Color and Sketch Challenge Card

Today I'm on opposite ends of the spectrum.  First I have this card which is for Splitcoaststampers weekly color and sketch challenges.  The color challenge is to use a neutral palette of black, ivory and Crumb Cake or kraft.  Now, there's a challenge for me!  I'm a color person so neutrals-only is tough.  The other part was the card needed to be clean and classy.

I think I made something similar to this in arrangement  not so long ago but I can't find a post about it.  Anyway, this is the Vintage Floral stamp set which is was last year's Sale-a-bration set.  This year's Sale-a-bration at Stampin' Up! is in progress now.  The background stamp is Lattice from Hero Arts.

For the opposite of a clean and simple card, I just signed up for the heART Class with Wilna Furstenberg over at Two Peas in a Bucket.  It's all about mists, masks, fabric, Washi and lots of messy, artsy stuff.   If my worktable could talk it would probably say I have a split personality.  I went from the structured, clean look of Stampin' Up! to a homemade mask and several spray bottles of mist in one afternoon.

It is one of the many joys of this hobby that it is so versatile and split personalities are welcome.  I'm still having fun with my first class layout so it will be up in a few days.  In the meantime, I'm still snapping photos of my husband for Project Life.  Just more crafty opportunities than I can keep up with.  If only I had two bodies to keep up with the two personalities...

Happy Friday!

Shabby Chic?

A few weeks ago there was a survey on Mary Fish's blog ( http://www.stampinpretty.com/) asking if you were more of a 'clean and simple' stamper or a 'shabby chic' creator.   The 'clean and simple' won out by a huge margin which isn't surprising since she does such great clean cards on her blog.  I also think the Stampin' Up! look is geared more toward clean and simple.

For me, if I had to pick one, I'm a little more toward the clean and simple side although I can't resist putting a lot of stuff on my cards.  However, try as I might, I just can't get the true free form shabby chic look.  This card is about as close as I can get.  Still there is a lot of structure here.  In fact, I made this for the sketch challenge at Splitcoast this week.

One of the joys of papercrafting is that you can try out a lot of different styles to see what fits you.  How would you define your style?  Or do you try?  I think I just want to enjoy a lot of different things and see what takes.

Project notes:  The stamp is inked in Versamark and embossed in Copper embossing powder.  I colored in the flowers with stamp inks and a blender pen.

The background is one left over from another set of cards. It is stamped and inked on watercolor paper.

The ruffle is a piece of lavendar sheer from one of my discontinued sample books.  I gathered as I went on the sewing machine and then cut off the bottom with pinking sheers.

Don't you just love those Vintage Brads? These are from Stampin' Up! and are new this year.  I'm already ready to order my second box!

This is going to be my Mother's Day card for my mother this year.  If Mother were a card maker, she would definitely be a shabby chic lady.  Actually she is very elegant with a lot of 'hip and funky' in her clothing.  She is one of those ladies we envy who can throw together a half dozen things that don't seem to go together and Voila! instant chic.

Thanks for visiting today!  I've got a bit more regular work to do and then off to the nursery to buy flowers for my porch - one of my favorite spring rituals.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Large blossom and lined dots from Hero Arts
Ink:  Versamark, Perfect Plum, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie
Cardstock:  Pale Plum
Brads:  Vintage from Stampin' Up!
Lace:  Prima

Looking Up

It was funny.  I picked this sketch challenge because of the photo collage.  I thought I would just use a variety of our hiking photos from Redwood National Park.  When I started laying out the photos, I noticed a pattern.  Lenny was looking up in so many of the shots.  I guess we did a lot of that surrounded by some of the tallest trees on the planet!

It is another of the Joys of Papercrafting that you really notice patterns when you start playing with your photos to create a page.

Anyway, I thought it made a good subject so I concentrated on just the photos that emphasized the size of the trees.  Here is the journaling:


Lenny was determined those trees were not actually 300+ feet tall!  He walked out measurements to try to 'compute' their real height before finally acknowledging that the park service was not trying to deceive us - like they do for trail lengths, of course.

Have you ever noticed that hiking trails are way longer than they are posted for?  I guess it could just seem that way, but I think it is how they measure.  I know we have walked at least 4 miles when the trail only says 2 :-)

As for the layout, I already had many of the photos printed so I made my own collage.  I did a Panorma (see this post for details on doing that in PSE) for the tree.  I didn't realize until I printed it that I'd picked an option which resulted in my husband being slightly taller than he really is - and thinner too.  I'm sure he won't mind.

I used SCAL and the Cricut to cut the title like the one in Nichol's sample.  The edge is distressed in Vintage Photo and stamped with a little Whisper White using the Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp.

For the sketch that goes with this layout, see the weekly challenge at Two Peas - Apr 8 '11 Challenge

Thanks for visiting today!

Ingredients:  Campy Trails DSP by American Crafts
Stamps:  Stitches by Hot of the Press, Woodgrain by Hero Arts and Season of Friendship by SU!
Ink:  Soft Suede, River Rock
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake
Stickers:  On Holiday from The Girls Paperie
Chipboard:  Basic Grey

February Reboot

I had hardly been in my craft room last week until Friday so I made a few of these bright cards for Operation Write Home to kick start my weekend.  That is one of the many things I love about card making.  You can jump back into crafting after a short or long break with an easy 'win.'  

These were made with one of my favorite Hampton Arts sets- Fabulous Flowers.  For some reason they really call out for bright colors so I stuck to the Brights color family from Stampin' Up!  Staying within a color family was another way to get things going without spending a lot of time debating color choices.  The base cardstock is one of the In Colors - Peach - because I didn't have that much Tangerine Tango.

After this card, I did another and then worked on a scrapbook page that should be up tomorrow.

Something else that needs a little kick but won't be nearly as easy is my New Year's resolution.  I "got moving" some in January but not nearly enough.  So today, I'm recommitting.  Keeping a record really helps.  I found myself pleasantly surprised at how much crafting I did in January.  My quick daily note of my "get moving" resolution revealed about an even split between days I met my commitment, met half of it, and days I didn't do anything!  I did work a lot more in the evenings last month but I told myself from the beginning I would not let work count as extra moving or as an excuse not to do anything.

So I'd better get started.

Hope you will stop by tomorrow.  I'll have some accordion/pinwheel flowers up for TIPsy Tuesday.  Have a great day!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Hampton Arts Fabulous Flowers:  Butterfly from Inkadinkado
Ink:  Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Only Orange, Old Olive
Cardstock:  Pacific Point, Peach Parfait

More "white" space

I always admire pages that leave a lot of white space.  Yet, my pages overflow with photos, journaling and large titles. So I thought I'd give Shimelle's sketch a try this week  Shimelle's Sketch.  The "white space" was to show off a great piece of pattern paper.  I oohed and ahhed over this piece from the Stampin' Up! Greenhouse Gala pack when it came in and knew I had to use it for our California trip.

Also, for this page, I worked with border stickers for the Products Every Which Way class at Two Peas in a Bucket.  I've layered some stickers.  Also, I recolored one. The red sparkly border was really white until I inked it with some Staz-on in Blazing Red and Timber Brown. The glitter still shows through.

This is a rare page for me.  I didn't use the computer for anything!  The journaling was done by hand, the photos were printed at Wal-mart, and I used stickers for the title - no Cricut.  I learned that you can use smaller letters for a title and still get the point across.

This is the first page in the California trip and it was one of my favorite days. Lenny and his friend Susan are in the photo when we were at a wine and food pairing at one of their special vineyards.  The weather was gorgeous; our friends, excited to show us their new community; and the food; delicious.  I remember being so relaxed, pain free, and happy that day after several stressful weeks before the trip.  It just felt so good!

One of the great joys of scrapbooking is getting to relive a wonderful day when you are doing a page.

Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  DSP:  Greenhouse Gala; Pear Pizzazz DSP from SU!
Stickers:  Marrakech Collection from Basic Grey; Paisley Parade from KI Memories; Mini Market alphas and Fly a Kite label from October Afternoon; Nutmeg Thickers from American Crafts
Rub-on's:  Basic Grey

It's a Quilt ...and a lesson

Not all scrapbooking is about the most joyous occasions.  I think it important to record what really happens even if it isn't all like you expected it to be.  One of the "Joys of Scrapbooking" is that it can be therapeutic and eye opening to write about an experience.  That is what happened when I did the pages for the quilt I made as a gift this summer.  I could have just done a one page layout with some photos of the quilt and how I rushed to complete it, but that isn't really the story, or the lesson.

The journaling reads:

When we went to Amanda’s wedding, I finally remembered to take the quilt along I’d planned to give to Dillon. My grandmother had two quilts made for me when I was in my teens. One was a large LeMoyne star in red, white and blue! What was she thinking? I always thought it would make a good ‘boys’ quilt. Since I didn’t have any children and Lenny had daughters, the quilt has been in storage all this time. Dillon loves red and these are the colors in his room so I just figured I’d give it to him. I didn’t figure he would care that much about it. I didn’t even give it to him personally, just handing it off to Stanley to pass along. Well, I seriously underestimated his enthusiasm. He loved it. That night at the hotel, he and Nai Nai built a fort with his quilt and he slept under it each night.



About a month before we left for Hilton Head, it began to nag me that I didn’t have a quilt for Nai Nai so I decided to make one. I knew it would be a rush and I already had quite a bit of window treatment work to do. Still I had been dying to work with Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I found a place to order them on-line. I spent what seemed like hours downloading photos, working out a layout and making the final selections. When the order came in, I went right to work prewashing and finalizing my layout.


With only a few weeks, the quilt had to be a simple design. I’d chosen Nai Nai’s favorite colors of hot pink, purple and a little orange. It was to be bright and cheerful, just like her. I cut and sewed steadily around my other work. I even machine quilted using the free form quilting foot. Definitely, not a work of art, the quilting did give me experience. And of course, I’d cut myself terribly short on fabric but soon, sooner than I’d expected, the 60” x 80” quilt was complete. I couldn’t wait to give it to her.


I did wait though, until about the 3rd day of our trip. This shouldn’t be rushed along with all the other new things they were seeing and doing. I’d been giving them a toy a day to play with in the condo. One morning, I told her I had a surprise for her and we would wait until everyone was together to give it to her. She made sure the family was assembled as soon as possible. I went back to the master bedroom closet and brought out the bag.


This is where I’m supposed to say how excited she was – just like Dillon had been. She was polite. She didn’t say much. She looked at the quilt, Jaime showed her some of the details and I could tell it had fallen flat. I folded it back up and it wasn’t touched again until Stanley packed it back up to take to their house. Lenny said that she would appreciate it when she was older.


Now that I think about it, her reaction was much like mine was to the red, white and blue star quilt. (I’d have loved it if my grandmother had made me a quilt herself.) Anyway, Nai Nai’s is a pretty quilt and large enough for her bed in Branson. Maybe some day it will mean something to her or maybe she will share it with someone who will love it. For now, it means something to me that I was able to make her a gift.


It wasn't until I was writing this journaling that I realized the similarity between Nai Nai's reaction to my quilt and my reaction to the one my grandmother had paid to have made for me.  Both were given out of love and both were received with only polite thanks though for different reasons.  It isn't surprising that Nai Nai was expecting a toy rather than something she hardly needed in the middle of summer.

This also reminded me of my lukewarm reaction to my Aunt Clara's Christmas gifts when I was a child.  Each year a package would arrive in the mail from the west coast. Mother would not let me open it until Christmas and I knew it would be clothes.  But each year I secretly hoped it would be a doll or some kind of toy.  Those clothes were much appreciated by my Mother and fortunately my aunt never knew that I was just a bit disappointed.  Now I know that my reaction wasn't all that important anyway.  The clothes were as much for Mother as they were for me providing something extra in those early years when there wasn't a lot of extra money.  And my aunt must have loved shopping for them.  You see, she lost her own daughter to disease and missed having a little girl to shop for.  I only regret that I never thanked her properly for her gifts.

I have noticed over the years that some things I make really go over big and others, often the ones that took the most effort, are met with just a 'thanks.'  It doesn't matter that much as long as you give out of love.

Ingredients:  DSP:  Cosmo Cricket Material Girl, My Mind's Eye for background
Quilt is cut with the Cricut from various DSP scraps

Joy of Scrapbooking - Moments of Laughter

I presented Lenny with our 2009 album this weekend.  We looked through all the pages together and laughed at some of the funny little things that happened.  One of the greatest joys of scrapbooking is you see a photo or read some journaling and laugh at something you otherwise might have forgotten forever.

This layout is the title page.  I organized the book into three sections:  Little stuff around the house, Travel, and Family Time.   The first section was chronological.  The tree above has limbs for winter, spring with the flowering trees, summer and autumn.  I'm not sure what season of our lives we are in, doesn't matter.  They are all good.

Project Notes: 

• I cut the tree with the Cricut and SCAL software.  I already had a tree I'd imported before and to keep from having to redo it, I copied, resized and paper pieced a little of it.  Some of the piecing is hidden behind the green strip on the bottom.

• The notches in the date tag are made with a circle punch.
• The pearls are regular ones I've had forever.  They are not flat on the back so I sewed them onto the flowers - why my tree isn't a big bloomer :-)
• I love that background paper from Stampin' Up!  The built in scallop design kind of looks like clouds.  I guess the color is supposed to be a light turquoise but it looks like Baja.  Do you think perhaps someone knew Baja Breeze would be coming back when they designed the Sweet Pea pack?  Whatever, I love that color!
• Punching out all those little leaves is much easier from DSP rather than cardstock.

Now that 2009 is done, I can get back to 2010.  I think I'm up to the wedding and May which is really good for me.  Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  DSP:  Sweet Pea and a few others by by Stampin' Up!

Font:  Lucida Calligraphy

Fun Fungi

One of the joys of scrapbooking is that it gets you in the habit of carrying your camera more.  We've hiked at Riverbend park many times now yet partially out of habit I grabbed my camera as we went out the door this morning.  And when we came across this colorful mushroom, Lenny said, "That would make a good picture; you don't see an orange toadstool everyday." 

Now he would have never suggested that a few years ago.  He's getting into the photography act, too.  When we came accross a fallen log covered with these shell shaped fungi, he suggested angles for my photo.

In the end, I preferred this close-up.  They look like seashells in the forest.

Happy holiday weekend!

The Joys of trying a different style

My house is anything but contemporary.  Most of my clients have traditional decors, too.  So the window treatment and bedding I make is also on the traditional side - lots of contrasting welt, banding, the occasional rouching or ruffle, buttons, swags and lots of pretty floral prints.  The closest I usually come to a geometric are my beloved stripes - you can do wonders with a great striped fabric.

One of the many great things about papercrafting is you can work with a totally different style than you usually live with or wear.  You don't live with most papercraft projects every day so it is fun to experiement. 

Today's card uses Basic Grey's Offbeat collection - a "mod anthology" they call it.  Whatever that is, it is fun and for me  - a change of pace.  So even if I did pull out my favorite little birdie stamp set, Cheep Talk, it gets a fresh look on these geometric prints.

Project Notes:

• First, I stamped the greeting so I could get the circle in the right place.  Then, the circular shape in the yellow paper around the birdie was cut with a Creative Memories oval cutter.
• I cut the remaining shapes by marking lightly with pencil and then free hand cutting.

Next time you are paper shopping, go for something really different and give a new style a try.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Cheep Talk by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Prussian Blue and Chestnut Roan fluid chalk by Colorbox; SU brown journaling marker
Cardstock:  Polar Mist by Paper Studio; Soft Suede by SU!
DSP:  Offbeat by Basic Grey
Rimmed tags by SU!