Monthly Archives: September 2009

Something new…

Well, it’s certainly a crazy week for me to be sure! I have lots of things going on! I’m excited to be gearing up to World Card Making Day and I have a little something new and exciting up my sleeve. I hope you’ll think it’s exciting as I’m pretty tickled about it. Some of you have already followed the trail and found a few ideas of what I’ve been up to. 🙂 Did you happen to see this in my sidebar?

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Along with my dear friends Becky Olsen and Lisa Strahl, I’ve been having some creative fun. Check out what we’ve been up to!

And just so you have a little something to look at here today…here’s a card from my recent Craft Critique review on Zva Creative Crystals. Love these babies! I’m not a bling girl in real life but on my projects, I just cannot help myself!

Friendship Bling

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I know, I know! It’s more Webster’s Pages! I just can’t help myself on that front either! No will-power whatsoever! Hmmm…I wonder just how far one 6×6 paper pad will go? 😉 Perhaps I’ll find out!

I’ll be here blogging daily as there’s lots to share right now. Just three more sleeps until World Card Making Day!

See you soon!

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card. sketch. fun.

One of my favorite ways to start off a card design is with a sketch. There are a lot of fabulous card sketch sites out there to draw inspiration from. Don’t you love how the internet makes the world a much smaller place? Inspiration is only a click away!

Before I get to today’s card, I have more World Cardmaking Day news here today. If you’re planning on doing some creating this Saturday, make sure you check out Ellen Hutson’s the CLASSroom. There are so many fabulous things planned for WCD and I’m excited to be a small part of it. Click here or the blinkie in my sidebar to see what’s up. 🙂

{XO}

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This card is a combination of this week’s CPS sketch, CPS135  and some new Webster’s Pages Petite Papers that I am totally addicted to. I decided to add a little shimmer to the project by sprinkling the painted crown with glitter while wet and then adding on some Copper Stickles accents.

Supply List: Petite Papers &  by Webster’s Pages, chipboard crown by Maya Road, foil accent & ribbon by Making Memories, flower by Prima, Stickles & Broken China Distress Crackle Paint by Ranger, sewing machine

Bling it on…

Bling…just bring it on. I love it! I’ve recently become addicted to Zva Creative bling and today I have a quick holiday project using it and a review on Craft Critique.

Before I get to the project, I just wanted to let you know about World Cardmaking Day. Just five more sleeps card makers! What a fun day for crafters around the world to come together and create. There is a LOT going on this Saturday October 3rd and I’ll be updating you with more going on throughout the upcoming week. Starting today, in order to get ready for WCD, Cath at Moxie Fab World is doing a world tour of card makers from yes, all over the world. Each day she’ll be featuring a different part of the planet and I can’t wait to see all the fabulous ideas. Make sure you take the time to check it out! Another place you’ll want to check out… the actual World Card Making Day site. There’s inspiration, a gallery to upload to, a contest and all manner of fun things planned. I have a few fun things up my sleeve as well, so keep checking back. 🙂 Anyone else excited about WCD?!

 Christmas Gift Card Holder

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This tin is one of those little metal gift card tins you can buy at Michael’s. I really wanted to use this Crafty Secrets Santa image on this project so I sanded the edges of the trim to give it a vintage distressed look. Christmas and bling just seem to go together in my mind so I personalized the tin with the name of the recipient in Zva Crystals letters. All the elements are attached to a patterned paper “belly band” that slides on and off the tin.

Have a great day!

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Simply Saturday…simply spooky

An ultra-simple card for you today. I don’t often create very much for Halloween but this Heidi Swapp mirror reminded me so much of the moon that I couldn’t resist!

Spooky
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The little bat is Grungeboard painted with a Black Ranger Paint Dabber before adhering to the mirror. Chipboard letters are from the Chatterbox Artsy-licious line.

Quick Tip: Sometimes less is more! 🙂

Have a simply wonderful day!

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The Saga part two

So. Did you read where I said yesterday that I was armed and dangerous? I’m still spray painting everything that is not nailed down! LOL BTW, Chocolate Interior Suede by Valspar is a gorgeous shade of brown! So back to my dream letters over the bed. I wanted to give those adhesive mounting squares another chance. After all…I HAD paid good money for them at some point. Instead of two squares per letter, I went back and made sure each letter had four. That should do it, right? Apparently I’m still dangerous as two of the letters fell down on hubby’s head Wednesday night. I kind of have to giggle. Poor man. And he’s been so good-natured about it too! Don’t I have a keeper?!

Now for the project…It’s Friday once again and today I have a fun project that I’ve created for the CLASSroom.

Shabby Calendar Frame

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I talk about altering packaging and there are step outs on how this project goes together.

Quick Tip: The Webster’s Pages calendar pages are double-sided. After using the calendar for a year, take the pages out and use the “b-side” on card designs.

 Have a great weekend!
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Armed and Dangerous

For the past two days I’ve been armed and dangerous…with a spray paint can that is. Yes, I’m still on that home clean/purge/creatively recycle kick and I’m having fun. I found yet MORE fabulous crafty decorating blogs and am now inspired to paint, paint, paint. I found a few things yesterday that could use a little love or they needed to get donated to someone who will love them. I ran off to Michael’s and picked up a can of Suede spray paint. What did I paint? An old wood calendar frame that looked VERY 90s 🙁 , some 20 year old pink picture frames, white letters that I had picked up in Michael’s, oh…3 years ago and never did anything with them. Actually…I have another funny DH story. The spray painted word was DREAM and I adhered it over the bed with some cool picture mounting adhesive that I think I may have picked up at Michael’s last year sometime. I finished in the afternoon and thought it was looking pretty cool and then went off to make dinner, help with homework…the usual drill. After dinner he calls me upstairs. I thought Uh-oh. He hates it. sigh. So it turns out that he was concerned with my vocabulary. Huh? He has a problem with dream? No. It seems that the mounting adhesive wasn’t quite up to snuff and the R & the E had fallen off. Yikes! I think I may have to try nails instead. 🙂

Back to the spray paint…I have a wood tray that I still want to paint as I’m having lots of fun with my new addiction. The point is…it can be super fun to try out new things. Now I’m not asking you to find a spray paint can and attack your house but I do have a challenge for you that will help you step out of the box. Now and then as a designer, I’m challenged to work with products that are a little outside my comfort zone, in a totally different style than I would normally pick. Now there is no right or wrong style, everyone has their own preferences but I’m asking you to find ways to use a different style than you normally create in. Check out the challenge here.

Drama Diva

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So. Art Nouveau is not really me. That’s ok though as it was fun thinking through the style and figuring out how best to use this Drama Queen image. I decided a vintage look was in order and distressed the image and also paired it up with the Vintage Text Scrapblock. You can see how I created a rough mask around the image. I didn’t want to cut it too close so that the image had room to “breathe”. Graphic 45 is always a great vintage look and I used black and tan toned papers from both the Botanicabella and Fashionista lines. Some stitching, a pearl sticker and some vintage-styled accessories finish the look.
Supply List:

Stamps: Drama Queen by Cornish Heritage Farms
Vintage Text Scrapblock by Cornish Heritage Farms
Sassy Petites (Mona Lisa Moments line) by CHF
Ink: Black Memento by Tsukineko, Vintage Photo Distess Ink by Ranger
Paper: Simply Smooth white cardstock by CHF, patterned paper by Graphic 45
Other: gaffer tape by 7 Gypsies, flower by Prima, button by Autumn Leaves, pearl sticker, ribbon by Creative Impressions, extra large eyelet by We R Memory Keepers, sewing machine

I ended up tackling my dining room yesterday and all those spray painting projects. I’m so proud of everything I’m accomplishing each day. Wish I could tackle the study today but I’ll be busy creating instead. I have lots going on next week and need to get prepared! It’s all good though I’ll be having fun getting inky and that’s always super fun!

Happy creating!

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A Breath of Fresh Air

This week I’ve been taking some big deep breaths and taking a few days off from paper crafting. It’s really a break I needed just to regroup a little. I’ll borrow Becky’s words here and tell you, it’s really the end of an era for me. I’ve officially finished my last stamp set for CHF. There’s another Rummage Bin set (my favorite one to date) due out in November and quite a few Scrapblocks still to be released. I’ll let you know when they are. 🙂 Some days I wonder if I’m a little crazy to give it up but for me right now, at this moment, it’s the right thing to do. I really hope to design rubber stamps again in the future but for now, this is it. I’ll be working on a few new things to keep me busy and out of trouble…don’t worry. 🙂 I just need to find the joy again.

Speaking of joy, what I have been doing this week is focusing on my house.  Finding joy in making it beautiful and doing what I can with what I have. After a crazy busy summer when I never seemed to stop running, it’s way past time to catch up. I’ve also been putting off doing much decorating. Renovations, money, time…they’re all excuses. I admit it. I recently came across this wonderful blog, Nesting Place. I just LOVE her! Her motto “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful” totally speaks to me as a mother of five active children. Love, love, love her window mistreatments and the concept of shopping the house. I’ve been doing it all week. It’s really quite funny as I moved a floral arrangement that has been on hubby’s dresser for at least a year down to the living room. It looks great there but I had to giggle as he was telling me I was spending too much money. hello?!

If you’re looking for another fun place to hop this morning, check out Craft Critique. Today we’re celebrating our 1000th post!

Butterfly Wishes

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So here’s a fun little 4.25″ square card that I created a few weeks ago. Love those darling little Jenni Bowlin mini papers. What does this have to do with today’s post? Well, my favorite way to create is to shop the desk…making do with what I have and using up those scraps.

So now I’m off to get busy and do some more work on the house. Saturday was the living room, yesterday the master bedroom…where should I go today? Maybe the dining room or the study. It might be good to find the surface of the computer desk again.

Have a beautiful day!

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