Guy Birthday

This is the outside of my card. I found the image free on the internet and printed it adding the words "SHH". The man I made this for is a hunter and both DH and I thought of Elmer Fudd as a really cute image. It's amazing how much out there is free. Of course I resized it and also you have to realize that I haven't sold anything ever! Thought it looked a bit plain so I edged everything with vintage photo. For those of you (I can't imagine) who don't know - that is a Tim Holtz distress ink. The butterfly is cut and stamped with Hero Arts die/stamp set. And then there is the ever present but hardly used at my house, twine. It still looked too plain so I sticked his hat and the barrel of his gun. He is on dimensionals.

This is the inside os the card. It is a pop-n-cut (a sizzix die that folds in the center and actually pops out. The leaves are sizzix  and I used vintage photo on them. If you look really close, you will see the vein is not as dark as the rest of the leaves. I tried for a guy type olive green. I was working on colored patterned paper though. The deer is from a sizzix steel rule die. I really don't like that the nose on the deer comes out pointed, so I recut that part by hand. I also gave him a little eye. I used the postage edge die on the edges of the inside of the card. Added another butterfly and of course some stickles. I couldn't find exactly the wording that I wanted for the inside, so I used stickers!  This paper is from a fishing paper kit that I bought when I first started. I have made lots of fishing cards since most all of the guys I make cards for fish.  Hope you like this one, hope he does also. I decided not to post this on any of my groups as I don't think it fits into any of their criteria. Hugs to you all, Barb F

More Paper Storage

Thought I would finish up my paper storage. You saw the 8 1/2 x 11 and the 12 x 12. Now its time to show you the rest. They are all separated by size into their own plastic bin/case. There are 4 x 6 (or something like that), 8" square, and 6 x 6. I keep all three of these in my closet on the same shelf.  I am on a self imposed temporary "do not buy any paper no matter what size or why" campaign!! If you are just starting out, I would highly recommend - do not buy paper for a stash!! It poses the huge problem of how to store it so you can find it again and use it!! Unless I happen to remember a specific paper pad and what size it is, I have to pretty much look through it all. Not grand because it would be so much more fun to go buy just what I need and then only have scraps to deal with. I can see plain card stock of different colors. If I had that to do over, I would just buy 12 x 12 and use it for everything - leaving some scraps. That's my 2 cents worth. Until I get way more paper used, I just can't see buying any no matter how wonderful. There is just no place left to keep it.

Love this case - as you can see, it holds my 6 x 6 paper pads. This one is really easy to move in and out of the closet and see what I have inside.

I have everything labeled. Don't know what I would do without a label maker! The rest of my paper is in these 12 x 12 plastic cases. One of them has my name on it. That is my traveling one. It always has a project or the makings of a project in it. That way I always have something ready to work on if I am not under the gun to do something and don't feel like looking through all my paper to get inspired (this doesn't work well for me - to look through my paper!). See that aqua carry case? It goes along on a trip and carries things like small tape runner, pop dots.  I do have three new cards to show you but they haven't gone to their homes yet. Next week should be able to post them for you. A retirement card, a female birthday and a male pop n cut birthday card! Hope to hear from you! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Promise & a Birthday Card

First of all I will show you the new birthday card so those of you who aren't interested in my organizing skills can just move onto another blog. This card is for a teacher. I always seem to keep that in the back of my mind when I am choosing a stamp to color - what makes me think of this person in particular. It makes coloring it and putting the card together much easier. I can lean on colors I know they like or images that remind me of them, or both. Sometimes it is even the pattern on a paper. I knew before I had chosen an image that I was going to use a word stencil for the background behind. I picked up some inks from Tsukenetko (probably spelled that one wrong) and finger dabbers at the last scrapbook meet I went to and used a crafter's workshop stencil that is very detailed. It worked well with the dabbers but you aren't going to believe how I did this. Here is the card so you can kind of follow along.

First I stamped my image on a larger piece of card stock than I ended up with. I used a frisket mask - found that you have to be careful or it will tear your card stock when you remove it. I do not recommend it as a mask for cards or scrapbook pages, but I use it if I am at the beginning of something so its not a big deal if I have to start again.  - Like don't bother coloring your image first because it could and probably would tear when you tried to remove the frisket.
Next I colored my background with Tim Holtz distress inks - used mustard seed and broken china, and worn lipstick. Then I laid my stencil down and held it with one hand while I inked up the finger dabber on the pink ink in my multicolored pad. I went over the stencil with the pink - of course it changed the colors in the background and really livened them up. I used the broken china for the edges on the pink paper behind her as well. The aqua  paper is cut from one of the card creator dies - ribbon edge or something like that. I ran the pink ribbon through the slits and tied it. The yellow paper is cut from the basic card creator set and the card itself is aqua. I used clear stickles on her barrette and the flower on her cup. Silver stickles went into each little hole and at the tips. Copics I used : E00, E11, R20, E31, E33, E35, E37, E18, R32, BG10, BG13, C2, C3, Y26.

This is the inside of the card. The lace is from Hero Arts - I poo pooed it until I used it. Wonderful! It is already glued on the back and went on like a dream! The aqua is paper cut with a Martha Stewart punch. I liked the front so much the way it was that I didn't want to wreck it with words!

Here is the first installment about my "organization" skills! I decided to start with my large papers since there isn't much you can make with out them. This is how I have all of my 8 1/2 x 11 and 12" paper and card stock. In the beginning I didn't know about card stock except as a base so I had quite a bit of paper. Now I mostly use  my paper to make odd sized envelopes. If I have to mail them, I add a blank sticker on the front for the address. I have part of a wall that I ordered some little inexpensive cabinets from
Staples. Will show you those later, but it has one cube with shelves - that holds 12 x 12 PAPER. I came across someone using clippies (my word for alligator clips) on something and I went out and bought millions!! I use them for everything. They hold the paper together by color or collection and have a label on them so I know what that clip holds. The clear shelves are from Display Dynamics. One is for 8 1/2 x 11 and one is for 12 x 12 . 8 1/2 x 11 are all solid colors and also all the different coloring (white) papers are clipped by what kind they are. I keep a plastic shoebox next to it for my immediate scraps. When that is full, they go into a 12 x 12 holding box that I give away - not the box, just the papers! I have several recipients as its usually got quite a lot in it. If I didn't do that, I would never be able to buy any more paper. My solid 12 x 12 are in the rolly case. The other 12 x 12 are on the clear shelves. To the very front inside the rolly case are specialty papers - like lace cuts, frisket, sticky canvas well, you get the idea. Papers I don't know what to do with!! On the rare occasion that I need to use the case, the papers stack easily on the floor!! Remember they are clipped. They stay together neatly and it makes it so much easier to remove and put back on the shelves. I can tell you that I couldn't live without my little Brother label maker. It's old as the hills and my DH gave it to me since he has more than one. So here are some photos. I am sure you can guess which is which. As for those shelves. I bought them direct from the maker online and they shipped them rather quickly in huge boxes. If I had more room, I would buy another set of 12 x 12 and get the papers out of my rolly bag. But so far I haven't figured out how to do that.

2 for the New Year

With the huge size of my family, it's amazing Christmas is finally over! Got to see half of them but got to talk to more. Hope your holidays were filled with amazing wonderful things! And I wish you all the very best New Year ever!!
I have been really busy with all that holiday stuff, but did do a birthday card and a get well card. They are both for women. Gee, I never even got to make my husband a Christmas card this year. I did keep track of the copics for you. This first one is a little scene made with Tilda and Hero Arts houses. I just had to have that Hero Arts stamp set when I saw it. You know the feeling!

The copics I used on this one are: E00, E11, R20,(SKIN),  E31, E35, E37, E18 (HAIR), Y21, Y26, YG03, G29, RV21, RV23, RV29, YR02, B93, B97, YG00, Y28, C2, C3, C5, C7. There are clear stickler on all the windows and the lamppost bulbs. I also put a little gem on the two corners of the scene that aren't covered by the ribbon. I drew on the little path and bushes. Not a grand job but didnt have stamps for them. I am going to be on the lookout for little bushes!!

This is the inside of that card. I just used strips of the patterned papers that I used for the color matching on the front of the card. I also added some more gems.

This one is a very special get well card, so I wanted to use some very special paper. Awhile back I bought the Stardust Stack by DCWV. I haven't been able to cut it or even tear out a piece of it until this card. Guess that is what I was saving it for!! I haven't been a big fan of fussy cutting after I spend all that time coloring an image. This time I was very careful and went at it very slowly since I wanted a little bit of a border around her. I thought it would look better since I needed the backing for her wand. And when I finished her, I stickled her with gold. It matches the gold in the yellow papers. I know the colors don't look as if they match - I have figured out that blue and red don't always photograph how they really look. Everytime you have a different kind of paper or cloth, the color on most everything photographs differently. Since I sent her the card, I only cared that the colors do indeed match and look well together. The bottom part on the front is actually from the border strips in the paper pad. I used my card creator dies again and also another spellbinder one for the greeting. I couldn't

find any stamps in my huge collection that said what I wanted to say, so I wrote it in by hand. What a novel idea!! I had little star gems that I put in the corners and little heart gems that I put on the greeting. Tilda is on dimensionals and I just love how this came out. The copics I used are: E00, E11, R20 (SKIN), Y21, Y28, YR20, YR23, E35 (HAIR), V05, V06, BV02, BV04, BV08, and C2-7 (didn't write them down for some reason). Just a quick little tip - if the hair doesn't look right, it usually means you need more contrast. Try a touch of a darker color - usually brown where extreme shadows should be. If you look at Tilda, that would be at her part and also where the front hair overlaps the back. So now this card to the right is the inside of that card. I used the same papers as on the front. That greeting is fussy cut from a sheet in the paper stack - by the way this is the 12 x 12 stack. This card is 5 x 7. All except for the largest paper, are cut using a card creator die. If you aren't sure what that is, there are videos in youtube. I do pick and choose the parts of the papers that I want to use. Guess I get a bit frivolous about the paper once I start making a card, which explains why I end up with so very many scraps!! I got a new Macbook Pro and am learning how to use some of my programs on it. Hope you enjoy the cards. Someone asked me to do a post on how I organize my room. I have a bedroom for my room and its a decent size. My DH fixed me up with all kinds of shelving in the closet. I will take some photos and show what I have chosen to organize and what is just a little organized and why. Promise that will be fairly soon. Have 3 more birthdays this month though and they come first!! Hugs to you all and thanks for hanging in there!! Barb F

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