A Play Date with Label Love

This past Friday was a play day for me.  I have been busy trying to catch up with my cleaning and organizing,  running the girls to softball and the library, keeping up with the lawn and gardening, and other less than exciting chores.  So I decided to give myself a day off.  Of course, I still had to stop to make meals, but other than that, I played all day with my craft stuff.

I'm a little shocked to admit that this was the first chance I had to use my new goodies from the new SU catalog.  Usually, I'm ripping into them as soon as they come out of the box!  I also needed to prepare some cards for my upcoming stamp club meeting, so this was the perfect excuse, not that I really needed one!

This card is FULL of new goodies!!  The fabulously grungy paper is Epic Day DSP from the This and That collection.  These coordinate with all of the wonderful goodies for the SU version of a Smash book and I am loving this specific line!  I also broke out the stamp set Label Love and it's coordinating punch.  I was also in need of some more masculine birthday cards and I think this one will work nicely.  It's a pretty basic card, but I think sometimes the simple designs show off the papers the best.

I had originally set this day aside to go with my parents to the VA clinic for Dad's appointment, but the Dr cancelled the visit, so now I have a day free.  Just might have to take the time to create something fun!  

If you are interested in any of these products, feel free to shop my online store found here!  

Well, I'm off to do something productive, whatever that may be... Have a wonderful day and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-crumb cake, very vanilla, Epic Day This & That, Ink-basic gray, crumb cake, Stamp Set-Label Love, Punch-Artisan Label

Anything But a Card Challenge 21-The gift that keeps on giving...

Hello! Today is Father's Day here in the US and I will be spending part of the day with my two favorite guys, my Dad and my husband.  So it's quite fitting that today's project aligns perfectly with the Masculine/Dear ol' Dad challenge at Anything But a Card.  We are in week two of this challenge and it's my turn to share a project.  Be sure to visit the challenge blog and check out the team's inspiring pieces.  I would love to see you link up your projects too! Remember, they can be anything but a card-that leaves a lot of different art forms to play with!

For those of you who follow my blog, you know that my DH loves to give me a hard time about saving everything for my 'someday' projects.  Last year, his Father's day card included some corrugated paper saved from our souvenirs from Disney.  This year, part of his gift includes a lot of 'saved' items. Now you would think this would curb the teasing about digging through the trash, but I know him well enough to know that he will simply direct my eyes to the containers and shelves of things I've yet to use... Oh well!   I also had some assistance from my two girls on this project!

Before you see my altered shadow box, I need to apologize for the horrid photos.  I just couldn't get the shadows off of my shadow box!  I'm also not overly thrilled with the watercolor background, but I'm cutting myself some slack since I'm still in the experimental stage on this, and I had some input from my crafting partners that didn't quite achieve the effect we were going for. So I'm filing this one under the belief that art is in the process not the product.

The wood shadow frame was once the home to a kid's stamping kit.  The pieces, I'm sure, have long been lost, chewed up by Shadow (in his puppy stage), or visiting the socks that always disappear from the dryer.  The thin plywood back was cracked and loose on two sides so it was promptly removed, and the frame was put on the shelf with other 'someday' items.  When I was trying to decide on a project for this challenge, I just wasn't in a scrapbooking mood, which was my obvious choice, so I dug through the treasures on the shelf to see what might spark some creativity.  The frame kept catching my eye like it really wanted to be repurposed, so I decided on a shadow box.  The backing was a piece of watercolor paper cut to fit the frame, and I even managed to squeeze in some fancy chocolate liners behind the girls' pics. You should have seen the manly eyeroll I received for saving them...

I started by painting the frame with fawn acrylic paint.  When it was dry, I added a layer of clear rock candy distress crackle.  Then I set the frame aside to dry while I created the background.  I started painting all of the areas with crumb cake ink, when the girls got all excited about watercoloring.  So we added some wild wasabi and chocolate chip ink as well. Fawn paint was also dabbed on there to tie the background to the frame. When we were finished it reminded me of the camouflage fatigues  DH wears for trainings.  I added some stamping using chocolate chip ink.  See the index finger stamp and the special delivery stamps? They were two of my treasured finds from an antiques and craft fair.  The finger stamp was so caked with old, black ink, and the rubber is really hard, but I love the distressed style it leaves behind! I also used an alphabet set from my wonderful blogging sister, Lisa, to spell out different names for dads. The #1 is from the set Blue Ribbon.

The center space is paper from Woodland Walk.  I added fawn paint to this and the brown candy liners too.  A few retired chocolate chip corduroy buttons from my stash finished off the background.  By this time the frame was dry and I glued the watercolor paper to the back of the frame.  I also added some crumb cake ink to the crackle to make it stand out a little more.  The heart is a stamped sculpey piece that was sitting in a bowl waiting to be used, and the enamel dots are from another wonderful blogging friend, Sherry. They were a little too 'pretty' for this distressed piece, so I added a little brown sharpie ink onto them to distress them a little.  The natural trim ribbon was added to the center wood pieces to cover a groove that once held another divider (who knows where that went...).

So that's it for me!  I hope I've inspired you to make something manly for the special guys in your life too! Have a wonderful week and happy crafting!

Information on Google Reader

I have heard quite a bit about the end of Google Reader and how it will affect following blogs.  I admit I was quite concerned that I would lose some of my wonderful discoveries and friends when this happened.  I am not the most computer literate either and a lot of the information out there only served to confuse me even more.  I found some wonderful information in a very easy to read format here.  Thanks so much to Alison at Words and Pictures for sharing this with me!

So if you are worried about the changes that will occur on July 1st, be sure to check out the information.  There's a really good chance that it might not affect you at all!

Flashback Friday-Goin' Waaaay Back!

Welcome back to another Flashback Friday.  Once again, I have dug into my older supplies, this time pulling out some really old border stickers.  

In the late 90's and early 2000's  it was the big scrapbooking trend to put stickers everywhere.  It has jokingly been referred to as the sticker sneeze technique.  Needless to say, I still have quite a few stickers in my stash, including the long ones that would be used as a border or trim piece.  After looking at this particular sheet of borders, I knew I wouldn't ever use them for their original purpose, but thought they might work in a different way.  Here's what I came up with...

Now, depending on how technical you want to get, there is another 'old' item on this. Crushed Curry is a 'new' color in the current SU catalog, but it was actually a retired color from a few years ago.  I had purchased some curry paper before it retired to coordinate with some DSP.  I haven't used this color in ages and technically it is old stash, but since the color is no longer retired, it's not officially 'old'... So if you want to split hairs, I'll concede that the base and label are current product! :)

It was quite interesting that I thought the borders were incredibly gaudy, but cut into strips and layered on a card, they actually look quite trendy...  Maybe I'm just glad they're on a card and no longer in my stash!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and maybe celebrate Father's day with their favorite guys!  Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-crushed curry, whisper white, Stamp Set-Memorable Moments, Ink-black stazon, Flashback Items-stickers, Accessories-decorative label punch, old olive brads

Anything But a Card's Manly Challenge and another graduation card

Hello! So glad you stopped in today! Sunday marked the start of the new challenge at Anything But a Card.  Since we will be celebrating Father's Day soon (in the US anyway), our challenge is anything masculine or something for Dear Ol' Dad.  Remember, we accept any type of art-sewing, mixed media,  scrapbooking, altered items, ATCs... anything BUT a card!  I will be sharing my project next week (need to get busy on that...) and I hope that you will join us too!

Now, on to my card... We celebrated another graduation this past weekend.  I decided to change things up a bit from my last graduation card found here.  I also managed to use up a scrap piece of so saffron paper that was laying on my table!!  My niece's school colors are green and gold, but I thought the so saffron and gumball green were a little softer and more girly.  I colored the rhinestones with a pale green sharpie so they would coordinate with my card colors.  

We had a wonderful time at her party and my brother put together an 'old farts' volleyball team to challenge the younger crowd.  We all cheered when they won, but joked that the 'young punks' would easily beat them in a rematch the next day!  I'm sure some of them were a little stiff Sunday morning!

We have been having some minor mishaps at our house this week.  Half of our house was without electricity this weekend and DH has been using all of his construction expertise to fix it.  He ended up running some new wiring for a few of our outlets and lights.  Hopefully this will fix our issues.  We are planning on building  in a year and hate to do too much to fix our old mobile home, but wiring isn't one of those things we can bypass!  For some reason we seem to think we need air conditioning and lights...

On a happier note, I did find a little time to play this weekend and have some cards to post for Flashback Friday and I'm working on a few other things too.  I hope you have a wonderful day and find some time to be crafty too! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-whisper white, so saffron, Ink-gumball green, Stamp Set-Blue Ribbon, Accessories-gumball green ribbon, rhinestones, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch

Flashback Friday- Is there anything current on this card?

Hello! I'm so glad you stopped in today! Today is Friday, the day that I share what I've made with my old and retired supplies aka Flashback Friday.  You may recognize my DSP from last Saturday.  I really need to work on using up my older paper, and thought making a few cards with Rainbow Sherbet would be a good start.  I decided to make a bifold design since I haven't made one in a while.  If you need instructions for this, I have them at the bottom of the post.

This card will go to OWH...

and this goes to a family member.

As I was putting the cards together, I realized the only 'current' items used were the turquoise and white cardstock and the turquoise ink. Now how's that for using older supplies?!   The base is some very old 12x12 cardstock.  I'm not even sure when I bought this, but it matched the light green in the DSP. I think the SU color was gable green??  The 'thank you' stamp is from the retired set Wacky Wishes, and the 'happy birthday' is a non SU that I've had for ages. I love that the font isn't super plain, but also not overly girly! Perfect for 'anyone' cards.

To make a bifold card you need a 12x12 piece of cardstock.  The base size is 5 1/2 x 12.  You will make score marks at 2,4,8, and 10 inches.  I made my DSP panels 1/4" smaller than the cardstock panels (1 3/4 x 5 1/4") then attached half of the matted sentiment piece onto the left panel.  The sentiment piece varies in size depending on your image.

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my older goodies and maybe I inspired you to dig into your stash too!  Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!

Going Manly... um boyly??

Hi! I am so happy you are here!  I checked my stash of thank you cards at the end of the school year and realized all of my thank yous were quite girly.  This is not at all suitable when sending a note of appreciation to 4 and 5 year old boys...  So I decided I needed to add some more manly cards.  If you were a little confused by the post title, I was searching for the appropriate word for a masculine boy card.  I came up with boyly... yes... well aware that this really isn't a word, but I'm ok with that!  Maybe you can help me with a better term!

For those of you who are new to my blog, I recently resigned my position as a preschool teacher after over 15 years of teaching.  I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful cards, notes, and gifts I received during my last week.  So I really wanted my thank you cards to be extra special too.  I had plenty of butterflies and flowers that worked perfectly for the girls, but nothing suitable for boys.  So out came Dinoroar. I was so sad that this retired from the catalog, since it's my go-to set for young boys, but I figured that these guys wouldn't care if the stamps were retired or not! Kind of makes them more 'extinct'... (insert wink here)

Isn't that T-Rex the cutest?! Not fierce at all!  I used DSP from Woodland Walk and thought the green piece had a wonderful scaley quality (sparked another idea to be shown later...) and when DH saw this card, he commented that the brown piece looked like a nest of dinosaur eggs. SCORE!  I used my trusty pastels to create the sky and sponged some garden green ink along the bottom to make the grass appear thicker.  I really hope my little guys enjoyed their cards as much as I appreciated their thoughtfulness.  While I was making these, I created an extra for OWH.  Thought they might need some boyly cards too!

I hope you find some time this week to be crafty and your mojo doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-wild wasabi, chocolate chip, whisper white, Woodland Walk (ret), Stamp Sets-Teeny Tiny Wishes, Dinoroar (ret), Ink-garden green, markers-crumb cake, wild wasabi, Accessories-word window punch, pastels

Anything But a Card Challenge 20- Doing a little dusting...

Hello! I'm so glad you are stopping in today!  The challenge this week at Anything But a Card Challenges is to dust off your older materials and supplies.  If you're like me, this also becomes a challenge in cleaning and organizing your crafting area!  We are already on challenge #20! I am so excited to see so many playing along each week and hope that you will find time to link up with us too!

Before I began my project, I had to find my crafting table (knew it was under there somewhere..).  I was amazed at the various pieces of projects, and papers that were laying around.  So once my crafting space was tidy, I was ready to get started.  While cleaning, I found a cardstock box that I made about a month ago while trying out a template/tutorial I found here.  I also realized I have A LOT of paper!  I decided to use a lone leftover sheet of an old SU DSP.  I have no clue what the design is, but it is quite old! **Edit** I have been told that this paper was from Jersey Shore, retired quite a while back... The daisies in the paper led me to pull out my very neglected daisies die.  Both of these items were used to dress up my card box and I was on such a roll that I made 8 coordinating cards to complete the set!  You can see my cards posted here.  I am happy to say that my sheet of paper is a mere pile of scraps now and I completed a project that will now become a thank you gift for a dear friend.

the front view...

and the top.

The scale of the box is hard to see in the photos, but this easily held eight 4 1/4x5 1/2 cards (several of them a bit lumpy) and their envelopes.  I made a belly band from the left over 1" strips from the box and decorated it with the daisies.  Sadly, I don't have measurements to share because I kind of eyeballed it.  It's loose enough to slide off, but also doesn't fall off easily.

There were a lot of dusted off things on this project! The cardstock used for the box, the patterned paper, the daisies die, and the pumpkin pie corduroy brads were all quite old and neglected.  But no more!

I hope I have helped inspire you to dust off your goodies and play along this week! We would love to see what you have kept hidden away!  Be sure to stop by the challenge blog and see what the design team unearthed for their fabulous projects too!  Have a fabulous week and happy crafting!

Project Recipe: Cardstock- from stash, old SU DSP, wild wasabi and whisper white, Stamp Set-Fabulous Phrases, Ink-bashful blue(sponged on daisies) and pacific pointe, Accessories-daises 2 die, little leaves sizzlit, oval punch, scallop oval punch, pumpkin pie corduroy buttons.

A Blue Ribbon in Paper Diving

Hello! I'm so glad you came by for a visit today! I am so excited that I actually found time this past week to make stuff!  Now I don't have to feel guilty about the things I ordered from the NEW Stampin' UP! catalog that started June 1st!  If you would like to view the catalog, click here...

And if you find something(s) you just cannot live without, 

feel free to visit my online store located here.

Now, you would think that with the launch of the new catalog, I would be sharing some of my new goodies, right? Sorry...  But the stamp set I used for today's card is available!  The DSP is a completely different story. It is part of the 'old stash' that I organized while spring summer cleaning.       I haven't used this paper in ages and decided that I would dive in and pull it out to make a few cards for Operation Write Home.  I have always thought this was such a wonderful organization, and I finally have the time to contribute! They also have some wonderful sketches; I used bonus sketch B-1 for these cards.

I made a few other cards with this paper, but you'll have to wait until Friday to see those. I'm trying to get back into posting Flashback Fridays, using my older, retired goodies.  It's a good way to ensure that all of my supplies get used!

Well, it's a rainy, gloomy day here, so I'm off to enjoy my coffee and a book! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-Rainbow Sherbet (ret), tempting turquoise, whisper white, Stamp Set-Blue Ribbon, Ink-tempting turquoise, green galore (ret), Accessories-1 3/8" circle punch

A sneak peek, spring/summer cleaning, and lots of rambling...

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so excited to have some new followers and hope that you get either inspiration, insight, or something to make you smile when you visit!!

I am in a 'bunny trails' kind of mood today, so I will share my cards (a sneak peek of my ABAC project for Sunday) first-just in case you don't want to wander the trails with me!

Challenge number 20 at Anything But a Card Challenges  is "Dust Off Your OLD Supplies". For this challenge we are having a bit of a spring cleaning theme. Go "Dust off your older supplies" for this challenge - and make something... ANYTHING GOES! Use up those paper scraps, break out tools that haven't seen the light of day, finish up one of those U.F.O's {unfinished objects}... or how about those hoarded stickers - we all have a stash. The theme is open so the possibilities are endless.... just remember create anything except a card... this is going to be FUN!!!

Now how easy is this?! Well... When your crafting space looks as horrific as mine, first you actually have to do spring cleaning (or for those of us who love to procrastinate, summer cleaning) to find most of your supplies and the table. I really wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not!  It's been a very crazy month! So after spending the morning finding my table (and several started projects), I knew what I would be doing for our challenge.  I am part of week 2 of the design team and usually finish my project Friday night or Saturday morning and rush to get it photographed, but this week it is ready to go by Wednesday afternoon!  I am sharing the cards today because I can't show the other part yet, and the blog is anything BUT a card...  Can't be flaunting any cards on Sunday, so the cards become the sneak peek for the main piece.

I spent most of the afternoon working on the cards for a very special friend from our  church.  She is one of the most caring and selfless people I know.  She made meals for my parents when Dad had his stroke, and still occasionally drops off goodies for them.  She has also been a wonderful mentor.  Last week, she stopped by to drop off some asparagus from their garden since she knows my oldest DD loves asparagus.  She handed me two HUGE bags of fresh asparagus, enough for many meals, and refused to accept any payment for it. "It will be a relief to get it out of the house." is all she says.  Well, if I have learned little else from the crafting community, one of the joys of crafting is passing on our creations to others.  Plus, I know she won't be able to turn down a handmade just for her gift! Pretty sneaky, right?  So I made a set of 8 greeting cards for her.

Now if you're still on the trail with me, I'm moving on to dusting off supplies.  I decided that while I was in cleaning mode, I would go through my DSP and clean that up too. OH MY!  We will not discuss just how much retired paper I have that can't be used for classes, not to mention the non SU things...  So I decided my summer crafting goal would include using up some of that paper.  I found a lone sheet of the paper above and have no clue which set it came from but I do know it was from a loooooong time ago. I managed to use almost the whole sheet for the 8 cards! Woo! Hoo! 1 page down, 4 million to go...  I also dusted off my daisies die which hasn't bonded with my Big Shot in ages. They were so happy to be together again!

I have really been slacking in the commenting and visiting of blogs lately.  Mom has been in the hospital twice this month with heart issues.  While her condition is not life threatening, it does sap all of her energy and messes with her heart rate.  They switched her to a new med this time so we are crossing fingers and praying that this one gets the job done.  I'm just thankful that I wasn't working this last time and could commit to being there for her and Dad.  Makes things a little less stressful!

Well, this is the end of today's bunny trail and post. If you made it all the way to the end, I applaud your tolerance! Hopefully Sunday will bring some less distracted blogging!  Have a wonderful rest of the week and I hope you don't have to clean before you do your happy crafting!

Card Recipes: Cardstock-wild wasabi, bashful blue, pumpkin pie, whisper white, old DSP, Stamp Sets-Word Play, Loving Thoughts, Ink-pacific point, bashful blue (sponged on daisy), Accessories-daisies 2 die, boho blossom punch, 2 1/2" circle punch, perfect polka dots & square lattice EF, non SU circle framelits, brights buttons, white bakers twine, bashful blue brad