Mojo lost and found

I have not been enjoying my craft room as of late. I thought it might be that I needed new supplies. I went shopping and bought some, but that didn't seem to help. I thought that maybe I needed to take more photos but that did not inspire me either. I then pondered that I might just not be "into" crafting anymore. I did not seem to have the time I once had and if I "wanted" to add exercise into my life, something was going to have to give. (I hate exercising so it is more of a "need" for me.) Of course I didn't say anything to my husband because he would have flipped. Do you know how much I have invested in my hobbies? (Yes-I have more then one unfortunately!!)

I think the event that put me back into the "swing of things" as they say was having a friend over this week and teaching her how to make a few cards. It was invigorating to me. I didn't realize I missed the social aspect that I sometimes get from being a crafter. In fact, I plan out cards and scrapbook pages before I go to a crop because I cannot "think" when I am with people. I enjoy talking too much!! My creative juices don't flow. I used to teach others but it has been a long time and I never felt confident in my ability. I am not a huge fan of getting up in front of people.

So I want to thank my friend, Kristin, for helping me get back into my groove. She made two beautiful cards and I sent her away with a few stamp sets and pads to play with. I am hoping she will want to come over another time to do it again. In fact, I need to get more people hooked so we could make cards as a group.

I guess the whole point of this post is that I got my Mojo back this week and had a BLAST finishing two scrapbook pages and making some fun cards. I am also presently experimenting with dying sequins this afternoon but that is a whole different post!!

Today I wanted to share a step by step process of one of the cards I made this weekend. I had so much fun playing with my new "It's All Good" Hero Arts stamp set and dies. I even made two versions of the card and think I will make a few more to put away as gifts.

The first version was for a challenge over at Scrapjazz.com. It was to create a card using the color orange. This wasn't very hard for me as orange is one of my favorite colors.

Don't you love how it turned out? A close up of the details is below. I love the added touch of the sequins and gems on this!!

I decided that I wanted my next card to be a different color. The first thing I did was to drop some pink mist spray on a 4" by 5 1/2" piece of white card stock. I could have used the actual sprayer but I wanted a less-is-more effect.

 My next step was to die cut a word balloon from white paper and stamp the sentiment on it in blue ink.

On step 3, I played around with some of the other balloon shapes on the card to see how I wanted to use them. This is why I LOVE clear stamps. I like to play with placement and it is difficult to do with rubber stamps.

I stamped the word balloons  in green and pink ink on step 4 and in the next step, I played around with sentiments from some Paper Trey Ink sets that I have that would fit inside the empty balloons. I then stamped them in the same color as the unfilled balloons. 

For step 6, I folded a piece of 4 1/4" by 8 1/2" of white card stock in half. I cut a small strip of patterned paper from my new Basic Grey "Knee Highs and Bow Ties" 6" by 6" paper pad and adhered it to the edge. I LOVE this paper!! I wish I could have some bedding made in this pattern. It would be loud but no louder then the orange comforter I have in my bedroom now. (I told you I liked orange!)

For the next step, I adhered the misted and stamped piece of paper to the front of the card. I was going to use a pop dot and give this piece dimension like my first card, but I made a boo boo and had to cover it up. I didn't cut the patterned strip big enough and I didn't feel like ripping it off to start over,  so I went with plan b-covering the mistake up!!

What was my magic trick? To layer a piece of glitter tape over both the patterned paper strip and the white cardstock to mask the mistake. Layering is a wonderful thing!!

My last step was to adhere the blue word balloon onto the card with pop dots and add a few pieces of bling. I think I might like this card even more then my orange one!!

Now all I have to do is make a few more!! Thank you for joining me today. I hope you have a good week!!

Nora

So much for being a good blogger...

It has been two months since I have written anything. Lots of things have happened. I had a birthday, we have had two vacation weeks off, one of which we drove to Florida and back. I guess I will have to go back to the drawing board in how to keep this up. If anyone has any suggestions, I would welcome them!!

Valentines!!!

I am struggling with insomnia again so I figured I would write another post tonight. If my grammar or spelling isn't perfect, it is because I am tired. I have been working on Valentine's goodie bags for some of my friends' at work and I thought I would share. 

I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to make this year. I browsed tons of blogs and Pinterest to get my mojo going but no "brilliant," original idea came to me. Instead, I filled glassine bags with Lindt chocolate and decorated them.

The image is a printable that Papertrey Ink made available during their anniversary celebration last year. I was hoping it would eventually become a stamp but it didn't. Being a printable, though, helped make the assembly line process go a little easier.

I printed about 15 bees on a sheet of white cardstock and punched the images out with a circle punch. I then colored the them in using the copic marker colors above, black stickles and a red Spica marker. The edges were inked with Vintage photo ink and the heart wing was created by using a heart punch and a pop dot. Aren't the little bees cute?

My next step was to die cut the scalloped circles out of yellow and the doilies out of red patterned paper. I was then ready to put all the bags together.

I went through my patterned paper scraps and my stash to find paper that would fit with the Valentine theme but also coordinate with my bees. My first pick was a 12" by 12" sheet of heart paper but Echo Park. I only had one sheet so I cut it into 6, 2" by 12" strips. 

I placed each strip around the bag so the open ends would be in front. I then stapled the two ends together. I covered up the staple by layering the doily, the scallop and bee image on top of each other.

I did the same process for all the other pieces of patterned paper I chose. Below is a group shot of some of the bags I put together. I only wish I could have made them for everybody in the department!!

I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day!! Thank you for stopping by!!

Nora

Papertrey Ink Sketch Challenge

I swear this will be my last post for today. I am exhausted and have no mojo left to do anything!!

Today there is a sketch challenge over at Papertrey Ink to celebrate their 6th anniversary. I chose to create my card with sketch #4 as my inspiration.

Here is the card I created:

I chose to use dark chocolate as the base of the card and to pair it with orange zest and raspberry fizz. I used Heart-2-Heart #12 to stamp the "flowers" and leaves. The bee is from a printable from PTI's 5th year anniversary. 

I am not sure if you can tell but I die cut and stamped 2 of the flowers and die cut one of the stems for this card. I also die cut the middle of the tag and the elements went under it. I chose to pop dot 2 of the flowers and the offset buttons were a choice. You can see this in the view below.

That is all I have for you today!! Thank you for stopping by!!

Nora

PTI 6th Anniversary Challenge

Another post with a Papertrey Ink challenge!! This challenge was posted at the beginning of the week Nichole Heady's blog and was to create a project that was inspired by one of the design teams favorite projects. I chose to use Dawn McVey as my inspiration this go around...surprise, surprise!!

The bottom left card was the card I chose to use as my inspiration. Here is what I came up with:

I stuck with Dawn's color scheme and layout on the card but made it a Valentine's Day card. I stamped the houndstooth background in Pure Poppy and Raspberry Fizz ink on vintage cream card stock and adhered it to a Raspberry Fizz card base. I die cut the heart border using my Silhouette machine and die cut the butterfly and leaves with my Big Shot using the PTI dies. I then stamped the butterfly using Pretty Peonies set and the leaf using the Turning a New Leaf set. I pop dotted the butterfly to give it some dimension and used some gems around the Valentine sentiment.

Here is a side view of the card:

I will be back later with another entry for today's challenge!!!

Nora

CASADIA-I adore you

I am constantly browsing other card makers blogs. One day I clicked on a link and found this blog that had these fantastic cards. Wilda at Beacharado also had a challenge where you CASE one another. How fun is that? If you want to come and play, all the information is here. Don't be surprised if you get lost in her blog because this woman is oh so talented!!

The chain began with Wida CASEing the card below by Laura Basson.

It continued more then thirty cards down to Mynette Kitchen's card below, which I had to CASE. Isn't it fabulous?

The creative aspect that really struck me about this card are the heart cut outs. I wanted to do something that had cut outs in it. I also liked the idea of a valentine since this week is Valentine's day. I chose to take Mynette's love theme and try to use cut outs on my card. Below is what I came up with-

I knew I wanted to incorporate the Lawn Fawn border stamp somewhere on this card. I also decided to use a Papertrey ink heart die for the tiny cut outs. I adhered different patterned Washi tape where the hearts were die cut. I also pop dotted the card front, the large pink heart and the little red hearts for added interest.

Here are a few close up's so you can see the details:

Please come on over to CASADIA and browse the other amazing cards that are on this blog. You will definitely get some fabulous ideas!! Have a great day!!

Nora

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge

Happy Saturday...or I should say happy snow day. We got whopped with storm Nemo (or storm Charlotte as the CT stations call it) and have more than two feet of snow. A perfect day to stay in my pajamas and do some crafting.

On the 5th, Nichole Heady has been posting fun anniversary challenges on her blog for Papertrey Ink's 6th anniversary. I have been wanting to play along but either have not had the time or the stamps!!

Today's challenge was to go to pick an inspiration photo from Pinterest and create a wrap, tag or gift package inspired by the image. I chose the image below that was originally taken from House of Turquoise blog. I LOVE the rooms this women posts. They are stunning!!

Here is what I wound up making.

I actually dragged out my sewing machine and used some of the fat quarters I have been collecting over the past couple months to make a fabric gift bag. I then die cut some lemon tart paper using the tag sale #6 die and embossed it with the Herringbone Impression plate. I die cut and stamped a flower and leaves using the Rosie Posie stamp in Aqua Mist and Spring Moss ink. To make the flower pop, I used some Copic markers to shade in parts of it. I then stamped a sentiment from the 2012 Birthday Tags with Smokey Shadow ink.

Here is a close up of the tag:

I adored this little project so much that I sewed 4 other bags. I will post them another time because I did not have time to make any tags.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Nora