Flights of Stamping Fancy

Accomplishments

2012-01-09T16:28:00.002-06:00

Things I've accomplished since deciding sit down and end my pregnancy-induced craft hiatus and start on my project backlog:

1) Bagged all the trash in my study
2) Cleared off my work desk
3) Cleaned my work desk
4) Organized the supplies for the first project on the list
5) Found a good movie on Netflix to watch while I work on the project
6) Plugged in all the correct computer peripherals to watch the movie
7) Worked on some actual paid work
8) Went and found a power strip and plugged everything in again so I could also use the lamp
9) Cleaned out all the old thread tangled up in needles in my pincushion
10) Got a drink of water
11) Swapped out the stale candy in my candy jar for fresh candy
12) Wrote a blog post

Things I haven't accomplished since deciding to sit down and end my pregnancy-induced craft hiatus and start on my project backlog:

1) My craft project

Internet, I need your input

2011-11-18T18:34:00.001-06:00

Particularly you design-oriented people.

I'm still working on figuring out this mantel configuration (and yes, I'll probably get it done just in time to revamp everything for Christmas... but at least then I'll know where to put everything back). My brother-in-law gave me some good ideas and a good start by pulling out some of my children's books and getting them set up in a display with the shadow box.

This is the section he did, and I really like how it looks with the various heights and things leaning and facing different directions.

Here's the whole thing, though:

I still have a little more than half to fill up. I've pulled out some more books, and filled in some space, but now I need to decide whether the game and/or framed pictures should be hanging, and in what configuration, and then how densely to arrange the books on the shelf around/below them. I'm just kind of stuck. This kind of 3-D large-scale visual arrangement isn't something I do much.

The remaining side close-up:

Any brilliant ideas? Or websites you've found useful for this kind of thing? I think what's stumping me is that the whole thing is just so LONG. There's a lot of space to work with.

Dilemma

2011-11-18T09:08:00.001-06:00

I think we can all agree, it's really entirely too late for me to start making Christmas cards like I usually do. I've just been too tired to get them started, and seeing some of the cards others are making gets me all intimidated.

But.

Even with my baby-imposed hiatus, sometimes I can't keep myself from getting a little creative. It makes me want to get back to the crafting desk! Case in point, two baby showers this weekend.

I went into my office/crafting room to wrap presents, thinking I wouldn't even make cards, just put tags on the presents.

Well, I got a little carried away.

I ended up basically making the whole thing into a card-front. Apparently my creative juices were thinking differently when I said "simple."

You did hear me say "showerS" up there, right?

I kept going. This cute Martha Stewart wrapping paper (which is part of 4 rolls I bought several years ago when they were on sale - I thought they were too small to be worth more than the $1 apiece I paid for them, but I use them ALL the time for all kinds of fun stuff - I'll be buying more when they run out, even if there's not a sale - well, maybe a coupon) reminded me of hot air balloons, so I wrapped the whole thing in vintage binding tape and die-cut some balloons to stick on. The tag is also a Martha Stewart find (what did I ever do for crafting before she started making stuff?) that I added a tiny die-cut to.

Baby Boy Gift - Stamps: All Booked Up, Fillable Frames #9 - Papertrey Ink; Paper: gift wrap from Paper Affair, Buckaroo Blue (retired) - Stampin' Up; Ink: Versamark, Buckaroo Blue (retired) - Stampin' Up; Accessories: buttons, Fillable Frame #9 coordinating die & Mat Stack 2 coordinating die - Papertrey Ink, Cuttlebug, Ranger Embossing Pearl Silver embossing powder, Fine Linen felt - Papertrey Ink, twine, e2 Daily striped fabric tape

Baby Girl Gift - Paper: Martha Stewart gift wrap, Summer Sunrise - Papertrey Ink, Regal Rose - Stampin' Up; Accessories: Martha Stewart tag, vintage binding tape, Up, Up & Away die - Papertrey Ink

Hiatus

2011-10-13T14:14:00.001-05:00

As you may have seen on Facebook, we have some wonderful news - I'm expecting twins in May!

Unfortunately, that means I'm sort of incapacitated for these next few weeks (I really hope it's not longer than that) - spending a lot of time on the couch. So I probably won't be crafting for a little while, but you'll know as soon as I'm back at it!

Blue Birthday

2011-09-29T15:29:00.000-05:00

A more "masculine" birthday card today... I don't know why these are so hard!

I started off with a very pink-dominant inspiration photo from a magazine, and thought I'd adapt the layout to what I needed.

Basic Grey's Periphery collection is perfect for this kind of card... lots of gorgeous blues and greens and browns, with enough detail to be interesting and fun to look at.

Stamps: Stampin' Up'! It's Your Birthday
Paper: Basic Grey Periphery
Ink: Palette Umber
Accessories: Cuttlebug and scalloped-oval Nestabilities die

Small Stamping

2011-09-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

When I'm short on inspiration, I like to take out something small to work on that just needs a few elements. I found these Martha Stewart tags at Joann last week, and they're a perfect small project.

For this "masculine" tag, I got to use my new houndstooth background stamp from Papertrey - the set came with two sizes of the pattern, and they're easy to line up to make several rows. The striped fabric is a fabric tape I picked up at Paper Source, and it's wrapped around the back as well to give the back a little interest.

This tag is made with rows of Martha Stewart paper tape - I actually just used the tapes in the same order they came packaged in, and added a little line between each tape with a sparkle pen. Very simple, but it turned out cute!

Stamps: Papertrey Houndstooth Background
Paper: Martha Stewart kraft tags
Ink: Palette Umber
Accessories: e2 Daily striped fabric tape, buttons, Martha Stewart "Vintage Girl" paper tape, Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen

Another Different Baby Card

2011-09-20T10:57:00.000-05:00

At least I hope this one is kind of different... I really love this Flourishes "Rock-A-Bye Baby" set - I think it's so sweet, and sort of vintage-y and unusual. It's kind of a pain to paper-piece, with the little ribbons and things, but it looks SO good that way.

I couldn't get a great picture, but the moon is embossed with a sparkly embossing powder, so it has a little dimension and glitter.

Stamps: Flourishes Rock-A-Bye Baby
Paper: BasicGrey LilyKate, Stampin' Up! Pretty In Pink
Ink: Palette Umber, Versamark
Accessories: Ranger Holographic Embossing Powder, Cuttlebug embossing folder, eyelet

Embossing for Baby

2011-09-12T09:48:00.000-05:00

I went to a baby shower yesterday for one of my good friends, and for whatever reason, the photos of the card on its own didn't turn out at all, but the photos of the card with the gift did. So you get to see both!

The card is a little bit of a non-traditional baby card - no bunnies or blocks, but I think it's really perfect - sweet colors and a perfect sentiment for a little one with the whole world ahead of her. The background is dry embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder to give the idea of a sky and wind, and some of the clouds and balloons are popped up on foam adhesive to give the whole thing some dimension. The clouds and balloons are heat embossed to keep the sweet colors but give them some detail.

I made a hooded swaddling blanket as my gift - it's from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones, and is one of my favorite baby-gift patterns. I make it with a simple cotton print on the outside and a thin-ish flannel on the inside... I figure in Texas, it's really not necessary to put in an extra layer of insulation or a warmer flannel. The original pattern has a sash-type tie... I leave that out, not because I'm too lazy to learn to do the buttonhole-style holes for it (although I am), but because somehow sashes and babies don't go together in my head. Seems like a bad idea. I embroidered "Sweet" on the hood (I actually had some glow-in-the-dark embroidery floss in exactly the right colors, so it glows in the dark!) - the pattern is a transfer from Sublime Stitching the book, which is from my favorite embroidery website (seriously, check out their amazing patterns - it'll make you want to learn to embroider!) - also the source of the glow-in-the-dark thread.

My goodness, I'm chatty today. Anyway, here's the whole thing together.

Stamps: Up, Up & Away and Just the Ticket, both from Papertrey Ink
Paper: Stampin' Up! Blush Blossom, Papertrey Classic White and Aqua Mist
Ink: Palette Umber, Versamark
Accessories: Dimensional foam adhesive; heat gun; Cuttlebug with swirl folder; cloud, balloon, & ticket dies from Papertrey Ink; Ranger Embossing Pearl in Silver

Fun with felt

2011-09-07T10:24:00.001-05:00

This stamp/die set is part of the package I ordered a couple of weeks ago from Papertrey, so I wanted to get it out and get it broken in.

The die didn't quite cut through the felt, so I spent a while cutting it through the rest of the way with scissors, and then it ended up being kind of a background element... I think it would have been more worthwhile if I'd used it as a main centerpiece. I do like the effect, though, of the felt "shadow" behind the gingko leaves.

I love the sentiment that comes with this set - "Take a moment to remember how special you are & how lucky the world is to have you in it." I accented the sentiment (and some outlining around the leaves) with a glitter pen.

Something I like about Papertrey is that they frequently include with stamp sets a coordinating "Handmade just for you by:" stamp, which I can put on the back with my signature stamp. That was another I couldn't get a good close-up of (actually, that was because my camera batteries died and I need to go get some more...), but I appreciate the little touch.

Stamps: Papertrey Harvest Berries
Paper: Papertrey Stamper's Select White, Aqua Mist
Ink: Palette Umber, Ocean Tides
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Harvest Berries Die, Fine Linen felt, Sakura glitter pen

If at first you don't succeed...

2011-08-29T14:10:00.002-05:00

...build a diorama.

Isn't that how it goes?

So you might remember last week's disaster. I spent some time this week fixing it. This time, rather than hanging them up in front of some cute paper and calling it a day, I got crafty.

This is the same box, with the same background and same figurines, but I added a little context. The tree is a bunch of lengths of twine, twisted and hot-glued to the box, with some die-cut "leaves" and button-apples. I figured I'd have the Lion hiding behind it and the Tin Man nearby like he might chop it down. Dorothy, of course, is on the yellow brick road, and since the Scarecrow was conveniently positioned like he was on the scarecrow-ing pole (do those have a name?), I made him one out of a stick.

With the balloon (die cut and stamps by Papertrey Ink), I was trying to make it look like it was floating up behind the tree, but from some angles it just looks like it's coming out of the Tin Man's head. If I can think of a way to move it without leaving adhesive behind or tearing the background, I probably will.

Hearth Centerpiece

2011-08-26T12:14:00.003-05:00

I just finished working on the other main element of my over-the-hearth setup - this gorgeous framed board game that was hanging in my room when I was a kid. It's called "The Wonderful Game of Oz" and I think it's from the 30s? Maybe the 40s?

It was originally framed in red (double-glassed, because of the beautiful art on the back), and when we painted my room lavender, it got a new coat of paint. You can see both colors and the back glass here. (And yes, that's my sonic screwdriver behind it... I actually use it ALL the time because it's the easiest screwdriver to find and has 6 different heads. And it makes cool noises while I'm using it...)

The lavender doesn't really go with my grey-green walls in here, so I thought I'd paint again, this time white to go with the shadow box (insert sad trombone sound effect here).

Unfortunately, right after I took this picture of the artwork on the back (and progress in taking off the frame), I picked up the game and glass, and the glass cracked. On the bright side, it was the back glass and not the front, so I taped it... the tape doesn't look great, but if I ever want to somehow display both sides I'll just replace the back glass.

Other than that, I painted the frame and re-framed it without incident (actually, putting the frame back on was MUCH easier than taking it off). How gorgeous is this?

A closeup of my favorite part - Quadling Country. I spent HOURS looking at this game when I was little, writing new Oz stories in my head with the characters.

When a good idea goes horribly awry

2011-08-23T21:06:00.002-05:00

This week, I've been trying to work on my over-the-mantel arrangement, and get everything looking like I want it. I'm sort of going for a vintage-childrens'-literature theme, and I've been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz forever, so that's pretty much the dominant book. This involves painting a frame that I really should have figured out how to paint without taking it off the glass, and finding a great way to display some gorgeous Wizard of Oz ornaments that Emily gave me for Christmas. They're really too pretty (and not too Christmasy) to just be out at Christmas.

And so enters my great idea - I'll do a shadow box or display box, where the figurines can be out all the time. I went to the dollhouse store (very cool, by the way), where I found a perfect display box - pre-painted, easy to assemble, perfect dimensions. They also had some little wooden... things... that were originally meant to hold up shelves, but had holes through them. I thought, hey, the ornaments have twine loops, I can just loop them through the holes. Still all sounding great in my head. Even better, I had the idea to cover the back with a nice scrapbook paper. Lovely, right?

Here it is, upside-down, right after I glued in the hangers. Looking great, no? Nice paper, cute hangers, good-looking box...

This was all great until I'd tied on the ornaments and stood the box upright.

...yeah.

Ornaments on a tree are ALL hung from something, so it looks normal, but human/humanoid figurines, hanging at a time other than Christmas from twine on their heads? SO SO SO CREEPY AND MORBID.

So.

This project is being re-thunk. Look for it again when I figure out how to re-work it to not look like the witch's forest was just entirely too dark and depressing.

Scentsy Style

2011-08-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

My aunt sells Scentsy products (check out the link - there's a sale!), which, if you don't know, are flameless wax holder... um, things? They're awesome, anyway - I was a tiny bit skeptical ("Don't I already have enough scented-wax things with all the candles sitting around here?") until she got me one as a housewarming gift, and it's AWESOME. It's kind of a basic setup - a light bulb inside a ceramic box warms up scented wax in a tray on top - but I LOVE that I can leave it on during the day and it keeps the downstairs smelling nice (I have it in the bathroom, and the scent isn't overly strong, but it does make the downstairs pleasant), and I don't freak out if we've gone somewhere and I remember I didn't put it out.

So the reason I'm telling you all this is because the one she got me for a housewarming gift is one of their DIY ones - a plain white (I think they have brown or black too) model that comes with rub-ons so you can customize it.

I actually plugged mine in right away in the bathroom, to see how it worked, and LOVE how the plain white looks in there with all the other white, so I haven't decorated mine yet, but she got me two sets of rub-ons with it. One of them is more what I think would work well in one of the rooms downstairs if I do decide to decorate it, and the other set is SUPER cute but a lot of stuff about friends and friendship - which is perfect for cards, but maybe a little weird to decorate a thing to go in my house with.

So, I'm using them to make cards, and they're really great rub-ons... go on easily and look really good.

The ribbon is on the bottom because, well... I got this Martha Stewart edge punch that I've been wanting forever, and it turns out it'll only punch through really thin paper/cardstock. I tried to do it on this (layer of thicker cardstock + layer of paper) and it just made marks, so the ribbon is covering up the marks.

Dang, that was a ton of explanation for a really simple card...

Passing Notes

2011-08-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

I think I sorta figured it out - the idea that was trying to happen yesterday.

So here's the story.

In high school, a particular friend and I would pass notes all the time. None of this texting stuff... we got out our fancy pens (usually purple or green ink, sometimes glittery) and wrote letters. Full notebook sheets of... well, that's the question, really.

Because we probably wrote each other hundreds of these in-class letters, folded into increasingly creative shapes. And I keep finding them. I graduated from high school 12 years ago, and I found one of her notes (football-folded) tucked into a folder when I was unpacking the house. They just turn up all the time. And I can hardly understand a word of them any more. I'm sure, to anyone happening to find a dropped one back when, they were complete gibberish - one inside joke after another. But they were cute! We were all about the decorations and doodles.

So I got inspired - if I was already so into "paper art" then, why not try to update that old tradition, and still keep the basics of it?

I folded a notebook-paper sheet into a heart, and made a whole decorated card front with a pocket to put it in.

The heart itself is decorated, too, of course - that's part of the fun!

I have a feeling someone's going to get this in their mailbox sometime soon.

Idea

2011-08-17T10:56:00.001-05:00

Ever had an idea rattling around in your head, and you just can't shake it out? I've had one for two days that I just can't manage to get to materialize. Maybe it's time to work on something else and see if it sneaks up on me while I'm not paying attention.

"My Favorite" tag

2011-08-15T19:17:00.001-05:00

Now that I'm mostly moved in to my study, I've been sorting through old magazines to clear out some shelf space. I've started an "inspiration file" of clippings, and once I pull out the best inspiration from a magazine, I can feel better about throwing it away. It's also nice to know that I have a whole file to dig through if I need a jumping-off point - I just look for something that strikes my fancy and put it up on the bulletin board to work on.

Today I found a cute library-pocket tag - the original had some aqua and red accents, and I've been seeing a lot of that color combination, so I pulled out some aqua and red cardstock. When I brought them back to my desk, I noticed that they worked really well with some chipboard accents that are pinned up on my bulletin board (see, that's why I have them pinned up there), and went and found the coordinating patterned paper.

I die-cut the pocket from patterned paper, and used the flip side for the main tag, then stamped the library pocket on Aqua Mist cardstock and cut out a background a little bit bigger (the width of the pocket - it's stuck down in it) from Pure Poppy.

The library pocket die and library card stamp (and You're My Favorite stamp) are all from Papertrey, and the cardstock and chipboard elements are from Sassafrass Lass.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2011-08-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

It's my dad's birthday!

I liked the cool greys and blues of this paper for my dad, and noticed that a clear overlay I picked up a few months ago is a nice echo of the argyle print on one of the papers (the behind-tag). The die is Papertrey's bookplate die, and the stamp is from one of Stampin' Up's office sets. Inside is a birthday message.

This is it!

2011-08-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

Finally - the post I've been promising Lori for weeks. (And just a warning - this is going to be a long post with a LOT of pictures.)

So here's the deal - a little background:

When we first looked at this house, the room-that-would-eventually-be-my-study was a family room - very cozy, very comfortable. I really wanted to keep the comfortable, cozy feeling once we moved in, even though it would be a study (see, even the word "study" is much more cozy than "office"...). There were/are built-in bookshelves, so that was a great start - nothing cozier than being surrounded by all of my favorites.

But on the office side was a little... stark?

(Please ignore the blue butt print on the chair - that thing is like a jeans-dye magnet. I don't think I've ever worn new jeans in it, and I clean it off when I think of it, but it looks like this the next day. Tip of the day: No matter how chic it looks in the store, do NOT buy a white leather desk chair if you wear jeans to work, like, at all.)

My first idea was to put in a countertop running the whole length of the wall, but that was nixed once we priced out that much countertop. Fortunately, the same day, we saw a World Market ad with their new desk line in it - these great sawhorse/workbench-style desks. And they were just long enough that two of them would fit the wall and leave room for my lamp. All along in the process, though, I really wanted three workspaces - one for working:

(From left to right: My London Phone Box DVD rack, River Song print, OTT craft lamp, cute box from a Lush gift set that holds all my desk essentials, Mocha Coconut Frappucino, laptop, jar of the candy raspberries I'm addicted to, and secondary monitor. Anyone know a good solution all the cords under the desk? They bug me.)

One for paper crafts:

(From top to bottom: Giant bulletin board my parents got me for my birthday, where I put up inspiration photos and rub-ons and other small elements to have them easy to reach; desk with craft stuff.)

And one where I could leave my sewing machine up through a whole project without having to get it out of the way of other stuff (if not permanently).

Here's what I came up with all together:

That last desk on the right is the one I've been working on for weeks and building up to Lori. I'm so excited about it. Recognize it?

This was the "before":

And this is a close-up of the after:

I'm so excited - I've been loving the grey/yellow color combination I've been seeing everywhere, and I've seen the papered-back bookshelves in a few places and loved them. It's a great pop of color that I think really brightens up the room. It's going to be a great sewing table! First thing on the list: a present for Miss Molly McGee - with that name, she's pretty much guaranteed to be the most adorable baby ever, don't you think?

THANK YOU to my amazing dad! He cut the backs and helped me with all of the sanding and painting and paper-sticking and nailing. He's the best!

Y'all, I almost forgot the other important credit - check out Curbside Creations for some great furniture makeovers... she's where I got my inspiration for the desk. If I had space for a dozen nightstands, I'd buy them from her - for some reason I love every nightstand/side table she does!

Still not the promised post

2011-08-04T10:23:00.000-05:00

We did get the paint issue resolved, but it's going to be another couple of days before I have time to finish the awesome (hopefully) project, so here's another card I made this weekend to tide you over.

This is kind of a fun one using elements from the Fancy Pants "it's the little things" set. I saw a rickrack flower in a magazine and thought I'd try it - turns out it doesn't work at all with newer, stiffer rickrack. I had to pull out some vintage stuff that I had in my ribbon stash. I think there has to be a better way to adhere it to the card front, but I'm not sure what that is.

This is not the post that I promised to Lori

2011-08-02T09:11:00.001-05:00

This was supposed to be a different post, a very cool post about a very cool project. But due to some heat-related spray paint snafus, it's not done yet.

So instead, I'll give you a pretty card to look at.

This card is made with Basic Grey's new "Sweet Threads" paper, along with a flower I picked up somewhere, a rub-on from Stampin' Up, and leaf ribbon from Papertrey. Pretty simple, but I love how the flower mimics the flowers in the paper design.

First New-House Post

2011-07-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me mention my framing coup yesterday.

I got this great signed print for my birthday, and I kept it in the shipping tube until after we moved, because I figured that would be safer than trying to move a framed print with glass. I figured I'd need to get it custom-framed since it's an odd size.

Edit: I almost forgot to credit the artist! The print is by Bill Mudron, who has lots of really cool geeky prints. Check him out! This is another favorite of mine.

I took it to Joann yesterday, because they were having a good framing sale, but even with the sale, it was going to be about $60 to get it framed, so I got creative.

I didn't get a picture of what I ended up buying, but it was very similar to this one at Target - long and narrow with three openings for 5x7" photos.

Obviously, that's not what it looks like any more.

I chose a cardstock color to complement the colors in the print, and trimmed 1" strips of it (the print is 8.5" wide, so that was convenient in terms of the cardstock size). I figured out how much of the matte would need to be covered in order to make the whole thing look proportional, and taped the cardstock down with double-stick tape. I was hesitant to tape the print down, but I don't intend to change it now that it's framed, so I figured that was better than trying to cut the existing matte or something and screw it all up. I think the end result turned out well! Thanks to my dad for helping hang it - I'll have a post up later this week with what he really came over to help me with.

Blog Hiatus

2011-07-18T15:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a little while since I've posted, because all of my stamping stuff is packed away!

We bought a new house, and have been moving in and unpacking for the last couple of weeks. I'm taking my time with my stamping stuff, because I want to get it really organized right from the start, so it might be a little while before I have anything new to post.

I'm also working on a plan for a new desk to fit in my new study - I think it'll be really nice once I get it all built. Exciting times!

Pillow box (not pet)

2011-06-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do some cute packaging for a little gift - I love pillow boxes for this kind of thing. I have two different sizes of box templates, and while this little gift could have used the smaller one, I always go for the bigger one because it's more fun to decorate.

I had a lot of fun with this - the pink layer is a Martha Stewart wrapping paper that I've used before with a really nice quilted texture, and the patterned paper and brad are from the Basic Grey "hello luscious" collection. I wanted to coordinate the flower with the patterned paper, so that was my starting point. I pulled in the wrapping paper and glittered letter, and then went a little crazy with the baker's twine. Turned out pretty cute, don't you think?

CAS Fun with Scoring

2011-06-24T10:59:00.001-05:00

CAS - Clean and Simple. It's not something I've ever been very good at. I like my layers and ribbon and embellishments and colors and embossing and die-cutting. From my understanding, CAS is defined as one base layer (usually white), one dominant color, and one embellishment. In this case, I've got my white base layer, my Raspberry Fizz color (with a little black accent), and my glittered score lines.

I think my score board is really what's helped me appreciate the CAS look lately - now that I can do a nice effect quickly with just the base layer, it's easier for me to see how to put everything together without looking too plain. This image is yet another from the Papertrey Anniversary set that I've been using, and the glitter (done with the same tape technique I explained the other day) is Doodlebug Designs "Sugar Coating" glitter in the Cupcake color.

More Fun with Scoring

2011-06-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

I also picked up some German glass glitter (my favorite kind) at Smitten, and the color is fantastic with Papertrey's Lavender Moon and Plum Pudding. I tried a scoring/tape technique I've seen around, and I think it turned out great!

I scored lines just far enough apart to fit double-sided scrapbook tape in between them. This super-strong tape (I don't remember what this brand is, but others I've seen using the same technique use Scor-Tape) is fantastic for making nice straight lines of well-stuck glitter. I poured the glitter over and shook off the excess, then patted it down to secure it.

You know what the worst possible thing to do with glitter is? Try to get it back in the original container. The first time I use a new color of glitter, I always get out a gladware/tupperware/ziploc container with a sealing lid - actually, I really need to get a new matching set, because I've got all my glitters in different sizes of container - and use it to catch any excess glitter. It works so much better, and then when I'm doing anything else with the glitter I can just use a spoon to add it.

The cupcake and sentiment are both from the Papertrey Anniversary set.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-18T17:18:00.000-05:00

A simple card today for Father's Day:

I've been looking at score-boards for a while and ended up getting the Martha Stewart board at Michaels with a coupon - very reasonable! I really like the look I've been seeing lately of a simple card with scored lines, and I picked up some red baker's twine this afternoon at one of my favorite shops, Smitten. Everything in the shops this month is red, white, and blue, leading up to the 4th, so this seemed like a fun color/design combo. The star is from the Papertrey Anniversary set (2009, I think?), and I printed the words on my printer.

And The Winner Is...

2011-06-11T10:26:00.001-05:00

Abbey wins the fabulous glitter prize, with her abstract button-y ATC. Congrats!

Extending the contest

2011-06-07T09:56:00.001-05:00

I'm extending the contest until Friday at midnight, because I'm a terrible contest promoter and haven't had any entries. I probably should have known - as soon as I had an idea that would involve posting examples of the contest item, I'd never get around to doing it. That's a guaranteed way to make me not be in the mood to stamp.

So, Friday. Enter the contest, email me a photo of your ATC, hope you win the prize.

Lazy post & reminder

2011-06-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

Because it's been a busy weekend and I never had the time (or inspiration, honestly) to put together any ATCs, I thought I'd link you to another blog post that has some really gorgeous ones: Making Your Art Accessible

I have ONE entry into the ATC contest so far - I'd love her to have some competition! Please enter here - photos/ATCs need to be in by midnight tomorrow!

Aviary Thank Yous

2011-05-31T10:09:00.000-05:00

Our internet went down over the weekend, so I'm finally back with some new cards.

A friend asked me to make some bird-themed thank you cards for her daughter's teachers, so I pulled out a bird set that I got a while ago at Michaels - I think it's Hero Arts, but I could be wrong.

I used the Fancy Pants "it's the little things" paper pad for my launching point, and pulled out some different cardstock colors that coordinated with it.

For each card, I layered a couple of coordinating colors behind the main image (the colors I use for this are Papertrey's Aqua Mist, Stampin' Up's retired River Rock, and a pink that's lost its label - I think it's Papertrey's Sweet Blush).

For the main image, I stamped a bird or birds in watermark ink (or a very slightly darker pink, in the case of the pink birds), stamped a "thank you" message over them in Palette Noir ink, and outlined the bird with a sparkle pen for a little definition.

I used strips of "it's the little things" paper as borders, then wrapped each border in blue or pink baker's twine for some texture.

Don't forget to enter the ATC Contest!

The Challenge is now a Contest!

2011-05-26T12:33:00.000-05:00

I've decided to up the ante on the ATC challenge, and make it a contest!

For the prize, I've chosen a couple of things I love to use all the time - both glitter (because everyone needs more glitter).

The prize includes a 3-pack of 0.5-oz. bottles of Stickles glitter glue (Cotton Candy, Star Dust, and Lavender), and a 3-pack of 0.37-oz. bottles of Martha Stewart glitter with glue (Smoky Quartz, silver and gold - I can't actually see the names of the second two, so they may actually be something else, but they're silver and gold colored). I use both of these products ALL the time, and thought they'd be a good thing to pass along to the winner.

The winner will be chosen by me and posted on June 8, and entries need to be in by midnight, June 7. Photos of entries can be mailed to me at birdishappy at gmail dot com or left in the comments on the original ATC Challenge post. Leave a comment here if you're going to be joining - I'd like to know who's interested!

ATC Rerun

2011-05-26T09:48:00.001-05:00

I made an ATC yesterday, but I'm not that happy with it, so I thought I'd re-post an older one that I love.

I got the idea for these ATCs when I was getting ready for a swap and found a 6-pack of decks of cards for $1 at Target, and noticed they were just the right size for ATCs. I separated each of the face cards into baggies, so I had 6 of the same card per baggie.

On the bottom layer, I stamped the harlequin diamond design (by Fancy Pants Designs) and embossed it with clear embossing powder, then sponged black over the top so that it went into the "writing" in the embossed diamonds and into the non-embossed spaces. To be honest, I can't for the life of me remember if I sanded the base layer first - I think I probably did, to get the slick coating off the cards so the ink could take hold.

Then I cut out all of the different pieces and layered them in order with dimensionals, so they stood up a bit. It's like paper-pieceing with a punch. Really, for these, I didn't do any original artwork, and hardly any stamping, but came up with something really original and neat-looking.

ATC Challenge

2011-05-24T10:11:00.001-05:00

Update: The Challenge is now a Contest!

While I was writing up the last post, I realized that I haven't done a challenge in a really long time, and it seems like Artist Trading Cards are the perfect challenge idea.

So here's my challenge: Make an ATC and either send it to me or send me a photo, and I'll post them here in two weeks. You can either do your own or leave a comment or email me (birdishappy at gmail dot com) and I'll send you a packet with some assorted materials and a pre-cut ATC base. The only requirement is that it be 2.5" x 3.5" - other than that, the sky's the limit! I have in my swap collection painted ATCs, sewn ATCs, collage ATCs... you can do anything you want.

Have pictures or ATCs to me by June 7, and I'll post them here on June 8. I'll be posting my ATCs between now and then.

Goodnight Moon

2011-05-24T09:39:00.000-05:00

I'd had my eye on this very sweet stamp set (Flourishes' Rock A Bye Baby) for a while, after seeing it on one of my favorite stamping blogs, Running With Scissors. The images are SO sweet. So when I saw that it had gone on sale for $5 (a last-chance sale, so they don't even carry it any more), I jumped on it.

For a couple of different reasons, I haven't been stamping a ton lately, and haven't been wanting to get out a lot of different inks and papers and whatnot. But since I have this new set, I thought I'd use my scrap bag to paper-piece an Artist Trading Card. Usually I do these for swaps, but this time I just wanted to play with the image a little bit without the context of a whole big card. I cut out the 2.5"x3.5" ATC background, then stamped the image on the background and each color paper I wanted to piece. I cut out each different section from the various colors and patterns, did a little pencil coloring, and put them all together with some Stickles stars.

I have this great little ATC label to put on the back - unfortunately, it's really a little small for fitting my big handwriting in, but I can at least sign and date them, and put any other info I might want to add for a swap.

Happy Birthday, Abbey!

2011-05-09T14:28:00.001-05:00

Since it's Abbey's birthday, and since I was waiting to post her card until she'd opened it, today's the Abbey's Birthday post.

I don't always have time for it, but I love making a gift look really nice, with wrapping that I spent some time on and maybe a matching card.

For Abbey's birthday, I got her a mini greenhouse, so she can start a little herb (or flower) garden before she even has a yard. She's just such an herb-garden kind of person, and it's such a cute little tin greenhouse with plant pots and little miniature tools.

I have several rolls of Martha Stewart wrapping paper that I picked up several years ago on sale for $1 apiece - before I bought them, I would have told you that the regular price (something like $5 or $6 apiece) was waaaaaay too high for wrapping paper, but now that I've used the ones I got on sale, I'd probably buy more at full price. The paper is excellent quality, and is thick enough to make wrapping look REALLY nice (it doesn't get weird creases or folds that make it look sloppy). I also had gotten different coordinating patterns, so that I can make coordinating cards - that's the other nice thing about how thick the paper is - it's much better to use for cardmaking than regular wrapping paper would be. The downside of the thickness is that it's REALLY hard to lay flat.

Since this was a greenhouse, I pulled out two rolls of the MS wrapping paper that had little seedling-looking plants all over them. I used the pink background for actually wrapping the box, and the green background for a card. The flower on the card is from Papertrey's Remember set, and the birthday sentiment is from their 2010 (or maybe 2009?) anniversary set.

WEP Award: Fiskars Original Craft Rotary Paper Trimmer

2011-05-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

Just a little disclaimer - I have no affiliation with the companies who make the products I choose for my WEP Award posts (or any companies, actually). I'm not compensated in any way, and have never even had contact with the companies (other than occasional customer service emails when needed).

Today's WEP Award goes to my most-used tool, the Fiskars Original Craft Rotary Paper Trimmer. I'm going to be really honest with you here - even though it's still listed on the Fiskars site, I haven't seen one in stores in ages. Which is frustrating, because I used a 50% off coupon at one of the big craft stores to get mine, and I'm sad that it's harder to get them that way now.

Fortunately, though, I can still find replacement blades, which is really all I need. I think the newer trimmers (which are probably just as good, I just don't know personally) use the same blades.

As far as I'm concerned, a good paper trimmer is a top priority for a paper crafter, whether you're a card maker or scrapbooker. I've used and bought way too many average-to-bad paper trimmers, and, true to the award's name, a good one is Worth Every Penny. I originally had a small Fiskars portable with the blade that slides along a track - it was fine, but the blade didn't stay sharp very long and the track wasn't quite sturdy enough to keep the blade in a straight line every time. It was also small, which seemed like a good idea at first, but I decided after I'd bought my big rotary that sturdiness and accuracy were more important. And actually, with the bigger trimmer, I can set it in my lap, leaning up against my desk, and use it that way without having to clear a ton of space on my desk to use it.

I've also tried guillotine-style trimmers in the past, and I've gotta tell you - I just can't STAND them. Aside from the danger factor (it is SO easy to cut yourself on those things), the blades dull too easily, are too hard/expensive to replace, and it seems like I was forever getting a ripped bottom end of the paper where the blade didn't cut through correctly, no matter how sharp it was.

I've used this paper trimmer every time I've crafted (usually many multiple times) since I got it probably 5 years ago, and it's in fantastic shape. The replacement blades are only about $5, and I've only had to replace the blade (which is super easy to do) 3 or 4 times in all that time.

Worth Every Penny!

Hello House

2011-04-26T13:48:00.000-05:00

Just a fun little card for today - I thought I'd try pulling out some of my less-used stamp sets.

The main image is a pretty simple watercolor of PTI's Boards & Beams house, with layered and embossed cardstock.

Nothing terribly revolutionary, but I enjoyed getting out an old set!

Sweet Birthdays

2011-04-20T09:40:00.001-05:00

I was running low on birthday cards, and thought I'd work on using some of my scraps from other projects. Both of these use scraps from my Fancy Pants 6x6 "it's the little things" pad.

For both cards, I stamped the cherry on the cupcake first, and glittered it using heat-and-stick powder and (appropriately enough) Doodlebug Designs Sugar Coating Cupcake Glitter. Their Sugar Coating glitter works really well - I only have this one color of it, and I've thought about getting a multipack of all the colors, but I can't decide between Doodlebug and Martha Stewart - her glitter multipack is pretty amazing as well, and has larger jars.

I embossed the cupcake base and top on different colors of cardstock, using the same Hidden Color Satin embossing powder that I used on the owls last time - this time I used blue for both colors of cardstock to kind of tie them together, and embossed the sentiment the same way.

This picture came out looking a little greener than it does in real life - it's really more of a khaki-beige cardstock. Anyway - these were fairly quick and simple, once I had the embossing assembly line going, and were a good way to use up some scraps.

CAS Birthday

2011-04-13T17:35:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd do a couple of CAS (Clean And Simple) birthday cards today, to use my cute owl some more, and to use up some scraps from other projects.

The owl and sentiment are stamped with Palette Burnt Umber ink (love my Palette inks!), and the owl is embossed with copper-colored Hidden Color Satin embossing powder. This stuff should probably be the subject of a WEP Award, except that I didn't buy it - someone gave me a set years ago, and it's one of my favorite things that I keep pulling out time and time again. It looks like clear/white embossing powder in the jar, but when you put it on colored ink or colored paper with Versamark and heat it up, it gets this amazing iridescent shine. You can still see the image through it (like clear embossing powder) but the different colors indicated on the lids (copper, gold, purple, red, blue, and green) really pop and look amazing. I tried to set up these cards side by side so that you can see how it looks straight on (on the left) and in the light (on the right) - basic brown at first glance, then a pop of shine!

I added a little strip of patterned paper to the bottom (these were left over from other things - I like to save little bits like this if they're long enough to make a border), and that's all it took for a 5-minute birthday card.

New Feature: The WEP Award

2011-04-10T19:38:00.000-05:00

I've decided to introduce a new (hopefully regular) feature on this blog: the WEP Award. In the interest of my recent contemplation of spending (my own) and value (in terms of what I'll sell in my potential store), I've been thinking about which crafting items I own that I would consider to be Worth Every Penny. Since this is what my desk looks like right now...

...I'll include links today rather than photos.

Today's WEP Award actually goes to two winners. Stampin' Up Grid Paper and Stampin' Up Stampin' Mist.

Does it seem a little odd that my first WEP Award goes to items that aren't technically CREATIVE? Sure. But really, I was thinking about these things today, because I just received an order that I'd placed for just these two things. I use them every single time I stamp, and the last time I ordered them? At least FOUR years ago. They may not be the most glamorous tools in my crafting arsenal, but holy cow are they the highest value per use.

The grid paper is shockingly useful - it's huge, so it really covers plenty of space on my desk and keeps me from having to wipe off ink, etc. I pretty much use one sheet until it's unusuable - either because it's got too much adhesive on it, so it starts sticking to new projects, or because I've been using it to catch glitter and put it back in the jar, and I want to change colors of glitter. By the time I throw one away, it inevitably has ink ALL over it, from stamping off before I clean a stamp, or from positioning, or whatever. The grid lines are so helpful in lining things up, and on the right-hand side, there's a handy guide to standard card sizes.

The stamp cleaner works ridiculously well (I use it with the Stampin' Up Stampin' Scrub, which has also been great, except that right now I need to replace the scrubby pads and the company isn't shipping them because of a quality problem. So I can't add the scrub pads to the WEP Award just yet.), and I've been using the same tiny spray bottle for years - just refilling it when needed with a diluted solution of the Stampin' Mist - I find that, undiluted, it's a little too soapy. But if I fill the smaller bottle half with water before I fill it up with solution, it makes the solution last forever and keeps it from being too sudsy.

One problem with this WEP Award is that I can't sell these items retail when I open my store - does anyone have any recommendations for similar items that might be from a company besides Stampin' Up?

A Head Start on Mothers Day

2011-04-05T09:55:00.001-05:00

I promised a return to photos and crafts, and so I shall.

This is one of the results of my challenge to myself to use things I already have. I saw this cute template on another blog recently (and discovered that site in the process, which has a ton of cute stuff), and thought it would be fun to make these for part of my Mothers Day gifts this year.

The back compartment of this little organizer box is the perfect size for A2 cards (5.5"x4.25" - the size I always make), so I made some dividers for different types of cards out of coordinating paper. All of the decorative papers I used on this are from a Heidi Grace set I got years ago, and haven't used much of. The cream cardstock used for the base is something I picked up for a project a while back, and still had quite a bit left of.

When I give this as a gift, I'll fill up the back with appropriate cards, put pens in the front pocket, and put a book of stamps in the drawer. I'm trying to decide if I want to add some flowers or buttons or something to spiff it up - I kind of like it as it is, but I'll update with another picture if I decide to add anything.

Dilemma

2011-04-04T14:12:00.001-05:00

One more pondering post, and then it's back to crafts and pictures, I swear.

So here's my dilemma - I've been discussing it with my sister, but I'm curious to know other people's opinions.

If you read my last post, you know I've been thinking a lot lately about crafting and spending. If you've talked to me lately, you might know that I'm also thinking about opening a store.

I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I just today put those two things together.

On the one hand, part of my vision for the store is that I want it to be a social place, where people can come and learn a new craft in a class, or hang out with friends and make some cards or knit, or bring a project they've been working on and use the bigger tools that they might not be able to afford to have at home. So, in other words, I'd make money from people buying elements (and the bigger tools if they just like them and want their own, but part of the service would be that they could try out new things without having to buy them) while they're working on things, and from the classes and stuff.

On the other hand, there are certain items within the stamping world specifically (and I think probably in all of the other crafts) that encourage obsessive collecting. And one part of me thinks that some of them (a particular kind of marker) are important enough to enough stampers and scrapbookers that I can't NOT stock them, but another part of me feels like I would turn myself into an irresponsible-spending enabler if I did.

Like my sister says, don't guard people's pocketbooks for them! But I want to feel like I'm doing the right thing ethically, too.

Thoughts?

Some thoughts on spending

2011-03-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

So this is more of a meta-post ABOUT crafting, rather than a showing-off of the crafts themselves - sorry there aren't any pictures.

I've sort of had a confluence of things come to my attention lately that have made me think. First of all, we've been studying a book at church that's convicted me to think more carefully about how I spend money, and what my priorities are for spending.

Secondly, I came across a discussion on a stamping site about spending - it was initially about NOT spending, but evolved very quickly into people talking about the reasons they couldn't stop spending money, or the (ridiculously over-the-top in many cases) ways they'd gotten into the habit of spending way too much. We're talking, on a smaller scale, "I see a card I like, then go out and buy everything I need to replicate it exactly," or, on a much larger scale, "I buy everything that X, Y, and Z companies release every month" or "I've bought 7 die-cutting machines and I've never actually used any of them, they're just sitting in my closet." Now, setting aside the fact that buying everything you need to replicate someone else's card kind of negates the whole "creative" aspect of stamping for me, that's just an insane amount of money. It was truly a completely new idea for some of these women that they could get creative with what they ALREADY HAD and that it might even be more fun and more fulfilling.

The last thing was that I came across a very cool scrapbooking blog that was running a "Use your stuff" week, with all kinds of tips on getting the most out of your existing stash and challenges to use it in different ways.

So, the odd thing about all this is... I really haven't bought much lately (except, obviously, for this weekend). So why did all of this jump out at me so much? I think partly it's that it just all made me think more consciously about how I spend money - it's so easy to let $5 here and $5 there add up to a pretty big spending problem - that's what I saw a lot on the spending discussion online, people saying that they "only" spent $10 every time they went to the craft store, or they got into trouble because they always had those nice 40% or 50% off one item coupons and "had" to use them, whether they really needed anything or not.

I've totally been caught in that trap before. I know exactly how it is. To be honest, the reason I stopped doing all that a year or so ago wasn't because I wanted to be more careful about spending money... it was first because I moved to a place that didn't have a convenient Michaels or Joann, and then because I moved to an apartment with a much smaller crafting space and had to put a bunch of my stuff in storage. When we made that move, I had to be much more selective about what I brought home, and it was actually a great learning experience for being more mindful of what I actually USE, vs. what I thought looked cool but ended up accumulating because it wasn't really my style.

That's something that the Write. Click. Scrapbook. blog talks about a lot - being very deliberate about going through your stuff and organizing it into "stuff I use" and "stuff I never touch," and also about looking at those piles and determining your style so that you can be more mindful about what you buy. Which is something I really had in mind when I went shopping this weekend - I hadn't really bought any stamping stuff in several months, so I had saved up for this trip to be a real treat, and when I went into the store, I ended up taking down and putting back several things that looked cool, but I remembered that I either already had them and didn't use them, or that just wouldn't fit my preferred style. In the past, I might have tried to really branch out and get little elements from all different sections of the store... this time, I found one or two collections that I loved, and got multiple elements from those collections. I know, now that I've looked at my crafting more mindfully, that that's how I work best.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of all this is, except that I think it's a concept that can carry over to a lot of areas of life besides crafting. Next time you're walking to the checkout (or clicking "My Cart") with some new little luxury, take another look at it and think: Do you already have something at home that would serve the same purpose? Have you already bought something similar that you didn't end up using because it just wasn't your "style"? Is this something you could do without? It's worth thinking about, whether it's a new pad of paper or a new pair of shoes.

More of my new stuff

2011-03-29T09:47:00.001-05:00

I made this card using elements from another 6x6 pad by Fancy Pants (a company I LOVE, and don't understand why more stores don't carry it) called "it's the little things." This is one of those sets that's so pretty, and I have so many ideas for every paper in it, that I hate to actually use it. But that kind of mentality gets us crafters into trouble! (That's actually a topic of my next post - using your stash instead of buying new stuff... but I thought that'd be a little bit of a strange topic to combine with pictures of a card I made with new stuff...)

I layered two of the papers from the paper pad onto cardstock from my stash (see, I did use stuff I already had instead of buying new), embossing the birds paper with a handwriting-looking embossing folder for a little texture.

The birdcage and "live laugh love" are both rub-ons from set that coordinates with the paper (which is where my one gripe comes in on this set - the little wooden rub-on stick was stuck to the back of the rub-on sheet, so I lost several images that were stuck to it) - if I had it to do over again, I'd move the "live laugh love" down a little bit, because I didn't plan well enough for the brads.

I added a little pink glitter to the birdcage, and punched out the sentiment to add to a die-cut mat. I love the corduroy brad in the middle - it's such a neat texture! This card is really all about the textures.

Spree

2011-03-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

I went on a retreat this weekend, and I'm not going to lie - a big part of why I was excited and looking forward to this retreat was that it was in the same town as my favorite scrapbooking store. The town doesn't have much else BESIDES the scrapbooking store, but it's huge and amazing. So I've been saving up my spending money for a little shopping spree during free time.

Sure enough - the friend who went with me said I was like a kid in a candy store, running around throwing things in my basket. I was so excited, because my plan was to grab everything I really liked, then have them ring it up and take off whatever I needed to in order to meet my budget. She rang up everything, and it came to exactly $.02 over what was in my pocket. Awesome!

So of course, I was itching to get home and make some cards - the ones I've made so far turned out so cute!

The only stamp I got this weekend was this little owl - I think he's so cute! He fits perfectly in my bookplate die from Papertrey. I was really excited to find sheets of very thin wood - one of the technique focuses on a blog I read last week was using wood for stamping. This wood was really thin, no thicker than a sheet of cardstock (they had thin and thick sheets available - I got a thicker one, too, to try using an embossing folder on), and I think it makes a great focal point for this card. The ink did bleed just a bit, so I decided to outline the image with white pen to make it a little sharper.

I had my sewing machine set up for something else, so I thought it'd be fun to stitch the layers - it's a little more subtle than I intended, because I had off-white thread in the machine instead of white, but I like the effect. All of the papers here are from a little 6x6 Basic Grey paper pad I picked up - it's the "Hello Luscious" line and has so many gorgeous papers and coordinating embellishments. That's something I love about this store (The Crafty Scrapper) - they have all of my favorite brands and all of the coordinating embellishments.

Tomorrow I'll post a card I made with the other set of papers/embellishments I got - they're really lovely.

Inspired Gift Box

2011-03-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

One of the images I have up on my inspiration board is a cute pillow box decorated for a baby gift (I think for a gift card). Serendipitously, I found a pillow box template the other day that I must have bought years ago, and I had bought a very small gift for someone, so I thought I'd put it in a pillow box.

The patterned paper is a last little scrap left over from some Sassafras Lass paper that I LOVE - I think I've stretched the one or two sheets I originally had into more projects than you'd think would be possible. I cut a few inches to wrap around the box (box itself is some old SU! cardstock - I don't even remember the color name), then trimmed the edge to frame the front.

I added some Prima flowers and buttons from my stash (and a bigger button tied with twine), then made a little tag with a Papertrey die, added an old SU! flower rub-on, and tied it around with twine as well. I have to say, I love kraft paper and plain brown twine - you can use them on almost anything, for a little bit of a rustic feel.

I'm so glad I found my template set - all kinds of cute templates in different sizes for gift boxes and favor boxes!

Sweet Bunny

2011-03-17T09:49:00.001-05:00

I haven't made baby cards in a while, so I thought this nice little paper-pieced bunny would be fun and seasonal. Everything here is from Papertrey (Bitty Baby Blessings patterned paper, Spring Moss cardstock, Bitty Baby Blessings image, die shape behind the bunny) except for the "Celebrate" stamp (Stampin' Up!) and twine (an awesome store I go to sometimes). Oh, and the liquid pearls I used for the tail and nose - those are Ranger brand.

I stamped the bunny on two of the Bitty Baby Blessings sheets (a tiny flower and a larger flower) and cut out the whole bunny in the tiny flower, then just the ear and back part of the larger flower. I love this set for paper piecing - all of the images have nice open spaces and clean lines to be able to do that. The "Celebrate" tag is just stamped on the same tiny flower paper and punched out, and everything is layered over a third pattern from the paper set. Inside is stamped, "babies are heaven sent."

Quick one

2011-03-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

Been working on some other stuff, but I did make a quick card today - I wanted to use a texturing kit I had, so I pulled out some papers that I thought would go well with the black velvet texture. Unfortunately, the kit is kind of old and the adhesive isn't very good, so the little flourishes are kind of wonky. But I think it's kind of cute, anyway, and a different kind of color palette than I usually work with. The background (which is from Basic Grey's Bittersweet collection, along with the red paper) is embossed with a damask-pattern Cuttlebug folder, and I embossed "dream" in black - it's part of a Fancy Pants set. The flourishes may be a little wonky, but they feel very cool and velvety.

Kristen's Birthday

2011-03-01T09:14:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Kristen's birthday last week, and I almost forgot to put up the gift I put together for her.

I found this great little insulated lunch bag at Sample House, and since Kristen is a nurse and a runner, I thought it would be something she'd be able to use a lot.

I took inspiration for the cards from the colors in the lunchbag, and made her a little set of monogrammed cards with my JustRite stamper. I used the scraps from that and a Stampin' Up! stamp that a friend gave me recently to fancy up a kraft gift bag. Casey got a better picture of the bag - mine didn't turn out very well.

It was a very fun evening!

Inspiration Board

2011-02-06T20:05:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to put up an inspiration board for a while; someplace where I can put cards I receive, or magazine pages, or inspiring photos.

When I saw a pack of 4 square corkboards at Target (4 for $6!), I decided I'd try to make my inspiration board into an inspiration piece all by itself.

This is what came of it! The top-left corner is covered in fabric (I wish I'd used a different adhesive - this was supposed to dry clear, but you can see it through the fabric. The rest of the boards, I originally stamped on the natural corkboard, but the ink/paint colors didn't show up very well once they'd dried. So I painted over them with a thin layer of white acrylic paint (thin so that the texture of the cork would show through) and tried it again. All of the images are from Fancy Pants, and the blue and green are Apple Barrel acrylic paints - the pink is Hibiscus pigment ink from Papertrey.

I'm excited to fill it up with inspiration - the green corner is my favorite!

The Aforementioned Bookmark

2011-02-03T15:35:00.000-06:00

And, here's the bookmark I mentioned making yesterday. Still working with the same set of pink/green/vintage-y scraps & palette I've been using all week, with the newsprint flowers I used on another bookmark recently.

I picked this sentiment stamp for the back, because I say it so often... "As soon as I finish this chapter!"

Romantic Valentine

2011-02-02T16:56:00.000-06:00

Just a fun little Valentine on a cold day... I actually started with a coffee set, thinking of a "keeping warm" theme, but somehow it evolved into this card, with the only stamp from the coffee set being the heart. Which isn't really coffee/warmth themed at all. Oh well.

All papers are from my favorite go-to lately, Basic Grey's Bittersweet line. And the word stamp is from a random little book-themed stamp set that I bought... at a convention, maybe? (Here we go... found it. "Book Lovers" by Clear Art Stamps. And now that I'm looking at the site to find that, I'm finding so many others that I want... check out this awesome Alice set or this adorable Fairy/nature set - their vintage-y style is right up my alley.)

Getting out this set is inspiring me to make more bookmarks... I think that'll be next in line.

Overdone?

2011-01-26T09:07:00.001-06:00

So I think I might have gone a little overboard on this one. I was working off of a layout someone else did, and just kept adding elements...

I like the colors, and I like the individual elements, but with the layers, and ribbon, and button, and twine, and flowers, and tickets... maybe a little much? (Click the photo to see it in more detail.)

Valentine and Bookmark

2011-01-21T09:35:00.000-06:00

I got excited about making bookmarks yesterday and made another one, this time with a coordinating Valentine.

I used my little 6x6 deck of Basic Grey "Bittersweet" papers, along with the same rub-on sheet I used for the owls last week. The bigger birds were perfect for the card, and the smaller ones fit just right on the chipboard flower I used for the bookmark.

Here's a close-up detail of the birds on the bookmark - I used two layers of Maya Road chipboard flowers and covered them with more of the Bittersweet paper, then inked the edges and put the birds on - one set for each side of the bookmark. The ribbon is all from Papertrey.

It ends up being a cute little set!

Bookmark

2011-01-20T16:59:00.000-06:00

Just a quick little project today - I found these fun flowers while I was cleaning up my craft room, and thought they'd make a good bookmark. I covered two matching chipboard flowers for the bookmark topper, and then added the vintage-style flower. Since the vintage-y flower has advertising/newsprint on it, I pulled out some cute office-themed patterned paper I got from (of course) Papertrey - behind the flower is a paper-clip pattern. As always, you can click the photo to see it larger and in more detail.

And the back (phone memo notes):

Valentine Time Already

2011-01-13T09:53:00.001-06:00

I came up with a couple of simple Valentines yesterday (okay, I was totally cheating - I'd started them with something else in mind and had all the elements just sitting here on my desk). Part of why I hadn't made the other cards I was planning with these elements is that the designs on the paper are just too gorgeous - I didn't want to cover them up with any other images. And then I got inspired by some of my friend Gwen's cards - she does some really gorgeous cards with a graphic main layer with just a sentiment on top - clean lines and matting, and restraint in embellishments, really elevate her designs.

So I dug out this slider die that I've had for my Cuttlebug for a while and used the flip side of the patterned paper (that's my favorite way to make sure patterned papers coordinate - I guess it's kind of obvious, but it seems like the flip side of an intricate design is usually something complementary and simple like this green grid design) on a twill ribbon that matched my mat layer. The "love" sentiment is from one of my big Fancy Pants stamp collections, and I think they turned out so cute. I love the little deer!

Dies in a Handbasket

2011-01-07T18:44:00.000-06:00

I got this cute little basket during the holidays, with some yummy treats inside and a forest green Christmas image on top. I really like the size, so I thought I'd paint and stamp it so I can use it year-round.

I primed the top and painted it blue (with an Apple Barrel acrylic paint), then stamped a couple of Fancy Pants images on top. I was excited about this, because I've had two Fancy Pants sets for a while with the most beautiful images, but I needed something larger than a card to use them on.

This picture shows where I need to touch up a few places with the white paint... part of the weaving was red, so I painted the whole bottom part white so that it wouldn't clash with the new blue top. I was originally going to use this as a sewing basket, but embroidery hoops wouldn't fit. Then, I noticed that I kept worrying about losing my Cuttlebug dies because they were in an open-topped bag - turns out this is the perfect size to fit all of my embossing folders and dies, and the top is nice and heavy, so I won't be losing them. How fun!

Post-Christmas Megapost

2011-01-06T09:44:00.000-06:00

It's a megapost today - I got a package yesterday with my Christmas gift-card spoils, and did some stamping last night, plus I've got a great handmade Christmas gift to show you that I received.

How cute is this little owl? I picked up these Maya Road rub-ons a while back (I think at the Scrap Barn, while it was still around) and I've been using them sparingly - there are a lot on the sheet, though. He fits perfectly on the Papertrey die that coordinates with Fillable Frames #9. The paper behind the tag is some Sassafras Lass paper I've been hoarding for a while - I love all the bright colors and sweet designs, but it's a little bit busy to use for cards.

This is a card I made with the other die/stamp set I got from Papertrey, the Mat Stack 2 Collection. I'm having a little trouble getting the stamp centered on the die (or the die centered on the stamp, if I do it that way), even with clear stamps... it's either going to be one of those things that just takes practice, or I'm going to have to dig out my old stamp positioner. Even so, though, I think it's a cute set. I used Hibiscus Burst ink and paper for this one, and the border is a little scrap from the Sassafras Lass paper. I love the Martha Stewart twine, too - I have a mixed red/blue/pink pack (different combinations of the colors) and used the red/white twine for a lot of Christmas stuff... it got me inspired to find ways to use the non-holiday colors.

And these are just some little tags I made with scraps, using the Fillable Frames #9 die and more of the Maya Road rub-ons. The tag border and sentiments are also from the Fillable Frames #9 set, and the die-cut hole at the top is perfect for a small eyelet.

And now to my awesome Christmas gift!

My aunt said when I opened this, "I hope you don't hate me for tearing up a book for this..." but no, it's so cool!

She used a Sense and Sensibility book for the roof of a birdhouse, and decoupaged the whole birdhouse with phrases from the book, sheet music, and decorative paper. Plus some rhinestone bling. I love the sweet picture on the back:

Christmas Treats

2010-12-18T15:48:00.000-06:00

Finally... the teased Christmas post.

I got a little, um... involved this year, with making Christmas treats for my family. In the past, I've always done jars of cocoa, with varying degrees of creativity. This year, I had some new ideas. Last spring, we went to Atlanta, and went to a burger place where I had the best pickles I've ever had. It got me inspired to try making my own pickles. I spent some time experimenting with recipes and came up with a great one, and my mom gave me some jars that she's had for a long time, so I canned those... then decided to make a whole basket of it. I saw these little houses in Inspired Ideas magazine (GREAT place for fun projects) and thought I'd make some to hold cocoa packets.

I added little pipe-cleaner wreaths, and the twinkle lights are small rhinestones - they turned out looking even more like lights after I covered the whole thing with glitter. Each box holds only one packet of cocoa, so I made another packet to put underneath.

I based the tea towels on one that I saw at anthropologie - mine's very simplified from theirs, but I think they turned out cute.

And here's one of the completed baskets - pickles, pickle recipe, a house of cocoa, a box of marshmallows, and a tea towel.

I haven't forgotten!

2010-12-15T11:25:00.001-06:00

I know I teased a blog post weeks ago from Twitter, but I'm still not ready to put up that post... waiting for the whole thing to be done. But in the meantime, I thought I'd put up the rest of the Christmas cards I ended up sending out.

I'm putting up two pictures here, because the first one is a better view of everything (click the photo for a larger version - with them all in one photo, it's kind of hard to see detail), but I forgot one card, so the second has it stuck in there. For three of the cards, I took my basic template that I created with the last card (patterned background, ribbon across the middle horizontally, and layered scalloped ovals) and played with it. I love the Basic Grey double-sided papers so much, because they're so easy to coordinate this kind of thing - just flip the paper over and you've got a scalloped oval that coordinates with the background. I heat-embossed the sentiment ovals with clear glitter embossing powder to give them a little texture and sparkle.

The other cards, the ones that aren't based on that same template, are made to feature this GORGEOUS flocked paper I got at Paper Source. I was actually planning to put a sentiment on the one with the wreath, but the wreath ended up looking so pretty by itself, I left it that way and added some "berries" with Tarnished Brass Distress Stickles. I could have sworn I had some red Stickles around here somewhere, but I think I've just looked at them several times and never gotten around to buying them. I like the tone-on-tone look, though.

Next time: Sparkle houses and everything that goes with them.

More Christmas Cards

2010-11-11T09:30:00.000-06:00

I made an assembly line for these, and made several - that's really my favorite way to do Christmas cards.

I started out with some more awesome Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper - I just used one sheet, and used one side for my backgrounds, and the other side for my scalloped ovals. I love using my Cuttlebug for things like the scalloped ovals - it makes it go so much faster.

I added some sparkle to the background with silver Stickles, and used Papertrey's Ocean Tides swiss dot ribbon for the middle. It ties in really well with the Basic Grey colors. Originally, I had this same Merry Christmas stamp (the same one I used on the last card) done all in glitter, but you couldn't read it. So I put the smaller white scallop on top, with the stamp done in Ocean Tides ink, and clear glitter covering the whole thing, so it looks like snow. I think it looks cuter now than when I'd envisioned the original.

First Christmas Cards of the Season

2010-11-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

I got inspired yesterday to start on Christmas cards - it's going a little slow so far (2 days for 1 card? I may have to edit my Christmas card list...) but I think this one turned out pretty cute.

I started with a couple of chipboard stars - I glittered one (inked the chipboard with Papertrey's Fresh Snow craft ink, then poured glitter over - it actually sticks really well, and then wherever glitter comes off, white shows through instead of the chipboard color) and covered the other with paper from Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding line. I'll tell you what - I recently thought I'd lost most of my Basic Grey collections, and I was so sad. They're my favorite way to get inspiration - I think they're all so gorgeous. I highlighted the design with a glitter pen.

The background of this is Papertrey's Aqua Mist cardstock, embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I don't remember where I got the Merry Christmas stamp - it's part of a clear stamp set, but I didn't put a label on it. I highlighted the stars in that set with more of the same glitter pen I used on the Figgy Pudding paper.

Hobby Update

2010-10-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

I haven't been stamping much lately, because I've been working on sewing/embroidery stuff for FMSC, and last week, Abbey taught me how to knit.

My first scarf-in-progress is pretty simple, but I love the colors. I saw some gorgeous yarn at a craft sale yesterday that made me want to get really good at knitting so I can make cool stuff with the fancy fibers. I guess the first step is to finish one thing!

One card, two gifts

2010-10-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

First, an update:

Here's one of the finished coffee sleeves from the last post, modeled by a grande peppermint mocha.

And the back - the way the ribbon is sewn makes it look like it might be too loose, but it stays on just like a disposable cardboard sleeve.

Ok, now today's card - I had two birthdays this weekend to make cards for, so I decided to get my inspiration for the card from one of the gifts, and then carry it over to the wrapping for the other gift.

The travel mug was so cute with the pink and black, and swirls, I wanted to pick up that color scheme - and I had a perfect stamp set to use, since the basket I put everything in had butterflies on it (Papertrey's Butterfly Kisses, which has the swirly butterfly I used). I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the pink to give it some swirly dimension, too. For the second gift, I picked up this cute bag (guys, these recycled gift bags with the cute ribbons are all less than $.50 at Target!) and coordinating hot pink tissue to tie in the card. This is a closer view of the mug and card side-by-side:

And the card all by itself, since that's supposedly what this blog is about:

Card colors: PTI Hibiscus Burst, white, and black. Ribbon is PTI Hibiscus Burst and some black and white polka-dotted ribbon that came with the packaging for the mug.

Long-awaited

2010-10-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well, that was a long tease. Sorry about that. I posted on Twitter like a week ago about a project I was working on, and then it took me the whole weekend to get it wrapped up, and I still managed to leave the finished product at my parents' house.

So here's what I was working on:

Coffee sleeves! The first photo is the cut-out shapes - I used a Starbucks sleeve, cut open, as the template - two layers of felt (to protect hands from the heat) and a layer of cute flannel, with a felt pocket for cash or, as the Starbucks one suggests, one of those mini-Starbucks cards.

I'm making these to raise money for FMSC, so the numbers I'm stitching on to the pockets represent how many meals one will buy. These are going to be $5, and provide 21 meals.

This is the nearly-finished product - edges are stitched and they're ready for buttons. I did a button/ribbon closure on these, so that you can undo them and store them flat. I'll upload a picture of the finished one with a button when I go get it. I didn't realize, when I was taking pictures, that I took them all of the purple-number/red stitching combo - I actually did assorted stitching in different combinations of purple/red/orange.

I'm going to be doing some more masculine ones, next - just need to find a good flannel!

Grab bag

2010-10-06T09:09:00.000-05:00

I teased a new project on Twitter yesterday, but I'm not quite far enough along to blog about it yet (need my mom's serger), so I'm going to give you some fabulous odds and ends today.

First up, a "masculine" card I made for a family member's birthday.

Here's the deal - let me tell you how difficult it is to come up with suitable ideas for a card for a man. It's impossible, is how difficult it is. Which means I've given some weird ones over the years. My favorite, and also the weirdest probably, was a card I made for Father's Day a few years ago using the gel card technique. I printed out a drawing of a koi fish, watercolored it, and put it under the gel packet to make it look like the koi was underwater. Simultaneously pretty cool and kind of weird, honestly.

So anyway, on to this one. To be honest, all of the elements I used for this card have the potential to be... pretty girly. For the background, I was originally looking at another paper from the same collection that was "light red" - then realized, once I cropped it, it would just look pink. So it was either pink or blue stripes with flowers. I decided that the rest of the card would butch up the flowers a little bit, and went with the blue. The paper (top, bottom, and sculpted border) is all from one sheet of Sassafras Lass paper - I love their stuff so much. The top is the front of the paper, the bottom is the reverse side, and the blue sculpted bit is the border. I don't know now what this paper is called, because it looks like it's discontinued and isn't on their site. The frame (which is not, as my husband asked, a snake head eating the tickets...) is from the coordinating chipboard elements that go with the paper, and the tickets are from the same Papertrey ticket die and stamps that I used the other day on the Get Well card.

This little guy, it seems, is everyone's favorite. I've had a lot of comments from people who've seen it in person. I pretty much love it, too. I picked up a pack of giant paperclips at Staples, then found in my chipboard stash (I have a ton of chipboard) these circles that are just the right size - one for each side. I covered the circles in paper from Basic Grey (my other favorite designer paper company) - this is from the Bittersweet collection, and I used the small card-sized pack rather than the full-sized scrapbook pack. I love that they scale down their paper designs for cards. I stamped an image from the reading set I mentioned a few days ago in Dark Chocolate, stuck the chipboard circles together around the paperclip with dimensional Zots, and tied on a bit of Spring Moss ribbon. Easy and super-cute!

An Experiment

2010-10-03T21:25:00.000-05:00

Next-morning update: The pickles are very tasty, just still a bit too cucumber-y for my taste. I took out about half the horseradish, because they definitely have enough of that flavor, so I don't think it needs to be in the jar any more. Next time, I might leave the horseradish in bigger slices (so there's not as much surface area exposed to the brine) and put a bit less in there. So far, so good though!

So this isn't stamping-related, but I had a wild hair to try something new this weekend. When we were in Atlanta several months ago, I had the most amazing homemade bread-and-butter pickles at a restaurant (restaurant-made, I guess?) - they were so good fried, too. So I wanted to try making my own bread-and-butter pickles.

I documented the process:

I started with the slicing and dicing - horseradish is PUNGENT. I could make like 10 jars of pickles with this giant thing.

Slicing up the cucumbers - I had to go to Central Market to find "pickling cucumbers." Found the horseradish there, too.

The pretty jar, with all of the chopped-up cucumbers and horseradish, along with a bunch of fresh dill:

Brewing up my stinky, stinky brine - turns out that "signature" flavor of bread-and-butter pickles is turmeric. Who knew?

I'm glad I actually thought ahead enough to think to put the jar in the sink... usually I spill something bright-colored or stinky everywhere before I think of that.

Pouring - nerve-wracking!

I'll keep you posted on how they turn out - the jar's just cooling now so I can put it in the fridge.

Evolution of an idea

2010-09-30T14:12:00.000-05:00

Today's cards were made with my favorite new stamp set - I ordered it with the other stuff I showed off yesterday. It's called All Booked Up, and I got the bookplate die to go with it. When I ordered, I got a bag of cute green buttons that coordinate with their Spring Moss green that I love to use, along with some saddle-stitched ribbon in the same green and some twill tape (my favorite ribbon, I think) in the Hibiscus Burst pink. I wanted to integrate some of that, so I chose these colors and put it all together:

I liked how the first one worked out, but I felt like the overall color scheme was too dark for the springy pink and green, and it needed a little jazzing up over-all.

So when I made more, for a friend's birthday present, I went a shade lighter on the neutrals - white instead of kraft, kraft instead of Dark Chocolate. The rest of the colors and layout are the same, but I also used my Cuttlebug embossing folders to add a little texture to the background and pink stripe. Oh, and I wasn't very smart with the first one and put glue on the ribbon to stick it down - the glue soaked through and didn't dry clear like I thought it would. So with this one, I taped it to the back, then glued the bookplate shape over it to give it a little more stability. Turned out much better, I think! I love the effect of tying through the button with twine - I think it's a nice detail that gives it more interest than just a button by itself.

Back in the saddle again

2010-09-29T16:16:00.000-05:00

At Lori's request/encouragement, I'm jumping back into this blog thing. For a while, I was living in an apartment with no good creative space - my office was basically a glorified laundry room, with no natural light and a noisy dryer running half the time, so I just wasn't that inspired to create. I also didn't have much storage/organizing space. Now we've moved to a new place where I have tons of great light, and I've been able to get my craft stuff out of storage bins and onto shelves where I can see everything to get inspired.

I also ordered some new Papertrey things - it's been a while since I've done a crafting order, so it was nice to have some new images and colors to get inspired by.

Since she encouraged me, I'll start with the card I made for Lori:

This card uses mostly new Papertrey materials - I based it around the"It's Official" patterned paper, picking up the colors and theme from that. The base is Dark Chocolate, with one of the It's Official patterns on top. I'd also ordered the cute Library Pocket die and Library Card stamp, so I used those, along with the Fresh Alphabet, to make the library card. On top are Hibiscus Burst tickets punched with my favorite new die, also from Papertrey, and stamped with Just the Ticket images. A couple of individual tickets, also stamped, are inside as a little accent.

I've got a few more things created, some with my new favorite stamp set - more blog posts coming!

Check it out!

2010-03-05T19:02:00.000-06:00

If you enjoy my blog, take yourself on over to my new joint venture:

Now seating

2010-03-05T16:35:00.001-06:00

The long-awaited furniture is finally here! At last, we can seat more than three people in the living room without having to drag in broken-down office chairs!

We ordered the couch the week of Thanksgiving, and when we ordered it, the salesman decided to order the matching swivel chair along with it, just in case. He was so convinced we'd love it, he wanted to make sure it'd be in the same leather as the couch and didn't want us to get the couch in, love it so much we needed the chair, and then have to wait another 12 weeks for the chair. And if we didn't want it, he'd just keep it in the store.

Smart man.

So we went to look at both of them last night, and (of course) ended up liking the chair too, and now we have a great, put-together living room!

Of course, there is that gaping space above the couch now... isn't there always something?

The Morning After

2010-02-12T10:01:00.000-06:00

This little wooded area behind our complex is so pretty anyway, but it looks magical in the snow.

Everything looks so different today - more snow than Dallas has ever gotten at once!

Barnaby's thinking he probably won't get out today, either.

Thanks a lot, Northeast

2010-02-11T10:42:00.001-06:00

I know you've had a lot of snow up there... would keeping the last 3 (...4 ...5) inches have killed you? I mean, this is Texas. In February. We don't know what to do with this stuff. No shovels, or plows, or, I don't know... whatever you have to deal with snow.

Barnaby's not too thrilled either.

Your $40 Worth

2010-01-25T17:50:00.001-06:00

Your $40 worth - FMSC Dallas from First Church Media on Vimeo.

FMSC Signup

2010-01-25T11:14:00.000-06:00

Ok, kids - here's what I'm going to do for FMSC. I signed up officially for the first shifts on Saturday and Sunday, and then I'm going to stick around pretty much the whole day Saturday and the other shift Sunday to help my mom and sister out with registration and lunch-running and whatever else needs doing. Some of you have asked me when I'm going to be there so you can sign up for the same shifts, so pick a shift that works best for you (because I know 8am Saturday might not be ideal) and let me know when that is, and we can maybe do a "Friends of Bonnie" shift signup and get a table together. Seriously guys, it's fun and a great way to help people in need! Check out the shifts available here!

Smart. Phone.

2010-01-23T22:34:00.001-06:00

I won't be joining the iPhone cult any time soon (pretty sure I'm T-Mobile's contract bitch for the rest of my natural-born days), but I did finally get a smartphone today, and I'm loving it. My husband and sister both got new ones this week, and of course I had to keep up. Got a white myTouch 3G, which looks super-cute in the purple skin I got to keep it looking nice. I'm pretty impressed - it came in a really fancy ripstop nylon case with a TON of peripherals.

I've already loaded it up with all of my contacts and synched it up with gmail (although I think I'm going to have to clean up my gmail contacts - holy cow, it keeps everyone I've ever gotten an email from), and set up fancy ringtones for various people... all kinds of fun stuff. Turns out it's super-easy to bring over songs from my computer and edit them into ringtones - fun! I know that's probably old-hat to most people, but I couldn't do it on my ancient old phone. (Although don't get me wrong - it was a great, trusty old phone, and I'm sad that I managed to lose it between the counter at the store where we took the SIM card out and the car. I planned to hang on to it for a backup.)

Anyway, I'm excited! Now I can do all kinds of fun stuff with my phone.

Knotty Dog

2010-01-20T21:39:00.001-06:00

O.M.G.

I have been making knots ALL DAY. And I'm not even done. With the first dog. There's still another dog to do after this one. I think they're going to turn out cute, though.

This is Barnaby

2010-01-18T21:43:00.001-06:00

Meet Barnaby the Beetle. He's been in the family for almost 6 years now. He gets his name from his pinstripes - they run down each side and end in swirls on the back that look like 'B's.

Barnaby started out his day with brunch at Mimi's Cafe - made it in time for the Brie Crepes (they only serve those till noon).

After brunch, Barnaby did some shopping at It's A Party... didn't buy anything, but ran into an old acquaintance and had a nice chat.

Barnaby had to stop at PetSmart to pick up some doggy de-stinker spray... gotta love that Nature's Miracle.

Then Barnaby picked up the stinkers themselves - they love to go for a ride.

Barnaby went for a shower - turns out Sadie is REALLY not a fan.

Although Miles thought it was a really exciting ride.

Wish there was a "before" for this shot... let's just say Barnaby's back was, um... trashed. Completely.

Barnaby spent another evening in the Bug-infested driveway, getting his maintenance finished up,

then drove home into the sunset.

Sunday in the life

2010-01-17T22:21:00.000-06:00

Met my family for lunch at Tin Star,

where Sus was acting sassy as usual.

Mom got an amazing-looking taco (which we decided was more properly a tostada or gordita, since one really couldn't be expected to fold it).

Then the Bugs had a meeting in the driveway for Dad to do some maintenance while Mom and I went shopping.

We surprised Sus at work,

and got to take a look at her latest FMSC awareness marketing campaign - she wears different aprons to work every day, so she's made a Feed My Starving Children apron, and carries cards with the website info in the pocket to hand out to people who ask about it. She's so great at coming up with ways to let people know!

Speaking of FMSC, slots are now open to sign up to volunteer for the packing days - Friday, March 5, from 6-8pm, Saturday the 6th, 2-hour shifts from 8am to 8pm, or Sunday the 7th, 2 hour shifts at either 1pm or 3:30 pm. I'll probably be doing at least one Friday and one Saturday shift - I haven't decided which yet. Click here for info on signing up to volunteer or to donate!

Sitting

2010-01-16T23:27:00.000-06:00

We did a little furniture shopping today - hopefully our couch and matching chair will come in soon, and we'll have the whole living room set up, but until then, we at least have some more seating. We were happy to find this cute chair at World Market - on sale! Pretty much just what we were looking for.

We also picked up a couple of storage ottomans - they're really comfortable, have space inside for blankets and things, and...

The top has a tray on the other side. Very handy.

Um, crap

2010-01-15T13:45:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I'm glad I'm not a homeowner yet.

Or at least not this particular home.

See, all these cracks (and more, I just didn't post them all because they look pretty much the same) appeared basically overnight.

Remember those fun couple of days last week and earlier this week when it was suuuper cold all of a sudden and then *TA-DA* balmy and gorgeous outside? Yeah, apparently top-floor apartments in brand-new buildings don't really like that so much.

Neighborhood Lights

2010-01-13T21:39:00.000-06:00

Fairy lights on the green

Pretty light fixtures at Potbelly, of all places.

Real Life Poodle Encounters - Caught On Camera!

2010-01-12T22:01:00.000-06:00

What can we learn from these fascinating creatures? Is there some significance to the sticking-out-the-tongue gesture?

It's possible that we may be about to witness an altercation between the dominant female and the male (scientific term: little guy) - let's watch and find out.

No such luck - this seems to be one of the rare occasions on which they meet and don't engage in some form of wrestling match. Maybe next time.

Oh dear. The female seems to have discovered the camera.

Love this stuff

2010-01-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

I don't know how I'd get through the dry winter without this body butter... I just have to remember not to think about how much it costs. It smells sooooo good.

Cheery Owl

2010-01-10T22:19:00.000-06:00

This is a little ornament my mom made for me - it was going to be for Christmas, but she just finished it today and I'm going to hang it up in my study with some other less-seasonal cute ornaments. I love him! He's so cheerful.

Yum yum yummy

2010-01-09T21:11:00.000-06:00

Poking around on Yelp, I found high praise for the Crazy Tomato and decided to try it out for dinner tonight.

O. M. G.

We got the pepperoni rolls (best ones I've had) and I had the combo pasta - really good, but I ended up mostly eating the spaghetti under the rest of the pasta, because the sauce is so good. Next time, I'll probably end up just getting baked spaghetti (all of the pastas are baked with lots and lots of yummy cheese on top). Actually, I'll probably alternate between baked spaghetti and pepperoni rolls - everything we got was SO huge, we really didn't need to get as much food as we ordered (although we're glad we did, so we could try things). I'm so full, and have leftovers for the rest of the week.

Office Space

2010-01-08T15:53:00.001-06:00

With my new OTT light from Christmas, my study/craft area is really coming together - it's a really nice little space for working, stamping, embroidery, whatever. But, you know, sometimes, it looks like... this.

And sometimes the couch is just more comfortable for working in my jammies. I work from home, on a laptop, so why not?

Working in the living room also means access to the TV, which isn't such a bad thing.

Although my coworkers are always sleeping on the job.

Books Books Books

2010-01-07T17:20:00.000-06:00

Due to some FANTASTIC help from Emily, in the form of extension shelves to go on top of our bookshelves, I was finally able to get all of my books unpacked today.

Once we find the right chair, and lamp, this is going to be a nice little reading corner - we'll only have to move the chair a couple of feet when we have people over for comfortable conversation.

And this shelf is the book/game/TV-season shelf. The rest of the dvds are going onto... something from Ikea that I'll be getting soon, but it probably won't have space for TV seasons, so they're going here.

Latest Craft Obsession

2010-01-06T18:40:00.000-06:00

Someone pointed me toward Sublime Stitching, and I've been embroidery-obsessed ever since. This isn't actually one of their patterns - it's a "Bonnie Bonnet" pattern I picked up at the store. I'm using it for practice while I wait for my books from Sublime Stitching to come so I can learn some fancier stitches and start some bigger projects. In the meantime, I'll finally master the french knot and end up with some new kitchen towels.

Chilly boy

2010-01-05T11:13:00.001-06:00

The puppies got haircuts this weekend, and Miles woke up cold this morning. I put him in a sweater (pretty much the ugliest sweater ever, but the other option was a jacket, and it's itchy), but apparently that wasn't sufficient... I came back from the kitchen to find him like this.

2

2010-01-04T16:36:00.000-06:00

We got some new monos - it's starting to shape up into a really nice tank! They seem to be getting along well with the puffers - no fights yet.

36...3 in 365

2010-01-03T18:27:00.000-06:00

Getting a late, silly start in joining Emily for Project 365:

Yes, it's a teeny-tiny, one-egg-sized pan. And it makes the best egg sandwich EVER.

And as compensation for the horrible photography, my lone handmade Christmas card this year:

ATCs

2009-08-13T14:14:00.000-05:00

As promised forever ago, I'm back with ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). The theme for this exchange was Time, and I think this wise little reader sort of looks like an amalgam of Father Time and Baby New Year. I stamped the book on some shiny textured cardstock I'd salvaged from a book of invitation samples, and cut it out to give the image some dimension.

This is my new toy - I love it! I've been participating in some ATC exchanges recently, and since they're small, they can be easy to lose track of. This little display holder from 7 Gypsies is so cute and retro, and looks fantastic on my desk. The card showing in the front is a gorgeous one I got recently - the image is printed on stiffened silk, then the center of the flower is stitched through with thread to give it texture. So gorgeous!

The Payoff

2009-08-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

So, this is what I've been working on for the last 9 months - a cross-stitch afghan. I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped it, and then I ended up rewrapping it at work in cuter paper, so a coworker was sweet enough to take a picture while I had it out. I didn't realize how wrinkly it was! It's been in a little pile on my lap all this time - Miles's favorite kind of craft. I'm so happy with how it turned out, though!

I lied

2009-07-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

Just had to show off a sweet order someone made from my etsy shop this week - she ordered this card that I already had:

And then sent me a drawing of her new house to add to it:

Isn't that just so cute?

Back in a few...

2009-07-18T23:03:00.001-05:00

I won't be posting for the next week or so... I'm down to the wire on a big project I've been working on for most of the last year, and I'm not sure if I'll make it or not. So I'll see you back here when I'm done - I'll have some ATCs to share!

The Day Is Here!

2009-07-12T09:38:00.001-05:00

In the order in which I received them:

Abbey (who mentioned that she did hers entirely with Elmer's glue, kitchen shears, and coins for templates):

Lindy (who, I think, receives the "Best Use Of Monkey" award):

One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed:

Somewhat Asian:

Phyl (who did a great job tying her tags together as a coherent project):

Casey (who used a marker for the distressed orange parts - love that look!):

Jas (who turned my expectations on their head -I'm totally in love with the ribbon trees) :

Thank you all so much for participating! I'll have to do more of these challenges - I love seeing the creativity that comes out of them!

Tag Reveal Countdown Day 12

2009-07-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

Once again, no actual tag for the countdown - sorry I'm a slacker this weekend. Actually, not so much a slacker as barely home. Anyway, not only is this Day 12 Countdown post a reminder that YOUR TAGS ARE DUE TODAY, it's also my 100th post! If I'd noticed before five minutes ago, I would have planned something cool.

As it is, the cool post will have to be post #101 - and you know why it's cool? It's all you. I'm hoping to see a few more entries tonight; so far I'm loving the ones I've received. I can't wait to show you!

Tag Reveal Countdown Day 11

2009-07-10T23:00:00.001-05:00

No tag for the countdown today - worked too late, then a haircut and more work. Tomorrow's the last day of the countdown, and the day tags are due!

Tag Reveal Countdown Day 9/10

2009-07-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

I mentioned at the outset of this challenge that you could use any media at your disposal to make your tags - today I branched out from my usual paper-only art and into digiscrapping. Both of today's tags are made with the Bubblegum and Licorice set by Summertime Designs, and the Bleeding Cowboys font (my favorite!).

I also wanted to run with my idea from the other day of book-journal tags. These have plenty of space for documenting what you're reading and what you think about it, and since they're entirely digiscrapped, then printed and cut out, they're perfectly flat and perfect for using as bookmarks.

The fun little pins that hook onto the ring are from the new Making Memories line I mentioned the other day - they're called Vintage Findings Garment Pins. I think they're perfect for my vintage style and for what I'm using them for. I was going to display these on the ring with the first book-journal tag I made the other day, but for some odd reason my editing program prints them at a smaller scale, even though I created them at 100% scale to the other tags I've made. Oh, well, they aren't too small to use, and they still look good!

I've received a couple of entries for the tag challenge, and they look GREAT! I can't wait to see everyone else's - don't forget, they're due on Saturday and I'll reveal all of the entries on Sunday the 12th.