Repeats

I was in a hurry yesterday and lacking a little creativity for a design for the family card.  So I went back out and browsed Gal Pals in hopes of finding something I could repeat.  Found this one from way back.  Used a holiday paper pack I picked up a few months ago.  Just love that blue and red combo - reminds me of those SEI papers from a couple of years ago.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and that the week ahead will be smooth sailing!

Digital Paper

Ooops - I had a bad link in this post from earlier this morning.  Here's the corrected link.  You'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the current post to see the free download offer.

Here's one of those free digital paper kits I was telling you about last night.  Click here for the page to download. 

Had a good time at the shop last night.  So good seeing Dawn, huh?

Have a good one today.

Things to Share

 

http://creativepassionclasses.com/learn-copics-with-michelle-houghton/

Last week at the shop I was telling Val about an online class site I stumbled on which had a free Copic coloring class.  It's a series of 11 e-mails (2 a week it seems) that steps you through the Copic basics from the numbering scheme, to picking out your starter set, to the basic coloring and shading.  So I just thought I'd share the web link in case you're interested.  I can also share the 11 PDF files once I get them all.

And I wanted to make sure you saw the message from Paper Wishes about the free e-book they are offering for metal stencils.  It has a bunch of card ideas and embedded "how to" videos.  Kind of a cool marketing technique.

 

Click here for the link to the e-book

 

See you later today at the Holiday Party at 4:00 or the shop at 5:00 (ish)

 

Carpe Diem

Card Credit

After we bought our Memory Box dies last week, I rushed home to Google around and see what people were doing with them.  Oh My Gosh!  the cards on the Pinterest board are just over the top!!!

You've just got to take a little time today on your lunch break and surf around there a little.

Cricut man even made one with my new snow globe die and matching stamp.  Here's a cute sample of what it looks like from another blog. . .

Card Credit

 

I'll get his mounted on a card and post it soon.  He's decided the Cuttlebug machine is pretty cool.  While he had it out I had him smash 50 bottle caps for the 3 additional Countdown to Christmas frames I'm making this year.  He's now decided the Cuttlebug needs to be renamed to Allan's Smashing Machine :-).  He thinks more guys might be interested in playing with paper if the toys had cool names!

Hope you had a good weekend.  Happy Monday

Sweet View

Wanted to post this sweet little card that someone from Tuesday card group made last week.  How adorable, huh?!  Can't remember what brand the die is but it's one they have at Memory Lane.  I may just have to put that on my wish list for Santa :-)

I hope everyone's week ended on a high note and that there's a good weekend planned ahead.

See ya' back here next week.

Time to Get Ready

 

Well, now that Thanksgiving is behind us and most of the leftovers are gone, it's time to start thinking about Christmas projects.

 

Here's a cute, cute, project that Tuesday card group made last week.  They are gift card holders that used this Hot of the Press template.  Debbie said they are getting more in for the shop.  Can't wait!  Count me in for one, Deb :-)

 

They look pretty easy to do.  See how Frosty's hat lifts up to reveal the slot for the gift card?  And the cuff of the mitten moves in a similar way.  Apparently there's also a Christmas tree shape and the top of the tree lifts up.

 

Too cute!

Thanksgiving Mini Album

 

Remember the little mini album I was working on last week?  Here's how it turned out.  Had to use my last little wobbly turkey :-)  Although I have to fess up about a big creative deviation I had to take.

 

Originally I wanted it to be a hostess gift for my neighbor who invited us for dinner Thanksgiving Day.  I thought it would be cool to have everyone at dinner write a note of Thanks to her and document what they were grateful for.  Kind of a nice keepsake - even though I know the guys would have just rolled their eyes.  I guess they should be thankful they were spared from having to do that as I messed up the construction of the album. 

 

Even though Debbie told me not to adhere the ribbon on both covers, I did it anyway - not out of stubbornness mind you, but just because I wasn't paying attention.  And lo and behold, she was right - the accordion folded part of the album didn't unfold.  Dang it!

 

But I saved it by adhering the back / open part of of the folded pages together and then cutting on the front folds.  That turned it into a conventional little book which Cricut Man and I will use to preserve some Thanksgiving pictures and thoughts for this year.

 

Gotta love those Creative Deviations, huh?!

Cupcake Diva - A BIG Hit!!

Just wanted to put a plug in for my new best friend - Maygan a.k.a the Cupcake Diva.  Her gourmet pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting were the BIG hit of the Thanksgiving holiday.  Everyone ABSOLUTELY Loved, Loved, Loved them!  Thanks Maygan.  Can't wait until Christmas and the Triple Chocolate Chunk cupcakes.

See everyone at the shop tonight!

Gobble, Gobble

Well I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday.  I don't know about you but I'm stuffed!  We had a full turkey dinner with our friends Colleen and Diane on Wednesday night - a tradition we started back in the 90's since none of us had family in town.  And then another full turkey dinner on Thursday with our neighbor family - a tradition we started after Stephen passed.  And then if that wasn't enough, we had another full turkey dinner on Friday night so Allan could show off his cooking talent.  And boy! is that Cricut Man talented!!!  It so delish!  I think I've lost my position as head chef for the holiday dinner. I'm not sure that's a bad thing ;-)

Here's the next in line of the holiday wobbly owl cards.  I liked how this one turned out MUCH better than the silly one I did for Halloween.  And something cool I wanted to point out on this one. . . .the back feathers - the ones punched with the scallop punch - used an old coffee sleeve.  The puckered craft color paper was just perfect and added a little texture. 

So next up for the owl cards is Christmas, then New Year's and finally Valentines.  Once those are done it will be a full year of holiday owls.  I have to tell you it's been pretty fun.

I'll leave you with another turkey project - and one that's much cuter than mine.  Here's Mona's quirkey turkey placecards.  She was inspired by this post on Tim Holtz's blog.  Didn't they turn out cute?  Can't wait to hear about how everyone in her family liked them.

Griz Themed

A month or so ago I *finally* got around to using my Tim Holtz medallion die and made these cute little embellishments for a Griz themed card.  It sure does make quick work of things and those Griz stickers they sell at the Bookstore fit perfectly for the center.  I used a bear paw stamp I picked up at Memory Lane and Versamark ink to make a background paper.  And I found some decorative scissors from way, way back that made a decorative border that kind of reminded me of teeth.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  I have a few more embellishments which I'll be using for toppers on some paper candy boxes I'm making for some folks at work. 

See ya at the shop tonight.

Quick and Easy

I know most of my Gal Pals have seen this card at the shop but I wanted to get it posted on the blog for use later on.  With all the coordinated paper packs I've been picking up here and there, this is a great card sketch to keep on hand for those last minute cards you might need.  I actually got the sketch from the Clean and Simple web site - one of my favorite sites for easy-peasy ideas.  I've got the dimensions for the patterned pieces somewhere on my craft counter - which is kind of a mess right now :-( but will edit this post as soon as I find them.  I've also made a bunch of different versions of this card and will post them too.  Working on the one for Christmas now.

Hope you all have a good weekend.  We'll be at the Brawl of the Wild Griz-Cat game on Saturday.  It ought to be a good one.

See ya' back here next week.

One Layer Part 2

This is another one layer card - similar to this one I did several months ago.  Well I guess it's not technically a one layer card because I matted the stamped image before adhering it to the card base, but you get the jist.  I love the color combination but I do want to try it in some other colors too.  I used a couple of the excess stamp sets Val passed along.  Thanks! one more time Val!!!  Loved the butterfly set - it's a keeper for sure!

I made this card for the family but the more I look at it the more it seems like a sympathy card to me.  Unfortunately I've needed a few of those lately so I've been looking for more good designs.  Please pass them along if you find any during your browsing.

I'll leave you today with another quote from the back of the digital CardMaker magazine archives I browsed through last week.

CardMaker

I recently remembered that our subscription to CardMaker magazine now includes access to the digital version of the magazine and digital versions to all of the archives.  So I took a little enteretainment with me for the long plane ride to Jacksonville last week.  I downloaded 3 Nov/Dec issues from the early years.  I found several really cute card ideas - some quick and simple like this one and others that show off a specific technique I want to try.

The other thing that was kind of cool was looking through the 2 pages of quotes they have at end of each issue.  I found several that were really meaningful to me.  They will be going in my quote journal for safekeeping.  Here's one that really seemed to resonate for me right now.

Another distressed wood

Remember the Father's Day card I posted last week?  Well here's another using the same technique and sketch. The technique really reminded me of weathered wood in a seaside cottage.  The image is another digital download from Stampin' Up - "By the Seashore".  Instead of the brads I did something a little different as this card was a family newsletter card and I try to keep those flat.  I took my mini-hole punch and punched tiny circles and then glossed them up using Crystal Effects.  I really like how that turned out.  May have to do more of that.

Hope you enjoyed the long weekend.  See ya' tonight.

Another Summer Silhouettes

Finishing up the week with another card I made for the family from the Summer Silhouettes stamp set.  Used the Pear Pizazz patterned paper and ink and Poppy Parade for the flower tops and paper borders.  Now that we're fully into the fall and holiday season I think I'll have to put this one away for awhile.  But I'm sure it will be back next Spring.

Hope you all have a good weekend.  I'll be travelling back from Jacksonville on Sunday.  See ya' at the shop on Tuesday.

Red and Green

Got a little early head start on the red and green with this card I CASE'd from Me, My Stamps and I - a blog I haven't surfed in quite awhile.  I forgot how clean and simple her card designs are.  Even though it's red and green it's definitely not a Christmas card but rather this week's family card.  Love the vibrancy of the 2 colors together (Gumball Green and Raspberry Ripple - 2 of the 2012-14 In Colors).  The stamp set has been one of my favorites - Summer Silhouettes.  The sentiment is from Happy Greetings.   And the embossing folder is the paisley one from Val's excess stash - Thanks Val!

Father's Day

I couldn't find where I posted this card I made for all my father's this year - my Dad, Hippy Bob and Ernest (Allan's father).  I loved how it turned out!  I used this technique I saw on the Gina K blog where you score every half inch and then rub an inkpad over the raised surface until it looks like barn wood.  I downloaded a digital stamp set (Countryside) from Stampin' Up and did just minimal colored pencil work on it.  With the brads and twine it just seemed perfect for a Father's Day card.  I'm not sure how I'll top this next year.  Glad I got some prep time :-)

I missed the boat

Boy did I miss the boat on the design of my Halloween Owl.  Check out this Pinterest board from a lady who pinned my owl card from last week. . . .

.. .notice all the cute, cute Halloween themed owls there were. Man! Wish I would have seen those earlier.

Here's the link to her Pinterest Board which is dedicated just to cards and ideas for the owl punch.  Now how cool is that!  I'm putting this link on the blog so I'll have it for future reference the next time I hit a creative bump.

Triple Time

Hi Gal Pals,

Just wanted to post these pictures and the link to the instruction video so I wouldn't lose track of this idea.  I really want to give this a try.  Tuesday Card Group did it at the shop a few weeks ago and these pics are cards Staci made.  So cool!

Here's the link to the instruction video.  And here's the link to the related blog post with the measurements.

And last but not least, more of Staci's card samples. . .

 

 

Gal Pal Retreat

 

This is a belated Thank You post to Mona for the wonderful time we had at her cabin a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of the most cozy joyful, relaxing days I've had in quite a while.  Notice the fireplace in the background and the peanut butter Oreos in the middle of the table. It doesn't get much cozier and comforting than that, now does it?!

And believe it or not, in addition to all the Gal Pal chatting, we actually got some cards finished.  Here's the baby shower card I made for Meaghanne. 

I loved how it turned out - especially the cute ceramic button which was a fun find at Deer Country Quilts.

I'm hoping there will be many more retreats in the years to come.  And to close, I'll leave you with a blast from the past - the little video montage I put together after our 1st Gal Pal road trip to Helena and crafter's Heaven (aka Ben Franklin).  Click here for a little stroll down Memory Lane -- no pun intended! :-)

Happy Halloween Owl

Well this is not at all the way I wanted this card to turn out but I just ran out of time on Sunday - the deadline for getting the weekly letter out to the family.  First of all the paper was supposed to be candy corn but I couldn't find card stock and coordinating paper for the owl's vest.  The owl was supposed to be on a pumpkin but I couldn't find a die cut for one and didn't have any creativity for creating one.  So this funky looking sunburst was the best I could find.  Kind of looks like a mutated orange spider, huh?!

Oh well, at least I was able to get him to jiggle which was the whole intent.  Remember my pledge - a jiggly owl card for every major holiday this year.  Here's a reminder of the St Patty's Day and 4th of July cards which I have to say are much, much cuter.  I'll be sure to start alot earlier on the jiggly Thanksgiving owl card.  Now how am I going to make him look like a turkey??  :-)

Silly, Silly Me

This post goes out to Debbie and Val.  I'm finally getting around to posting that silly YouTube video I was telling you about - the one where I had my sock monkey puppet on and did a little message to the University of Virginia student that was helping us with the Prerequisite Enforcement Project at work.

Now before you watch it, there's a little explaining to do.  The Prereq Project is one where we are setting up mathematical type rules in the computer system to make sure when students register the system will stop them if they haven't taken the right courses yet.  So the rules use a lot of parenthesis and hence the puppet's name Left Paren ("LP").  We gave our student worker a puppet similar to this one but his name is Right Paren.  Get it?  Silly I know - but we just had to blow off some steam some how.

After watching this and also remembering the little improv I did in the shop with my Love Monster finger puppets, I'm sure you're thinking I probably need to seek some professional help for my puppet fettish!!!

Happy Friday!  Wishing you lots of Grins and Giggles.  I'm off to Walla Walla for a little wine tasting trip with Cricut Man.  See ya' next week. 

"Baby" Noah

I wanted to share with you another album page I made with the most recent pictures of Allan's grandson, Baby Noah - not such a baby anymore.    It’s a pretty “clean and simple” page.   I loved doing it.  But it made we realize how far behind I am with creating pages for some of the pictures his parents post each month.  That’s me though. . . so many fun ideas but not much time to bring them all to life :-(. 

 

Working on scrapbook pages always gives me the time to think about the person I’m scrapbooking.  So I had plenty of time to think about . . .”I wonder what he’s like?. . .I wonder what makes him giggle. . .  what’s his favorite toy right now?. . . .what we’ll he be like when he’s all grown up?”  He’s a beautiful boy and it will be fun watching him grow.  I'm so thankful that Natasha and Cameron have been so good about posting pictures each month on Shutterfly.  It makes us feel a part of things even though we’re so many miles away.

 

P.S.  Staci - those red, white and blue "candies" really came in handy for this page, don't ya' think?!

Farewell to Summer

Remember the Summertime card I was coloring last week at the shop?  Well here's how it turned out.  Really liked how bright it was - even though I only have yellow Copic colors.  Just the sentiment I was trying to convey for the weekly family card. . . Summer's last bright hurrah!!

Passing it along. . .

Just had to pass something cool along. . . .my friend Beth at work - a majorly crafty person in her own right - shared this link from a friend of a friend who is doing some really cool stuff with needle felting.  Absolutely amazing!  Check out all the other cool storybook characters that she's done.

Hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend.  Am looking foward to seeing you at the shop tonight.

Favorite Friends

Hi My Gal Pals,

After a few weeks of missing one of the three of us, I'm hoping that we can all gather at the shop tonight.  I miss you guys.  And often this sentiment on this card is what I feel. . . .with you guys *is* my favorite place to be.

Thanks! to Staci and Val for being so, so good to my Mom when she was here for a visit.  She was so energized at just being able to sit and talk with other women.  And I was over the top joyful at being able to share a Tuesday craft night with her.

Thanks! to Debbie for keeping me in stitches the last few visits to the shop.  You've made me see exercise in a whole new way ;-) wink, wink.  And I can't tell how poigniant and timely the sharing of your special Pinterest post was.  Thanks, thanks, thanks for sharing that - I will treasure it always.

So see you all soon.  We've got a lot of catching up to do!

-J-

WingDings

You know I just realized as I was picking the card for this post that there's been a little bit of a them to this week's posts. . . .one-layer or "creative slump" cards.  Here's one that is both.

I was running late on getting the weekly family card done and was also in a bit of a creative slump.  I found a font I had purchased from Scrap-n-Fonts a few years ago that was a bunch of flower images.  I think they call them DoodleBats - kind of like WingDings in Microsoft Word.  So I picked out one I liked, used some colored pencils and . . .Ta-Da! . . . . a quick and easy card ready for the mail.

That wraps up the posts for this week.  Hope you enjoyed.  We're off to the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in the morning.  What a hoot that should be.  I'm sure there will be stories to tell at the shop next week.  Until then. . . .

Cricut Man's Photography

Every once in awhile we try to use some of Cricut Man's photos on our weekly family cards.  He has a bizillion! so it's usually easy to find something to work with. 

I was having a hard time coming up with a design one week so we started going through his photos and found the set from a hot air balloon ride he had taken while visiting the wine country of Tumecula outside San Diego.  We did some creative cropping and found a really cool quote and this is how it turned out. 

I have to tell you it's one of my favorite cards so far this year.  I particularly loved the quote. . . .

"Love is not something your heart falls into,

but something that picks it up and set it soaring"

Inspired by Simplicity

I saw this card on Simplicity's blog many weeks ago and like the design.  Here's my version:

Different orientation.  Used my PTI rick-rack die and some matching patterned paper from the Ice Cream Parlor designer paper pack and the SU 5 petal punch to make the layered flower.  Since it was for the family I used the little Dazzle-like dots for the center of the flower instead of a brad to keep it nice and flat. 

I think this would make a cute Christmas card with a poinsettia instead of the flower and some cute Christmas patterned paper for the rick-rack, don't you?  May have to give that a try one of these nights.

Have a good Wednesday!

One Layer

Here's a really fun one layer card I did for the family.  Found the idea on a blog somewhere - just can't remember where to give the person credit :-(

I used 3 difference stamps a a couple of new techniques.  First I cut a rectangle out of a piece of cardstock and used the negative as a mask.  Then I used my big block script stamp (Hero Arts I think?) to stamp into the masked area.  Next I used my SU Pocket Silhouettes stamp set to stamp the flowers using 2 different colors.  And then finally I used a sentiment stamp from one of my little Hero Arts sets.  Gosh I loved those little 4 stamp sets that Lasting Impressions used to carry.  I bought quite a few over the years and they are some of my most used stamps.

It's hard to tell from this picture but the color combination of the Sahara Sand, Not Quite Navy and Cherry Cobbler is really pretty.

Hope to see you at the shop tonight.  Seems like we've got a lot to catch up on.

Paper Wishes Kits and Scraps

I'm back to digging in my stash and came across an unfinished card kit from Paper Wishes.  One of about 15 I'm ashamed to say!  So I made the shape card.  The kits typically have a shape card in each kit and I have to tell you I'm not a huge fan of shape cards.  Typically because they use some hokey clip art or they never really feel solid in your hand because the cutting of the shape seems to make the card flimsy. 

But with all that said, I really liked how this one turned out.  I'm probably going to send it to Noah, Allan's grandson, for Christmas.  Just thought it would look cut on a counter or shelf or dresser.

And then because I had some patterned paper and clip art left - one of the really nice benefits of the card kits - I made this card from the scraps and a few old, old supplies in my stash. . . leftover snowflake Dazzles, a snowflake eyelet and some fibers I think I bought at Angie's place almost 10 years ago!

That's one way of appeasing my guilt for the cost of the card kits.  They give you the supplies and patterns for 10 cards with each kit but I typically can get another 6-10 cards from all the scraps.  That makes it a real bargain, huh?!  :-)

Hope you enjoyed scraps week.  Have a great weekend and I'll see ya' Monday.

Touch of Kindness Scraps

So today's "scrap" post features the Touch of Kindness stamp set.  It was the one I used in this post for a family newsletter card.

I didn't have many scraps left from that card but I managed to make a bookmark for my SU catalog and this post-it note cover which I gave to a teammate.

You'll notice I didn't have a full piece of the red paper to mat the stamped image which normally would have driven me nuts.  But somehow it worked and I was OK with it. 

See ya' back here tomorrow for the last day of scrap week.

More Scrap Cards

I guess I'm going to declare this week's post to scraps.  Here's a card I made from some scraps from the weekly family card.  It turned out so cute and I liked it so much I gave it to Val for her birthday.  I played around with some paper piecing on this one.  I just really wanted the image to tie in with this paper.  I like the coordination part of putting cards together.  Maybe because I'm not very good at collage type cards.  Coordinating color and pattern then becomes a way of stretching a little without getting too collage-gy.

Here's another version of the same card sketch.  Not quite as cute as Val's birthday card but still cute. 

Both cards gave me an opportunity to use some of the $1 Snag 'em Stamps from Imaginisce that Debbie and Staci sometimes keep up at the counter. That's what I like - impulse items you have to buy but you're only out a buck!

Butterfly Punched Flowers

This is a card I made for Val during the height of all her bad breaks life was throwing at her.  The tide has started to turn a little but it's slow building momentum.  Let's hope smooth sailing is not far around the corner. 

I made the flower on the card at the shop on Tuesday this winter.  It was a technique I read about somewhere out in blog land.  But you basically take the Stampin' Up Butterfly Punch and punch 5 images out of double-side paper.  Then you fold them a little off center and interlock them and attach them to a circle that's been backed with score tape.  Attach a big decorative brad in the middle and "Ta-Da!" you've got a really cute embellishment.

The stamp is one of the little cuties from Stampendous that Memory Lane has been carrying more of.  I love them!  And the sentiment was so perfect for this card.  The paper was from one of the 6x6 Lime Twist paper packs - another of my favorites that the shop has been carrying.

And since I had a few punches and scraps on the craft counter after I made this, I threw together one more. . . .

The flower on this one I didn't get interlocked as well so it looks a little different but I curled the paper more which gave it some more dimension.  But I loved the paper and color combinations.  I think one of the neices will get this one for their birthday.

See ya at the shop later today.