A day late and a dollar short-this is my life!!

Happy Thursday!! School is OUT and I am finally getting back into the groove of being home for the summer. I have been on vacation for four days and after doing some much needed cleaning and laundry, I finally had time to do things I wanted to do. I have been scrapping and making cards like crazy and I cannot be more excited. I have a TON of projects I want to do around the house this summer but the weather is not cooperating with me. I know rain is good but can I say that I am sick of it? It just brings the yucky humidity. Me and humidity DO NOT get along.

Today I am posting a card that I meant to post yesterday for a challenge that ended Wednesday on the Simon Says Stamp! Challenge Blog.

The contest was to create a card with fruit on it and use some type of American Craft product. I used the strawberry from the Lawn Fawn "Summertime Charm" stamp set as the focus for this card.

The first thing I did was to stamp a bunch of strawberries on a piece of white card stock. I then colored them in with the Copic Marker colors below. I am not an expert at coloring and as you can see, some of the colors bled out of some of the strawberries. I tried all the tricks to fix it but I couldn't.

I topped the strawberries with Glossy Accents and set them aside to dry. My next step was to make the berry basket. I didn't have a die cut or a pattern for it so I kind of winged it. I started out with a 2 1/4" square. I angled the sides and then weaved 1/4," inked strips of kraft card stock over the square to create the basket. I think the inking really helped the basket to look more realistic. I completed the container by rounding the corners on the bottom of the basket with a corner rounder.

I then die cut the strawberries out of the card stock using the matching Lawn Fawn dies.

My card was now ready to be put together. For the background, I used a few layered sheets of Studio Calico patterned paper. I stamped a sentiment using a Paper Trey Ink stamp and then started playing around with the basket, strawberries and punched leaves until I liked how they were arranged. I added a doily over the top of the basket as well. The last step was to add the acrylic dots. Here are a few more detailed shots.

You can see in the photo above that I used pop dots on a couple of the strawberries to give them a bit of dimension. I like the overall design of the card but am not so sure about the background. I think I should have used a different color.

I want to thank you for visiting my blog today. Have a great Thursday!! Stay Cool!!

Nora

Cheese!

Happy Thursday!! I decided to post a quick page I created that focuses on some prints from a photo booth. We went to our first Bar Mitzvah last year and this was one of the souvenirs that we came home with. It was so fun!!

I started this page by stenciling the brown circle design on the kraft background. I then used a toilet paper roll and ink to create the larger circles. The red paper was created by using different colored ink and some stamps. I tore the left edge, adhered it to the page and then used three kinds of tape and a white paper frill border. The camera, title and round sentiment sticker were adhered last.

I hesitated to even post this because I am actually in the photo. I am not a big fan of photos of myself!! However, I loved how this page came out and I think the design enhances the photos.

Thank you for stopping by!!

Nora

A Birthday Set!!!

Hello!! Just stopping by to show you a little set I created using some Avery Elle stamps.

I first created the card. I stamped background using a stamp from "All Squared Up" in orange on a 4" by 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock. I then stamped different colored hexagons using some matching stamps in the set. In some of the spaces that I didn't stamp, I put dots of Stickles glitter glue for a little shine.

I then adhered the background to an orange card. Next I adhered a yellow paper frill and a piece of patterned paper 1/3 of the way down from the top of the card. I stamped the circle in orange and the sentiment in pink using the same Avery Elle stamp set. I adhered it over the pink watercolored border. I added the punched heart because I thought the card "needed" an extra something.

Here is a close up of the details of the card.

After all the glitter glue was dry, I stamped the inside of the card.

I used a PTI sentiment stamp and stamped the hexagons from the Avery Elle "All Squared Up" set in different colored inks that matched the front of the card.

I really liked how the card came out so I decided to make a matching tag. I figured that the next birthday gift I give I will be ready for. I will have a card and a tag to embellish the gift!

I copied the design of the tag almost exactly from the card. The only difference was I stamped the PTI "make a wish" sentiment instead of the "just for you" sentiment. I added a bit of orange Stickles glitter glue to make the top of the i. Now all I need is someones birthday.

Thank you for stopping by!! Have a great Day!!

Nora

Birthdays!!

May has been a month of birthdays. It is too bad that I was not great at remembering everyone's special day. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot get my cards out on time. That does not mean that I don't try.

The first card I created was intended for my sister and is very simple. I actually copied the design from a pin but for the life of me, I cannot find it on my board.

I used layered a die cut piece of Kraft card stock over a piece of Basic Grey Paper. I then die cut a word window from white and stamped the celebrate using different color inks. I an pretty sure the celebrate is a PTI stamp but for the life of me, I don't know from which set. The finishing touch was to add some sequins.

I also stamped the inside using PTI's "Birthday Style" set but I forgot to take a photo of it.

The next card I created for my nephew who turned 14 on Saturday. It seems like yesterday that he was born!! Charlotte thought this and my last card were too "girly" but I over ruled her opinion!!

Again I totally lifted this card. The chevron stamps are from Avery Elle and I used Stickles glitter glue in red, green and orange to make the card pop. I think next time I would use glitter paper as I had a hard time staying in the lines. The sentiment is from PTI and I added the sequins for more pop. I like how this card came out for the most part and will be duplicating it in the future.

The last card was really simple. Again, I copied the original design from somewhere unknown. I need to go through my Pins on Pinterest because I have too many to shuffle through to find the posts to give credit to the original designer. I apologize if any of these were yours.

I created the present using Washi tape. I created the bow by die cutting pieces of felt using the smallest die from PTI's notched flower dies. I die cut three felt flowers. I folded the first one in half and adhered it together using a glue dot. I folded the next two flowers in quarters, adhering them together with glue dots and then cut the edges to "fluff" them out a bit. I then adhered each quarter on top of first. I like how it came out but think that I will try using an alternative adhesive as the glue dots did not hold the felt all that well. I stamped the sentiment from PTI's "Birthday Style" set and created the banner myself.

That is all for today. Thank you for stopping by!!

Nora

Dyeing Sequins Part 2!

I have been busy with projects over the last couple weeks. One of the things I have been trying to do is to dye sequins. In my first post about this process, I used alcohol and ink pad re-inkers to dye white and off white sequins with only moderate success. Two weeks ago I gave it another try with RIT fabric dye.

I decided to do it outside because I knew if I made a mess, I wouldn't ruin anything. I bought the liquid Rit dye because it was easier then mixing up powder. I followed the direction on the container and added some salt to the mix. I used two colors-a yellow and an orange. I also tried to dye transparent and white sequins this time. I figured that one of them had to work!!

I was totally wrong, though. This experiment was an EPIC fail. The sequins failed to take on any color after the first hour. I thought if I left them out longer, they might actually change color. I was wrong. All the dye did was become thicker and dry up. I wound up dumping the sequins out and rinsing them with water so I can use them in their original form.

Sometimes being cheap does not pay. I wound up finding a website-ccartwright.com-that sold sequins for a $1.25 a package. I stocked up!!

While I was shopping, I also ordered from Paper Trey Ink. Last Thursday was like Christmas with two packages in the mail!!

Shhh!! Don't tell my husband!!! Now all I have to do is find time to play with all my stuff!!

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day!!

Nora

National Scrapbook Day Pages

This past Saturday was National Scrapbook Day. I hosted the challenges at Scrapjazz.com and it was so much fun!! I was not able to create scrapbook pages for each challenge but I was able to finish two. I am such a slow scrapbooker so two pages was good for me.

The first challenge was to pick an article from Scrapjazz.com and create a layout or card that was inspired by that particular article. I had a really hard time choosing but finally settled on a sketch article that featured travel layouts from Prague by Amy Sotolongo. Here was my take on the sketch:

I had extra fun creating this page because I dug through all my drawers and used so many products on this page. Chipboard, die cuts, felt flowers-it is all there. I plan to use this layout design again on a canvas I want to make for my entryway.

The second challenge I finished was another sketch challenge. I created the sketch below in Photoshop pretty much copied it exactly.

I had a lot of fun creating the layers and using conversation balloons for my journaling. Again, I pulled a lot of things out from my stash to layer on here.

I know NSD is over but if you need some inspiration, come on over to the Scrapjazz SJ Challenge Central board every month to complete new challenges and win some prizes. The next challenges will be posted on the first of June.

I hope you enjoyed your time here today. Happy Thursday!!

Nora

Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop!

Just a quick post for today. Papertrey Ink had a challenge that I created a card. The challenge was to make a project that had something tilted.

I had a lot of fun using a mixture of stamps, die cuts and flowers that I had to make this card. I have to say, it was one of the quickest cards I have created in a long time. 

Supplies: All Supplies from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted; Orange flowers-unknown, Walnut Distress Ink, Blue Flower-Prima.

Thanks for looking. Have a great Friday!!

Nora

Dyeing Sequins Part 1

Sequins seem to be pretty hot in the card making world these days. I bought a huge bag a month ago of "shiny" sequins at the craft store but the ones I am seeing are light and iridescent in color. Ellen Hutson had some pretty ones in her store but I couldn't decide on the "perfect" colors so I just bought the plain white and vanilla ones. I started to regret that this weekend.

I decided I was going to do an "experiment" and dye my own. I did a Google search for dyeing sequins and came up nada. I was very disappointed. I didn't let that stop me. I took out some re-inkers from Paper Trey Ink and a bottle of alcohol and decided I was going to make alcohol ink. I figured that might work. (I apologize for the horrible photos. I need to a) learn how to take photos off auto and b) get a light box!!)

I literally just poured the alcohol in the cups and put as many re-inker drops into it as I thought would get results. I put the most ink in the yellow solution, thinking this would make them yellow. My whole room smelled nasty!! I didn't even realize it until Charlotte came in and remarked on it.

I even added a fourth solution of alcohol and pink dye after I took these photos. I used my white sequins and left them in for about an hour. I wouldn't say this was a total success. Below is how they came out.

The lightest sequins are supposed to be yellow but look more ivory. Like I said, I used the most ink in this solution. The green were OK but they did not evenly dyed. They were all flat in the bottom of the container, none on top of each other so that should not have happened. I don't like the effect.  The blue and the pink came out pretty good. So the I guess the result of this experiment was 50/50.

So my conclusion is that alcohol inks are OK for some colors but I need something stronger for others. I did a search on dying buttons AFTER I did this experiment and found a tutorial at the RIT website. I am going to try using RIT dye next time. I will let you know if it works!!

Nora

Simon Says Stamp Challenge

This weekend I was FINALLY able to play and one of the things I did was to create a card for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge for this week.

This weeks challenge is Travel/Cityscapes. Come look at some of the cool cards the designers created here. Here is what I came up with:

This was a huge challenge for me because I have very few travel stamps and almost nothing for cityscapes. The whole inspiration for my card was from a piece of patterned paper from the "Here and There Collection" by Studio Calico. I built my card from there. 

I die cut a tag from green paper and then ran it through my Big Shot Machine again to cut the house out. I combed through my stamps and found a teeny, tiny tag stamp I had from Maya Road. I stamped it over and over again and then punched holes in it using a tiny whole punch. I stamped the "merci" sentiment with stamps from Avery Elle. The finishing touch was to use Stickles Diamond Glitter Glue in the stars and in all the windows of the houses that were inside the die cut. You can see this better in the view below.

The last step was to add the sequins. I am really happy with how it came out since the subject was a stretch for me. Thank you for looking!!

Nora

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