Love that Baby...

Are those not two of the most adorable, beautiful, sweet babies you ever saw...Of course they are...That is hubby and me...and no, it was not made at the same time...but looks very much like it was...I sent copies of our baby photos to Patty at http://www.lisasalteredart.com and she put us together...I love it...She also has lots of gorgeous altered art images for sale, printed and digital...

New Tag Book Kit

This is our newest book kit...The book is made using a Custom Designed Tag...I wanted something large enough to use full 4 x 6 photos on...I love to make mini books using my photos...but sometimes...I dont want to crop the photo or use a smaller size...so I designed a tag shape that would work...This sample made by design team member Donalda Cox is beautiful...She does not scrapbook much, but she loves working with her new Magnolia rubber stamps...so she decided to make her book using her favorite new stamps, along with various die cuts, punched shapes and more...Donalda used her Bind It All to bind the book...More info on this kit at the studio blog http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com/ More samples coming soon with this new kit.

More Gift Bag Mania by Dianne Adams

Now, this is gift bag mania for sure...to say I am thrilled with these gift bags is an understatement...they are beautiful...Dianne Adams did a wonderful job designing these bags for me...Be sure and click on her blog from my favorite places and check out all the details for creating these gorgeous bags...She will be posting each bag and how it was created, so check her blog often to see all the bags...and be sure and check out the next posting, and you can get a sample pack of die cut gift bags to begin creating your own unique bags...Last year during the holidays, I decorated a dozen of the bags and filled them with home made cookies and candies to give to co-workers...Stay tuned for more on that in a future project in the works...If you would like to purchase the gift bag die cuts check out my studio blog for ordering these and more of our kits http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com

Vacation 2008

Hello everyone...I am back home from vacation...so if you have placed an order, have a prize coming to you, emailed me, or have questions...I am now home and will be working on all of the above as quickly as possible...

We had a blast...but, I just had to share these photos for now...While traveling in north Georgia on our way to North Carolina...we passed this very unique store on Hwy 441...and of course, seeing something that said Goats on the Roof...we had to stop and check it out...Well, this is the most unique store I think I have ever seen...These goats actually live on the roof tops of these buildings...as you can see from the photos, they kinda speak for themselves...I will share more later, but y'all just had to see this...LOL...This store is in Tiger, Ga, not far from Dillard, GA and the famous Dillard House Restuarant...of course, we ate some of the best food ever and brought home enough for two more meals...if you ever get the chance to go there...its worth the money...and the atmosphere is wonderful...Ok...of to read emails and catch up on what I need to get busy with...

80 Years Young

My father in law was a farmer all his life, until he retired...so what more fitting a birthday cake, that John Deere, complete with a tractor...I was very pleased to be in charge of the cake for the surprize party we had for him last night...I ordered a John Deere cake from Publix...and it was a hit with the family...Eleven of us turned out for the party, that he thought was just he, moma, me and hubby going out to eat...He was very surprized and pleased...

This is my hubby's moma and daddy...I am blessed to have such wonderful inlaws...
This was the best gift my hubby and I could have come up with...I scanned lots of old photos and sent to Lisa's Altered Art owner Patty and she put them into a collage for me, sent the picture back to me and I framed it...He was blown away at having all these photos from his past in one framed picture...It meant alot to me to be able to do this for my husbands father, as my daddy went to heaven 4 years ago...and sharing in this way is very important to me...
This is me and hubby...our niece made the picture for me...it was a wonderful evening...The cake and picture were just perfect gifts for daddy and the restaurant we ate at was very nice and we all enjoyed sharing in the celebration of 80 years with such a wonderful man...

Gift Bag Mania...

...does one count as mania...LOL...I am just loving these gift bags...I used a distress ink pad to tone down the white of the die cut gift bag, then used brown ink and the wonderful little crackles stamp from Innovative Stamp Creations...I stamped the areas that would show after I layered the pattern paper...I cut the pattern paper pieces, distressed the edges with my scissors and added some sponged on brown ink...
I got some gorgeous ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon and its green on one side, pink on the other...I just envisioned leaves created by folding it...so I made a few loops, and attached it to the bag front...I used some silk flowers that I added dimensional glitter paint to make the centers...once dry, I used glue dots to attach the flowers to the ribbon...The little gift tag was made using a domino die cut shape, folded in half...The stamped image from Innovative Stamp Creations was perfect for the mini card front...I added a prima flower with a gold brad and attached it to the handle area with a fine gold thread...
A friend has a birthday coming up soon, and I am going to make her a Sticky note book cover to match and give it to her in this little gift bag...We have more samples coming soon...so keep checking back to see what the designers have in the works next...

Matchbox--Nugget box--Trinket Box...

No matter which you call it...This is one of the coolest die cut boxes to make...I cut pattern paper to fit the top, bottom and both sides of this box, after i rubbed it with my teal ink to color the white die cut box sleeve...I added the beautiful images from Lisa's Altered Art and a silk flower to the top...Before I added the pattern paper to the sections, I distressed the edges with my scissors and sponged on some teal ink...
I left the sides plain on this box, but you could add stamping, other die cuts, etc...I just like the striped pattern paper and decided that was enough...
These are both of the boxes I finished today...

I love birds...and we have been fighting to save baby purple martins all week long...the little buggers keep either falling or jumping outta the nest...we did lose one, which is very sad...as I am hoping for a lot larger flock next year when they arrive in March...Anyway...we have a nest box of blue birds and I can watch the male bird feed the female, while she is sitting on the eggs...its fun to see her poke her head outta the hole waiting for him and then he gently flies up and gives her a bug to eat...LOL...I guess ya just have to be there and watch it, like I do...
The beautiful bluebird image from Lisa's Altered Art was a perfect fit for the matchbox die cut top...I cut a slit into the nest image and slipped his body in just enough to give the effect he was sitting in the nest...I added the organza ribbon bow with ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon...
All of the beautiful images are from Innovative Stamp Creations...Betsy has some of the most gorgeous images, perfect for the stamped collage background effects that I love to do...
I also stamped the drawer part of this box as well...I added the silk flowers with glue dots to both boxes...I used gold brads for the flower centers...

Gift Bag Ideas

This is the first project die I bought...I have loved making this little gift bag from a die cut for over 10 years...Its a great class project and can be themed for every holiday or season...I started with the white cardstock die cut...I rubbed yellow ink directly from the pad to color the bag die cut...I then used a gorgeous background image from Innovative Stamp Creations new stamp sheet and stamped the image in the same yellow color...I colored the little tag the same way, and added the message in ginger adirondack ink...
I cut the pattern paper pieces to fit the front and back and both sides of the box...I distressed the edges of those pieces, using my scissors, then sponged on some ginger colored ink...
I added the beautiful ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon to the die cut, so when the bag is folded and put together the ribbon is all the way around the box...I added some more silk flowers with gold brad centers to the front of the bag...I glued the ribbon and the flowers on with Ranger Glossy Accents...
I added the tag with a gorgeous raffia from Really Reasonable Ribbon...Stay tuned for more about this Gift Bag...We have some awesome designs from our designers and a special offer...yeah...we love specials don't we...For more info debbiesdiecuts@yahoo.com

Foiled some more...

I am really having fun with the foiling techniques on the Cuttlebug embossed frames...The black frame with oval cut out was embossed with the swiss dots folder...I then put foiling adhesive on each little dot and around the outside edges as well as the oval inside edges...I used a mixture of gold and copper applied kinda hit and miss style...I colored the bird and wing die cuts with gold metallic ink, then embossed and rubbed with black ink...I then used caramel adirondack ink to deepen the gold color, attached the wing with a gold brad...I used some silk flowers, added a black punched daisy and gold brad center...
The next idea uses the small flourish die cuts, with gold/copper foiling applied, then embossed and black ink applied to the embossed areas...I used a teal colored flower and black punched flower with gold brad center...
The next two frames are actually an older one where I had shown my originally created technique of a Faux Patina finish...I added some extra foiling on the right side of the frame to a section of the vine and bird...I used gold foiling to highlight this area...I used the same flourish die cut and flowers accent these frames...

Altered Art-Board Book by Debbie Bankston

I loved making this altered art board book...it was my first completed one...and I still enjoy looking at it and sharing it...It uses a variety of techniques, learned over the years, combined into one project...I used a little 3 inch book from the dollar store, sanded the pages to remove the shine, and painted them kinda hit and miss with a combination of metallic, pearl and glaze paints...Lumiere and Plaid Folk Art were the brands...I stamped the images from Innovative Stamp Creations on white tissue paper using Archival inks from Ranger, I tore the pieces out and added more inks, sponging, etc to each piece before adhering it to the pages with Royal Coat Decoupage Medium...I used lots of Ranger Glossy Accents to add beads, stones, leaves, charms, buttons, etc to each page...After chatting with a friend online, she wanted to see the book and since it has been so long since I showed it, I thought I would make some new photos and share it again...

I am working on two new book/kit designs...I cannot wait to share them...so stay tuned for that coming in the next couple of weeks...

ACC's

These two ACC's or "moo sized" cards were fun and quick to make...I used colored cardstock a quick stamped background and a butterfly cut from a piece of wrapping paper...I added gold dots of dimensional fabric paint...Stamps are from Innovative Stamp Creations...

This ACC uses ISC stamps for a background then I ran it thru the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder, added blac ink to the embossed area and smoothed it flat with my bone folder...I added the beautiful bird and words from Lisa's Altered Art collage sheets...We will have packages of colored ACC's coming this week...

Altered Art-Canvas Accordion Book

This photo is kinda bright...I wanted to get a photo of the outside and inside of the book...I used 3 x 3 inch canvases and made an accordion fold with a 3 x 12 inch strip of cardstock...
I used various stamps from Innovative Stamp Creations and a few different mediums to stamp the background of the panel in a stamped collage effect...
This is one of the finished panels so far...I used the dress die cut, colored with green glazing medium...ran thru the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder, I applied foiling glue to each dot and then used a gold foil over that...I used Glossy Accents and beadazzles on the top of the bodice and made a sash from gold wire edged ribbon...The word create is a vellum sticker that I colored with green alcohol ink and the wand is from Lisa's Altered Art collage pages...

This is the front cover...I used a variety of mediums, hand dyed tissue paper, glaze, etc to color the canvas...I covered one of the 2.75 inch square frames with foiling adhesive and applied gold leafing and then cut it in half to create a corner...My favorite color is green and my signature color is purple...which basically for me, means I like green and purple together, the more the merrier...Anyway...I could not believe my luck, one of the images from Lisa's Altered Art was this girl in the green dress with purple wings...I mean, this is me...totally...I used a vellum word sticker and a silk flower with beadazzles added to the center...Oh, and added the crown to the girls head...of course...
This is the back canvas...or at least so far...I love the bird in the nest I will add a little more foo foo to it...but not much...
I glued a ribbon between the inside back canvas and the back accordion panel page...this way I can tie the book closed if I want...Thanks for letting me share my altered art venture so far...it will take a back burner for a while, as I am working on another project as a birthday gift and only have 8 days to get it done...yeah...nothing like procrastinating for me...LOL...