Oh, Look, It's Another Mini Book ... really

Here is my latest mini book. This time the Hero Arts Blog is the enabler. Lisa posted a super simple and short video w/the instructions to create the book using just an 8.5x11 piece of paper.

I have slots to include some info - some affirmations. Though I have not completed that section yet. Also, I used the computer to make all of the sayings:

• make smiles via snail mail
• wild abandon
• give more hugs
• happiness has no price tag
• wonder out loud
• love, love, love
  

I'm using the SIS TV widget for viewing ... nice.




Thanks for looking ... here's and abbreviated list of what I used:
cardstock: craft supply
patterned paper: Junkitz
rick rack: Creative Imaginations
expoxys: Making Memories
buttons: Dress It Up!
twine and star: Darice
letter stickers, chipboard and ribbon: American Crafts
floss: DMC
labels (digital): Little Dreamer Designs/Michelle Coleman
font: A Bite (love that grungy look)

This was fun!

My Latest Mini Book

I finished this little cutie last week. I was begrudgingly waiting on wallet sized pix via snail mail. Savitri politely reminded me that I could create a 4x6 image using Photoshop. I know, I know ... next time. Not to mention that the pic (of the Jeep) is a glossy and I have a preference for matte finish.

I had some fun w/this. My motivation for this was a video from Donna Downey's blog. She was using newspaper and a glue stick to make pages for one of her albums. I thought "how easy is that?". Yeah, and messy too. The combination of ink and glue on my hands nearly drove me crazy. Though I would do it again.

I used lots of embellies on this one. Like the American Crafts thickers; the Making Memories expoxys, lots of buttons and flowers. Using up my stash.

The front and back cover is cardboard. I used some sort of yarn to keep it together. Oh, and I pulled out the seldom used Crop A Dile to punch the holes.

The one technique that I used was stamping on the letters, which can be seen on the cover.

These are just some of the pages. I may do a slide show to show the entire book.

This was ultra fun ... thanks for looking, here's some of what I used:
patterned paper: Basic Grey and K&Co.
paint: Making Memories and Plaid
letter stamps: Making Memories magnetic alphabet
chipboard letters and foam letters: American Crafts
plastic letters: Paper Studio
flower (cover): Prima

Great Birthday :: cps 79

My vision for this card was a bit off. When I saw the sketch, I knew what stamp I would use. I really do like the stamp, but it was not my friend for this venture. But this is better than my take on last week's Card Positioning Systems (cps) sketch, which never saw daylight and was promptly dismantled.

So here I present you w/another crafty card ... I promise to do better.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
cardstock: craft supply
patterned paper: Basic Grey
ink: Colorbox and VersaMagic
stamps: Hero Arts (birthday) and Inkadinkadoo (flower)
oval: Nestabilities
other: sewing

Thx :: 2 Sketches 4 You

It was a wonderful weekend, though I did not do any crafting.

There are a couple of things I want to work on this week:

• Card Positioning Systems (CPS) sketch; didn't get to last week's sketch
  
• A mini book per instructions on the Hero Arts blog
• A set of new home/new address cards for a friend who just relocated to Seattle

But for my first card of the week, it's a 2 Sketches 4 You sketch. For this card, I pulled out lots of oldies: the chipboard w/THX is something I made eons ago and never used; the flower I pulled from a fake flower bouquet; the ribbon is American Crafts that I finally broke open; the dark patterned paper is from K&Co, but it was a card that I just cut in half to use for this card and the pink lace I purchased @ Walmart over a year ago. I like the card for that reason - using up stuff that I have but rarely use.

Interestingly, I did not distress or sew on this card, but ooooh, did I want to!

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
cardstock and flowers: craft supply
patterned paper: K&Co. and Creative Imaginations
chipboard and button: Bazzill
ribbon: American Crafts
rubons (THX): Making Memories
other: Modge Podge

It's a Wedding Weekend!

I have a friend who's getting married this weekend. Should be a wonderful weekend too.

So of course, I had to assemble a wedding card for the newlyweds. I'm also going to get them a set of Thank You cards that they can use at their leisure.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
cardstock: Bazzill
patterned paper: K&Co. and Papertrey Ink.
stamp: Stampin Up!
embossing powder: Ranger
ink: VersaMark
chipboard element: Bazzill
dry embossing: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots
ribbon: Offray
hat pin: Joann
die cut letters: Quickutz Zoe
other: sewing machine

Thanks :: 2 Sketches 4 You

Well, another Monday and another new sketch on 2 Sketches 4 You. I thought I'd jump in early because it's a busy week and not as much time for crafting. As a matter of fact, I may just miss out on this week's Blog Hop over @ Papertrey Ink. Actually, I can't think of anything creative to do w/a cd case, which is this week's challenge ... oh, well, I'll keep thinking on it.

So am I the distress queen or what? I just like the look. Though I was not going to distress the edges on this card ... but it just looked too plain, so I grabbed my handy Making Memories distresser and went to town. There's also a cool tutorial about distressing edges on CPS (I'll definitely get to their sketch before the week is out).

I also used some paper that I recently used for another card here. Oh, and that striped Sassafrass Lass paper. I made some Christmas card kits several years ago, so I fetched one of the panels because it matched up nicely w/the decorative edge paper. Love it when things come together; it's so rewarding, eh? (no, I am not Canadian, but I used to hang out in Toronto ... ha).

Oh and one more thing, that epoxy circle, that is one of those $1 goodies from Colorbok that are at Joann. Nice.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
cardstock: craft supply (Hollo's)
patterned paper: Sassafras Lass and Creative Imaginations
stamp: Hero Arts
ink: VersaMark
embossing powder: Ranger
square punch: Marvy
flower punch: EK Success
paper flower: Prima
button: Foof a la
brad: Bazzill ??
bling: Darice
circle epoxy: Colorbok
chipboard: DCWV
flower die cut: Cuttlebug
floss: DMC
other: sewing machine

Thanks :: sketch this 62

I'm just sketching away - using sketches that is.

This time sketch this is the culprit. Now, what is interesting is that I posted a card similar to this a few weeks back. I was working on both cards at the same time, but I was so exhausted that I never finished this much larger version. So seeing this week's sketch was my motivation to get it done.

I mentioned that it is big - 6x6 to be exact. I probably could have gone w/5.5x5.5, but I know that I have an envelope that I can put this one in. Got the envelope @ Hollo's (they will take your order over the phone if you know exactly what you want; wonderful place).


Now I'm off to figure out a FREE replacement for Photoshop: Splashup, Photoshop Express and others. I need to add text to a .png file. Trying to make more monograms.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
cardstock: Bazzill
patterned paper: Basic Grey
dry embossing: Cuttlebug
metal charm: Making Memories
flower: Bazzill
button: Foof a la
ink: VersaMagic
pearls: ??
floss: DMC
other: sewing

My Craft Enablers

I've been playing around w/Google Maps. So much fun, if you have the time. I know, that I could be crafting, but I am part techie.

So, the maps ... you can customize this almost any way that you want. You can title the map and then add the markers. When you add the markers, you can also add comments.


View Larger Map

So this is how I do it. No stalkng, please? :-) Sometimes I shop online too. More on that later.

Simple Things :: cps 77

I finally got around to making a card based on this week's Card Positioning Systems (CPS) sketch. Their sponsor is Inque. I meant to use some of the Inque Boutique stamps that I have, but as you can see I did not do any stamping on this one.

It's a good looking card, I'll say for myself. At least one that I like. I did not like the first row of stitching when I started and I almost ditched the whole thing. But I kept sewing. I thought that the stitch was too wide. And I used craft thread, which is a bit thicker and the stitches need to be further apart.

I'm really into the grungy look = distressed edges. I pulled out the old guitar picks from AMM and the old American Crafts ribbon too. Good stuff. Using up the stash. Oh, this is an open-faced card.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:

cardstock and colored chipboard: Die Cuts With A View (DCWV)

patterned paper: Basic Grey and K&Co.

flower die cut: Sizzix

guitar pick: AMM

ribbon: American Crafts

heart die cut: CuttleKids

embellishment: Dress It Up

other: distresser and sewing machine

Girlfriends :: 2 Sketches 4 You

It seems as if I was missing my mojo for a minute here. I've been putting off working on this week's 2 Sketches 4 You sketch because I could not figure out which direction to take this card. You would think that having a sketch would make things more simple. That's a good assessment however, this week the prize and sponsor is the Scor-it.

And I've discovered that I am not the only one who'd like to have this as one of their craft tools. Well since the ante is so high, so is the creativity. I scouted out some of my competition and decided that I would rather take this week off - especially after making the Fab 5 last week; then I thought better of it and here I am in the thick of the quest for a Scor-it. May this week's craftiest crafter win.

I like this card w/it's weathered look but w/a touch of 'pretty'.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:

cardstock: Bazzill and Die Cuts With A View (DCWV)

patterned paper: K&Co. and Basic Grey

stamps: Studio G/Michaels $1 (girlfriends) and Autumn Leaves/Rhonna Farrer (flourish)

charm: Making Memories

twine: Crafts Etc.

pearls: Mark Richards

embossing powder: Ranger and Joann

ink: VersaMark and Tim Holtz/Ranger

other: distresser and sewing machine

My First ATCs - Artist Trading Cards

I am sooo all over the place. I am working on completing my mini-book and I just finished my first set of ATCs - artist trading cards. I was reluctant to join a swap on ScrapInStyle TV (SIS), but I finally decided to just jump in and do it.

So much fun. I don't know a lot about ATCs, so I'll try to point you to some resources. I know that ATCs are usually 3.5x2.5 and they are somewhat popular on the SIS Swap Board. There are lots of cool themes like your super hero name, fav movies, recipes, scavenger hunts and the one that I'm participating in - fav T-shirt slogans.

I keep missing the sign up for the monthly ATC swap, but the organizer, Stacey, sent me a link to some of her work.

So here is a sneak peak at my ATCs ... they are not due to the organizer until early October.

Thanks for looking! I'll post details when I finally post the the full images.

The Making of a Mini Book

I got started on this mini book late last week. Well, actually, the week before. I'd been on Donna Downey's blog and she posted a video about making album pages using newspaper. So I got out the old newspapers and my glue stick and started on the pages. After tearing and gluing and inking up my fingers something awful, I had about six pages. I let them dry and then I used one layer of acrylic paint and I let that dry. That's when I took a break.

What to do w/these messy pages ... I finally jotted down some items that I could include in an "All About Me" album. I've been wanting to make more mini books ... why not now?

Well, I've made much progress, but it's an interesting process for me. The very reason why I like to make cards - I feel that I can do nothing else until this album is complete. Bummer for me especially since I had to order a wallet-sized picture of my Jeep; that would be a 'special' order ... maybe it will arrive in the mail tomorrow.

Meanwhile ... here's a look at the cover. Love this. Oh another thing, I decided that I would only use scraps and other embellishments that were laying around and/or had never been used before. I like the collage/eclectic look too.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:

base: cardboard
patterned paper: K&Co. Basic Grey, craft supply
chipboard elements: American Crafts
twine: Darice
flower: Prima
letter stickers: American Crafts and Paper Studio
button and bling: unknown
stamp: Inkadinkadoo
ink: Tim Holtz/Ranger
other: Fiskars Texture Plates

Happy Birthday Song on Paper

This is a scraplift! And an old one at that. I've been combing through some of my old CARDS magazines. I always go to my dog-eared pages first and sometimes wonder ... 'why did I like this?' I decided I would go to my mag stash more often for inspiration.

But this card is scraplifted from Alissa Fast and it's from the March/April 2006 issue (p. 99). I would have scraplifted more identically if I could have located my KI Memories note cards that she used as the base fo the card. Instead I had to use some note cards from Die Cuts With a View (DCWV); not a bad substitute just that I have those KI ones, but who knows where.

As for the happy birthday sheet music ... I just used Google Images to locate 'happy birthday sheet music'. I then imported the image into Photoshop and converted the image to a brush. That way I could better manipulate the coloring, which is a shade of brown.

Top it off w/stickers and it was a relatively easy card to produce.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:

note card and cardstock: DCWV
stickers: American Crafts
ink: VersaMagic
stamp: Katie & Co./Michaels $1
Happy Birthday sheet music: created using Photoshop

Someone's Turning 40 ...

... and I don't know who it is. My girlfriend asked me to make her several 4oth birthday cards for her girlfriends who will be turning 40 in the coming months. On some of the cards, there is a sentiment inside that says "You're not turning 40, you're 22 with 18 years of experience!" So true.

These were fun to make. Especially the one's w/the Black women on the front. I used Photoshop for those. I was working w/a scanned image and I converted the image into a brush. I used a muted brown color to give the image a vintage look. The only downside is that the image is not as crisp as I would have liked it to be. But I did print it out on patterned paper so that the focus would not be on the image. I should have went w/the frayed/distressed edges too ... oh, well.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
Dress Card (above)
cardstock: Bazzill and craft supply
patterned paper: A Muse and K&Co.
ribbon: Michaels
dress die cut and scalloped circle: Quickutz
stamp: Stampin Up!
ovals: Nestabilities
dry embossing: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots
flower die cut: EK Success
bling: unknown
sentiment: created w/Photoshop

Black Women Card (above)
cardstock: Bazzill
patterned paper: K&Co.
ribbon: Offray
jump ring and metal embellishment: Making Memories
sentiment and image: created using Photoshop
other: sewing

Published in CARDS Magazine

Yea! This is a wonderful thing. I was first published CARDS Magazine in October, 2007. This time it's the August, 2008 issue. For the embossing section. Of course, I used the Cuttlebug. This is another card that I like for its simplicity. For getting published I received two copies of the mag along w/a Basic Grey's Sultry paper pack. Love that. Even nicer that the package arrived on my birthday!

Oh, I will also have a card in the September, 2008 issue for the Thinking of You section.

I am working more submissions right now. There is a deadline this Sunday for the January, 2009 issue.

Feelin the Fabric :: 2 Sketches 4 You

Thanks for stopping by my blog ... just so happens that today is my birthday! Yea, me.

Wow, wow ... I am bit excited because I am very much in like w/this card. I've been wanting to use more fabric on my cards, but I just have not. Actually, I've been inspired by lurking on Donna Downey's blog and website; she had lots of fabric albums that are quite nice.

Well, my friend Ericka is an interior designer and she was 'purgin' the other day and had lots of fabric swatches that she was going to toss out. Lucky me. That's all is need are the swatches; most of them are at least a foot long. I just love the patterns and colors; mostly neutral/earth tones which is just my speed.

I like the rustic, natural and messy look of this card. But considering I have still not mastered the art of sewing a straight line w/my sewing machine, messy and unfinished is the look that I will get whether I strive for it or not. :-)

Oh, this card is based on Kazan's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You.

So thanks for looking .... here's what I used:
cardstock: craft supply
fabric: Ashley Manor and muslin
stamp: Stampabilities
ink: Staz-On and Tim Holtz/Ranger
flower: ??
button: Foof a la
rick rack: Creative Impressions
dry embossing: Cuttlebug Textile Texture
embroidery floss: DMC
twine: Darice
other: sewing machine