Graphic 45 Carousel

I worked on this for a long time.  First, let me just say that this is the third project in my JoAnn's wood gazebo series. The first was the Secret Garden Gazebo and the second was the Bohemian Bazar Tiki Hut.
There is one more to come.

The carousel is by far my biggest ever project. It measures a bit over 18 inches high, by 13 inches wide. It breaks down into two main pieces. The carousel itself and the big hat box.

You already know that it all started with the wood gazebo that holds the roof up.  The gazebo sits on a hexagon shaped box that I've altered. The box sits on a 12" wood plate that I got at Hobby Lobby. The 3D horses and the bench are attached to a lazy Susan that is screwed into the wood plate. That whole structure sits on a big round box that I altered to match. I'm not sure what made me think of a Merry-go-round, but there it was twirling in my head and needing to be created! To get a real sense of how it all works, you might want to watch the video imbedded towards the end of this post.

Finding the 3D wood carousel horses took weeks and weeks of looking on the web. I eventually found not one, but to sets of vintage, unpainted Christmas ornaments that fit the scale. I'd looked at so many carousel's by then, that I was able to sit down one day and just paint each horse out. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, given that they are a combination of the designs in my head! Those 3D horses were just the beginning of the process. I needed more animals, so I started looking again.

After many hours, or is that weeks of research, I found an Etsy shop called Nana's Little Nest. Cindy creates laser cut wood pieces and thrives on customized projects. After first buying a few pieces of her horse, I emailed her again about different sizes and different animals.  We collaborated on 3 different sizes including the ones you see here and while she will still make the various carousel/Christmas ornament animals, they will be sold exclusively from my online store.
Painting, papering and decorating the whole structure took quite a while. In the end, the hexagonal box can be opened to save items like the baby's hospital bracelet, lock of hair, etc. I envision the big box to hold a birth announcement, invites, small treasures, as well as cards he or she receives. Here are a few more pictures.

I think you can see from this last picture that I used two of the wood elephants to make the bench.  I'd like to share the video I made, so that you can see how the carousel moves!

Hope you enjoyed this project,
I wish you a wonderfully happy crafty day,
M-C

A Not So Little Prima Doll Tag

Alright, I admit it!  I love playing with the Prima Mixed Media Dolls created by JalieNutting, plus it was time to work with a little of the Prima goodies that I got for my Birthday! I hope that you will like this tag made with one of the Prima Doll Stamps! This one is in honor of all the young women going to proms!

For more details on the products I used please watch my video!

My Latest Graphic 45 Project

Hi everyone!  I know it's been a while, but I have been hard at work the last couple of weeks, working on a special project. I've been using the G45 Secret Garden Collection. I must admit that it is one of my all time favorites G45 collections! The album measures 9.25 x 6.75 x 2.5.  I hope you will enjoy the pictures of it and the video which I will be uploading shortly!

If you would like a tutorial of how the structure of the mini was created, or if you have any other comments, I'd be thrilled to hear them!  If you are reading this, it means that you read all the way down to here!  Thank you so much for and have a great day!

M-C

A Lil More Secret Garden

It's actually quite funny that I'm making so many things with the pink/coral shades from the Graphic 45 collection. But it seems to be what is in my head or what I'm being driven to do by my friends! 

First up is a Mother's Day card. 

I used one of the six cards from the 12x12 May Flower's paper as well as a couple of strips of  the 8x8 Secret Garden paper.

Some flat back pearls and lace bridge the two papers.

I used the Spellbinder's "Ribbon Banner" die to create the sentiment and unfortunately, the stamp purchased at Archivers yesterday has an smudged  company name. I'm just glad that it fit in the banner, LOL! I inked the banner with Distress Ink, (spun sugar) while the die was still on the paper. I both cut and embossed the banner.

The flower is from the Secret Garden collection. Graphic 45 now sells matching patterned paper flowers in packs. I cut the petals on all 3 layers in more towards the middle and rolled each petal in the end of a paint brush handle.  Then I gathered a piece of lace and put it behind the assembled flower. I made a bow our of more lace and added a Wild Orchid Craft white rose!

I lost my mom years ago, but there is someone pretty special in my life that deserves this card!

Hope you like it! :)  Check back tomorrow for a layout and I've got another one of my chipboard projects running around in my head! Have a great day!

M-C