Passionate about Crafting

ANYTHING GOES

2011-05-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite blogs is Crafty Creations, it has challenges for all types of crafting. This weeks challenge #118 is Anything Goes, love it!

Have been doing all types of crafts besides cards and just finished this piece. It is a quilted wall hanging. The focal point is a picture of my Great Aunt and Uncle. I've been working on genealogy and also getting things together for a family reunion. We are going to have an auction to offset some of the costs and this is my contribution to the cause.

Printed the picture on photo fabric, cropped it using a rotary cutter that gives the old style ragged edges. Matted the picture three times with other fabrics, just like matting pictures for cards. Used "Wonder Under" on the back of all the fabric.

The base of the wall hanging is a different fabric and it was made like a mini quilt with batting in between the top and back, sewed the two together and turned, then added the photo to the front. Added a piece of lace in the corner and also some pearls (hard to see them). Thought about adding more embellishments, but Billy thought it would take away from the picture. I did sew about the mats and then a few rows on the background. This was a learning experience and will be trying a pillow for my next project.

Thanks for stopping by, love to hear you comments. Have a great day.

Suzie

WRITE YOUR OWN STORY

2011-04-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

It has been a long, long time since my last post. Have been doing all types of crafts, but just haven't found the time to post them. When Gingersnap Creations challenged us to use a typewriter, I had a few to chose from, but this one is my favorite.

This is an altered notebook which tells its own story. Used papers that I picked up at Joanns and the typewriters are rub ons that were purchased at Michaels, from their $1 bins which have had a price increase to $1.50, inflation is the pits, LOL!

The edges of the book and all the papers were distressed using a sponge and ink. The brown background was solid paper, I used a gold gel pen and started to journal.

The sketch is from a Mojo Monday, from awhile back. For inspiration purposes I make a copy of sketches and have them in a folder so I can go back and pull from these ideas. Twenty different notebooks were completed this way before Christmas and each one was unique.

Thanks for stopping by, and being supportive.

Suzie

HYDRANGEAS MADE WITH HEART

2010-10-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

Gingersnap Creations has so many wonderful challenges, and I wish there was time to do all of them, but am not staying focused very well lately, have a ton of projects started and keep finding more to start, thus there are alot to complete. Made a list yesterday and hopefully this will help.

GC#70 challenge is to use punches, this is my finished card. The hydrangeas where made by using a piece of white cardstock 1" wide, then folded in half, you then punch out a heart to make the flowers. I then used a sponge and yellow ink to do the center of the flower, and pink ink to sponge the outside of the flower. It takes 2 hearts for each flower, the leaves are also a heart punch, a halft pearl was added to the center to complete the flower. The base of the card is pink card stock, then an embossing folder was used for the white mat. The oval and rectangle are from Spellbinders. The watercan is a stamp from a set that I purchased at Michaels.

This was such a simple technique that I was able to teach my niece how to do it, and also owed my Aunt. My Aunt is just getting into papercrafting and this was something that she would see the result immediately. She does wonderful dried flowers and gave me some that I will be using on my cards.

Am trying to get a few things together for a Boutique with my Aunt around the first of November, really have my work cut out, but am looking forward to giving it a try, will be able to spend some quality time with her, so it will be worth the time.

Thanks for stopping by, would love to hear your comments. Have a wonderful day.

GRATEFUL THOUGHTS

2010-09-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Have been working on some projects to show my Aunt Marion, she wants to start doing some papercrafts. Kay and I are going to spend the day with her tomorrow, so I wanted to show her some different projects that we could do.

Mojo Monday's sketch this week was perfect for an altered book. The sketches for the cards work so wonderfully for the layouts for altered books, they are such great inspiration.

Used some of my favorite papers by "Graphic 45," Had pearl trim in my stash and added a bow for double face satin. Think is would be such a great book for journaling about what I am grateful for.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope everyone is having a crafty day.

RED AND BLACK

2010-09-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Was so excited to learn that a was a Gingersnap Gem, for the 3D challenge, it is such an honor, there are so many beautiful pieces to choose from, know the DT really has their work cut out for them to make the decisions on the gems for each challenge.

I've done it again, waited to the last moment to add my card to the Gingersnap Creations challenge to use red and black. Have had the card completed for a couple of days, but time flies when you're having fun.

Kaylene and I went to the scrapbooking show on the 10th of September, and there were alot of great items to choose from, but Heartfelt Creations had some new stamps and die cuts. If you are not familiar with her product you should really check them out.

Had to use the new stamps and die cuts for this challenge. Embossed the base of the card using a textured folder by Provo Craft. The sentiment was from the same set. Added bugle beads to the center of the flower to give more depth.

We have been making a few more cards with the same die cuts, and will post those in the near future.

Working on our patio for the fall season, it is my favorite, because of all the bright colors. Thanks for stopping by, if you have a moment, please leave a comment, it really brightens my day.

IN HONOR OF MY MOTHER

2010-09-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Boy have things changed. As you can see I've been missing in action. We have moved to Utah, and it seems that there just hasn't been time to do any papercrafting.

We have settled in, but have been doing a lot of sewing, making tote bags for my aunt, aprons, and working on quilts with my daughter. She has decided to make a few quilts for Christmas so that is where our focus has been.

Do check out Gingersnap Creations weekly and have been going to do a challenge, but nothing seemed to come together, until the 3D challenge. Years ago I had made an altered canvas of some of the memories of my mother and thought this was the perfect opportunity to get started blogging again. But instead of showing the canvas that was completed 3 years ago. I started all over, and this is the result.

The flowers are 3D, along with the collage of buttons, sewing machine, tassel, and miniature eyeglasses. Don't know if you can see them but also in the corners of the picture there are rhinestone earrings, these belong to my mother and she only wore them on special occasions. Also added a flower applique at the bottom of the picture, it was white, and so it was necessary to tea dye the applique to get the effect that I was trying to obtain. My sister and I found the printed papers at Ben Franklins in Kaysville, it is by "graphics 45 unique papercrafting" the Times Nouveau Collection. The papers brought back wonderful memories of my mother and it was such a joy to do this collage.

Kaylene and I will have the opportunity to attend a scrapbooking show this weekend, am so excited about seeing what is new out there, and get some fresh ideas.

Thanks for stopping by.

CHALLENGE #70

2010-06-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

Cant' believe it but I am a winner for the challenge at Crafty Creations. The challenge was black, white and splash of red, my number came up and thanks to Eat Cake Graphics, I'll receive a $10 gift certificate. They offer mounted, unmounted stamps, and also quilt patterns, know that making a choice will be hard.

The challenge this week at Crafty Creations is "Child Play," if you like challenges this is a great blog and they offer some great challenges.

BLACK, WHITE AND SPLASH OF RED

2010-06-08T17:55:00.001-07:00

Not a card this time. Sewing is another craft that I enjoy doing, and when my friend Sandy and I went shopping we found some great fabric, love the fabric but just didn't know what type of project I could do until seeing a great pattern for the tote. When home and the next day made the tote using this fun black and white print. I use the tote now and everyone asked where I got it, am so proud to say that I made it.

The fabric on the bottom was textured using "Magic Texture," it gives your fabric texture by using a steam iron. Crafty Creations has a challenge to use black, white and splash of red, just had to submit this fun tote.

If anyone interested in pattern information, or Magic Texture, just send an email, I'd be glad to pass on the information.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a crafty day.

HEARTS AND TEXTURE

2010-06-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

Our Creative Corner has a wonderful challenge this past week to use black, white and texture. The base of the card is white, then embossed white card stock using a embossing folder from Provo Craft and my Big Shot. The design paper was purchased at Joanns, then made a smaller mat in black and then white embossed again. Love to use the folders and Big Shot, it is so easy to get a great texture.

The flower is chipboard, which I found quite sometime ago at Michaels add a button shape on top of the flower with white 1/8" ribbon. The small hearts are also chipboard. The double matted heart was stamped using Stampin Up ink. The hearts were punched using a punch from Creative Memories. By the way the hearts were added for the challenge at The Shabby Tea Room.

Hope everyone had a great week and have great plans for the weekend.

BABY BOY BLUES

2010-05-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Maybe a day late, but this is what I was working on for a couple of weeks. Frank and his new bride are expecting a baby boy, oh happy day! This is Marcela's first and she had never had any kind of shower, so her loving husband ask if I would help him with a couples baby shower. Couldn't resist, as it has been along time since my kids were born and over 12 years since my last grandchild made his presence.

The invitations were very simple as it needed to be less frilly since the shower was for couples. Did a very easy easel card and printed the invitations on the computer. Used some pastel paper for the mat and add a couple of baby die cuts. Each invitation was a little different, but Frank was thrilled with them, and couldn't thank me enough.

One of our fellow workers wasn't able to make it to the shower, so he asked me to pick up some diapers. Couldn't just give packages of diapers, so with the help of Billy we made a diaper cake. This was so much fun, it was even more fun with Billy's help, this was definitely a first for him. We sat around the table and rolled diapers and had a great laugh.

Added ribbon and a few other baby items to the cake to finish it off. The favors for the guests were baby booties. I started with pastel blue cardstock and stamped the paper with a stamp that I found at Ben Franklins in Reno, it was only a $1 (love the bargains). Was going to leave it pretty plain, but found myself coloring in the flowers with felt tip markers. Added a bow on top and filled them with mints.

Had a couple of booties that didn't fit on the tray, so I used one for the cake top and added one to the bottom layer of the cake. This was so much fun to do and Frank and Marcela loved everything, they were so impressed which made me feel good.

Am off to work, worked late last night as the computer went down and will be working an extra day next week, am sure I won't be doing much crafting. Hope everyone is having an awesome Holiday weekend.

Golden Butterflies

2010-05-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Haven't been around for awhile, have been working on an altered book, and also a baby shower. Will post the invitation, diaper cake and favors that I made for the shower tomorrow, but wanted to post this card for a couple of challenges. You know me I really enjoy doing challenges, but just haven't found the time.

It was my goal yesterday to make a new card, here it is. The sketch is from Our Creative Corner, thought this was a great sketch and they do give me a direction for the card. The picture isn't great, but the tiny butterfly on the left hand corner is dimensional. The paper is from the Mariposa Mat Stack by DCWV which was purchased at Joanns.

Gingersnap Creations just issued a new color challenge, to use burgundy, ivory and black. The center oval was created with my classic scallop die cut from Spellbinders, and then the inside oval, with my cutting system from Creative Memories. The gold butterfly is embossed to tie into the wonderful background paper. I also used VersaMark to stamp small butterflies on the background, unfortunately they don't show in the photo.

Crafty Creations challenge this week is to use your favorite stamp, well that is next to impossible, so a used one of my favorite stamp sets from K & Company. It is a set of clear stamps and has a great assortment of stamps, I should just leave it out all the time, it is used for a wide variety of cards.

Getting ready for work, will share some baby shower stuff tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day and weekend.

SUNNY SUNFLOWERS

2010-05-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Where has the time gone, was just comment a few days ago that it was already May, now it is the middle of May and things around my home have been a little on the crazy side. Can't believe that I have been a member of the Gingersnap Creations Group for a year, seems like only yesterday that I started to blog. This is such a wonderful group of creative ladies and they give me inspiration each and every day. The Design Team is so supportive and they share such great and new techniques. Haven't had the chance to really be creative because of everything that has been going on. Some have been good, and others not so good.

Grandson's birthday, spent time with my school buddy Sandy. Car in shop for two days, and spent Mother's Day in hospital, the doctor thought I had a blood clot. Don't know why my leg was black and blue and swollen, but no blood clot, thank goodness. Had to keep my leg up and so couldn't really spend much time doing anything creative.

Wanted to do something for the "kraft" challenge at Gingersnap Creations, and had made this mini photo and souvenir album. It is made from lunch bags, can't get anymore "kraft" than that. Used 4 lunch bags, folded in half, every other bag can be opened so that you can put ticket stubs, or brochures in the bag and they are right there.

The cover is bright and cheerful, sunflowers are one my favorite flowers and couldn't resist using them. The title was printed on designer paper. Base of the cover is bright yellow with some yellow polka dot paper to accent. Cheated on this one, the sunflowers are stickers. Had some buttons and added them to the center of the flowers. Each page is decorated differently so that you can add pictures and a little journaling as you go. Made one for my sister Kay, and our friend Barbara when we went on our vacation in the summer of 2007. Used binder rings to hold the bags together and then added lots of ribbon to the rings to give it a really fun look.

Another one of my favorite blogs is The Pink Elephant. This weeks challenge #TPE66 is from Ella's Kitchen which is a recipe to use yellow, design paper and buttons, thought this vacation album fit right in. They have also started a scrapbook challenge on Thursdays. You can meet the design team this week. Know that I will be participating in these challenges as my scrapbooks have been left behind for awhile. Miss doing it with my girls, the creative juices just don't flow when it is just me.

Time to get ready for work. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

HUG A TREE

2010-04-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

The last three days have been really great. Spent Monday with my best friend Sandy, she is here for a visit with her daughter. Sandy lives in Ohio and I haven't seem her in over 15 years. We really had a great time, doing what girls do the best "shop." Sandy is into quilting and it just so happens that I was working on a quilt. We went to a couple of quilt stores and found some great fabric, that I want to use on an altered book. The book is a work in progress, have lots of things in mind and will be working on that in the next few months.

Tuesday I finished the quilt top, and worked on a couple of cards. Gingersnap Creations has a new challenge for botanical. I used the stamp set from Stampin Up, Thoughts and Prayers. The base of the card is green cardstock and the mat is in cream color, stamped the cardstock using the branch stamp, and then embossed it using a new embossing folder from Provo Craft and my Big Shot.

The tree was stamped on a cream cardstock and then added a green mat. Used a $1 stamp that I found in Reno for the sentiment. Tried to keep the card pretty simple, but added the green rhinestones to each corner. Didn't show a picture of the inside, put stamped a small tree on cream cardstock and added that to the inside.

One of my favorite places to go for other challenges is Crafty Creations, the challenge this week is to make your own background. There are so many ways to do this, mine is probably is the simplest, but does qualify. If you would like to see some other ideas, check out their blog.

Hopefully Sandy and I will be able to spend some more time together next week. It's my Monday, so time for me to go to work. Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great day.

P. S. Almost forgot Week 16 challenge of trees or leaves is at Lots to Do blog.

WINGS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

2010-04-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

JJ aka Judy B (The Stamping Pad) had posted a few days ago cards that were faux silk, loved the look of the cards and had to give it a try. She was kind enough to give me the information and directed me to a video. The video is from Papertry Ink, this is wonderful video and gives you all the information for this wonderful technique.

The base of my card is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, cut the blue mat 4x5 1/4, and distressed the edges of the card with blue ink, and the blue mat was distressed with black ink. Stamped a piece of cream cardstock with butterflies from an Inkadinkado stamp set, the size is 3 3/4 x 5, colored in the butterflies with colored markers. Did the faux silk technique, and then stamped a single butterfly, colored it and also did the faux silk technique. The blue strip of paper was also stamped with a smaller butterfly using black ink. Used a paper punch this time for the blue scalloped mat behind the single butterfly. Wanted to keep the card pretty simple so just added the one word sentiment, "enjoy."

This is a great technique and I can't wait to try some different stamps, really "enjoyed" making the card, and hope you "enjoy" it also. Please let me know if you give this a try would love to see all of your wonderful projects.

This card also happen to meet a couple of challenges:

1. Crafty Creations ---distressing

2. Simon Says ---Wings

3. Our Creative Corner--Butterflies

Once again a special thanks to JJ for sharing this information, she is true inspiration.

Also I'd like to send a special shout out to my sister, Kay, she just had knee surgery and is on the road to recovery. She and my daughter and trying some new products out today with their electric Big Shot. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

2010-04-21T18:32:00.000-07:00

Have been pretty busy on my days off, not only have I been working on a quilt, but took the time to complete a couple of cards. This card is for the challenge at Our Creative Corner, they have a different sketch each Thursday.

The card base if 5 x5, with 1 1/4" squares, the paper is from the "Once Upon a Time collection." Used the corner rounder on the center mat, and used my label die cut, from Spellbinders, to make the frame around the angel. The hardest part was the embellishment, didn't want to use ribbon, put after trying twine, beads, wire, and anything else I could find, the double faced picot ribbon was what ended up on the card.

A glue pen was brought out for the wings, and then glitter added to give some dimension. Also added a pink rhinestone to the center of the bow. Used colored pencils to color the angel. Will be sending this card to my sister, she just had knee surgery on Monday, she loves angels and fairies, know this will put a smile on her face.

The other card completed will be posted tomorrow, it is using the faux silk technique, this was really a fun technique and will be doing more with this technique.

Hope everyone is having a great day, time to work on some more projects. Talk with you soon.

ONEIES

2010-04-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Ton of things to accomplish today, so just going to put this card out there. You guessed it, is it a challenge for Crafty Creations. Thought this would be super simple today, but not the case. We were challenged to use only one designer paper, one image and one embellishment. Have gotten so used to jazzing cards up with all kinds of embellishments, it was hard to use just one of everything.

The stamp is from my stash, Hero Arts, and had an inch of dust on it. Colored pencils were used for the coloring. The paper was also in my stash, a few years old. Added the bow to the handle of the basket for the one embellishment.

That's it for today, am going to work on my grandson's quilt, ran out of thread yesterday and ran to Joann's. They had some new products from Provo Craft that I couldn't resist, can't wait to put them to use. Also found that they have added Spellbinder die cuts in the stores, now I won't have to wait until going to Utah to purchase them, or getting them on line, will now have instant gratification.

Hope everyone is having a great week, talk with you soon.

ROSES FROM THE HEART

2010-04-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Got home from my trip to Reno, and everything was crazy at home. Didn't know it but Billy, my SO, had gone into the hospital on Monday night, I left that morning. He didn't tell me while I was gone, knew that I would turn right around and come home. Sunday night before leaving I had our new puppy delivered while at work, so that I could surprise Billy. When getting home I walked in and said "we're home" he knew something was up. Billy was excited about the puppy and immediately started spoiling him. Billy wasn't feeling well and went to the emergency room, and they wouldn't let him come home. His potassium level was extremely high, which can cause kidney damage.

When I returned home on Wednesday night upon calling Billy to tell him I'd be home shortly, he then told me he was in the hospital. Got home and took care of the dogs, and started my week at work and going to the hospital, trying to cope with a new puppy, which is like having a baby. Made it through my week by the skin of my teeth. Billy came home on Monday, and I was able to take sit down and relax a little.

Checked out some blogs and started a quilt yesterday, for my grandson, got the fabric while in Reno. Also wanted to check out some cards and it suddenly dawned on me that I had completed a project before leaving for Reno for the color challenge at Gingersnap Creations, which was to use the copper, ginger and rust.

Made roses that are made out of paper and then coated with UTEE, learned this technique from Hels at Ink on Your Fingers, check it out here. Hels has a wonderful tutorial for the flowers, and I can't get enough of them, they are so fun to make and there are so many different ways that you can use them. I had this picture of my mother and father on the wall, and thought that it would be great to add these dimensional roses to the frame, love the result.

The paper was from my stash, used my flower die cut from Spellbinders and add copper brads for the center of the flowers. These flowers remind me of wood flowers, that were popular back in the late 50's early 60's, am now telling my age, know that my mother would love these and want to make tons of them. It is because of her that my sister and I have such a love of crafts, she was our inspiration.

This photo shows more detail and you can see more of the colors for the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope everyone is having a great week. Am going to be working on my crazy quilt and will try to get at least one new card made before going back to work tomorrow. Found some inexpensive clear stamps in Reno, and a few other little items that I can't wait to use.

Have a crafty day.

TAG TUESDAY #45 STUCK ON COLLAGE

2010-04-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for work, it's my Friday, get off at 2am and then get on the plane at 6:40 am for my trip to Reno. All of a sudden my plate became very full. Talked with my daughter, Jamie, today and we are just going to spend quality time together and hit a couple of craft stores and possibly a quilt shop in Reno. She is a teacher and on spring break, her youngest son is out of school also, but the oldest is not on break until next week. Am really looking forward to having some "girl time."

Earlier in the week I was extremely productive and got a few things completed, this is a tag that I did for the Tag Tuesday Challenge(better late than never). The challenge was to combine collage and stickers, I have a huge assortment of stickers so it was just of matter of find the paper and stickers that would go together. My papers and stickers have been purchased through the years, and it is usually a couple of papers rather than books of paper that co-ordinate. Buy paper that hits my fancy at the time, because of this fact, I spend valuable time going through papers for collages, but that to me is half the fun.

Found some vintage type paper, and then it was time to take on the stickers, you think they are organized until you try and find what you have in mind. The vintage lady and Eifel Tower werea sticker that I found in the clearance aisle at Michaels. Used a sentiment sticker also, can't begin to know where these came from. The tag is chipboard from Michaels $1 bins, found some other shapes the other day, they are suppose to be mini scrapbooks, but that is what is so fun about crafting, we all improvise.

Finshed the tag off by using a glue pen around the edge and sprinkled with gold glitter. Did use my cutting system to add to oval behind the vintage lady, and red picot ribbon for the tie. Am literally running out the door. Thanks for stopping by, last but not least I hope everyone has a Happy Easter.

A PERECT DAY!

2010-04-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Tell me it isn't so, it can't be April already. Do not know where the time goes. It is so true that the older you get the faster the time goes. On my days off this week I had a couple of perfect days and what able to make some fun cards.

The inspiration for this card was gained from two different challenges. Rosie Dees Challenge is to use the colors, green, yellow, and white. These are such fun colors and just add a smile to my face.

Used my scallop fun for the circle and then cut out the center with my cutting system. The stamp was another one of those treasures that I found at Michaels, just $1, it does pay to shop once in awhile. The sketch is the challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges, it was clean and simple, but I couldn't resist adding the butterflies on the corner. Used brush markers to fill in the stamps, kept the entire card simple.

Really enjoyed making the card, it just seemed to fall into place with very little effort. Have some great news from last night, am going to be getting a new puppy next week, have to wait until we get back from Reno. Billy does know anything about the puppy so this should be fun, am having a hard time keeping the secret.

Time for me to head of to work. Thanks for stopping by today. Have a wonderful weekend.

SIMPLER TIMES

2010-04-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Got really busy on my days off and completed a few cards. Need to get this one posted right away, as there are a couple of deadlines to meet. Our Creative Corner has a sketch this week, Lots to Do suggested that you use vintage, and The Shabby Tea Room wanted us to use some of our scraps, that we know we all have tons of little pieces sitting around.
I love to work with scraps of paper, and have them some what organized, I save every little piece, tell myself that there will be a time in the future that I will find a use for them. Ali gave use some ideas a while back on how to organize the scraps by color, I did this, but didn't get the prints separated by color. This is something that I really need to do, as it won't take as long to find those little treasurers.

Vintage is one of my favorite themes, so this was a piece of cake. This stamp set has come in very handy, use it for masculine cards all the time. The paper on the background looks handwritten, that is definitely vintage, we use the computer and typing for everything now days. Once the image was stamped on the polka dot background, it did emboss it with my Big Shot, and Cuttlebug folder, which has script writing. The sentiment is computer generated (Oh No!!) and a button tied with blue DMC floss to complete the picture.

Time for me to head off to work, thanks for stopping by today, and hope that you have a wonderful day.

COME FLY WITH ME!

2010-03-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

Was really anxious to take this challenge to use only black and white on a tag. I have always loved black and white, think it is so striking. Took the time to check out all of the cards that have been submitted for the Tuesday Tag Challenge #44 and the tags are all amazing, think my tag maybe a little lame, oh, well, I really had fun trying to put this one together.

Found some great little stamps at Michaels and you can see that stamp it at the top of the tag. Used the stamp and put them together to make my own designer paper. The base if the card was a black and white print. Then a solid white with solid black on top of the print. Added my own designer paper that was stamped using colorbox ink. Grossgrain ribbon was attached to one side, paper lace design on the opposite side. Little hearts were made with a heart punch in both black and white. The sentiment was a sticker, as was the couple in black and white.

Wanted to make this into an actual luggage tag, as we are going to Reno next week. Will be spending a few days with my daughter, Jamie, grandsons, Mason and Kyle, and possibly a few quality minutes with Tim, my son-in-law, he works so hard and has extremely long days and nights.Decided to use Modpodge and put a couple of coats on the tag.

If you would like to see some of the other creative tags you can click here. The next challenge to for myself is to do another tag and add a vintage picture of my father and add the reasons that we loved him so.

Hope everyone has a great week and take a few minutes a day to do something that your enjoy.

WHAT A DAY!

2010-03-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

It has been crazy around my place, started this posta few days ago, but never got back to it. Got ready for a yard sale, that was for Saturday and Sundy, but I couldn't do Sunday, was in too much pain from Saturday and slo the lack of sleep. Work nights and got up early Saturday for the sale. It worked out okay, but am in a lot of pain, also weeded the yard imbetween customers. When will I learn, that I'm not spring chicken.

I have had this tree stamp for years. It is one of favoriates, but for some reason I haven't used it in a long. time. Ran across it and thought that the sketch challenge at The Pink Elephant Challenge would work nicely. I stamped the tree with Stampin Up ink and then suing a glue pen added glitter to the leaves. Cut an oval mat and then added samller ovals. Trim on the side is ribbon. Then stamped "What A Day", had to go shopping to purchase a new stamp. Thought that it would be neat to add some siz zag stitching aound the edge, like it, but don't know if it really tied in with the rest of the card. The base of the card is 5x7, the tree stamp was to large.

This would be the card for me yesterday, got to work and "What a Day!" Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, mine starts tomorrow. I have half finished projects on my desk and ready want to get them completed tomorrow, but also need to deal with all the stuff I didn't sale. Oh well, just another day in the neighborhood.

Talked with my daughter yesterday and she and my sister were at a Scrapbooking Show in Salt Lae, so wished I had been there. They found some great new products, can't wait to get there to see what kind of projects we will be doing next.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a crafty one.

Personalized Frame

2010-03-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

We often forget that our stamps can be used on different textures than paper. I had 5 x 7 acrylic frames in my stash and thought this would be a fun time to try and stamp on the frames. The first picture shows the flower stamp and my grandson's names, StazOn ink was used to stamp the designs.

Slid a piece of solid colored paper into the frame, to show what the stamps looked like. This shows that you can change the pictures of the kids anytime you would like. The next picture is the finished project with a picture of my grandsons, I added stars behind each of their names. Also distressed the edge of the paper, and did watercolor with my aquapainters on glossy paper and placed this so it was behind the flowers.

The picture is matted with white paper, and I used my cutting system from Creative Memories, to cut the oval picture and mat. The stars are a punch that was also purchased from Creative Memories. The metal shoes are brads and I punched a hole in the center of the yellow stars to place them. Used tacky glue to attach these stars to the frame, these are on the outside of the frame. Will be going to Reno to see the boys in April and will have to take a new picture.

This was so easy to do and want to do some for our family reunions, have the perfect picture that was taken in the 20's. There are unlimited stamps that you can use do this type of picture frame, your imagination can run wild. Oh, by the way the frames are available at Wal-Mart for $1. Scrappy Frogs challenge was stamp on something other than paper, think this qualifies.

Thanks for stopping by today, if you have time please leave a comment, love hearing from my fellow bloggers.

2010-03-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

So glad spring is here, obviously the only thing to do is to make some great spring cards. Crazy 4 Challenge #29 has encouraged everyone to jump into spring with wonderful colors and blooming flowers. The colors are out of my comfort zone, by using purple and green together. The green card stock was plain and felt that it needed some kind of design, so the stems with tiny leaves were stamped with green Stampin' Up ink. No rhyme for reason to the placement, a no brainier.

The base of the card is purple polka dots (can't really see it, but it is there), next added plaid purple print and then the tag to the front of the card. One little strip of gold behind the tag. Warmest Wishes is a sticker, am I bad, kind of cheated on that one, but wanted this spring card to be generic.

Time to go outside and take in some sunlight, and maybe work on the yard, just a little. Yesteday I thought it was my day off and almost didn't make it to work. It is Monday isn't it?

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and can also do something crafty this week. Thanks for stopping by and for all your wonderful comments, it means alot to me that everyone takes the time to share your thoughts.

Yummy Cupcakes

2010-03-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Am on a diet, so this is as close as I can get to cupcakes. Gingersnap Creations gave the members a challenge to do something with cupcakes, this is the result.

I don't have any stamps that are cupcakes, so it was a matter of trying to use a different technique other than stamping. One of my favorite things to do is check out all the $1 items at Michaels and they had these wonderful napkins, had just tried the felting technique and like the result, so it was a must buy.

Used cardstock from Lasting Impressions for the base of the card and then felted the napkin to white cardstock and used other patterned papers to give a little more texture to the card. Stamped the Happy Birthday using Stampin Up ink and my Hero Art stamp that is almost as old as I am, and that is old, LOL. The card just didn't seem complete, so I cut out the cupcakes and adhered them to the card. This can be seen a little on this picture. Didn't use dimensionals, but punched a circle from cardstock and then cut in a spiral, and attached it to the card, this is the technique for making you items "pop."

If you are interested in learning the felted technique, Splitcoast Stampers as a tutorial that is excellent, it can be found the Resource section of their blog. Hope this gives everyone a little inspiration to try felted cards.

Time for me to get ready for work. Thanks for stopping by today, if you feel like leaving a comment would love to hear from you. Have a crafty weekend.

March Birthdays

2010-03-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Gingersnap Creations is celebrating their birthday this month and so is Billy (my significant other). He does give me encouragement when doing the cards so obviously I need to make a card for him. It is so hard to do a masculine card, as all my stamps are definitely on the girly side. That is why I turned to "Clearly Vintage" and found pictures of some classic cars.

Billy has been in the transportation industry (limousine driver) for over 20 years, and has a great love of vehicles, especially old classics, this car was perfect for the theme. Kept the card very simple with just a picture, a couple of mats, the sentiment is the definition of Birthday. Kept looking at the card and had to add blue rhinestones to the corners of the picture and also on the sentiment. Hope that he won't think there is too much bling on the card.

Challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges, happens to masculine. Love getting inspiration from all the challenges that are out there, they do give inspirations.

Happy Birthday Billy and Gingersnap Creations, also Shar you deserve the best.

Ahh!! It's Spring

2010-03-12T13:21:00.001-08:00

Spring is the air here in Las Vegas, the tree are in bloom and the weeds they are a growin'. It seems good to see all the beautiful colors and think about spring cleaning. It is suppose to be in the 80's next week, that might be a good time to address the weeds in my desert landscaping.

Don't want to do that so, here is a card that met a few challenges for this week. Spring is at Rosie Dees Challenge, and that brings to mind bright colored Easter eggs, that is the basis of this card. Added wavy strips with solid and plaid papers and then using versa ink added a little texture to the solid colors. Crazy 4 Challenges wanted to see some paper piercing, and that is what was done as a border of the wavy strips.

The flower was made with a Sizzix die cut flower. double layered in two shades of pink. The leaves are also a Sizzix die cut that is available at Stampin Up. Finished the card off with a little tag and blue 1/8" satin ribbon on the stem of the flower. To make your own flowers was the challenge at Crafty Creations, only made one flower, but am sure this still meets the criteria of the challenge. Added the butterfly just for fun. Hope this brightens up your day.

Thanks for coming by, please leave a comment, love hearing what everyone has to say.

IT'S A CELEBRATION "OOH LA LA"

2010-03-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Gingersnap Creations have given me the honor of being a Gingersnap Gem, this is such an honor. This group is so wonderful and they offer so many tutorials on a wide variety of techniques. That is how this particular tag came to be. Ink on Your Fingers by Hels has a wonderful tutorial on "faux flowers" and this really intrigued me. Didn't have any of the supplies but went out immediately and found UTEE and a melting pot.

Hels suggested stamping the flowers, but I didn't have a flower stamp that would work so I used my flower die cuts by Spellbinder and used patterned papers. It was really amazing how the paper kept its shape, was a little afraid that it would tear, but that wasn't the case, did learn that you do have to shape your flowers before dipping the paper in the UTEE. Once a couple of flowers were completed it was now necessary to decide how they would be used. Think they would be wonderful on gift boxes, photo boxes, or as a pin just to mention a few.

I found these chipboard tags at Michaels in their $1 bins and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to challenge myself (Scrappy Frog Challenge) by doing a collage on the tag. It's a celebration (Gingersnap Creations) and used one color and shades of that color (Crafty Creations) and these wonderful papers from Lasting Impressions was yelling to be used. The color gold is really different from the bright colors that I usually use. Added different textures 3 dimensional flower, button, pearls, chipboard sentiments, ribbon and even some gold glitter on the leaves. Crazy 4 Challenges was requesting 3 textures, think that I may have gone a little overboard on this one, but love the results.

Hope you can see some of the detail, the mix of papers and all the different textures. Will be making doing some more of these wonderful flower very soon, want to try and use leaves and different shapes not just flowers. A special thanks to Hels for this wonderful tutorial, you have opened up a new technique for me and my mind going a mile a minute to try and come up with ways to use the technique.

Time to head off to work, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

KAY'S DOLLS

2010-02-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

My sister, Kay, does porcelain dolls and she just posted some new ones she just completed. Most of her dolls are very vintage, thus when I was checking out Graphics Fairy, I am drawn to the art that is vintage and little girls.

I found the art work for my card and of course it reminds me of my little sister, you can check out her blog here to see some of her wonderful creations.

The challenge at Gingersnap Creations is lace and fiber, all the dolls that Kay dresses have lace and all types of fiber, beads, ribbons, flowers, buttons and all types of embellishment. When making the card I was thinking of my sister, that is why the sentiment is Thinking of You.

The card is Kay's favorite color pink, has lace on the border, a button, and fiber under the button, which is DMC floss. The base of the card is offwhite cardstock, a mat of pink and then a print with scrolls. I matted the focal point, the little girl with black so that she would pop
.

Talked with Kay and Kaylene today, and they were out trying to find some inspiration for some new craft projects. Can't wait to see them, so we can create together once again, miss my mojo that they both give to me.

Hope everyone is have a great weekend, have a crafty day.

ANYONE UP FOR A GLASS OF WINE?

2010-02-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

Cheers! Going to a dinner party and are taking a bottle of wine to the hostess, this card is the perfect companion. A few months ago I saw a tutorial for a felted card, and wanted to really give it a try.

Felted cards are made with napkins, plastic wrap, newsprint and an iron. Our Creative Corner has a challenge to try a new technique, so it was time to give this technique a try. The background is a napkin, that is ironed on to cardstock. There is a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers with all the detail and also a video. A cocktail napkin was used, found that one napkin could make 4 cards that our 5x5, this particular napkin would be great invitations for a dinner party. I have found myself in the party section of the stores to see if there are any unusual napkins that can be used as backgrounds.

Did not want to add a lot of embellishment to the card, but did add some stitching to the yellow strip to meet the a challenge at Crafty Creations. Love the colors on this card which just happens to be a challenge at Gingersnap Creations, to use 3 colors that you love. My favorite color is red, but I also love autumn colors and with this color scheme this was possible.

The base of the card is yellow, gold is the mat and also the oval, and the final color is the brown tones. The sentiment was computer generated, the ovals were made using my cutting system from Creative Memories.

This has been a good craftying day for me, the creative juices have been flowing, more challenges met, they will be posted in the very near future. Have a great day.

P. S. If you would like to see more videos from Angie Kennedy Juda (which was featured on my post yesterday) you can click here.

RECYCLING YOUR OLD JEANS

2010-02-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

While surfing the web found a new techique for using my Big Shot, knew that you could cut fabric with it but had not tried it, but take a look at the results.

Last year I had up my old jeans to make a quilt and had cut 9 x 9 squares and couldn't part with other scraps so they were cut into 4 x 4 squares. Have seem alot of rag totes, and the light finally came onto make a tote using the smaller squares. Can't believe I actually had all the supplies to put this bag together, didn't have to go shopping.

The flowers were made using the flower die cut from Spellbinders. The die cut has three sizes, used all three. Each flower is three layers, fabric, batting and fabric once again. This was so easy as all three layers were cut at one time. I did use a glue stick to put the fabric together before putting through the Big Shot, it made it easier to do the stitching around the edges of the flower so they didn't slip. Built up the flower using all three sizes. The center of the flower is double face satin ribbon with a double knot.

The finishing touch was the leaves which are loops of ribbon. Hopefully your can see the detail of the centers and leaves with this photo. Also here is a video of how the flowers were made, they show sizzix diecuts, but you can also use Spellbinders.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope that this will be helpful if you want to make the flowers. Have a crafty day.

PRETTY IN PURPLE

2010-02-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

It is my granddaughter, Katie's, birthday this month, 18 is the magic number this year. She is such a sweet girl and enjoys school, she plays the harp, is in the Debate Club, and wants to be an actress. Her favorite color is purple, so everything she gets is that color. Last year she received a paper purse and a purple shoe, for her birthday.

I had made this card in pink and wanted to make sure that this year Katie got one that is purple. The base of the dress is cardstock and then I have added strips of purple sheer ribbon to create the designer dress. I also added picot bows at the top and across the bottom. The corners were also rounded with a corner rounder and Spellbinder scalloped oval die cut for the sentiment on the front.

Ribbon happens to be the challenge at The Pink Elephant, there are some wonderful project featuring ribbon on the blog, and this is my finished project. Know that Katie will really love this card and wish I could see her face when she opens it, she is such a "drama queen."
The above picture was taken at Christmas, this was the reaction she had about all of her gifts.
Happy Birthday, Katie!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a crafty day.

Romance is in the Air

2010-02-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

Once the Valentine cards were completed for my daughter's class, it was time to move on to a card for my Sweetheart. I had some ideas in the back of my mine, just finished the card a few minutes ago. Billy won't get it until tomorrow, as both of us work tonight, we will have our little romantic evening tomorrow with a candlelight dinner.

Last year I gave Billy a card and homemade brownies for Valentine's day, he was more impressed with the Valentine card, hope that he likes this one as much.

It just so happens that this card will be representing a few challenges also. Gingersnap Creations wanted a card to be romantic, that brings to mind, music, roses, hearts and of course hugs and kisses. The background paper was from Graphics Fairy, the roses were embossed, or should I say de-embossed using my Big Shot and the Textured Impressions Manhatton Flower. A brayer was used to color the flowers with Classic Red Ink from Stampin Up.

The love sentiment is from a wedding set, that was purchased at Joann's on clearance, got to love that. The ovals are from the scalloped oval die cuts from Spellbinders. The heart punch from Creative Memories was used to make the three matted hearts. Heart studs were added to the center of each of those hearts. This made for a "Mushy Gushy Valentine" which is the challenge for Pink Elephant, and "Have A Heart or Hearts" is the challenge at Daring Cardmakers.

Time for me to head off to work, hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day and you get hugs and kisses from your loved ones.

LOVE LETTERS

2010-02-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

These little mailboxes have been around for years, but I have never decorated one. It was a little harder than I thought it would be. Found this mailbox at Michaels, it was a Christmas mailbox, but changed it to hold love letters for Valentine's Day, this was a challenge at Scrappy Frog.

Used X's and O's paper from my stash, added ribbon around the middle. It was necessary to take off the arm, used brads to put it back on. The background for the letters was embossed using a Big Shot. The folder is from Provo Craft. Also used ribbon around the edge of the lid, also covered the front with a different heart paper.

The sentiment on the arm was stamped with red ink, and then colored in with colored pencils, the scalloped circles were made with Spellbinder die cuts. The flower on the corner of the sentiment is sheer ribbon, that are loops that are glued together and then added a heart stud in the center.

Maybe if I leave this out in the family room, Billy, will leave me a love note, for Valentine's Day, that would be a wonderful surprise.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a crafty one.

WATERCOLOR ROSES

2010-02-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Embossing is one of my favorite things to do when stamping. Last year when I stared to stamp again and blogging, I wondered onto Patty's Stamping, she had some wonderful cards where she had done watercoloring and embossing. At the time I had none of the necessary supplies to try this technique, but knew that it was something that I wanted to try. In the coming months I purchased the Fifth Avenue Floral Set, Reinkers and Aquapainters all from Stampin Up, sounds like a commercial.

With everything going on once I had the supplies I just never got around to trying the technique, until now, almost a year later. The challenge at Gingersnap Creations is to using embossing, the rose is embossing with pearl white embossing powder. Patty suggested shimmer paper, but I used a heavy cardstock, which worked well. Patty has a wonderful tutorial on this technique and you can see it by going to her blog and clicking on April 2008, Watercolor Roses--Technique and Video Tutorial. This was my first attempt at watercoloring with ink, I am not an artist so this was definetly something that I would not have done with out all of Patty's excellent information, it is so easy and fun to do.

The basic card is paper from Lasting Impressions, the ink colors were red, orange and yellow. Happy Birthday stamp is from Hero Arts. Added a little satin ribbon and bow to finish off the card. Love how it turned, the card will be given to one of my co-workers along with some homemade brownies to celebrate her birthday.

When trying the technique I stamped a couple of other roses, and tried different colors. The rose was used as the focal point for the sketch from Mojo Monday, Week #124.

The background paper is from Creative Memories, and Lasting Impressions. The embossing powder is pearl white, and basic yellow and orange were used to get the watercolor effect. Instead of paper on the bottom paper where the rose is, ribbon was used.

Have a few other stamps in my stash that I want to try this technique with in the future.

It's my Monday, so it is time to get ready for work. Have a crafty day, and thanks for stopping by.

TIME AND FUN

2010-01-29T13:01:00.000-08:00

Time flies when you're having fun! Truer words have never been spoken, the older we get the faster time flies. It does not seem possible that Monday we will be into February 2010. Where does the time go? Time happens be the Chestnut Theme Challenge and Gingersnap Creations, thus this is my interpretation of "Time."

While lying in bed, it dawned one me that "Time flies when you're having fun!" Now that I had that theme how to put that on a card. I realized I had a clock in one stamp set and wings in a fairy set so the only thing to do was put them together.

The background paper used for the background may look familiar to those of you that have papers that you purchased years ago. The edges of the card were distressed, the clocks were colored in with chalk. Found a charm to also add to the front.

The sentiment for the front and inside were computer generated. I also matted the inside of the card to finish the card off. It amazes me how we all look at these challenges in a different way, we are all so unique and it is so much fun to see what comes out of these challenges. Thanks to the DT for all of their inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by today, please leave a comment, and have a crafty day.

MORE AND MORE CIRCLES

2010-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

Just love to do circle cards, even though, they are few and far between. This one was just crying to be done. I had made a similar card last year that was for a gift card, but this one it a folded card, that looks like a flower. Mojo Monday is where the inspiration came from, and then I looked to The Pink Elephant, and Crazy 4 Challenges to put everything together.

The Pink Elephant challenge was Polka Dots, Bow, and Pink. Crazy 4 Challenges was Pretty in Pink.
The sketch at Mojo Monday could be done either as a circle or square.

For the center circle my scalloped circles from Spellbinder was used, then using a 1" circle punch the other two layers were added. Brown polka dot grosgrain ribbon for texture and hearts that were found at Michaels. The stamped sentiment was from a discontinued wedding set that I found at Joann's over 6 months ago, never know when you will be able to use some of those stamps, but just need to look at them from different points of view.

The first card I did was red, and then it dawned on me that the challenge was to use pink, oh well, it just made the pink one easier to complete. The paper was from Lasting Impressions, my sister found it at a huge discount. Love all those bargains!!

Have a list of cards and projects that I want to finish in the next couple of days, so am off to complete some Valentines. Please leave a comment, it is great to hear from all my blogging friends.

Have a crafty day.

ALI'S CARD IS CASED

2010-01-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Nothing like waiting to the last minute to meet this challenge at GC the dealine is today. "Once in a Blue Moon" challenge is "Case A Cas by Ali." This was really fun to do and found myself spending more time trying to find something to add the the clean and simple card. Checked the jewelry box, buttons, charms, anywhere I could think of, after hours and days of hunting this was the result.

This is just the beginning of the 27 cards for Valentine's Day I promised by daughter, Jamie, that I would make for the children in her class. This one will be for one of the 10 girls and then the real challenge will be to do something for the boys.

I used red for the base and then embossed the white card stock using an embossing pad from Provo Craft, the hearts were perfect. The stamped heart is a stamp that I found at Michael's for just $1, it has lots of detail, which is unusual for one of their inexpensive stamps. The heart is matted with two shades of red, then add dimensionals and placed on the black mat.

Found the metal heart and used red metallic twine to tie the bow, this was glued onto the center of the heart. A special thanks to the DT for your challenges, they always inspire me to make cards and try new techniques.

Have a wonderful day, please leave a comment, it is so fun to hear from everyone out there.

RESOLUTIONS????

2010-01-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, finally completed my project for the Resolutions challenge at Gingersnap Creations. With the new year comes resolutions, in the past I really haven't attempted or even stated that I would take on any kind of resolutions, but this years was a little different. Am getting older and felt that I was becoming unhealthy, and added a few pounds.

Know that losing weight is probably the #1 resolution out there, but this was just one of mine. We want to make some major changes in our lives this year and they will take quite a bit of time, but trying to lose weight was the one that I could focus on "now."

Have started to juice and exercise a little, watching what I eat and when. Have lost 9 lbs, so far. One of the ideas that was mentioned to keep on track was to write down what you eat each day, thus here is my Food Journal.

Have a stack of composition notebooks that I bought last September and altered it to my taste. Stamped strawberries on the polkadot paper. Used Martha Stewart's lace border punch for the accent. The Food Journal letter is computer generated, and last but not least this is the new die cuts from Spellbinders, that my daughter, Kaylene, gave me for Christmas.

As they say, your have to make healthier choice, seeing things in writing has really helped me to see how to improve my health.

Have a great crafty day.

BLOOMING TULIPS

2010-01-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

I must love presure, saw this sketch last week at Our Creative Corner and wanted to create a card, but as usual waited to the last minute. Picked out the paper last week, and had a stamp ready to go, only problem was that the stamped image was too large for the card, back to the drawing board.

Was determined to finish the card yesterday, and found this tulip stamp in my stash, it is from Hero Arts and have had it for more than a decade, always loved it. Didn't stamp for alot of years and all my stamps used to be in a shadow box on the wall, they became art and just looked pretty. Since moving back to Vegas they are now in a drawer and I can't see them all, forget what I have they aren't where I can enjoy them all the time, need to do something about that little issue.

This was such a fun card to do, stamped the design on patterned paper, think this is a first, always think you need to stamp on plain paper. I used colored pencils to add the coloring of the flowers and the leaves. Used the lace border punch from Martha Stewart, my cutting system for the circles, and a butterfly punch from Creative Memories. Double faced satin ribbon was used for extra texture to the paper lace border.

Time for me to take on a few household duties, and then I want to work on a Resolution challenge that Gingersnap Creations is offering, as usual know what I want to do, just need to get it done. Am off to have some fun. Have a crafty day.

A LITTLE TITLED

2010-01-16T12:17:00.000-08:00

Made this card for a special challenge at Gingersnap Creations, it is a titled mat. My sister gave me a new die cut for Christmas. It is one die cut that will cut about 6 different shapes. The die cut is from Cuttlebug and is a Damask Frame, couldn't wait to give this one a try. It also has an embossing pad with it, will be using that on upcoming cards.

The background paper is Eskimo Kisses Paper Pad. The clip art is from Graphics Fairy, and speaks volumes. Can't wait for my sister to see that I have actually used her gift right away. Also received a Spellbinders Die cut from daughter, but haven't used it yet, never fear, I will be using it soon.

Time for me to head off to work. Will be making Valentine's for my daughter, on my days off, need to make 27 for her 6th grade class. If anyone has any simple ideas, let me know. She has 17 boys in her class so can't make them to cutesy. (No candy either) .

Have a crafty day.

THANKS FOR THE STITCHING

2010-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Have been wandering around to all the blogs that I love to check out, spent more time doing that then creating, but did get a couple of cards made. Paper Craft Planet has a tutorial on how to use paper towels to give texture you your card stock. Looked very interesting so had to give it a try.

It is a little hard to see but I did use the paper towel to add the texture to the background of the card. It does give an interesting effect and is simple to do, I used Chocolate Chip ink on the off white card stock.

You have to overlook the stitching, it is not straight at all, this was my first time using a sewing machine to make the stitching. Thought this would be pretty easy, but as you can see I need a lot more practice sewing on paper. Stitching on the card was a challenge at Sherrod Studios.

The layout for the card is a sketch from MOJO MONDAY Week #121. The papers used are from Lasting Impressions. A corner punch was used to add a little more interest to the sentiment and mat.

Well, it is my Monday, and going to work. Let's see what is in store for us this week. The tourist in Las Vegas is so unpredictable with the economy down. They say things might be on the upswing, or was November just a fluck.

Have a crafty day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLENE!

2010-01-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since my last post. Have been on vacation, and gotten back to work, and work has been crazy with New Years and one of the biggest conventions in Las Vegas, working overtime, so no time to have any fun with my blog.

Did manage to make a birthday card for my daughter and take a couple of challenges. Of course it will be late, as I won't get to the Post Office until Monday or Tuesday and her birthday is Tuesday, January 12th. Know that she understands that her mother is always a few days late, since we live so far apart now days. My birthday wish for her in 2010 is health, wealth and happiness. She had a rough year in 2009, but is getting back into the swing of things. Driving in snow to and from work, and trying to deal with the cold weather, she was raised in Las Vegas where the sun always shines.

Kaylene is adjusting well to the single digits, and loves her new family, home and career, know this will be a great year for her and her family.

This is the card that will be sent to her. Crafty Creations has a challenge to use black and white with a touch of color. Sherrod Studios' challenge was to use the gate fold technique.

Kept the card pretty simple, that seems to be my preference. Add a white bow, and some red rhinestones on the oval. The ovals were made with my cutting system from Creative Memories.

The sentiment is to the point, Happy Birthday!

Time for me to head off to work, it may be Sunday for the majority of the country, but it is my Friday. Have some plans for my days off to create a few projects, hopefully that will come about.

Have a great weekend and a crafty day.

"Jackson"

2009-12-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

This adorable little boy angel, reminds of my niece's little boy Jackson, who has blonde hair that is naturally curly. Haven't seen him in awhile, just in pictures that Rachel's posts on her Facebook page.

Gingersnap has a challenge to use a frame on your card, my frame is a little unconventional. Wanted the frame to be on the soft side, therefore, using ribbon around the image seemed to be the perfect touch that I was shoting towards.

Jackson's wings are 3-dimensional, so is the basket. Printed the picture twice and cut out the wings and basket, you can find the picture at The Graphics Fairy. Found these great snowflake shaped rhinestones at Michaels and they are the perfect finishing touch to my card. Used my corner rounder to soften the edges of the card and also the image.

This card also met the requirements for two other challenges:

The Pink Elephant #45---Winter or Christmas

Our Creative Corner -- Holiday or Christmas

We are getting ready to go on vacation for Christmas, leaving this weekend, am so excited to spead time with all of my family. This is the first Christmas that we will all be together for several years. The kids are older now, but know that this will be a special year, the first year we will spend with Kaylene and her new family, Kevin will be with us for the whole day (he is usually with his father part of the day). Jamie, Tim and the boys are coming from Reno, it will be our first Christmas at Kaylene's.

Won't have computer in Utah, so this is it until next year. Want to wish everyone out there in Blogland, Happy Holidays!! Thank you for sharing all of your talents and being so supportive. Look forward to the New Year, and know that it will have plenty to offer.

See you in 2010.

Card Tin

2009-12-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Having been making cards all year long for my granddaughters. Last year I made boxes, but have too many cards this year. Bought a white tin at Michaels and decorated lid and around the box.

When I need inspiration for decorating boxes or tins, can always find some great sketches at Mojo Monday. The sketch used is for week #116 challenge, this was such fun to do and am very pleased with the results.

The papers that were used for the first tin was from Scrapbooks...on the Go! Moments Remembered booklet. Used a corner rounder on the background papers, distressed the edges and also the mats for the circle, to give the tin an aged look. Circle cutting system from Creative Memories was used for the circles. A ribbon bow and charm was also added to complete the lid.

Ribbon was also placed around the tin and using 1 1/2" squares were also placed on the tin. This tin is for my daughter Jamie, she receive a paper box last year, this will be so much better has it will hold all different sized cards.

The second tin was for Katie, she plays the harp, wanted to used sheet music for the background and of course here favorite color of purple. The sheet music and 2 girls on the lid came from Graphics Fairy. Added purple rhinestones on the corner, Katie will love it, just because of all the purple.

Third tin is for Nicole, her favorite color is pink. You can never have enough pink.

Have opened a can of worms with these tins, want to make one for my other daughter, sister, and myself.

Need to start working on a few more Christmas projects, hope everyone has a crafty day. Please leave a comment, thanks for stopping by today.

Shop Til You Drop

2009-12-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

Haven't had time to do much the last few days, my hours at work have changed so I am trying to adjust, and not doing a very good job. Have been working longer hours as the Rodeo is in town and we are extremely busy, don't get me wrong am not complaining on the other hand am extremely happy that we are busy.

I got an email yesterday and I won a challenge at Scrappy Frogs Challenges for my Thanksgiving Dinner layout, was in total shock. Super excited and now I can add another button to my blog. The challenge for this week is to show shopping. Knew that I had download clipart from Fairy Backgrounds that was perfect for the challenge and I have a plaque on my wall that reads "Born to shop not to mop."

All I need now was a sketch, off to Mojo Monday for Week #115 for the inspiration.

This is just what the doctor ordered, quick and easy. Here is the card that developed.

Love vintage clipart and am really enjoying working with all of these fun images. Oh, for the good old days! These wonderful images and be found at Graphics Fairy, check it out. am sure that you will find some inspiration.

Time for me to head off to work. Have more cards and a couple of beaded ornaments to share with you on my days off.

Please leave comments, they always brighten by day. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Snowflake Easel Card

2009-12-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

This card was created for the Gingersnap Creations Home Page, didn't get it sent properly, so I still wanted to share it with everyone. Have already submitted a card for the monochromatic challenge, but here is a second project. A tutorial can be found for the easel card at Paper Craft Planet by Erika Martin - Stampin' Mama, the step by step instructions are easy to follow. The stamp that I used was larger, so it was necessary to change the size of the card.

The use of the corner punch on the corners allowed me to slide the picture on the red mat. It is really had to see in the pictures, but rhinestones were also added to the snowflake. Once again the stamps used were from a Christmas set by Indadinkado.

This is one of those cards that could be mass produced, quick and easy. Now all I need to do is get started with my Christmas Cards for everyone at work, am going to try and get Billy to help, but don't know how far that will go. Although I did get him to the mall the other night, wish I had had my camera with me. lol

Have a crafty day.

Cowgirls Rule

2009-11-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

I am so bad, it was my granddaughters birthday on November 24th, had some cards that I had already made, but they just didn't seem to fit the bill, of course the card had to be unique. The search was on! Ali mentioned The Graphics Fairy (I think last week) so I dropped by, found some great old prints. The first one was a boy fairy, loved the print, it was a must to use. That card is going to be used for a challenge at Gingersnap Creations in the next couple of day, but I diverse.

The next print was of a cowgirl, it was perfect, my granddaughter is definitely a cowgirl, and I hear they "Rule". This card is the result:

This was so much fun to do, the edges of the print were torn and then burnt to give an antique look. The words were computer generated, the letters look like barbwire. The hat and boots are buttons, just so happens that GC has a challenge using buttons, what a coincidence, LOL.

Know that I have been absent alot this month, but my goal for December is to post more often. I have taken on a project at work for a weekly newsletter, so it seems that I am always at the computer trying to come up with ideas and articles that all the employees will find informative and interesting, therefore when I get home to post on my blog seems to be even harder, enough with the excuses.

We are getting ready for a busy 10 days here in Las Vegas, Wranglers National Finals Rodeo will be in town, they are so much fun, love to see the cowboys, in their, boots, hats, and tight jeans. LOL

Time to work on Christmas gifts, everyone have a crafty day.

Counting our Blessings

2009-11-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has some time set a side this week to give thanks for all the special people in our lives. Unfortunately, Billy and I will be working on Thanksgiving, but that won't stop me for giving thanks for my wonderful family, they truly are a blessing.

Jamie (my daughter) was going to come to Vegas for Thanksgiving, she lives in Reno,but decided not to this year. Kaylene (my other daughter) will be spending Thanksgiving with her inlaws in Utah. But the bright side is that we will all be together for a few days at Christmas.

Scrappy Frogs challenge until Thanksgiving was to incorporate Thanksgiving Dinner on your project. The wonderful memories came flowing back about our Thanksgiving a few years ago in Utah. Jamie and my two grandsons surprised my mother and I by coming to visit. We had no idea that they were coming so it made that year very special. My Aunt and her husband also joined up for the celebration. It was a no brainer it was absolutely necessary for me to take pictures and add them to my scrapbook.

The two page layout is very simple, and the turkey was made using my cutting system from Creative Memories. The picture on the righthand corner is everyone seating down for dinner and the main focal point is a plate full of huge rolls, they were humongous and we couldn't wait to get our hands on them. My Aunt Elayne usually does all the cookin', she has even published a cookbook, but my sister and I took on the challenge this year.

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week. Leave me a comment love to hear from my blog family.

Blue on Blue

2009-11-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

Have taken the time to take on a couple of new challenges. Inspiration come from the list of challenges that are posted on my desk, Billy comments on all the post a notes, but it does help me to check out the daily challenges. This week there was lots of inspiration, and that makes it easy for me to set down and create a card.

The sketch on Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge turned on the light in my small brain, and I couldn't wait to give this one a try.

Later on in the week Gingersnap Creations offered up the challenge of monochromatic. The cards the ladies on the design team are all wonderful. These ladies are such an inspiration for me, each one is so supportive. The idea of doing a card in monochromatic was different for me, but that is why I love this group so much. These ladies always come up with new and fun ideas that push us to take on challenges that we otherwise would not.

The stamps that were used were from Inkadinkado, a Christmas set that was purchased at Michaels. This set has 14 different stamps, have used it on some of my other creations, and have some other projects that will be featured here in the next couple of days.

Wanted to add a little dimension to the card, so dimensionals were added to the large snowflake, (notice a pattern with my cards, last card had dimensionals, now this one.) Loved the small snowflake so much that I got carried away and stamped a couple on the envelope. The circles were made with my trusty cutting system.

Thanks for the inspiration and have a crafty day.

Cozy Home

2009-11-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

I am back, it has been almost a month since my last post. Things have been a little crazy around the house, guess that is just an excuse for not creating any cards. It is that time of year that I try to come up with new ideas for Christmas. Last year I gave cards to my daughters, so that was kind of out, since I've been making new ones all year and they have gotten them when we have been together.

Have been doing a little sewing though, making PJs and rag quilts. One rag quilt down and one to go. The second one is for Billy and it is hard to work on it when we work the same hours. Have it cut, but now it is time to put it together.

At work I am working on a weekly newsletter, so writing on my blog seems to be chore now. I am going to have to change my thinking on that one. Took the time to check out a few challenges the other day, they did help to get me motivated on a couple of paper crafts.

This card is serving double duty, the GC of Cozy Home and Crafty Calendar which is weather. I have had this stamp for years and years, it was untouched and when GC had the challenge for Cozy Home, this was a natural.

Know this is a hard one to see all the detail in the stamp, but I think you get the picture. Colored pencils were used to color the stamp. You can't see it but I used the glue pen and embossing powder technique from GC on the snow. On the left corner there was a mistake, so extra embellishments were the answer, tried ribbon and buttons, but they just didn't seem to tie into the card. Cut out the trees from the stamp and added them to corner with dimensionals.

The challenge at Crafty Calendars was weather, the snow reminds me of Utah, where the weather changes on a dime. When we were there in September, one day it was in the 70's the next day there was snow. Miss the four seasons that Utah has to offer.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a crafty day.

2 x CHALLENGE

2009-10-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Nothing like getting a challenge done at the last minute, but I am told by my friends that I like the pressure. The card that is pictured is for two challenges, Ink on my Fingers which was to use circles and Gingersnap Creations use the colors black, white, and silver.

For the circle challenge my cutting system was used to make a 3 layer circle mat, a bow with rhinestones was then added in the center of the circles. Love the colors of black and white they are so clean. The rhinestone bow was an item in the clearance area at Michaels, it was a hat pin, forgot that it was in my stash. This would have been perfect for the bling challenge at GC, always a day late and a dollar short.

The sentiment was from Stampology, this set has come in very handy. has 10 sayings and are very versitale. The flower and lace border were thank you notes that were also on clearance, (cheated on this part of the card, didn't have to use my punch) cut of the border off the bottom of the card and added it to the black base cardstock. Find myself drawn to the clearance area of the stores that I shop to see what kind of deals are hidden in this aisle.

Time for me to get ready for work. Have a great weekend and crafty day.

Harvest Time

2009-10-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned in previous posts, autumn is my favorite time of year, no wonder there was another autumn card in my future. There are some new challenges out there and that is where the inspiration came from.

Sherrod Studio has a wonderful sketch and this is the layout that was used for the card, love the idea of patterned paper, but even more using a diagonal cut on the card.

Used sheer ribbon and also grosgrain polka dot ribbon, this was such a fun card. The stamp is from Stampin Up "Harvest Time", used the sentiment that came with the stamp set for the inside.

Other challenges were as follows:

The Pink Elephant---Fall

Crafty Calendar Challenge ---Autumn, Optional Vegetation

Gingersnap Creations --- Harvest

I really do depend on the challenges for my inspiration, they make you think and then the real challenge is to use what is around the house. This is my way was harvesting, LOL.

Hope everyone has a great day, it's my Monday at work. Made another card for GC that will be posted in the next couple of days. Once again thanks to all the sites that offer challenges, have a crafty day.

An Untraditional Christmas

2009-10-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

Decided that it was time to take on a couple of challenges on my days off. The new challenge at CCC is pale, interesting. Gingersnap Creations has had the challenge of stars and will be closing soon , so I really wanted to participate. Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog (just happen on this one while checking out some work from the DT from GC) is to use a tree, any kind of tree.

The tree that was stamped is from Inkadinkado, which was purchased at Michaels, the set has ll clear stamps in the set. Garden Green ink from Stampin Up! was my choice of color. Had an idea for the layout, by changing the colors of the background and patterned paper two challenges would be acheived. Pale paper from "heidi grace designs" collection was used for the first card. This paper is available at Joann's, open stock. These are definitely not your standard Christmas colors, but then again neither is my Christmas tree decorations, it is all pink and crystals. This paper was a must just didn't know what project it would be used for or when.

That was the hard challenge, now onto challenge #2, stars for GC, that was easy, changed the background paper that had stars and add a rhinestone star on top of the tree. The ovals for the tree stamp were made with my cutting system from Creative Memories, and a bow completed the card. Base of the card is 5"x 5", the papers are from my stash, am sure that everyone that has been doing scrapbooking or making cards will recognize the paper from eons ago.

Enjoyed taking on these challenges and am very pleased with the outcome. Challenges have become my inspiration for cardmaking and love all the different avenues that are available to us.

I have been given a new challenges at work to put out a weekly newsletter. Am very excited about the opportunity, hope that I am upto this new "challenge."

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day.

Plump Pumpkins

2009-10-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

Love this time and year, so this is another good reason to do a card for the Crafty Creations Challenge, this week is leaves, or autumn theme.

Just got the Harvest Home stamp, from Stampin Up while in Utah last week must have had an ideas that this stamp would be perfect for this challenge. The card itself is very simple, used colored pencils to color in the stamp, did faux stitching with gold and copper gel pens. The leaves are from a punch that came from Creative Memories. The inside of the card also used the sentiment from the stamp set.

One of the reasons I love fall so much is that it is the beginning of the holiday season, I know that I will be seeing my family soon. Our plan for Christmas is to be in Utah at from daughter Kaylene's. Jamie, who lives in Reno maybe coming to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. Last year when Jamie was here we made bookmarks for her students, we will definetly be doing something special once again this year.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful and crafty day, thanks for stopping by.

Spooky Halloween

2009-10-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

Each month Gingersnap Creations picks a theme for Home Page Art and members enter their creations, this is the card that I submitted for the month of October, the theme being "Spooky."

My grandson Kevin was born on Halloween, so of course he needed a special card, he will be 15 this year, can't believe it, I can't be that old. LOL.

The card is a 3D haunted house with all kinds of crazy creatures inside. On the front of the card dimensionals were used for the shutters. Distressed the edges of the windows and also the eves. What would a haunted house be without spiders and a purple door.

When you open the card, there seems to be alot of activity. Ghosts popping out, witches brewing their special potions a few laughing pumpkins, the tombstones also have skulls on them, but they are hard to see, got them at Michaels, know that Kevin will be "spooked" and surprised with the "Boo" that also pops out.

The inside of the card could also hold pictures of the kids in there Halloween costumes, so that family members could see how fun the holiday can be, what a great Treat for Grandma and Grandpa.

Was checking out all the challenges out there and this card also fit the bill for Daring Card Makers, folding is the challenge, think this card fits right into this challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day.

Angel in Pink

2009-09-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

What would I do without challenges, probably nothing! This card is for OCC challenge to use light pink, hot pink, white and chocolate chip. The other challenge is for CCC to have a window on the card. Silly me thought this would be a piece of cake, but trying to make a window with 2 mats was an all day ordeal, but the results were worth the time invested.

Light pink was the base of the card, the cutting system from Creative Memories was used to make the window in the card with the oval. It was necessary to cut the smaller oval in the front of the card first using hot pink. The next oval was white cut a little larger and then the final oval out of chocolate chip.

The first card the angel was stamped on the inside of the card on pink, but this just didn't show off the stamp. Wanted the stamp to be a little bighter so the angel was stamped on the oval that was left when cutting out the mat. Colored pencils were used to color in the stamp which is from Inkadinkado. Purchased this stamp at Michaels, they have expanded their selection of clear stamps.

Used chocolate chip ink from Stampin Up for the design. Felt that the card wasn't quite complete so the hot pink ribbon was added and also the punched flowers in hot pink. This punch is also from Creative Memories.

Time for me to head off to work, it is my Monday. Have a crafty day.

P. S. My sister had started to blog, check out some of her work here.

Tea Time

2009-09-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

Crafty Creations Challenges this week was tea or coffee. Tea is an every day part of my life. My S.O. has at least 10 cups of tea a day he says it is good for him, that it has antioxidant, which does, it he didn't added sugar the tea would be much more beneifical, he won't give the sugar and cream. Oh well, he has given up smoking and that is great.

The stamp used is from Hero Arts and is one of my oldie but goodies. It was a set with teapots and also had a tea cup border. Had used the border before, so I really wanted to use a different stamp for this challenge. The papers used are from Lasting Impressions and were perfect for the layout.

The squares reminded me of a quilt, thus I added the faux stitching, love the outcome of this card. Found the perfect saying at Quote Garden to finish the inside of the card, this is where I go to find all types of poems or sayings.

A limited edition corner rounder was used for the sentiment. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a crafty day. Thanks for stopping by.

Fall is in the Air

2009-09-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

My favorite season is fall, mainly because in Las Vegas, there is no fall. No wonderful trees changing colors, palm trees just aren't the same. Love to go to the canyons in Utah and see all the amazing colors for the season. This card is a representation of the season, and the sentiment "Thinking of You."

The motivation came from a couple of challenges, Rosie Dee's which was 2 squares and a rectangle. The other challenge came from OCC which is fall this was a no brainier.

Using a pattern paper for the background, the two squares are green and brown solid card stock in the corners of the squares I used a gold gel pen to get a faux look a very small brad. The leaves were created with a paper punch from Creative Memories. The tree from Stampin' Up, Thoughts and Prayers Set, with chocolate chip ink. The sentiment is from a K & Company set. It is hard to see but I also added stitching about the tree in brown.

This was such a fun card to do and everything came together with hardly any effort. I did pick out the stamp first, which I really need to do each time a card its made. It seems that I get too involved in the layout, and then don't have the right stamp to finish the card, have everything backwards.

Hope that this card inspires everyone to do something with these wonderful colors. Have a great day and take the time to do something creative.

Oh My! Pink and Purple

2009-09-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

A special card and gift for one of the ladies at work. She loves the color purple, her car is even purple. On one of my trips to Utah, I found some wonderful beads at Hobby Lobby and ask my daughter (Kaylene) to make Gigi a beaded watch. This is the result, love it, know that she will also love it, not just because it is purple. The band can be changed to match your outfit, and she will be getting a different band for Christmas. These are such unique watches and can be personalized for anyone.

Thanks Kaylene for making such a perfect gift, know that Gigi is going to flip.

Of course it was necessary for me to make a birthday card, had a pink envelope and that is where the inspiration came from for this card. Used some patterned paper from Lasting Impressions and then the classic scalloped circles and ovals from Spellbinder. Would have never thought to put circles and ovals on the same card, I was always taught not to mix strips and plaids when growing up, so that is just the way my mind thinks. Years ago we would have never thought to mix patterns, in our clothing, but it is so excepted now that it is the norm, now I am telling my age.

The inside had to be a little funny, hence the quote from Lucille Ball---

The secret of staying young

is to live honestly, eat

slowly, and lie

about your age.

Used the classic oval once again to carry through the shapes on the front, and added the finishing touch of a flower in the corner. This was such a fun card to make and a one of a kind. I've been making 10 of all the cards I've been making lately, but wanted this one to be unique.

The only stamp used on this card was the Happy Birthday. Am so excited about giving Gigi her gift and card, can't wait to get to work. (I must be crazy!!)

Have a great weekend and crafty day.

Embossed Snowflakes

2009-09-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not I have been working on some cards, have completed them, taken pictures, but just haven't posted them. My mojo is basically gone at this moment, well all of that is going to stop today, will be showing you some of the cards that I've been working on. The first one today is for the CCC #32 challenge to using embossing. The card is embossing by using my Sizzix and Big Shot with snowflakes, then stamped embossing for another snowflake and the sentiment.

Hope you can see the detail, but don't know, sorry for the lousy photo, that will have be my next learning experience, how to take better photos.

Think I am going to have to try and master the basics in cards, once again. When I first started scrapbooking everything was about making a beautiful page and I would spend hours making it perfect and forget that the focus should be on the pictures and memories, not all the extras, will be re-evaluating my thinking on cards.

Have a special card that will be posted tomorrow, it is for one of the ladies at work. Will also show you the beaded watch my daughter made as a gift.

Have a great crafty day.

Oh My! Patterned Papers

2009-09-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

This has been a funny few days off, can't seem to get motivated to do anything. Have been checking out all the challenges to get the juices flowing. Once I checked them out it was a matter of using what I have on hand to try and conquer those challenges. CCC is one of my favorite sites. Their challenge this week is to use at least 3 patterned papers on one card, it may sound easy but for me this is really hard, just can't seem to wrap my mind around this concept. I went through all my scraps and came up with a few pieces that I thought might coordinate, this was part of my own challenge to use scraps, as there are so many.

The first card is using western paper, so denim seemed to be the perfect match, but what could be added? Why not a cowboy hat from another western print, the only sentiment that seemed to fit the bill was "Howdy" which once again was computer generated, hence this was the result.

Had quite an assortment of western paper so I did make a few more cards to use the paper, thus having less scraps in my stash. The other cards don't have three patterned papers, but it was fun to try and use what was on hand.

Had some other papers that were pink and this is my second card for the challenge. In my quest for inspiration, happened to land on Rubbernecker Stamps challenge for Wednesday which was "Cut It Out". Found this stamp that I have had for years, it had writing around the edge which I didn't want to use, thus I cut out the image and added it to my card. The lady on the stamp seems to be thinking of someone that is far away. Coloring in the stamp was done with colored pencils.

Well, it is time to get ready for work. Hope everyone has a crafty day.

Neopolitan Notebook

2009-08-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Was checking out all the challenges that were out there for Sunday and ran across Rosie-Dee's Challenge Blog. The challenge #50 is ice cream inspired, Neopolitan to be exact. I had just finished another altered notebook and this fits the menu perfectly.

The papers are strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. Matted the paper with chocolate and then added strawberry and vanilla flowers. The flowers were made using my Sizzix, used three layers to give some dimension,then added die cut leaves that are from SU. The leaves and circle sentiment are in an additional ice cream color we will call blueberry.

The sentiment was computer generated, then layered using dimensionals, this is now my favorite notebook, and it will be given to someone special at our family reunion.

Happiness is one of the challenges at GSC and this is was makes me happy. They have had different quotes all month regarding happiness this is just one of them, it reads

Finding happiness is like

finding yourself. You

don't find happiness, you

make happiness.

David Leonhardt

Thanks to the talented ladies at GSC these quotes have been put to good use, copies them and made little signs for our office, they have been greatly appreciated by the staff, a little positive energy never hurt anyone.

The quote for today really hit home and can't wait to put it up in the office, know that all of your being so creative will relate to this quote:

The greatest happiness

in life is to be truly

and consistently

creative.

--Peter Koestenbaum

Hope everyone has a crafty day.

Rainbow Travel Journal

2009-08-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

Not just one challenge, not two, or three, but four challenges in one. This was a challenge in it's self, but really fun.

Challenge #l was a rainbow and Gingersnap Creations. Wanted to make some journals for an upcoming reunion, had some paper in my stash and covered the composition notebook. Added some other colors on the cover and stamped "Memories" on the green. and "Enjoy" on the yellow.

Added pocket in red to hold the chipboard luggage tag. Chipboard was also one of the challenges at GC. Using chipboard is new for me, have purchased some and had also been given coasters from the local restaurant. Made a die cut of a tag from Sizzix, the tag was the challenge at Crafty Creations. The chipboard used had advertising on it, so it was necessary to cover the tag, used travel paper, then stamped it with "Our Journey" added ribbon, the tag can be used as a luggage tag for easy identification when locating your luggage at the airport.

The red pocket also has our "Our Journey" stamped on it (sorry the picture doesn't show the stamp.)

The last challenge was for Cinema Saturday Challenge, using red stitching, representing the movie "Field of Dreams." The red stitching was added to each white mat and also around the edge of the entire journal. (Once again I need to work on my photography.)

This is one of my favorite projects, in the past I have done notebooks for bridal showers, Christmas gifts for fellow employees, recipes books, and now a travel journal.

Just a quick note, I used a MOJO MONDAY sketch for the layout, it really works great, only required one full sheet of 12 x 12 printed paper, am ready to product a few more journals. There are all kinds of sketches out there the layouts are prefect for doing the notebooks.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day.

Mellow Yellow

2009-08-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to leave for Salt Lake at 6am tomorrow, but wanted to participate in this weeks challenge to use yellow at Crafty Creations Challenges. Have been working on the project before going to work, but just couldn't get it together, know that is no excuse.

Well this morning everything came together. This is my first time using my new Fifth Avenue Floral set from SU, love what can to do with these flowers, it will take some practice on my part to get a realistic look on the rose, but wanted to at least give this a try. Have been making 10 of each card, no doubt I can get some of the practicing done while in Utah and sitting around in the hospital. (Billy is going to be having some tests run, hopefully the doctors will be able to tell us that the pain in his legs is minor and that he won't have to have major surgery.)

Enough about all that stuff. A challenge for myself was to use some of the ribbon that I had hanging around, (this is ribbon I had when I was in business with my mom years, and years ago) the plaid has a touch of blue in it and thus the card is layered with just a touch of blue.

Time to start getting things together for our quick trip.

Have a crafty day.

Make A Wish

2009-08-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

My favorite group is Gingersnap Creations. Thanks to the creative ladies they expand my horizons when it comes to making cards. This month Ali opened up the world of patterned papers, she had a wonderful technique and it is simple to do and the results are wonderful.

I don't use patterned papers very often, even though I have quite a selection. With Ali's help this is the cards that emerged.

I printed the sentiment on the paper before cutting it into strips. Will definitely be making more of these and will have a different perspective when checking out all those wonderful patterned papers that are available.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a crafty day.

COUNT 'EM TWO CHALLENGES

2009-08-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has happened again, two challenges in one. CSCC#44 "The Thief Lord" the challenge is sisters or brothers. I haven't seen the movie, but can really relate to the challenge. I am blessed with one wonderful sister, she inspires me to be better than I am. Kay is so talented and has no limitations, she is so creative and shares her talents with everyone. When we are together my juices flow and we come up with all kinds of projects to do, the only problem is we don't have enough time to get everything completed. Kay is on the go all the time and can accomplish more in one day than I can in a month, she truly is an "energizer bunny" LOL

Last week I made a card that featured sisters, and wanted to make a new one for this weeks challenge, am pretty pleased with the outcome. Used patterned papers and also stamped on the papers. The sentiment was computer generated, and then stamped with a scroll on the sentiment paper. This was completely out of my comfort zone, but liked the results.

The second challenge was CC#27, to use buttons on your project. I only used one, hope that is still classified as a qualification for the challenge. Used gold twine to make a bow through the button to tie in with the sentiment. The stamps are from Inkadinkado, paper Lasting Impressions. Here is a close up of the poem about sisters.

Let me know what you think of the cards, and how they can be improved. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my projects.

Have a crafty day.

What Can I Say?

2009-08-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone is having a great day, talked with my daughter, Kaylene, they were going fishing. Not going to tell Billy, he will be jealous. We will be going to work later today instead.

Was going to post this card yesterday, but had computer problems, I get so irritated when that happens, am not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to this fancy typewriter. Luckily was able to get in touch with my son-in-law, Tim, the computer whiz and he got things going once again, thank goodness, don't know what I would do, this is my therapy. Enough about all that here is my card for today.

My first attempt at a tri-shutter card, have seen them on every one's blogs and was in aah! Just had to sit down and really focus on what paper to use and stamps. The video tutorial I used was over at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts, there is also a tutorial with step by step instructions and video at SCS in the resource section. The card looks complicated, but was really easy, everyone needs to give this one a try.

There are so many things that you can do with this card, and anyone who receives it will be amazed. I was so pleased with my finished project that I couldn't wait to show it to Billy, his comment was "WOW", that was the reaction I was hoping for.

The small butterflies and scroll stamps are from K and Company, the large one is so old I don't know, sorry. The large scroll is from Inkadinkado. The oval is a classic scalloped oval from Spellbinder. Unfortunately my selection of sentiment stamps are very limited, so once again I turn to my computer.

The base of the card is card stock, and then I used pattern papers from Lasting Impressions, the packet has 3 sheets of 5 different patterns, it worked perfect for this project, as I have a real problem with patterned papers, it seems they never come together quite right. With one packet of paper I was able to make 9 cards, love it!

The butterflies were colored in with pencils, this was such a fun project, it is on my list to do again.

Time for me to get my mind around going to work.

Have a great crafting day.

Sister's Day

2009-08-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

Over at Gingersnap Creations, there is a list of Reasons to Stamp, the #2 reason is Sister's Day. One of my goals was to use scrap paper, but hopefully have enough paper to complete 9 cards. Everything just seemed to come together, I love vintage type paper had plenty in my stash, it was a no brainer. That is where the inspiration came for this card, also knew that everyone in my family would relate to the picture and verse.

After searching The Vintage Moth blog, I found the perfect photo. My mother came from a large family with 5 sisters, the majority of their photos were of the three oldest girls, hence the reason behind the vintage photo of "Three Sisters". Now it was necessary to find the perfect verse, knew that I hadn't seen a stamp, so the quest was on. Found all kinds of great sayings, but the one that hit home was as follows:

I know some sisters who only

see each other on Mother's Day

and some who will never speak

again. But most are like my

sister and me.......

linked by volatile love, best friends

who make other best friends ever so

slightly less best.

----Patricia Volk

The photo is matted with classic scalloped oval from Spellbinders. Distressed the edges of the sentiment card on the front and inside. (Could not get a picture of the inside, have to use your imagination,sorry!)

Didn't use any stamps, but love the results.

Stop by Gingersnap Creations for more reasons to stamp, we are also looking for new members, love this group of ladies.

Have a crafty day.

Inspirational Challenge

2009-08-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

CCC's challenge this week was to use the art of Lauren Alexander as an inspiration for a unique creation. The colors are very bright and that was my original inspiration. Started to work on a card, but the card just wouldn't come together. Did complete a card was not happy with it, so I got to thinking about some of the cards we had made in Utah. This was the card that immediately came to mind, bright colors and very whimsical, can't be any more whimsical than a silhouette of Tinkerbell.

Tinkerbell was cut out by using Cricut Expression, loved the look, very clean and simple layout. A true inspiration is to "Be Yourself," this is one of the reasons I like creating cards because we can be ourselves, no holds barred as to what or how we want to interpret a challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great crafting day.

GC Ribbon Challenge

2009-07-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Really quick today, wanted to post the card for Gingersnap Creations Ribbon Challenge. The card was made while in Utah. My daughter Kaylene cut out the ornaments using a Cricut and putting the ornament together, all I had to do was put them on a card add the ribbon and the sentiment.

The hard part of this card was taking the photo, sorry it isn't that great, the hologram paper on the background made it pretty hard to photograph.

Gingersnap Creations is looking for new members, it is such a fun group, and they offer great ideas and challenge to motivate it's members. Check it out, think you will really enjoy all of there contributions.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great crafting day.

Friendship

2009-07-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since my last post, things have been crazy around my family. We came home from Utah and then returned 5 days later. Billy had more tests done, and I was able to spend more time with my daughter and sister. We will be returning to Utah once again in August, hopefully will get some answers about the pain in his legs and we will know what the next step will be.

We were able to make cards, nine to be exact, we made six of each for a swap, so we really did get alot completed. I will be posting some of those cards at a later date.

I really wanted to participate in a challenge at Crafty Creations to get motivated again. My goal is to make 6 of each card to continue the swap with my sister, her family and my family, finding that it is just as easy to make one card as six.

This is Sketch Challenge #25 for CCC.

This was a new experience for me, I've not used a sketch for a challenge so this definitely a challenge for me. I seem to always go for solid colors and stay away from prints, am trying to use more prints, but it didn't really happen with this card.

The flower pot stamp, was part of a set from Hero Arts, this was in my stash from years ago, longer than I'd like to remember, LOL! The sentiment stamp is from Stampology.

Reversed colors and added rhinestones, and a flower rhinestone for accents.

Will continue to try and create out my comfort zone. Do like the results, but know that improvements can be made.

Have a great crafting day.

Flowers in Utah

2009-07-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post. We are back from our trip to Utah, it seemed that we got there and had to return. Can you believe the only pictures I took were of flowers, that's because I don't have any here in Vegas. Thought you might like to see a couple.

The above picture is from my daughters front yard. She now has a garden, being raised in Las Vegas, this is totally out of the box for her.

The other two pictures are from my sisters yard. One of her favorite hobbies is gardening. Don't know how she does it, with all of her other projects. Helped her start a blog, she is just trying to get everything together, can't wait to see all of her beautiful projects.

Today is my Friday, so there are some new projects that I have on my to do list. Want to get a couple of challenges completed, that will be my focus on Tuesday and Wednesday. While in Utah I got some new stamps and papers, can't wait to try them, also new texture plates and stencils, can't wait.

Have a great Sunday.

Sunflowers That Brighten the Day

2009-07-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Hope everyone had a wonderful 4Th of July. Being in the transportation industry I had to work yesterday, so my 4Th of July celebration will start on Monday. We are going to Salt Lake for a couple of days, Billy has to have some tests run.

Just a quick post and pictures of a couple of projects that I completed last week. We went to dinner at Gayle's (Billy's sister) and I wanted to take the ladies a little gift, hence the jar candle and note cards. This was such a fun and easy project, but the ladies loved them, even guessed right on the fragrances for the candles.

The flowers were made by making using 4 of the Scalloped Circles from Spellbinder, layering and the center is a 3/4 circle. The lace border punch was used for the band around the jar. The stamp used for the sentiment is from K & Company.

The note cards were inspired by Dannie's Designs, she has a video on the instructions, it is easy to follow click here to see all of her wonderful ideas, am sure you will be inspired. The candle decorations were inspired by Treasure Oiler Designz you can see her work here. The stamped flower is from the same set of stamps from K & Company. Used 1/4 ribbon for the ties to complete the holder. Thanks to these two creative women for sharing there ideas, hope these two projects brighten you day.

Have a great day of crafting!

Creative Journey

2009-06-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Mason's Mammoth Birthday Card

2009-06-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

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!

Cinema Saturday Challenge #37--High School Musical

2009-06-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Kevin Makes Cards

2009-06-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

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.

The Color Purple

2009-06-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

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!

Cinema Saturday "Some Like It Hot"

2009-06-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Oceans 11

2009-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Dream

2009-06-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

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.

GC11: Color Challenge--Yellow, Dark Brown, & Green

2009-05-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

It was necessary for me to work on Memorial Day, and Billy worked last night and tonight, this is the perfect opportunity for me to do what I call "play."

When I saw this challenge, at Gingersnap Creations, and the Black eyed Susan's, I knew the card to make was a flower gift card holder. The colors are perfect and are so cheerful, that is the feeling I hope anyone who receive it would feel.

To make the flower I used my cutting system from Creative memories and 1" circle punch for the outer petals, using these tools it is simple to make a circle into a flower. The first layer of petals is a print paper, I used small dots, the second layer was solid yellow card stock. This is so versatile you could use prints or solids, there is not limitations, just your imagination. Brown stitch lines were added to give the petals more accents. Leaves were cut and then folded to give dimension. The center pocket is dark brown card stock which I add lines to make the the lattice look, used a gold gel pen and also added dots to the center. The picture below the center of each square is pierced and then added a dot in the center so that it would show more.
I was talking with my daughter Jamie, who is a teacher. she told me about some of the projects she does and that they have a lot of scrap paper. This would be the perfect project for the scraps and am sure that her students would come up with some very creative and unique flowers. The project is easy and fun, once you make one you want to make more.

My other daughter Kaylene is looking for a job and can use some cheering up, these bright colors will definitely put a smile on her face.

You don't have to use it as gift cardholder. by adding a sentiment on a card it can be placed in the pocket, sure anyone would love to receive this flower which would last a long time.

Thanks for the inspiration. Now go out and create something fabulous.

Symphony of Sympathy

2009-05-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

This is my first ever challenge, guess you never know where you will get your inspiration. Challenge #16 Metal, at Crafty Creations, check out all the other cards by clicking here.

It was necessary to make a sympathy card, and remembered reading about this challenge, it just seem to all come together. The young man that passed was into music, knew that I had musical paper and this is the result, added the metal musical notes to finish off the card. Wanted to keep the card very clean and simple, thank you for the challenge. Hope that this card with give his family comfort in this very difficult time.

Footprints Sympathy Card

2009-05-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

It has been crazy around here the last few days. Sunday night while at work we got a call from one our co-workers that her son had accidently shot himself. I rushed off to be with her and try to give her some comfort, as you can image losing a child is horrible.

Have been trying to put a couple of collage frames together for the funeral, and also wanted to make a card for everyone at work to sign. The result of the card is shown, made like a book so that people were not restricted on how much room was on the card, the pages were dark, added white paper on the top so that we didn't need a special pen. Printed the Footprints in the Sand poem from the computer and also added sentiments on each page. The sentiments are a classic oval, and matted the scalloped oval.

The front of the card is matted 3 times, wanted to keep the card clean and not too many frillys. Did use a corner rounder that I had from Creative Memories for each corner. Used a piece of ribbon to keep the book or card together and added brads at the top, they were silver, and I later found out that was his favorite color.

The viewings are today and tomorrow, the collage frames are complete, everything will go to my dear friend today. Hope that these creations will comfort her and her daughter in these difficult times.

Father's Day

2009-05-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Really quick post for a Father's Day card. These cards were included with the card box that I presented my girls with for Christmas. My goal for my days off is to make 12 Father's Day cards and take to work to see if anyone will be interested in purchasing them.

These were very simple and you can use any paper that looks like a shirt, prints are great and are a fun result.

Sentiment inside says: The greatest gift I ever had came from God.....

I call him Dad!

Used a 1" punch for the sentiment on front.

Happy crafting.

Want A Be Sunflower Card

2009-05-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

The inspiration for this card came from Inspired Designs, love the colors and of course the sunflowers.

When starting the card I knew what directions it was headed, but it took on a life of its own, liked the results using the scalloped circles from Spellbinders thought it would make a great picture. The orginial card was 5"x 5" , checked out the local Dollar Store and found an 8"x 8" frame. Will be making another one the same size and then use the larger scalloped cirles and make a bigger version, then will have a three picture grouping. When completed will take photos so you can see the finished product. This will have to wait a few days, as this is my Monday for work.

Kept looking at the picture, and found it necessary to go ahead and make another card. Scored the base of the card to give a lattice look and pierced the paper where the lines intersected. Love all the dimenions. Very simple sentiment finishes off the card using oval shapes.

Have fun with this card, let your imagination run wild.

Tuxedo Card

2009-05-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

When I saw a version of this card, knew I had to try one. A tuxedo is part of my life with all the limousine drivers that I work with, this was just a natural.

Wanted to make the card match the ribbon dress card that I finished, that is why we there is the pink accents on the card. Used brads instead of buttons for the studs. Rolled the collar to give more dimension and used smalled brads for the buttons on the collar.

Was going to make a paper bow tie, but just didn't look right so 7/8" pink ribbon was my choice.

My "SO" always has a hankie in this tuxedo pocket so this really made it personal, although his is usually red. This is one of my favorite cards and can't wait for a birthday to give it away.

Thanks for stopping by today, keep smiling.

Pink Ribbon Dress

2009-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

While browsing SCS yesterday, I happen to find a beautiful card by "Jakester" it was so pretty that it motivated me to try one for myself, this is what came out of her idea. The card is 5" x 7", the dress measures 5 1/2" tall by 3 1/4" wide at the widest point. You could make this any size you would like. I used #3 sheer ribbon for the dress, you will use 3 yards to complete the dress. The mat behind the dress was embossed with white pearl embossing powder, the stamp used was from Inkadinkado. the ink was a VersaMark.

Flower rhinestones from Michaels were used for the finishing touches, you can embellish the dress with flowers or other accessories whatever you prefer. My granddaughter, Katie, will be going to Prom soon and she loves the color purple, obviously that will be my next project.

When attaching the ribbon to the cardstock pattern I used a taperunner, but when I got up this morning all the ribbon had come off the form, I then used a spot of Tacky glue to re-attach the ribbon, this works much better.

Would love to see everyones take on this dress. Tomorrow have a card to go with this one, check back to see what I'm working on. Have a great day of crafting.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

A very special wish to everyone out there, have a wonderful Mother's Day. Unfortunately I will be at work, thought it would be nice to give the ladies that work with me something special. Went to Home Depot, bought some plants, made a special pot out of DP, added a pick with "Happy Mother's Day." Mostly work with men that are limo drivers and shuttle bus drivers so this was a perfect opportunity to treat the ladies, know that it will put a smile on their faces. I saw the pattern for the little pots, or boxes along time ago and don't remember whose website had the tutorial, sorry. This is an easy project here are the steps:

l. Cut 2 strips of DP 3" x 11"

2. Score at 1" , 4" , 7" and 10"

3. Fold all score lines.

4. Lay one strip on top of the other so you have an X, use tape to adhere.

5. Use decorative border punch for flaps. The border can also be punched before putting them together.

6. Punch a small hole on each corner, use ribbon or raffia to tie corners and you have a pot for a 3" plant.

7. Spellbinders classic scallop oval #3 and classic oval #2 were used for the sentiment, there was computer generated.

8. Used floral wire for picks.

The hardest part of this project was to make sure the plants didn't die, should have bought them on Sunday, I have a brown thumb, LOL!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Seed Accordion Gift Card

2009-05-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sites to check out on a daily basis is "No Time to Stamp?" Sharon has some wonderful projects and tutorials. When I saw her accordion cards it was a must to try them out, my first attempt was a Valentine Card that Billy really liked, even more than the brownies I made for him.

Sharon made a spring card that had pockets and I knew it was a must, I even got seeds, all though I can't use them here in Las Vegas, but will be sending them to my daughter in Reno.

This was a really fun project, the paper used was from my stash, it had to be old. The circles were made using the cutting system from Creative Memories and also the classic scallop circles from Spellbinders and my Big Shot, love these new toys.

Eyelets and raffia were used on the top to complete the card, my alphabet stamps are in Utah so I did used computer generated letters.

This would be a great card for any occasion, let your imagination run wild. Thanks for stopping by today.

Homemade Cookies

2009-05-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

When my girls were growing up I didn't cook or make cookies, as I was a single mom working 60 or more hours a week. Now I take advantage of making cookies with my grandson's, they really enjoy it and of course love eating the cookies. My oldest grandson helps me make chocolate covered strawberries, it is one of his favorites. My girls now document my cooking because they can't believe it. The pictures are now in my scrapbook, the 2 page layout is simple, with rounded corners, I found these great rub-ons at Michaels, had to have them. This is an easy page to do, part of my philosophy is to scrapbook so that my pictures are in a book, every page doesn't have to be a work of art. Start scrapbooking, no more excuses!

If friends were flowers....

2009-05-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

While checking out some of my favorite sites, I landed at Winnies Whims and My Crafts where she had made a waterfall card, love it! This is my finished card, and I can't wait to make more, thought it was going to be hard, but it was really easy, click here for instructions for this great card.

Check out the cards Winnie has made, they are so creative and just plain cute.

This is really a fun card and can be used from any ocassion. The words "waterfall card" seems a little intimiating, but it was really easy to do and I can't wait to make more, know this is a card I will do often.

The stamps I used were Inkadinkado, and markers were used to color in the stamp, very simple but with a great result. The eyelets were added to the edge of the card using a Crop-A-Dile, am learning how to use this tool in different ways each day. The inside sentiment was computer generated. A small piece of ribbon was added for the pull. Hope this inspires you to try a waterfall card, it truly is fun.

A Pretty Dress...for a beautiful daughter!

2009-05-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

With Mother's Day around the corner, it is time to send my girls a card. This is not your traditional Mother's Day card, but am sure that it will put a "smile" on their faces.

The dress pattern can be found at Patty's Stamping Spot, check it out here, she has some great projects. know that you will get inspiration from her "Stamp A Stack class card #3-Dress Card."

I used the classic scallop circle from Spellbinders, which I just purchased while on my trip to Utah. Unfortunately there is no one in the Las Vegas area that carries this product, have been looking for them for months and was lucky enough to find them at the Hobby Lobby in Layton, Utah. To make the ruffle on the bottom of the dress, I used half of a scalloped circle in a contrast color.

Added embellishments with ribbon and rhinestones, and used a corner rounder to scallop the edge of the card, learn how to use your corner rounder for scallops at SCS, finished by piercing each scallop on the dress and edge of the card.

The inside of the card features the print of the dress which was used for the sentiment on the brown dress, the pink dress I added a contrast border on the outside of the card, and used that as a mat.

Know that my girls will love this really "girly" card. Hope these cards put a smile on "your" faces.

Have a great week.

Lemonade Stand Award

2009-05-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Sherri from roses in my heart has sent me this wonderful award today! Sherri is one of my favorite bloggers and has some wonderful ideas that motivate me to create each day. Thank you so much Sherri for this honor!!

The Lemonade Stand Award is for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude. To pick up the Lemonade Stand Award:- Comment on this blog.

- Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog.

- Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.

- Link to your nominees within your blog post.

- Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.

- Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

I would like to nominate the following bloggers for this award:

Ryemilan's Stamping and Scrapbooking
Amazing Paper Grace

Me, My, Stamps and I

Constantly Stamping
Inking Addict

Thank you to these ladies for inspiring me each day and sharing your talent and creativity.

Wayne Newton

2009-04-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

Billy and I were able to check out the "Midnight Idol's" show last night. Gayle one of Billy's long time friends called to see if we would like to see the show. I had seen his show years and years ago when he was at the Frontier (which has been torn down and replaced by the Trump Towers). His show was at the MGM and believe it or not even though I have lived in Vegas for for 50 years, I had never been to a show at the new MGM Hotel, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to see a legend. We don't go to the strip very often, even though we both work in the transportation industry, you would think we would take in the sites more often, not true, as a resident you try to stay away from the strip as much as possible.

We met some other lady friends of Gayle's, Billy was the only gentlemen, so he was a little overwhelmed but handled the situation very well, I wouldn't have expected anything different. The show was great, lots of "oldie" but "goodie" songs. Wayne played the piano, guitar, fiddle (incredible), and the banjo.

After the show we went to have a bite to eat and walked around in a circle, literally, to find the Studio Cafe. The MGM is huge and we went in the wrong direction, finally found the resturant after taking the long way around. We spent time talking and laughing with friends, which we just don't do enough of, everyone is so busy in their lives it seems we just don't take the time to spend it with our friends. All in all we had a very nice time, thanks Gayle for asking us to see a marvelous show and especially to spend time with you!

Adam's Birthday Card

2009-04-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it is almost May and Adam's birthday (Grandson). He is into duck hunting and of course always needs money, that is why a money card was the only way to go for his birthday.

The tutorial from Dawns Stamping Thoughts was so easy to follow and the results were awesome for Adam, check it out here.

Let me know what you think, have a great day.

Recipe Book

2009-04-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

It seems that everyone has a recipe box or books. My books are numerous when I'm ready to try a new recipe, I flip through the books and try to remember which ones I have used and Billy has stated it is a "keeper". When checking out Amazing Paper Grace, Becca had a tutorial for a recipe book, a light went off in my head and I thought this might be the perfect way for me to organize those recipes. I don't have all the tools that Becca lists, so it is necessary to try and use what is on hand in my craft room. This was a fun and easy project, it would make a great gift for a bride-to-be.

Leatherheads

2009-04-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

My grandson, Kevin, decided he was going to try football. Once I saw the movie "Leatherheads," couldn't resist giving these scrapbook pages a nostalgic look. The pictures were printed at Wal-Mart using one of there special borders. I have the original Sizzix die cut machine and used the Fun Serif Alphabet Set. (Just got a new Big Shot and can't wait to try all the new dies.) Kevin hasn't seen this page yet, but I'm in hopes that he will like it. He is 14 and also enjoys scrapbooking, he has learned more about his heritageby creating his own scrapbook.

Christmas Quilt

2009-04-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

You are probably asking yourself, "what are you talking about?" Well here is the story. While taking care of my mother in Utah, my sister and I did alot of quilt tops, this happen to be one of them. We had them already to put on the quilt machine, but I moved back to Vegas. Kay decided to quilt one of the tops for Christmas, but we didn't see each other until just a couple of weeks ago when I went for a visit. She had completed it, except for the binding. Once home, my goal was to finish the quilt. It will be the focal point of my guest room that we are redoing.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!