Friday, December 23, 2011

Happy Holidays and a Quick Update

Hello all,

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season filled with yummy food, friends, family, and good times.  I know that I have been enjoying my vacation and time home away from home very much.  Just so you all know, things have been sporadic and I have not been posting much because I am on vacation with limited supplies.  However, I have been doing lots of project planning, sketching, and inspiration finding.  As that is the case, stay tuned for some fun new inspiration, projects, and ideas!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Holiday Mini Swap and Share

Hello all my lovelies,

Today I have something very fun and pretty to share with you!  It's another TP Mini that I made for a swap over at Mini Album Scraps.  It was partner's choice, and my partner, didn't really have a preference, so I decided on making her a Christmas themed mini.  Just because if she is anything like me, she won't get around to scraping this years photos until 2015!  Hopefully, she enjoys it, and it gets a lot of immediate use!

 I left the cover without a title - primarily because I did not want to limit her in what she decides to put in here.  But, I had originally designed it with Christmas morning in mind.  The binding, I did very different this time, as you can see.  As when I started the project, I wasn't sure how I wanted to cover them and I didn't want to lose any "space."  I used a phalange type of binding that slipped inside the TP rolls and provided a half inch of space between pages, and then I cover the whole outside with chipboard, punched holes in the binding, and ran ribbon through for decoration.  I got this idea from Laura over at Following the Paper Trail.







Photos of all the tags in the mini:




That's it for today!  I hope you all enjoyed!

Supplies:  Patterned Paper (DCWV Holiday Paper Collection Stack); Cardstock (Making Memories, PaperAccents); Acrylic Paint (DreamCoat); Flowers (Prima); Pearls (Queen and Co.); Ink (Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Stampin Up!); Stamps (Technique Tuesday, Inkadinkado, Stampin Up! Tags Till Christmas and Stitched Stockings); Punches and Die Cuts (Spellbiners, Stampin Up! Stocking Builder Punch, Stampin Up! Ornament Punch,  Stampin Up! Small Tag Punch); Stickles

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Inspiration Thursday: Holiday Decor

Happy Holidays!

Hubby and I recently put up our tree and hung our stockings.  While he was hanging our stockings, he was musing allowed about how to tell the stockings apart.  I myself had wondered about this very often - recently, I received an answer for that bewildering issue.  Well, while I was at a my friend's (Shannon) home, she was putting together some stocking ID tags.  This is what these tags look like finished:

 Are they not gorgeous?  She cut out some chipboard covered in some pretty holiday patterned paper with her  Sizzix and then used some letters left over some another kit, which she embossed in gold embossing powder.  The holly leaves were cut with her sizzix and the berries were made with buttons.  She attached them with some ribbon.  I LOVE THIS IDEA.  And I will be doing my own here very shortly. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Work in Progress Share: Calendar Swap

Following in my current trend and love affair: swapping- here is another fun share.  I am still working on these, which let me tell you has been a feat because of my limited supplies right now.  But none the less, I am loving the outcome.  I am responsible for the months of November and February - both of which I love, mainly because I love doing fall and love themed paper piecing.  So here is what I have so far:


 I had to do a color theme of Black, Creme, and Beige with one color of my choice.  For the February one, I choose red (of course, what else for February?).  And for the November one, I choose "orange" - okay I cheated a bit and choose red and orange.  Here are some close ups of my embellishments:


I love those flowers, so delicious.  The tutorial can be found here.  So beautiful!  Another thing, I loved: the background on my November calendars.  I stamped that in different shades of beige and a burnt orange with Paper Trey Ink stamps, and yummo I LOVED how it came out!

Supplies: Paper Trey Ink (Masculine Motifs, Mehndi Medallion); Close to My Heart (Air Mail); Stampin Up (Neutrals, Cherry Cobbler); Prima (Heart Stamp); Glitter (Stickles); Tree (Paper Doll Dress Up); Cardstock (Bazzill); Pumpkin (EK Success 1" Punch piecing); Maple Leaf Punch;

Thursday, December 1, 2011

A Masculine Birthday


It is December, which means, another birthday!  My oldest brother is turning well, lets just say, he's one year wiser at the beginning of this month.  And just like any other paper crafter, I always make my cards - I mean, why buy them, when you can make something just as pretty?  Besides, it gives me an excuse to play with all my crafty goodness.  On this card, I wanted to try a technique I recently saw, but can't remember where and can't find it now.....  Either way, the individual stamped on a PTI Canvas and Linen Impression plate before placing the image on her card to give it a worn look.  It looked absolutely beautiful!  I used the current sketch (#246) from Card Positioning System. Here is a close up of how it looks on my card:
Is it not just yummy?  The best part is that this technique goes fabulously with boy-related projects because of the subtle worn and tattered look it gives.  I just love it, and will definitely be adding this to my "man crafting arsenal."  And here is another close up just for fun:


Last:  Let me appologize for the long delays between posts at the moment.  But I am on a 6-week vacation in Washington at the moment and have limited access to my crafting supplies as I was limited in what I could bring and left much at home.... regardless, I am enjoying my break and holidays!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:  Cardstock (Recollections); Patterened Paper (K&Company Basic Grey Paper Pad); Inks (Stampin Up Artichoke, Tim Holtz Distress Walnut Stain); Ribbon (Stampin Up So Saffron Polytwill Ribbon, Lily Floss); Stamps (Papertrey Ink Masculine Motifs); Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink Canvas and Linen)

Friday, November 25, 2011

More to Come

Hello all my lovelies,

I am sorry that there has not been much the past week or so.  I have been very busy with final papers and exams, packing for a 6 week vacation, and flying to my destination for the next 6 weeks!  With that said, as always, when you pack for a vacation, there are always things forgotten....  In this case, I forgot my adhesive....so until I have more adhesive (which should be here next week), I will be back with more fun scrappy things.  I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving festivities and the start of the Christmas Season!  I will be sharing fun things very soon!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wednesday Work in Progress: a mini mini

You could say that I am going through a mini phase at the moment..... Okay, maybe a big mini phase, but I can't help it, they are so much fun to do!  I can attribute this phase to Lindsay over at Scrapjazz.com - she started it.  Either way, I thought I would share a little mini that I am working on currently.  This little guy has been a work in progress for several months.  Not that it has been a hard project to put together - I have just been working on it as I get inspiration on the next steps. So here is the cover:

 It is a gate fold, that is held together with knotted and bowed ribbon in the front.  The right side of the album is about a half inch larger than the left side so the longer piece actually keeps the smaller piece down when it's tied.  I really like the knotted bow in the front, it adds so much detail and character.  Just love it.  And that paper, is just yummy with this project.  And the insides:

Everything on the inside is using scraps of paper from my paper box.  Even the journaling strips are scraps left over from larger bits. (one of the cool things minis are good for).  The "pages" themselves were all left over chipboard pieces that I had - thus very little trimming involved!  As you can tell, the inside is still pretty simple - this is the work in progress part.  I still have to do the journaling, embellishing, etc. And I'm not quite sure what type of theme it is going to carry all the way through.  The photos are all of me and hubby while we were dating and span a good year.  So, until I feel "inspired" again it will sit like this.




Saturday, November 19, 2011

Scrapbook Layout

 I know!  It's been months since I've shared a layout, and to be honest..... It's been months since I've done traditional scrapbooking with paper.  I've made lots of minis, and cards, and other paper related projects.  But scrapbooking..... not so much.  Despite this, there has been a particular handmade frame and some photos laying around that I wanted to get int my scrappy book.  Every time I look at it, I kept thinking " I really need to scrap those photos."  Well the other night, I decided that rather than just saying it to myself, I was for sure going to do it.  Right. Now.



I matched my papers and additional patterned paper to the paper on the photo frame.  My dear friend Mandy made those frames for everyone who attended the crop, and I wanted to make sure and incorporate it into my layout.  That meant color matching and them.  Sometimes I create my own layout design, but when I just want to scrap and get something done (which is a terrible attitude to have about my precious memories) I will uses sketches, only because I want to scrap, not spend hours trying to figure out how to arrange everything!  That was the case the other night, I wanted to scrap, not configure! So I used Sketch #186 from over at Nuts About Sketches.  Slight side note:  I love this place.  I love sketches, and sometimes I have more than 3 photos, but don't want to make a separate book.  Nuts about sketches is awesome, she does ONLY high number photo layouts.  I LOVE IT.  Seriously, check it out and her wonderful design team.

Here's a close up of the flowers:

I love them, made them using the Tattered Florals Die by Tim Holtz, running them through an embossing folder and my cuttlebug and then layering.  Delicious!

Hope you Enjoy!  And as always, I love feeling your love for my scrappy dappy crafty life!

Supplies: My Minds Eye Bella Blvd, Unknown (Patterned Paper); Bazzill (Cardstock); Pink Paislee (Foam Letters); EK Success Abstract Flower Punch (Border); Sizzix Alterations Tattered Florals (Flowers); Cuttlebug Textile Texture Embossing Folder; TimHoltz Texture Fade Embossing Folder; Stampin Up! Hostess Set (Stamp); Stampin Up! Cherry Cobbler Ink (Journaling Spot)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Another Home Decor Project: Fridge Magnets with a Tutorial

I have an obsession with fridge magnets.  Hubby and I get them whenever we go on vacation, but I also like to make magnets.  A few months ago, while going through my stash, organizing, condensing, and tossing, I came across my stash of these buckets:

I have a ton of them, and many of them had these cute little magnet tins on the top that held coordinating chipboard buttons or other embellies.  I don't think Prima packages this way anymore, but none the less, I had premade dimensional magnet shells.  So, I went to work and came up with these


In all I made about 6 of these from the tops and bottoms of the prima magnet containers.  They were very very easy to make.  This is what you will need:

Some type of item with some depth - here I used tins, you can use anything that will hold epoxy
2 part epoxy mix
photos and embellishments of choice
Strong magnets (these will be heavy with the epoxy in them)

And this is what you will want to do:

1.  arrange your pictures and elements as you so desire and glue down.  Keep in mind the depth of the item you are using as you will not want them sticking above the epoxy.  Also, the epoxy will saturate things such as flower making them darker or translucent - so keep that in mind.
2.  mix the epoxy according to the insturctions
3.  poor the epoxy over the item until it is flush with the edge of your magnet container
    a.  If you notice, I have glitter in my large on: to do this, fill the tin halfway let it set for just a bit, then add your glitter or beads and finish filling.  It will give you the in suspension look.
4.  set them aside and let them dry - about 48 hours for them to be completely cured.
5.  Adhere your magnet to the back and VOILA!

Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Banner Swap Pieces

If you've been following my posts lately, you will have noticed a theme.  Swaps.  My current addiction, and I'm still loving it.  Swaps are a good way to find others to share your love of all things paper with, and who share with you as well.  You get different ideas, and ways of doing things.  Swaps. Are. Awesome.  Well, a while back, I joined a banner swap.  The concept is you pick a word you want made into a banner, than each person would sign up for a letter to make for that word.  You make several of the same letter (i.e. if you are making a "santa" banner and choose letter A, you would make 5 letters As keeping one for yourself and sending the rest to be divided) and once you send them off, you get the rest of the letters back.  I like banners, and my husband LOVES and I mean LOVES when i decorate the house with stuff like this, particularly for holidays, celebrations, and special events.  So I figured I could build up my banner stash.  The swaps I signed up for were for "Noel" and "Winter."  Each banner piece had to follow a specific color scheme and contain a minimum of 3 different types of embellies, and the letter had to be at least 3 inches tall.

This is what I came up with for the "Noel" swap:

And here are some close up details for your feasting pleasure:

 This was a very challenging banner piece to complete for me, but was definitely worth it.


For the "winter" swap, I came up with this:

 And some close-ups for the details:


 These were a lot of fun to make.  I think because I am a huge fan of the winter time.  I love the crisp cold air, hot mugs of cocoa, snow, and cute winter clothing.  I think my favorite thing on these are the mittens, it took forever for me to figure out how to incorporate them, then make them, but they sure are stinkin cute!

Thanks for stopping bye and sharing in my crafty pleasure!  Once I get the other pieces of the swap back, I will show you the entirety!

Supplies List:

Noel: Die Cuts With a View Holiday Paper pack (Patterned Paper); Fun Flock (letter); Medici Text (Letter font); Tim Holtz Crackle Paint; Making Memories, Bazzil (Cardstock); Christmas Solutions Cartridge (Tree); Winter Wonderland Cricut Cartridge (Holly Leaves); Celebrate it Foam Sequence Balls (Holly Berries); Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist; Tim Holtz Distress Ink

Winter:  Die Cuts With a View Holiday Collection Christmas Stack, DCWV Holiday Collection Winter Matstack (Patterned Paper); Bazzill (Carstock); Celebrate It Snowflake Ornaments; Flower Soft Ivory (Snow); Glitter; Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam Chandelier and  Pixie Dust (Poinsettia); Stampin Up! Ink; Making Memories (Button); Fiber (mitten strings); Yarn; Winter Wonderland Cricut Cartrdige (Poinsettia); Spellbinders (mittens)



Sunday, November 13, 2011

Home Decor and Wall Art


I love making handmade pieces of wall decor.  It's soothing, fun, personal, intimate, and well economical. So, today, I thought I would share some of the different pieces I have made over the past few years and hang on my walls.  I love them.

The first one, is a collage I made after my husband and I got married.  It is a slightly religious piece and focuses on the The Family: A Proclamation to the World, which is a little piece of revelation from the Prophet and his counselors of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  For me the family starts with the couple, all the love, respect, devotion, courtesy, admiration in the couple impacts and is reflected in the rest of your family or future family.  This is something that is important to both my husband and I and I wanted to capture it.  And this is what I cam up with:

 This project took a lot of time.  I had to measure, cut, layout and then glue down.  But it is also one of my most rewarding projects that I have. The paper I used in the background is actually large sheets of water color paper I got from michaels.  I used left over embellies from another project, and did a little bit of stamping.

This second one, was made as part of a National Scrapbooking Day challenge at Scrapjazz.  We were given a necklace from Urban Outfitters as inspiration for something.  And this is what I came up with:

I love it.  Always have, and always will.  It's whimsical, elegant, creative, inspiring, and touching all at the same time. The flowers were all made by me using wide pieces of ribbon.  I trimmed photos down to fit inside those Making Memories metal frames, and used some of Tim Holtz's fragments for the patterned paper pieces.

The third piece is a little bit of home I take with me everywhere.  I am a natural girl at heart, I love earth, trees, and no buildings.  It is grounding, inspiring, calming, and freeing.  When I moved to a California for school, I found myself far away from everything I love.  So to keep the homesickness at bay and improve my mood, I made this:


This last one was really more just for fun.  I was inspired by the stamps and wanted to try stamping with acrylic paint.  Again, it is a piece that I am just in love with.  Simple and fun, but a captured moment of bliss between my man and me.

I love this stamp from the Donna Downey Unity Stamp cobrand kits.  Just love it.  That bird, was paper pieced with handmade paper. 

I hope you enjoyed today's share and maybe found some inspiration for your own home decor and wall art!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Unity Kit of the Month November Sketch Challenge

I'm a huge fan of Unity Stamps.  They're designs are wonderful, their quality is good, and they're reasonably priced.  I have a lot of their stamps, and admittedly don't use them as often as I should.  Frankly all of my stamps are not used as often as they should be.  So I have been trying to make a conscious effort to get the most out of my stamps.  Unity Stamp has a monthly sketch challenge on their blog.  This month's challenge can be found here.  The only require aside from the sketch is that all the stamps have to come from Unity's Kit of the Month sets - doesn't matter which set, just Kit of the Months.  Here is what I came up with

 When I saw the sketch, I immediately thought "Gift Card Holders" and the convenient part is that this little guys are the same size as a regular 4.25x5.5 inch card. So they can slipped into an envelope just like that!  The other cool part: They can be reused in a mini album!  I made sure to put patterned paper on both sides, and use a stamp that is generalizable, so it can be incorporated into those post holiday minis.  Here is a close up of the sentiment/image.
 And the coolest part of this project, is that the tag is actually being held in by a clear pocket! 
I cut down a piece of sheet protector to wrap around the front before I put on the patterned paper on the back. That way the tag which holds the gift card could slip in and be secure.  I am in love.  Thanks Angie for the wonderful and inspiring sketch! 

Supplies:  DCWV Holiday Collection Paper Pack (Patterned Paper); Bazzill Basics (Cardstock); Unity Stamp KOM September 2010 (Image/Sentiment); Offray, Pink Paislee (Ribbon); Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangle, Spellbinders Rectangle (Shapes); Glimmer Mist English Ivy and Walnut Gold (Ink); Stampin UP! Cherry Cobbler (Distress)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Friend With Flair, Veteran's Day, A Sketch, and a Challenge All In One

I'm not sure how to greet on Veteran's Day, so I will just say Veteran's Day.  Today is always a day filled with thoughts and is often tough in my house.  My husband is a 2 tour veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  And those tours have come with many personal sacrifices for him.  I don't say that to make people feel bad, or to make this somber, but today is a hard day as it is a day of remembrance for those who have given their life, limbs, and bodies to serve and protect.  In light of that, I wanted to make a nice little card for my dear soldier.  But as I love to double dip as much as possible, I incorporated several challenges and the theme of Friends With Flair!  My sources of inspiration and guidance were:
1. Scrapjazz.com card challenge was to make a window card that had a stamped image, with texture
2. Friends with Flair = Unity Stamps
3.  Sketch Challenge from Card Patterns Sketch #140
4.  And my personal inspiration, must be Red White and Blue

Hope you enjoy and take a moment to remember and acknowledge those that work so hard and give their lives to the enjoyments we have!

Supplies: Bazzill Basics (CS); Unity Stamp Co (Stamps); Making Memories (Buttons); Offray (Ribbon); Stampin Up!, Tsuineko, Ranger (Ink); Prisma (Colored Pencil)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Quick Card Share

One of my siblings has a birthday and will be turning 29.  Since I've gotten into paper crafting I have made it a point to make my cards rather than buy them - this also justifies my purchasing of additional scrappy stuff =D  So economical of me.  Anyway, today was the day that I was determined to make his card so that I can send it off and it will be there in time.  This particular sibling is very hard to do anything for, mainly because he doesn't really care much (and not in a bad way), just details aren't a big deal to him and well cards and his birthday are not a big deal.  So I decided to play it safe - and choose the same colors as his fraternity with his favorite and rather patriotic shape choice of Fleur De Lis.  I grunged it up a bit by distressing the edges with black ink just because Royal Blue and Yellow/Gold is a harsh combination together, bright and bold.  I used this week's card sketch from over at Card Positioning Sketches.  Anyway, here it is:



 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy and may find some inspiration for that certain someone in your life!

Supplies: Bazzill Basics (Cardstock); Stampin UP! Curly Cute Stamp Set (Sentiment); Provo Craft Fleur De Lis (Embossing); Tim Holtz Distress Ink Faded Jean, Stmpin Up! Basic Black (Ink); Eyelets (Unknown)

Inspiration Thursday: Project Ideas

I like to troll crafty blogs, and get awesome inspiration and project ideas.  If I'm not crafting... then well I'm looking for crafting ideas. It's a glorious and vicious cycle that I gladly partake in.  Which brings me to this quick post, some things I have been inspired by recently:
  1. This awesome frame made with a halloween theme, but could easily be adapted, it has been added to my future crafty projects list.  I already have the frame so a post will be coming shortly with my rendition.
  2. Shadow Boxes, they are everywhere, and here are some cute ideas that have been inspiring me: This cute little guy made by Holly Simoni and this one from other at Pink Paislee which I must say is just fabulous.
  3. Gift Tags - I am seriously thinking of making all my own tags for gifts this year and just wrapping all my gifts in simple brown paper.  Take a look at these by Lindsay, dimensional trees are awesome, and these by Lesly Langdon who is just amazing! 
  4. This bird house is awesome and I have a really great idea to turn this into a meaningful ornament - stay tuned for that in December!
  5. And look at this fabulous Cookie Sheet Calendar.  I have several ideas for this that will be put into action over my winter break starting in a few weeks!
Hopefully you all are as inspired as I am!

Cheers.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Another Mini Creation


I have really been enjoying making my own scrappy albums.  Really, they are so much fun, and sometimes, I just want something small of a specific theme or event, or just a little creation.  I scrapbook for lots of reasons including memory preservation because some day I will get old and forget, genealogy because I want my future generations to know how I felt about my life that is on paper while I was living it, and most importantly Artistic Expression.  I cam late to self-expression and experience, so it is important for me to have an avenue (if not to another person, it will be to my precious paper!).  This is my next little creation
 A gatefold mini!  Isn't that PP just lovely?  And goes so fabulous with such a whimsical title.  Yummy yummy yummy.  Another added bonus, all the inside pages were done using stuff from my paper scraps! And the inside looks like this:

The mini has photos from all parts of mine and my hubby's relationship up until the point of when I made it.  They are just photos in which you are able to capture to emotion of the time - so really my favorite photos because they "feel" so real.  It is not quite done on in the inside - I still need to add some quotes to pages and embellies, but you get the idea!

Thanks for stopping by, and again, if you love something, leave a little love!  <3

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Handmade Florals

 I am super excited about today's post.  And here is why:

I made these for a Flower Swap being held over at Mini Album Scraps , and this was my first flower swap!  Ever!  Very very exciting, but I will be truthful with you, I think I enjoyed making the tags and doing up the packaging than making the actual flowers.  (Sorry there are no photos of the tags upclose - I took the photos AFTER I had sealed everything and then remember I forgot to take pics of the tags!)  Making flowers are tough!  And super time consuming, but nonetheless, it was a lot of fun.  And the bonus is that you get to try out different techniques that you (okay maybe just me) would not try otherwise.  Not to mention that this did give me the opportunity to break out my stamps and use them (which I have been terrible at doing recently).

 And some upclose and personals with the yummy flowers that I made.  The Rosette ones were my favorite I think.
To be honest, the amount of detail in the packaging was VERY therapeutic.  I have been soo high stress lately that I took a scrappy break mid-week (which I normally do not do) and just played in order to calm and relax.  And let me tell you, doing detail scrappy paper crafty work is very therapeutic.  When I was done I had a product that I was proud of, a feeling or restored balance and control, and played with techniques, ideas, stash that I may not have otherwise.  All I can say is.... well done! So as the holiday season approaches and you're finding yourself a bit frazzled, upset, unbalanced - take some well deserved you scrappy paper crafty time and get lost in the details.


Supplies: DCWV Mat Stack (Patterned Paper); Bazzill, Joann's (Cardstock); Inkadinkado. Stampin UP!  (Stamps); Stampin UP! (Ink); Spellbinders (Embossing Folder)