Excited much? I finally got to use my flower that I made. I think it turned out pretty cute, and it adds a nice bit of dimension to the card. Did I mention I like tags?
The purple background flowers are just stamped in VersaMark Dazzle – Frost.. so they’re a bit sparkly. Very pretty. I did the scalloped polka-dot border with a Martha punch.
I was recently reminded about my Etsy store that has been sort of neglected. OK, to be honest, I’ve only ever put one card up there. So today I decided to dust it off a bit. It’s hard to expect things to sell without marketing them, and that’s not something I’m good at. I just finished posting this card there.
So if you haven’t looked at it, check it out! And tell others about it. Tell them about my blog if you think they’d be interested too.. and don’t be afraid to comment. I like comments :-)
Also, today was a very happy morning in my books. I visited my favourite stamp store and got some fun things like brads, distress ink, and stick-on pearls. Next, I looked around Michaels a bit and managed to get out of there with some ribbon and a few stamps that were on sale. Who doesn’t like sales? And finally I went to Staples where I found some foam tape (for half the price of Michaels!) and their glue tape roller that I love. It’s like whiteout tape but is double sided tape that rolls on easily and sticks really well. Now can it be play time?
Tonight was a fun card-making night for the ladies of our condo building, organized by the lovely Jelena. Check out her Etsy store – very cute cards! She does them with whimsical drawings and other fun things.
This card took many re-tries. I think this was take-4 or something! I love the little clothes pin, so I might start using those soon. I’ve got a whole bag of them hiding in my craft room somewhere. Clothes pins, buttons, ribbon/bows, flowers.. boy do I ever have a lot of fun things to keep me busy! So much inspiration, I don’t know why I’m not crafting all day long!
I’d say the Valentines card making/ladies night was a success. It was neat to meet others in the building, even though I was feeling a bit worse for wear (I messed up my neck somehow, and have a cold.. womp womp!) Jelena’s more patient than me with letting others use her craft supplies.. let’s just say that her lovely shimmery pink in pad is now a beautiful shade of grey.
I was perusing a friend’s blog and was instantly inspired! She very helpfully posts about things she covets, and today’s went straight to my heart. It was all about how to make paper flowers using old books. Check it out (including a tutorial) here at the blog of the lovely and talented Dawn McVey. Here’s her version on a card:
I’ve been meaning to buy some old old books for various other projects, so seeing this book-page flower got my creative energy stirring in all kinds of crazy ways. I took a walk downtown to seek out all the used book stores. It was sadly very difficult to find a reasonably priced book that looked old enough for my needs. Yah don’t need a super-aged one for these flowers, so I grabbed a book of fairy tale type stories along with another book I’d seen that looked a bit more yellow (for future projects).
Next, I rushed home to put Dawn’s tutorial into practice. I grabbed my two biggest flower punches and punched away to my heart’s content. Next step? Make some cards for these lovely little things.
Here’s one without the button. Still cute, and appropriate for the flower size. Things I now have on my crafty shopping list: Buttons! All sorts of buttons! button twine (my hemp was too thick to happily work with), a larger flower punch, antique copper brads (I’d been eyeing those up for months now anyhow).
Nathan wanted to be in charge of this date, since we’d been wanting to go to this restaurant since we moved back here. Pagliacci’s. It’s a cute little eclectic/Italian place where the tables are packed in as tight as they’ll go. It’s frequented by locals and tourists alike, and often has a long line out the door.
We must have seemed pretty funny because we both knew what we wanted before arriving, and ordered the same thing. My memories of the food are fonder than what we got, but it was still pretty darn good. Then there’s the bread. Go there if for nothing else but the bread.
It was a fairly routine dinner-out type date for us. Some talking, some eating, followed by a short walk before I started to freeze. I think in the future I want to try something a bit different and more creative from our usual dates.
I’ve also gotten a new cookbook – Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals by Jamie Oliver. My idea was to have Nathan help me make the occasional dinner. He really doesn’t like to cook, so am I pushing my luck? I was hoping I could help things a bit by making it a bit of a collaborative effort.
To learn a bit more about how we started this whole date night thing, etc, read what I wrote here.
Now check out other ideas from the wonderfully creative Tiffany who started all this, over at Simply Modern Mom
I’m getting cuted out by this card. I want to make more! It doesn’t help that it’s a smaller-than-normal size, which adds to the cuteness factor. I think going through a bit of a bird phase. Hopefully I can get out the other end of it without too many new bird stamps! Actually, as far as habits go, I’m doing really well. I think I’ve only bought one stamp in the least 3 or so months!
I’m thinking of using this as my Valentine’s card for Nathan. I think he’s gotten used to my love for all things cute.
Although Nathan and I are newlyweds, we’ve been together for a long time (7 years!), so we’re working on ways to connect rather than letting time slip by. This is especially important since he works from home. We see a lot of one another, but that can make us forget to plan quality time, or go on “dates.”
A friend of ours had a date night once a week, which I had always thought was a good idea. I like having structure to make things seem more real (or something? It’s a psychological thing)… Imagine how excited I was when I saw this date night pledge. Commitment to it each week. Shared responsibility. Creativity. What could be better?! It’s called Project 52 (52 weeks in the year), started by Tiffany at Simply Modern Mom.
Basically, the goal is to have one date per week on a set day (and time), although we all know that life requires some flexibility. You can’t do the same thing twice in one month, you rotate who plans each date, you try to be creative, you have to create a nice date atmosphere, and you get to have fun!
So here I am, about to embark on this journey, full of anticipation.. I should probably tell him first, and not forge his signature, eh?
One change I’m making is that we rotate who plans the date every other week rather than every other month. I’ll plan the first one, and I’ll even give him Valentine’s Day as his first – I think he’s got a plan for a dinner out.
I’ll try to take pictures! For now, here’s a fun wedding shot.
Jacinda over at Prudent Baby made this great binder to store all of her family’s favourite recipes, which I thought was a fun idea. I previously had a binder where I’d stuck all of my recipe clippings and printouts, but it was a bit of a mess. I like this idea of using page protectors and keeping everything neat and even and consistent. Um yep, I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to organization.
I’m thinking of eventually taking recipes that from various cookbooks, and adding them to this one.. but let’s be honest, that’s more of a long-term project. I’m new at this whole cooking thing, so I think I’m allowed some time to suss out what I like and don’t like to make. So I still have two binders – the other still has all the clippings of recipes that I have yet to try, and there are a LOT in that one.
I used some pretty paper for the cover and spine, and stamped my title, as everything needs to be stamped, right?
For my dividers: I added a sheet of cardstock to a page protector then stuck page divider tabs that I’d gotten from Staples. Instead of using the boring white cardstock for inside the tabs, I cut out scraps of colourful paper and wrote my own section titles. Fun.
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently working on my wedding album.. I was starting to feel like it’s been a bit of a ridiculous amount of time since the wedding, with no sign of photos anywhere – or at least no photos in any album that I can show to anyone.
Anyways, I finally got all the pictures stuck down onto pages. Considering I had a thousand or two photos to work with, I had to be pretty ruthless in my selection process. Nevertheless, I still used a giant stack of them. Therefore, there was no way I was going to do fancy one-photo-per-page type layouts. Don’t get me wrong, I often think those kinds of layouts are beautiful, especially with all the little details that tie everything together, but it’s just not how I do things. My main goal was to have lots of good photos in a reasonably nice looking album that I’d be happy to show people. In some cases that meant “trim the edges and slap as many photos on there as possible!”
Here’s some pages that aren’t quite finished…
I like to use a pizza box (it’s the perfect size!) to hold all my pages that are in progress, as I sort of do things in stages. First is to stick the photos on, next is adding titles, then writing little captions and such, and finally any embellishments (though this step doesn’t happen too often for me.. usually impatience gets the best of me). See the borders around some of those photos? That’s getting really fancy.
Aaaand now for the finished product…
See that middle one? It’s uncharacteristically well planned and intricate.. and there are only 2 photos on the whole page! Well, that’s because I made the layout in a class a few months ago. I had no choice, we had to make that exact page (and no, I’m not complaining! It adds a bit of beauty and class to my album). Aren’t I a fancy-pants?
While I’m on the pink theme, have a look at what I’ve created. This is one of my all-time favourite Valentines cards that I’ve made. I blogged about it when I first created this here site, but I think it’s worth bringing up again.
I’m very drawn to the colours and how they harmonize together, as well as the way the swirls work with the shapes of the different hearts.. and best of all? It was simple to make!
I just layered some paper, choosing a pretty piece of scrapbook paper for the colourful swirly background. Next, I cut out those two blue hearts. I used a paper punch for the small one, and a template I had for the other. The largest heart I drew freehand, which took some modifications and trimming, but turned out great. I edged them all with an ink cube, then added the round paper clip (which I got from Staples) and attached them with double sided tape and pop dots. ‘Dream time’ is from a little set I got with baby type sayings. Very cute.
To follow with the whole resurrection theme.. I found a matching Valentines card. Well, the colours and style match. This one’s a cute, happy little seahorse. I think I gave this one to my man last year.
I really like how whimsical the seahorse is. He (she?) looks like he’s wanting to float around and give kisses. I imagine the little hearts as bubbles of love (cheeeeesy!)
So this one’s coloured in with watercolour pencil crayons. The scalloped oval is from a big craft punch, as are the hearts. The rectangle piece I used a corner rounding punch on.
Valentine’s Day seems to be the next big thing all over the internets and in the stores. I’m not yet feeling it, so what do I do? Resurrect some creations from years gone by, of course!
I’m very fond of these sheep.. they’re like my little pets on paper. I just used some chalks to colour in, as well as some sponging with a little ink cube, and a touch of glitter. I think this could be a boy card.
I made a little gift package for my cousin-in-law, as I mentioned I was working on it before. So here it is all put together. This is similar to how I would put together a set of 6 cards to sell, with envelopes.
I cut a strip of scrapbook paper and attached it at the back to keep the bundle together. Next, I attached a tag that I’d punched out, using some hemp rope. I quite like that you can see the top card under there. Why hide it?
News! I survived my first ever ultimate game today and we won by a big margin… not that I helped much. Anyways, this afternoon, in order to try to minimize my nerves about the upcoming game, I decided to create. This is another first for me. My first ‘peek-a-boo’ card.
This is the view from the front and…
Madame fishy is on the inside.
I stamped some seaweed in light green ink, cut out the hole in the front with a paper punch (1”).. then on a 1.5” punched out circle, I stamped the fish and painted in with Twinkling H2Os. Add some bubbles, some glitter, and a message.
I have now gotten together a little gift for a cousin-in-law who did something nice for me. Here’s to hoping she likes it!
I definitely have a weak spot for flowers. I have more flower stamps than any other; ditto with flower punches.
It can’t be that it’s getting close to spring here.. we still haven’t had any snow to speak of.. but really, it doesn’t need to be any special time of year to convince me to make a flower card. Who doesn’t like a bit of colourful cheer?
The stamped image is by Penny Black, painted in with Twinkling H2Os. The card (background) is by Amuse and the flowers are punched out in some scrapbook paper scraps that I had lying around. I then punched little holes in their centres and attached some eyelets.
Happy Spring! I mean, winter!
