Designer Showcase & More from the 7 Girls & a Smoking Gun

Happy Weekend! I am so glad to have a “second” weekend after the mid-week July 4^th holiday in the US. I’d love to say I’m going to lounge around and relax, but …

1.       I’m a Mom.

2.       I’m a Wife, too.

3.       And…I am TOTALLY inspired to create, create, create because I’ve been fawning over these amazing projects from my team, 7 Girls & a Smoking Gun!

Check out our third designer showcase and talented Ms. Sherrie Suttles! She’s created an amazing garland that can be color coordinated for any country and holiday!  You won’t believe the stunning projects that come from my simple instructions to "create a home decor item, decorative bag, something with wood..." LOL! Oh, my stars & stripes...these ladies are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

SHERRIE SUTTLES - Designer Showcase!

Hi everyone, Sherrie here to share with you a home decor item that I created for our group post this month. I would have to say that creating home decor items has to be my favorite altered thing to create, if I'm not actually scrapbooking. I really only just started creating home decor items, but I have to say it is so much fun. It gives me something different to work on when I need a break from just scrapbooking (which I have been doing for about 12 years now!). And I have to say that I LOVE to emboss on metal and chipboard. Those have to be my favorite surfaces.

 Since its July in the USA that means celebrating the 4th of July. So I created this Red-White-Blue themed garland to hang on our front porch. I started with a 24" Tin Star Rust Garland by Darice. I used Cable Car Red, Opaque Bright White, and Earthtone Blueberry Embossing Powders on the different stars. I used my embossing pen and covered the stars with embossing ink and then sprinkled them with powder. I then cut strips of fabric and knotted them in the connecting loops between the stars. I also found those super cut hats and little flags and attached those to the stars using my glue gun.

The great thing about this garland is that it can also be used for Memorial Day and Labor Day here in the USA because I didn't put anything specific on it. So I'm going to get plenty of use out of it.

IRIT SHALOM
I made a Kraft bag to put to some tea bags inside and called it “T42 - Tea for Two”. I dry embossed Tim Holtz Kraft glassine bag with Sizzix TH embosser and added some Copper Regular Wow powder all around. Then I covered Tando Creative chipboard piece with White Regular powder and stamped hearts strip from With Gratitude Ser over it with Stayz-On Black (as now it was glossy, we need to use a solvent ink over it). Then I hand painted the hearts and added some more shiny paint for the texture over the cup. The paper and stickers are from Simple Stories and my title letters are American Crafts. I hope you like this piece!

AMY PRIOR

 “I just love how this shabby letter rack has come together. After decoupaging some Patterned Paper and Paper Doilies to the Primed MDF, I then added layers of gorgeous WOW Embossing Powder Colours very randomly and roughly and topping it all off with some Bright White to soften the hues.” The sides were left completely white with just the coat of Bright White Powder.”

WOW Embossing Powders Used:  Opaque Bright White, Pastel Yellow, Pastel Blue, Pastel Pink, Suzy West Gummi Bear Green, Suzy West Earthtone Olive,

Other Products Used: Melissa Frances 5th Avenue Cardstock, Gesso, Tim Holtz Picket Fence Crackle Paint, Paper Doilies, Helmar Decoupage Paste, A2Z Scraplets Chipboard Leaves, Lindys Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays Nantucket Pearls Collection & Creme Brulee Cream, Handmade Halo Charms, Handmade Halo Resin, Handmade Halo Flowers, Prima, Dusty Attic, Manor House, Melissa France & Kaisercraft Flowers, Crafters Workshop Cherry Blossom 12x12 Template, Flourish with A Bling Chloe Flourishes, Molossi Pearl Strips

ERIKA TAYLOR

This little birdhouse is created using Whirly Pop, Cotton Candy and Bubble Gum embossing Powders.

ANNE  BROWN

This little box is approximately 6" long and is made from balsa wood.  I covered it in the black and cream paper on which I stamped and heat embossed the flourish design in Primary Ebony and added a few rhinestones.  The butterfly was punched out of patterned paper and the edges of the wings embossed with Cotton Candy embossing powder.  I used Metalline Green on the rose leaves and Primary Ebony and Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular on the button used to open and close the box.  The fastener is gold elastic cording that I braided together. The small flowers were white and I colored them with Copics to coordinate with my color scheme.  I added the typewriter key letters with E6000 adhesive.  Other supplies used were: Mod Podge, Beacon 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue, Aleene's Quick Grab Tacky Glue, 3 kinds of ribbon, paper from K and Company, rose from Recollections, half round pearls, pink rhinestone heart, crocheted and Venice lace, and pink fancy trim.

JEN DEAL

I whipped up a mini album with some scraps and a handful of photos. It's easy enough to pull together a mini when you use one my the WOW background stamps to enhance the pages with pops of color. I LOVE our background stamps. On this album, I used brocade throughout, with California Sunshine embossing powder and Tea Garden green on the cover. 

And, last but never least, we have a NEW team member joining our team. I'm so happy to show you Donna O'Leary's fantastic creation and welcome her to 7 Girls & a Smoking Gun! Cheers to you Donna!

DONNA O'LEARY

I felt like doing something a bit different and decided I wanted to do an off-the-page project. I have had lots of fun playing with Neutral Ultra Shimmer Glitter Powder, Bodacious Blue Embossing Glitter Powders. To give it more depth I have added some Utlra High Metallic Copper. After coloring the butterfly's wings underneath I gave them a layer of Ultra Clear. The frame also had LOTS of Bodacious Blue Embossing Glitter Powder. I love how this has turned out and will be doing again soon. I enjoyed using the wonder WOW embossing powders to ad layers and give it that WOW factor sparkle.

For more fabulous projects, please visit our blogs!

Click Here to Erika’s blog, Taylord Concepts.
Click Here to Irit’s creativeness at her blog, Irit Shalom’s Designs.
Click Here to Anniebee’s Craft Room.  
Click Here to see Amy’s blog.
Click Here to see Sherrie and hear about what is keeping her busy  at her blog, Each Days Memories. Click Here to see Jen’s latest pinteresting obsessions.
Click here to see what’s keeping Donna up at her Midnight Scrapper blog!