Vintage Scrapping

2013 MEGA SUPER SIZE SINGLE HOMECOMING MUM!!

Super fast post!  Just wanted to show a quick pic on one of my new 2013 MEGA Super Size Single Homecoming Mums.  This has all the new 2013 items.  The picture isn't that great because I took it with my phone.  You can't see half the stuff that is on this thing!  I counted 7 braids alone!  Plus more custom made items :-) Anyhow I just wanted to post a quick pic of it!  I'll be retaking a better photo to put on my website this weekend. 

MEGA Super Size Single Homecoming Mum made by www.melzmumz.com

 Hope you enjoy it!

Have a great weekend!

Melissa

Triple Homecoming Mum Pictures Fall 2012 season

FINALLY!!!   I am here!! 

 

Sorry it has taken so long, but me and my craft room just had to take a break!  But I have finally edited some of my photos from this year and will start posting them. 

There is no rhyme or reason to my madness....so....... there I am starting with triples and then will decide what to post next!

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum Alvin High School made by melzmumz.com

 

This was one of my favorites!  I actually had alot of favorites this year.  This is a Senior Triple Homecoming Mum for Alvin High School.  The accent colors used were hot pink and orange.  It made me want sherbert the whole time I was making it! 

 

made by melzmumz.com

Alexis is a photographer so I found this camera that had a button on top that when you pressed it - the led light on it lit up and it made the shutter noises! 

 

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum Alvin High School made by melzmumz.com

I added lights to these and I have to say - this year I got my paws on some unbelievable lights and already am stocking them for next year too - but they are strands of 30!!! yes 30 led lights and will blink or stay solid but the brightness - it's crazy!   Here is a picture with the lights on (had to turn flash off camera or the lights were too bright!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also this was done as a matching set!  Although I will post more pics of garters later I just had to show these together!

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum with Matching Garter made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

Onto the next!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum Kennedale High School made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

This is a Senior Triple Homecoming Mum for Kennedale High School.   Darby wasn't a big fan of the bears so my helpful husband found an awesome wooden letter K for Kennedale that we painted and glittered and turned out perfect! 

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum with Lights made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture with the lights on - you can see the K better.  But let me show you a pic of the top without lights on.  I made their initials at the top with a heart in between!

 

Triple Homecoming Mum Kennedale High School made by melzmumz.com

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum Marcus High School made by melzmumz.com

 

This is a senior triple homecoming mum for Marcus High School.  I made the little graduation caps for the bears!

 

And of course I had to do the custom lettering!  I just love making those letters they stand out on the mums and make them so unique.  I looooooooove my cricut machine!!

 

Senior Triple Homecoming Mum Marcus High School made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a fun color combination.  It was for a Junior at Southlake Carroll High School which are the Dragons. 

Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Southlake Carroll High School made by melzmumz.com

Triple Homecoming Mum made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So I just had to stick a dragon on there!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now this is my favorite triple this year - and for one of my favorite couples!  Taylor and Madi are both just amazing - so I wanted to make sure her mum suited her!  I can't wait to make her mum next year!!!

           

Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Colleyville Heritage High School made by melzmumz.com

Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Colleyville Heritage High School made by melzmumz.com

Here is a close up of the top.  We did a princess bear and a boy bear and of course had to have the lights!

Put Black and White Cheetah accent ribbon on here too!

That is a big silver glass heart in the middle of the bears with a big bow on it.

 

Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Colleyville Heritage High School made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the last triple I am going to post! 

 



Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Trinity High School made by melzmumz.com

This one was super decked out - they wanted lights hanging down the mum.  So after I tried several things, I was holding a boa and the lights got wound around it by accident but IT WORKED!!  Loved it and thought it turned out so cool! 

 

 

 Here is a close up of the top - lots of zebra on there too!!

Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Trinity High School made by melzmumz.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is the body of the mum but I like this picture because it shows how awesome those boas looked with the lights!

Junior Triple Homecoming Mum Trinity High School made by melzmumz.com

Hope you have enjoyed looking at these! 

 If you did - leave me a comment I love to hear what people think! 

Or like my post on facebook or google plus!  

I make all of these mums personally and all braids etc are made by hand by me.  My mum business is www.melzmumz.com

 

Thank you and stay tuned I will be posting lots more!

Melissa

 

How to make a Homecoming Curly Q Braid Tutorial

Well FINALLY here it is!     I have been meaning to do this for a while and it just kept being put on the back burner.

 

First, I have to say that this is the easiest of all the braids (in my opinion) HOWEVER this has been the hardest tutorial for me to make!   Reason being, it is almost impossible for the pictures to really show how to make it.   I am going to try my best and hope it makes sense!

 

 

So let's start!

 

You will need the following to make this braid:

• 36" Braid - need 3 Ribbons in the color of your choice.  Each ribbon cut 2 yards each.  Ribbon #3 size (5/8" wide)
  
• 18" Braid - need 3 Ribbons in the color of your choice.  Each ribbon cut 1 yard each.  Ribbon #3 size (5/8" wide)
  

 

 

Also please keep in mind that you may have to shorten braid.  The only drawback with these braids is they do stretch out more (alot more) once you put anything on the bottom so make sure you don't put a heavy bell or anything heavy on the bottom of braid because it will stretch out too much.   Even without anything on the bottom after a few days they will start to stretch out, so don't be discouraged when you finish the braid and it is a tight spiral, it takes a couple of days to settle and look like the Curly Q braid.

 

 

Take your 3 ribbons and staple them together

 

 

Now we are going to do a traditional braid.   Just like hair:  right to middle, left to middle, right to middle, left to middle, etc.

 

 

So take the right ribbon and go to middle - but keep the ribbon a little slack.  YOU DO NOT WANT TO CREASE THE RIBBON.  You are only slightly bending the ribbon to "slide" over the other ribbon.

 

Then left ribbon (white) to middle, then right ribbon (black) to middle.   I had it taped down to show you the braid a little stretched out below.  But you can see how the ribbons are just bending a little bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep repeating this.....left to middle,        right to middle, etc etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a side view after I had only braided it a couple of times, see how it curls by itself.

 

 

 

And here is a side view as I kept braiding it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Put a staple in the end of it through all 3 layers of ribbon and you are done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now remember what I said about the braid being a tight spiral when you first finish, well this is what it will look like at first:

 

 

And this is what it will look like after it hangs for a few days:

 

 

 

Now if you are in a hurry and can't wait a few days, just put something VERY lightweight on the bottom of it and it will stretch out right away. 

NOW FOR FREE!  Free Printable Step by Step Picture Tutorials for Single, Double, and Triple Mums and Garters with over 30 color photos in each!  Click here and scroll to bottom of page and you will see the Free Printable Instructions!!

www.melzmumz.com

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!   Happy braiding!!!

Melissa

Wrist Mums and Finger Mums!

NOW AVAILABLE!  Printable step by step picture tutorials for both the Finger Mum and Wrist Mum!  Super detailed with tons of pictures! Purchase them on the right side bar and they will be emailed to you!!

 

This trend is starting to really take off!!

 

Wrist mums and Finger Mums are another spirit items students are wearing, but not only the students, the moms and little sisters are getting in on the action too!! 

 

The mum flower on the finger mums is a 2" 9 layer flower and I used triple ribbon backing.  It comes with the year and school on the ribbons.  I use stretchy sequins for the band so it makes it more comfortable and pretty!!

 

 

The wrist mums are a bit smaller than the pee wee mums, but just the right size for your arm!

 

These too have the stretchy sequins as the backing and are really pretty on!   They use a 4" flower and get the year and 1 name on them.  I manage to sneak in some trinkets and of course had to add a braid with a bell and a bow!

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the back of them so you can see the stretchy sequins.   The wrist one has the band sideways so the mum hangs off the side of  your wrist and not down the back of your arm (which just felt funny to me).

 

 

I haven't had a chance to put these on my website www.melzmumz.com but am hoping to have that done by this weekend.

 

Hope you enjoyed!  Thank you for looking!

Melissa

 

www.melzmumz.com

Wrist Corsages for Softball Banquet

This was a first for me!   In May I was given a wonderful opportunity by a mom at Marcus High School to make wrist corsages for their softball banquet.  (THANK YOU CRISTA!)   At first I was unsure about being able to make them but then they turned out pretty awesome and I enjoyed every minute of it!

 

 

So the first objective was to find a way to differentiate between Junior Varsity, Varsity and the Seniors on the Varsity team. 

 

 Here you will see the slight variations.  I found these really pretty open faced roses and used red flowers for JV and white flowers for Varsity and Seniors.  Also for JV we used red and black ribbon, Varsity we used red, black and white ribbon, and Senior Varsity was red and white only.

 

 

 

 

 Behind the flower I used a tuft of tulle and added a feather and these little jewels things.    I felt the flower needed more color themselves so I used that to help differentiate.  I put white rosettes in the JV red flowers, black rosettes in the Varsity White Flowers and red rosettes in the Senior Varsity white flowers.

 

     One challenge we ran into was making the softballs.   Unfortunately there are not many items made for softball, only baseball.  However the softballs are neon yellow. 

 

So my mom and I found these wooden discs that were perfect size.  Enlisting the help of my husband who patiently painted each one with a white base and then with the neon yellow, they finally started to come together. 

 

The stitching was more difficult but I had to do it by hand with red acrylic paint.

 

To give them a nice finish I used crystal accents on the top which made them nice and shiny.   I was really happy with the way they turned out!!

 

We put the year on there and also each player's number. 

This is what they look like on and below is a side view so you could see the band - I used stretchy sequins to finish them up!!

 

Hope you enjoyed!   Thank you for looking!

Melissa

made by www.melzmumz.com

Boys Baby Mum

My first baby mum!!!

 

The special occasion?? I AM NOW AN AUNT!!!   My brother and sister-in-law just had their first child this week and for the shower and their hospital door, I was entrusted to make the mum!                                                                                   

 

 

Well of course - you know me - mediocre would NEVER due, not for my nephew!!  So I wanted to make it the prettiest mum that hospital had ever seen.  Do you think I accomplished that? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So as you can see this mum was a little tricky.   I knew I wanted a monkey in the middle (his room was done in a monkey theme) but I didn't want the stuffed animal to be decoration - I wanted my nephew to be able to play with it.  

 

Trying to think of a creative way to do this, I thought what about an open heart where the monkey could be removable without damaging the mum!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I did was create a custom backer with the middle cut out (very carefully).  I measured how many flowers I wanted and spaced apart evenly on the backer board marking a little x where the flower should go.  

 

 

 

 

 

Punched holes on the x marks and stuck the flowers in, but before I put the flowers in at the top, I made a little loop out of ribbon and attached it at the very top to hang down towards the middle of the mum.

 

To make the monkey removable, I used a hanging tag hook attached to top of monkey and hung him from that ribbon loop I made.  Then I pushed him back into the middle so he was sitting, but if you pulled on him a little bit you would see he was hanging there and could unhook him from the ribbon loop so that my newphew would have his first monkey stuffed animal there at the hospital!!  BUT I wanted the mum to still look complete once the monkey was taken out!!   What do you think???

 

 Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed it!    Happy Crafting!

Melissa

made by www.melzmumz.com

 

A black and gold Deluxe Double Mum!

 This will be a quick post - just wanted to post a pic of a Deluxe Double mum I made.  This is for The Colony High School black and gold - first one I have done in these colors!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Didn't the tutu for the bear turn out cute!!!

 

 

 

Made by www.MelzMumz.com  

Memory Notebook Present

So sorry it has taken me so long to post some of these things!   So this was a Christmas present I made for a very dear friend of mine with an exquisite name (gee.....it's really similiar to mine!)  I wanted to make something special and thought a personalized memory book would be perfect!

 I know I am not the best with the photos sometimes so I took multiple angle shots so you could get a real feel for it. 

 

First I measures and cut the paper for the front, back and to go around the binding.  The next step was to measure out where to punch the holes for the woven ribbon (so they would be equi-distant) and then used my ATG and glued the binding paper to the front and back paper (STILL NOT ATTACHED TO BOOK). 

 

Then carefully, I wove the ribbon through the punched holes until it was finished and tucked the last pieces of ribbon under and glued them down.  Now the next part is what is tricky, you have to slowly glue the front page down, then glue binding down, then glue back down.    Try to use something that won't dry too fast so you can move it around a little since this is one big piece you are attaching.  
Then set something heavy on it and leave it alone until it is dried completely.

 

 

 

 

 

Once it is dried, go back and ink the edges - I used the Tim Holtz distressed inks in fired brick for the distressing on this one.    Once I found the letter "M" I wanted to use on the front, I rubbed the Tim Holtz ink pad over it until it was the color I wanted.  Added some crystals to the top and bottom of "M".   Next I used my spellbinders nestabilities dies and cut the striped paper and backed it with black paper and cut an oval out of burgandy mulberry paper and then used a newsprint paper backed with black cardstock.   Ink each piece and then layer them using pop dots under the mulberry paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I made the little crochet lace flower by weaving over and under through the edge of the lace and then tying the two end together.   The little red rosettes were made from twisting ribbon and gluing them down.  

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing I did was I found a rub on that I thought would be perfect for the right corner:

Hope you like it!  I will try to work on making a step by step photo tutorial of how I make these books.  It was by chance that I started making them but they have turned out to be the neatest little gifts to make people feel special because they are so personalized!

 

Thanks for looking!

Melissa

Triple Homecoming Mums - yep, more! :-)

So I must admit, after mum season ended last October, I was a little sad because it was going to be a whole year before I got to make them again BUT I was surprised with two more Private School orders for February Homecomings! YEAH!! It was like a late Christmas present - seriously, I just love making these things.

 

This one was for a Junior and she loves Zebra - so I added alot of Zebra accents.  This is the first dress I made for a bear - what do you think??    Since she loved Zebra, for the memory book I covered it with a zebra felt.  Also it is hard to see but I got some of those hand clappers and attached black lace to it for an extra noise maker!  The girl who wore this made Homecoming Queen this year!!

 

 

 Here are a few more close ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just LOVE how it turned out!

 

 

Here is another one I did, but this one was for a senior.   She loves all things western so I decided to make a "cowgirl" bear for the middle. 

Also for the box braid, I made three braids and looped them together for a lasso type look - oh you can see the hand clapper in the middle of this one real well! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on this one - for the bear - I made a fringe vest.  I also made a lasso that the bear is holding and painted it silver - so much easier than I thought it would be!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I was trying to make it look western, I used a different font for the Senior 2012 letters.  The font I used has a more "wooden fence" type western look - not sure if you can tell in the photos but here is a closer look at the font and also a closer look at the lasso in the second picture below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me what you think!!!  Thanks so much for looking and I hope you enjoyed them!

Melissa

 Made by www.MelzMumz.com

QUAD Mega Homecoming Mums! Oh My!

And here they are!  These are some of the Flower Mound Quads I made this year.  These things were too big to work with on my work table so I had to assemble them on the floor!!

This is the mack daddy of mums!   She had lights, she had silver lame mums, she had every braid you could think of!  It was so pretty!  I wish you could see the letters across the top better - they were huge and spelled out her name.  This thing was AWESOME!  I custom made name garland for all my quads and triples and on my quads I also hung custom initial charms from the bears.  You can kind of see them on the bottom left picture hanging from the star wand the bear is holding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are two of the girls wearing two of the quads I made!  Don't they look awesome (both the girls and the mums)!  Both of these seniors wanted the hot pink accents added to their Silver and White.  Hayley's mum on the left was the normal HUGE size of the QUAD.  Sandy's Quad pictured here far right was a scaled down QUAD (she didn't want it too over the top) but you can see how big it still was!

 

 

 

Now here is my beautiful quad with the turquoise accents made for Miss Laura this year.  This was Laura's senior year so this was the super sonic mega mum!  I am going to miss making Laura's mums!  She just might have to get them while she is in college too :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did the lights on hers too with the flapper style headband going across the bear.  The turquoise accent turned out really pretty and I dyed the butterflies on the top to match!    We made a matching garter to this for her date - here is a picture of both of them at school!

 

 

Here is a close up of the top of the mum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now before you think I am crazy (and that may be too late!)  I do name all of my mums :-)  I name them for the girl it is made for - it serves two purposes.  1.  It makes me feel like it is ultra personalized - each mum is made JUST FOR THAT GIRL!!  2.  It helps make my 4 year old son respect the mum to not touch it - if he knows that this is "Miss Hayley's mum"  or "Miss Sandy's Mum) - he won't mess with them because he knows it belongs to someone else!

 

 

Speaking of Miss Sandy's Mum - here is her beautiful QUAD 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used the Silver and White Lame Flowers on Sandy's mum and I also dyed the butterflies hot pink at the top.   She liked the glassine acrylic flowers so the bear is holding some of those with her custom made acrylic initials hanging from them.

 

 I do have to note here - all of my mums and garters - ALL OF THEM - you can tell from the  pictures that they have tons of stuff on them - but I want people to know this is not all on the surface!  These things are stacked!  You can dig and dig through them and find more stuff - they are super thick!

 

 

  

 

 

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of some of my triples - but I did get to have a picture of this awesome couple that I made the triple mega senior mum with lights for and the matching band hat senior garter that was in my previous post!!  Seeing people smile this big is what makes me LOVE making these!!!

If you have any questions please email me!  I love to help!  Have a wonderful day and thank you for looking!

  Melissa

 Made by www.MelzMumz.com

 

2011 Homecoming Single, Double and Super Size Single Mums!!

 

Loooooong title - I know - but I was trying to group together a few pics of some of the Deluxe Single, Deluxe Double and Super Size Single Mega Mums from this season.   BTW - for those who don't know what the super size single mega mum is - well I use BEATIFUL 7.5" 21 Layer Flowers for my mums (most people only use 6.5" or 15 layer and believe me there IS a difference) - but the super size single mega mum is a 9.5" flower!!  HUGE!!!   So it a ginormous single mum that is ideal for ANY class (Fresh, Soph, Junior, Senior)   - since I love them so much let's start with those!

 

This first one will always be one of my favorite mums ever - the pictures just do NOT do it justice.  This is a FMHS (Flower Mound) Sophomore Super Size Single Mega Mum.  The mom brought me the jaguar to use and it was so stinkin cute!!  the girl played soccer so that was added to the top along with her name.

 

 

TONS of Gems and Pearls - a butterfly at the end of her name and a glassine flower to complete the bow.

 

 

 

 

For the body of the mum - well I don't know that I can even start to list everything I put on these things!  Of course there is the Homecoming Loop and a Name Loop along with a Whip braid, a Victory Braid, a Military Braid and a Box Braid.  I am pretty sure there was a Texas Champion braid on there too but I can't see it in the picture.  All my super size singles, triples and quads automatically come with a boa, a memory book, bubbles and a treat bag.  Bells and trinkets out the wazoo!!  So funny how in these pictures you can't really tell how big these are but they are just WOW!  I did make custom name garland for these larger mums this year that turned out so cool  - I'll have to get a close up picture of it!

 

 

 

SENIOR SUPER SIZE SINGLE MUM!!!   See how beautiful these turn out for seniors  too!  This was made for a Senior at Flower Mound High School - look at the feather flapper style headband on this bear - didn't it turn out CUTE!  Lots of pearl accents and a Gemstone drop from hanging from the bow - this one looked so elegant!

 

Here is a picture of the whole mum and a close up of the body of the mum - can you see the Senior 2012 custom lettering under the bear? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another SUPER SIZE SINGLE MEGA MUM here!  This one was made for a Senior at North Hills Prep!  This one had custom cut lettering across the top with a couple of fleur de lis.  Also added some lovely silver silk flowers to the top as well.  The looped military braid on the right has a acrylic crystal ornament hanging from the middle of it that turned out really cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an awesome Deluxe Double Mum made for a sophomore at Marcus High School.  They added a memory book, boa, two tone flower and custom cut lettering to it - it turned out so pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is a FMHS (Flower Mound) Sophomore Deluxe Single mum with the extras package!  I finally had to stop adding stuff to it because there was nowhere to PUT  IT!  I think that is my biggest issue with making these - I try to put everything AND the kitchen sink on these and have to stop or the poor girls won't be able to walk!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One more I wanted to put on here!  This is a Deluxe Single Mum that added a boa.  It was made for a Freshman at Marcus High School.  For this one I made a custom Large Letter "M" for the School Logo, and hand painted it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made by www.MelzMumz.com

2011 Homecoming Garters !!

It's been a while!  Finally now that I am past mum season and past all the holidays, I can now start putting my uploads back on my blog!  Right now I am starting to get ready for the 2012 Homecoming Mum and Garter season and have actually had some mum orders here in January and for February Homecomings!  But first - I wanted to share a few photos of some of the latest creations - unfortunately I was so busy I wasn't able to take photos of all my mums and garters from this season but I will try to do better this year!  So this is going to be a few posts - first let's start with the Garters!

 

Honestly I have to say I truely love all my mums and garters.   I put so much time and attention to detail into making these as amazing as possible.  I just don't do mediocre!  (Type A personality - I know)  But with that said, I do still have my favorites and this is one of them. 

 

 

 

This Flower Mound senior garter was done as a match to a triple mum and they wanted the bear to have a marching band hat.  I made this one out of plastic and painted it white then covered it in white felt and did a silver cord trim detail - added the little "bib" to the front of the hat and stuck a feather in the top.  I was so happy with the outcome!!  Here is a picture of the whole thing:

 

This next one is one of my other favorites from this last year.   I made custom lettering for most of my mums and garters this year - but this one turned out so cute with the boa around the top and the senior 2012!  This one was a Senior Flower Mound garter as well.

Both the girl this was from and the guy this was to played soccer - so in addition to the jerseys with their names and numbers on them I accented with a lot of soccer stuff too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now this  - well this monster of a garter is a double garter for a senior at Flower Mound!   And it was just WOW - huge and had so much stuff on it!!   The picture isn't very good of the whole thing but it did take a good close up picture of the top!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next few were Flower Mound High School Junior Garters

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really need to take a picture of them wearing these so you can see how big they are - they really are MEGA garters!

 

 

Another Senior Garter here - baseball themed!

 

This is a senior garter that was made to match a QUAD MEGA Mum I made - it has a tiny bit of turquoise added to it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH WAIT!!!  I DO HAVE A PICTURE OF THEM WEARING IT!  This is a picture of one of the QUAD Mega Mums I made with the matching garter being worn by both the guy and girl!!

 

 Made by www.MelzMumz.com

Homecoming Mums - That time of year again!!

Mums and  Garters 2011

 

So as you may know, I make Homecoming Mums and have just launched my mum website called www.melzmumz.com.  School will be starting soon so Homecoming will be here before we know it! 

 

For my site I needed to make some displays which I thought I would upload here to my blog as well.  Currently I am working on my tutorials on how to make Homecoming Mums (which I have to give HUGE PROPS to you ladies who do video tutorials - I never knew they could be this hard!!)  But I should have some started to be uploaded in the next couple of weeks!

 

Without further a do, here are some of the ones I have been working on lately:

This is a senior Triple Mum.   I got these little tiaras this year which I thought were perfect for the bears!  They did however have pink and green in the top of  it so I had to paint it with my silver paint pen and then stuck some rhinestones in it to make it shine.  Also new this year I thought I would add something different - mini memory books with a monogrammed initial!  I thought - what better way to remember homecoming day than to have it on your mum where friends can write little notes or sign where you will have it forever!!

 

This is a decked out mum so it has bubbles, treat bag, 5 different braids (tutorials will be along soon I promise!!)  feather boa and of course makes TONS of noise!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you see a SUPER SIZE SINGLE MEGA MUM for Flower Mound High School.  This is new this year - hard to tell from picture but this mum is 9.5" flower so with the ribbon backing it is almost as big as the Triple!   I custom make my letters for the top with my cricut machine and paint them with silver paint and glitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a look at the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marcus Highschool Double Mum

 

I custom made the Marcus "M" out of shrinking plastic - cut with my cricut, colored with copics, red foil, and black stickles!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lewisville High School Single Mum.  I've gotten really good with the box braids that you see running down the left hand side of the mum.  Also at the top to give it more color, I used burgandy tulle and tufted it around in the white mum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower Mound High School Single Deluxe Mum with bow instead of bear.  Was trying to do something a little different for girls who didn't want a bear.   It is hard to see but there are little crystal "jewels" hanging from middle of bow and standing up around the edge. - I will post a closer look below.  This has a box braid, military braid, spirit braid and curly cue braid along with a maribou boa.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

Here is a closer look at the detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are a couple of garters for the guys!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is either for Marcus or Colleyville High School.  It is the 4.5" flower with 12" streamers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a super deluxe garter for a senior.  This is bigger than the one above.  It is made with a 5.5" flower and has 18" streamers.  Yep, the guys get to be just as loud and obnoxious as the girls on this day!!  It was always so much fun!!

 

That is a victory braid you see running down the left side. (Tutorial soon I promise!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, there you have it!  I will continue to post them as I make them, but am really focused on trying to complete my tutorials right now.  The tutorials will be posted to this blog and have their own link.  If you want to see more pictures of mums you can always visit my website www.melzmumz.com

 

Thanks for looking!! I hope you enjoy them!!!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

Melissa

Made by www.MelzMumz.com

Rustic Father's Day card for my Dad

Masculine card

 

 I know this is really late - but maybe it will come in handy for some next year!!

 

My dad is a typical manly man and doesn't like ANYTHING girly!   So sometimes making cards for him can be tricky.  Fortunate for me he does love antiques so most anything vintage or rustic style he will generally like.

 

I don't know about you, but sometimes the hardest thing for me is trying to figure out what paper/color I want to use!   For this I started with Paper Trey Ink's Ocean Tides cardstock (I have all their colors - they are fabulous!!).  This is what I used for the base and also what I used behind the label nestability cutout in the middle.

 

The stripe kraft background paper is by My Mind's Eye - called Life Stories.  I think I use My Mind's Eye Paper in almost everything (little off the subject but I can't WAIT to get my paws on that new Lost and Found 2 - Sunshine!!!)  

 

The label was made with a nestability.  There is a little more to this than it looks.    First I printed a sentiment onto some vellum.   Then I used elmer's spray adhesive to glue the vellum to a piece of green cardstock.  I put both pieces together through my cuttlebug using a label nestability die.   Once it ran through, then Iglued it to the other piece of ocean tides cardstock and trimmed closely.  Ink the edges (use distress ink old paper) and then using my crop a dile (my 3 year old really thinks it's a crocodile)  I punched holes and put brads through it.   I personally don't like the brads going through the card to where you can see them on the inside of the card so I put the brads through the label before I glue it down.

 

 

 

The banner was cut with a spellbinders banner die cut.  I cut the main banner out of the green cardstock and then cut the top banner pieces out of the stripe cardstock.  Inked all pieces and glued together.  I used twine and tied knots in between each piece and poked tiny holes in the corner of each banner flag to run the twine through.  I also poked holes in the top of the card and ran the twine through there as well.

 

Take a few pop dots to prop the banner up and you're done!!!

 

Supply List:

Cardstock Base

Pattered cardstock 

Nestabilities Label Die and Banner Die

Distessed Ink

Vellum

Brads

Twine

 

Thank you for looking!  Please feel free to leave any comments or ask any questions!

Melissa 

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Teacher's Gift - Monogram Notebook and Note Cards

Teacher's Day Gift

 

Hello Everyone!!  Finally I will be posting some more things!  I have been so busy creating my mum website which I am so excited to say is now live at www.melzmumz.com  and making mum displays that I have fallen behind on my other crafts!  I do have a few things that I have been meaning to upload so they will be showing up here over the next week or so!!

 

This is a little teacher's day gift I made for my son's two teachers.  First I wanted to make them a personalized notebook.

 
I started out with two composition notebooks - the traditional black and white marbled ones.  First I cut a solid piece of cardstock to fit the front cover and the same for the back.  I kept it about 1/2" from the spine though since it is a little thicker there.   Then using my trust ATG I taped and taped and then glued down the base cardstock.  For the rounded edged I just used my rounded corner punch after I glued the base paper down. 
 
  
 
 

Next I picked the paper I wanted for the main image.  I and cut it about 1/2"shorter all the way around than the base paper.  Then I glued it down to the base paper.

 

For the spine I cut a piece of cardstock (same as the base paper) that was 4" wide.  Using my score board I scored at 1 3/4"and 2 1/4" 

 

Then I used my ribbon punch across the edge of both side of the spine paper and ran some sheer ribbon through it.   After running my ATG all over it, I carefully placed the spine in between the two scored lines and glued the paper down.  This way it had equal amounts on each side of the book and it covered where my base papers stopped.

 

This is the back view:

 

 

Using my nestabilities, I ran a piece of cardstock through cutting the label and then reran it through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder.  I glued it down to a dark piece of cardstock and trimmed it close to the edge.  I used another nestability for the flower shape out of mulberry paper and the smaller flower out of the same cardstock as the base paper.  The monogram inital was part of the paper stack I used - it is a piece of chipboad I glued down.  Added a few buttons in the printed flowers and that's it!!!

 

  I also wanted to make them some personalized note cards.

For these I used kraft cardstock base from Gina K paper (awesome for card bases!!)  Then after I cut a piece of paper almost as big as the card front (used same collection that I used for notebooks)  inked  the edges and glues down.  Cut a small piece of notebook paper and inked it to give it that distressed look.  Used an orange piece of cardstock behind the notebook paper and trimmed it close to the edge.

 

The just a note is a handmade stamp I bought on ebay I think for $0.25!!

 

The monogram initial piece is cut with a nestability flower shape and then embossed with same nestability.  Glued to piece of brown cardstock and trimmed carefully.   With the actual nestability sitting on top of the die cut, I used some brown chalk to darken the edge around where it was embossed.  The initial is from a set of inkadinkadoo stamps I got at Michaels.   The flower behind it was a fall silk flower I got on sale at Michaels for $0.99 for a whole bunch!!  They kind of looked like sunflowers, so if you pull one off the stem and pull the middle "eye" out of it - you get a flat silk flower!!  Glue it all down and you are done!!  I made 5 cards for each teacher with some kraft envelopes I got at a scrapbook convention in June.

 

 

Lastly,  I needed a cute bag to put this in - and these are really really easy!!!

  It was a plain white gift bag that you buy in sets of 10 or 12.  Cut a piece of card stock to cover front and one to cover back.  Ink edges and use ATG gun and glue down.  Cut another piece of cardstock 1/2" shorter on top and on side - that will give you about 1/4" shorter all the way around.  Glue it down as well.   The names I cut with my cricut.  Use my nestability to cut a little tag - punch a small whole through it and using the same ribbon I used on the books, tie it to the top!  See - told ya that one was easy!! 

  

Supply List:

Composition Notebooks

Coordinating Paper Stack

Ribbon Weave Punch

Nestabilities

Ribbon

Kraft Cardstock

Silk Flowers

Stamp for Sentiment

Solid Gift Bags

Optional:  Buttons and Mulberry Paper

 

 

Thanks for looking!!  Please feel free to leave any comments or ask any questions!  Have a great day!!!

Melissa

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We were meant to be - kindergarten pics

Isn't this cute!!

This is my kindergarten graduation picture and my husband's kindergarten graduation picture.  I felt like even way back then we looked like we belonged together :-)

 

 

 

Honestly this page was not much more than layering some awesome vintage style papers.  All of the paper came from a K& Co paper book that I bought at hobby lobby.  A couple of the pieces came from the Tim Holtz lost and found collection. 

 

The fate tag was a manilla tag that I cut a little shorter and using a Tim Holtz stamp I used the old paper distressed ink to make the background image.  The word fate was a rub on.  The metal flower is a brad by spare parts I bought at Hobby Lobby when they have their 50% off spare parts sale (great time to stock up on that stuff I might add!!!). 

 

The journal tag was made using my cuttlebug embossing plus label folder.  It's great because it both cuts the tag and embosses it in one pass.  Plus you can open the back of it while the tag is still in the folder and ink the raised parts (the swirly design on the tag).  Then I used a journal stamp and stamped the journal lines on it.   Took a spare piece of lace and tacked it up underneath the tag and used some fun foam to pop it up off the page.

 

Other than draping a key with a piece of ribbon from the corner, there wasn't too much more than that!

 

Hope you enjoy and have a wonderful day!  Thank you for looking!  Please let me know if you have any questions - I am always happy to answer them!

Melissa

Pee Wee Homecoming Mums!

These are PeeWee Mums inspired by a friend of mine!

So, as you may know I have been making homecoming mums the past couple of years for some girls at a local high school here.  Recently a friend of mine enlightened me to pee wee mums.  Her daughter is a cheerleader for a pee wee football team and they have a homecoming too!!  So I thought I would go ahead and start making these too!

 

 

 

So being "pee wee" mums, these mums are the same size top as some of the garters I have made before.   I use a #9 size ribbon and #3 size ribbon to make the loops around the mum at the top.  They are a much much scaled down version of the large ones, but still have all the fun!

 

These were done in Texas Longhorn colors and I promise, I've got my husband working on helping me with a couple of video tutorials on how I make my braids and put these things together that I am hoping to have done in the next month or so.

 

 

On this pee wee there is a military braid, 4 bells, multiple trinkets, some rhinestones (because has to have the bling!) tons of solid ribbon, a strand of foil honeycomb ribbon in the burnt orange color and also printed ribbons with the Longhorn on it and footballs on another.  I love using the silver star garland it hangs so nicely along with the printed satin football ribbon.   

 

 

I am planning on selling these for $19.99 each as shown with everything in the description included in the price and assembled.  We are currently working on my homecoming mum site that will hopefully be up and going in the next month as well.  But in the meantime if people are interested they can send me an email from this blog and I'd be more than happy to help! 

 

Here is another one I made in the same colors.

 

 

 

The main difference with this one is the braid.  The other one had a military braid.  For this one I made a champion braid (some people call it a Texas braid) and added some rhinestones down the middle.  Instead of this mum having the printed satin ribbon that said Football, I used two orange/silver printed football ribbons.  Other than that they have the same amount of stuff, just different trinkets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the top and once again I had to add some rhinestones to it for a little extra shine (just because they are mini versions of the big ones doesn't mean they can't shine like the big ones!)

 

I just love making these things!!

 

Hope you like them and please feel free to leave any comments or email me with any questions!

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful day and thanks for looking!!

Melissa

 Made by www.MelzMumz.com

 

 

Thank you card - Masculine using Flower Soft!

Boys thank you cards! 

These were made after my son's 3rd birthday this year.  I was trying to make something youthful and birthday festive without it looking girly or even too gender specific.  I came across this polka dotted and plaid coordinating paper from a DCWV memories paperstack and thought it was PERFECT! 

 

 

 

These were so easy to make (thank goodness because I had to make 15 of them!).    The card base is from Gina K pure luxury ivory heavy weight cardstock.  The card is 5.5 inches tall and opens from the bottom towards the top.  The blue layer was another piece of coordinating paper from this stack.  I cut the dotted  paper and the plaid paper to where the plaid would sit on top of the dotted and overlap about 1/4 inch.

 

 

Next, I cut small pieces of brown tulled and kinda rolled them up into a straight line and wrapped it around where the plaid paper overlapped the dotted paper and secured it in the back.  

 

Then I glued the whole thing down to the blue cardstock and then glued it to the ivory cardstock.

 

 

Next, I had these silver pieces that are by Lil Davis that I had picked up at a garage sale.  This is where the green Flower Soft came into play.   I had not a clue as to what I should put in the middle of this metal tag, so I saw the green Flower Soft and thought "well hey it matches" so I used some crystal laquer in the middle and dropped some flower soft on there with a green rhinestone (and if you have ever used crystal laquer youknow when it dries - NOTHING is coming off of there).   I used a small scrap of brown tulle and looped it through the tulle wrapped on the cardstock and tied the metal tag down so it is actually hanging from the tulle.

 

The label was made but cutting a piece of the ivory cardstock using a set of nestabilities.  Embossed it with the same die and then glued to burgandy cardstock and cut out around it.  The sentiment was from an old set of clear stamps and the brown "outline" was from my lovely Waltzing house Mouse label stamps.

 

Using a piece of fun foam (yes I use fun foam and glue it to the back instead of using pop dots because it is MUCH cheaper and it actually pops the image up better without saggin in the middle) I glued the label down to the top.

 

 

 

 

This is the inside of the card.

 

 

These were really easy to make like I said before - the key is know how many you want to make and then work like an assembly line cutting all the materials you need and then putting them together all the same step at a time.

 

 

 

Hope you like it!  Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Melissa

My Sweet Prince - Resist Embossing

Hello!

My apologies for being so neglectful with posting lately - seems like everything always happens at once!  I was down with pneumonia for a month and since then have been busy busy with my little boy.  I never knew being a parent would keep you so busy (a wonderful kind of busy) but makes me have a new found respect for my parents (who had 4 children) and friends of mine with multiple kids!!  So anyway - onto the posting :-) 

Today I wanted to first show a scrapbook page that I put a little bit of EVERYTHING onto. 

 

 

 

First I started with a blue cardstock base that was in one of my DCWV stacks (has a tone on tone background).

Then for the two side pieces a little bit of COLLAGE STAMPING (one of my favs!).   Using an ivory piece of cardstock fitted to the sides, I ripped the inside pieces off and used vintage photo distressed into to age the edges.  Then I took a pack of 7gypsies vintage stamps and used the vintage photo ink and stamped all over, taking care to overlap the images a little.  I glued along the inner torn edges underneath and attached some brown tulle the length of the paper - close up here.

 

 The tag/latch looking pieces on the outer edges are pieces of scrap paper that I coated with the Tim Holtz crackle paint (that stuff is so cool!) I just love the way it dries like that and looks like worn out leather.

 

The embossed piece which you can see in this close up was paper that was run through my cuttle bug using the iron works embossing folder with the vintage photo ink rubbed over the raised image.

 

 

Next I cut an ornamental style embellishment with my cricut and put it in the back ground as well (can't see much of it because it's kind of behind the picture).  I cut the "handsome" title from the same piece of paper using my cricut and the gypsy wanderings font.   The ornamental "sign" that the handsome title is laying on was cut from my cricut as well on a brown piece of cardstock.  Using the black soot distressed ink, I dabbed a sponge doused in the black soot ink all over the cardstock to give it that aged marbled effect.

 

The "My Sweet Prince" title is from a book of vellum titles for boys that I cut out and took a scrap piece of ivory cardstock, used my trusty little distressing tool to rough up the edges and swiped that vintage photo distressed ink pad directly over the paper.  Glued the vellum title down and adhered to the background paper.

 

Now to my favorite part!  This tag was so much fun to make!  First I have to say how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE tearing paper.  I think it has the most wonderful effect - especially when you follow it up with inking the edges. 

So the tag - yes!  Just a plain manilla tag (bought a hundred of them on ebay for like $5 ).  First using a ruler I cut a rectagle from the middle and cut the corner of the rectangle in a little further at an angle to give me something to roll back.  What I do to make the paper turn back like this is first, rub along the edge of the paper in the direction you want it to go.  Once you get a little bit of the paper rolling back, I use my paper piercer and roll the paper around it.  Believe it or not, it will stay that way.  Then I ink it like crazy!

 

But BEFORE all of that - after I cut the rectangle I used a floral damask rubber stamp (think it is by Hampton Arts) and stamped versamark on the blank tag, covered it in clear embossing powder and heated.  Then I used the vintage photo ink and rubbed over the embossed image and swiped the excess ink away with a paper towel and TADA! there is your embossed resist technique!  The close up below shows the shiny embossed detail.

I used a scrap piece of Tim Holtz Lost and Found paper behind the open hole I left in the tag to write the date on.    Used a vintage style button on the top and stuck it all down!!!

 

Hope you like it!  Let me know what you think!

 

 

As always, thanks for looking and feel free to leave comments or ask me any questions!

Melissa

Celebrate Gift Box

This was a creation on a day that my husband said "Take a break and go craft".  I sat in my room looking at stuff feeling overwhelmed and couldn't pick what pictures I wanted to use.  So I thought "well, Melissa, make something different" and this is what came out of it!

 

I used my cricut and the cartridge tags, bags, boxes and more to cut the box out of patterned paper.  Once I put the box together, I cut a panel out of scrap paper and adhered it to the box.  I had just gotten the irock tool and was anxious to use it so I glued some rhinestones on the corners.  The main label was punched with an ek sucess label punch on ginak luxury paper.  I glued it to a scrap piece of the patterned paper and carefully cut an outline.  The celebrate sentiment was an old $1 stamp I got at Michaels ages ao.  The Token is part of the Tim Holtz collection and I punched a hole and tied it on with some ribbon.   The ribbon flower was made using this ribbon rose tutorial that I love!  Lastly after all of this, I didn't have anything other than white tissue paper so I got out the Vintage Photo distressed ink and using the foam applicator dabbed some ink all over it and tada!

 

Thanks for looking!!!!!

Melissa

Paparazzi!

 
 
 This is a page I did of my son being silly.  But all the photos made me feel like Paparazzi so what better paper to use than the BoBunny Mamarazzi Paper line ! The background paper, the tag in the left corner and the tag in the middle top of page are all part of the line.  The gate in the background was cut out with my cricut and so were the oranamental side pieces framing the bottom pictures.  

 

This close up of the top left corner shows that I curled the corner down to reveal paper behind it and added a couple of buttons.  Now what I do when I am peeling corners, etc, I only cut a small piece of paper to use behind where the corner curls down instead of a whole piece of cardstock.  Saves paper that way!

 

 

 

 

 

In this picture you will see the ribbon/trim used to mat the picture.  I used brads on the corners to keep it from unravelling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like it!  Let me know what you think and as always thanks for looking!

 

Melissa

Home Sweet Home

So Cozy!

 

This shows the CRAZY snow we got here in Texas in late February this year.  It was so much fun and we haven't seen snow like that here in over 20 years!!

 

 

The main page for this was in a paper pack by DCWV that I got at Michaels a long time ago, but I loved how the edges "frame" of the page is flocked and fuzzy!  So first, I cut the house with my cricut - I think it was the Heritage cartridge.  I used some chalk to darken the roof a little and backed the windows with pale yellow cardstock.  I matted the picture with brown cardstock and glued it to the middle of the house.  I didn't want to cover up any of the flocked frame on the paper, so I pulled out the craft knife and cut where I wanted the house to tuck into and glued it all down. 

 

At the top of the page, I used a plain manilla tag and using the Distressed Ink in Old Paper, stamped a background image on it then took a journaling stamp and used memento cocoa ink to stamp it.   I don't know about you, but the Old Paper Distressed Ink is just the best!  I love how when you use it, the slight color difference is more significant than using watermark and it gives paper such a wonderful aged look without making it look too busy.  The key was glued on there, and the wax seal is actually glue!  I stamped an inital A into the hot glue while it was still warm.

 

 

Here you will see that I took a silver piece of satin fabric and glued it behind the chimney for "smoke".  Then digging through my stash I found these old floor plan stickers.  I slapped them down on some grey cardstock, distressed the edges and used some metal eyelets on the corners with a little bit of twine to run it through a jump ring.  I slid the jump ring over some pretty brown sheer ribbon and once again cut the corner next to the flocked edge and tucked the ribbon behind it.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Melissa

The Godfather

Big Todd

This is one of my personal favorites! 

 

 

The paper line for this one is crate paper and it's called the prudence collection.  I got this in an entire pack at a sample sale and love the paper.  It came with a few punch out die cuts to match which is what is on the left side and bottom right corner.  I started with the floral base paper and took a solid piece of light blue paper and cut it in a rounded shape to fit the scalloped paper.  Then I sliced off the left side of it and water distressed the blue paper (getting edges wet and scrunching them).  Once that was glued down, I used a punch out from the collection (diamond shape border on left) and glued it down.  I went back with my crop-a-dile and punched holes all the way down in the middle and to the left of the strip.  With some black satin ribbon, I wove it through the punched holes and secured in the back.

 

 

Now this is what took the longest!   The flowers - I made each one!  I made them using my Tim Holtz tattered flowers die.  I made two from some of the blue scrap paper (the water distressed paper) and made two from some dark brown paper and one from a scrap piece of corrugated paper.  So when I make these, I ALWAYS run my paper through the Xyron and adhere it to some grungepaper and then run it through my cuttlebug.  For me this makes my flowers nice and thick and they hold their shape really well.    I did throw some pop dots behind the label so it would sit above the edge of the distressed paper and threw a paper clip on the top of it.  Then I secured the flowers around the picture.  I used some scrunched up tissue paper in between a couple of the flowers just to fill in and also used a metal flower accent in the middle of them.

 

 

 

The tag on the right was a basic manilla tag that first I stamped an old frame stamp using Distressed Ink Old paper.  Then using the Distressed Ink in Weathered Wood, I inked around the edges and stamped the Journaling frame in the middle.  I used Walnut Stain Distressed ink to stamp a frame around the hole on the tag and threw a rhinestone brad on there to hide the hole.  Once again I had to use pop dots to adhere the tag so it would sit above the distressed paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 Here you can see a little bit closer the main part of the page.  For the title I used some clay leters and chipboard letters and a strip of tissue tape (Tim Holtz) - this stuff is so cool!!!

  

 I hope you like it too and please let me know what you think - I love to hear your thoughts!

 

 

 

 

Supplies:

• Crate Paper - Prudence Collection
•  Black ribbon
•  Tattered Flowers Tim Holtz Die
•  Distresesed Inks (Weathered Wood, Walnut Stain and Old Paper)
•  Metal Floral accent
•  Tim Holtz tissue tape
•  Stamps
•  Random lettering

 

Thanks for looking!!

 Melissa

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Card 2010

Merry Christmas!! 

This is our Christmas card I made this year.  It took me a whole day to come up with this one! I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to go for and started with the wreath.  Finally after much trial and error, this was the final outcome.

 

First off, all the paper I used for this is GinaK Pure Luxury Cardstock - it's just so awesome!  I started with a dark green as the card base.  The size of this is 3" by 5".  Next I cut a piece of white cardstock for the front of card and one for the inside of the card.  The red door was cut using my cricut and gypsy.  I used the plantin schoolbook cartridge on my gypsy for a rectangle and copied and resized it until it cut the sizes I wanted.  Once cut I used Distressed Ink in Fired Brick around the edged of the red door and around edges of panels to give it a little depth.

 

 

 

The next thing you see is the wreath.  This was cut on my cricut using the christmas cartridge.  I cut the main wreath and then using the shadow feature cut another using a darker cardstock.  Once these were glued together, I used a crackle stamp and with some versamark stamped on the front of the wreath and heat embossed the crackle design with some clear embossing powder to give it texture.  Punched holes to create the bow and added some bling with the irock tool.  Use a few pop dots behind it and tada!  Looks like it's hanging on the door!

 

 

The door knob was cut using the sentiments cartridge with my cricut.  Of course it came out a little gunky so I used the walnut stain distressed ink and a foam applicator and coated it until it was all brown.  Then used a small round brad as the knob.

 

The Merry Christmas sentiment was an old stamp I had.  I used my ek success label punch to create the sign and it also had the one for our name plaque.  I backed them with green cardstock to make them look a little more substantial.

 

This is the inside of the card.  The holly stamp is an old clear acrylic stamp I have and the Happy Holidays is by Hero Arts.  I used memories black dye ink to stamp images and then used my copic markers to color the holly.

Supplies:

• Cardstock (heavy weight)
• Cricut (Plantin Schoolbook, Christmas and Sentiments Cartridges)
• Label Punch
• Crackle Stamp, Sentiment Stamp for front of card and inside of card, Holly Stamp
• Ribbon
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Brads (for doorknob)
• Markers 
• Pop dots

Let me know what you think!  Thanks for looking and have a happy holiday season!!

Melissa

Saddle Up!!

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog!!  If you have a moment to look through some of the  posts - please let me know which ones you like best!  I value your opinions and suggestions!

 

Being from Texas I love Western Themes.  This was  an 8 by 8 page I did for a family album for my inlaws.  The base cardstock was from an all about boys paper stack.  Cut a piece of mesh for the background and then matted the pictures.  On the corner of the pictures I stitched little x's with twine (which makes REALLY BIG HOLES!).  Also stitched randomly on the top left and bottom right of the page.  The title and accents at top and bottom of page are rub ons.

 

The title has pop dots under it to give it a little depth.  Wound  a little piece of ric rac (???) in the mesh with a button and metal swirly doo thing.

 

Supplies:

• Western Style Cardstock
• Western Rub Ons
• Fabric Mesh
•  Twine and Embroidery Needle
• Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink

 

Thanks for Looking and have a wonderful day!!

Melissa

Distressing and Collage

Happy Tuesday!!

Today I am posting one of my personal favorite pages.  Funny how when you have no idea what you want to create but somehow you make something anyway!  My best pages usually happen that way - and when I think too hard, well, they end up looking a mess :-) 

 
 
 

 

This page started with a piece of base card stock from a paper stack by K & Co.    Then I took 3 random pieces of paper (2 patterned and one solid), tore them to the size I wanted and inked up the edges really well.   The green piece of cardstock I slid my Vintage Photo Distressed Ink across the top of it back and forth to give it that aged look.

 

The next thing was cutting a small piece of fabric (sheer liner) and wound it around a notecard that I cut out of a page from the Tim Holtz Lost & F0und paper stack where I journaled.   I used Scotch Quick Dry Glue underneath to glue the fabric and the card down.  Then layering the three distressed pieces of cardstock, I pulled out my trusty little sewing machine and did some messy random stitching (you will find that the sewing machine is NOT my strong point) :-) 

 

 

Under the green piece of cardstock I took 3 strips of sheer ribbon and glued one end down.  To hold the opposite end down I used some pewter looking grommets (or gromlets - I have no idea!)The little lion card and clock were cut from the Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper stack as well and thrown in for accents.  Glued a little watch part down on top of the clock and stuck a couple of buttons on as well.

 

 

 

 
The sentiment was from a book of vellum sayings I had that were all baby related.  Once it was cut out I used little nail head looking brads to hold it down with a heart gem stone in the top right corner.

 

 

 Supplies:   

• Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper Stack
• Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distressed Ink
• Sheer Ribbon and Fabric
• Sewing Machine for stitching
• Vellum quote stack
• Grommets
• Watch Parts
• Buttons


Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!!!!   Thanks so much for looking!!

 Melissa

Anniversary Banner and Tuxedo Rose

Happy Anniversary!    So this is what I had been working on the past couple of weeks, however I couldn't upload it until today for fear my mom would see it.  Last night we celebrated my parent's 25th anniversary and me and my 3 brothers threw them a surprise party.  This was the banner I made for the party.  Sorry the pictures aren't great - they were hard to take!

 

First I cut the base with my cricut cartridge using beige cardstock.  I inked each piece with black soot distressed ink by Tim Holtz.  Then using the paper stack called Paris Nights, I cut triangles using my cricut as well.  The large circles were cut with my nestabilities large circle and then edges embossed with the same.  I cut the letters using my cricut gypsy wanderings font at a 5" and used pop dots to raise the circles off the banner to give it some added dimension.  Then I took black satin ribbon to weave through to hang the banner from and used rhinestone brads made by recollections that I bought at Michaels at each corner. 

 

These little additions were my favorite part!  I call them my tuxedo roses.  I always use either light cardstock with dark ink or dark cardstock with white ink to give it a sharp contrast.  To make the flower I use about 18 different size hearts and ink the edges.  Then you feed them onto a brad and scrunch them up - that's it!  The ink smears a little bit but I like the look it produces.

 

 

Here is one more look at the banner and please tell me what you think or if you have any questions!!  Hope you like it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking and please leave comments!  I love them!!

Melissa

Homecoming Mums

What the HECK is that???????

Sorry I have been so radio silent for a little while but I have been working on these for the main part of the past month.  For those of you who have grown up in Texas and Oklahoma, no explanation is needed - you know what these are!  Outside of that, if you are wondering what these are, they are Homecoming Mums!  This is what our highschool girls wear every year for homecoming and the bigger the better!  I also have pictured the garters (miniature mums worn on the arm) that the guys wear.  There are a lot of pics here so bear with me.  I make all of mine from scratch completely and make all of my own braids (something I am VERY proud of!) and I load these puppies up with EVERYTHING!  They are super custom tailored to each girl/guy and I try to make each one unique in their own way.  Hope you enjoy!!!

 

 

This one I made for a girl named Laura.  The bear has blue flowers on it at the top.  This has probably about 6 braids on it with all kinds of other custom stuff I make.

 

 

This is a close up of the top of the mum - one of the prettiest I have done!  I added white feathers around the top and white pearls.  The blue flowers were stems that I pulled the flower part off of and to make them sparkly I added silver glitter glue to them.  Next you will see some of the main part of the mum a little more close up. 

This next one is a matching Senior Mum and Garter.  The senior mums are silver and white and sometimes can contain a "special" color that they guy or girl chooses.  On these the guy requested Fleur De Lis on them (which is what the bears       are holding).  The mum had a really pretty feather boa on the right side of it that was white with silver mixed in.
Buch of pictures here.  This is the matching garter for the guy close up.  The ribbon around the top of each one matched and I used some of the matching braids on them.

 

The top of this mum turned out beautifully.  I add all kinds of silver flowers and found this crystal looking stuff to stick all around in it.  I tied a bow to the bear, painted the Fleur De Lis with silver acrylic paint with glitter and glued it to the bear.  

These all have tons of bells and whistles (literally) tied to them so they make a TON of noise while you are walking around.  And yes, they wear them to school ALL DAY LONG and drive the teachers CRAZY!
  

This one is a senior garter.  The boy and girl both played tennis so you can see I added a small tennis ball to it.  

You can see here in this picture a little more clearly some of the "extras" and some of the pretty braids.

The next one is a senior mum that the girl picked purple to add to it (her favorite color).

And just to give you an idea of how big these things are I've added a few picks of the girls wearing them.  Now some of the girls wear them around their necks and some wear them pinned to their jackets.

 

Look at these!  Isn't it wild!  Feather Boas and all!  I also use rhinestones to make "paw prints" on them.  For the purple star I used a wooden star and painted it with purple acrylic paint mixed with some glitter and glued purple rhinestones to it!

This one is my step-daughter Paige who loves Zebras.  So I ordered a Zebra online and stuck him in the middle of it.  This was her first Mum experience!

 

 

This is a close up of the top of her mum with the zebra - isn't it cute!

Made by www.MelzMumz.com

Becoming a Pirate

This is my favorite of the three!

 

These were pictures Eli's Aunt Mandie took of my brother, Kolby and I trying to get Eli dressed for Halloween. 

 

 

 

When I started this page, I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it, I just knew I wanted that boat on there.  So instead of it being on there, I made it come through the page. 

 

 

I cut a big hole right where I wanted it to be and then sat the boat underneath.  I started tearing the edges back until the boat was completely exposed.  Using the vintage photo distressed ink, I darkenedit to look like it was burned.  Then I added a fleur de lis chipboard piece, inked it in walnut stain distressed ink and embossed it with walnut stain embossing powder (NOTE:  if you have not used these powders before, know they are not like other embossing powders - ask me why :-)  they don't change color as noticeably therefor I kept using my heatgun on it until I burned a hold through my powder plate - only took a day to get the smell of burned plastic out of that room - did have a hard time explaining that one to my husband).

n For the pictures, I used a piece of corrugated board and my trusty distrez it all tool to the edges, glued it down on top of a piece of netting.  The "brads" are pieces of paper that I ran through the cuttlebug using my new embossing plus folder for tags.  Then I handstitched the corners of the photos to the tags and pinned them down with brads.

The word pirate was cut out using the black letter cartridge on my cricut and the word becoming was cut out using the gypsy font.  The piece of chipboard that the word becoming it sitting on was inked with faded jeans distress ink, then I painted over that with white acrylic paint.  Once it was dry I sanded it down until it was just right!

 

Supplies:  Patterned paper, corrugated board, mesh fabric, distressed inks, gypsy font and black letter cartridges, chipboard

 

Thanks for looking and please feel free to leave a comment!  I love them!

Melissa

 

Captain Half Beard

HAPPY NATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!!!!

Yes, I'm serious!  It really is (believe it or not!) So in honor of talk like a pirate day, I did three pages of my son last halloween who was, yes you guessed it, a PIRATE!  This first page's main attraction is the pirate boat I created.  This was done mainly with my cricut with the life's a beach cartridge.  I used the hide/contour button on my gypsy to hide a few parts of the boat.

In this picture you see the boat a little closer.  This was to show how the sails I made using canvas material and "shredded" the edges to make it look worn.  I also took some Distressed Ink  in black soot to weather them a bit.  The title Captain half beard was cut with my cricut cartridge Black Letter and the skulls were cut with my cricut life is a beach cartridge.  The Halloween title was stamped with an Inkadoo stamp I bought at Michaels and the stickers were by Jolee's.

Hope you enjoy it and have a happy talk like a pirate day!

 

 

 

Thank you for looking!  Please feel free to leave comments!  I love them!

Melissa

 

Schoool Class Pic using Felt

This is my husband's favorite!

First I started with a piece of cardstock I picked up in a little store in Fredericksburg , TX.  The feel I wanted for this was the age of the kids, so as I was throwing away some trash, I was breaking down a cardboard box and thought - hey this would work!  I cut a piece of the cardboard out and used it to back the picture.  Then I took a piece of blue cardstock and pasted it onto the cardboard and ripped the bottom off.  I love tearing paper - it adds such a neat effect and it is so simple!  The glue, pencil, crayon and scissors I cut using my cricut with the locker talk cartridge.  Tore a piece of green scrap paper and stuck it behind cardboard with a rub on saying.

  

The next thing was the library card.  I wanted all the kids names on this so Eli would have it when he grew up (funny thing is I don't know half of these kids so I had to ask my 2 year old son what their names were!) So I took a library card and wrote each kid's name on it in different ink and different hand writing so it would look like they each wrote their own name as if they checked out the same book!

 

After that it came time to put it all together. I ran a blue piece of cardstock through my cuttlebug using an embossing folder and threw on some stickers that are by jolees.

  I still felt like it needed something else to reflect the age.  So when I started throwing things together I grabbed a piece of felt and folded it like the corner of a blanket and tucked it behind the picture.  It finished off the page for me!

BTW that is my sweet boy on the far left in the red shirt - isn't he the CUTEST!!

 

Supplies: stickers by jolees, cardboard, library card, vellum, felt, cuttlebug and embossing folder, patterned and solid cardstock

  

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Falling for FALL

I love this page! 

Most of the leaves and letters were done with a Soft Spoken package of stickers, but the thing I like about this is weaving the ribbon and the vellum tags.  The tags were so easy, I used a rub on sentiment on top of vellum.  Then I put the vellum on top of some striped patterned paper and cut the two together so it matched up just right!

Supplies:  Patterned paper, ribbon, leaves stickers, vellum, rub on sentiments, eyelets 

  

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Distressed Collage Stamping

This is a photo of Eli in his bouncer (which is the ONLY place he would sleep when he was a baby!). 

 I started with a base patterned paper by My Mind's Eye (which you will find I use lots of their paper) and found another patterned paper that looked like a page from an old catalog, distressed the edge with Walnut Stain distressed ink and glued it down diagonally. 

Next I cut out the luggage from a paper that was in a paper stack by K & Co and glued it to the bottom. 

The flowers are by prima, were stacked and jazzed up with a rhinestone in the middle. 

The acrylic tag is by tim holtz.  I used the alcohol inks in caramel and latte with the alcohol ink applicator and dabbed them on, blended it with some alcohol ink blending solution and let it dry.  Once dry I selected a pattern from a DCWV paper stack I had and cut it out.  Used glossy accents to adhere the acrylic tag to the pattern paper.

In the next photo, you will see the lace is just a strip of crocheted lace that I glued to the top of the page and sewed some random wood buttons at the corners.

 

The tags were made with two standard manilla tags and the main tag with journaling was actually cut from a jolee's parcel package and inked with walnut stain distressed ink.  The two manilla tags were first stamped with Distressed Ink in Old Paperwith a background stamp.  Then I used multiple stamps from 7 gypsies in  and Walnut Stain Distressed Ink.  Then I inked the sides and corners to give it that old look.  Took about 5 minutes to make those tags!Aged mahogany Distressed Ink

 

Supplies Used: Cardstock from my mind's eye and K&Co.  Solid cardstock by papertrey inc, tag from jolees parcel package, prima flowers, tim holtz acrylic blocks, tim holtz alcohol ink in caramel and latte, misc stamps

  

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

 

Fatherhood

This is the day our son was born when his Daddy got to hold him for the first time.  The base paper for this is a floral patterned paper and a solid piece of yellow cardstock.  I tore the yellow cardstock diagonally and then used distressed ink in walnut stain to ink the edges.  A soft grey cardstock was used to mat the photos.  The tool I used to distress the photo mats is the tim holtz tonic distressing tool. 

 

 

The tag was created with the grey cardstock with a silver piece of vellum over it.  I stamped a journaling image with memories black dye ink on the vellum and handwrote the sentment.  Two snaps were put at the top and I fed a piece of ribbon through them and tied to the back. A jumper ring was added to the ribbon and key to hang the journal frame from.

 

 

 

The square flower was three different size square pieces of paper that I crumpled over and over again.  Then I took the distressed ink pad and swiped it over the crinkles, stacked them and added a brad.

The sentiment was printed on a piece of vellum and attached to the cardstock.

 

 

Supplies: solid and patterned cardstock, Walnut Stain Distressed Ink, brads, snaps, metal key, journaling stamp, vellum and ribbon  

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Ransom style lettering

This one was a real quick one.  The letters were made using various rub on alphebets and then cutting them out and using foam dots to pop them off page. 

In the next photo you will see a closer up view of the framed picture.  I actually used some scraps from a fabric store - this was the sewing pattern paper you adhere to the fabric to cut out!

I love trying to find new uses for things!

 

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Peeled Wall paper

I call this my peeled wallpaper!

Once again I am using My Mind's Eye paper (definitely some of my favorite paper).  But to create a distressed Wallpaper look, when I tore it I made sure it tore thinly the further it went into the main piece of paper.  This way when I inked it, it really took on a peeled look.  On the picture below you can see that I used  a piece of burlap to back the photo and added some silk florals to the left with a crystal swirly thing (my descriptive terminology) on the right.

 

 

On the top left, I used a journal card from My Mind's Eye with some of the favorite things written on it.  I added a little glitz with some stickles and stuck in inside one part of the tear.  I used some foam stickers behind it to help prop it up a little like it was stuck in the wall.  The paper flowerwas from another tutorial I found I found on splitcoast stampers (this is a great resource!click on link for tutorial) and distressed the edges before I wound it up.  Used some glossy accents to hold it down and TADA! 

 

These tags were so much fun to make!  The smaller one underneath was stamped with a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamp in Fired Brick Distressed Ink and aged around the edges with Vintage Photo Distressed Ink.  I added a little metal filigree with some glue and set aside.  For the big tag I used a big background stamp that had dictionary style writing on it.  I stamped this with versamark and used clear embossing powder over it.  Heated it up and let cool.  Then I used Vintage Photo Distressed Ink across the embossed tag and used extra on the corners to age it.  Then I took a paper towel and wiped the ink off the embossed image and the image just pops out!  Little bit of ribbon and a knot at the top and glued them to page! The metal filigree was on clearance at jo-ann fabrics in the jewelry isle.

Supplies: My Mind's Eye paper, manilla tags, Embossing Powder, Distressed Inks, Burlap, Tim Holtz Lost & Found collection paper, ribbon

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Cheerleader Picture

For this one I cut the title "Cheerleader" from a decorative paper I picked up at Michaels and distressed it by inking around the edges with adirondack sunflower ink and used distressed stickles at the top.  Also cut a piece from the same page, distressed it and added it underneath the picture.  I used a strip of navy mulberry paper and punched a star for the left side and cut a star from some patterned paper with my cricut.  I also cut some flowers using cricut out of the navy paper and patterned paper and crinkled them up, stacked them and used a brad to hold them down.  The tags I cut with a sizzix and then used gold vellum paper on top with yellow fibers wound through the tag opening. The pompoms were made with yellow and navy ribbon.  I got this tutorial on splitcoaststampers.com on how to make the ribbon puffs (see tutorial in link).

Supplies: mulberry paper, misc patterned paper, adirondack ink pad for distressing, ribbon and brads

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Ribbon Frame

   

This is my husband and I at the Biltmore Estates. 

The main reason I am showing this one is for the "frame" around the picture.  When I framed the picture I left about an inch and half of paper around.  I then cut lines where I wanted to weave the paper and fed the ribbon through and tied at the bottom.  That was it!

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Homecoming Floral and Ribbon

 

For this I used paper from K & Co but to save some paper, when I cut the main layer a little short and used an edger along the bottom, I cut a strip of paper and attached it to the back to make it a full 12 x 12 without using another whole piece of paper.  The blue shape I used Accent Essential cartridge on my cricut to cut.  I put another strip of paper in the middle and then attached the picture.  For the title I stamped a cream colored piece of cardstock by GinaKdesigns.comwith a Paisley stamp with Tim Holtz distressed ink in Old Paper.  Then i stamped the title with some Inkadoo stamps. 

 I felt like it needed something more so I used a plain cream colored satin ribbon and used a hole puncher to punch holes on each side and wound the ribbon through.

The black letters were by Recollections in a box I picked up on clearance at Michaels.  Added a few paper flowers and PRESTO! loved the outcome!
 

Tell me what you think!!

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

Birthday Card

 

This is a birthday card I made last night for my grandmother.  This one is so easy to do but looks like it took a long time!   

I started with PaperTrey's perfect black cardstock to use as the base and then used a piece of patterned paper I picked up at Hobby Lobby for 15 cents by the paper studio! I cut a piece of trim and wrapped it around the bottom of the patterned paper and then used my trusty ATG to adhere it to the front of the cardbase.  Then I used my labels 4 spellbinders nestabilities to cut a tag out of GinaK's pure luxury ivory cardstock (this stuff is soooooooo smooth - some of my best paper!) and glued it to a piece of the black cardstock and cut around it.  Then I used my beautiful WaltzingMouse Stamps to stamp the "frame" inside the tag and then used a Happy Birthday sentiment inside of that.  3 Foam pads behind the tag to make it "pop" and tada!

  

This is the inside.  I used the same cardstock and used a black decorative stamp for the corners.  And of course with a black and white card  I had to throw in a little "red" so I used that for the envelope!

Let me know what you think!!

 

 

Thank you for looking and please leave comments!! Have a wonderful Day!

Melissa

 

Extreme Distressed Edges

 
 This is one of my personal favorites!  I believe this paper is by K & Co and th brown cardstock is by Core'dinations.  I layered the three and stitched on the right side of the page.  On the bottom, I cut where I wanted to curl the paper back and used my paper piercing tool to "wrap" the paper backwards around it to get the paper to curl as if it was peeling away.  Then I used black ink to add a tarnished finish to the curled paper.  This is the same method I used to curl the paper around the photo, I just curled inward instead of outward.  Then I used a piece of vellum on top of patterned paper and used a rub on saying on the vellum. The Day you were born title I cut with my cricut and then used some distressed stickles to give it a sparkled but worn look.  The key is hanging from a piece of ribbon and I wound some random fibers around the top of the key.  Hope you like it!

Vintage Baby Picture

This picture was taken at the hospital the day after my son was born.  The photo is in black and white (just so you know your eyes aren't playing tricks on you!)

  I used a soft floral base paper from a K&Co paper stack.  Then the burgandy paper was cut from my cricut machine using the accent essentials cartridge (just a basic shape). 

I was inspired by the idea of a locket and so created the picture "frame" from kraft cardstock that was inked all over with Tim Holtz distressed ink (I LOVE LOVE LOVE these inks) in aged mahogany with a touch of walnut stain on top.  Then I stamped the leaf image with versamark using a stamp by hero arts and embossed with martha stewart gold embossing powder.  I took an small piece of crocheted lace and glued it around the outside of the picture fram.  The hinge I picked up at Hancock fabrics and used glue dots to hold it down. 

 

 In this picture you will see a close up of the flowers poking through the paper.  I punched a hole through both layers of paper and rolled them back exposing both papers.  I then took the flower buds off a silk flower and glued them on top of each other filling up the hole to look like they were coming through the paper.

This picture shows the distressed linen page I created for added effect under the photo.  I used a piece of white glossy paper, stamped the french script using rhubarb color from adirondack inks.  Once that dried I used Tim Holtz distressed ink in vintage photo to "age" the paper.  Once that was dry then I used the Tim Holtz sandpaper and scratched the photo up and down and then side to side and tada - there it was!  The accents were cut with my iron works die in my cuttlebug with kraft paper and then inked the same as the frame above.  I used a left over piece of cardstock, tore the edge, ran it through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder (damask) and then used old paper to ink on the raised parts and put it all together.  I used lace trim around my son's photo by attaching it around the back with ribbon glue.  Hope you like it!

  

Thanks so much for looking!  Please leave comments - I love them!

Melissa