SIMPLER TIMES

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.

March Birthdays

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.

Creative Journey

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


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


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


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



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






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

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





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

Have a great day crafting.

Mason's Mammoth Birthday Card

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

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

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

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

Kevin Makes Cards

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


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




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





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




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



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





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

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

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

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

Father's Day

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.

Tuxedo Card

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.

Adam's Birthday Card

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.