Fun Crop and a fun a layout!

Hey everyone!! I went to a crop last night. Yesterday was my last day of summer school and it was really hot so I must've been super tired because I only got one layout done....Between all the chatting and eating...I worked on it from about 6:00 p.m. until at least 10:30...I spent a lot of time hand cutting the letters and the flowers.





Anyway, everything on this layout is CTMH.
Extreme Happiness is the stamp set
Perfect Day and MoonDoggie papers
Lay out is from Cherish

My favorite part about scrapbooking at a crop is just talking with other people who love it as much as I do!! I also love it that we can share supplies!!



In case you are wondering about the 'Friends Don't Let Friends Crop Alone' shirts...I ordered 6 shirts from a neat website called Be Creative Scrapbooking. She offers a discount if you order 6 or more...Perfect for an entire group to go to an event! I am going to CKC-Tulsa in August and I wanted a couple of fun shirts for me and my friends to wear!! Anyway, if you want to get the discount you have to email her...so please tell her I sent you! She will give me a discount on my next order for referrals if you spend $20.00 or more!!

Still not making many MAN cards....

It has been so long since I have had a chance to play along over at 365 cards! I decided to give today's Paper Piecing challenge a whirl! (Be fore warned...I will be playing along quite often in July...and next week when school is finally out!)

I love using paper piecing. I really enjoy cutting out tiny things with my micro tip scissors and putting them in place. For my (2) cards, I decided to go with something unexpected. I am combining an animal stamp set with the color pink!


These were super fun to create!! I used some scoring and sanding on white core cardstock....and I used lots of paper piecing on the flowers, hippo, and gator!


All products are CTMH except the white flowered ribbon, it is from ribbonFX via Hobby Lobby.

Extreme Happiness....here comes summer....

Yesterday morning I came into my craft room to grab a card for some police officers who have been helping with our summer school program.

As I flipped through my card box and my card basket, I realized that with all of the cards I have on hand...nothing seemed quite right.



Worst of all, I didn't have time to make anything! My goal while I am on summer break is to make more masculine cards! I am sure that the guys didn't mind, I did have spinach artichoke dip, chips, brownies, cookies and a huge banner signed by our students....but it would've been nice to give them a hand made card. (I will probably make one and mail it soon!)

And now for a few cards. These aren't for a challenge, they are just for fun! I love this stamp set: Extreme Happiness. It is a beautiful tropical flower that is perfect for lots of layouts and cards. I am sure you will be seeing it again soon.




I got the idea to use turquoise for the flower from a great blog that I follow, Kelly Jo's Stamp pad. She used a similar color combination for a color challenge. I haven't had time to play along with any color challenges lately, but I still love great color combinations.

Here I used the back of the stamped flower to create a white version of it. I saw something similar in the idea book. I inked the edges with a foam dauber to give it some color, but I love the white!!



I will be doing this little 4X4 card at a home gathering/workshop on Wednesday. It has some cute prisma glitter on the flower!

A cutie-pie layout!

Whew! Only 4 more days of summer school!!! We went camping over the weekend and the first thing I did (after a nap!) on Sunday afternoon was make some cards for next month's card swap! They turned out wonderful, but I will be posting them once it gets a little closer to the swap night. Today was one of those days...all I could think about was how much I wanted to come home and make a card! I made a bunch tonight!!

For now, I would like to share with you a great little layout I created for a challenge over @ The Creative Type. This week's challenge is to use a t-shirt as inspiration. I found this super cute shirt and it was a perfect way to combine some of my favorite pictures of my niece Taryn and some fun new glittery stuff that I have been itching to use somewhere.

Here is the shirt...It doesn't have any text, but the colors and butterfly were perfect for my pictures.

Here is my layout. I was excited to finally used this fun glittery butterfly lace paper from K. I. Memories.



The chipboard letters seemed to perfectly complement the key lime cardstock from CTMH.


Products Used:
My Mind's Eye Party Streamers paper
K&Co. Glitter sticker strips and die cuts from Berry Sweet Line and Chipboard Alphabet
Paper Studio Doodle Flowers
CTMH Cardstock
C.S. K.I. Memories Glitter Lace

Swap Club Thursday!!

Its time for the swap club this Thursday! I am excited about my card this week. The theme was to use your favorite stamp or paper to create a card. I decided to use a wonderful owl stamp set to create my own background on a craft card base. Then I attached a glittery floral strip from K&Co. along with a sweet sentiment and another owl using pop dots. I love this little card! The stitching around the edges was created with a white gel pen. I can never make every card exactly the same...so all the cards have different colors and different owls.



Here are some cards from the last swap club. I think they are terrific! The theme was to 'create' your own embellishments.

Next month the theme is 'wedding or baby congratulations.' I haven't decided if I am going to make a few of each.....or all baby...or all wedding...


One of my favorite things about the swap club is teaching everyone something new...or allowing them to practice something they haven't done in a while. I don't send them home with extra cards, but we make a couple of little tags for this technique 'mini-book'


This week I am focusing on patterned paper once again. I get to use up scraps of paper left over from various workshops and projects. I can offer this little swap 'class' for free because we are making cheap little tags and not big cards with bases and embellishments and foam adhesive.

First, I will show everyone one of my least favorite patterned papers. I will explain that I can jazz it up by using an embossing pen and clear embossing powder. Then I will show them how to stamp an owl on to watercolor paper using Juniper and then Cocoa slightly off-set so it will look a bit like an authentic bock print.

Second, I will show them how to stamp on the back of patterned paper and then cut around their image and use only the patterned paper and the shape of the stamp, not the actual texture or color of the image. We will also do some crinkling, sanding, and inking for a distressed look.



Did you notice? All of my cards have an owl this week! Yay!! I haven't featured an owl on any of my workshop cards so I thought it would be fun to go owl crazy this week. I am also letting everyone practice adding eyelets if they want to. The Crop-A-Dile is new to me...and I love it!

Only 7 more days of summer school!! I am soooo ready for some time off! Expect daily posts!! Thanks for reading!

Finally, some play time!

Wow! My blog candy prize arrived on Friday and I am just now getting to play around with it. Lisa sent me the most wonderful package of ribbon and an awesome stamp set. I remember seeing a great tutorial using the stamp set featuring embossing and a brayer...I will have to look around for it...hopefully I can find it and make something equally as beautiful. My favorite part of the prize is the ribbon! A girl can never have enough. This wonderful stash found a home in this cute little jar!



Lisa also sent me this great card!! I love it, the layers are beautiful!!




Tonight was one of my first nights in my craft room in almost 2 weeks so I made a sweet little card using some of the ribbon. I also spent some time getting ready for my swap club on Thursday. I will be posting my cards and projects for that soon.




I decided to post a couple of fun little butterfly cards and make this one ginormous post with tons of goodies. These are great because I stamped on some watercolor paper.


HEADS UP ABOUT A PHOTO TUTORIAL

And by the way....seriously check out this tutorial on white balance. I figured out that I can do the same maneuvers in my iPhoto program....it is super easy and I don't even have to open Photoshop! It has made a huge difference in my photos already!!

I hope that you notice the difference and it will improve the quality of my blog overall. All of the photos in this post have been altered...because they were almost all taken tonight!

This is a pair of my favorite spring/summer shoes. I used it as a practice picture. The one on the bottom is the one that has the white balance adjusted...the one on the top is a normal photo that I probably would've used on my blog.



OOh!! And before I forget, I am a winner over at Simply Creating! Krista chose my card for the May challenge!! I just love the Treetops stamp set and I used it on this card for the challenge.

Okay, that is enough for tonight. I have been feeling pretty inspired lately. I think we are going camping this weekend so I will have to try to get some crafting in this week!

I may not have said this lately, but thank you for all the sweet comments on my blog. Every time I get a compliment it pushes me to work harder and do more. My 'one little word' for this year is INSPIRE. You inspire me with your comments, thank you...I hope that I can inspire you with my ideas and information. Also, I haven't forgotten about the blog awards....just been busy! Thanks for the sweet awards girls!!

Fun Notebook!

Hey guys!!

For summer school this year, I am teaching 4-6 grade. Our pod theme is CSI...hmmm...It was my idea, but as the art teacher, I had to be really creative in coming up with art projects for the week. I decided to have the students make their own detective notebook using craft paper, typing paper and some embroidery floss. I have tons of embroidery floss donated by a parent. Another teacher gave me large needles to use that are not too sharp. Students get to sew the binding and then stamp on the front and I emboss it for them. The students really enjoyed the process of sewing--even the boys! They fold the paper in half, poke 8 holes with a tack (using a piece of scrap cardboard underneath to protect the table), and then they sew, it is very easy!


I knew I would need a really wet ink for the embossing powder to stick so I looked around for something that would do the trick. I found a multi-color package of Colorbox Chalk Ink in Sax, an arts and crafts catalog.
Colorbox Chalk ink from Sax is an 18 color-set for around $40.

I thought it was a great deal and the ink is so beautiful on the craft paper. I ordered some animal tracks/paw print stamps to use on the cover because they were the most 'clue-like.'




This is a fun little project that takes less than an hour, it would be a fun craft if you have kids (even boys!) at home this summer and you are looking for something to do with them. You could use patterned paper on the front, they could stamp some of the pages and then they would have a little note book to use for drawings and notes...perfect for pretending! The students have been walking around the room pretending to be interviewing each other and writing down clues, it is so cute!

We are also solving some mysteries and using the characters, stolen items and getaway cars as subject matter for a glow-in-the-dark/neon-black light reactive paintings!

Be-Boo Be Boo Bop! Thas robot code for 'I hope you are having a great summer'!!

Sometimes I know I am going to be too busy to make anything so I save some of my cards to post for times like this! Last night I had a workshop, tonight I have another...and tomorrow I am going to a tupperware party. Whew!

Anyway, I got this cute stamp set called "Little Boys" and it has this wonderful little robot! I decided to make a card that could be sort of generic, but I could add whatever fits on the inside later. So this card says "Be--boo be boo bop" and the inside reads "Thats robot code for ________". I figured I can write 'Happy Birthday' or 'I love you' later when I need this card for someone special.



This card is 'Green'. I used part of a chipboard alphabet package for the clear plastic covering over the robot. It is attached with brads.



Enjoy!!

Winner!! YAY!!

I won some fantastic blog candy from the sweet and talented Lisa @ ink and inspirations!! I never win anything, so I am super excited!! Thanks for the chance to win!!

Just for you,here is a little photo collage I made to celebrate the last day of school!! I have been out for a little over a week and summer school is in full swing!

Monday's Workshop

I am having a workshop at my house. The cost is $10 and I will be demonstrating the basics on setting an eyelet and making a criss cross card. Everyone will make 2 of each card and 2 tags.

For the eyelet card, we will be making a matchbook card (thanks Kristie for the awesome tutorial!) This card will be pretty generic, but I will give everyone the option of creating a card for Father's Day.



For the criss cross card, we will be using the Extreme Happiness stamp set and Moon Doggie paper.




You can see one of the tags here and I will edit this post with the 2nd tag later. (It will feature stamping on watercolor paper!)

All of the products used are Close to My Heart (Except the eyelets and the hemp, they are from my stash...the Eyelets are K&Co.)

Why I started paper crafting....and some of my very first cards!

Things to do tonight:
1. Design one more tag/card for Monday's workshop.
2. Design a photo frame for a tween birthday party/decoration workshop.
3. Get stuff ready for a home gathering tomorrow night.

What am I doing instead? Writing this blog!! And browsing other blogs....I know that it can be a bit counter-productive, but sometimes I find that browsing for ideas will spark an idea. Even just the act of writing and reflecting can be quite inspirational, so I am trying to jump start my creativity before I dig in and get some work done tonight...(Did I mention that I have to get up @5:45 and it is after 9:00 now?!)

I have been totally inspired to write about why I started paper crafting thanks to Sarah over @ Sarah's Paper Tray. (Yes, Sarah we have exactly the same taste...I am thinking we are soul-scrap-sisters or something because we buy all the same stamp sets and papers even non-CTMH!!) Anyway, in one of her most recent posts, she was inspired to write about why she started paper crafting. I recently found a few of my very first cards and I put them in a box of stationary supplies that I am giving to my mom. I am going to be brave and post them here, just like Sarah did! (my mom has lots of old stuff that i've made over the years...I should try to borrow some of it!)


In one of my very first blog posts, I mentioned that I have been 'scrapbooking' for a long time. Stamping is much newer to me. When it comes to stickers, well lets just say I still have my awesome Lisa Frank sticker collection...As a little girl, I used to have a sticker album and I've always loved taking pictures so this hobby is something that I was naturally drawn to. (Luckily I was able to get away from my other 'collections': porcelain dolls, painted ceramic masks, embellished teddy bears, a wooden doll house and various other child-hood hobbies and I can now focus completely on the wonderful world of paper crafting!)



I started out buying supplies at Wal-Mart and I bought a few CM products when I was in high school. In college, I did a little bit of scrapbooking, but since I was an art major...'scrapbooking' was something I did in secret...I didn't want my cool art friends to know about my sticker obsession. I made my own Christmas Cards, Wedding Invitations and various other things before I became a consultant for Close to My Heart.

In December of 2007, I decided to become a consultant. I had gone to a CTMH home gathering while I was in college, but the consultant no longer lived in my area. I sort of signed up blindly because I wanted to get more into stamping and scrapbooking. I also wanted to have a little bit of extra money for my hobbies each month....currently, as a teacher, I only get paid once a month and it can be a tricky balance to keep a decent budget for things that come up mid-month. Selling scrapbooking supplies and teaching classes is the perfect opportunity to feed my growing addiction to stamping.

After being a part-time consultant for a little over a year....wow...my cards, scrapbook layouts and other papercrafting creations have improved dramatically. Blogging has helped me so much! This is one of my very first cards:



I've always loved being an elementary art teacher, but I have come to realize what my dream job would be...it would include writing, photography, teaching and designing...I would love to work from home too. We'll see what happens. For now, I am happy where I am, but I would love to spend more time at home creating. Sometimes I am just too tired to make anything after a day with elementary students (Have I mentioned that I have 11 classes of kindergarten art!??!?!! Not exactly the ideal environment for REAL artistic challenges....I deal with more 'accidents' that are potty related than the 'creative-oops', if you know what I mean!)


The best part about my job is that I get to think about art every day. I get to inspire others and encourage the exceptional artists and push them to do more. Paper crafting allows me to create something nearly every day. Cards and scrapbook pages, believe it or not...are a WHOLE lot cheaper than paint and canvas....I can create in bulk and I can see an idea all the way through without wasting tons of money. If I mess up one card, only pennies go in the trash, not $30 worth of paint that needs to be covered up....Okay, maybe I am just coming up with a justification that makes sense to me, but either way, I really love making cards. I love finding inspiration from movies, ads and color combinations for my cards and layouts. This is a very fun investment.