A Little Mojo

Wow it's  been  awhile. I  saw the Mojo Monday 405  sketch  and  thought it was one I could  easily use. I decided  to go summery, recalling that I  had some flip flop printed  paper. Then I  also realized  I  had a Unity flip flop stamp and Unity sentiment  stamp that would work well. So Friday night after a 2 hour nap I proceeded  to get creative and come up with a card to enter.

The other  side of the flip flop paper is a nice fuchsia  grid, so I   included  that as well. I finished  the flip flop flowers  with some glitter  and stickles. I also used stickles for the flower  center. Here is the card I came up with. I  can see using this sketch  again  and again.

A few weeks ago I was introduced  to Pocket Page Letters on the Unity Show and Tell Facebook  page. So after  watching  several  YouTube  videos  I started  creating   a pocket  letter. I  got a fewhole creative gals from my friends and family  interested  in swapping  a pocket  letter. So looking forward  to everyone's creativity.

Thanks for stopping  by, I hope you have a wonderful  week. Today here in west  central  Wisconsin  it's  going  to be a hot and humid day. Hope your Sunday is fun and creative!

Cutting it Close

After the running Mitch to work and then getting home to relax a bit and doze off a few times, I didn't start on my card until about 8pm CST.  I turned on Glee and picked out the stamp I wanted to use and decided I wanted to emboss it using Distress Ink Dried Marigold and the heart stamp from Unity's The Best Love Story.  On my messy scrap table I saw a piece of paper from Bo Bunny that I flipped over and the board print with graffiti print caught my eye.  I laid it on an orange card base and thought it looked good together.  I stamped the heart with dried marigold and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I cut that out and then figured out what I'd use for accenting paper.  I wanted to use a sentiment too, but wasn't sure how I'd get it on the front.  Then I remembered Kristina Werner using vellum so it didn't cover the design completely and still allowed a sentiment to be used.  The sentiment is from Unity's Your Heart and My Heart stamp set that my friend Carolyn gifted me. I used Ranger Turquoise embossing powder for the sentiment.  I really like the unique colors of this Love card.  I like using non-traditional colors whenever I can. I am submitting this card for Unity's Friends with Flair Challenge that ends at Midnight tonight...in about 45 minutes!

 That's it for now, I hope you have a wonderful weekend and are able to get your craft on!

Mojo Monday Great Day

Hello again! I'm happy to say I was able to get creative again today.  I remembered that I looked at Mojo Monday 379 early last week and had hoped to play. So I cut some cardstock to use for layers and pulled out my 6x6 paper pads to see which ones I thought would work.  I chose this one from American Crafts because of it's bright happy colors.  I really need to use these colors more often. 

Here is my Mojo Monday 379 challenge card.

The Have a Great Day stamp is an older Hero Arts clear cling stamp. It was on a set with a lot of great sentiments. I probably should get back and create a couple more bright cheery cards or do some housework...hmm you're right...creating cards sounds much better! hehehe

Hey have you seen some of the great new items that are being shown at CHA? I've been following the posts from CHA and am itchy to get some of the great crafty goodies that will be on the shelves  soon. I hope you have a great week and are able to get creative! Thanks for stopping by!

Friends with Flair

Well hello there!  My second blog post in less than a week, a rare happening these days.  I vowed to use my Unity Stamps more often and today I thought I'd see what I could come up with to enter Unity's Friday Friends with Flair challenge. And I'm happy to report that I came up with a card! I spent some time looking for this stamp I won from Unity last year.  I lucked out twice last year and won liking and or sharing cards made with Unity Stamps. I stamped a few different colors and sentiments and decided to stick with the So Special stamp that I won.  Angela is very generous with her fabulous stamps. 

Here is my Friday Friends with Flair entry.

I like using "office looking" printed paper and the file folder die cut works with it perfectly. Distressing with my fingernail and some distress ink is another technique I like to use. I like the dimension distressing gives the card or project.  

Thanks for stopping by again. I hope you enjoy your weekend and spend some time getting creative!

Back At It

Last week I received a commission check from Colfax Arts and Antique Mall, so it's time to get back at it.  The Holidays are over and the Polar Vortex sure made it easy not to want to go outdoors. With Valentine's Day next month and St. Patrick's Day the following month I know I want to add a few of those in the stock I send to the mall. 

I've created two cards since the new year started and for both I used sketches to create them.  The first card I'm showing is one I created for Mojo Monday 327.  I wanted to create a birthday card since it seems like I do not do those as often. I used Unity Stamps and colored the image with Prismacolor and EK Success pencils using OMS to blend the colors.

Mojo Monday 327

**************************************************************************

This card I used a sketch from CardMaps Jan. 2014 It is the second sketch from the top.  I used a piece of a large square paper doily, a rubon heart which I then cut out, a Hero Arts stamp and the tag is a Sizzix die I got last year.  

Well, that's it for now.  Wishing you a wonderful and warm week.  Hopefully the weather has "warmed" up in your area.  It sure was dangerously cold around here.  

You'd Think (and Cancer Crop creations)

 I was busy this summer or something?  It's not like I haven't created something over the past five months.  Geez!  Yesterday was the first crop at Picture This I've been to this season and it was the annual Cancer Crop.  I've always wanted to go to a Cancer Crop and it does feel weird that this was my first time ever. Although I do not have a picture to show you, I was the only one not wearing pink.  Out of all the people I personally know, only one was diagnosed with breast cancer.  The others were rectal cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer and lymphoma.  So I chose to wear my lime green "paper is my weakness" shirt to support lymphoma.  Sharing a few photos of yesterday and the creations I made.

This is what it looked like outside, so it was perfect to be inside at the Cancer Crop

My area, I did eventually take up more space use up this whole side of the table.

The prize table

My second creation of the crop yesterday

I think this was the third creation,
but I was also working on the Christmas tag
and was stumped at how to finish it.

Chalkboard technique I really love this look

Yep, I really do like this look!

And that's it for now. For whatever reason, blogspot is not letting me go back to the body of the post it's still typing in the caption font and size UGH!  Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by to take a peek!  Well, well at least it looks like I was able to correct it. Oh and I bet you're wondering what my first creation was?  Well it was a cookbook cover and back.  I don't want to show them just yet.  But I will show them once I've got them together.  

Snowing in April

Yes, it's April 14 and it looks like a blizzard out my windows.  I wonder if we're going from winter to summer or winter to fall?  One of my cousins went to Nevada for a warm getaway.  She posted about not being sure if she wanted to come back to Wisconsin.  She got a few responses, but the cutest one came from her mom.  She posted something to the effect of since you've been gone we've had spring, summer and fall and now it's winter again.  

Lately my mojo has been on fire...well maybe not to that extreme, but it's been good.  Really weird since my mood has been pretty much in a funk.  I'm not sure why, but I just don't feel up to much.  Thankfully being crafty is so good for the soul.  Way back in college I remember asking someone what they were studying and they said Art Therapy. I thought it was cool, but never imagined the depth of how it actually heals until the past few years.  Reading about Melody Ross and joining the Brave Girl's Club has helped me immensely.  She too went through a lot in her life. Suffering one loss is difficult enough, but having to go through more than one is quite a test to one's soul.  I really wish I could help people the same way Melody and her crew do.  Maybe one day in the future I will be able to help people who like me have been through so much and are working to keep moving forward. 

Guess it's time to show you what I've been up to.  I have seen some great pages, projects and cards made with Graphic 45's Secret Garden line.  So I thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with it.  With Mother's Day just a little less than a month away I thought I'd make some cards for moms. So here are some of them.

A window card with matching envie

My first card using Secret Garden

Window card with embossed frame popped up with mounting tape

Inside of above card 

Gatefold card  

Inside of Gatefold card using a paper doily

Embossed Z-fold card - love using die cuts 

Inside of Z-fold card - with a place for a sentiment or your own wishes

Last month I received a nice surprise, more of my cards sold at Colfax Arts and A ntiques Mall. So I want to get more cards to them.  Also, I've started a page on Facebook to showcase and sell my cards.  You can find my Handmade Greeting cards page here.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope your week is wonderful and that a warming Spring is on it's way soon!

WCMD

If you're a crafter, especially a card maker, you know what yesterday was.  Yep, World Cardmaking Day. Here is how World Card Making Day started, if you're interested. It usually helps us to get started on those holiday cards and a good time to make cards for causes like Operation Write Home.  There are many other causes that accept cards too.  Click here to see what other places you can Craft It Forward. If you do not make cards or crafts you can always donate money to said organization. I know envelopes are needed at OWH.  Well enough about that. Onto the cards I made yesterday.  Not only is it fun and relaxing to create, but a lot of challenges offer chances to win more goodies to make more cards. :)

I challenged myself to make a Z fold card. I had previously watched a YouTube video, or two or three, a couple of weeks ago.  I decided to google it again yesterday and found simple instructions here.

Here are my cards:
This first card I used Tim Holtz Core'dinations cardstock, K&Co Brenda Walton Flora and Fauna and Cornish Heritage Farms What Cancer Cannot Do stamp.  This will be entered in Core'dinations WCMD challenge.

I hope you were able to create yesterday. If you were not able to, then today is always another chance. Smiles.  Thanks for taking time to stop by and see what I've been up to.  Hope you have a great week!!

What Cancer Cannot Do - My first Z fold card

My second attempt at  a Z fold card

A birthday card using SRM Tiny Calendar

SRM Stickers WMCD challenge was to use their border stickers

Scrappin' & New Friends

Welcome Welcome!  How was your weekend?  Did you get a chance to create?  I finally did!  One of Mitch's coworkers is around my age and has been telling me about a scrapbook store she goes to.  She couldn't go to see Mitch in Footloose the same night as we did because she was scrappin' at the store.  I told Mitch to remind her to let me know the next time they were going to crop.  So she mentioned this past Friday, but there was a cost, so I said I'd have to see.  Then she let Mitch know that Sat was a free time to crop.  So I decided it's time I get out and meet some more people.  I'm always a bit reserved or shy at first meetings, even though I've talked to Dawn before, I still can have a difficult time.  Any friends reading this would laugh at that statement, but here is the perfect explanation.

It turned out pretty well.  Mitch decided to come along more to chat and be our entertainment.  I think if he goes next time he'll bring his laptop!  Dawn lives in Altoona too and picks up/brings home Mitch when their schedules mesh.  I met Dawn's sister only to find out Noah spent a lot of time at her place hanging out with her daughter Leah!  Now, you think it's a small world, right?  Well after Dawn mentioning that her maiden name was Sessions I asked if she was related to my uncles by marriage.  She talked to her dad and apparently they are like 3rd or 4th cousins to them.  So the world just got smaller.  Well I suppose you'd like to see what I did?  I finished up the inside of a comp book - a gift for Dawn, made three cards and repaired a title of a scrapbook page that the letters were falling off of.  So here are the cards.

For this one I used kraft paper as the base then added the orange cardstock scrap, Crate paper Carnival pp, scrap of turquoise scrap paper and Fiskar's stamp.

For this card I again used kraft paper, BoBunny pp, a LYB chipboard snowflake and a pigment ink with an Imaginesce clear stamp.

Here is my last card. I used Nestabilities Mega Curved Rectangle to create the purse/bag body.  The ribbon I found at Michael's for $1.  The pearl beads I won in a giveaway.  The stamp is Unity.

 We had a lot of fun chatting and getting to know each other.  I can't wait until I can go again with these gals!  Although packing for it is the hardest thing for me. I know I should be able to get it together and create kits for the photos I want to scrap.

Since I was on a roll with my mojo yesterday I created a scrapbook layout too.  It took me the better part of the afternoon, evening and even a little bit more time this am.  After much thought and playing around with cardstock and design ideas this is what I came up with. I did add the chipboard elements and puffy letters this morning. The backgrounds is Scrapworks which I got at a LSS's rummage sale back in the Spring.  The scalloped circle is Making Memories. The plain brown cardstock is Bazzill I think. A paper doily, Kaisercraft rhinestones, FX ribbon, American Crafts Chipboard accents and Making Memories puffy alpha round out the rest of the layout. This is me 50 yrs ago this month and my parents who look like kids themselves. 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful week.

Is it Halloween Yet?

I've been trying to create cards for Halloween. For whatever reason, I've been struggling. It's not like I haven't seen a ton of great inspiration out there. Through blogs, SCS and scrapbook.com I've seen a lot and maybe that's part of the problem. I guess I want my creations to be a little different. Well yesterday while on scrapbook.com I went to the forums and saw a post for card of the week. Michelle who goes by the name of melissadam on sb.com posts a new card challenge every week with a video she has found. I definitely want to do a few more of these purse cards in different printed papers of course. I watched the video and was inspired, but of course I took a day to think about it and here's what I came up with.



I'm entering the above card for these challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown - Challenge #69 Halloween

Charisma Cardz Challenges - Challenge #40 Black and Orange

Just Add Ink - JAI #88 Just Add...A Diecut

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Fall or Halloween


Of course I couldn't just post one Halloween card, here's one I came up with a couple of weeks ago. I wanted a card that looked less cutesy and more vintage. Also, it's the first time I inked up an embossing folder before embossing. So what do you think did I do it?



Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to come visit! I hope you have a fabulous fall weekend.

Two Months??? and some cards

So sorry for the long vacay from blogging. My new job has really taken it's toll. I haven't stood all day in years so that was different. I work next to a dryer that dries the screen print on a garment. I catch the garments and they're very hot. Always try to remain positive though. The good thing is I've been losing weight!

I made it through the year anniversary of Tim's losing his battle with cancer. I was reading With Love and Laughter, John Ritter by Amy Yasbeck. I really think that helped me. It's good to read how others deal with grief of their significant other. Definitely recommend it, if you're a John Ritter fan, a person dealing with grief and loss or just like to read. Grief sure is a different emotion, you definitely never know when it's gonna hit you.

Well enough about that, I'm sure you came here to see some cards or other creations. I sent out a box of cards to OWH last month. I'm trying to challenge myself to send twice as many as were in my last shipment. Last shipment including Any Hero cards was 39 I believe, so my next shipment should be 78. Wow that seems like a lot. I know there are so many out there that do many more. I do my best to support/promote OWH on Facebook and here. I think I may have inspired my brother's girlfriend to send cards. I think she's only interested in sending Any Hero cards. Definitely needed! It would be great if she got her kids to write some too, kids always write the cutest letters/cards! So here are some of the cards I made this past Sunday and Monday.

This first card I made using the sketch from The OWH Stars and Stamps blog. Sketch Challenge #73. It took a little bit for me to figure out the "right" paper to use. K&Company's Americana worked perfectly! The stamp is a Ditto stamp new red rubber cling cushion from Studio G. Love 'em.



This next card was made using Mojo Monday's sketch #194 I really like how this came out! I think I could use this sketch to make many more cards. The I simply enjoy you sentiment is from Hero Arts.





I love this cute stamp from Unity! For some reason, I love clothes on a line images. Maybe because my mom hung out our clothes in the summertime. I found the card partially stamped with the Hero Arts Cling Dots stamp. So I put it to good use.




This Pink Paislee Hometown Summer line, is just so cute! I love watermelon and it definitely reminds me of summer without being a beach scene. I wanted to use the Unity watermelon image from the Watermelon Gazpacho set. It just didn't seem right with the watermelon paper. So I cut out the watermelons with a 1" circle punch. I did use the sentiment from that set don't you always think of smile when you have a 1/2 slice of watermelon? The cardstock is more like a lime green. My scanner doesn't pick up greens that well, not sure why. Even when I did a color restore, didn't change it much.


Well that's it for now, hopefully I'll be a bit more regular with my posts from now on out. I want to thank you for taking time to stop by, I really appreciate it! xoxo

Posting more?!

I've been told by my dear friend Char that I need to post more often. I'm creating more, so I should be able to fulfill her request. What I really need to do is use some of the punched out butterflies, flowers, etc that she let me do when we visited her. It's a great way to do something with all those small scraps of paper. So Char that's next on my list! My friend Carolyn

and I decided to challenge each other to do some of the sketches provided by Papercrafts magazine. A couple of the cards are inspired by those sketches. The other two are just ones that almost made themselves. Yesterday I went by the LSS and picked up some cardstock and also found

a St Patrick's day die cuts page. I initiated our new kitchen table by

making the St Patrick's Day card. Yes, I finally found my round pub table and chairs. Noah put the table and one chair together Tues night. So yesterday morning I sat down and made a card! I did put a chair together yesterday afternoon and hope to get another one done today. The

whole reason I went to the LSS was to get a table for their garage sale. I am looking forward to getting rid of some of goodies I'm no longer using.

It's kind of funny that I have some Irish heritage and I rarely make St

Patrick's Day cards. What's up with that? Usually if someone even has a little Irish in them you'd think they were all Irish by the way they talk about being Irish :). Tim was Irish mixed with other nationalities and you would've thought he was only Irish. I did tease him when I found out his

favorite color was blue. I said if you're so Irish your favorite color would

be green and you'd wear it A LOT! I had a friend at work a few years ago

who was Costa Rican who was married to an O'Brien. Sometimes she'd get strange reactions when she said she was Julietta O'Brien. Ok enough blah blah blah onto the cards.

This card is from one of the Papercraft sketches. I decided to make the one square an aperture instead of a paper square. I put a scalloped square on the inside of the card. I thought this would make a nice gender neutral baby card.

The card above is another sketch card. The sketch showed several circles on the card front with a sentiment over them. I decided to use my new nestabilities lacey circle instead of circles. I'm still not sue I like it. I picked up this package of kraft cards and envelopes at Goodwill. I like that the Goodwill here has some stamps, cards, embellishments and scrapbooks for such awesome prices!

This card is one that just seemed to go together without a whole lot of effort. I had cut the center out of the smaller lacy circle to use on the previous card. I had laid the circle down and thought hey I could use this over a sentiment and then pop it up over the larger lacy circle. So I used a Fiskars stamp from their laugh/smile/giggle set. Inkadinkado is the stamp with the heart and vines, both are clear stamps. I inked the sentiment circle a soft pink and then used distress ink to stamp the sentiment. I placed it over the larger lacy circle using mounting tape to pop it up. It still seemed like it needed more. I looked at my ribbons but nothing seemed to be right then I saw this off white organza ribbon and it seemed to fit perfectly especially since it has a glittery look to it.

Here is my St. Patrick's Day card. The die cut page is by Best Creations and the white cardstock is Bazzill and I believe the dark green cardstock is Making Memories. The grosgrain ribbon was a prize I had won and it just seemed to go together perfectly. I saw the diecut and cut it out by hand I thought maybe I should use a nestabilities die to cut it out. At first I didn't think it would work with the deckle edged die because the size of the die was a bit off from the size of the image. I then thought hey it's a deckle edge, so I could futz with it and still get the deckle edge all around. Silly me then I covered it up with ribbon, but that's how creativity goes sometimes! I hand cut out the lucky me clover and popped it up with mounting tape after adding leftover grosgrain as a stem. So what do you think?

Well time for me to head out and get some stuff done. I need to run out and see about one of the chairs to my table (broken in the box). I also need to get this place clean as I'm sure people will be stopping by with my birthday being tomorrow and a bunch of us getting together to go out to eat on Saturday. I so enjoy getting together with friends and family. To me that is a more precious gift than any material gift I could receive. Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon! Next time I'll post some pix of the new table and chairs as well as some of the get together pix. Hope you have a wonderful weekend! xoxoxo

PS apparently Blogger isn't allowing me to have my whole post in the font Verdana! I have tried a couple of times to change it back to verdana, but it keeps showing up in Verdana and Times New Roman. And I don't particularly like TNR!