Crafty Goodness!!

It has been a gorgeous Sunday. I went to Tulsa, OK last night for a friend's birthday. Woke up to a whole latta rain. We got some sushi, went thrifting and then I grabbed an ice cream sundae and listened to Kings of Leon on the drive home. This week is looking to be a busy one with a CTMH unit meeting Monday night...swap club on Tuesday night, dinner with girlfriends on Wednesday night and a school program on Thursday night. I probably won't have time for a lot of craftiness, but I hope to photograph some of the seriously awesome thrift store finds I got today. I thought I would prepare one big crafty post tonight for you too! Hope you find some inspiration here.

These cards are for my card swap on Tuesday night. The theme is spring. I did a bunch of coloring with my blender pen on the cute little animals. This stamp set, 'Love You Forever' by CTMH is definitely a favorite!




The following cards are from a workshop I taught last week. I used the designs directly from the suggested card layouts in the kit. I didn't really alter them at all, except for this first one...the ribbon is a little different. The rest are exactly from the Felicity Collection project sheet. Easy, beautiful and fun. I have tons of the paper left over too!!






These last few images are for my workshop next month. The projects include a kids joke book, a Lullaby CD sleeve, a Treat Box and a kraft gift bag.


I found a video on how to make the treat box here.


The knock-knock joke book idea is from PaperTray Ink, completely reprintable at home!




The lullaby CD sleeve is also from Papertray Ink. I simplified mine so that it could just be a card for a new baby....It doesn't have to hold a CD. To see their entire list of hand made gift ideas (many with printables), click here.




And this decorated kraft bag is just a little something I came up with. I think it is cute and could be modified easily for a Valentines treat bag or a Halloween treat bag just by changing the colors!


Since I will be gone for a whole week next month, I thought it would be a good idea to get as much done for my next workshop as possible! I have the supplies cut, scored and sorted for each of the 4 projects to accommodate 10 people. Let's just hope I have that many sign up!

Thanks for reading!

Swap Club--Fall Cards

Its that time of the month again. Every month I get together with friends to exchange cards. This gives everyone a variety of cards to use. This month the idea is to create a card with fall colors. I tend to grab pink a lot so it will be great to have cards on hand to use this fall.


My cards this month feature a big owl and some mushrooms from the CTMH stamp set WHOOO Loves You. I actually stamped them on watercolor paper (it was already cut from another project) using colorbox chalk ink. I was able to play around with mixing the colors. After stamping, I sprinkled them with glittery embossing powder.


The CS, ribbon, and stamps are CTMH. The ink is Colorbox and the hemp is from my craft room. I decided to leave the sentiment off....I thought that people could use these cards for anything. I will take a little picture of everyone's cards and show you what technique we will learn at the swap after Thursday, but be warned...it might be a while before you seen anything other than CKC!!

That's right, as soon as school is out on Friday, I will be headed down to Tulsa, OK for the Creating Keepsakes Convention. I have been a subscriber to the magazine for nearly 10 years so I am super excited to take classes and crop with other scrappers. I will definitely be posting pictures via my iphone from the convention this weekend!! I can't wait!!

Cute cards!

Last night I hosted this month's swap club. It was AWESOME! Not only did we create a fun make-and-take, we also got to swap a lot of beautiful cards that everyone created using either a baby or a wedding 'congratulations' theme.

Here are the cards for this month:


Girls, you did a beautiful job! I love seeing what you create each and every month!

Here is my card.

Also, at the last minute I had the idea to create a fun little butterfly tag to add to our technique book. We used markers to make the wings have a watercolor effect.


Ooh, my good friend Lindsay made me the sweetest thank you card. She is new to stamping/papercrafting/scrapbooking/card making! I knew she would love it all and she has learned so much since she started making cards.


Here is her very first card...

She made this in June! Wow, I am so proud of how much she has learned! I know she is having so much fun! Thank you for the beautiful card, I love it!

My Swap Club

I decided to start a summer swap club. Basically, I set up a theme for each month and I have invited my friends to participate. Friday night will be our first swap night. (You can see the dates and themes in my side bar for more info.)

Each month, we will make between 5-10 of the same card and when we meet, we will exchange the cards so that we all go home with a variety of different designs. At the swap, I will provide a fun 'craft' activity and some snacks for everyone.

This month, I have decided to keep it simple and showcase patterned paper+stamping techniques. I will give everyone a 1" ring to store a variety of 3 1/2 " X 4 1/2" cards or 4" circle cards that could be used as a reference 'book' or be added directly to a scrapbook page or card later. I will demonstrate basic paper piecing and stamping on to patterned paper (both as a background as a pattern and on the main image).


By keeping it simple, I am leaving off fancy froo-froo, bling, and embossing powder....Super hard for me.....But I think simple will be good.

Another feature of keeping it simple includes: ONLY 1 STAMP Set and ONLY 1 INK Color....sometimes, I think I overwhelm people with too much variety. And, since it is free, I don't want to give away too much of my stash.




Everyone will also have a chance to sort through my punched papers and attach little pictures to the back of their 'cards'. I have a new plan to only save 6X6 pieces of paper or larger...anything smaller will be PUNCHED. I will take a bunch of punches and punch it to smitherenes, until only tiny shards are left for the trash....Hopefully, this will give me a variety of shapes to work with for quick embellishments and it will force me to clear out the clutter...I can even use the punched shapes as confetti for gifts or in cards. YAY!! Who doesn't love that??




Here are my cards for this week's swap "Make Your Own Embellishments." It features 'treetops' with desert sand, ocean, tulip and colonial white as the color scheme.