Boxes and Baskets and Stuff...oh my...

I'm still cleaning and purging the craft room closet.  I loaded up on baskets on sale at the craft store, and I started pulling, and purging...in spite of the fact my new Spellbinders goodies were sitting there saying "it's my turn!" I did spend some time organizing my new dies and putting them onto magnetic strips on chipboard for storage- until I ran out of chipboard. :)

Then it was back to the closet...and now I was stressing because it wasn't going as quickly as I had wanted. So...I decided to stop stressing and have fun with the project.  It's still slow going now, but I am having fun with it.

Here's one of my fun discoveries.  A few years ago, Creative Imaginations put out a line of boxes and albums called "bare elements" (or "be."). I found some down at the bottom of the closet, neatly tucked behind a bag of shipping supplies.  One of them was this hat box. So, in the spirit of fun, I stopped the cleaning and started the decorating of the hat box.  I have this obsession with boxes - and decorating them.  I take boxes that used to contain just about anything, and if it has a lid, it's decorated before I fill it with "stuff." 

Normally I decoupage papers onto every surface of the boxes, but this time I decided to leave the inside and the very bottom the original white color and cover them with two coats of matte decoupage medium as a protective measure. The paper on the top is Sassafrass, on the sides is K&Co and Crate Paper - the large flower and pretty fabric leaves are Prima, and the rest of the laces and ribbons are all from the stash.

Have a great Monday!

A Fun Surprise...

I've started my closet clean/purge project, and it's not easy to stay on track. But there's a fun reason why.

Last month, I blogged about this and late Monday afternoon two boxes from Spellbinders arrived on my front doorstep (sooner than I had expected them to arrive-that was the fun surprise!). One box contained a pretty, new Grand Calibur machine, and the other box was filled with newly released die sets...so many die sets (are you picturing that cute teacher on the Target commercial as she says "so much glitter?"). I'm still gobsmacked that I won this! 

So-back to my dilemma. Have you ever tried telling a crafter they have to clean before they can play with new toys?  Didn't work well for my mom when I was young, and it still doesn't work so well now-even when I'm the one telling myself! LOL  So there's a little bit of cleaning time, a little bit of play time...a little of this, a little of that going on in the little "korner" this week.

In the meantime, here are a couple more cards - it's still pretty hot here, but I'm dreaming of cooler autumn temps already and having fun with fall colors!

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: K&Co Julianne Collection      Flower: Prima

Handmade stick pins & paper leaves      Cotton laces: Etsy & local craft stores

Chipboard Flourish: Fancy Pants      Pearls: KaiserCraft

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Jillibean Soup Dutch Mustard Collection

Ephemera Card: Glitz Designs What Nots Laced with Grace

Picket Fence Die: Papertrey Ink      Laces: Etsy      Pearls: Prima & KaiserCraft

Hand dyed Hug Snug seam binding and rayon twill tape

Hope your week is going well!



Hi, There!

I have a few more cards to share with you today, and a couple more will post in a day or so after I photo them.  I doubt I'll have much time to create new cards this week.  I'm about to embark on a project that, once I'm into it, I may regret ever starting.  But if I put it out there in the Internet world, I'll hold myself accountable for "diving into the deep."

Years ago when we decided this small corner room would be my craft room, my dear husband reworked the closet to contain lots of shelving and specialized storage needs for my various craft supplies - fabrics, paints and assorted accessories, flower arranging supplies, needlecraft supplies, etc.  Then he built a beautiful large oak cabinet for my scrapbooking and stamping supplies, with lots of drawers, cabinet space, and laminate work surface, including two pull out work surfaces in addition to the cabinet top.  I had a LOT of room, and everything was in its place.  That was then.

Over the years, like all good crafters, I've accumulated more.  I've purged my supplies and donated to various charities that put them to great use, but somehow these supplies keep growing. I like to say they're like the Tribbles on the old Star Trek episode (yes, I realize I'm really dating myself here...LOL).

So this week, I'm going to do a MAJOR purge and reorganization of all the supplies hiding in that closet. And it's scary, because there are some things I've looked for in the past few weeks, and I KNOW I have them, but I can't find them. I'm sure they're hidden in the closet, daring me to find them again.

So..."I'm goin' in..." I'm going to schedule a post for Wednesday after I photo the last two cards...and if you don't see me back here next Monday, send help - apparently I'll have buried myself under a mountain of supplies that multiplied as I pulled them from their hiding places!

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Echo Park Victoria Gardens Collection, BasicGrey Basics White

Pearls & Leaves: Prima    Sentiment Stamp: Papertrey Ink

Chipboard Frame: Tattered Angels    Hug Snug seam binding

Fabric flower and Laces: Etsy   

Dies: Edge die-Tim Holtz Ornate On the Edge;  Large medallion: Tim Holtz Mini Baroque;

Sentiment block: Spellbinders Fancy Tags (1)

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Melissa Frances 5th Avenue Collection

ATC Ephemera Card: Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden Collection

Flowers, leaves, lace, pearls: Prima    Scalloped kraft envelope: Maya Road

Stamps: Hero Arts (sending smiles), Tim Holtz (post card)

Burlap: local craft store    Handmade stick pin

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Kaiser Craft Miss Nelly Collection

Postcard: Glitz Designs    Mini roses: Prima    Resin scroll: Melissa Frances

Chipboard frame: Spellbinders Labels 20    Sentiment Stamp: Papertrey Ink

Hug Snug seam binding    German glass glitter: Etsy    Lace: local craft store

Have a great week!

Pinks and Greens...

Those seem to be the "go to" colors for my mojo lately, so I just go with it. Here are a couple of the cards I worked on this weekend.

This first card is true to the vintage shabby chic inspiration of that sweet Crafty Secrets image of the two little girls sharing a secret. I'm thinking it might even make a fun thank you card for a friend.  I used the Papertrey Ink Seed Packet Frame die as a frame for the image.

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime Collection (pinks),

Echo Park For the Record/Fabric Store (green)

Seed packet frame die and stamp: Papertrey Ink    Vintage Image: Crafty Secrets "Vintage Photos"

Sentiment Stamps: Technique Tuesday/Ali Edwards ("you are the best"), Papertrey Ink ("my sweet friend")

Laces: Etsy    Mini Rose: Prima    Pearls: Recollections & Kaiser Craft    Hug Snug Seam Binding

This next card is for my personal stash. I prefer to have birthday cards ready to go, mainly because I have a tendency to ignore the notes I leave myself about upcoming birthdays, and then have to rush to make sure I have a card in the mail in time to make the special day! :)

I used a Lettering Delights frame svg (Oblong Frames No 9) for the shape for this card, and used Make the Cut to turn it into a card base with the slots and a corresponding solid card base as a liner. The vintage pharmacy label was a free download from The Vintage Workshop blog . 

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce    Vintage Label: The Vintage Workshop blog

Laces: Etsy and local craft store    Mini paper rose and leaves: Prima   

Pearls: Recollections    Sentiment Stamp: Papertrey Ink

Pink Fabric Rose: Making Memories    White rose ribbon: local scrapbook store

Back to the pinks and greens...and blues...and oranges...and more. 



Friday Fun

I hope to spend a good part of this weekend crafting away in my little corner...with luck, my creative mojo will cooperate so I can spend the time productively!

For now, here's the latest card I finished this week.  It's a shabby chic little number using some K&Co papers and lots of lacy accents.

Supplies:

Patterned Papers: K&Co, Kaiser Craft

Alencon lace, Pearls, & Paper Rose: Prima      Rosebuds: Etsy

Paper Doily: Martha Stewart      Mini tag: Maya Road

Sentiment Stamps: Papertrey Ink      Hug Snug Seam Binding

Have a great weekend!

And Last But Not Least...

I'm back today with the last three cards I made up using the Green Tangerines August Card Kit Add-on.

You can probably tell this first card uses up a lot of the tinier scraps left from the other cards.  After embossing and edge-punching the bottom of a piece of the white cardstock, I simply double-punched two different small butterfly punches, stacked them to look a little more "fluttery" and used machine stitching around the card and through the centers of the butterflies to give a bit of illusion of movement.  Their heads are the golden pearls from the kit, and a small stamped sentiment block adds the finishing touch.

On this card, I used the Tim Holtz Baroque Alterations die (available at the store) to cut the large floral medallion. The last pieces of white lace from the kit were just enough for the trim strip, and a gathered base under another of the white flowers (sprayed with coral mist) and a tiny white rose topper.  Both stick pins from the kit were used, but for fun, I added some clear coarse glitter to the green stick pin. The cardboard heart is simply hand cut from a piece of a torn up box...I dry-brushed it with white acrylic paint, then sanded some of the paint off to distress it, and added clear coarse glitter in the "valleys". The little clear flower from the kit sits prettily on that shabby heart.

And last but not least, this final card is a nod to fall. The kit contains a 7Gypsies tag - each kit's tag may be just a bit different...in mine was the "good fortune" tag. I chose to cut the tag down just a bit, and punched the bottom edge with an EK Success edge punch (Parisian). I matted the tag to a piece of cardstock that I embossed with a Sizzix "diamond" embossing folder (and lightly inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink), and matted those two again to a larger tag-shaped piece of brown cardstock, punched on the bottom edge with the same EK edge punch. I added a Chinese good luck coin from my stash, and a few Hug Snug bows to the top of the tag. And just to be different, I matted this tag onto a 4-1/4" square card, so the top of the tag extends above the top of the card (the total height of the card is 5-1/2", so this card fits into a standard A2 sized envelope.)  The last piece of tan lace from the kit runs across the bottom of the card...that little orange rose is one of the white roses from the kit, inked with orange chalk ink. I know we've had a cooler than usual summer here, but I can't wait for fall temps to arrive!

And that's the conclusion of the card pics for this month's Green Tangerines kit.  I hope, regardless of your personal style of cardmaking, you've found something here that spurs your own creativity.

It's been a busy week, with not as much crafting time as I'd have preferred, but I do have one more shabby chic little number to share with you tomorrow.  See you then!