Creative Recycling

My second post for today is about recycling and having some fun with my two youngest kids yesterday. We didn't have any big plans and I wanted to try a tutorial about making these flowers.

I went out and picked up the mail out of the box after lunch and it was junk so I came in and tossed it in my trash beside where I work at the table. The kids were playing with my SU scalloped circle punch cutting up the grocery ad they'd been using as a drop cloth to paint on. I thought hmm, they've got a cool idea! I wonder what the flower would look like if I used the grocery ad. It was easy to work with and looked good!

For some reason that shiny Kohls ad I'd thrown in the trash beside me was calling to me. It had kids in Easter clothes on the front and bright kids clothing through out. I started punching scalloped circles and made the first flower, it was even better out of the shiny paper, then I punched some leaves out of the front cover using Quickutz dies and my Cuttlebug.

I had to do something with the flower so I checked out Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge 272 again and saw how I could possibly use it. I also used a photo from the ad as a panel in the sketch.

Pictured below are my card, what the table looked like when we were done, my youngest with his flower and the kids on to the next thing.

We're Distressing!

Spring vacation week 2, day 5 we're distressing! The kids are out of school and we have an extra friend over today so there's an "odd kid out". My daughter was feeling left out of the boys play and not happy. I asked if she'd like to do some stuff with me today. ...not really...

We started off packaging up Mother's Day cards to ship off to Operation Write Home and going to the post office. Once she got into the swing of it she was enjoying herself.

When we got back home we started playing with Tim Holtz distress inks my friend Priscilla let me borrow. We decided we should make cards for Operation Write Home and got busy.
The above card is my daughter Jenny's. We really got into blending the distress inks with sponges and a mini mister. The first two images we stamped we used a Veramark pad and black embossing powder. The butterflies below I'd stamped on my first attempt and decided heat embossing would show up better in the future.
Operation Write Home is also doing a blog hop starting tomorrow morning, I hope you'll join us!

I wanted to say THANK YOU! to everyone who visited my blog yesterday and THANK YOU! to everyone who left comments. The Waltzing Mouse Blog Hop was very fun, I enjoyed seeing everyone's take on those digital images Claire Brennan gave away.

Today's card is a hybrid. I printed the orange dotted paper and blue moth from the Mod Moths digi kit I got at Two Peas In A Bucket.com. I did add a little color to the moth with a Copic marker before I cut it out. Stamped I'm praying for you and the butterfly trail in black Memento ink. It's a pretty simple straight forward kinda card today.

Thanks for stopping by, have a blessed day!

Supply List: SU Pumpkin Pie, SU Ballet Blue, Neenah Super Smooth Solar White, Mod Moths digi kit - 2 Peas In A Bucket, Stampedous butterfly trail, There She Goes - I'm pryaing for you, Copic marker.

Waltzing Mouse Blog Hop!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's blog hop day and I'm excited to share my projects with you. I have a link to Waltzing Mouse forum in case you aren't signed up yet to play.

For this card I used Waltzing Mouse's free digital image and colored the shamrocks with Copic markers. I next cut out my colored image with a Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities die. Emerald Blessings is also a digi stamp that I printed and cut a strip to use on my card front. I made the rick rack out of card stock using my Quickutz Silhouette machine and attached it to my white strip. Then I put the light purple card stock through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and attached it all to a white A6 card body. Clean and simple, I have a hard time with that!

Claire had free digi stamps on her blog for us to use along with what ever Waltzing Mouse Designs stamp sets we might have.

The shamrock with Irish Blessings under is one of the digi stamps I downloaded, the frame around it is one of their clear stamps.

This was such a fun project! I came across this box tutorial at Kirsten's blog and thought the WM stamps would be perfect for it. You can find her tutorial HERE.

I downloaded the digi stamps and re colored them in my Microsoft Publisher program, I was trying to get as close a match as I could to some of my card stock. I was able to get a shade that coordinated with my Papertrey Ink Avocado & Spring Moss card stocks.

I stamped the Labels 4 frame around the digi stamp in PTI Ripe Avocado ink and cut it out with the Labels 4 Spellbinders die. I cut out and extra shamrock and popped it on top of the first one and set it aside.

Then I started working on the box! The directions said to cut 2 chip board pieces and 4 designer paper squares. Hmmm, designer papers... I couldn't think of anything I had in my stash that would match so I checked out Waltzing Mouse's digi papers and wasn't sure if I could get a match that way either. I started browsing my own digi paper stash and came across this swirl paper but it only came in red and black.

I've just recently learned how to re color images and thought, I wonder if... and I was so excited to see that digi paper I'd copied and pasted into Publisher change to the exact same green as I'd used on the shamrocks! I was so excited, I learned something that's gonna be really valuable! (to me anyway, hehehe).

I went back to the box directions and got it all put together. I sponged the edges of my designer paper with PTI Ripe Avocado ink and the drawer pulls are from an old Stampin' Up! Hodgepodge Hardware kit.

To finish the top I cut another Labels 4 die in Ripe Avocado card stock for a matte, and found the white scalloped border in my stash. I'd cut a sheet of those a few days ago playing with a new GSD file and my Silhouette machine. Another strip of Ripe Avocado card stock and some pearls and I was satisfied. I'm done.

I really like the way the box with drawers turned out but need to make a few more. Two of my drawers are tight and don't open easily. That's okay, I'm happy to keep practicing!

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the blog hop!

Hero Arts

How about this Hero Arts digital butterfly?! I know it's rather LARGE but I was playing with Tim Holtz distress inks and didn't really intend for it to end up on a card. Being a card maker I didn't really know what else to do with it!

I watched a video by Jennifer McGuire of Hero Arts on how to color using distress inks and thought I'd try it. The only colors of distress inks I have are Antique Linen and Old Paper. I really think I'd like some more distress ink pads now. ;) She used Glossy Accents around the edges and on the spots so I used the next best thing... Crystal Effects and black pearls.

I have a friend who's husband has been spending a lot of time in the hospital so I thought this might be nice for him. I used the Verve Visual Serenity stamp set to stamp the background on the tan panel and attached my enormous butterfly.

New Blog Template

It's been a busy couple of days around here, the kids are out of school and looking for fun and I'm trying to keep up with it all! I must admit they're easy to find, just follow the trail of crumbs...

I did get some time to play , the two cards I'm posting are my experiments in distressing. I think the Tim Holtz distress inks are pretty neat and their sponge applicators and mini misters are great tools. I heat embossed the stamped images so they'd show up better on my distressed papers.
So, what do you think of my new blog template? I'm very inexperienced using my Photo Shop Elements program but I got the job done with the blog header using a CD tutorial I have. It took quite a while and I learned a lot of valuable stuff. For everything else I followed the directions in the kit and much to my delight and satisfaction it worked!

SC267 & Verve Fluttering By

I just had to make this sketch again, I kept seeing it in my mind with butterflies! Am I the only one with this problem? (I hope not...)

Anyway - Before I could do anything else this morning I had to make this card. I used Verve Visual's Fluttering By clear stamp set and the Cuttlebug Swirls and Swiss Dot embossing folders. The card stock is Neenah White and Via Vellum's Blue and the butterflies are colored with Copic markers. A nice simple sketch to start the day! Hope yours is a good one~

Verve Fluttering By

I thought it was time to get out my Verve Fluttering By stamp set again. I was inspired by Debbie Olsen using Papertrey Ink's new Butterfly Dreams set last month, she showed how she makes a template to get all the squares on a card to line up and look right. I wonder why I never thought of that?! She's a genius, it works great!!

I was experimenting with my Quickutz Silhouette machine and this stamp set, it says it will cut out just about anything. Everything but the butterflies antenna! That's okay, I drew them on three of them, if you look closely at the photo one of them has cut out antenna. The card stock is PTI's Aqua Mist and the patterned paper is one of the first packages I ever bought from PTI (I need to use that up!). The ribbon and "make a wish" are also PTI products. I colored the cut out butterflies with Copic markers and added pearls. Some of those pearls were white when I started, love my Copic markers!

This card has quite a bit of dimension to it so I made an envelope with my Scor-Pal and decorated it to match.

Another Fred She Said Hybrid

I've been having fun with pre colored digital images today. This is another digi image from Fred She Said Designs along with the patterned digi paper. It's so nice to print my own matching paper for the project I'm working on. Love it!

This means a lot to me because I live in a very small town, there are no stamping or scrapbooking stores here. My supplies come from shopping on line or going to Lake Havasu City 35 miles away. Anyone that knows me very well knows I'd rather be at home working on paper crafts!

I printed my digi paper and the sheet of flowers and leaves, cut out three of the flower petals and leaves, bent them around my piercing tool (a pencil works too) and stuck a yellow brad through the flower. The flower and leaves are attached with foam tape. Birthday wishes is from a Papertrey ink stamp set and the sketch for this card is also from a card I saw on Nichole Heady's blog during their 3rd anniversary countdown. Other supplies are SU Pretty In Pink, Barely Banana & White card stock and Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

This was a quick fun project, I used my Quickutz Silhouette to make the little purse from a box that came with the software. I cut a second box in black so I had spare parts to decorate with. I also used the Scor-Pal to add scored stripes to the body of the purse. After attaching the black panel under the purse flap I added the punched flowers and brads. The handle is stitched black gross grain ribbon threaded through holes in the flaps that really belong on the inside of the box secured with Scor tape. This little purse measures 3 x 4 1/4 inches.

I made this for my daughter to give to her friend so she needed a card to go with it. Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge 267 intrigued me, I had to try it. It was definitely a challenge making it so small! I had several ideas for stamps but everything was too big so I used an EK Success flower punch and a new stamp from a set I bought at CHA by Clear Magic Stamps. The card stock is a combination of PTI Hibiscus Burst and SU Pretty In Pink.

The verse stamp she chose for the inside didn't look like it was going to fit, the wood block was exactly the same width as the white panel inside. Perfect! We tucked the card and a little package of Sweet Tarts from our Valentine candy inside and it's ready to go.

Here's a better picture of the score lines on the body of our "purse".

Fred She Said Hybrid

Today's card is another Hybrid, my image is a colored digital stamp from Fred She Said Designs. The set is called Smelling The Cherry Blossoms. These cute little girls come in several different colors and you can buy matching designer digi papers too.

I didn't use the digi papers today, I saw a card made by Silke Ledlow using this layout with Cuttlebug embossing folders used on the white panels. I like the clean and simple effect. The only stamping I did was the With Gratitude from a Flourishes Thank You stamp set.

My card is an A6 size so I had to run the largest white panel through the Cuttlebug twice using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I made sure to leave a blank strip about an inch wide to place my purple ribbon in. I didn't want any dots showing through my organdy ribbon. The pre colored digi stamp was easy to cut out and pop with foam tape on the Swirls embossed panel. A pretty bow from my ribbon above the image panel and the card was finished!

Clean and Simple... C.A.S.E.

Or should that title be a C.A.S.E. of Clean & Simple...
If you haven't yet discovered Jennifer McGuire Ink you should go see what she's doing!

She made these wonderful butterfly cards and did a tutorial on how she colored them HERE. I couldn't resist, I had to make some too!

The butterflies on the top card are from Hero Arts clear stamp set called Antique Engravings. Did I mention Jennifer is on the design team for Hero Arts?

The butterflies on the bottom card are from The Angel Company several years ago.

Birthday Wishes & a Flower Tutorial

Julie over at Paper Pleasing Ideas has a great tutorial on how to make these flowers that I had to try. I C.A.S.E.d her card because I thought it was a great way to showcase the flowers.

Card stock used - Neenah Supersmooth White, Kraft, PTI Hibiscus Burst, Blush, Via Vellum Green, Ink - PTI Hibiscus Burst, Stamps - Verve Visual, SU Build A Brad, SU Border Punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, and leftover tissue paper stamped with SU retired French Script background stamp.

In My Prayers

We've made Prayer Journal's in a couple of classes recently. These are two that I've made using a Stampin' Up! retired Groovy Guava designer paper pack. You can see the first one I made in it's entirety HERE back in January. We used the Zutter Bind It All and Spellbinder's Nestabilities Oval and Scalloped Oval dies. The butterfly stamp on the Prayer Journal above is from The Angel Company, In My Prayers is from a There She Goes set called Blessings. The butterfly below is a new set from Taylored Expressions that my friend Susan bought at CHA, it's called Whimsical Wishes.

I colored each of the butterflies with a Copic marker E95 and added a little glittery detail with a Copic Spica clear glitter pen. In real life you can see the shimmer!

Hello Sunshine

I've been playing with the Scor Pal again! I'm C.A.S.ing Silke Ledlow, her blog is My Life and I think her style is so elegant. I used almost the same colors and her sketch but changed the stamp set to something I had. I was intrigued by the embossed panel along the right side of the white card stock, I had to try it myself.

Stamps are by Verve Visual, Card Stock & Inks - PTI Summer Sunrise, Jardin Moss, SU Purely Pomegranate & Via Vellum Green a little bit of May Arts Apple Green dotted organdy ribbon and Spellbinder's dies.

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

This kitty stamp came home from the Safire Designs Booth at CHA a couple of weeks ago. There was a lot of flocking going on at different booths and I knew it was a technique I needed to try. I can't say I'm really good at it. Yet. I'll keep practicing and show you how much I've improved another time.

Millie

This is Millie by Loralie Designs, isn't she pretty?! I colored her with Copic makers while looking at the picture on the stamp package to try to do her justice.

Below are pictures of the Loralie Designs Booth at CHA Consumer Supershow.
I was captivated and inspired by the presentation of their new line of rubber stamps. I'll be quiet now so you can just look at the pictures~

President's Day

I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day yesterday! We're on to President's Day and the kids have an extra day off school. Hmmm, I wonder what we could have fun making together today?

They helped me make some of these treat boxes and other Valentine goodies for their classes recently. They were a hit! Brenda has a tutorial on her blog, I know I'm a day late but they'd be fun to decorate anytime.

The stamps used are from Verve Visual and the frame is a Quickutz Silhouette digital die I cut with my Silhouette machine. Happy President's Day!

With Gratitude

Today's card is a repeat from a post a few weeks ago. I wanted to show you the envelope-box I made for it with my new Scor Pal!

I printed another sheet of the digital paper that I used on the card front for a special envelope. The ribbon on this card gives it a "need" to be hand delivered and I thought a special presentation would be fun. In my travels (on the internet) I came across the Scor Pal website and their tutorials. This tutorial is by Lauren Meader for an A2 envelope box and I adapted it to fit the A6 card.

Have a great day!

Card Drive for Delia

I made this card for a 10 year old little girl that's in the hospital in Colorado. There's a card drive going on for Delia, all the details are on Dustin Pike's blog. I hope you'll check it out and get in on it too.

Today's card is a hybrid! No stamping, no coloring, just printing, cutting and putting it all together. I've had an interest in Hybrid's for awhile, I'm looking for simplicity in mass production if I need a bunch of cards and something new, quick and easy, I'm also always looking for that WOW factor.

The digital images and designer paper are from Fred She Said Designs. I printed the designer paper, cut it in quarters and ran it through the Cuttlebug with my stamping friend Susan's SU Top Note die. Then I took a Spellbinder's Oval and placed it in the middle of the top note and cut again to make a window. I printed a sheet of the little girl from Smelling The Cherry Blossoms and cut them so they'd fit behind the top note die. I used foam tape on the back of the top note die to pop it just a little and attached it to the purple panel that's attached to the SU Taken With Teal panel. I also printed a second sheet of FSS designer paper on white card stock to make a matching envelope with my Scor Pal.

Razzle Dazzle Gift Set

I'm totally inspired by a fellow blogger, her name is Dawn and she's a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. She made these note cards back in June 2009. When I saw them I knew I just had to make some.
The simple elegance really spoke to me, what a neat gift set idea! I used a different sentiment stamp on my cards. Unfortunately the stamp company is no longer in business.
I also used PapertreyINK's card stock, ink and ribbon.
The card box idea came from my friend Paula Goff. When she visited in November 2009 she showed us how to make the little box in the first picture.
I hope you have a little time today to do something you love. Have a great day!

Quickutz Silheoutte

My card today is from a new toy I've been playing with and I really like how it turned out!

Several of my stamping girl friends have Cricut machines, I used one a couple of years ago when I worked at the local scrapbook store and thought it was neat but didn't feel the need to have one. I've run across web sites that have "cutting files" that made me curious. One thing led to another and I decided I wanted a digital die cutting system. I did a lot of reading and learning before I made my final decision and started watching E Bay to see what they "really" sold for.

After watching the auctions I made my bid and a Quickutz Silheoutte was delivered to my house a few weeks ago. What fun! I seem to be in a learning mode lately. I've been reading through the on line tutorials at their website and practicing, practicing, practicing.

I made the card above using the Silheoutte Heart Lace cutting file. I learned how to re size it to fit an A6 card and let the machine do the rest. Love it! It's so nice all by itself that I just added a Nestabilities tag and ribbon. I do need to find a better way to attach the "lace" to the card, my 2way glue pen seemed like a good idea but it isn't holding. Scor tape maybe?

The anniversay stamp is from Anniversary Birds by Verve Visual.

More CHA Pictures

Check out the Splitcoaststampers booth! I really thought the balloon flowers were great. We didn't make it up to the counter, it was packed every time we went by. There was a cute seating area at the SCS booth, Beate Johns was one of the ladies I recognized as we walked by.
That's me back at our room Saturday evening after being at CHA all day. It felt good to sit and kicking back was even better.
I did get off the bed so I could look over all the goodies I bought and take a picture for you. I've had a chance to use the new Purple Cow cutter and love it. The Scor Pal is sitting on top of my Scor It (that cat of mine likes to scratch my Scor It) and I'm practicing using it. Several of my stamping girl friends have one so we'll be making cool stuff soon!

I've spent most of my day today with that Digital Scrapbooking software you can see in the picture. I was having fun, getting pages done and then... I lost them. Don't you just hate being a beginner sometimes? That's okay, I learned some stuff today.
My last two pictures were taken Sunday afternoon. It felt good to be home again. I unloaded all the goodies on the kitchen table. Inky the cat sure likes the ribbon.
There she is again making her way through the mess. It's all picked up now and put away for the most part. We will be getting together to make cards in the morning and I'm almost ready.
Happy Stamping!

CHA Consumer Show - Anaheim, CA 2010

I've been away all weekend at CHA!! Susan and I decided last Wednesday that we should go to CHA in Anaheim, it's only 4 or 5 hours away... I asked my husband what he thought and he said go... and I said really??? Cool!!!

We got on the computer to see if we could still get tickets and a room and both were still available. I was so excited I could hardly wipe the smile off my face! The picture above is my ticket for Saturday and below is the view of the convention center in Anaheim from our hotel.
Susan picked me up Friday morning and we set out on our road trip. She had a GPS she hadn't used yet so we figured out how to set it up and started our adventure. We had several really bad storms last week but the weather was good until we got to Palm Springs where we found rain, it followed us all the way to Anaheim.

We arrived about 2 p.m., checked into our hotel and took off on foot for the convention center 2 parking lots away. It was still raining but we took precautions like wrapping Susan's feet in plastic bags before she put her shoes on so her feet would stay dry. Her shoes had mesh tops and were soaked.
Look what I won Friday night!! I took a survey when we first arrived at CHA about ribbon and was entered into a drawing. About 45 minutes before 8:00 my name was called, luckily Susan heard it and I went running over to the booth number they gave. The ribbon basket is from BOC Design Group (Berwick Offray Cleo) and the lady with me is Shira Lowry their national sales manager.

We decided to go back to our hotel room after that, the basket was too big to carry around the show floor and we were going to be back in the morning for day 2 anyway. Much to our delight it was no longer raining for our walk home. It was quite a trip carrying that basket of ribbon back to the hotel room, it weighed a ton. I'll show more ribbon pictures later. We opened it in our room and couldn't believe all the beautiful ribbon, it ended up being 1300 yards. I'm not sure what to do with all that ribbon but I'm certainly going to try to use as much as I can!!