Quick Cards for Any Occasion

I subscribe to Scrapbooks Etc and the latest magazine had some excellent card ideas.... I tried to duplicate a couple of them.  Erm... I don't know why my cards are always crooked when I scan them! lol

Tell me what you think!?

For the Ones I Love!

Mothers' Day is fast approaching.  Time for me to whip up a card.  However I can't show you... since my mother reads this blog.  Boo hiss right?  Well I made another card for my Great Aunt to arrive right around the big day, and I can show you that!

The scan of the card turned out much lighter than the regular product.  The paper I chose was a medium teal.  I used a watermarking technique to stamp the butterflies.  The FAMILY tag is a metal finding and the flowers are Prima.  I wish the card would have turned out more vibrant!  I really need to find a better way to photograph or scan these pictures so they come out looking close to what I create!

I also realize that the word is slightly off kilter, but its stuck down there so good, there's no nope for change now!!

Anyway, it's a pretty card, and I just wanted to share!

The Cast Book Mini Album

I'm always looking for ideas and often I am intimidated to start a project based on the skill level of the teacher!  Marion Smith makes it look SO EASY.  Twice a week Marion produces a two hour long online segment with different crafting projects, techniques, etc.  She inspired me and for once I wasn't intimidated.  That project really did look as easy as it seemed!

Marion made a heart shaped mini book, you can see it here.

So as a result, I zipped down to my craft area and put together a Cast Book Mini Album!  It documents my daughters broken leg this last year.  It was made for her and geared towards her taste.

I do not have a lot of experience making mini albums, so please consider I'm a novice!!!

The papers used for this project were Wild Raspberry from K&C Company.  Glittery, pink, pretty papers that suits my daughters personality.

The flowers are Prima and came white.  I tried to color them myself using inks and glitter, but I'd really like to get my hands on some of that Glimmer Mist!

There's also a pretty tag I picked up somewhere that adds a little extra to that front page.

I had purchased some stickers for this broken leg several weeks back and were planning on using them for a 12x12 scrap page.  Not to let them go to waste, I used them as filler for the mini book.  A picture of my daughter in pain (aren't I a nice mother?) and below, a sparkly butterfly and more flowers.

On the other side a sticker of a doctors clipboard with detailed information on the event... and below, some journaling.

We didn't have many pictures for the book, but I also didn't want the book to only be two pages either.  So to add a little more, there are two pages that feature only stickers and flowers.  On the left, you see what I mean.

On the right page, another sticker, and below it an actual photo of my daughters broken bone.

On the left, you can see a close up photo of the cast with Daddy's signature... he's the king!  Below, some more stickers and another flower.

On the right was the second page of 'filler' which included a pair of crutches, some word stickers and another flower...

On the left, one of the favorite pages.  A yellow flower on the top and below, a clear photo of the casts.  This is so that my daughter can look at her cast photos and see the signatures clearly.  That way she doesn't have to hold on to a stinky cast for years and years.

On the other page, a picture of her second cast and some journaling, along with a sparkly butterfly.

You can see the casts better this way.  I mounted them with pop dots to bring them up off the page nicely.  It was tricky finding a way to take the picture and cut them out so my hand wasn't in the way. :)

The back of the album was unimpressive and just had some additional journaling on it to finish the story.

My daughter loves her mini book and I'm excited to do another one soon!

I hope you've enjoyed this project!  Stay tuned for more perhaps!?

The Blue Butterfly

Lately I've been obsessed with butterflies.  Ever since watching You Tube videos by Jennifer McGuire, I've been thinking of making beautiful butterflies for my cards and scrap pages.  So I went out and purchased a pack of acrylic stamps from Inkadinkado and stared at them for three days.  Gathering courage to do something with them.

This is the result.

I'm pretty impressed with my first butterfly, after all -- I didn't have a clue what I was really doing. I'm going to watch all the videos again and learn how to make all my butterflies exotic and realistic! Wish me luck!

Trying Too Hard?

In life, I work well under pressure.  In the craft room, I can't do anything under pressure.  So I tell myself that I need to create one thing today, just ONE item.  I've been inspired by people, I've watched a million videos on You Tube.  I feel like I'm ready to unleash my creative genius and this is what happens.

It's a Get Well card.  *shrug*  I'm not impressed.  I wanted to do some embossing, and you can't see it really but there's some swirls and flourishes on the bottom of the card.  Above, I stamped  a flower pattern.  Thrilling.  Then I wanted to do a banner.  I  made two of them before I tolerated the third.  I need a bone-folder or something to make a crease.  Or I just need much more practice.  Well either way, the banner is raised and doesn't look very good to me.  *** moan, complain ***

The flower is just a simple Prima flower and the center was cut from a punch.  I need more flowers in my collections, I didn't have a lot to choose from.  So next purchase at the craft store will be flowers :)  Hooray!

Either way, this card will 'do' if I need to send something out to someone I know isn't feeling well.  It's better than paying full price for a big expensive card-company card!

I promise I won't be so rough on myself next time!  Normally I'm not a very negative person.

Craft Room Madness

Can you believe the closest I got to crafting today was moving my hole puncher from my living-room side table to the craft table in the basement.  I'm disappointed in myself that I have not yet completed a project to put online.  However... I can share with you photos of my crafting area.  This is what I've managed to gather over the last four years.  My husband finally gave up one of the finished basement rooms so I could have my own space.  It sure beats taking up half the master bedroom!

My craft room is 'shared' with a queen size bed in the basement of the house.  The bed is occasionally used for guests.  I'll never get the room to myself!  Every other room in the house is filled with family members and there's no one moving out any time soon!

So here's the look from the door way.  You can see the end of the bed.  I've made a change already to one of the walls, which you'll see below. 

My desk, which has a lot of drawers and boxes... and a plastic container for my adhesives... not very exciting.

 

This is the desk from behind.  There's lots of little bits of paper on the floor... :)

The white stackers have my card-making supplies, seasonal stamps, etc.  My Cricut is on top of it.  The red stacker is my jewelry making supplies.  I'm not the biggest Chicago Blackhawks fan in the world, but it was a stacker I pulled out of my son's room and stole from him.  On top of that in the red bin are my paper pads and 8x8 sheets.

This is my over-the-door shoe rack.  You can see that it has a variety of things.  Some of my Cricut Cartridges displayed so I can see them easily and take out the cartridges, keyboards and booklets quickly.  I have some scissors and punches in there too.

Here' where I made my change to the first pictures.  I added 6 pegboards to the wall.  I LOVE them.  I've got my stickers and rub-ons and some of my embellishments.  Rather than Out of Sight, Out of Mind... I can look over and see what I have right away!  Hooray!!!

Well... that's it for my scrap room.  I LOVE IT... but I just have to get some time to myself to go down there and scrap!  This week I'll be able to fit in some day time hours on some projects!

Getting Started

I've been inspired.  I've been crafty for my entire life, but it was only four years ago when I met the Scrap-booking 'monster' at a Creative Memories party at my neighbors house.  I always knew I'd be in trouble if I faced this beast, so I did my best to avoid it at all costs.  However, when there's drinks, socializing and snacks involved... I couldn't resist.  You can't say I didn't try.

My family is very active and creative and entertaining and also pretty large.  There's always pictures in need of scrapping.  So after kicking and screaming begging for a nice camera, my husband finally broke down got me one.  At the time is was a very nice camera and it afforded me the chance to take some pretty fantastic photos.  Once printed, these poor photos were stuffed away in sad dark places with a glimmering hope of possibly being viewed once more if someone just happened to stumble across them.

After that party and first time product order I was a 'goner'.  I soon started buying papers, scissors, embellishments and scrapping my head clean off my shoulders. While my supplies expanded at a tremendous pace, my passion to cut paper with tiny sharp scissors and burn myself with a hot glue gun grew.

Never did I think to research YouTube or Blogs to find other creative personalities that I can copy learn from!  Just this month I've finally crossed over in to the ultimate insanity, hours and hours of blogs and videos and pictures and live Ustream shows!

This morning I woke up inspired to find the nearest 12x12 flatbed scanner and scan my pages, however I was unsuccessful.  Perhaps that will be added to my Mother's Day wish-list!

I am very excited to learn about all these excellent techniques, new products.  I'm learning about Tim Holtz, Tattered Angels, Prima -- learning tips and tricks and techniques and drooling over the possibility of owning my first bottle of Glimmer Mist!

So hang in there, I'm happy to have you check in and see what new stuff I come up with!