More Cards for Stephen's Project...

Last week I started making cards for Stephen's project...

This past weekend I had tons of fun making more!













Nothing too fancy here...but lots of fun!

My New Samples Mini Book...

I put the final touches on my new samples book over the past weekend.

I love making sample books...it's very satisfying to take inventory of all my products and try each and everyone out. The basic purpose of the book is two-fold:


First, I have a list of what I already own (so no more duplicates!).


Secondly, it works great as a guide when I am trying to choose colors for a project.

My book measures 5 1/2 inches square (this is the project that lead to all this strips of paper that finally became my Garden Mini Album).

I added a couple of chipboard covers and spiral bound the book.


I created tabbed sections for each type or brand of products...


And added a sample of the product.


For my mists, I sprayed each one onto a blank Avery address label sheet and used a circle punch to cut out each sample.


For my glitters and flock I used a Zot to adhere the samples. I simply placed a Zot down, sprinkled on the glitter or flock, pressed with my fingers to get good contact and shook off the excess...


After all the glitter and flock samples were placed, I lightly sprayed the page with a sealer so the glitter and flock wouldn't flake off.

In the end the whole process really gave me a good look at what I had "in stock". I had completely forgotten about my Twinklette glitter pens, and since adding them to the sample book, they are more in the front of my mind and I find I reach for them more often now.

Deborah, over at Lily Pad Cards' blog posted a great sample book earlier this week. Her book is housed in a 3-ring binder...which I think is fantastic...so she can add, remove and rearrange her pages.

Although I can't add, remove or rearrange pages without re-binding the whole book...I really loved being able to play around with all sorts of paints, inks, embossing powders, rub-ons, stamps and papers (Basic Grey's Steampunk Debutante) for my cover...







I guess I need to keep my eye open for a binder I can alter!

Cards for Stephen's Project

Earlier this week on Jennifer Maguire's blog, I saw this link to Bazzill/Creative Escape's blog post about Stephen's Thank You card project...

Basically, as reported in the The Arizona Republic, "Ten-year-old Stephen Goodman, a fifth-grader in Surprise, Arizona, wants to send a thank you card next to military personnel. Not to one platoon, or to just one division, but to every actively deployed service member in the U.S. military."

Stephen has come up with the number 180,000! That is a major undertaking for one little boy, so...

To help him out Bazzill is asking for handmade cards for his project...and for every five you send in, you get entered into a drawing for a pass to this year's Creative Escape weekend...

The drawing and chance to win aside (although it sure is a nice perk) I decided to send some cards in...

I'm shooting for making 20...

So far I have two, it's a start...and really, I just started on Wednesday...



I usually make two of each card I make...not always, but usually...so I made two of these.

And had a very happy mistake in the process...



Basically the mistake all boils down to the fact I'm pretty impatient. My intention here was to have the "Star Spangled Banner" stamped faintly in the background in a medium brown ink...I used TH's Tea Dye Distress ink...and then on top of that I wanted to heat emboss in black "Thank You"...but I didn't wait for the Distress Ink to dry before I poured on the embossing powder...

I have done that so many times, you would think I knew better...

But, lo and behold, I really like the look of it...



I hope I can use this happy mistake again sometime!

Snow...in Fairfield!?!?

Yep...that's right.

This may not be a "wow" kinda thing to a lot of people, but in Fairfield!?!?



I left my office yesterday and the temp. was 50 degrees...but with in a half hour the storm was right over my house that temp. had dropped to 32 degrees and we got snow!



All this just four days after sitting in the 80 degree sunshine of Sunday and planting my flower garden! Wow!



Palm trees and snow!?!?



This is sooooo gonna be my next mini album project!

Trying My Hand at the Copic Craze...Sort of

So I have been really intrigued by the current Copic pen craze...

I love watching videos online of artists coloring with them, and seeing the wonderful cards made using them with stamps...

(must check out Nichol Magourik, Jennifer Maguire...and oh so many more!)

But being the frugal girl I am, I decided to try it with the art markers I already had...Prismacolors. These pens are also alcohol based markers, but are made by Standford (the makers of Sharpie pens) and are a bit cheaper (about $4.50/marker)...but mostly, because I already had a set of 24...

Which has expanded (due to great sales at Michaels and Arron Brothers) to about a collection of 50!

Anyway, here are a couple of samples:



Yum...I want a big sundae like this for my birthday this year!

And this is the card I made for these cuties...


(sorry the photo is a bit blurry...I took it with my cellphone, and I'm not real steady when taking pictures with it...)

The paper line I used is Basic Grey's Cupcake line. I think the line is a few years old, but I got a paper pad of it from Michaels a week or so ago...on sale...for $1.99! Can you believe it, the first time I've gotten such a major score from Michaels!

I really like the papers...and was on a roll so I made a couple more birthday cards...





It's funny how you see things differently once they are enlarged on your computer screen...I think I need to remove this present sticker and ink the edges to match the rest of the card...yep, sure do!



And I think I am prefer the faux stitching on the other card to this card's doodling...but live and learn!

And luckily there is still a bunch of this paper left over for more cards!

Garden Harvest Mini Album...take three

I started my first garden mini album before I even had any veggies harvested...

Never finished it...tossed it out...

I started another mini album for the harvest...

Wasn't happy with it, too complicated...tossed it out...

I started to think I would never get a garden harvest mini album made...

Then a few weeks ago I was trimming up some 8 1/2" X 11" inch cardstock to 5 1/2 inches square for a new sample book (which I will show you later this week...) and ended up with a pile of strips 3 X 11...

Well, I'm a tosser and into the recycle bin they went...and they stared back at me just crying out to be made into something...

I accordion folded them and glued them together into one loooooooong piece....and the Garden Harvest mini album was born (again!)...

So this is take three...



It measures 3" X 2 3/4" and is about 1 3/4 inches thick...

I'm super happy about it...and I had a lot of fun putting it together.



I used some corrugated cardboard for the covers (also rescued from the recycle bin)...



Painted with a light swish of white acrylic paint...fun! The top stamp there is from a pack of embellies from Michaels (I think they were from Making Memories...not sure though), but the bottom stamp is from a package I received in the mail from Malaysia (just in case you are wondering what I received from Malaysia, it was a gorgeous silk hand-embroidered flamenco dancing shawl...yes, I used to Flamenco dance...)



All tied up with some green twill ribbon...



I think in all there were eight strips of paper attached end to end using 7 half strips as hinges...



This is my 'opening page'...most of the papers are from Graphic 45's Domestic Goddess line...but there are lots of other bits and pieces thrown in...



I played with some stamps...and rub-ons (from the dollar bin at Michaels)...and all sorts of things that were hanging around on my desk...



Even these stickers, which I can honestly say I have had for ages...but every time I go to clean out my stash...I just keep hanging on to them...so darn cute, and finally they have a home!



I printed the pictures at 1 3/4 inches square...leaving room between the pictures on the sheet (which was 8 1/2" X 11") so I could cut them out to look like Polaroids...then I took a pen and loosely drew boxes to frame the pictures.



Fun...fun...fun!



And here is the back cover...complete with a photo of me and Jon (aren't we cute...and oh so vintage-y!) looking so happy about our bountiful harvest!

Tulips...my second sign of spring...

We have had quite a bit of rain here last month...



And I think that may have helped my tulips!



They seem twice as big and twice as bountiful as last year!



I love springtime!

Beautiful...

Here is a random page I made of my beautiful Bonnie!



Bonnie is not the most photogenic cat...in fact, most times she looks downright pissed off that she was disturbed by you taking her picture. What can I say...I love her in all of her crabby little ways. Some day, if I ever figure out YouTube and the video function on my cell phone...I will post a video of her and Elaine interacting...hilarious!...basically, if Elaine sees Bonnie is near by, she throws her self on the floor and plays dead until Bonnie (hissing) passes her by...

But really, Bonnie is the cuddliest cat...I mean, look at that maine of fur!

In this photo, I caught her in a good mood, as she stretched out in a sunny patch at the top of the stairs...I think she was even purring!

This was really a fun layout to build...

I got to use my cool iRock...and Epiphany tool...



And yes, the iRock works ontop of photos...with no damage!

And that bit of lace is vintage...from my friend's grandma's stash...my friend was gonna toss it out, but thought I might find a good use for it...I did!

I cut a circle doily from some Sassafras Lass paper, Mix & Mend/Free Composition, which has these cool faux-fabric and stitching images on it...





...which I actually stitched on...it is sort of hard to tell in the picture, but under the real stitching line is the printed stitching line...maybe it is just more impressive in real life...maybe not...maybe it is just me who is impressed...who knows...

Anyway, more cool scattered iRock gems there too...



I cut the 'label' edge off of the paper...and used a couple as cool borders...

I used my hand held edge distressing tool here...and made a tiny discovery. I inked the edges of the paper with Distress Inks, and then ran the distressing tool over them...since the edges were slightly damp from the ink, they frayed beautifully! Better than I had ever got them to do when they are dry! Just a tip you can file away for later use...

And finally...on my beautiful page, about my beautiful cat with my beautiful edge strips...

I made beautiful tissue paper flowers...based on the ones I spied on Marah Johnson's blog.



I used the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Distressed Flower die and my Cuttlebug...and an old pattern for a man's suit (don't know why I had that?)...

I layered tons of the thin flowers, scrunched up the edges and used a rhinestone brad in the center. And I lightly sprayed them with some homemade mists...and wow! Aren't they beautiful!



L-O-V-E them! Can't wait to make and use more!