A Youtube Inspired Project

I don't know about you, but most of the time I watch DIY videos and pin all sorts of pictures, but then never actually get around to doing any projects that I felt so inspired by. Well, this time I decided to give a project I saw on youtube by Robeson Designs (you can find the video here). 

I began by selecting one of my old books that I don't really care about (I have never read it and never will, just had it on a shelf because it was old and looked nice with my other old books). Following the instructions from the youtube video I cleaned up all of the binding edges and rolled a lot of paper rolls! I then found a piece of cardboard I didn't need, made the circles (Mine were smaller than the video because I didn't have anything as big as in the video to back the wreath on) and started gluing!! As a finishing touch I glued some cheap ornaments in the very center to minimize having to use my good ornaments, glued the poinsettia in the middle and then started filling in the sides with left over bulbs that I hadn't use elsewhere to decorate for Christmas. All in all, I was really happy with how it turned out. Now I just have to figure out how to store it!!!!

Below are pictures of the final product.... Enjoy! (The last picture is taken with flash on to try to give you a better feel for the color of the poinsettia and bulbs).

It's been a while....

Hello all.... It's been a while since my last post. I've been working through some health issues this year, and a lot of things have taken a back burner. Today I thought I would share a couple of cards that I made over the summer. One was made for my grandfather and the other was made for the wife of the pastor in the church where I grew up. It was interesting, because I didn't have many supplies on hand - only a pair of scissors, a small double-sided tape dispenser and some papers and stickers (no stamps or paper trimmer). The one I made for my grandfather is on the simple side, but I was quite happy with how the feminine card turned out.

On this first card, I used some scraps of paper, as well as stickers and alphabet stickers from two Simple Stories lines. As I mentioned, I didn't have much to work with, so I kept it simple. I think that it still looks nice, without seeming to little boyish - which I was really trying to avoid.

The second card, I used a 6x6 paper pad from Kaiser Craft. I really liked this paper - especially as it came with punch outs as well as papers. I used two of the papers, as well as a piece of  black corrugated paper from a 6x6 specialty pad by Hobby Lobby's in-house line of craft supplies. I also used stickers from a Simple Stories 12x12 alphabet stickers page and some Pretty Pink Posh sequins my cousin gave to me, as well as some wood veneer butterflies that she also gave to me. On the whole, I was quite pleased with how this card turned out. I had never used corrugated paper on anything before and I really liked the texture and dimension that it gave to the card.

Card Share

Hello, all. Well, it's been a while since I have posted much on this poor neglected blog, but life has been quite busy with sicknesses, work, and ministry things to keep life interesting. :)  May is a huge month for cards for me. there are three birthday's in my family, friend's who have birthdays in May, Mother's Day, etc. so I tend to be a card making machine in the month of May, lol. I just thought I would share a few birthday cards I made. The one with the monkeys is for my brother and the other if for my father-in-law. I was primarily using up scraps for my father-in-law's card and added in some enamel dots and a vellum sentiment from K&Company. The third was originally for someone, but I wanted to make a more feminine card for her, so that one will just be a spare for the next birthday!

Card for Father-in-law

My brother's card is using a Studio Calico 6x6 paper pad, some Teresa Collins enamel dots, and an image that my cousin stamped and sent to me. I used my different shades of brown Spectrum Noir markers. It's really hard to get the shading right with the darker markers, so I thought a picture of a bunch of monkeys in a barrel was the perfect image to practice on!

Card for Brother

Card for TBD Recipient :)

Charleston Vacation Layouts

Sorry friends for the lapse in posts. I will most likely not be posting very often for the next couple of months. I had a recent escalation in some of my health problems and will be having to scale back a lot in the different things I do and do a lot of resting and therapy/pain management appointments, but I thought I would pop in to share some layouts I did a few weeks ago, before all of this recent stuff started. I finally pulled out the pictures I had printed from the trip to Charleston, SC that my hubby and I went for vacation a couple of years ago. We had so much fun. For these layouts, I used primarily Crate Paper, with some Basic Grey papers as well. I used several different Studio Calico wood veneers, some enamel dots from Teresa Collin's, and some other gems from Hobby Lobby. For alphas, I used a number of different lines: Fancy Pants, Lilly Bee Designs, Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp, Lawn Fawn, Basic Grey, letter stickers from the Target dollar aisles and American Crafts DIY lettering. I also tried some Jenni Bowlin products for the first time, with some of her red lined cream labels and gold rub ons. I used some wash tape from My Mind's eye and Studio G on a few of the layouts too.

Even though these layouts are quite different, color scheme wise than I usually work on, I really like how they turned out!

I am also trying to get better at journaling little bits on my layouts so that I can look back and read memories that I don't want to forget :)

OSnapGonzo YouTube Giveaway

Hello All, today's post is a little different than what I usually post, but Sandy (osnapgonzo on youtube) is having a super generous giveaway (a selfie photo printer!!!) on her youtube channel and is graciously allowing those of us who love to watch her videos, but don't (yet) do our own videos post a response on our blogs. 

The prompt is to share a layout from when we first started scrapbooking, then a layout that represented a turning point in our style and what it was that prompted that change and then a layout of how we scrapbook today. I have shared many layouts from this last year on my blog and on Facebook, but this is the first time I have ever posted on, much less even photographed some of my early, early efforts.  I started scrapbooking as a young teenager. With no money of my own to spend on a lot of scrapbook supplies, re-using what I had was huge for me. I would cut apart bags, use regular colored printer paper, scrounge around the house for whatever I could find.  The layout from that period I am going to share is pretty much put together on a piece of purple printer paper, with the handles of a gift bag and stickers used for my embellishments. I had two pictures on the layout that I used regular tape to adhere to the page. I think this layout is a little over 10 years old, because it is from when I was still in high school.

I really had two really major influences that brought about change in my scrapbooking. 1) I got a job and suddenly had a little more money to spend on my hobby, but we were still newly married and paying off debt so I honestly still didn't spend very much, but I did splurge from a paper pack from Walmart here and there! :) My layouts were still very one dimensional at this point. I hadn't yet found YouTube and the wonderful world of embellishments, so my layouts were still quite simple! I did look at magazines and such, but I hadn't really made a significant change to my style of scrapbooking.

Which brings me to the thing that REALLY changed the way I scrapbook!!!! I found youtube for scrapbooking. I had watched youtube videos for a few years for card making, but early last year I took on the enormous project of organizing and scrapping my mother's entire collection of pictures (i'm talking her childhood, my dad's childhood and all of the pictures that had accumulated since their marriage and having kids!)  Needless to say that after about 30 layouts I was having some serious inspiration challenges. Since I already looked to youtube for inspiration in making cards, I looked up scrapbooking layouts and found Shimelle Laine! OH.MY.WORD…. That woman is an amazing teacher and scrapbooker!  Isn't she!?!?!?! She totally changed the way I scrapbook because she not only gave ideas for layouts but really got me thinking about the concepts of building layouts. Several months later after I had watched everything she'd created on YouTube I also found nicolejones911 and MercyTiara. Nicole and Tracy gave me the push confidence  to just go ahead and cut into those gorgeous papers I had been hoarding, hating the idea of accidentally wrecking a page and wasting it. Tracy (MercyTiara), Nicole and Shimelle really got me thinking about beginning to journal on my layouts as well. From their inspiration, I arrived where I am today with my scrapbooking!

Hope you enjoyed!!! And thanks Sandy for such a great giveaway!!!!

More Valentine's Day Cards...

Hello all, who else is getting snow today? We are supposed to get between 4 and 6 inches of snow in the D.C. area. My entire company got a work from home mandate today (but me, still being in the mentality of the north, even though I have lived here for 5.5 years, lol, didn't even think to check my email!) It was completely clear earlier, but started coming down around 11 and hasn't stopped since, so I am glad that even though I missed the email telling me to stay home, I was able to get home before the snow started! I am very thankful to be working at a company where the owner seems to genuinely care about the safety of his employees. That is a very rare find these days.

Anyhoo, enough talk about snow…. On to the crafty portion of this weather update… ;)  Today I thought I would share a few more cards that I created for the Cards from the Heart Card Drive for the kids at St. Jude's Hospitals (For more info, click on the heart icon in the right panel). I really struggle with age and gender neutral Valentine's cards, so this year I thought I would go with a new approach. First, I scoured Google Images and Pinterest for potential ideas that fit the necessary criteria and pinned them all to a board specifically for this Card Drive. Next, I went through all of my 8x8 and 6x6 paper pads and pulled out pieces of paper that fit the bill of being somewhat valentinesy (I just invented a new word. hah), but still not overly girlie. Then I pulled out all of the stamps and inks that I was going to use. This really helped when I sat down to start working on cards, because I wasn't having to scrounge around in my papers and stamps to figure out what I was going to use every time I went to make a card. In the end, I think my final count was 21, which is about double what I was able to get done last year, so I'm happy with that. Below are a few of my favorite cards of the bunch…

I used a combination of Inkadinkado stamps, Dear Lizzy stamps, and a Crafter's Companion image. I used my Spectrum Noir markers to color in the images and used pieces from a number of different paper lines (Pebbles, Dear Lizzy, Carta Bella, and Tim Holtz), some Tim Holtz twine, BasicGrey letter stickers, Darice layered felt hearts, Darice ribbon, and Dear Lizzy stickers to pull these together. I also used a Studio Calico wood venire open scalloped circle in this first card to frame the image, and simply added a black dash-line around the edge for a little added pop. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the finished products. There are some I for sure like better than others, but I think that by limiting my supplies and having a solid idea of what I wanted to do for a number of the cards definitely helped. Just goes to show, that it doesn't have to be red and pink to be a Valentine's card!!

 (This image is by far my favorite! Crafter's Companion has such adorable stamps!)

Will You Be My Valentine???

Hello All! I hope that you are having a glorious Friday. If not, then, Hey, It's Friday! It's  almost the weekend! And it's noon, which means that the workday is half over! Anyhoo, I thought I'd pop by during my lunch and share a couple of Valentine's Day Cards that I have been making for the Cards from the Heart Card Drive. If you are interested in finding more details for this great cause, click on the Cards from the Heart Card Drive icon in the right panel. It will take you to Winter's blog post!

These are my three favorite cards that I've made so far, I've done about 8 more other than this and hope to get up to twenty before I have to send the package out to make it to Winter on time!

I pulled my papers from various different paper pads that I had. I basically just went through all of my 6x6 paper pads and pulled out anything that would fit a gender neutral card. That way I haven't had to keep digging through my papers for each card. I am finding that it has saved me quite a bit of time and I am able to get more cards done because I don't have to spend as much time searching for supplies. I used papers from Tim Holtz, Dear Lizzy, and an older Bella Blvd paper pad.

The duck stamp is an Inkadinkadoo Valentine stamp set and the little rocket is from a Recollections stamp set. I used BasicGrey mini alphas for the sentiment on the card with the rocket on it. I am going to have to add a sentiment to one of the cards with the ducks. You may not be able to see it in the picture, but I got a small smudge of black ink in the area colored blue and am going to have to put a sentiment in that area to cover it up. I also used some Tim Holtz twine to finish off the cards.

Enjoy! and Happy Friday!!!!

 I wanted to make the rocket ship look almost like it was orbiting a planet, even if the background is a constellation chart, I think that it turned out pretty well. It is a little more plain than I usually like to make, but as there really can't be any embellishments that a little one could pull off and choke on, plainer is better!!

Happy Birthday to MY SIL

Happy Wednesday All! Hope that you are all keeping toasty warm in this recent cold freeze sweeping the country. Tonight I whipped up a quick card for my brother's wife, whose birthday is at the end of the month.  I have been itching to practice with my Spectrum Noir markers on more detailed stamps, so I got out a stamp set and my markers and had some crafty time. :)

I used TB1, 5, 7 and BT 1 and 2 for the dress and wings, CT 1 and 3 for the stars, GB 7, 8 and 10 for the hair, DG 3 and JG2 for the grass. The frog I colored in with LG5 and JG1.

I used The Sweetest Thing 6x6 paper pad by My Mind's Eye. The stamp and sentiment are from the Lucy set by Kanban.

I have also been looking to try the Spellbinders rubber embossings mats that my hubby got me Christmas with my circle and scallop circle Spellbinders dies. It took a couple tries to figure out how to get the best impression, but it got much easier after I properly read the directions. :)

Next I need to play with my heat embossing tool that hubby bought me for Christmas and vellum that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

Enjoy!

Playing with Some Christmas Presents!

Well, I was going to share some Valetine's cards that I have been putting together for the Caring Hearts Card Drive, but my pictures are still on my phone, so I thought I would share the birthday card that I made for my mom. Her birthday is on January 10, so I whipped it up over the weekend and put it in the mail Saturday evening. Her favorite color is blue and she loves earth tones, so I knew that these were the perfect supplies for her card!

I used some of the lovely craft supplies that my cousin Christy bought for me for Christmas, primarily choosing both the papers and embellishments from the Colorbok "Flea Market" collection. I also used some gems from Hobby Lobby. On the inside of the card I used the remainder scraps from the papers on the front of the card and used an American Crafts border punch to add a little extra something! I edged all of the papers and embellishments with the Rich Cocoa Memento dew drop ink. The base of the card is a basic kraft card stock.

Enjoy!

It's That Time Again!!!!!

It's time for the Cards from the Heart Card Drive, run by Winter Sims at her blog, Winter Wonderland! It's a great cause, creating Valentines Cards for the children at St. Jude's hospitals! The card drive runs from January 1 to January 31. If you would like to get the deets on this card drive head on over to her blog post! You can also click on the icon in the panel on the right of this post!