5x5 Christmas Greeting Cards

I really love the steam punk and eclectic images I have been working on for this holiday.
So I was wondering why am I just making tags and jewelry with my digital art?
Why don't I try and turn my images into Holiday cards?

So.... I have never ventured into card making before, so, for those of you who are aficionados of this talent, please don't judge too harshly.  ;)

Fairee-Christmas

I first spent a few days creating the digital image, using layers of images, backgrounds and wording and then grouping images and segments together to derive this final design image. There are about 38 layers on this image.

Once I was happy with the design, I then print, cut and paste onto the 5x5 blank card. I added frosted stickles in ice blue and silver for accent. I also layered a segment of fiber in caramel color onto the card spine.

There are 4 digital designed pages for each card design I make. The front, the left inside, the right inside and then the back of the card. As depicted below:

 

 

 

Below are a few more digital designs with the same design structure in mind...

 

SnowBalls

 



Boudoir

 



 

 

 

Red



Holiday Gift-Card Tags

Good Day, I hope you are having a wonderful holiday!
I have below a new design on my tags this Holiday. I have created gift tags that also serve as gift card holders. These have become a big hit at all the shows and events I have attended. So thank you very much for everyone who has appreciated them!   :)

I thought I would share some design details with you today:




CandyCane-GiftCard Tag

 This large tag is made from thick quality card stock. The is size is 3x4 ish... since I custom made the tag base cards myself, their not store bought.

I created a digital image for both sides of the tag. Front (left image). I then layered the back side with twice the image to camouflage the white pocket that I placed onto the back of the tag. (right image)

Note: The digital images take layers of images and backgrounds and lettering design, which takes several hours to design before a final image is completed.




 

SnowFairee-GiftCard Tag

I typically take a couple days, even a week to first work on the digital images I want for each tag design. I wanted to create atleast 4 to 5 different designs to start with. This took about 2weeks to complete, off and on between my 9-5 job and sleeping.  LOL..  :)                                                                                    Once I complete the designs I like, then I begin the printing, cutting and gluing the image onto each tag. In this design, I wanted to make tags that would carry a little pocket that would hold a gift card. So, as you see in the image on the far right (in blue) you can view the pocket with a small tag peeking out from the top.

                                                                                             

 

I started with only 20 tags and took them to my next show and they all sold,.
I only had 2 left. So since they sold so well, 
I have continued to make them and they will become a staple item
that is seasonal throughout the year at different events. 
Most ladies said they would use them for fellow co-workers and employees.
I was so happy that these were well liked!!

Feel free to stop my our next event on Costa Mesa and pick some up! Its this Sunday at FrameMyArt. 11a-4p, there will be wine, music and raffles too!

Purse Holders for the Holiday....

Hey there ladies...
Yes, I know generally I don't assume its only ladies viewing my blog,
but this time, this is for the GIRLZ!!! :)

These purse holders sold like crazy in all the events I have attended and I don't have any more product left to make new ones.

So this is a sample of my last batch!

 

 I have 20 left and they are all going to be at the event on 12-15-13 in Costa Mesa at FramyMyArt 11am-4pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/167547230122893

 



DomeLit Display - Tree Decorations

Hello friends, I hope you are happy and having fun this season.

 I am finding inspiration everywhere I go and this piece is no exception. I was at Macy's looking for a gift for a friend and I wanted something elegant but playful. I wondered into their Holiday Décor, naturally right?  LOL... :)

 

I found these beautiful snow globes, but they were heavy and you had to shake them to make the snow move. I wanted a decorative piece and they could of worked perfectly, except... well I wasn't sure. So I walked away and just kept thinking about it all day.

Then  a week later  I saw these glass mini cake displays. I wondered how hard would it be if I could create my own winter scene and try to have it light up? So I bought a couple of mini displays, and got to work.

This first image is the completed piece, which I entitled "Tree Decorations".
In the next couple of images I will explain what I used to make it.

DomeLit Display -TreeDecorations

So here is the piece with all the removable pieces displayed for you to get a better idea. I used card board to make the round base for the battery compartment and the base of the winter scene.

The house is made of very thin wood I got at Joanns. Measure, cut glued. Then I drew using my digital art a "house", then printed cut and glued that to the sides of the wood,. I lined the inside with red felt. I placed a candy cane ornament inside as a surprise. But this is a great hiding place for that special trinket or beloved treasure. The roof (is removable and serves as the house "lid" and  is also made of wood and paper glued on top.

 As you can see in the above photo, the scene is of a little girl just footsteps away from her family home. She is holding a red ornament in preparation to decorate the tree. On the right of the house is a douglas fir tree and beside that is a doe seeking nourishment. I made a sign in front with the greeting "Merry Christmas". I placed lights throughout the scene that are battery operated and can be easily replaced as needed. At the base of the scene I placed white satine ribbon with pearl seed beads. I also added crystal gem drops to accent the pieces elegance and height. The snow on the roof of the house and the tree and the scene floor is all found at Michaels.

 

This last image is a view of the structure for more perspective on the design elements and how the battery compartment conceals and houses the batteries and light switch.

 

 

I will be selling this piece at our upcoming event on 12-15-13. If you are interested please email me at bellaluzdesignz@yahoo.com and I will be happy to help you. I will be making some for upcoming  summer season as well, so stay tuned.  

Take care,

Lyn

KeepSake TeaParty Box

 

Hello my friends, I had a special friend ask me to make a TeaParty box with a red door for her friend this Christmas. I don't think I would of gone this direction with this design, but that's the beauty of inspiration, it comes when you don't expect it. :)

 

I had these metal word plates from Tim Holtz and one worked perfectly for the front of this box. "Life is about creating yourself". I painted and crackled the exterior with a base coat of ice-blue and a top coat of barn door red. I then stained and tinted coordinated paper and pasted it onto the door surface. The framed panel is painted in red chalk paint. I placed 2 charms, a key on the bottom left and a owl on the bottom right.

 

After thought... I don't know why I selected the ice blue as the under coat... I just went with it and it worked... I think?? what do you think?

 

As you open the hinged door with gold color clasp that closes the door, you will discover the wonders of a miniature tea party in play. There are tea pots of all sorts found from her many travels and each carrying their own special story. Each pot rests on 4 separate shelves. If you look very closely you will find a little girl having a tea party with her friend Teddy. I really loved this piece. It brought back many fond memories of Alice in Wonderland and childhood thoughts.

I also hang from the top of the inside a strand of crystal pearl beads. I completed this piece with a light at the top left corner. It is battery operated and can be easily removed to replace battery when needed.  I almost forgot.... do you see the small wood box on the upper left? Inside it, contains a wipe cloth and chalk for writing notes on the front panel of the door, when this box is closed.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this piece and hopefully inspired you create with an open mind and use colors that you would never think of on a general basis. Have a wonderful holiday and  I hope I meet you at our upcoming event.

Cottage Pillow Sets...handmade gifts!

 

Happy Holidays.... well its full throttle the last couple weeks and I have been creating some fun gifts for this season. I have this beautiful "seaside cottage" pillow set with coordinating canvas tote. I was at Joanns and I was looking for some fabric for a display I was working on. I found this beautiful soft fabric that had the color and "look" of sand. It inspired me to think of pillows. So I immediately began my quest. I was in search for a coordinating white cotton, lacey like fabric to use on the opposite site of each pillow for interest.

 

 

As you can see the sand color soft fabric matches perfectly with the shades in the canvas tote. In the photo below I turned one of the pillows to the opposite side so you can view boththe front and backside of the pillow at the same time.  I really liked how this set turned out. I made a couple and will have them available at our Holiday Gallery Gifts on 12-15-13 at FramyMyARt in CostaMesa this Sunday. I would love to see you!

The Spirit of Christmas

Happy Day to you,
I am so excited that the Holidays are just around the corner, especially since I am a huge fan of Christmas for so many reasons. The most important for me is the gift of Gods love in my every being. The second most, is that I can so easily reach my inner child during the Christmas holidays.

I think this is the most creative time for me. So let me be the first (and of course not the last) to wish you the best of times this season. I welcome you to my first Holiday expression of the season with my Snow Owl.

 I made two different heights, one on a pedestal that is about 10 inches tall and another that is 8 inches tall. I originally was planning to make a feathered owl , since online these run very expensive. I kept finding snow owls of all kinds, the pricing was the same, based on height. My owls are 8 inches tall. (I made the owl, by the way) The ones online I found were running about 85.00 just for the owl, nothing else. And if you found an owl this size in a foliage like mine, it went into the 200.00 range. No joke!! Crazy.... so this way I make what I really want to see and would enjoy looking at. :)

 So the owl is made of Styrofoam, I took a 10 inch ball and carved it down to a chunky 8inch bird form. I covered the front of the owl in white fur and the back with white paper. I made look dimensional by using the end of a pencil and crunching the paper into the form of the pencil end. The wings are also paper, but its thicker stock and gave the look I was looking for. Its funny, since I never know what I am going to use or what it will turn out to look like until I'm done.  Crazy...

 I dressed the owl with a black sweater vest, with pearls that crisscross in the front like a corset. I made a necklace with red ribbon and a clock face charm. The one thing I knew from the start, even before I started making the owl, was that it will have a vest or corset and a top hat and ice crystals. So I made the top hat out of black felt. I added a band of white lace that also has crystals. Then I added green flocked leafs and red berries to the side of the hat. At the base of the hat rim I lined it in a string of pearls.

 

 

 Oh, I almost forgot, the eyes are made of straw and plastic eyes I took from some old Halloween crows I was tossing.
The beak is from another bird in my stash that I used for another craft project, they are plastic. I almost went to target to buy some cheap birds for their beaks, but then found some in my stash. Its always nice when I can save some money. :)

 

The bed from which the Owl rests upon is made of layers and layers of different foliage. Holly, flocked leaves, leaves with crystals, berries, pearls, white poinsettia petals, branches, twigs dipped in silver glitter. I also found these long white floral braches that sparkle. I added the flocking, the glitter and all the sparkle to all the foliage.

 

The base, I didn't make it, but I did refinish and repaint and crackled the one below. Its blown glass, but was boring looking, so I paint and crackled it white. I started with an undercoat of brown and a top coat of white. On the taller piece at the top of this blog, I only refinished and painted it white, its made of cast metal so its heavier then this one below.

 

This piece was tons of work, and an absolute joy to make. I am selling these, but I don't think a price could really match the love and attention I placed into this creation.

They are for sale at 85.00, and will be available at our Holiday Gallery in Costa Mesa on Dec 15th. Please email me at bellaluzdesignz@yahoo.com  if you would like more event detail.,

 

Thanks so much for checking this out, have a wonderful week.

Lyn

Memoir Mini's II

Memoir Mini Books II :
This is the 2nd collection of memoir mini books (ATC size) that I created, I hope you enjoy viewing them. I will  walk thru the first book to provide you an idea of what it looks like and all the intricate detail that I place into my pieces. This collection contains a slight different media collection then Mini's I. The books are made using the following: fabric paper, clay, ink, metallic paint, vintage paper, stamps, fibers various colors, metal charms, glass beads, wood, chalk, satin ribbons, twine and burlap and for the closure a metal ball clasp with elasticized tie and miniature buckles.

The cover of "Princess" contains a clay image I made and painted of a princess with a winged headdress.  The book, pages and binding are all made of chipboard and paper. I coated the Front, spine and back to protect it from fingerprints.

PRINCESS

 

Here is a close look of the spine, I added burlap in a woven format and painted it charcoal to add texture and dimension to the spine.



The books consist of 3 pairs of pages, here is the first. There is a sleeve on the left page. On top of the sleeve I place a Paris stamp and a wood button with a white fiber tie. In the sleeve I made a tag that is adorned on the front and back. The right page has a vertical pocket that I made using a punch and painted it green. On top of the pocket I added a Victorian dressed child. Inside the pocket are two tags with coordinated fiber ties.

 

 

Here is a closer look of the pages with the tags removed from the pockets. You can also view the tags a bit closer.

 

The 2nd pair of pages; the left page has a pocket with tags and a dragonfly made of velum on the wings, and colored chipboard for the body and wire for the antenna. On the right of the page is a picture frame I made and painted green with gold. I made a tag with fiber for the pull. Below the frame is a butterfly I painted with a metal word charm "memories" on top. Beneath the butterfly is a message (her joyous independent spirit".

The next image shows you the same pages as above but with the tags removed.

 

 

Here is the final and 3rd pair of pages in the memoir mini. The left page has a pocket with a organic shaped tag. The right side page contains a mini, wood framed chalk board. Attached to it, is a chalk stick and wipe in white. The pearl pin holds the chalk and wipe in place when not in use.

 

This a view of the 3rd set of pages with the tag removed.

 

 

 

The final image is view of the back side of the memoir mini.

I hope you enjoyed viewing this piece and if you are interested in seeing more of this style, please see video clips below:

BEAUTY IS EVERYWHERE

MAGIC

 

 

 

FOREVER

TIMELESS

I will have mini's available for purchase at our Holiday Trunk Show, so if your interested, please email me at bellaluzdesignz@yahoo.com for more details.

Memoir Mini's I

I was at a stamping convention and saw the cutest little books that this lady made and that inspired me to try and make my version of them. I did ask the lady what did she use for the pages and she said " ATC boards". I guess I am still new at the craft world, so I asked her what is that and where do I get some? She smiled and said "oh the vendor you just passed sells them". So I picked a pack up, but I didn't want to use them for every page, like the lady did at the show. I figured I would play with them at home and figure something out later. Well, below is what I came up with...


As you probably already know, from reading any of my other blogs, I really enjoy the beauty of Graphic45 papers. I recently acquired the Steampunk Spells collection and decided to use them with the mini book design. I built the structure and binding for the pages and spine from chipboard, then covered them all with decorative paper. I inserted a metal ball-head clasp (its suppose to be used for binding book pages from TimHoltz stash) hehehe....but works great for my purposes. I built a charm and placed it on the spine. I also placed charms on the front of cover. In this case 3 gears and a Trumpet with a clock face on it. Sorry, the trumpet is tough to see, its at the bottom of the cover in the center.

SEEKER



 

 The front ,spine and back of the book is painted and coated to protect it from finger smudges, etc.

 

Here is a close up of the spine and the charm (coordinated glass beads and a silver perforated puffy heart) dangling from a black corded bow.

Now for the inside....  I placed pockets on each page and made and adorned 2 tags in each pocket.
If you look closely at the left pocket, you can see that I placed a layer of paper butterflies and then a propeller on top with a red gemstone on top. On the right pocket (the pocket is made from a punch) I placed a silver charm shaped like a heart.

Here is a look of the same pages with the tags removed, as well as a closer look of the tags.
The tags are decorated on both sides. I like to add an inspirational word or two onto each tag.

The mini book consists of two pairs of pages, so here is the next set:

 

On this set, I made a pocket for each page and tag to into each. On the left pocket I placed a cat and added metal gears for eyewear, then on top of that I added a ceramic word charm, "Happy". On the right pocket I added gears to the pocket.

Here is a look at the pages with the tags removed and a closer look at the tags as well.

The tag on the left says "curious spells" and the tag on the right says "create the world you want to see".

Well, I hope you enjoyed viewing this piece. It was lots of fun to make, so I ended up making more in like design, please see the following videos if you are interested. Materials used, stamping, inks, paste, marbleized effect, paper, burlap, ribbons, metal charms, glass beads, ceramic charms, fibers of various colors, etc.  Each book takes about a week to make. I never know what the end product will look like, until I'm done.

Please look closely, since my designs have many details that are quite small and can only be seen by the keen eye or a magnifying lens! LOL...

 



TIMELESS

SPELLBOUND LIFE

 

 

 

 

SECRET TREASURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNDISCOVERED WORLDS

 

 

If you enjoyed these, I have another mini book collection, that I will post separately since the theme is a little different.  I hope you were inspired, thanks so much for taking a moment to view my creations.

God's Love,
Lyn

 

 

 

Seaside Pendants...

The look and feel of the coast...

I have been wanting to make coastal themed pendants for quite some time now and have never really found the "look" I wanted, until now. I hope you like the following designs, as I have added these to my pendant collection.

 First up are my pocket watch bezel pendants, this one has a rosetone finish on the bezel and the chain is two-toned with copper and black to compliment the design nicely. The mermaids tail is painted to match the bezel color. In her hand she holds a pearl tone bead.


CORAL MERMAID W/ PEARL A1





The pocket watch bezel in this design is a white silver tone with a match chain link that has large and small corresponding links along with silver rosettes on the links. The mermaid is sitting by the shore. The background is a sea shell. The crown of the bezel is framed with lagoon blue beads all hand placed.





                           LAGOON BLU-MERMAID A1                    

 

 

 

The other two seaside pocket watch pendants are below: both encrusted with handset glass beads to coordinate perfectly with the bezel design. On the right is an Octopus, by the way the bezel and chain are in the white silver tone, and you can see the rosettes at the top of the link. On the left is a nautical scene with the ships steering wheel and anchor, the chain on this one is rosetone and bronze to compliment the bronze bezel and rosetone beads. I painted the Octopus, the wheel and the anchor.



Rosetone ShipWheel A1                                                                       Coral Octopus A1





 

 

This next collection is a smaller bezel about half the size of the pocket watch above. The chains on these are also typically smaller in density as well. Note: the length on ALL pendant chains ( pocket watch and these smaller ones) is typically within 28-30 inches.

 

 

This image is of a mermaid swimming in the ocean depths.

I placed and painted a  rosetone shell beside her.

Brunette Mermaid A2 

Coral Seahorse A2                                                                      Mermaid w/ SeaTurtles A2