Spreading the Love

Here is a little project for Valentine's Day. This is a lip gloss holder. It is such a cute Valentine idea! Here is the template.

This is such a fun and easy project. I am doing it with my Hostess of the Month club as a workshop. It has some vintage sheet music. This would make a great teen Valentine gift.

All of the ribbon, papers and stamps are Close to My Heart.

I have no words.

No one prepares you for tragedy and pain associated with the death of an innocent child.

Tomorrow I am going to a funeral. I don't want to talk about it, or think about it and I really don't want to go to it. I've tried to push it from my mind the past few days.

Nicholas died on Christmas Eve. A first grader. I do not have words for this.

If anyone out there would like to donate to his memorial fund, it would be greatly appreciated.

He was in the Trauma Ward in St. John's Springfield for several months. His parents have been through a lot and such a prolonged stay in an intensive care facility is very expensive.

To read more:
Nicholas

GREEN Christmas Creation

Last night, I had all my supplies laying around that I had used to make my canvas with images from recycled cards. I wanted to make another canvas, but I didn't have any that were blank so I decided to come up with something. I have been really thinking about ways I can reuse packages and products. This blog gave me a really good idea. I looked around my craft room and spotted a box flat. I use these constantly to store scraps and art supplies at school. They are free and reusable over and over again. I remember one time in college I had to set up an Art Interest Center as a place to hold art supplies that could be changed throughout the year. I used a cardboard box and my teacher actually told me that I should invest in a tote. I remember thinking....a cardboard box is free...and recycled....now they are my most basic staple as a teacher. I use them to cart materials from school to school and as glitter trays. They are free!! Anyway, sorry to rant. Here is the box I had at home.



I decided to cover it with some Martha Stewart paper. I have several rolls that I got on clearance last year. I used those sheets of sticky dots on the large flat side of the box and then folded it over and taped it inside the box. I learned how to fold the paper like this in college when making canvases. Nothing too fancy, but it is just tucking the corners in without cutting them.


I had a bunch of shapes left over from the canvas. I used my Martha Stewart craft punch to cut them out. It was the exact perfect shape to fit inside the bottle cap. When I was thinking of how to arrange them on the canvas, I remembered a really cool technique I had seen on Alli Edwards site from 2007 using bottle caps. I ran to the kitchen.....and scattered all over the counter tops (did I mention that I had a Christmas Party Saturday night and I spent Sunday working in my craft room rather than cleaning.)



Anyway, nearly 2 dozen bottle caps littered the counter tops so I grabbed them up and started arranging them. I put the little punched shapes from Christmas cards inside each one. I could've added beads, glitter and gloss...but I liked how simple they were with the tiny image, and lots already had glitter. I arranged them in the shape of a Christmas tree, added glue dots and VIOLA!! A little Christmas masterpiece.





One other thing to help me hang it up. I used a glue dot on each end of this ribbon. The ribbon is from the a Christmas ornament package.



Anyway, file this in your idea box...It was so easy and almost made completely from re-useable products that you might have laying around.

Inspired by It's a Wonderful Life

For this week's Cinema Saturday Challenge the movie is "It's a Wonderful Life." I wish I could say that I really love this movie and I've seen it dozens of times, but I haven't...not even once. I've recently realized that there are a lot of classic movies that I have never seen....

I am done making my Christmas cards this year and most of my Christmas papers have already been sorted and put away for the year, but I got them back out for this project. I actually didn't use very much scrapbooking paper for this canvas. I decided that it would be really cool to take my old greeting cards and make something with them. So I used my 1" punch to make little 'inchies' for this canvas.

I painted the canvas red. This was inspired by Ali Edwards. I love her work. I used some green mixed with the red to create some contrast in the paint. I left an approximate 1" border around the edges of the canvas.


While the paint was drying, I got out my baggie full of minis. These are scraps, charms and small pieces of ribbon left over from making my Christmas cards and gifts. I also got out the old Christmas cards from family and friends I have been saving from the past 2 years. My in-laws recently gave me a stack of their old cards too! I used my 1" punch and a round punch to find things on the cards that I liked.
My cat was starving for my attention, I couldn't get him off my work area!!





I spread out all of my favorites on the bed and put together the inchies using words from the cards, scraps of ribbon, and brads. I used lots of foam squares to give each inchie some dimension. For variety, when I put them on the canvas, I put some simple ones and some fancy ones. I tried to spread them out. Also, I made the 5th row using slightly larger squares. I love these greeting cards, lots of them have glitter and embossing!!







I am so glad that I had this movie challenge to finally inspire me to make this canvas. I incorporated ideas from lots of other places too. I really like how it turned out. It is a nice holiday decoration that I can hang up in the living room.

Memory Keeper Box

The same day I got this box in the mail, I covered it with paper and had it ready to give to a friend. My best friend's mother recently lost her husband. David had been in the hospital for over a month and Kathy had kept a journal every day. The journal was a steno pad, completely filled, some pages front and back. When the steno pad was full, she wrote on lose paper and stuck in in the back. The tattered book was in her purse for weeks after his death. As soon as I saw it, I knew she needed a safe place to store this treasure. I made this box with silhouette paper and some papers from the travel paper pack. The strip of aluminum, the decorative corner, and one chipboard shape are from my stash. Oh, and the keys are actually vintage keys that I got in Sweden when I was in college. I have been saving them for a special project like this. I inked the edges and used a sponge to make it look a bit more distressed, but I left the chipboard letters stark white to match box. I really love this memory keeper box. I took it to my workshop that night and the ladies were astonished that I had finished it so quickly (I used a card with an old piece of sheet music, it was already assembled and I glued it to the top). They asked if we could do these in a workshop. I love it that the boxes are less than $7, this makes them a perfect workshop item! Enjoy!! If you have any questions, please ask!

(I haven't given it to Kathy yet, the roads have been to icy to take it to her.)

Okay, so I just have to post this....

Oh, and while I am posting pages, I guess I will tack on my page for the Sound of Music Challenge. I went with the 'These are a few of my Favorite Things' idea....I made a list of my favorite things...This been on my mind for a while, but this challenge finally encouraged me to do my 25 favorite things at 25 list. I think this page looks a lot better in person...but I finally got the page done, (even though it is way past the deadline for the challenge) but I guess that is the most important part!!

Here are my favorite things:

25. The way that smells can bring up old memories...
24. I like to bake...when I have time...
23. Being a Close to My Heart consultant.
22. Making demo vides for school.
21. Our new big screen t.v. (60 inches)
20. Fur-topped boots.
19. Trying new things...I have tried a lot of new things this year...
18. Glitter!!
17. New clothes.
16. A new hair cut.
15. Jewelry; I love to accessorize
14. I am on a celery kick...and raisin bread toast.
13. hot coco and warm baths in the winter
12. Poetry; love poems...
11. Sunshine...but I also like rain when I am at home.
10. My JOB; being an art teacher is so fun
9. Blogging
8. Taking pictures
7. Traveling; I want to GO.
6. Having a relaxing hobby like card/scrapping
5. Comfortable shoes
4. Clean sheets
3. Coffee; smell, taste, warmth
2. Owls
1. My wonderful guy


This layout is based on a design I found...I don't know where I found it, but I saved it on my computer!! Anyway, I thought it was perfect for my idea, I just had to make the colors and theme match the Sound of Music.

Two Challenges in ONE

***A quick edit to show the difference between night and day pictures. The first two pictures were taken with natural lighting by a window with a white backdrop. The pictures at the end of the blog were taken at night with a lamp.***







Okay, so I really love the Cinema Saturday Creative Movie Challenges, but I don't always have time every week to make something. Last week I made a scrapbook page, but I never got a chance to post it!! The snow day today provided me with the perfect opportunity to scrap these great pictures from the summer of 2007. We were in Tulsa, OK and we went to the iMAX to see the newest Harry Potter Movie in 3-D. It was awesome!!! The two-page layout I created involves lots of gold embossing powder instead of the so saffron. The color inspiration comes from Kristina Werner's Challenge #35 this week.



The blue in my layout is from a really beautiful paper pack from Close to My Heart, it is twilight instead of baja breeze. The door on the left page is hinged so I can slide my journaling under there. The 'golden' snitch is made from some chipboard dimensionals that have been embossed and the wing is from a Christmas ornament that I got from PierOne....I bought a few seeing their potential!!! The big letters at the top are die-cuts and I just added a lot of embossing powder to them. I also made the hinges and handle on the door match. The door has been dry embossed and inked to make it look a little bit older. I did find a really cool Harry Potter font here....but I downloaded it too late...I had already spent hours looking at my layout, figuring out what it was missing. Sorry if the lighting is a bit off....I took these pics at night (because I am pretty sure we will be going back to school tomorrow) and the glossy pics and gold embossing powder had a lot of reflection.

Stamping on Ceramic Tiles

Also on Monday I got in an order of ceramic tiles from Oriental Trading Co. I used black StazOn Ink, Close to My Heart Stamps and I stamped these great coasters for a gift exchange later this month. I intend to put cork on the bottom. I put them in the oven for 15-20 min. at 350 degrees to heat set them. If you want to know the stamp sets I used, just ask. I have a lot of stamp sets and tons of permanent markers I could've used to color on these tiles, but I love the black and white...it is so modern and I think these could potentially match anyone's decor.

Color Inspiration Challenge #33

EEEK!!! I am so excited for this week's color inspiration challenge. On Monday I received a package in the mail with a Cosmo Cricket paper pack and I was just dying to use it! These colors are really close....I know they aren't exact matches, but you have to admit that the paper is so cute!! The die cuts are CTMH, basically I just placed the large scallop square on the white card stock at an angle and then I placed the papers on in a sort of over-lapping collage. Then I did some faux stiching with a brown pen. After that, I just basically placed my pictures on and popped a couple of cut-outs and die cuts with foam squares. I did ink the edges of the cardstock and the title letters so they wouldn't be so stark white. I had a really hard time picking out the perfect pictures for this page. I will probably be making several pages using similar pictures and papers. The pictures are from a week this summer when my little brother Gage visited me. I entrusted him with my digital camera and he went around taking pictures and having a friend take pictures of him...a sort of covert photo shoot....a really fun way to see a boys world...from his eyes I guess.

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #8

Wow!! There are some really beautiful cards for this challenge, but I haven't done a Cinema Saturday Creative Movie Challenge in a while. I have been busy getting ready for Christmas. Most of my shopping is done and I am trying to get the final finishing touches on my hand-made gift items. This week's challenge is Miracle on 34th Street. I made two cards!!! I love this movie and I have to say that Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year....so many opportunities to craft and make cards!!!

If you are viewing this card from the Miracle on 34th Street challenge, you can look at my other Christmas cards here.



For this card, I used some Close to My Heart stamps on the red panel and some Basic Grey paper. The Santa is from CTMH, and he has some liquid applique on his beard. A fun and easy card!



I wanted to make a blue Santa so I stamped him and used a water pen to fill him in. He features a little bit of silver gel pen. Other than that, the ribbon is from my stash and the paper and stamps are CTMH.



Also, before I forget....Here is a Christmas Thank you card. Fellow blogger Cathy is offering some blog candy, she is new to blogging and she is going to post lots of new things over the next month. Check out her great work!! The paper for this card is Basic Grey.