Some Valtentine's Day Cards...

I was lucky enough to get away Saturday and crop with some friends at The Scrapbooking Studio in Moline, IL....it was a fun, relaxing and PRODUCTIVE day!

Here are some Valentine's Day Cards I got finished at the crop:

The patterned papers are Love Me by My Mind's Eye (designed by Robyn Meierotto), the flair buttons are by Shelley Haganman, the 'I love you' tag is by Ormolu and of course, the adhesive is Xyron!

Thanks for stopping by, hoping to get my completed layouts posted yet this week!

FINALLY! Some creative time...

I know my family is probably looking for some Thanksgiving pictures...BUT I'm happy that I got a chance to do some creating this weekend, so I'm putting up a crafty post today!

I had a chance to pull out my American Crafts AMY TAN products...such FUN! Love the colors and the textures...here's what I created...

I've seen these butterfly boxes before, and the 'science' geek in me is drawn to how they resemble specimen displays...I used my Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Butterfly dies and adhered the beauties to a punched grey circle before mounting on the cardstock with the printed quote...LOVE this project!

AMAZINGLY...I created a couple of cards...

Those that follow my blog know that I publicly complain about my card making abilities...perhaps I've turned a corner?

Lastly, but not leastly, I created this photo-less layout documenting our family's road to our Iowa HOME!

All these FAB Amy Tan (and the Tim Holtz die) products are available at The Scrapbooking Studio in Moline (or Bloominton)...check 'em out!

ps. if you're in a holiday mood, check out my handmade ornaments on the Reminisce blog!

Devon's 2011 piano recital

Today was Devon's 2011 piano recital...he played two songs...due to technical difficulties, here is video of the 2nd song..."Frosty the Snowman"...he did AWESOME!

The holiday season is definitely upon us!

 

Gift boxes a la My Mind's Eye!

I've always like to make useful paper projects and paper boxes (either made entirely of paper, or purchased paper mache boxes altered with paper) are one of my favorites!

Here are two that I recently completed using My Mind's Eye Lost and Found papers and glazed brads. Both boxes are die cut using Lifestyle crafts dies...the first uses the Box and Lid Die that comes with an alternate scalloped edge lid.

The next one is a pillow box, again using My Mind's Eye papers, but this time with the Pillow Box die...LOVE that this one has 'grooves' that you use as guides to make the score marks! It's embellished with some Tim Holtz trim, layered snowflake punches and a sentiment punched from the Jillibean Soup Christmas Eve Chowder die cut sheet...

All of the products used to create the two boxes above can be found at your friendly local scrapbook store....the Scrapbooking Studio in Moline, IL...(if you're not local...just call the store, they'll take your order and ship it!)

Thanks for visiting today!

Some Cards...REALLY!

I was feeling inspired to be crafy over the weekend, but found I was way SHORT on time...so, in order to get my paper fix I created a couple of cards...the first features the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia die and Teresa Collins Christmas Home papers...I used my fabbie Xyron Adhesive to assemble the card, attach some crinkled tissue paper to the red cardstock and add glitter to the foam alphabet stickers!

I got a little 'techniquey' on this next card...surprisingly it took very little time...I got out my Basic Grey Indie Bloom papers and Allison Davis card sketch #11, stamped a heart in a circle image over top and embossed with clear embossing powder....after heat setting the embossing powder, I 'painted' over the embossed images with my Maya Road mist and wiped the excess off...the clear embossing powder acts as a resist and lets the wonderfully colored patterned paper show through! I punched out the images with a circle punch, mounted them on a second larger white circle that had already been run through my Xyron X sticker maker and then coated the white border with white glitter...love the effect!

That's it for today...thanks for stopping by...

A page that tells a story...

My grandma passed away in late October and even though I have a lot of 'Great Grandma P" stories documented for my children, there is one I forgot...so I took wrote it down on a layout at a crop a few weeks ago....here's the layout:

Journalling Reads: 18 years ago when Grandpa passed away, my aunt started giving my Grandma teddy bears to keep her 'company'. When Grandma passed this year, my daughter, her great granddaughter received one of her 'bears' to remember her by. What a great memory for me to share with my daughter! Oct 2011

So happy I got to document this 'Grandma moment' and that my daughter got a bear to remember her great grandma by!

A Sizzix mini album...

I've had a number of mini albums to make lately, so I invested in a Sizzix mini album die...this one, actually: http://www.sizzix.com/product/657122/sizzix-scoreboards-xl-die-album-photo.

It's out of stock on the Sizzix website, but The Scrapbooking Studio still has some in stock.

Here's the first mini I created, it's a baby album for a gal pal at work....I used some My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Papers and embellishments...the trims were bulk items.

The die is AH-MAZ-ING! It cut the chipboard cover like butter and the instructions include an easy-peasy method for adding the pages and binding it all together! My Xyron 5 inch Creative Station made covering the chipboard super quick and mess free too!

Some of the inside pages, just waiting for pictures:

The recipient already has her gift and she LOVED it...she thanked me so much I felt uncomforable! I'm most certainly going to use this die set to create some more minis, real soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

I have a thing for cards...

and it's not a GOOD thing...I have issues making them...not sure why, but I do...at the beginning of 2011, I had a crafty goal to create more cards in 2011....and according to my blog, I did create more cards....7 to be exact....definitely progress, but no where near what I thought I could do...

So, in the spirit of creating EVEN MORE cards in 2012...I purchased this Ella Book...

It's a great source of inspiration, card making inspiration...and I love it that I now have a 'book' I can go to when working on these little works of art...who knows...maybe in 2012, I'll hit a record 10 cards created!! A girl can have goals, right? ;)

Upcoming FFF class!

I pleased to announce the 2011 Fall installment of the Fun, Fast and Fabulous layout class at the Scrapbooking Studio-Moline location! 5 pages, $24. Call 309.736.7242 to reserve your spot. ...Saturday, November 19th 1-2:30 pm!

Join me to create 5 pages in 2.5 hours! Get 2 sets of alphabet stickers and learn how to stretch your foam alphabets further with several of my favorite techniques. Create some fun textured leaf accents that you'll want to add to your pages EVERY year! Layouts feature the uber trendy American Crafts Nightfall collection! Hope to see you there!

I have an alcohol problem...

an Alcohol INK problem that is!!!

I recently altered a cigar box using Teresa Collin's new Halloween line Haunted Hallows and my collection of Ranger Alcohol Inks...LOVE this stuff!

I'm thinking it will hold candy on my desk at work when the big day gets close...

I used some Tim Holtz box legs on the bottom corners....they're altered with black paint, orange alcohol ink and some rock candy crackle medium...love how spooky they turned out!

Then there's the paper doily I dry brushed with some more black paint and then applied orange alcohol ink to the white spaces....the bottle cap was filled first with glossy accents mixed with purple alcohol ink, then the witchy silhouette was added....after it dried overnight, I applied more glossy accents (without any alcohol ink added) to give the whole item a clear, glossy finish...

I made a orange tulle flowerette and accented the top with some Maya Road raspberry beads (colored with MORE alcohol ink, black this time.)

Here's another view of the finished piece...of course all the papers got stuck down with my handy, dandy, no mess Xyron adhesive!

This project got my mojo flowing! I've been a CREATING machine since this one got done! LOVE THAT!

Toodles all, thanks for checking in!