garlic
-Ginger Orange Cranberry Tarts for dessert
and plenty of wine!

What a festive flavorful meal! I think we’ll have some added traditions from this delightful time with my girls!

Sizzix Triple Play Blog-Hop Week 2- ATC with a Twist!

Artist Trading CUBE... with a Twist!

We've all heard of Artist Trading Cards, but how about using a cube instead of a card? The 3-D Pop-up Die from Sizzix puts an exciting new twist on an old idea! With careful placement of embellishments, this cube will twist flat for easy mailings.





See the assembly instructions of Sizzix, Twist Cube, 3D Pop-up, Bigz XL Die by Karen Burniston at these links: Part 1 and Part 2

Here's how I embellished mine...

1. Cut four 2 3/4" squares of decorative paper for sides of cube. Fold squares corner to corner to match folds on sides of cube.
2. Cut one 2 3/4" square of decorative paper for top of cube. Pierce hole in center of square for threading cord through.
3. Ink edges of all squares. Adhere papers to cube with tape runner or favorite adhesive, being very careful to align folds in paper with folds in cube.
4. Using a Krylon Leafing Pen, highlight all edges of cube.
5. Embellish cube with additional trims, inks, etc.
6. From decorative paper and french text, cut elongated tag shape to tie to top of cube. Tie 6" length of coordinating silk ribbon to cording.
7. Attach a variety of metal embellishments to a small chain and dangle from the brad at the bottom of the cube.


Look the the Triple Play Blog-Hop Blinkie in my sidebar and click on forward to hop along to the next creative use of this fun die-cut! See you next week!

What is Art?

Art doesn't have to happen in a studio or on an easel or behind a lens. I often think about art while I'm working in the garden or painting a wall, cleaning my house or mowing our lawn. I think there is art in anything you do beautifully and with heart. Putting a seed in the ground and tending a garden, harvesting the bounty and preserving it for enjoying in the months ahead is an art. An art that brings me great satisfaction, especially when I look in my pantry in the dead of winter!



The harvest from my organic garden the day before our first freeze filled our counter. Vine ripened tomatoes, string beans, peppers, basil, egg plants and lettuce greens in November... priceless!



Crispy Dilly Beans... a collage of pickling spices, vibrant green and purple string beans, a banana pepper and a garlic clove.



After 7 pints of Dilly Beans, 21 pints of Green Tomato Relish and 8 pints of spicy pizza sauce... I've completed my masterpiece for the day!



Next art project will involve paper and a very cool 3D Pop-up Cube for the Blog-Hop I'm participating in. Stop back by on Thursday afternoon to see what you can do with this very cool Die-cut from Sizzix!

Artfully Yours,
~Roxi

Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop Week 1: From Our House to Yours

Honored to be included with the amazing group of 60 allstar artists, I’ll be participating in a HUGE blog hop. For this week I’ve decided to turn Eileen Hull’s 3-D house into clever gift holder. On every Thursday, for 7 weeks, each artist will share a design created with a new Sizzix Die-Cut. Look at the sidebar of my blog to find the “blinkie” with the forward button and begin hopping your way through some of the most creative blogs in the industry!

I know it seems just a bit early, but Christmas is right around the corner for our family. With our “kids” each in a different state on both sides of this huge country, we get together and celebrate when we can. This year that means the first week in December. We’ll have Thanksgiving, Christmas and two birthdays, including our only Grandbaby’s very first birthday all at once! Yes, the Phillips’ will be partying like rock stars for an entire week!

I still take holiday goodies to my neighbors. Do you? We usually spread good cheer with cookies or candies, sometimes drink mixes, sometimes homemade cinnamon rolls or maybe jams or preserves. This little house makes perfect packaging for holding a bag of mulling spices or other treats and the roof turns into a simple gift card for including a sentiment or recipe.

So let’s get going...
Here’s how the pieces looked before the assembly began.



Here’s the how...
Sizzix supplies: (Sizzix link)
  Sizzix Scoreboards Pro Die - House, 3D, by Eileen Hull #656836
   Sizzix 12x12 matboard, white
   Sizzix Big Shot Pro die cutting machine
Other supplies:
Decorative holiday paper (double-sided or two coordinating papers)
Zip-Dry Adhesive by Beacon
ColorBox Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan
Letter stickers or die-cuts
Red-Liner Tape
Craft Scissors
Decorative Waxed Tissue (The Container Store)

Instructions:

1. Die-cut 3-D House from matboard. Use walls of house, large roof top and small house module as templates to trace onto decorative papers. Cut with craft scissors. Cut paper where mat-board folds. Do not cover tabs with paper.
2. Leaving roof off, assemble main body of house using red-liner tape on tabs. Adhere floor the same way. Cover house with decorative paper pieces using Beacon’s Zip Dry adhesive.
3. Cover small house module with coordinating paper and adhere to front of large house with red-liner on tabs, without roof.
4. Cover large roof with Decorative paper.
5. Ink all edges of house and roof (gift card) with Chalk Ink.
6. Ink window and door frames with Chalk Ink and adhere to house.
7. Apply letter stickers to gift card and face of small house module.
8. Fill house with goodies wrapped in waxed tissue.
9. Write sentiment or recipe inside of gift card.
Now go play Santa!