NOTICE: This is LONG post...LOL. I finally finished the cards I did for this:

This one I made just for fun. I used white card stock and inked it up with the new Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink for the background. I drew the little bees on my computer graphics program, then cut them out and applied Glossy Accents to them. The die cut flower is using a Sizzix die I have for lilacs. The honeycomb is plain white card stock, embossed with a hexagonal embossing folder and cut out. Walnut Distress Marker divides the layers of the honeycomb, and is also lightly used on the honeycomb to make the individual honeycombs stand out a bit more. The banner was created on my computer...add two buttons with a bit of baker's twine, some washi tape across the bottom and it is done!

Go here to read all about it: http://lawnscaping.blogspot.com/2012/06/heroes-card-drive.html

BYH - May It's time for Blog Your Heart.

Stephanie touched on something I've been feeling for a while...about reading blogs. I read a lot of papercrafter's blogs. Their projects often inspire me, or just make me smile. But I have also noticed things that totally irritate me. There are some very talented people out there. But I get very, very tired of EVERY post being something about "take my class". I live on a fixed income (social security) and I can't afford to take all these classes. Yes, I get that you support your crafting that way. Yes, I get that you may be a good teacher. Yes, I get that you are very excited about sharing your knowledge. But give it a rest, please. Some of us want to learn, and there are a couple of bloggers out there that share willingly with no thought of charging. I just want to say a big Thank You to those bloggers that share with no thought of what they might get in return. I can't seem to get the link to show up, so please copy and paste this into your browser to visit Stephanie's blog: http://www.stephaniehowell.com/my_weblog">

Another card for my daughter. The lighthouse is a stamp I used on watercolor paper and colored with colored pencils and watercolors. I used a light blue cardstock for the base of the card and inked the edges with Faded Jeans Distress ink. The little charm says "believe in love". A little blue and white bakers twine, a happy birthday stamp, and it is done!

This was a card I made for my daughters' birthday. She loves all things "ocean" so I created an underwater scene. I used white cardstock and used Distress Inks to create the sand and water. I used antique linen, walnut stain and tea for the sand. For the water I used faded jeans, peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade, shaded lilac and shabby shutters. The shell dimensional stickers are from K&Company, and the "meg" are some letter stickers I had that I applied Glossy Accents to so they would be dimensional. The bubbles are light green and white bling I had. Inside, it says "Happy Birthday to the Answer to the Universe and Everything"...LOL...Wonder if any of you can guess how old she is now??? I love the way it turned out...thanks for looking. Forgot to mention the water scene was sprayed with Perfect Pearls mist.

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy! It's been a good week! My kids got me the complete set of Distress Markers for Mother's Day...they are so good to me! And my apron from the Creative Chemistry 101 class came!

Paperclay Embellishments

Have you seen the new kits out there for making your own embellishments from Paperclay? They are great but very pricey (around $32.00 for each kit!) Well, you can make your own "kit" for a lot less money and it will go much further. The kits I have seen come with 4 ounces of white clay, 2 ounces each of red, blue, yellow and brown, a color mixing chart and a couple of silicone molds.

Paperclay is a white clay that air dries in 24 hours. It can be sanded, sculpted or molded. It dries hard and sturdy, but very lightweight, which makes it perfect for cards and scrapbook layouts. This white clay can be colored while still wet. Pinch off some of the white clay and use just a couple of drops of acrylic craft paint to mix into the clay with your hands...sort of like pulling taffy. More paint can be added to intensify the color, or you can combine paint colors to create your own color. Or you can leave the clay white, and paint the item once it is dry with acrylic paints. Waterbased colorants are not recommended because they tend to bleed.

The company that makes these kits also has extra silicone molds to purchase, but again they are expensive. Do a web search...silicone molds are sold everywhere. I purchased some in an Etsy shop that were less than half the price of the kit ones. Even silicone candy molds work.

This site sells the paperclay cheaper than I have found anywhere else ($7.99!)... jerrysartarama.com. You are getting ONE POUND of white paperclay for that price, compared to the 4 ounces in the kit.

I bought 3 silicone molds from Etsy. I had acrylic crafters paint (don't we all???) The total cost for my kit...And keep in mind I have FOUR times the white clay as the commercial kit...$17.00!

You can make some really pretty embellies...I now have roses and daisies in almost every color LOL

I know that many of us who do paper crafting are on a budget. Here are links to some sites that have one great deal per day (ScrapbookSteals.com actually has 2 great deals per day)!

Peachycheap
Flowers to Flourishes
Scrapbook Steals
Cropchocolate
Scrapbook Daily Deals
Crafty Steals

These are always quality items. I have gotten paper, punches, dies, etc.

Last card for today! I stamped the house mouse (aren't they just the most adorable stamps ever?) on some light beige cardstock, then colored it a bit with Prismacolor colored pencils. I rounded the corners of this and attached it to a kraft card. I used a beige and white chevron paper, then white paper on top of that for the banner across the bottom. The sentiment was printed on my computer. Simple but sweet!

Get well card number 2! I made a raindrop background on my computer, then added the ducky. The sentiment was printed on the background. I attached this to a very pale yellow card, tied a bit of blue raffia around it is ready to be sent!

We have a friend in the hospital with gastric surgery. I decided to make as many get well cards as I can come up with for him...LOL. I found some clip art of a bandaid and enlarged it on my computer. I then took a piece of cream card stock, inked the edges lightly with Wild Honey Distress Ink, and attached the bandaid with foam dots. I put a simple white strip with the sentiment across the bottom of a kraft card, then attached the bandaid piece on top. A little brown and white bakers twine and it's done!

Here's a card I made using a technique I learned in the Creative Chemistry 101 class. I have always loved the look of watercolors, but was never successful at using them. Using the Distress Ink Pads on a stamp and then stamping it gives the look of watercolor with no effort...a great technique. I used various Distress Inks directly on the stamp, then "huffed" on it to give it a bit of moisture and stamped directly onto watercolor paper. I then attached the water color to a craft card, added a ribbon with a dark brown pearl, then colored a cut out butterfly with Distress Ink and a water color pen (another technique learned in the class). When it was dry, I covered it in Glossy Accents to give it a bit more dimension and attached it to the card. I hope you enjoy this one!

This card was made for a friend who recently purchased some acreage on The Washington Penisula. It's five acres and he calls it his "farm"...LOL I cut, scored and folded a piece of blue gingham card stock to make an A2 size card. I drew the sheep and cow on my computer, and added the wording, then printed it out. I colored the animals and added some grass and cut out the piece and inked the edges roughly. I added this piece to the front of the card with foam dots and tied some blue and white bakers twine on with a little bow. The inside is white....stamped with the word Congratulations. I think it turned out very cute.

I love the way this one turned out! I used a couple of techniques that I recently learned in the online Chemistry 101 class...there is still time to sign up for it and you won't regret one moment. First I cut a piece of light blue card stock, scored and folded it to make an A2 size card and rounded the corners. Then I made a tag with the Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick Technique. I cut this to fit the card front and rounded all four corners and attached it to the card. Next I cut a piece of water color paper and rounded the corners, then used the Brushless Watercolor Technique with a stamp I had and inked the edges of this piece with Broken China Distress Ink and attached it top of the card. I created the little banner on my computer and printed it out on the same blue card stock I used for the body of the card. After inking the edges of the banner with Broken China Distress Ink, I attached it to the front of the card with foam glue dots. After tying some pretty ribbon around the front of the card and making a bow in it....the card was done.

Flying High

I cut the kites out of chipboard freehand, then covered them with some gingham paper. I took baker's twine and made the kite strings and the little bows on the string, then attached the kites to the card with glue dots. I also "fringed" the grass freehand and attached it to the card with a glue stick. The sun was a stamp I had, which I colored with a marker. Then I printed the sentiment on some white card stock, cut it out and edged it with Wild Honey Distress Ink and glued it to the card. March is usually a windy month, and it makes me think of kites. I hope you like it!

Fantastic Class!

I decided to take Tim Holtz's online class, Creative Chemistry 101, and I am thrilled!. It's only day 2 of the class and I have learned so much already. There are videos, downloads and written instructions. There is also a forum to ask questions of Tim if something isn't clear to you. The materials will be available to you for your lifetime, so it's not too late to sign up...I highly recommend it!

This will probably be my only chance to take a class from the Master...and I am sure that is true for many. Don't pass this one up.

shirtty card

I have a friend who loves the color orange, and he loves Hawaiian shirts...so this is his birthday card...LOL ...interesting note...my daughter notes that this is orange, yellow and pink...the very colors that caused me so much frustration recently. I guess you just have to have a good reason to use them. I "drew" the outline for the shirt on my computer, then filled it in with orange and added the computer drawn flowers. I had some orange and yellow washi tape I added across the top of the card. I adhered the shirt to a piece of orange card stock, after gluing some tiny buttons on the shirt. I used baker's twine to hold the white insert, then created the sentiment banner on my computer and attached it with another button and some more twine. Sorry the focus is a bit off on these...the sentiment on the front of the card says "Oh shirt...it's your birthday" Trust me...he will love it...LOL

interesting couple of days

It's been an interesting couple of days for me creatively. I saw a pair of shoes I fell in love with...and the colors were neon pink, neon yellow and neon orange. Normally, I don't like pink or orange, but these were just gorgeous. It got me to thinking about the color combination (yes, I get inspiration in strange places...lol). I challenged myself to create a card using only those colors. My first attempt was awful...I had ordered some papers of those colors, but they were not the neon shades...just bright pink, orange and a yellow. I tried color blocks, geometric designs, die cut shapes...nothing worked for me. I got some neon shades of those colors, thinking perhaps it was the faded colors that put me off. Again, I tried several things, none of which appealed to me. Needless to say, I hit an all time high frustration level over this. I did a lot of cursing, some crying, some "poor me, I will never be good at this", etc. Then I sat back and did some thinking. Okay...I love these colors on the shoes, but I do NOT like working with these colors, and the only person I have telling me I have to work with them is myself. So I gave myself permission to NOT work with those colors anymore. Then I decided the best way to get over this mess was to create something I DO like. And this is what I came up with:

Simple, but pretty...LOL

Here's my latest card!..

I used Spellbinder's Nestabilities dies in my Big Shot for both the diamond and the oval, then embossed the diamond with my big shot and a cuttlebug embossing folder. I then used Faded Jeans Distress Ink and inked the edges of both die cuts. I attached the diamond to the blue card shock with glue dots, and used a tape runner to attach the oval to that. I had the butterfly/believe cardstock sticker which I used, and a small blue flower with a blue "pearl" in the center. I am very please with this one. What did I learn? I have to make an envelope to size...LOL. Thanks for looking!

Newest card

This turned out well...enjoy! I used green cardstock and some pretty ribbon I bought that has shamrocks on it...glued the ribbon to the bottom of the card. Printed out the "erin Go Bragh" on my computer and cut out a little banner. I used a green sharpie to color the edges of the banner. I glued the banner down on one end with a large shamrock, then glued the other end of the banner down after raising it at bit to give it a curve so it would stand away from the card a bit. I then made a small bow from the same ribbon and attached it with glossy accents. I added some bling to the right side of the card and it's done! Simple, but pretty. If I had it to do over, I would probably ink the edges of the card to give it more depth, but I'm happy with it as is.

Hi everyone. If you are here because I closed my pinterest board...a short explanation. By having a pinterest account, you give them license to whatever images you post...and they can do as they wish with them. There is also the possibility that you could get charged with copyright infringement by posting images from around the web that are copyrighted. If you read Pinterest's Terms of Use, it even implies that if Pinterest is sued for copyright infringement, Pinterest could turn around and sue you for what you have posted. Granted, I don't feel at this point that anyone would want my images, but that is not the point. These are things I have created...they belong to me and no one else. Nor do I want to be caught up in a lawsuit over copyright by pinning things from others. Very few of us really read the Terms of Use or Terms of Service when we sign up to use a service. Flickr has a similar Term of Service. The content you put on Flickr becomes their intellectual property, so I also closed my Flickr account. This may seem like it's of small importance, but to me it's vital. Theft is theft in my eyes, no matter if someone breaks into my home or if someone uses an image of something I created, and I cannot condone it by continuing to use that service. So...enough rant....welcome to my site no matter why...feel free to comment or just take a look...and come back soon!

valentine and my personal challenge

I made myself a personal challenge...to do at least one card for every holiday/season. Well, I almost lost the challenge already. I tried several things for a valentine card...didn't like any of them. I am not really sure why Valentine's day is such a challenge for me, but it is. I ended up making the card below. I consider it just okay...but I did it!

I think I figured out my reluctance to make a valentine card. For some reason, I thought a valentine card had to be pink, and I hate pink. I have no idea why I thought that, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and I do believe that is the reason. Time to challenge myself to make something pretty in pink??? LOL

Newest card

Here is my latest card, and I am very happy with it! I cut the card from blue cardstock, used the Sizzix Build a Flower #3 die to cut the flower from a couple of scraps I had. I used the Build a Lilac die to cut out only the leaves. The stem was cut out with a pair of scissors. I then glued the flower layers together with Glossy Accents, put some twine through a button, and glued that to the center of the flower. Then I glued leaves, stem and flowers to the card, again using Glossy Accents. I used the computer and printer to make the little saying (Creativity, like flowers, must be nurtured in order to GROW!) and cut it out. I used Evergreen Bough distress ink to ink the edges of the leaves, and Tea Distress Ink to ink the whole saying. I attached the saying to the card with pop dots, and then added a pretty washi tape to the top and bottom of the card. The photo doesn't really do the washi tape justice...it's several shades of shiny blue and a pearl white. The lesson I learned from making this card? I should have put the washi tape on before I glued the flower down... But all in all, I am really pleased with this one!

Changed my mind

My first card (see below) was disappointing to me. I didn't like the way the memo pin deformed the front, so I decided to start over. This is a birthday card for someone special, so I didn't like being unhappy with it. I got a piece of really wild and colorful paper, and cut out a card. I then stamped a "Happy Birthday" on the front. This doesn't show up too well in the picture, but looks fine on the actual card. I then took a charm that says "Live your dream" and attached it with a small amount of blue raffia, and the card is done. I am much more pleased with this one, and will be proud to give it to him with his presents. (I still have problems getting decent photographs of the cards...any suggestions would be appreciated)

St. Paddy's (sort of) Card

Why sort of? Well, my daughter has a coworker who is getting married on St. Patrick's day, and they are giving him gag gifts at work. She asked me to make a card and I found this pretty paper. I cut the paper to size, glued on a couple of shamrock embellishments, used some chipboard letters I had to make his name (after coloring the letters green then spraying them with Perfect Pearls). I then attached a charm that says "live, laugh, love" with a gold bow. Inside is stamped congratulations. The paper doesn't show up as cute as it really is in the photo, but my daughter loves the card!

I just couldn't resist this..LOL!

Great Deals!

This site was forwarded to me and I thought you might be interested. They have ONE thing on special each day, usually for that day only, and great prices on the item.
   http://www.flowerstoflourishes.com/

Spring Card

Here is my lilac card…I really love lilacs and I’m pleased with the way this turned out.

1. I took a glossy card (white, although it shows up sort of grayish in the photograph).
2. I cut out several flowers with the Build A Lilac die in 3 different shades of purple. Then I cut out the 2 leaves.
3. I inked the edges of all the flowers with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, and inked the edges of the leaves with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink, and accented the vein in the leaf by using a fine tip marker in black.
4. I sprayed the leaves and all the flowers with Perfect Pearl mist and let dry.
5. I cut out the word “Spring” using a sizzlets alphabet die and sprayed them with the Perfect Pearls mist also.
6. I glued the leaves to the card with Glossy Accents, then started gluing the individual flowers until I got the form I liked.
7. I used my fingers to curl up some of the edges on some of the flowers to give it a 3 dimensional look, then placed small pearl embellishments in the center of those flowers that were on top.
8. I used glossy accents to glue the word spring up the side of the card, made a small bow with green ribbon and glued it down….and there you go! Now I need to work on my photography skills……..

My first card

Here is my first card:

1. I took a piece of glossy card stock and cut it to be slightly smaller than the front of my card. I then inked it with two shades of blue and one purple alcohol ink. You can’t see it in this photo, but I inked the edges of the alcohol card with Dusty Concord Distress Ink.
2. I stamped the “Happy Birthday” message on the front using black archival ink.
3. I tied a short piece of blue raffia in a knot, attached it to the card with glossy accents, then spread the raffia apart to resemble a bow.
4. I put the memo pin through the card, after attaching a small charm to it that says “live your dream”.
5. I then used glue dots to attach the inked piece to the front of a white card.

I’m pretty pleased with it overall, although I really don’t care for the memo pins…but live and learn!

Hello and Welcome!

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog. I am brand new to paper crafting and simply amazed at what others can do. I have a LOT to learn, but I already have some awesome tools to use, most of which were given to me as gifts. My interest started with my first gift…a set of 3 Ranger Alcohol Inks. It’s snowballed from there. I got a Big Shot and several dies and embossing folders for Christmas, I’ve been lucky enough to find lots of embellishments on sale, and I’m going a little crazy on the paper buying…oh, and the rubber stamp buying…LOL. I’m particularly drawn to distressed, victorian, vintage…all things “old”. All my life (I’m 63 ) I’ve had the urge to create art or to craft something , but never had any patience with myself when it didn’t turn out perfect the first time. I’m hoping to use paper crafting not only as an outlet for that urge, but to come to believe that it’s the process more than the end product. So you will see pictures…of my mistakes and my triumphs. I welcome any comments as long as they are constructive and encouraging.
“Crafting is cheaper than therapy!”