And so it's Christmastime

So sorry that I have been so absent, but well sometimes life takes the upper hand! I have a few Christmas cards to share with you and actually that is about all the "crafting" I have managed. We added another grandchild which meant another afghan and I am certainly not as quick as I used to be!  So hope you enjoy the cards and a few extras as I really don't know how soon I will get to post. I have 3 male birthdays and 1 female in December so I will try to at least post those. Here goes for today:

Sorry its a bit blurry - The only different thing is that I put white flower soft on his fur. Decided it didn't have the impact I was going for, so I won't do it again if I repeat this card. When I cut him out, I decided to make sure there was enough background with him to add the greeting. The plaids are paper. Colored with copics.

This is Santa's inside. It is simple but matches the outside a bit.

This little bird ornament is actually an Elizabeth Craft's sticker!! Gosh but those are magnificent stickers!! Got them at Scrapbooking Made Simple and don't have the link at the moment. I watch her youtube videos. She is so down to earth you feel like you are right there with her! I didn't realize that there was a bird until I started coloring the ornament!! Just bought the gold ornaments and thought there was just a design!! I cut the ornament out and it's on dimensionals above a die cut circle.  and the next is the inside of this card!!

This is the inside of the ornament - Just messing around and love how this came out. The trees are a die cut - one of those thin dies, probably memory box but not sure. And those are my wonderful stickles!!

I know I did this similar to last year's cards. I just love this stamp. Only this year I colored with copics and like the result much better. The snowflakes are embossed and I used the diffuser to leave the center flat. I think I stamped it first so I could be sure it was flat. The ribbon is a very tiny wired ribbon that somehow was perfect for this card. I am saving my green and red cardstock for use with all my Christmas papers that I still haven't gotten out.  And here is the inside-

Embossed the entire inside and added a greeting on dimensionals.  And hopefully now, I will add my favorite new Christmas stamp

I believe it's called HOHOHO. This is just the image - no card, yet. It was quite a challenge to color as when its all black and white, I wasn't sure what piece belonged to where. And after I got this supercute stamp colored, I decided that enamel accents would just make him! I put the white on the reindeer's eyes and let it dry and then added a tiny dot of black to each eye. It is just sooo cute in person!!! Don't know what possessed me to ramble around the snow with the stickles, but it came out great. The card is white but the photo picked it up and colored it!!! There are a few choice parts that I stickled, like the reindeer's nose and the elf's bell.  Hope this holiday season finds you all well and happy! Thanks for hanging in there! Hugs to you all, Barb F

 

 

 

Cupola birthday cards

 I just love how this one came out! It is for a  3 yr old boy. Found the chipboard lion in my stash (no telling how long I have had it since I can't remember it). Thought how cute that would be and really didn't feel the need to color an image. I knew exactly which paper I was going to use and had even made a paper pack with it! I thought it would look cute with that talk balloon and since I didn't have any, I had to make my own.

It's pretty easy to draw one and then cut it out. I used a pencil so I could erase whatever I missed. Hunted through my stamps to find the words. Didn't have it exactly - it said just saying hello. So I cut the hello off! The ribbon which I have been hoarding is from Gina K!  And here is the inside of the card.  Cut the label thing out of the patterned paper and used a couple of cute brads before I put it together. The Happy Birthday is glued on after as I wanted it to look noticeable. Sure hope he likes it. Now onto another card actually going to his Mom for her birthday.

 This is a lalaland image and just had to have it. I misplaced the copics I used again - I am getting pretty feeble minded lately! The colors matched another paper pack I put together that I wanted to use.  That laticey look is a Martha Stewart edge punch, Just love how nice it looks. Amazingly enough I made the entire other card and this card front without stickles! Alas! I did use them on the inside of this card though along with glossy accents (on the hearts). There is just a tiny amount of stickles next to the greeting/saying. I used leftover pieces from the front to decorate the inside. The colors are not usual for me - I am not a pastel person, usually my colors are very vivid. But I liked how this one came out and feel pretty sure she will like her card, too.

Now to answer a couple of questions. What is "card creator"? There are 2 basic sets and they are dies for use in manual cutting machines (cuttlebug, spellbinders, sizzix, vagabond). They make a2 sized pieces for layering onto an a2 sized card base ( 4 1/4 x 5 1/2) If you get both sets, you will have rectangles in 1/8" increments to layer on the base. There are also a couple of dies for use on making a rectangular label to go with your card. The dies are absolutely perfect!! Just pick out a size and run it through your machine. It doesn't come any easier than that. The edges are perfectly perpendicular (90 degrees) and the sides are perfectly straight. It makes card making a breeze. They also have a couple of fancy cuts that are card creator dies. There are quite a few dies in each set. There are stamps that work with the dies, however, I am really not interested in them right now so I can't tell you how well they work. But the dies are simply wonderful!! You can find them only at www.stampingscrapping.com. At least for now only, since the lady who owns the site designed them. Since they are made by spellbinders, maybe you would find at least a link from their site - I do not know. 

OWH bunches of cards

OK! Let's see how many blogger will let me post for you. I made a bunch of birthday cards today - they are all alike. That is a first for me. I took a photo of them on my worksurface. They may be all alike, but they are definitely not the same colors! Had a blast with my Tim Holtz distress inks. Everytime I do things like this, I find combinations that I never would have thought of! It's just so much fun to get so very messy. I used those card creator dies again and cut a bunch of tops, then embossed them - this is a cuttlebug folder. Thought I needed to add just a touch, so they each have a tiny flower on pop dots.yes - there are 8 of them!! And here is one left over from the last post:

This saying I stamped ages ago and it was just in a box with some other stuff. Figured while I was adding strips of paper, I might as well "frame" this. Those butterflies are really sequins I found ages ago . They are very shiny and all kinds of colors even though two of them look black, they aren't! I kind of like this arrangement and may just do it again on purpose, next time!

This one was done entirely with that card creator (well almost). I had used these papers on a scrapbook page and figured that I could make a card from the leftovers. The smile is a stamp that I punched out after stamping with a circle punch. Thought this whole thing went together like a breeze!

This one is another Tim Holtz distress ink creation. And while I was at it, I colored some cardstock with the direct ink pad to paper and cut it out with a butterfly punch! Can't get over how quick this one was also!!

This is the last of the paper stack I made and I also stamped and copic colored the center square. It is bright and I did enjoy doing it. No blending at all since this was so small. I even added some dashed lines which I don't really like to do with a pen, but I did. Hugs to you all, I will be posting several birthday cards for family (as soon as I get them made!). I am so far behind, oh well!! Hugs again, Barb F

 

 

More OWH cards

This one is Edwin and was colored awhile back, so alas, no copics listed. I made this card from one of my scrap packs that I put together for the last card class I took. The idea was to take your scrap paper and put it together to make a card with (you could put it in baggies or clip them) and then when you are ready to work, it is all picked out and you don't waste time looking through all your paper. I can tell you it worked super well for me. I put together all of the loose small cardstock. Made a couple of cards with the same papers and have another one left to make before I toss the tiny left overs. I just found a pack that went with the image I had colored. Got to tell you that "card creator" die set (I bought both the A & B) is just the best thing since sliced bread!! It takes a little learning curve to know which one you want to cut, but the cuts are perfect, making putting them together so easy. You will find them and a video about them at stampingscrapping.com. Edwin's hat would have been cut off so I  used that technique about cutting around the part you don't want to cut and placing the die behind it. If you do a search on youtube for out of bounds nestibilities you might find the video. That is the newer peacock distress ink. Love that color

This is the second card made with the same paper. I had colored the center square previously. It is a stamp. Love it and never had quite the place to put it! Of course you recognize the technique for the background. Again, I used the card creator dies! Sure made this card easy.

Awhile back I bought some of that sticky backed canvas in the ATC (artist's trading card) size just to try it. I used Tim Holtz stain and really didn't like the result. Until I put this card together! The butterflies were made with that Hero Arts punch and die set of butterflies. I do use that one a whole lot. The strips above and below are Tim Holtz stamping cardstock that I colored oh so subtley with distress inks. That cardstock is so absolutely beautiful to work on that I hoard it!! Normally I wouldn't put rust and pink together but somehow it seemed to work here. Guess it's because there is every color of the rainbow!!

I cut a bunch of Tim Holtz snowmen out and they have a snowflake on the same die, so I had a lot of them. Decided to just make a design with them. Sprayed the front with a sparkly spray, but it really doesn't show much, even in real life. Just a clean and simple card.

This tag with the cows was made on the computer in MSWord. Learned how at creativepassionclasses.com in the free got glue class!! It was such a fun class that I can hardly wait for her new one to start and its a pay class!! Anyhow, it was done in a program I had and also in photoshop elements which I didn't have but am now thinking about. The cow images are a digital stamp that I can't remember where I bought. Then we have some flourishes that I found had fallen out of their package and decided to use, punched out a couple little hearts and that is another butterfly from the same Hero Arts set. Not a usual layout, but I think its ok.
I did actually download a couple more, but blogger isn't going to let me upload anymore today. Sorry - I will try again soon and maybe add some more for you to see. Lots going on besides trying to get OWH cards mailed. So hugs to you all, Barb F



Operation Write Home cards

I have several cards to show you and talk about but first - I corrected a huge error! That scrapbook page I just posted is really in Blasdell, NY which is closer to Buffalo. I didn't realize it until DH looked at my page today and told me it was wrong! Just wanted to be sure you got the right town if you were trying to see it. It is on a main route through that town.

Awhile back, I sat with some scraps and cut out little squares just to get rid of that paper. Then I rounded corners here and there and if the paper looked too plain, I stamped little stamps or punched little punches. I laid some of them out on a couple of cards, didn't like them and they got put in with my scrap stuff. Well, yesterday I took that scrap stuff (pieces of cards, some die cuts and some stuff I partly colored or stamped) and decided it was time to do some operation write home cards with it. Somewhere along the way, and I don't know how I got it, was a rub off sheet with greetings. I have not used them before so I must have gotten them as a thank you with an order. I added them to these first two cards and put a few butterflies on dimensionals and voila!! Two cards - did the edges with vintage photo again.

I think they came out pretty good after all? It was a good way to use up small scraps. It was really ugly until I stamped a little and cut out a little. After all, the colors were very very random!!

This one is done entirely with washi tape - the background anyhow. I liked it, but didn't know what to do with it. It is also on the light tan cardstock - I take my photos ontop of a little box that is alcohol ink colored and inside of one of those things you spray ink. It refelects the light just enough to get a decent photo. I take these with my Iphone. Not bad, except when I send them to my pc they are usually 90 degrees off! So on this one, I added the on the edge die cut of the houses and little butterflies on dimensionals. I cut the front down as I made a larger piece to begin with.

This whole card was in that pile of stuff!! It was crooked on the card - like maybe I had been drinking!! I didn't know then that I could just recut it even if it made the card a bit smaller. See what you learn? It is really bright and again a good use for scraps. I can assure you this one wasn't planned! In real life, the colors aren't even close! It still looks pretty good, now that it's got even sides!

This was an embossed and stamped piece of cardstock colored with distress inks. All I did was cut it to leave a little margin left and right and make it even top and bottom. So all five cards took me very little time to finish up! I have about 35 cards and envelopes ready to go and its not even half of the box!! I am thinking I need to find a smaller box so I will make my goal date - Oct. 31. I can tell you that I can make a lot of cards with just the stuff I was working with yesterday!! Serves two purposes and one of them is getting lots of stuff that is hard to store out of my room!! I am planning on making a bunch of fairly simple cards to get sent - I have a whole lot of images colored that I am going to get cut out and stick on some cards!! Some of those I kept with a sticky note and the colors I used. I will post whatever info I have on all the cards I send out. If you look back through my blog, unless its a card for a specific person (which I say), I am including them in my OWH box. Some of them really weren't appropriate though - but not very many. As you know, they allow stickles because they don't come off and that is about all I ever use for glitz. I am trying not to use it so much and its not easy!! I miss that glitz!  It may be a week or so before I post again but hopefully there will be a lot. Hugs to you all, Barb F


Lots of cards!

Made three cards today! I needed a birthday card so I used the papers from it to make two more cards when I was finished. Two more for Operation Write Home! Just might get a box off to them by my goal date!! The birthday one is Edwin - one of my favorite images. I did keep track of the copics, but now can't find the paper anywhere - way too much going on here and I am guessing that I must have trashed it. So very sorry. If it shows up down the road, I will post it and refer to this image.

I did stickle the porthole  screws or whatever they are as well as the water. That entire stamp is cut out and on dimensionals.  I wanted a little bit different background for this so I cut out an entire one with that card creator die set I bought - actually I bought set a and set b so I could have every size! It is so easy to pick up a die and lay it on your card until you get the look you want and then go cut it. I think I am in love. I have a tendency in my old age to reverse numbers and I have been cutting a lot of stuff out that I can't use at that time because its wrong. Hopefully I won't have to worry about it anymore. So the gray/black paper and the yellow paper are both rectangles. The strip under the Happy Birthday goes all the way across. I really like the way it looks with the round porthole covering so much.  And then before I placed Edwin, I sprayed it with that new Shimmer spray sparkle first. Here is what that looks like:

and here is the inside of that card

This is just two circles I cut from the dp over a strip of the gray/black paper. I used so much on the front I didn't have a whole lot left and have two more cards to do. By the way the inside greeting is from Gina K. Love her stuff especially for the insides of cards.


So onto card number two. This one you will recognize as it is the same design as the last time I made three cards from one. I really like that pieced diagonal stips together. I cut the rectangle first from white cardstock and I bet you know what I used to cut it with.

After I made my insert, I just wrapped some twine - which is the regular stuff everyone else uses (brown and white here) and tied a bow. Thought it needed a little something so I glued down a few buttons and filled their holes with , you guessed it - stickles!! I know you couldn't see that "map" paper before but now there is a large enough piece of it. It has been in my stash a long time. I have been hoarding it! Oh well, it is going to a good cause. I edged stuff with gathered twigs Tim Holtz distress ink. And now for three.

A friend of mine asked me what you could do with a wood block stamp. Well here's a solution for that. I was looking at my stamp notebook for some idea on what to do for this card. I decided to look at the animal stamps. One of the first images I saw is that of this darling little bear. It is a wood stamp and so I knew by my book where it was and got it out. I didn't want to color it, so I stamped it on a scrap of darker brown cardstock. Then got my little heart punch out and out of another scrap - this time red with tiny stars, punched out a heart. I stamped the image again onto the yellow cardstock and cut out only the tiny pants. I cut out the bear and cut off the heart he was holding. I cut out his tiny hand on the heart part. Next I glued his tiny pants on and then glued that really tiny hand onto the heart. Then glued the heart onto the bear. I colored his little nose red with a colored pencil. Oh how cute!! That took more time to write than it did to do!!! He is on dimensionals. The yellow strip has a border punch on it. I found a little heart stamp - it is clear and used soft brown shadown ink to make the background.  I used a labels die to cut out the blue map behind him. So that is something you could do with any stamp if you can think of it!! Hope you like these! Hugs to you all, Barb F



Guess What?

Today I am going to post a scrapbook page! Just a little history and then I will post it and tell you all the details. I have been watching "Glitter Girl" on the twopeasinabucket.com youtube channel. They post a lot of other things, but that is the one I never  miss. I just love the stuff she comes up with and that she explains her thinking while she is doing. I like knowing why people chose what they do. But here is a huge tip that I finally picked up on. Use repositionable tape when you are laying out a scrapbook page. It is supposed to set up permanent if you leave it alone for a long time. I do change my mind a whole lot and it was getting really difficult to lay out a page with everything rolling all over the place! Then once you have a pretty good idea of what you want, you can use permanent adhesive to stick little sections together. I have left my page alone for a couple of days, in a page protector in my album. I am going right  now and see if its permanent. ----- OK - here's  my take -- if you are very careful, I think you might still be able to pull it apart. I know its all still where I put it, so I am using it from now on!! I think I got it almost perfectly placed for a wild change!! It was so much fun to lay this out and I can hardly wait to try it again doing a different style. There was a bit of a challenge at two peas in trying to cluster embellishments, I used up a whole lot of stuff that I have had for an eternity (not really but a long time!). DH works away from home when he works and years ago had worked around Blasdell, NY. He told me about some really neat things in and around that town. So a couple years ago, we were driving to Niagara Falls and he made sure we went through Blasdell. I took photos while we were driving past this building and always wanted to scrap it. I am also hooked on the papers I used. They are from the same paper collection as I used for DH anniversary book awhile back. It's amazing how far one of those goes when you hoard it!!

Going from left to right, top to bottom, the first photo is approaching the building. It is next to a church but I am not sure if it was part of the church or not. The second photo is it - looks like it should be long in old Rome or Greece? The third photo if you look up near the orange tab, you would see a little statue on top blowing a horn.  The words by the bird say "I spy with my little eye"! Ok how cute is that? It was a sticker that I put on cardstock and it has dimensionals on the back. I can't remember what I cut that little bird from but it was cardboard and an advertisement! He is also on dimensionals. I framed all the photos as they got lost on the paper. I wanted to use the busy paper for my whole background but it was a bit much so I put the orange tone on tone in the middle to break it up - its not exactly in the middle or that would be boring.  My photos also didn't fit within the center area and I like them better this way, but all of my orange and busy paper go entirely to both sides. I found a couple border stickers that I liked in my stash. I had to cut them as they are heavy and would not have looked nice under the photos. And then I built up my embellishment stacks! Since nothing was permanently adhered down, it was fun moving them around. Glitter Girl says to try to have everything laid out to help the viewer move around the page and see it all. That is why they all seem to point to the next photo - at least I hope so. I had a stack of colored tags that matched this paper so exactly, it was amazing!! And I used a whole lot of them. They were mostly plain which is why I think it worked. I used Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges of everything I could remember to use it on. I was going to use the blue paper from this collection except that it was of planes and we drove. I think those kinds of things are important. I don't do pages very often and they are usually of family and I am not real thrilled to post photos online. So this one was a good one for me to share. Hope you like it - I know I will try doing more without people again!! It sure was a good time! I am thinking I am going to be using it on my cards and then glueing the edges down with permanent after. Need to get cracking on my cards - I have almost a half a box done to send!! Had some people in to do some work on the house today so it was a good time to post this. Not a good time to craft!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

3 Cards from 1

This was the first card I made from the papers I picked out. I colored the image which is a digital one from Some Odd Girl. I just think she is adorable! The greeting is cut out from a paper pack! Here are the copics I used:E00, E11, E33, E35, E39, E29, E31, R20, B02, BG000. I don't often cut the images out anymore, but I did this one. That bow is ready made but if you check out Jennifer McGuire's stuff, she has directions awhile back.  So taking the papers, after doing the inside of the card just a little, I made card no.2. I didn't use all the papers I chose on this one but quite a lot of the embellishments I picked out in advance.

All of these cards are standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. They all used the same blue cardstock - why not?  So this second one I cut out that cute little ticket and mounted it on some of the brown. This one has lots of stickles but not nearly as many as usual. I use hemp for twine - the ball I bought way back when will probably go to my grave with me! It's not easy to use but I am determined to use it. I have to glue it in place one way or another or it sticks out. I actually used this one and made a gift card holder on the inside and wrote, did we get it right? I also used a new die set I bought from stampingscrapping.com called card creator. Wow is that great! No more having to measure, just pick up a die, see if it looks right and cut it out! It's perfect, making it so easy to mount on your card!

And here is the 3rd card. You can see I made really good use of that card creator! I did the center rectangle using a Kristina Werner technique that I fell in love with. Now you can see all the papers I picked out. I love this one so much especially since it has all of the papers on it and guess what - no stickles!! I used Tim Holtz Vintage photo on edges on only 2 & 3. And I didn't have enough paper left to think about!! These are for a class I am taking called Kick Start. It is another onlinecardclasses.com. and I am loving it. I am kind of an organization nut and this one is right up my alley! These cards are just so simple to do and took no time at all because I used Jennifer McGuire's trick of making all of them at the same sitting. Once your mojo is up and running, why not use it? Well, I did and hope you enjoy them! I also did a super fun scrapbook page which I will try to post real soon. Hugs to you all, Barb F





Last September birthday

Now this card was really fun!! I bet you're thinking, she really got good with that calligraphy! Well, actually it's done on the computer!! If you are interested, I wrote the whole thing as the end of this post.  So while I was coloring Edwin I decided to use the Spica pens on the drinks. I am not a real fan of them, but I have quite a few! As it turned out, it was just the look I was going for. I did his belt buckle that way and didn't like it, so you got to know, I stickled it! Took me forever to pick out the paper as this came from the same pack but it's two sided and I really liked both sides! It seemed to be missing some pizzazz so I did the white dashed lines and then didn't really like them. Too bad. So as I always do when I am in doubt, I opened my stickles container (which is a cool, double spinner round thing that holds most of them. It looks like a modified dvd case which is what it probably is) and did some lines. I knew I had to quit and work on the inside. I know a lot of you keep commenting on how cute my envelopes are meaning the inside of the card! I probably have the plainest envelopes in existence!!

I used a balloon stamp and then paper pieced the balloons. Thought that came out so cute! Then I hunted through my "stamp" book to see if I had a drink glass. Of course, I did! Who knew? But there it was stamped in my book and I found it easily - this one is from one of those round just rite stamps that you press into a wooden holder. I bought several on closeout somewhere so I don't know if they even make them anymore, but I forget about them as I have them in a little box all their own - I can't find any way to put them in my filing cabinet. I cut the glass out after I copic colored it and its on dimensionals. Looked through all my word stamps and liked the size, style and what this one said.  Then I sprayed the entire half of the inside with this wonderful new spray I bought - Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz (Sparkle). They come two colors to a package. This one makes everything look like a fairyland!  I think the photo gives you an idea but I took a close up -

It's not real clear because of all the sparkle! I covered the other half of the inside so only this half would sparkle! Just know I do not keep track of paper names or companies. I am fortunate to just figure out what I want to use without keeping track of whose they are!

So here are the copics I use: E00, E11, E31, E35, E18, E29, E50, E51, E53, E57, R20, R27, R17, YR07, YG13, W7, W3, W5, W0, W2, SPICA11, 08, 03, 00.

Got to give credit where it's due. It's a little involved for how I got there but here goes : I was on the creativepassionclasses.com site hunting around for freebies and hoping I might find that Tami Taylor was going to do some more classes. Well, I got lucky and found both!! Tami's new class starts in January and is a kind of continuation of "Got Glue" except this time is for pay which is fine with me! I love her stuff! She's a bit off the wall like yours truly and I really connected! But the other thing I found was free and following that link took me to here: http://debbiehodge.com/2011/03/creating-circular-text-in-pse
That stands for photoshop elements which you can get for a free 30 day trial - no strings. I spent a few hours getting exactly what I wanted because I didn't spend anytime learning how to use the program. Just if it wasn't exactly what I wanted when it made the circle, it was too time consuming to figure out how to edit the text so I just dropped out and started again. Much quicker. I have to tell you that I was a Mechanical Designer (draftsman) and had worked on computer drawing things since they first became available in 1980! After that there wasn't much working on the board! It is real archaic to me to work with drawing programs available to the general public after the 3d modeling ones I worked with. I am not a snob, its just the truth.
You will see "The Secret to Creating a Circular Text in Photoshop Elements" by Pattie Knox on this page. That is what I printed and worked with. I know I didn't miss giving anyone credit on this. It took quite a few tries until I got the text size and type that I liked and I had to be sure my Edwin stamp fit inside! I was also limited to using 8 1/2 x 11 paper (that's what my printer holds) He just made it! Don't know how I could exist without a stamp positioner!
Thank you all for being so faithful and following me! It is just an uplift to get such super comments from you! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Halloween Chaos Tags

Awhile back, I joined an online yahoo group called All Things Tim. They really made this one for me!! I joined the most unique swap (at least I think it is). Eleven people make 12 tags each. The gal who is heading this swap is making toppers and placing each person's tag in a predefined spot on each canvas. When she is done, there will be 12 canvases. She will keep one and send the rest to the participants. I am so excited about this one that I guess I was probably the first one to send my tags in. Way back in July, I think! Anyhow today I realized that I hadn't posted the tags anywhere so I looked and I did indeed take a photo of a couple of them - I did make them all as close to alike as I could. I had the very best time making them - just know the photo isn't the best and of course the glitter and shine don't show very well, but you all know ---It's there!!!!

The tags are black. I took the Tim Holtz stamping cardstock and colored them with gathered twigs distress ink. Then I used one of his stencils and colored the background with Ripe persimmon (what a gorgeous color!!!), seedless preserves, shabby shutters and a little more of the twigs. You really can't see how cool that looks as the stencilled part looks white in the photo but it isn't. I can't tell you the order that I put things together so I am not going to try - I will just tell you what I did. I cut those colored backgrounds and glued them to a design paper that had the right colors and that I had enough of - quite a criteria! It happened to have dots and I really didn't like it after the fact. So of course, I stickled every one of those dots and let them dry! The rickrack thing is actually a sewing trim that was kind of neutral. I colored the entire spool of it using the purple and orange alternately. Even though I glued it on, it wasn't wanting to stay so I used the tiny attacher and attached until I got into the swing of it. I used tissue tape - Tim's of course on one end to help hold that trim down (which it didn't of course) so I stapled it also!! I took a piece of cardboard and glued a piece of black cardstock to one side (it is really the cardboard cut from a shipping box) and then I cut out all the tiny birds from  a mover and shaper bird on a base tray. they really are cute! I covered each one with black stickles as I really wanted them to stand out. I glued them on the "fence". That rosette looking thing is actually a piece of gaudy real lace trim with gold lame in it. I gathered the lace and then colored the rosette using my distress reinker to make them black. You should have seen my hands!!!! Good thing I have Tim's scrubbie. That thing is amazing! I do not know how I ever lived without it. This wasn't the best idea as you know the distress doesn't really dry. But then I thought, who is going to spray this canvas? Hopefully no one!! I colored a bunch of little gears and made some kind of danglely thing to put through the center of each and also a bow. Nothing is ever really complete without a bow, is it? Actually I had purchased that cool orange ribbon just for this and had to find a way to use it. To be sure I had enough of both the lace and the ribbon, I measured what length I had and then divided it into 12 pieces and made it work. Not an easy thing to do sometimes. I managed with the bows because I used a bow easy. Who ever invented that one was a sheer genius! You can make a bow with a minimal amount of ribbon and its just perfect. So then I just looked at the tags because they were still missing something. I found a tiny spider stamp and stamped her on each tag. Now I think we're done. I am always so afraid when I do a swap that whoever gets my stuff will not like it which is kind of why I don't do very many of them. I sure hope everyone in my swap group likes my tags. If they like them half as much as the fun I had doing them, I will be really thrilled!!!!I love Halloween and don't have anything to remind me of it - kids are all grown as are some of their kids. So I get to hang this in my "sewing room" that I do paper arts and crafts in!!
I wanted to say a little bit about my choices in distress inks. I picked out the gathered twigs to start with because it was a color I had never used (it was last fall's seasonal ink package with the ripe persimmon and concord crush). And also because I didn't think I would like it! Wow!! Was I ever wrong - it is the greatest color! If you don't use much, it is the best tan color and if you use a lot, it is the best all around brown. It seems to glow somehow. And that persimmons is my fav color ever! The purple seems to match almost all the dp's I own that are purple. So should I tell you that I own almost all of the inks pads and reinkers? I am working on a better storage system and if I ever get it worked out and finished, I will post it. I am not a "crafty" person - I do not like my hands to be all yucky and sticky but somehow when I am working with distress, it doesn't bother me one tiny bit!!
I am finishing up another birthday card - this one for a guy and will post it soon. I have caught up to the birthdays when this card is done, but I need to be making lots of cards for the Operation Write Home as I have not sent them a box yet. I know I can make several cards the same and I have lots of clean and simple cards from my class of the same name. I did sign up for the next OnlineCardClass.com with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner called Kick Start. I think it starts next week so there will be lots of cards from it. I am addicted to these online classes - we don't have a local scrapbook store very closeby. And while I am wandering: I just took a couple of free, travel at your own pace classes from creativepassionclasses.com. Super cool classes and one of them Got Glue - was just so great for me and I was so disappointed when it was over. Well Tami is doing some more of it starting in January - for pay this time but I am so excited to take more of it!! My oldest daughter and one of my friends also did it .It is junk journalling which I had never even heard of before I took this class. I have so much fun with the stuff I learned. So those are the only two groups I have done classes with and I would highly recommend both groups. The are for two very different parts of what I call scrapbooking. One is mainly cards, the other scrapbook pages both digital and real (is that what you call a scrapbook page in a scrapbook?). Hope you enjoyed the tags. Hugs again to all of you, Barb F

Big post!

I really have been missing - haven't done much crafting as I had to catch up on life. So I am going to post two cards today and you can tell me which one you like best - remember that I show the insides also since I learned to make them! There are two pieces to each of these. Both are female birthdays. This first one is for a dear friend. I am really pleased with the way it came out. I find that since I got my Vagabond and it is out and open, that I don't hesitate to use it at the drop of an idea! I bought this lattice die awhile back and couldn't really get it to cut - it cuts like butter (as they say) on the Vagabond! And what use is a lattice if you don't put something neat behind it? I pieced a view! If you can imagine a beach scene? It isn't but you can almost see it from the patterned paper, I think. This covers the entire card. My friend loves mice (not real ones, for heaven's sake!), so I thought this image perfect. It is on dimensionals. I cut those flowers out of a hero art's stamp/die set. One is stamped, the other just cut. They were too plain for my taste, hence the gems. I searched through my word category of my stamps and thought this was the one I needed for the front. While I was looking through my dies for something great to cut it, I realized that the butterfly would fit and be just what I wanted! Now here is the inside of the card, using the same dp as the outside.

I used two different stamps to get this greeting. Since they were both rubber, I had to use a stamp positioner. I love how those work and if you have rubber stamps, it is a have to have! All of the inside is done with paper. One of those flowers is dimensional, the other just glued flat. And here are the copics I used on the front:B0000, B14, B18, Y11, Y15, Y17, YG00, YG03, C2, C3, R14, C7, E31, E33, E35. It has been awhile since I colored and I managed to color a whole lot of images when I did this one as I needed several cards for September! Can't mail anything until Tues as the post office is closed for Labor Day.

 

This one is for one of my granddaughters. Her fav color is red with pink - that is how she phrases it! So I hunted through my ever increasing stash until I found a paper I could live with that was basically those colors. By the time I was actually putting the card together, I found I actually liked the papers I chose! Fancy that! I couldn't find a die to cut the fairy out - She is digital, but I had made her just a little too big. I wanted the background paper to show after all, so I cut it out by hand this way. It is on dimensionals. I had the idea of using that ribbon in a couple of places and I think it works without giving it a look of a package when you immediately look at it. Her name is cut out from a Tim Holtz alphabet strip die. That was just so much easier than using my cricut and welding them into one piece. I did glitter after they were on the card - after all its not MY card without a little stickles! I am practicing though since I am hoping to send a box of cards to Operation Write Home before too long.  The Happy Birthday is white heat embossed.  Don't forget the gems! And here is the inside.

Stamped the sentiment, found a die to fit and cut it. Since I was going to use brads, I needed to mount it to something before putting it on the card. You can get a pretty good view of the patterned paper here. That red strip is actually dp also. I tried for the similar subtle package thing with paper instead of ribbon on the inside. And here are the copics I used to color: E00, E11, E18, E33, E35, E37, R32, R37, R20, YG00, YG03, BG72, Y08, C1.

Remember there are two photos of each card. Would you like to tell me which one you like best?

I know there are a lot of people out there that keep notebooks of sketches for layouts for cards as well as scrapbooks. That one really isn't for me. I probably wouldn't think about looking at one. I guess I just like the freedom. I know I must assimilate from watching all those youtube videos and reading all those magazines. I can only tell you what I am thinking not where I got it from. I have taken a few online classes and I can assure you there are plenty of cards and layouts given for each class, so if you want to have more ammunition, take some classes. It probably doesn't matter whose class you start with - just jump in with both feet and get them really wet!! In the end, you are the one chosing what and how you will put on your card. My motto has become, if you don't like it, cover it or tear it off and put something else there!! Don't let it haunt you -    fix it!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

 

Wedding Over

 These are the final photos of my album. I am also back from the wedding. They didn't open gifts at the reception, so I don't know their reaction yet. They did go on a honeymoon. Funny how much this album suited both of them! Must have had a heavenly hand on my shoulder! I need to get busy as I have 3 birthdays in the first 10 days of September!!! I am just dying to try some stuff out with my vagabond and also remembering some lacy things on my Cricut that absolutely need to be on at least one of the new cards. I also have a bunch of cards to make for Operation Write Home so I can actually mail some off and make it official that I am participating. Its been quite a long time since I got to color with my copics and that has to be remedied!
While we were driving to the wedding, my husband made the remark that I wasn't "knitting"?  You have to know, he calls EVERYTHING I do, knitting. But that reminded me also that I was going to try knitting some cancer caps. So last night, I got out stuff to make one and started it. I used to knit (really) on every trip we took. Since we were traveling on average of 20 hrs a month to see his kids while they were growing up, I did make a lot of knitted things.  It is the only thing I can do without looking constantly at it (hence, it didn't make me car sick!). I have quite a bit of yarn left from the last baby afghan and its sport and very soft - will post it when I get it finished and if I think it's nice, I will make more and take them to the local hospital for distribution. It gets pretty cool up here in the winter time so if they can't use them (can hardly imagine that), there are plenty of shelters. I should be back on track fairly soon. Have some more cleaning to catch up on. Hugs to you all and thanks for hanging in there with me! Barb F

Gift Album

Along with the wedding card for my grandson, I made an album that they could use to put photos of their honeymoon and whatever else into. I used the method I watched from Margaret of    http://margaret-ilovecrafting.blogspot.com/     Honestly it wasn't nearly as easy as she makes it look!! Guess I am not the real crafty person, but I did like how it came out. It was truly a labor of love. I took a lot of photos - with the tags in the pockets and without and if the tags were decorated, I took a photo then also. The couple is mixed racially and I wanted to be sure not to offend anyone, hence the people in my stamps are not colored in. Also I am not very adept at different skin tones. That is something needing practice. So here is my book - it is about 6 x 7 in size. Let me know how you like it and be sure to check out Margaret's youtube videos if you want to make one. It would have been a whole lot easier to just make one the same size as hers - dumb me!

 This is all I am able to upload at this time. You are halfway thru page 9 and there are only 10 pages in the whole thing. Blogger will not let me upload anymore photos - maybe there is a daily limit. I have never done this many before. The binding was done with a piece of tyvek which was white. If I had known how awful it would look inbetween the pages, I would have colored it with my copics BEFORE I put the pages on it. It was pretty hard to do after, but I managed.  The very last photo shows a bird. I "fussy" did this page as I really wanted that bird to show. Next time I will just stick to embellishments. That was a difficult process. I felt very uncoordinated making this. I added all those ribbons so they would know those tags were really a part of the album, then I decided to include a note of "instruction" so they would know my intent. I probably won't be there when they open it. The colors are the colors they chose for their wedding. Thought it would be better than just white and then I wasn't so sure. Not planning on making another album for a very long time - very long!! Hugs to you all, will add the other photos next time if blogger will let me. Barb F