Sketches

I found a fantastic sketch site that I wanted to share today - Freshly Made Sketches.  This site has really quick and easy cards great for weekend inspiration.  I'm still stash busting and am now focusing on all the wonderful 6x6 paper pads I've accumulated over the years.  These sketches are making it really easy to do that.  

The Christmas card above is made with a BoBunny paper pad from last year I think.  

And this card was made with a paper pad from Stampin' Up.  I did a variety of sentiments from Happy Birthday to Thinking of You and a couple of sympathy cards.

I've been making 8 cards at a time which seems to be a perfect amount to take advantage of mass production without getting too board.

Hope you had a great weekend and have a great week ahead!

Organizing Scraps

I don't have a BEFORE picture so you'll have to trust me on this one.. . .I went from 2 big plastic filing boxes of scraps taking up one whole shelf in one of my cabinets down to this. . . .

I decided to pick some standard sizes for scraps - ones that I find myself using alot - (1 inch strips, 2x2 and 3x3 squares, 3x4 and 4x6 mats/journaling blocks).  I then spent a good portion of my Spring cutting the 2 boxes of all my scraps down to those sizes.  Anything that was smaller than that or couldn't be cut to one of those standard sizes was thrown away.  It's working out GREAT!

Here's a "scrap" card I made this weekend. . . .

I pulled out a very, very old Stampin' Up set - "Fun & Fast Notes" - all a part of my stash busting. . . . very fun set by the way. . .

. . .then I combined the pencilcolored image with some scraps - two sets of 2x2 pieces (the orange and grey), a circle cut from an orange 3x3 scrap and then a 3x4 yellow mat.  Kind of liked the design.  It may need a little bling or texture but because it's going in the mail to an old friend I'm going to keep it flat.

One last comment about the scrap system - it really makes for easy cleanup after a card or scrapbooking project.  I take the leftover paper and cut it down to one of the standard sizes and the rest goes into the trash.  The hoarder in me gets a little uncomfortable sometimes at not saving every morsel but I have to keep reminding myself. . ."it's just an 80 cent piece of paper Julie - it's OK to toss a little" :-)

Girl Friends

Happy September Gal Pals!

Way too long away from the blog.  Finally getting around to posting some of the cards I've made this summer.  I just love this Girl Friend line of stamps.  Love the colors of this card.  And especially love the sentiment.

Hope you had a good Labor Day weekend.  Mine was pretty good.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful but it still felt like the weekend was 1 day too short.  Between the Griz Game, yard work and house chores I only ended up with about an hour in the craft room.  Not long enough for sure.

Cricut Man is off today for his first trip out on the new job.  Keep you fingers crossed that all goes as planned he's only traveling part-time and that the work is rewarding for him.

I'm going to skip going to the shop tonight.  I have a few craft things I promised some folks at work so I'm going to take advantage of the "Home Alone" time and focus on getting those done.

Have a good one today.

Just a Little Note

Finally got around to finishing up all these cards in the kit from a few weeks ago.  Thanks again Gal Pals for playing along.  

I'm bringing some inspiration photos with me tonight so we can pull out one of our toys that's in the drawer at Memory Lane and have a little fun.  See ya' soon!

Let's Rock and Roll

Happy Monday Gal Pals!  Just wanted to thank you for helping with the coloring and stamping for this card last week.  Here's how it turned out.  Cute, huh?!  So what are we going to do for an encore tomorrow night?

Hope you had a good weekend.  Have a good one today. Stay cool!

Fun Scraps

Good Morning Gal Pals!  Hope you had a good weekend.  

I *finally* got a little time in my craft room and made some kits and this cute card.  

It was an inspiration I found on Pinterest.  What a great way to use up scraps! I did the sentiment in Word and then used my new chicken wire embossing folder, which I just love.

I'm going to bring a few more scraps for tomorrow night along with my Cuttlebug and make a few more.  Bring some scraps too if you're so inclined.  I'll have some extra sentiments printed out and ready.

A New Friend

We met a new friend and cardmaker at the shop last week.  She has a beautiful name (and accent) and although I repeated it several times when I met her I can't seem to remember it exactly right now.  I hope our paths will cross again.

She's just starting out in cardmaking and shared this card she made. Isn't it cute?!  She hand cut hearts and folded them for the petals of the flowers.  The one petal falling off is so sweet.  It could be a "Love me, love me not" card or maybe even a "Missing You" card.  I also loved that she turned the orange Candies upside down - a totally fresh perspective.  

That's yet another thing that's so great about hanging out at Memory Lane.  Not only do we get to have our Gal Pal time, we get to meet so many other wonderful women and through sharing, learn new things.

See you there tonight.

He's Home!

Cricut Man's back home from North Carolina safe and sound. And we're snuggled back in to home life just like 2 little bluebirds of happiness.

This was the family card for the week.  A one-layer card done in a rush at 9:30 last night.  Just never enough hours in the days or days in the weekend.  Cricut Man actually helped with the coloring on this one which we did out on the deck as we were trying to stay cool.  We came close to running out of daylight so hopefully the family will be forgiving if we missed a spot or two. 

One Layer Card

This week's family card.  Don't let it fool you - it wasn't as quick and easy as I thought it was going to be - at least not the first one.

I saw the idea on this fun blog and loved it.  Here's the Pin of the original.  But I didn't have a graphic "Hello" stamp so I printed it on the computer to start the card.  Had to get the measurements just right so I had enough room to stamp and things were evenly placed / balanced on the card.

Then I picked a border stamp - another from one of Val's hand-me-down sets - Thanks! again Val!!  But the border was too long for how I wanted it placed on the card and I didn't want to cut it.  So I tried at first inking it with markers.  Not a good idea when you have 4 different colors and 6 cards to make.  Plus I didn't have the colors I really wanted - really bright, summery and tropical - somehow I forgot to buy the 2011-2012 In Color markers and now their retired, dang it!  But I did have the ink pads and I finally got the placement just right without having to mask the stamp and from there on out it went really fast.

I'm thinking it might be really fun with a snowflake border in pale blues and purples for a wintertime "Hello" card.  

Lots to Like

Good morning Gal Pals.  Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Found some card pictures this weekend and wanted to get them posted on the blog for safekeeping.

This is one from Tuesday card group.  It has so many things on it that I like: the color combination, the cool fonts on the sentiment, the hole-punched border strip, the embossing technique, the circle theme. . . I could go on and on.  This one's an inspiration for sure!

The Cat's Meow

This was last week's family card.  I was trying to use this Pinterest post as my inspiration but it didn't turn out  exactly like I had envisioned.  In fact I'm not sure I even like it.  I think I muddied it up by inking the edges with brown.  Maybe inking with the coral color would have made it brighter and cuter.  Mom did call to say she liked the cute papers - part of a Lime Twist 6x6 paper pack I got at Memory Lane awhile back.  But she's my Mom and has to say nice things, doesn't she?

We'll be missing a Gal Pal at the shop tonight.  Hope she has fun with her chores at the cabin this afternoon.  But looking forward to spending a little time with my other Gal Pal and working on our kits.  Hopefully we'll have some cards to share for tomorrow's post.

Cricut Man Saves the Day!

I was scrambling yesterday after a weekend's worth of yard work to get the family newsletter written and a card made.  As I finished the letter, in which I told the family about the long "Honey Do List" I had going for Allan, he said. . ."Let's use this list for a card".  Presto! Whammo!  Done! It's kind of cute, huh?!  It will be even cuter to me when all the tasks are done :-)

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  Thanks for understanding about my week off of blogging and crafting last week.  Feeling much more energetic and creative heading into this week.  Had a great weekend in the yard.  Things are looking really wonderful.  This is one of those times I'm looking forward to going to work and really thankful for my desk job as my legs and feet and back sure are needing a rest.

Have a great Monday.

Labels

One of the advantages of drinking nice wine is collecting the labels.  Yep - that's right - that's how I justify my indulgence - I do it all for card making :-)

This is a card a made using a really beautiful label from a Spanish red blend called Can Blau. Really yummy! I used my circle cutter to cut out the center of the label.  It may be hard to tell from the picture but there's an iridescent shimmer in the label design.  So I decided to mat it on a larger glitter paper to really enhance it. I loved the way it turned out.

Thanks for Your Support

This is a thank you card I made for our neighbors, Marilyn and Heather, for all their love and support during our little Florida adventure.  It's got kind of a funny story in that the background "paper" is actually the back of a Comments card from Red Bird.  We met there one night before we left to have some appetizers and a glass of wine and when the bill came it included a Comment card printed on the back of this really cool paper.  I loved both the color combination and the design.  They teased me about taking it for my stash but I surprised them the next day with this little card.  I loved its simplicity and the little birdies seemed just perfect for the occasion.

My Friend

Don't you just love this card?  I cut the pieces and will be bringing it with me tonight to assemble at the shop. The stamp is from "All Holidays" which thankfully comes with the baseline My Digital Studio. 

See ya' soon!

Cheers

Cheers! Gal Pals.  Hope you had a good weekend.  

I didn't end up getting as much play time in the craft room as I intended or would have liked but I did get a few minutes Sunday to play with the Tart & Tangy set.  Made this card to send to a friend who I've been wanting to get together with for a little maguerita time.  The Lucky Limeade color which I reversed embossed was fun to play with and the cute Cheers stamp - one that I got from the $1 bin at Memory Lane - really fit well.

I played around with trying to replicate the Thanks a Bunch strawberry card inspiration I posted on Friday but boy was that tough.  I just couldn't get the masks to line up well.  I'll keep working on it though.

Take care and have a good start to the week.  Hopefully we'll see a little sunshine today.

Patriotic Hello

This is a card I made for the family last summer around the 4th of July.  It uses a really cute Authentique paper pack called "Glory".  Just love that paper line!  

And speaking of patriotic. . . .can't wait for the new BoBunny "Anthem" papers to come in.  You know Flag Day is just around the corner!!!

Thank You By The Seashore

Another inspiration from Pinterest.  Here's the card I cased.  Another in my new favorite color combination.

I used the SU digital stamp set By The Seashore to create the shell images.  Then printed them out and cropped them.  Sponged Crumb Cake, Pool Party and Island Indigo to create kind of a beach view on the top panel.

I made 5 - one for each of my wonderful neighbors to thank them for all they did while we were gone and all their love and support these last few months.  Truly wonderful people!

Then because I had the shell images in a file, I used a modified version of them to create this quick and easy one layer card for this week's family newsletter.

Kind of cool to think of all the possible variations.  Sure wish I had more play time with My Digital Studio.  I think I could get lost in there for a very long time! :-)

Birthday Presents

Well all my pinning is starting to pay off.  Here's a birthday card I made for my Aunt Hazel's birthday next week - she'll be 84!  

It was inspired by this card I found on Pinterest and pinned to one of my boards.  I used some leftovers from that $4 Walmart paper pack and a Martha Stewart bow punch that's been collecting dust for quite a few years.  I even got brave and did the polka dots on the ribbon and bows by hand - benign essential tremors and all! :-)  

I hope she likes it.

Mother's Day

Posting the Mother's Day cards I made for my Mom and for Allan's mother.  I did the outside and Cricut Man crafted the inside panel using a really pretty font called Heritage - very fitting don't you think? 

So glad we were able to spend lots of quality times with our mothers these past 2 months even if we missed the official holiday.  We are lucky to have 2 very special women as our mother's and mentors.

I suspect this Mother's Day was a mixed blessing for my Gal Pals.  Joyful for one with the expansion of motherhood in her family and a bit of melancholy for the other at one of the first milestone days without her mother.  My heart is with you both.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night.