Covered Box

Tis the season to have a lot of boxes hanging around.  My 1-800-Contacts order isn't seasonal but it did arrive at a great time to turn it into a storage box for all my bottles of spray stuff like Tattered Angel's mist and some adhesives that were just tumbling off the shelf all the time.  It is a super sturdy box.  I kept meaning to buy something to hold these and never seemed to remember.  So I'm recycling!

The box is covered in some Basic Grey Periphery collection paper, die cuts, ribbon and buttons.  Just had fun with this on New Year's Day.  A nice relaxing crafting session working through my stash. Business is picking up so those kind of days are going to become rare.  Not that I'm complaining, I love to have customer projects to do!

Project Notes:

• To hide the 'wrapping' folds, I covered the ends first with a different piece of paper on each end not worrying about going all the way along the sides.  Then I wrapped the sides and added some ribbon.
• Be sure to put any ribbons on and hold punch any brads before covering the bottom or the inside so all raw ends get covered.  I almost glued the bottom on too soon.  Oops!
• I used thin designer paper  for the inside so it was easier to fit.  I did one piece on each end and then did one along the sides and bottom.
• Have lots of clothes pins on hand for extra hands when gluing.

See the other entries in the altered art challenge at Sugar Sweet Paper Treats.  They have a great prize this month!

Thanks for visiting today!

Ingredients:  DSP, Buttons, Ribbon and Die Cuts:  Periphery by Basic Grey
Brads:  Oriental Trading

TIPsy Tuesday - Fast Tone-on-Tone Card

Looking to make quick work of a card?  Have a Cricut, Silhouette or other paper cutting system?

Inside message:  "When I met You"

Here's your quick card recipe:
1 sheet of cardstock (light to medium in tone)
Matching ink color
Sponge dauber
Scraps of contrast color paper - cardstock or designer paper

Cut an all over design for your card front on your paper cutting system.  For my card, I used the Storybook Cricut Cartridge and cut the "A Wish Came True" design 4 3/4" high. Consider multiple images too - like several hearts or flourishes.

Sponge the matching ink color over particularly on the edges.

Cut out some flowers, hearts, butterflies - whatever image is appropriate for your card.
Glue everything in place and you are done!

(I have to admit my first go at this card was anything but fast.  I used my usual pressure setting of 4? (next to the highest) for the Cricut.  I had to do a lot of trimming to get my image freed from the rest of the paper and looking good.  I turned up the pressure to the highest setting and the next one came out perfectly and was ready to go in about a minute.   In hindsight, I'd have been better off to just discard the first one since I had plenty of Baja cardstock. I just hate to throw stuff away!)

Tone-on-tone is always elegant.  I love the added visual texture it gives fabric when we use tone-on-tone fabrics for contrast or for the main window treatment design and it can do the same for your cards and scrapbook pages.

Thanks for visiting today!

ingredients:  cardstock:  Baja Breeze, Rose Red from Stampin' Up!
ink:  Baja Breeze
rhinestones:  Hobby Lobby jewelry dept.

Glazed Brads on Cards Challenge

For the last "A Year in Cards" at Two Peas in a Bucket, Kristina challenged us to use glazed brads on our cards.  One of the cards she did had a glazed brad attached to allow two parts of the card to pivot.  I used this idea on my three hearts.  When all three are rotated, it says "I Love You."

I used the Cricut to cut my hearts but you could use heart punches just as well.

To watch "A Year in Cards" videos go to Kristina's blog at  kwernerdesign blog or to the Two Peas in a Bucket channel on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting today!

Ingredients:  DSP:  American Crafts Honey Tart

Cardstock:  Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Fizz by PTI; Pink Piroette, Real Red by SU!

Brads:  Indian Summer by Basic Grey

2011 - Get Moving!

Happy 2011!

It's a new year and a time for a new notebook.  I just finished the cover for my favorite type of Mead notebook - lined pages on one side and grid on the other.  I use it to keep to-do lists, jot down ideas, and keep track of all sorts of every day things.

This year I'll also be tracking my progress on my New Year's Resolution - Get Moving!   The last two years are the only ones in my life I've kept resolutions for the entire year.  For both, I did resolutions around my creative pursuits.  Still, they were daily challenges to do things and took a real effort some busy days.  I'm hoping I can take some of that creative energy and apply it to an important goal - to improve my physical fitness.

I work hard to maintain my weight - mostly by watching what I eat.  I've never smoked, I don't engage in any other health risk behaviors that I know of (aren't they always coming out with something new we should or shouldn't be doing?).  But I have to admit that one of the other things I don't do nearly enough is Exercise.

I've gone through spurts where I took regular walks or swam or went to an exercise class when I worked in an office building years ago.  But something always happens and I give up my activity after a year or so.  Lenny and I do hike but not often enough, I'm active on vacation.  This just isn't enough to maintain my good health long term.  I know from experience that my most likely excuse will be having something hurt from a sudden onset of exercise.  So I'm looking to start with short blocks of various activities.  I'll be gradually building up my muscles and endurance and not forcing myself into a regimen that I know won't last out the month.

"Get Moving" to me is to get off the couch or away from the computer and do something active.  It might be a household chore, just a walk around the yard or a trip to the mailbox (ours is a long way from the house), or a few exercises while watching a television program.  As the weather warms, the list should expand.  To count, it has to be something I wasn't going to do anyway.  I can't count yesterday's trip to the grocery store (darn).

I tried this last year but my resolve only lasted a few days.  Part of the problem was I simply forgot about it as it got lost among other resolutions - mainly Project 365 - that I had for the year.  This year, this is my one and only Resolution.

Oh, I'll have other objectives for the year.  The difference for me is that a Resolution is something that takes daily effort and takes the whole year. Hopefully, it changes a habit.  Just as 'doing something creatively new every day' has made me continue to increase my crafting skills and problem solve more creatively.  I think doing Project 365 will keep me snapping away at those every day events and remembering my camera every time we go for an outing.

So every once in awhile I'll blog about how things are going.   I'm hoping that by sharing my resolve with readers, I'll be more accountable.  Feel free to comment and tell me to "get moving"!

And now for the project:

This is an October Afternoon-fest!  All the papers and the sticker are from OA.  There isn't a piece of cardstock anywhere!

For self-gifting this Christmas, I treated myself to a new Cricut cartridge - Straight from the Nest - and used it to cut the flower and the scalloped circle.  The flower is cut from thin chipboard as well as designer paper.  Because I want the cover as flat as possible, I cut a circle out of the center to nestle the button.

The leaves and letters are cut with good ole Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.  To balance the colors, I added faux stitching in black on the leaves and stem.

Wish me well on my efforts to get moving!  Maybe I'll even get a cleaner house out of the deal.

What are your resolutions?  Did you blog about them?

Happy New Year!

Ingredients:  DSP:  October Afternoon's Fly a Kite and Thrift Shop 8x8 Paper Pads
Button:  Oriental Trading  Cord:  DMC
Marker:  Zig
Ribbons:  Black gingham from Stampin' Up!; multi color from American Crafts (I think)

Project 365 Wrap Up

In 2009, I kept my first New Year's resolutions ever!  One was to do something creatively new every day.  It was fun, sometimes challenging to fit in and I really expanded my creatively and knowledge.  I blogged about that more at the time in this post New Year's Cheers

Coming off that success, I tripled my expectations but unfortunately, not my efforts.  I again made three New Year's resolutions for 2010 and kept one of them.  The one kept was to do Project 365 this year.

Project 365 is to take a photo each day and then scrapbook it.  Here is what I discovered along this journey:

• I took a photo almost every day and did makeup photos for the days I missed.  Does it really matter if I picked out paint swatches one day and then did the photo of me holding them up for selection the next day?
  
  
• My husband is now a little more involved in photography than before.  He'll ask me if I've taken my photo today and sometimes suggest something that would make a good shot.  He has even picked up the camera a few times himself to capture the day's photo.
  
  
• Many people scrapbook these photos in albums with photo pockets or use the same layout format for each week.  I preferred to experiment.  I did weekly single page and double page spreads.  I did some with two weeks together and a couple of monthly spreads.  For the third quarter we had lots of travel and big events so I did those and then 'everything else' layouts to capture the day to day.  And for the last few months, I've done layouts more by subject, like day trips, fall photos, and now some Christmas layouts.  These are still capturing the day to day stuff.
  
  



The Rest of April



Weekly Layout

• I love having a record of our everyday things - many of these things would never have been photographed otherwise.  I so wish I'd done this 10 or 15 years ago.  

Two Weeks in August

So I'm really glad I did Project 365.  Will I do it next year?  Yes and no.  I'll do more every day photos I'm sure.  Like creative thinking, it has become a habit and I'll scrapbook more routine stuff than before this project, I'm sure.  

And all this reminds me that I need to take today's photo and I know exactly what it will be - part of my year end 'got to get this done before the business year closes' list.  It's one of those every year things that will someday be a little memory tucked into my scrapbook.

Have you decided on any resolutions?
Hope you enjoy ringing in the New Year!

Tree Time - come and gone

The tree went out yesterday and all the needles are vacuumed up.  Well, not all, I'm sure I'll find stray needles until next July.  How do they hide so well?

Taking down the tree is a mix of "it's time to get back to normal" and sadness.  I just finished this layout on getting the tree.  I take photos every year and I think this is the first time it has ever made it to the scrapbook.  Tree shopping is special because it is something Daddy and I do together - just us.  He loves a bargain (He still talks about the one he got on a roadside stand for $15 one year) and always scouts out potential locations before we go shopping.  This year's tree was $25 and truly fresh cut!  We live only about 40-60 miles from NC's many tree farms but that is a deal even for us.  I loved it because it was the perfect size - tall and trim.

Project Notes:

• For this quick layout, I placed the 4 photos with one corner together and built everything out from there.  The 'trees' are cut from one of the designer papers and colored in with markers.  
• I was going to stitch this on the machine but it was so close to done, I just did a little faux stitching with a white gel pen rather than go all the way down to the basement for my sewing machine.  I have an old home sewing machine I could use for this, but I just don't have anymore room in my scrap space.

If you had a tree, is it still up?  What about your other decorations?  I'm leaving the garlands on the mantle and fireplace up for at least a couple more weeks.  It just looks too empty to take it all down at once.  

Thanks for visiting:

Ingredients:  DSP:  Candy cane Christmas by Stampin' Up!

Cardstock:  Colormates Light Spring green (Hobby Lobby)

Stickers:  Two Scoops by Basic Grey and Thickers from American Crafts

Button:  Baja Breeze by SU!

Baker's Twine:  Martha Stewart

Masculine Note Card

Why are making masculine cards so difficult?  Is it just me?  Perhaps it is that I have so few stamps that lend themselves to masculine cards.  I just love flowers and birds but then my husband loves flowers and likes birds well enough so maybe it is my interpretation of what is masculine.  He must like birds, he waded through the snow to feed ours today, bless him.

Anyway, the Splitcoaststampers color challenge was to use Night of Navy, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight (I had to sub So Saffron) and a button or brad (I used a grommet).  The inspiration was Mary's husband's birthday.  Happy Birthday!

I did two of these cards and will use them as Any Hero cards in my next OWH box.  I thought the yellow ribbon would signify a hope that the heroes who receive them will be home soon.

Project Notes:

• The branch is embossed in Night of Navy on watercolor paper
• the background is my favorite technique from Jennifer McGuire's Holiday Thinking Inking class at Two Peas.  If you haven't taken this, it is wonderful!  She used Ranger inks but I used SU!'s inks, even Craft ink worked.  You ink up an acrylic block, spray with water and then coat your paper.  It takes a couple of coats and some dabbing but it is a lot of fun.
• The edge is distressed in Soft Suede.

Have to be off.  My dad is accompanying me on a business errand this morning.  He is off from work this week and going a little stir crazy.  (I think my mother will appreciate the break, too.)

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Kindred Spirits, Sweet Little Sentiments

Ink:  Night of Navy, Old Olive, Soft Suede

Grommet:  from Stampin' Up!

Ribbon:  So Saffron

Cardstock:  Night of Navy and Naturals White

TIPsy Tuesday - Tab Punch Border

Let's get a little more use out of our punches.  Here's a border made with the tab punch from Stampin' Up!

The video shows how the card was made mainly focusing on the border.  I used all one DSP for the tabs but you could use a variety of papers for alternating scallops.  The floral designer paper on top is cut 1 3/8" wide.

Watch at YouTube

Thanks for visiting today!

Here are the materials used in this card:

Stamps:  Cherry Hill from October Afternoon

Designer Paper all from October Afternoon:  Fly a Kite 8x8 Paper Pad, Thrift Shop 8x8 Paper Pad

Cardstock:  Ruby Red, Naturals white (for card base), Very Vanilla from Stampin' Up!

Ink:  Garden Green marker; Warm Red Fluid Chalk Ink from Colorbox

Brads:  Paper Studio

Cord:  DMC