Butterfly Map Cards

Have I mentioned lately that I a really, really, really into butterflies? At the crop last night I just couldn't stop using my butterfly punch. I made these great cards based on a design over at an Etsy shop: Bombus. I just fell in love with these cards and I decided to make some myself. They are super simple. The punch is from Martha Stewart. The textured cardstock is from Close to My Heart, the black and white paper is also CTMH and the map is vintage from an atlas.

Love letter Challenge

So it has taken me all month, but I was waiting for everything to fall into place before I attempted this challenge. I follow a blog called The Creative Type (recommended to me by the lovely Savitri) and I have never participated in one of their challenges, but I am super excited about this month's February bonus challenge Love Letters. I finally got a new printer at home so I am able to type on my lap top and then print my documents and photos wirelessly from the living room to the office, pretty sweet deal...Anyway, I sat down Thursday night, typed my love letter to myself, printed it and started thinking about a layout all day on Friday. I saw a really cool butterfly collage over on Ali Edwards blog....and I just got some new Hambly screen prints....and everything sort of fell into place after I bought my new butterfly punches from Michael's on my way to last night's crop. I am excited to participate in this challenge because there is a prize. I have never won anything, blog candy, challenges, giveaways....(well, except the Audrey, one time, ages ago, but it was strictly for bragging rights)...The winner gets to pick a print from the Blue Tree Art Gallery, and the City Scene collection is so unbelievably cool, I completely fell in love with St. Mary's.

Color Inspiration Challenge #43

For this week's Color Inspiration Challenge I have decided to get out a butterfly stamp from last year. This stamp set is from Close to My Heart. I love it!! I have used it a lot. I decided to get a jump on birthday and Mother's Day Cards for my mom since she loves butterflies, I will be giving these to her. The first card is for the color challenge and the second card is for fun. I tried to match the colors as closely as I could....I don't have any orange ink so I had to be creative, I mixed holiday red and honey to get the orangy color....I don't think it is pumpkin pie, but it is close enough. Also, I used a garden green instead of old olive.


I stamped the images in regular ink, then went over each stamp with a Versamark and then used clear embossing powder, then I hand cut each butterfly out and attached it with a glue dot. These were really fun to make, I plan to make more! I think I will get a shadow box for my mom...she used to have a butterfly collection, I will be making her something for her birthday that resembles a shadow box....sort of like this card. She will love it!

Ain't Love Grand?

Guess what?? What a great night! Oh, by the way....I did a color inspiration challenge, AND I GOT A SHIPMENT OF TOTALLY AWESOME PAPER AND OVERLAYS FROM HAMBLY. I made some amazing stuff tonight...well, I tried to anyway....I

Some sweet cards to go with my sour attitude. :-)

My favorite thing to do is sit in my crafting 'space' when the house is quiet and create, for hours. Lately, it seems like my husband is always home, with the t.v. blaring. When he is there, all I want to do is be with him....Last night I went to dinner with some girlfriends from work. I was a little annoyed when it took a long time to get our food. I was totally counting on using the time when I got home to make cards. A 5:30 dinner turned into not getting home until almost 8:00.

Luckily, I raced inside, opened a new shipment of supplies that arrived yesterday, and then straight to my craft table. The house was empty. Seconds after inking up my brand new stamp set, I heard a car pull up...my husband was home....grrr....I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to make something!!! Anything!!
I did not make one thing this weekend. I was having crafting/blogging withdrawls. I just want to participate in a challenge. I want to use my new supplies. I want to use GLITTER!!!

So, I compromised with myself. I worked in my craft room for 1 hour. Then I watched American Idol until after 10:00. This makes for a long night when you get up at 5:30 a.m.!!

Tonight we are going to the art gallery for an event which includes free dinner, I should have some time to create when we get home because I don't have to cook. Thankfully Friday night I am going to a crop. It is bittersweet though because all of my friends are getting together for a game night....I haven't had time to wash laundry in weeks because I am so busy with family and friends...I am completely out of socks...and towels! I can't get everything done that I need to do and still find time to do thing things that I REALLY NEED, like crafting. I am looking ahead to my schedule and I see it filling up fast....Saturday high school reunion with my husband, Sunday MY family (who I haven't seen since Christmas is coming over for dinner...I must cook and clean before they get there...it WAS my idea so I am not complaining), Monday watching the Bachelor finale with girlfriends, Tuesday night, Close to My Heart Home Gathering....and that is just the next 5 days. Beyond that my weeks are scattered with busy days and nights.

I know that since I am a teacher I should be able to get home by 3:45 and craft until 5:00 when Jeremy gets home, but it never works out that way...I am always staying at school until 4:00 for meetings and clubs and other stuff. I rarely get home before 4:30...and I am usually stopping at the bank or the store and these simple errands cut into my crafting time too!

Making a card is my stress reliever. I feel guilty when I am in the craft room and my DH is watching TV alone. I feel like I should be spending time with him. I had the craft table in the living room for weeks, but it is not the same....If he had a hobby, I think I would feel better about mine. I am also worried because spring is my busiest time of year. I am worried that the past 2 weeks is a prelude. My husband told me that he wanted to take a day or 2 off during my spring break...and I was like NOOOOOOOO!!! I need to be off, alone, working on designing, I NEED IT!

I just don't know how people with children do it. I envy those great multitaskers who can work full time, be involved in extracurricular, take care of a family, and find time to create. Whew, it is exhausting!! Thanks for listening!! I feel a lot better and I think I just need to set up a schedule with myself. I really love it so I know I will make time for everything.

Now on to the cards and what I made last night...I have really been excited about cupcakes lately. I am even teaching a cupcake unit at school focusing on the artist Wayne Theibaud. We are making clay cupcakes and painting cupcakes...Super fun!! I got a great new stamp set from Close to My Heart with some sweet cupcake stamps and a new cupcake punch from Martha Stewart. I made several cards with glitter, the pictures are always so-so when you are photographing glitter, in real life they are always waaaay prettier. I layered the punched images with foam tape. Super fun to make in my one-hour cram session.

Paper Crafted Birdhouses

Oh my gosh! I can't believe I haven't posted a blog since February 18th!! Whew! Well, here is a series of birdhouses I made for my school. They turned out so cute! I didn't do too much stamping, mostly just used a circle punch, inked edges, and cut out shapes before piecing the pieces together. This was a fun little project that I did last week. The paper is 70% Recycled, it is from The Green Stack, a Provo craft company. I just love this paper!! Ejoy!

Round Card

Here is a card that I made last night just for fun after watching the newest video by . It was a fun card to make. I used my Coluzzle cutting system and one of my new circle punches. This was a fun card to make! All of the papers and supplies are from Close to My Heart.

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge: #20 Emma

Here is this week's entry for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. I decided to watch this movie on Sunday via YouTube, all 12 parts. I couldn't help but compare it to the movie Clueless over and over as it is loosely based on this great Jane Austen classic. Wow, the movie was so good. I had a lot of good ideas for this movie, but in the end I decided to go with a simple scrapbook page for my cousin Emma. Emma is a 3rd grader at my school and she is a great artist. I am so lucky to be her art teacher. She is always bringing me little things that she makes. For Christmas she gave me a book 'All about owls' that she wrote and illustrated. For Valentine's day she gave me owl stickers that she made using a Xiron and a couple of drawings and a little owl picture frame.


Emma is always doing special stuff for me so I knew I had to do something to make her Christmas special this year. I decided to wrap her gift and put it inside another wrapped box, over and over.....he he....she is the perfect age to enjoy that sort of thing. We actually needed to leave that night before present time, but I made the girls open the gifts from us before we left because I wanted to watch Emma open her present....we were late for my family's Christmas eve celebration, but it was worth it. Emma laughed and laughed as she opened box after box! It is a great memory and this challenge inspired me to 'scrap' it. The other requirement for this challenge was to use polka dots, I had a large piece of vellum and I used it for the back ground. I don't think anything about the movie "Emma" could be created without using a flower of some kind somewhere....so I punched out a bunch of little flowers and put colorful brads in the middle.

A few last minute Valentines

I decided to go through my scrap box last night and use up stamped images and scraps of my favorite papers. I made a few little Valentines for the kids at school. I usually get 4-5 from students who remember to come to my room during the hustle and bustle of the Valentine parties. Here are the cards I came up with. They are one-sided with a few stamped hearts on the back. All of the supplies are from CTMH.

Color Inspiration Challenge #41

Whew it is Friday the 13th!!! I made this card last night for the Color Inspiration Challenge. I love the black and red combo. This card is pretty simple. I am trying to use up scraps! The black and white felt scrap is from Hobby Lobby, I am not sure of the brand. The red ribbon is from CTMH (and so are the stamps), the color is Cranberry. This is a very simple Valentines Day Card. I am excited to move on to spring...but I will miss V-day....I love hearts!

Round Notebook

Here is a great little round notebook I picked up at the Dollar store for a buck. This is perfect for a hostess gift, paired up with some matching little cards or something. I used my colluzle cutting system for the smaller circles. I don't have the big circle template so I just glued it on and cut around it. The charm is from Michael's. This paper and the stamps are Close to My Heart. This was very simple and easy to make. I stamped some of the inside pages with a mini fleur de lis. Enjoy!

Cute Bird Card

This is going to be my last post today! I made a card for Our Creative Corner's newest challenge. This week all we have to do is pick our favorite embellishment and make a card. While I love rhinestones and ribbon, this card is super simple. It features a few colorful brads and hand cut flowers layered under a bird. All of the stamps are Close to My Heart. This was a fun card to make, it could be for a birthday, Mother's Day or 'just because!

Let's Get Negative

Here are few cards from a set of cupcake cards I whipped up this weekend. The little cupcake embellishments are from Martha Stewart Crafts. I got to use my new circle punch, a stamp set for 'Hey There Cupcake' from CTMH, cranberry ribbon and some great craft cards with envelopes. This little card set is going to make a great gift!

These cards are from a challenge over at Stamp Simply with Sharon Johnson. The main idea is to make something that is quick and simple. These cards are certainly quick and simple. I found this challenge over at Lisa's Blog, check out her card here. It is absolutely fabulous!

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge: #18 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Here is my card for this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. The movie is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Part of the challenge was to use red in our design. The stamps, paper, ribbon and brads are all from Close to My Heart. This is a very simple friendship card with some paper piercing, flower cut-outs and hand stamping. I didn't do anything too crazy as far as techniques go, I just really wanted to use a bit of this paper, it is soooo pretty!

Easy Scrapbooking.

I have done a few challenges this week, I just haven't had time/daylight hours to take pictures of the finished projects. I will try to post some new good stuff tomorrow. Tonight I had a workshop at my house and it was awesome, except for when my cat lit his tail on fire on a candle and the whole house smelled like singed hair...hehe....I made chocolate covered strawberries to match the card and had Hershey's kisses for the kissing technique! I made a yummy dip and we had a fun night making crafty stuff!!

Here are some really cool scrapbook page inserts that Close to My Heart carries to fit inside their standard albums. There are a couple of different varieties including 4 pocket and 6 pocket pages. This is the 6 pocket holders. I put our Christmas candy-making pictures in a single sleeve and made a little journaling card for one of the pockets. The front is the title card and the back 'recipe' is for the journaling. (There are also pictures on the reverse side of this sleeve, I didn't take a picture.) This annual event is scrapbooked! Done and done!

Project 52 Month 1 is Done

Hey!! I made a new title for my Blog title in Photoshop. I have seriously only used Photoshop like 3 times in my life so I have to sort of feel around and figure stuff out each time, but I always learn something new. I took all of the letter photos in my classroom and then cropped them to fit together!! I really like how it turned out. My next goal is to make some really crafty letters with scrapbooking supplies and photograph each letter the same way.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you an update on my Project 52 progress. I am still journaling each week. I sit down and look at my calendar at some point in the week and I jot down information about each day. Everything from funny quotes and happenings to what I ate that day might make it into the journal. I like this page style because I can go back later and add small photos and snipits from scraps that match whatever is going on that week. I can leave room in the margins for additional stuff!
Then, some point that week I make something for my journal. I found a really great list of techniques I want to try throughout the year on top of the things I have already done so far.

This month, I have been used a lot of inspiring products and they have found their way into my journal. Here is a little heart made out of hearts on craft paper. These are little stickers from K&Co.


I also made a weaving with left over scraps (from my Christmas cards!).


I made a little painting inspired by Matisse (My students are learning about Matisse at school!). He uses lots of organic shapes and I love his work.




And I used some handmade paper to do some stamping with this awesome set of eggs, I know it isn't Easter, but the little ovals are so modern that I don't really see them as Eastery anyway.



I love this journal because it is forcing me to make something every week and combine all of the things I love: journaling, photography (I don't have a lot of pics in there yet!), crafting, and art. Enojy!!

You can check out all of the people participating in Project 52 on Flickr.