Memory Keeper box for my Cards

This week's color inspiration challenge is gorgeous!! I love brown and pink. Tonight I made this box for my cards using 2 challenge prompts. The first one of course is the color inspiration challenge and the second prompt I utilized is from The Creative Type blog. This week's prompt left me in stitches! The goal is to use stitching for the lettering on our creation. For the first time, I hand-stitched the lettering on my title. This totally reminded me of Jr. High home economics class.

One of the projects we had to do was make a pillow with hand embroidered names on the front. I got really into embroidery floss and hand stitching. My mom still has the pillow and it has names of my Jr. High classmates, some are first names, some are last names and some are nicknames. I don't even remember who the nicknames are or why they had that nickname...but it is lovingly stitched on the pillow.

I remember getting together with a friend to sew one Saturday afternoon. I threaded the big embroidery needle and realized that I forgot something like scissors. I was sitting on the bed with a friend and I set the pillow down and stuck the needle in the mattress and ran to get the scissors. When I came back I hopped back up on the bed and the eye of the needle went straight into my knee!!! I freaked out! The thread was sticking out and so was the pointy end of the needle. I sent my friend to get my dad. He came in with pliers and carefully pulled it out. I don't remember it being sore or hurting all that much, but it was pretty tramatic...I was in jr. high so every thing was so much more dramatic.

Needless to say, I took shop in high school and steered clear of home ec. Haha....shop is way more dangerous than sewing, but I had had enough! Now I wish I knew how to sew, I haven't threaded a sewing machine since jr. high, but I have used some major power tools so I guess that is a plus...

Anyway, I had fun stitching the letters and I did quite a bit of painting on this box. I mixed brown paint to make all of the elements coordinate. I really like how it turned out...even my husband said "WOW" when he saw me putting the finishing touches on it. Hope you enjoy!!






Supplies used: CTMH unless otherwise noted.
Chipboard 'a' Basic Grey
Chipboard leaf and shape Basic Grey
White screen print overlay, Hambly

Emporium Cube

I love designing workshops!! It is so fun to teach people how to use up their materials. I do lots of 'research'. I read crafting magazines, I look at blogs, I pay attention to trends in the scrapbooking and card making industry so that I can design things that are current. I love being an art teacher, it is sort of the same. I like to tailor what I am doing at school to things that are popular now...not necessarily cartoons, but trends like butterflies, cupcakes, owls and even Matryoshkas.






Here is a cube workshop that utilizes basic paper cutting, a Martha Stewart punch, and the beautiful new Emporium paper from Close to My Heart. I have been showing this at home gatherings encouraging mom's to sign up with their daughters or to let me teach a workshop/birthday class for a party. I have had a lot of positive feedback and this is such an easy thing to make!! Enjoy!

Ohmygosh, I totally won!

Check it out!

Wow, I can't believe I won something!!

Simple Anytime Cards

Last night I got out an oldie-but-goodie stamp set and had some fun making some spring cards. I paired the stamps up with a new paper color, sorbet, and some new mini-medley white daisy accents. Other colors include chocolate and clover meadow. I just love the watermelon colors mixed with brown and white. These cards are some of my new favorites. I did some embossing with my paper trimmer and bone folder, sanding for a distressed look and some faux stitching with a white gel pen. I really like how these simple cards turned out. Enjoy!! (Everything is from Close to My Heart except the big silver brad and the dark green ribbon.)

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!