Tis the season!!

Last year, I made a photo card at an online company and that was my Christmas card. Now, it was a really great photo - and I'm hoping to do it again this year - but I've also determined to use some of the reams of paper I have collected from the last several Christmas seasons. I seldom use it for scrapbook pages and even bought it all with the intention of making cards, but never did. So this year, I've dug into my stash, added to it and have been making cards. I suspect most of my family and friends will be getting handmade cards this year. But not all. I hope to get my grandsons to pose for me in some nativity scene (shepards or wisemen) and my granddaughter to let me use her in a Madonna and child photo. That's my hope anyways!

Here are some of the cards I've made this season so far. I've scoured many different sites and many different artists (Tami Mayberry, Jennifer McGuire, the great folks at Hero Arts are prime examples) and gave some my own spin.

Alcohol inks!

Here are a few new cards I made using Ranger alcohol inks. They're easy to use, particularly if you have a craft mat (mine is by Inksentials). Also metallic and pearl mixitives add just a bit of shine!

On this one, I used alcohol inks on an acrylic butterfly. The scallopped circle was made using Versamark ink and Perfect Pearls. I stamped over it using archival black ink. The stamp says "God is, and all is well." It's hard to see because of the shine, but it's really pretty.

The rest of the cards

The rest of the cards from this weekend are generic. I was inspired by a little something for each (or both since two are basically the same!) and just threw them together. Not a lot of thinking.

These first two are using some Memory Makers journaling spots that I have a whole package of but have only used once or twice. They worked perfectly here. I also love the kraft background.

Yikes! I am starting to run out of some of my favorite paper flowers. Time to restock!

This one is from a design I saw online. Probably on Hero Arts' blog. Anyways, I loved the white dots on the background. I used white Staz-on for this, but I may try another one using white embossing powder instead. Might make for more stand-out dots!

Butterflies!

I did not much care for the owl craze of last year. This year's butterflies, however, are a bit cuter. Maybe I should have tried harder with the owls because I'm thinking those would work for masculine cards as well as feminine.



I made this for my niece who is 16 today.

The sentiment is a stamp on a small rectangular Tim Holtz fragment. I would love to get a package of the charms or the ovals, but all I have is squares/rectangles. I'm making do!

I used alcohol ink and mixatives on the back of the fragment to get the color then stamped the sentiment using Staz-on white ink. The flowers are white primas that I used alcohol inks on. I used some pearl mixative with the alcohol ink to give the pretty sheen.

This one is going to be hard to see, but may be interesting to try.

I was reading in a magazine (really looking for inspiration and this one hit me) and the author of a particular article was talking about what we use for backgrounds. She mentioned plain cardstock. She mentioned patterned paper. She mentioned transparencies.

Transparencies?

Hmmmmmmmm. It just so happens that I have three packs of transparencies (12x12) from Tuesday Morning (sort of like Big Lots!) that might just do the trick. And since I didn't pay much for it ($5 for the whole thing), it would be okay if it didn't work out and I needed to throw it away.

Instead, I'm kinda liking how it turned out. In person, you can see the subtle blue tint to the transparency and the tiny blue dots. In this photo you can really only see my office door! However, take a moment to enjoy the fact that you can see my office door through my layout and you get the whole point. It's see through!

I am going to try this one again. I'm sure I've got some black and white photos that will work with just about any color transparency I have. :)

Finally!! Some mojo!

I scrapped this weekend.

Yes. I understand. You and I both need a moment for the wonder of that comment to sink in.

So anyhow, with my granddaughter around, it's had to get into crafting. She wants to be right there, talking and asking questions and generally getting underfoot (literally - she plays with the dog who lays at my feet). She wants to sit on my lap and look at pictures.

While I love sharing the time with her and having someone who likes to look at my pages, I also enjoy ACTUALLY CRAFTING!!

She went to friend's with her mom yesterday so I took advantage and did a little scrapping. Made a few cards and two layouts.

This is my youngest grandson, Hunter. He's 1 and a half. And, unfortunately, he doesn't have that adorable mop of curls since his mom got his hair cut. *sigh* This layout was inspired by the color combo (dark red, teal and white). I saw it in a mag the other day and really wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, I need cardstock. Particularly in the red family. The little bit that I used on this layout was IT. One small 12x5 inch scrap. Time to shop!!

Ink-spiration

Do you enjoy challenges to get your mojo flowing? Challenges of subject (make a layout/card/project about ____.) Challenges for color? Do crops, either RL or cyber, get things going for you?

For me, it's techniques. Here lately, I've been enjoying Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking video series. If you have distress inks, alcohol inks or just want to see some great ideas, go here or click on the Jennifer McGuire link on my sidebar.

She has videos for distress inks, perfect pearls, crackle paint, alcohol inks...if Ranger produces it, she's got a video on it! But what I really like is that these awesome techniques add that perfect extra something which makes your layouts or cards stand out above the rest.

Using less

Using less stuff is a challenge!! I grabbed a scrap of Little Yellow Bicycle valentine's day paper, red ribbon and stamped the image on plain cardstock using a stamp set I got on clearance at WalMart!


More LYB paper! Too cute. This is almost the last of these gorgeous Prima flowers I got from a fellow paper snob. I've been hoarding them!

This is the stamp I got from Hero Arts. It's one of their design blocks. I love the look of the flowers in shadow. These two cards feature this embossed image on alcohol inks. The purple-ish one was made using the inking tool. The magenta-ish one was made using a puddle of ink and swiping glossy cardstock through it.

This is a simple emboss-resist technique. I used white embossing powder instead of clear though. I think I was out of clear at that time! I made the leaves for the white flowers by cutting up a green one!

Scrapping classes

Here are the cards we'll be making in tomorrow's paper crafting class. Day one is cards and day two is scrapbooking with photos.

I'm really excited first of all because this is the second class I've gotten to do that focus on MY hobbies (the first was photography - which was a hit). Secondly, we put a lot of energy and effort in helping kids be reactive to their anger and emotion regulation problems. This is a way to be proactive. It introduces them to something that's prosocial. It gives them a unique area to develop skill mastery which is the building block of healthy self-esteem. I'm just atwitter with excitement!

These cards are pretty simple but these are kids at the very basic level...cut, fold, glue. :)

more techniques

Another couple of fun cards. For this one, the trick was using the little stamped image in the circle cutout. Not hard to do. However, there are a couple of ways to glitter them. One is to use Stickles. That's what I tried. However, make sure your image is completely dry. Use your heat tool if there is any doubt. And for some inks that will always react if you put something wet on them, maybe try another medium. I used markers on this and no matter how much I dried it, it kept smearing. Some were worse. Ugh. I'm going to try chalks next. You could also use Diamond Glaze and pour on a good layer of glitter. Then seal it with sealant or more Glaze.


This is a simple transparancy sheet folded in half. I used Staz-on ink for the clouds.

It's summer!

Okay, I'm not the person most likely to be engaged in some physical, outdoor activity, but I do like to be out in the sunshine when the weather is good. And now that it's summer, it seems the rain has gone away in my neck of the woods. At least for the time being. That means lots of steamy afternoons in the pool and NOT in my inadequately air-conditioned scrap room! So fewer projects for me. But I've been doing some stuff in the last few weeks to share!

Here's a fun one that I saw on the Hero Arts blog. I think it was Jennifer McGuire (my hero!). Not exactly like the one she did, but close enough for government work. Instead of using a punched or die cut scalloped circle frame, I drew in the scallops with a Signo gel pen. I stamped the cloud image twice and cut out those and the sun. The hard part was stringing the beads, but once I got the hang of it, I just affixed the three strings between the two cloud cutouts to look like rain! The sun sits right behind the cloud. I used chalks to color the sun and cloud then sealed them with a spray sealant. I also used Diamond Glaze to glue the cloud to the transparancy.

For this card, I used alcohol inks on glossy cardstock for the background. I stamped the fishes with Versamark. The faux metal embellishment was fun with heat embossing. First you cut a piece of cardstock about the size of your stamp. Then you coat it with Versamark or other embossing ink (Ranger makes one too). Heat emboss it, then while still hot, give it another coat of embossing powder and heat it. Do about four layers of that. Before heating the final layer, get your stamp ready with a little Versamark (this keeps the stamp from sticking). Heat the last layer of powder, then stamp the image onto the heated embossing powder. Let the stamp sit (NO wiggling) for several seconds until it's cool (I counted to 15). Gently remove the stamp. I added a punched hole (with my Crop-a-dile) and a jute bow for a more manly feel.

This card doesn't feel done to me and I may add something else to it. The trick is to use white-core cardstock. Stamp an image that has diagonal lines. I used a simple diamond pattern stamp but you could use anything really as long as the lines are clear (either clearly there or "felt" between a series of images). Use either an embossing tool or one of those sticks they give you in packages of rubons to score the lines, fold and sand. You'll have white lines when you get done. And yes, very fold-y paper! You can go a step further, as I did, by using distress ink on the sanded areas. This is another great Jennifer McGuire tip!

Here's

sketches!

They're simple, but I'm still learning how to work my photoshop program. I usually edit photos with Corel Photoshop Pro X2, so I'm not as familiar with Photoshop. I have several more sketches to get worked up and then I'll share. Have fun creating!

Sketch help!!

So here's the deal...I have been taking pictures of my fellow mental health center employees for a photo directory. Not a glamorous job, let me tell you! I'll never - God willing! - work for one of those companies that takes school pictures!

Anyways, I have set aside time to take the pictures and I set up the camera/tripod/backdrop/lights in our big conference room which is on the other side of the building from my office. Which means for an hour, I'm away from my desk. I can't work because most of my work is on the computer. So this week, I printed off some rectangles, put them on a clipboard and proceeded to sketch my little heart out while I was waiting for folks to wander in for their pictures. I now have around two dozen sketches -- but no good way to get them onto a graphics proram. The others that I have done have been done with a generic Paint program. VERY time consuming and hard to do.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to do a sketch graphically? Is there a program you use? A website you go to? Any freeware you download? HELP!!!!

Where do you find inspiration?

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I'm an "inspiration" junkie. I can spend hours surfing across the internet looking at, admiring and commenting on some incredible paper-crafted art. I grab my sketch blanks and pencil in ideas. I print of good color combinations. I make notes for challenges.

But then I get home, kick off my shoes and play World of Warcraft. Or Facebook's farming game. My stuff sits all alone in my craft room waiting to be used, but lacking that one final ingredient: mojo.

Today, however, I got a good dose of it! I gave up my desire to have "perfect" pictures of my grandkids. They're going to be dirty for the next few years. There's nothing I can do about it. And waiting for them to be perfectly clean and well behaved...I don't have that kind of time!

Here are a few layouts I did with pics from my niece's graduation party:

And here's one of me and my youngest son having an updated version of snuggle time.

Card Patterns

Here's my take on sketch #16 from the great folks at Card Patterns. While watching the movie "The Prince and Me" I was struck by the color combination of khaki, pink and dark green (from a boquet of pretty roses). One of the actresses was wearing a similar color combo, so I had to try it out. But that made me think about other color inspirations.

So...little challenge! Go look for your favorite outfit and make a project (layout or card or whatever) using those colors.

Butterflies and bugs!

Okay, a while back I won a Scrapdilly challenge for some cute butterfly and bug embelli's. They've been sitting on my table for a while. I look at them. I admire them. I think of ways I might use them. But I end up using something else. This weekend, I made myself "get inspired."

I came up with this little boy card with the bug stickers. The bumble bee and spider were HARD to cut out. Oh my word...each of those tiny legs...*shudder* Anyways, I learned (from Jennifer McGuire) that you can create a pretty sheen on some of these small images using a dot of liquid pearls (from Ranger). Just drop a dot onto one part (it dries very fast) and rub it over the image, then repeat until you've covered the whole image.

Glimmer Mist

Do you have some Glimmer Mist? I have three that I hardly ever use. I like a much finer spray than you get with this product. However, since I spent $$ on it, I make myself use it once in a while. For this card, I used another Tattered Angels product that Mike got me for Mother's Day: Glimmer Screens. They come with three in a package and they're just masks to use with the Glimmer Mist. This one, which you can't really see, looks like a tree branch. I used gold mist over it to create a green branch for my butterfly to perch on.

As for the big butterfly, I saw a great card by Beatriz Jennings that I loved featuring a large butterfly. I wondered how I might either buy or create one. But Mike rescued me also. I have the Fiskars template stuff and he got me one of the templates for butterflies. Very fun! The antenna is jewelry wire. That stuff is NOT easy to bend or twist, but sandwiched between a couple of glue dots they make great antenna!

Shout-out

If you have some time, go here: http://drea-days.blogspot.com/

Back? Great! I've mentioned my friend Drea many times in my blogging. If you've been to Scrapadilly, you know who I'm talking about.

I just wanted to give Drea props for being a great inspiration. I was sitting on my sofa yesterday, watching a late movie (Hitch, with Will Smith - what a hottie!). In my hands were a pair of scissors and a small butterfly that I'd stamped and colored.

Why did that make me think of Drea?

Well, as you may be aware, she's the reason I got into scrapping. Her layouts are a constant source of inspiration. But where she's always so careful and detailed with her layouts, I have always been a "slap it down, glue it and go" kind of gal! Straight lines? Never heard of 'em!!

No seriously!! My lines are NEVER straight. I'm sure it's something wrong with my eyes. But I always admired how Drea takes such time and care especially when she cuts out little details from patterned paper for one thing or another. But instead of being haphazzard or not even trying, there I was, inching around the tiny details of this butterfly. I took my time letting my liquid pearls dry instead of squishing one or two "testing" to see if they were dry. There have been several different techniques I've tried lately that would never have been possible if I'd not learned to take my time and be patient.

Thanks Drea!

Oh the things you can do with ink!

Here are a couple of places to check out if you like to use inks, particularly Ranger's distress inks: http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/

http://www.timholtz.typepad.com/

http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/

These are the top three sites that inspire me right now as far as ideas for how to use inks and embossing tools and stamps to buy. I have to admit that whenever I go to any scrapbook store, I gravitate to the stamps and I look for Hero Arts stamps. One of these days I may even enter a challenge!

Jennifer McGuire had a great tutorial on using embossing powder and distress inks on fabric. I tried and tried to get that one right a few weeks ago, but to no avail. Then I watched the tutorial again and tried something different (I was using clear embossing powder instead of white and a too-complicated stamp). Success! I'm happy with how it turned out.

Some crafting challenges!

What things would we be more careful with if we knew they couldn't be replaced? What if you didn't have any money to buy new scrapbook supplies?

I'm all about scrapping and stamping frugally. My challenge to you is to find a stamp and use it in a new way. If you just stamp on white cardstock and color the image in, try cutting it out. Or try stamping on patterned paper or paper piecing.

If you're the person who has to have lots of stuff on your cards or layouts, I challenge you to use less. I'm going to try to make a card that doesn't involve any extra goodies. Only paper and ink. Maybe you can challenge yourself to do a project with little dimension. THAT would be a hard one for me!!

http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/

I also invite you to hop over to the Hero Arts blog for a fun challenge. They're a stamping company/blog with so many great cards every week! There are also often scrapbook layouts that get shared. This week, they're focusing on recycling and repurposing.

So...I'll throw in the "double dog dare" to the challenge. Look around the house. Check out the trash can. What can you re-use? What can be repurposed? There are a few great examples but I imagine you can come up with more!

Old milk jugs...sand instead of seed beads...I'm thinking of finding some way to use duct tape on a Father's day card. Maybe Mike won't mind if I use a rusty washer or bolt or two!

some new cards

I've been having some fun making some sketches and last night I took them out for a spin.