U Name It! - Lucas

This is a fun little U Name It! project I did for a friend of mine. I had such a great time making this a cowboy theme with a rope, a boot and a hat! I used polymer clay to create the letters and embellishments, and painted it with a glaze.

U Name It! - Eve

This is the latest U Name It! 3D Name I sold from my shop on Etsy. The name is Eve. I used pearlized polymer clay for the flowers to give them a bit of a sparkle and mixed two contrasting colors of clay to give it the swirl look.

U Name It!!

These are part of my latest creation that I have in my Etsy Store. I call them “U Name It” Custom made 3D Polymer Clay OOAK Names. U Name It…I can write it, in Clay! Have your child's name sculpted to match his/her room decor. Your name (or any word) with a photo/note holder, on a magnet, as a wall hanging...you name it! Each name (or word) is custom made. These are a few examples of the names I have already completed. If you’d like to order a custom name or word for yourself, click here.

This one is the one I did for my daughter. She has a garden themed bedroom in these colors. I even added wire antennae to the butterfly!

I had a lot of fun with "Amanda". This is a princess theme. There is a crown on the top of the "A" and a "frog prince" at the end who is also wearing a crown and a pucker! The flower that dangles from the letter "d" is a charm with a rhinestone. Each letter is made with pearlized polymer clay that gives it a fun sparkle and makes each letter look very girly.

This name was done with a love theme in mind. The dot over the letter "i" is a heart that is attached by a wire, making the heart appear suspended in air. The purple hearts on the letter "J" are in glitter clay and pearlized clay (though their sparkle is heard to see here).

"Andrew" was a challenge, and a lot of fun. A Nintendo Mario Bros. theme was requested here. I was very pleased with the finished product even after the challenge it presented! The turtle on the "A" is a Kooka Turtle that's been pounced on once and is waiting to be kicked. The letters "n" and "w" are bricks, with a coin jumping out of the letter "n" and attached via a looped wire to show motion as well as being made of a gold pearlized clay (as is the letter "E"). The letter "d" turns into a warp tube that has Mario's hat on top (showing that he's going down the tube of course!). The letter "E" is a mystery box with an invincibility star leaping out (also via a wire), and then of course the signature "grow up" mushroom at the end of the name. My husband thought it resembled Mario quite well.

The "B" in "Becca" as well as the letter "a" are made of glitter clay. Its too bad that the photo doesn't show the detail better. They are quite sparkly. The other letters are all made of a pearlized and swirled clay. This name comes with a very large dragonfly made of the same pearlized clays. The dragonfly also has wire antennae.

This is probably my favorite one. "Elyssa" is a baby bug/garden theme. The colors are not displayed well here and are more of a soft princess pink and a pearl color. Each letter and embellishment is made of pearlized clay and shimmers softly. The butterfly and the tiny bug atop the mushroom both have wire antennae. There is also a snail and a tiny inch worm, as well as the flower and then of course the mushroom I mentioned. This one is just so soft and girly. But I think I am especially fond of the bugs.

I can do one for you too! I charge just $2 for a letter and $1 for each embellishments (large ones are $2). If you'd like to read more about the U Name It's, just click right here.

Doodlies

This is my latest creation, a Doodlie! I will have him up on Etsy very soon. This particular one is an odd bird picture/note holder. He is less than 2" tall, made from polymer clay and sealed with a satin too coat. He even sparkles a bit! My plan is to do a whole line of these. Let me know what you think. What would you change? What would you pay?
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Altered Boxes for Brides, Newlyweds and Mommy-to-Be's in my shop on Etsy.com

These are a few altered boxes that I have for sale in my shop on Etsy.com at the moment. There is also a nice little "Baby Firsts" Altered Lunchbox in the shop that is a wonderful gift for a new mom or mom-to-be (think baby shower). I also do custom orders on my tins and boxes, cards, invitations for all occasions, as well as any scrapbook page (want a duplicate of one I made for myself?) all you have to do is ask!

The above two boxes are Bridal Guests and Gifts Keepsake Ledgers that are designed to hold Guest info for before the wedding. A wonderful way to keep your records organized. Did you send a Thank You Note, what is their email address? Check. Did they RSVP? Check. How many guests are they bringing? It truly is a nice idea. And I'm not just saying that because I made it. ;)

This altered box is titled "Advice for the New Mother!" and would make a wonderful Pre-Baby Shower Gift. Pre-shower because the purpose of this box is to have each guest fill out a card with advice for the new mom, weather it be on surviving motherhood or even a cute anecdote. No shower? You can have visiting friends and family members fill out a card instead. This is a must have item for any new mommy!

This box is similar to the one above except its meant for a newlywed couple. Titled "Advice for the Newlyweds" the box is meant for the couple to have each guest fill out a card with advice for the new couple. No shower? You can have each guest at the reception or even visiting friends and family members fill out a card instead. This is a must have item for any new couple!

*I am aware that I misspelled "Newlywed" on the box and it is currently being fixed.

Be sure to check out my shop on Etsy

for new Altered By West items.

1st Birthday

This LO is of my daughter's first Birthday. I was trying to make the one picture the main focus of the LO with out distracting from it with the ten or so photo's I wanted to use. Now that I am done, I think I would have preferred the same background paper on both sides. Anyhow, I had fun adding some elements to the page that came from the actual day, such as the ribbons and the cupcake.

The huge "1" is something I think that was originally intended for use on a quilt. It is fuzzy and made of fabric. The title is a rub on that I embellished with Stickles (I love my Stickles) and attached a plastic "button" to that which says "Sparkle". The button on the top of the hat is a fabric covered button, and the ribbons are ribbons that came from Aubrey's actual birthday dress, as did the Cupcake applique. I added the green "pearl" to the top. The large "27" rub-on is from Gin-X Express-ons, and "Jan" are foil letters. The background paper is from Imaginisce from the All Kinds of Happy line called Tied up with Strings

There are several photo's on this page that are under peek-a-boo flaps (see below photo). The background paper and the two upper "gifts" are also from the All Kinds of Happy line. I used Parfait Par-tay for the background, Chatty Cake, Chatty Cake on the pink gift and Oooo, You Shouldn't Have... on the gift bag. The gift bag has a few pictures in it with pull-up tabs made from Vellum to resemble tissue paper. The Vellum is from Paper Pizazz. I cut the edges using decorative scissors and the ribbon is also from Aubrey's birthday dress. The brown and pink "Happy Birthday" ribbon is Martha Stewart Crafts. Each flap (other than the gift bag) opens or rotates to reveal several pictures beneath. I embellished with ribbons, charms and rhinestones. The small purple envelope at the top was made using the Cricut Cartridge called Wild Card. I added stickles for depth and pizazz and used a Zig Millennium Pen to add her name. The envelope is secured to the page using the tiny white clip at the top and is easily removable. Inside the envelope is a card with the journaling of the day on it.

This photo displays how the peek-a-boo flaps open to reveal the photo's. There are a few photo's under every flap. I really enjoyed how this LO took on a mind of its own and revealed a nice new idea for me to add several pictures to one page without making the page feel overwhelming. And now, 4 days shy of her 2nd birthday...I have finished! :s I really need to pick up the pace.

Trick-or-Treat

Here is what the LO looks like together. It's a double page LO. This page gave me a lot of grief, but in the end I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks to some .svg files I used (for the title and the monkey) on my SCAL, and some pretty great embellishments I picked up in the weeks I was working on this LO. It seemed so plain brown to me, and blah. And it took me forever to find a Monkey that I liked. This monkey wasn't my favorite, but it was cute enough. I got the Monkey .svg file from Southern Belle and I got the title .svg file from http://www.svgcuts.com/ (who had some really great ones!!).

So the title and monkey are cuts I did on the Cricut. The title paper is by American Crafts, The Goods Collection in Pumpkin Pie. I used the stripes on the front and the back is a coordinating color that I used for the shadow of the title. Then I used a few sticky pearls from Recollections, along with several of the stickers. The spiders body is one such pearl, and then I used black Stickles on the spiders legs, and some little doodads here and there through out the LO. I put two photo's on tags that are hidden beneath the top three photo's. I had a lot of photo's I wanted to use for this LO, being that it was my daughters first "real" Trick-or-Treating experience.

My favorite part of this LO is the journaling tag. I found this cute little .bmp in Microsoft Word. I inserted the picture, enlarged it and then wrote on it using a text box, printed and then cut out the image by hand. A daunting task, there are 7 pages. Hey, I'm a wordy gal! The top flap opens up to reveal the other 6 journaling flaps, telling the story of the day. The font I used is called Dilate. I used foam tape behind the upper part of the bag to give it a 3D effect, and to also allow room for the thickness of the other 6 pages of journaling. I used black Stickles on the ghosts eyes and highlighted them with blue pearls from Recollections. The Happy Halloween Stickers, tag and candy are also from Recollections. The black dots around the large photo are "brads" that I made using black Stickles. I later added two small ghost stickers. I really recommend clicking on the images to get a closer look, I really am proud of the details in this LO. And happy to be moving on...

Journaling says:

" We went all over town today for Halloween fun! I think the fun was more for Momma's sake than any one else's. First thing this morning we went to a little costume parade on Grosse Ile, and Grandma joined us. I was dressed up in a little monkey costume and thirteen layers of clothes because it was so cold and the wind was whipping. Later that day we went to a little Boo Bash that had Pony Rides. I got to sit on one of the Ponies, my first time ever!! Then we went to visit Great Grandma and Auntie Maddie. Who just think I'm the cutest thing EVER!! Later that day we were off Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. I went last year, when I was only 9 months old, In Niles with Momma’s Family. This year I got to walk around and carry a little pumpkin and beg for my own candy (which Momma has already confiscated and probably eaten). We took Kaida too! Daddy walked Kaida, but I tried my hardest to get him to let me do it. In the end I let him “help” me. I had so much fun! We crunched through the leaves up and down my street. I even put some in my pumpkin. Daddy threatened people not to scare me, I got tons of candy, chips and cookies, went for a nice walk in a fun costume and saw lots of little kids and even dogs that were dressed in funny costumes. Then we went back to our home and passed out candy for a little while before I had to go to bed. I loved seeing all of the kids dressed up and coming to the door saying "Trick or Treat". Every time Momma said, "Muffin, someone’s coming!!" I ran to the door to see. Kaida did too! It was such a fun day, but when we were all done I was pooped!! I think Momma and Daddy had as much fun as I did, if not more. It is possible that they were also more excited than I was, especially Momma. I think she may have been holding back tears while we were Trick-or-Treating!! I am 21 months old. 2009"

Monster Card

I loved making this card. I made this card for my young cousin, using the Cricut cartridge Wild Card. It was the first card I've made from that cartridge. All of the elements are from the cartridge. I added Stickles for depth and flair. The little monster lifts up and the card is written on there. The card is about 5" square. I am so excited to get started making all sorts of new cards using this cartridge!!

Say cheese!

This lo is of Aubrey at 16 months. Its her second trip to a studio. The background is a denim print, one which I never thought I would use! I was also lucky enough to find some accent paper in one of my stacks that coordinated with her shirt in the photo. Then I used die cuts for the corners and embellished them with gems and these little metal confetti flowers. I also used die cuts for the title and the embellishments around the journalling tag. There are scatterings of stickles on some of the die cuts and the white run on flowers and swirls. I also hid a little rub on bird on the journalling tag.

The Sweetest Thing

It took me forever to find a BG paper to match the sweater she is wearing! I rather like how all of the colors turned out and because the paper was from a stack book I had other papers to coordinate. The title says The Sweetest Thing and is a rub on. The long tag on the left fits how I feel about this photo perfectly! There was nothing special about this day or location. In fact she is sitting on a bench outside of a department store. I just got lucky with the photo, but I love it! The little bird in the heart to the left is a little joke. I call Aubrey my little bird. That and the square below the flower are chip board. The white flower in the middle of the large one used to be a hair clip. I love using doo dads from odd things I find at garage sales. This page was a very quick process for me. Everything just sort of fell together in under 2 hours. Its one of the few LO's I've done just for the sake of the photo and not because there was a story to go along with it. It was nice, sort of took off some pressure.
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Halloween 2008

This page was super fun! I bought the background paper last year right after Halloween. But I found the overlay just recently. So I was glad to have waited to scrap this page. The background paper is shimmery which adds a really fun element to this page IRL. I Cut around the tops of the pumpkins so that the picture could slide behind it. Then I added the coordinating ghost rub-on. I cut the picture into a circle so that it would fit inside the spider web frame on the overlay. I used coordinating bg paper to matte the photo. It also shimmers. I wrote the title and date directly on the photo. Then I attached the overlay. The overlay is a transparency that has orange dots around the edges, and has a frame made from spider webs, along with the swirls and spiders. I attached teh overlay using black and orange brads in 2 sizes. I outlined the spider web parts with Black Stickles with adds depth and a great wet sparkle look IRL. I loved how that turned out! I went over the spiders bodies with Orange Stickles to make the spiders pop off the page. I then added more coordinating pumpkin and ghosts rub-ons to the overlay (and yes they stuck with ease). Below is the tag (hidden in the upper left corner of my layout). I used white ink and stamps, a white pen, and more of the rub-ons and brads to decorate the tag. I really loved how this LO turned out. Its not often that you buy an overlay that you can embellish and make your own. I just love the Stickles on it. And I was happy and surprised to see that it didn't warp my overlay. And surprised to see that the rub-ons actually stuck to the overlay.

Logan David

This is the introductory page for Logan's scrapbook.  I started this one months and months ago but found my printer can not print on vellum, and I insisted on having the poem on vellum.  I ended up printing it at my MIL's.  I wrote this poem for this page after my son was stillborn.  That is a replica of  his hand print in the upper left of the poem.  I attached the vellum using brown metal photo corners on the bottom, and coordinating ribbon, flowers and brads on the top.  The title is his name "Logan David" and was created using my Cricut.

Bless your lil heart beat

This is the page I did for the first time we heard Logan's heartbeat.  Before we knew he was a boy.  That's why there is pink on the page, because at this point it didn't matter.  I started this page a while back, and finally got it finished.  The journaling is an entry from my actual journal about that day.  It was printed on sage and white patterened vellum, overlaid on sage background, on top of white.  I afixed these items using a large fabric brad and orange eyelets through which I strung orange and pink ribbon.  I inked the edges of the vellum and accent paper in sage also.  The buttons, flowers and ribbons used to create the vertical border all coordinate with the backgroup paper.  This was the first time I used buttons with ribbons through the holes, and idea I stole from my friend Lynnette.  The title says "Bless Your Lil 'Heart' [shape of a heart to indicate the word heart] Beat" from which I cut from white card stock on my Cricut.

Swinging

This has to be one of my all time favorite photos of my daughter. She loves to swing. This is her on the up-swing. There isn't any journaling, just a vellum quote that says "The world belongs to the enthusiastic!" which I thought really hit home with this photo. My daughter really is very enthusiastic, especially about swinging. The background paper was just white card stock that I chalked swirls on (using a template called "swirls and vines" by www.thecraftersworkshop.com) I tried to bring the blue in her shirt and the swing out. Then I used pink cardstock to bring out the little bit of pink in her undershirt. I used double photo corners in a navy and a vivid blue, then accented the pink and blue using flowers, brads and ribbon. There is a snap in teh center of the bow that says "joy". The star brads are glittery. I wrote the date on the photo using Uni-ball Signo borad pen in white. It's like a gel pen. It's pigment ink. It worked lovely and I love this pen. It left a textured feeling to the photo.

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Pool Fun

I had a lot of fun with this LO. This was the first time I took my daughter to a pool. She is standing in one of the water spouts. I can not believe I captured the picture, much less on my camera phone...the best invention since sliced bread. I used a plain vivid blue colored background to match the flowers in her bathing suit. Then I overlaid the background with a white vellum sheet with vivid blue flowers. I used Stickles on flowers here and there to make them pop off of the page. I cut a "frame" into the vellum sheet where I put my photo on a skew. I attached ribbons, flowers, brads and charms to create a "frame" around the photo. The title says "Pool Fun" and is made from chipboard with glitter and swirls. The U in "fun" is doubled up on for dimension. The frog on the bottom right corner is from an old pin that I've had for years. The brad in the center of the flower says "Silly" on it. I thought that was so fitting! I also used white brads here and there as the flower centers to attach the vellum to the background. There is a tiny blue flower charm attached to the white ribbon that hangs down on the left.

The tag goes through a cut out in the vellum and slides behind the photograph. The tag is white cardstock that I inked the edges blue and added a blue rub-on border on the left along with some ribbons and left over chipboard pieces from the title to create the pull tab. There are also a circle sticker on the bottom right of the tag that says "Be Silly - Be Goofy - Be you" that I thought fit her so well. The vellum quote says "Live in the sunshine." and then I journaled about the day and it's events.