Valentine Fever

I have been making Valentines like crazy.

I am really into simple cards.
I should probably make more cards with silly sayings...but that isn't really my reason for making cards....
I like good design and a pretty color scheme.

These cards were really easy to make using scraps of paper.

Above: All close to my heart...Below: same design with some Hambly!

A lot of the stamps I have been using came from the dollar stamp bin...and I tried to use a lot of punches this year!

This design is super simple to create over and over again.
All of these cards are going to a local hospital for Valentines Day.
I tried to make them non-gender specific....I guess men are used to getting pink/red Valentines??

Check back later this week to see the cards that I am sending to Winter for her St. Jude's card drive.
I hope to get them in the mail early this week...just waiting on the sun to shine so I can get a good picture of my last batch!

Thanks for reading!!

Mini Album for 2010

So I totally meant to post this yesterday...But I didn't do much of anything yesterday. Everything felt sort of boring: bookstore was boring, food was boring, going out was boring....So I went to bed early. Maybe it wasn't boring somuchas it wasn't warm....Yesterday it was sooooo cold here that all I wanted to do was snuggle up under a blanket.

I've been working towards my one little word. GIVE. It is probably the best new years resolution ever. I just finished 30 Valentine cards for a local hospital and today I am going to make a stack of cards to help Winter and her drive for St. Jude's Valentine cards for kids. (If you like making cards, this is a very great opportunity to pass on some love!) I think this is a great cause. Yesterday, I taught an art class at a local gallery and I am going to donate my pay back to the art center for art class scholarships for kids. Giving really does feel great and doing one thing....inspires me to do more.

Okay, so here is that mini-book with tons of Hambly that I mentioned a couple of days ago. This is one of those little creations that I needed to make. I had to push through a spell of the creative blahs and just finish it. I also had to use up some supplies that I have been hoarding forever. To see each page with more detail check out my flickr set.



Also, snow days are great for crazy nails:


Well, I am off to prepare for a day of making Valentines, photographing a bunch of rainbow cupcakes I made yesterday and hanging out with my girlies, watching movies!!

Color Inspiration.

One of the main reasons I started blogging a year-and-a-half ago, was because my friend (and Close to My heart Upline) Yvonne, showed me a card that she had created for a color inspiration challenge over at KWernerDesign. She explained all about blogging at our unit meeting that night and challenged us to use blogs for inspiration and start our own blog to create an online presence for our business.

I was HOOKED from that point on. I started doing tons of color challenges (and other challenges too) but Color Inspiration soon became my total favorite. It was the biggest motivator to get me to create a great card with a fabulous color scheme. When Kristina decided not to do the challenges anymore, I was pretty bummed, but totally understanding...she picked several favorites from the challenge and created a mosaic that linked back to each original card....I am sure it took hours!

The challenges taught me good design and craftsmanship and helped me meet a lot of really great bloggers! I was super excited this week to notice a new color challenge...sort of a one-time-only, (that's okay! Be sure to check out her weekly card videos for ideas and inspiration, they totally rock!!!) I am at home because of the weather and I was really struggling to get some mojo going this week. This color inspiration challenge was perfect!

Here is my card for this week's challenge. I used a stamp set by hero arts and some cardstock from Close to my heart. The little Matryoshka doll is paper pieced as I was trying to incorporate all the colors from the challenge. The bird cage paper is from Hambly....I LOVE my Hambly paper!! I have to have a really good reason to use it though...I am always afraid I will use it up too quickly. Check back tomorrow for an all-Hambly mini album I am finishing up!

My goal was to create a whole stack of Valentine cards for a swap later this month so I used up the rest of the birdcage paper (and traded the mustard + saffron for brown and green on some of the cards)

Some of you had asked about the deer that I used in some of these cards. He is a felt die cut from Close to My Heart....I only had one and I was hesitant to use him, because he is so cute...So I traced him onto cardstock and now I use that as a pattern on other papers so that I can re-create that same idea over and over....

I actually had a tricky time shooting the photos for these....It was WAY too cold to do it outside (I tried, but the -10 wind kept blowing them over) and it was right at sunset...around 5:00 pm....so the sun was quite harsh and kept making bright sun streaks and shadows everywhere whenever I tried to use my usual window to take the pictures.

Wouldn't this be a cute teacher Valentine?

Those little envelopes are waaaay easy to make. I used 2X2 squares, folded them in half and then in half the other way....and then you just fold the corners into the middle and viola, a cute little square envelope. I leave one corner up for the flap...and line it with a scrap of paper.... I practiced some stitching on cards again for the one above....I sewed that ribbon to the card.

The cupcake punch is from Martha Stewart. I used a scissor edging technique....where you scrape the edge of the cardstock with your scissors to rough it up....on a lot of my cards and elements.

That pink frame in the background in some of my pictures is from T.J. Max...I went there last week and bought a huge stack of cool frames...I am trying to decide what to put in them and where to hang them....I want to create a wall of cool frames, possibly on my mantle piece....this is an idea for one of them....It totally matched the color scheme so I had to use it in my pics!

Hope you are having a great week and staying super warm!! If you are making any Valentines, I would love to see them!! I looked online and couldn't find much in the way of inspiration!

Another Planner--This one is Custom!

Okay, so I finally made my first Etsy sale. Yahooooo! A friend that reads my blog decided that she wanted a planner like mine. I had her explain what she likes....and then I had her pick out a few papers that she liked over at Hambly.

I ordered the screenprinted papers and while I was waiting for them to come, I printed out the calendar pages, punched the edges with decorative punches, and made copies of the daily pages. As soon as they arrived, I covered the front and back of the journal with some of the paper. I went with the black because I thought it was super cool--she picked it out but didn't say which one she wanted on the cover so I had to make some creative decisions. I used a book that the library was going to throw out as the cover. Great way to repurpose something old!

\After creating the covers, I punched the pages and bound it with the bind-it-all. I am so glad I bought it!

I think it turned out really awesome. I went back to do some embellishing with stickers.


I also added that elastic chord on the back cover to keep papers in place. Here is a close up of that.


Here is a picture of the pocket I put in the back of the journal!


I hope she likes it! If you want one of your own, check out my Etsy shop!.

And its {back} to school

Although I have already been back to school for two weeks, it was so nice to have a little 3-day weekend to recover. I love having a spiral notebook for making lists and writing down information in a safe place. I go through one notebook every few months. I decided to make a note book for my friend Sherah who just signed up to be a Close to My Heart consultant so that she could keep track of new customers and make her own lists. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was inspired by Jen @ Jen's Scrappy Pages.

I made this notebook using the CTMH Stamp sets: Classmate Alphabet, You're A Hoot and some Hambly screeenprint paper. The cover of the notebook was attached with eyelets, it is a transparent overlay...I thought it would help protect the stamped images. In the second photo, you can see the elastic cord I used to secure the notebook closed....that is one of my favorite new techniques. I love to attach the elastic with eyelets on the back cover and then stretch it around the cover to keep papers and loose notes from getting lost. I picked up this notebook at the drugstore and the cover is a little thicker than cardstock so it was perfect for recovering! Enjoy!!

Yo, Friend

Wooh, hooo!! Another challenge. I have been squeezing them in this weekend since I know I will be super busy next week. This card was inspired by the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge movie this week Sixteen Candles. The challenge was to use bright 80s colors on a birthday card! Yay!!!

I got to break out my old Lisa Frank stickers. I love stickers. I have tons of stickers, but since I started stamping, I rarely use any. It so was nice to use up some of my letter stickers this week. This card features some Hambly screenprinted paper as well as some leather Thickers. It was super fun to make! Enjoy!! (Oh, the 'Happy Birthday' is on the inside of the card, but it isn't in the pictures)


This is the kind of challenge that makes me want to keep making cards!!

Another Quick Finally Friday Challenge

Hello!! I am thankful to have time this morning (my last morning of the summer!!) to make a card based on this week's Finally Friday Video. I used some Hambly paper, some Pink Paislee, Enchanting paper and some SEI mimosa for this card. It is also very Punny...hehe....enjoy!! Have a lovely weekend!

The tiny typewriter stamp set is from CTMH.

*** I should also note that the Hambly screen print is a onesie. I cropped it down two look like a t-shirt instead of baby clothes, as part of the challenge to use something that is meant for something else. Also, I thought it was a little cute to put a '2' on a ONEsie. ;-) More punnieness for ya!

Traveler's Inspiration Challenge {four}

Tomorrow will be the ONE YEAR anniversary of this blog! I will be picking a winner for my blog candy tomorrow night. (THANKS FOR ALL THE SWEET COMMENTS!) I will email the winner for her address and I hope to get that in the mail before Thursday as I will be going out of town to visit the great city of St. Louis next weekend. I hope to see the City Museum, Zoo, and the Roller Derby while I am there!!

Anyway, I had a chance to participate in a wonderful little challenge tonight. I have several favorite blogs, but this challenge features two blogs that you absolutely have to check out ASAP. My 'one little word' this year is {Inspire}...I am doing my best to pass on the love by participating this challenge, I hope to inspire you to create something beautiful or follow these blogs in your quest for daily creativity.

The challenge site is travelingmama.net and she posts a weekly picture for inspiration. This week's picture is beautiful but I love this blog because the author, Tina is wonderful! She is so sweet and her layouts and creations are incredible. Seriously, if you have not checked out this blog yet, you should indulge in her thoughts on {creativity}. She has started a wonderful conversation about creativity and inspiration and the challenges that artists face.

I am so excited to participate in this challenge and I look forward to many more to come as it is only the traveler's inspiration challenge {four}

The second blog to mention is Scrappin and Stampin with Savitri. She is the wonderful artist who chose this picture for the challenge this week. Savitri is an absolute doll. Her artwork is beautiful and she always leaves the sweetest comments.

Here is my creation for this week's challenge. I decided to make a set of 4 cards using some new patterned paper that I picked up this weekend in Tulsa at a scrapbook store. Originally, I set out to make some cards for a swap, but once I started on these and I used the birdcages from a Hambly Screen print, I knew this set of cards would be destined for a different fate...(see my new Etsy store!...more goodies coming soon!)

I was definitely influenced by the arch doorway and I used my oval coluzzle cutter to cut the ovals on the Piggy Piggy tails glitter paper. The card sketch I used for this card is from the CTMH book Wishes, Sun Dial.


(the turquoise-y glitter on the patterned paper reflects the turquoise door much more in person than it does in these pictures...all well.....)

Anyway, I hope you are having a fabulous week!! Enjoy!

Guest Designer AGAIN!! Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge # 34

My Twilight mini-album was chosen to receive the Audrey Award and I was asked to be a guest designer for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog again!!

This week the movie is Ocean's 11 and the challenge was to use brads...for BRAD Pitt of course! I hope you will consider playing along this week!



For my card, I decided to create a 'Vegas' sign. I found an online sign generator, changed the text and printed it onto vellum. Next time, I think I will just use regular cardstock, as the vellum seemed to roll up when I added the liquid glass + glitter. I added brads where the 'welcome' greeting is because it didn't really go with my "Thanks for a Good Time' sentiment!

The clear overlays are hambly as well as the gold shimmery card base. I wanted to capture the glamor and glitz of a Las Vegas casino with this card, in honor of the movie Oceans 11.



Here is the second card I made with the sign generator. You can see that the Welcome sign fits this time for "Welcome home, it was boring without you." He he....super fun!! (It is a little hard to read the 'welcome' part....but you get the idea!)

Also, head on over to Robin's blog, this week's other guest designer!

Cinema Saturday Creative Movie Challenge #32: Twilight

This week's movie over at Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge is TWILIGHT!! I would say that I probably liked the book and the soundtrack more than I liked the movie....so I decided to listen to the soundtrack while I worked on this week's creation.

I have had this mini-book for a couple of weeks and I was just looking at it Saturday morning, trying to decide what to do with it. I thought maybe I would save it for a trip....and then the movie challenge was posted. Waaaaahoooo!! I got a great idea to create a book about the Twilight Saga 'FAD'.

I would like to create more mini-books like this....With journaling and photos and ephemera (like the patch that I used on the cover!) as I am living the experience. I went back through my photo gallery and found pictures of me with various friends who love Twilight and this book shows the progression of how the 'wildfire' spread.

Abbey>ME>Kaley>Kannan>Johni

Yesterday, I printed the photos onto white cardstock. Then, I found papers that would match this week's challenge: Use red, black and white, and sparkles. Most of the paper comes from Hambly....I LOVE their clear overlays, perfect for this type of project.



(feel free to click on the pictures to see stuff up-close!)

Then I did my journaling. I typed a Word document with a short blurb about my experience with each friend, Abbey, Kaley, Kannan, Johni and then each 'thing that I wanted to talk about, books, movie, shirt, soundtrack, Cullen Crest lapel pin, etc. I printed that onto a sheet of cardstock.



I also printed a page with the soundtrack playlist.


As I was thinking about the things I wanted to include in my mini-book, I realized that I needed more visuals. Stickers, stamps, chipboard....nothing seemed quite right.....That is when I got the idea to use FLAIR. If you don't know about Flair, it is a Facebook application. You can pick out little buttons to send to your friends that say things like: "BFF" or "I[heart]Twilight". I have out tons of flair just before the Twilight movie came out last November. My favorite: "Edward Cullen, bringing Sexy back since 1901". Hehe





So, when I got the idea to use flair, I just opened the application and started dragging the ones that I liked into Word. Once I had about 2 pages, I printed it on vellum. After I trimmed a couple of pages to use as actually 'pages in my book' I had leftover circles that I used my circle punch to cut out to use on various spots around my book.








This was a very fun book to make. The entire creative process was so fun. Last night, I had to see it all the way through. I couldn't wait to take pictures this morning. I didn't include every picture of the book here because it was too annoying to move around all the codes... So, you can view them all over at my flickr album.

I am super excited about this creation!! I can't wait to make more mini-books just like this. The 3-rings made it very easy to move things around and change up the order of my pages and I could also include entire pictures as the 'page'. Wow. I want to make more of these!
I saved room at the back to include my ticket stub and a picture of whomever I go see the next movie with, or whoever I lend a copy of one of my books to next so the saga will continue to spread and grow.




Ooh, I hope you will consider playing along this week!! This was so fun!! I love the movie challenges. (I wore my Cullen Crest shirt all day yesterday!!) Even if you don't play along this week, maybe next week....I WILL BE A GUEST DESIGNER!!! I am super excited to be guest designing for next week's movie with Jamiee. We were asked to be guest designers after our Steel Magnolia movie entries!! You don't have to make a mini-book or anything too crazy to play, just a card or even a book mark!! Thanks for reading!!


Also, I have to give credit to the fabulous Ali Edwards for inspiring this book. She makes mini-books over at her blog all the time and I just love seeing them!