Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Creative Journey

The word journey has so many different meanings. Last year my major journey was to learn how to use movie maker on my computer, spent hours and hours putting together a CD of a vacation that I took in 2007 with my sister (Kay) and her best friend (Barbara). After months of trial and error, I had a finished product and was thrilled with the finished production.


The Gingersnap Creations challenge for a journey, was definetly one that I wanted to try. Haven't been on a vacation, or anything exciting, so my journey was in creativity.
Shar at
GC had posted a tutorial about masterboards, and that is where my journey began. Shar's instructions are so easy to follow and her ideas are so inspirational, you can't help but want to start your own personal journey.


First it was necessary to find a stamp or group of stamps that would inspire me down the road. Michaels has a few and that is where I found "Jim Holtz Collection, Visual Artistry." These stamps will be used again and again for cards, and scrapbooking pages, as they remind me of the days when my parents were young and the journeys that they took in life.


Making a masterboard, was easier than I could have imagined, it was so much fun to make a printed paper that was my own design. Since completing the first one every stamp collection I look at now, I try to image as a masterboard. Kevin and I went shopping yesterday and he found a Disney set and that will be his next project to make a masterboard, he will be using the paper for a journal to start with, he is so excited about the whole process. He is becoming quite the cardmaker and papercrafter.



"Enjoy the Journey" was the first card that made it's presence know, simple and clean lines, will be perfect for a birthday cards, or just thinking of you.






This card was so much fun to make that I found myself making a second card, as there was plenty of paper left to try another project, this is card #2. Added brads to the sentiment and also dimensionals to give the card a little depth.





Had fun with that but wanted to still try a different project, hence my scrapbook page, and our journey to Lake Tahoe, with pictures of my two grandsons and my daughter.





This was so much fun to try and challenge myself to come up with projects, there is still enough paper to do a couple of more cards.
Shar has inspired me to explore new possibilities, her blog is wonderful, check it out here, Gingersnaps Creations is looking for new members come join this creative group of ladies.

Have a great day crafting.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Mason's Mammoth Birthday Card


Kevin (my grandson) was able to come and spend some time with me again on Wednesday, and was able to talk with his cousin Mason on Webcam. They talked for awhile and then Kevin informed Mason it was time for him to go to "work," Kevin is only 14 and doesn't have a job. Mason was very puzzled with that comment, but accepted it and their conversation ended.



What Kevin meant was that he had to start working on Mason's Birthday Card, it is mammoth, lol. Mason is an artist and I had some of his drawings on a cd, so Kevin's idea was to print his artwork and put it on a card. He wanted to use all 12 pictures, so my only suggestion was an accordion card. We almost ran out of background cardstock, but we cheated a little on the last page, I messed up with the measurements so it had to be pieced, but don't think Mason will mind. Kevin matted each drawing with a different shade of blue and then added a brad in two of the corners to add interest. Once the card was completed he added a sentiment on the front that said "Live Life" (this was embossed with silver, he really likes to emboss). On the last page he sign the card with "Your #1 Fan."

We know that Mason will be totally surprised with this card.






Kevin's next project is a gift for his Mom, he will be working on that this week, it shoud be fun!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Cinema Saturday Challenge #37--High School Musical




Okay, I have to admit that I haven't seen any of the "High School Musicals", but my granddaughter, Katie, is a fan. She lives in Centerville, Utah, which is North of Salt Lake, she is interested in drama and plays the harp. They had a casting call for extras for #3-Senior Year so she went to East High and did get to work on the film. As part of the cast the kids were given tickets to the premier in Salt Lake, as you can imagine this was a really big deal for a 16 year old. She took her friend, along with mom and dad.

Hence the scrapbook pages for Cinema Saturday. The challenge this week was to use letters or numbers on the project. That was easy since the movie took place at East High. This is a two page layout on 12x12 paper using the school colors of red and white. Very simple, didn't want to take away from the photos, only rounded two opposite corners on each picture. Added stars that are double matted for the journaling box. The letters are also double matted stars, I used my star punch from Creative Memories. Just to add a little more glitter to the page I found rhinestone stars in three different sizes at Michaels.
The girls had their pictures taken with the stars (well the cutouts). They had a great time arriving on the red carpet and being treated live movie stars.

When I started this project it was only for CCCS, but when all was said and done I realized that the colors of red, white and blue was the color challenge for Gingersnap Creations so this would obviously be my project to submit. Little did I know that Crafty Creations Challenge for the new week was stars, yes! Three challenges in one, don't know how that happened but super excited.

Kevin and I worked on a couple of other projects yesterday, so those will be posted in a couple of days. He is really getting into the cards and is coming up with his own creative ideas.

Have a wonderful creative day.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Kevin Makes Cards

Hope everyone had a Tuesday, mine was exceptional, I spent the day with my Grandson, Kevin. These types of days are few and far between now that he is 14 and is so busy with all his activities and school.


Kevin has always been creative, he started his own scrapbook when he was 9 years old. He has always been around crafting and loves handmade gifts. When I picked him up today, ask him how he wanted to spend the day, he said it didn't really matter. We checked out my blog that he had not seen and he decided he would like to make Father's Day cards.




This is the first card he made, pretty simple, he picked out all the colors and paper that he wanted to us. We added buttons on the collar and Happy Father's Day in the center of the tie.





He then felt pretty confident, so I showed him the card that Linda Duke had made that looked like a western shirt. This was the second card that he wanted to try as his stepfather loves western clothing. Kevin picked out the papers and wanted to accent the shirt with brown, he learned how to emboss and really thought that was great, said he couldn't stop feeling the texture from the ink,embossing powder and of course the heat gun. We couldn't find buttons to add to the shirt on such short notice, hence the cowboy boots and hats. Am sure that Brian is going to love this card, he does leather crafting himself, so he loves handmade items, and this will be even more special since Kevin made it for him.




Kevin also made stitches on the collar and lapel, but they are hard to see, as he made the stitches so tiny.



You can go to Linda Duke's blog here for a video tutorial, this was very helpful, we did have to make some adjustments, next time I will definetly make a proto type with less expensive paper, but we were under the gun to complete this card.





So I opened a can of worms and Kevin said he didn't do anything for his mothers for Mother's Day so we made this really quick project that he could take home to his stepmom. It is an acylic frame that is a post a note holder. Once again Kevin picked out the paper and found a picture that he could also add to the frame.

Next week he is going to come and see me again and we are going to make a special project for his Mom that I can take to her when we go to Utah the first of July.










All in all we had a great day, and I can't wait to spend more time with him. Next week he has all his projects planned out and we will be working on special birthday cards for his cousin Mason.

Hope that you enjoyed seeing Kevin's creations, as much as I enjoyed helping him with these cards.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Color Purple



Okay, I really wanted to do something for this weeks challenge at Crafty Creations, we are suppose to use the color purple. While trying to come up with an idea, of course the first thing was a card, but wanted to think out of box and try something a little different. Talked with my daughter about the challenge and her first thing was "One Eyed, Flying, Purple People Eater," not my style.

While driving to work yesterday the "Color Purple" popped into my mind with all the beautiful flowers, (I wasn't really a flower person, until recently, having lived in the desert my whole life, you really couldn't grow flowers, especially me with a brown thumb). LOL! Last year I had made candle covers for the holidays and had taken them to work, to give the office a little more Holiday spirit.

Well this is my finished project, I was going to emboss the background, but had added the lace trim, so I couldn't put the paper in the Big Shot, with out the possibility of tearing the paper as I had already adhered the lace border, also if I had embossed the paper with a white liner that it would have been much more dramatic and the 3 dimentional flowers would even looked better. Oh well, next time, we learn from our mistakes.

The flowers were made by using vellum paper and I sponged it with purple ink. The petals were cut using by cutting system from Creative Memories, love this product. Then to add the glitter, (which was too big, thought it was finer) used a glue pen and sprinkled it on each petal. When the glue and glitter was added, the vellum rolled naturally and the petals became even more realistic. That was a bonus! The stems and leaves were cut, sponged the edges to give a more shaded effect.

Used white eyelets on the edges and laced the cover with picot 1/4" ribbon. Billy liked this project, it is fun and you don't have to go out and buy a new candle for every season. Punched a lace border to add to the top and bottom, also used a brush pen and added the color in each hole and add color to the edge, made the lace design "pop."

Hope that this inspires you to create, Deena at A Necessary Creativity is where I go for inspiration. She has a candy blog right now, check it out here.

Thanks for coming by today, now it's time to work on new projects. Happy crafting!


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Cinema Saturday "Some Like It Hot"


PCP CinemaSaturday Challenge this week is "Some Like It Hot". What a great movie, it puts a smile on your face just thinking about the movie and the incredible actors.


When I saw this challenge it was necessary for me to take part. A few years ago when driving limousines, I had the privelege of driving Tony Curtis. I had always been a big fan, Tapeze was one of my favorite movies that he starred in, he is truly an actor and has starred in all types of movies, he can play a villian, sex symbol and even a women. I was so excited to think that I was actually going to meet him. He now lives in the Las Vegas area, he sat in the front seat of the car next to me and we talked about life in Las Vegas as we traveled to Phyllis McGuires to celebrate her birthday.




Knew what I wanted to do with this card, and adding lace and a ruffle was the natural embellishments. Used a template that was available on SCS to make the corset, covered the red corset with black lace and added a red ruffle that was made by sheer red ribbon, that was gathered and then glued to the top of the corset. The card needed something else so Iadded the swirls around the corset. The swirls were from Fiskars' Wedding clear stamps. Once I that was done, I wanted a great sentiment. Was going to use a line from the movie that Marilyn Monroe had made famous, but none fit the bill. Continued my search and watched some of the clips from the movie, and there it was. When Josephine (Tony Curtis) and Daphne (Jack Lemon) boarded the train, one of the other members of the band (all female) welcomed them by saying "Take off your corset and spread out!" Obviously this was perfect for the card.



The inside of the card was completed by using the lace punch from Martha Stewart and the swirls in the corners.



This was such a fun challenge and found myself laughing outloud while watching some of the clips and just remembering how fun the movie is, thanks for this challenge.




Friday, June 5, 2009

Oceans 11







Paper Craft Planet has a weekly challenge called Cinema Saturday, when I read that this weeks movie was Ocean 11, just couldn't resist taking part and joining the group.


1960 was when the first Oceans 11 came out, having lived in Las Vegas most of my life, this brought back old memories. Believe it or not, in 1970 I worked at the orginial Sands Hotel, which is where the Rat Pack performed in the Copa Room. The Sands Hotel has been replaced with the Venetian Hotel. The Bellagio Hotel where the remake was filmed used to be the Dunes Hotel, things in Las Vegas change everyday, most of the old hotels are long gone, for being such a young city, it does have alot of history, problem is almost all the orginial hotels have been replaced by mega resorts.


The Rat Pack was the talk of the town, this is why I choose to stay with a black and white theme on my card, in honor of the classic movie. I used scraps of paper to make the background and then added "brads" in the corners. Everyone thinks about coming to Las Vegas to retire, hence the quote on the front of the card, with a little footnote inside that reads "the goal is to enjoy it to the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money." --Jonathan Clements

Have a great day and go see a good old movie.


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Dream

Being a new member of Gingersnap Creations I was totally intrigued by this challenge, Wonder Women. The cards that inspired me are wonderful and I wanted to make a card as a tribute to my mother. My mother grew up on a farm and worked in the fields, she would tell the stories of working in the sugar beets pulling weeds and milking the cows. The whole family was very talented, all ten. Mom and Aunt Sophia were not only dancers but singers also. They performed at all types of events and functions around their home town.


My mother had told me for years that there was a picture of her in a dance costume out there some where, but we could never find the original, until about 3 years ago, one of her 5 sisters had it in a scrapbook and let me make copies, it meant the world to me and my mother was excited to think that we finally located the picture. The picture featured on my card was taken in 1931, mom is 6 years old and even though the expression on her face doesn't show it, she loved to dance and sing, The Caras Girl's were asked to make special appearance at County and State Fairs.


My wonderful mother passed away in 2007, she taught both my sister and I to work with our hands and how to create handmade items, she was a very giving person and shared her creations with her immediate and extended family, my mothers legacy lives on everyday through us, our children and their children.
Didn't really know where to start on this card so I turned to Sharon Briss, she has come up with a really easy way to design a card using 6 steps, she calls it "Build an ATC Checklist:"
1. Select Background
2. Select a Focal Image
3. Create Texture
4. Add Verbiage ... or not
5. Location, location, location
6. Jazz it Up!
Shar as wonderful ideas and shares them with everyone, on her blog, take a moment to check it out here it is definetly well worth your precious time.
Thanks for stopping by today, hope you drop by often.

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