Scrap-tastic Challenge

Happy New Year!!! (toot-toot) The party's still going. Let's start the new year off with a Papertrey Senior Team challenge, shall we? Nichole has perfect timing with this challenge: Incorporating leftover paper, ribbon or fabric scraps onto a project. At this time of year, we all get the need to purge. But before you tear through your craft space, let's use up some of those scraps. If you're like me, I know you have a lot of scrap sitting around. ;)

For my project, I've dug out scraps of ribbon and patterned paper. I don't save every single snippet but if my paper is at least 2" square and my ribbon is at least a couple inches long, I try to save a few pieces here and there.
Punches make great use of those leftover paper scraps. I know you have lots and lots like I do.
I'm also using scraps of some old sheet music I bought at a garage sale. It's great stuff!

I'm gonna show you guys how to make some of those great hand made embellishments...I call them doo dads......for your projects. Let's give it a whirl. I started out by punching circles from the old sheet music.

Then I decided nahhhhhhh, let's trash it. Just kidding, this was part of my plan. Wad up the punched circles. It feels goooood. We want crinklage here, peeps.

Then kinda flatten out the wadded up, punched circles. Not all the way or we'd be wasting all the good waddage we just did.

Next, use a slightly smaller scalloped circle punch to punch circles from leftover patterned paper. I'll be using Simple Valentine. It's so dang cute, I keep every single scraplet of it.

Next up, layer the punched circles and top off with a Vintage Button. Using a large needle and Rustic Cream Twine, thread the twine through the button holes, going through all the paper layers. Don't tie it yet. Slip in a scrap piece of ribbon. Then tie a know around the ribbon, using your fingers to flatten it out. Tip: If you leave the twine uncut from the needle, you can tie the knot a lot easier because you can work with a longer length. When you've tied the knot, then snip the ends.

Viola, in no time you've got a nice little pile of doo dads sitting on your table, nice and cute-like. These are just waiting to hop on a nice little Valentine project!But wait, we're not done. Don't throw away those scraps of paper yet. There's still some goodness left in them!

Reach for your smaller punches and punch even smaller accents like hearts and circles. Just turn your punch upside down to make sure you're getting the full punched image.

Reach for your favorite Vintage Buttons........

...and more scrap pieces of ribbon.....and you've got yourself some more cute doo dads. You can also just use ribbon and buttons and skip the paper altogether.

And here's a finished card using one of the sheet music doo-dads. I love how you can use other elements on your projects that tie in with the doo dads. And if you followed my blog yesterday, you might notice that this card follows my Hip To Be Square card sketch challenge.

For my card, I used Simple Valentine patterned paper, Vintage Buttons and Twine, Say It With Style, Background Basics: Hearts, Lavender Moon ribbon and patterned paper from the Raspberry Fizz Mix collection. The Vintage Duo Tea Dye inks helped to make my card look vintage.

Hope you enjoy it! Wanna see some more fun inspiration using scraps? Check out these blogs:
Becky Oehlers
Heather Nichols
Lisa Johnson
Betsy Veldman

Jessica Witty

Valentine Scrapbook Kit

With the start of a new year, I am ready to rock and roll with some new kits. Putting kits together is one of my favorite things about crafting right now so you'll be seeing lots more in my Etsy shop. Today I've got a Valentine Scrapbook Kit for you, offering a fun new concept too. I'll be adding lots of embellishments in my Etsy shop that I'm calling Mish-Matched Doo Dads, the first of which will be in the Valentine Scrapbook Kit. You hear me talk often about not making things so matchy matchy. Mix things up a little. Use the mixy matchy approach. Combine some quirky color combinations. Use lots of different design elements. Utilize your supplies and tools.

Here's the concept for my Mish-Matched Doo Dads: I'll be designing separate elements to use as card, scrapbook page or gift wrap embellishments. Each element will be a separate piece. You can zoom in below to see them bigger.

Then you can mix and match the design elements to create fun little doo-dads. The fun part for you will be that you have a choice in the way you put the final elements together. I've pieced together some doo-dads below to show you some examples. Aren't they fun? I'll be offering them up in scrapbook kits, card kits, gift wrap kits, or sometimes just by themselves.

Now for the Valentine Scrapbook Kit. You can use your completed Mish-Matched Doo Dads to embellish an adorable little scrapbook for a sweet Valentine's gift. Below is a sample of some of the pieces in the scrapbook kit. You can use the little envelope to write a special message to the recipient of the scrapbook.
The kit also comes with 4" x 6" page inserts and more items that you see below:

And again, you can use your assembled Mish-Matched Doo Dads to embellish the page inserts.

These are just a few samples of what you can do:

The page inserts, along with your own 4" x 6" photos will fit into a pink, cloth covered photo album that comes with an elastic band.

You'll also get supplies in your kit to embellish the outside of the album.....just so it's as cute on the outside as it is on the inside.

Just use your doo-dads to make something fun. Perhaps add the year with individual number stamps.....or a name,etc.

Here's what you get in the kit...lots and lots of goodies plus the photo album that contains 25 pages for photos and page inserts.

The kits are packaged and ready to go and will be in my Etsy shop soon:

Now. I only have SEVEN of these kits available so get 'em while they last. I saved one back for myself and will be designing my pages soon, so check back for more ideas. These little albums will be great to add your favorite photos of your kids or loved ones. Or take a photo shoot on Valentine's Day and scrapbook the photos. It's a perfect way to add more scrapbooking into your life...a little mini album that could be completed in a day.

I will definitely be adding more kits similar to this in my shop. I design kits as I have availability to supplies that I find here and there....which means you never know what's gonna pop up in my shop or here on the blogaroonie. I'm having soooo much fun with you all. It's gonna be a GREAT year! Thanks for always stopping by and leaving such nice comments too! I really appreciate you guys.

Hip To Be Square Card Sketch

Edit: If you'd like to see my card I made from this sketch, view THIS LINK. And thanks to everyone who played along and posted a card. I really enjoyed looking at all of your projects. I think I'll do the sketches more often!

Okay, here's a fun card sketch challenge for you. Are you planning on getting crafty tonight? Or do you have big party plans? If you wanna play along, I'd love to see your finished card! Post a comment with the link to your card and I'll come take a looky look at your fun creation! I'll try to get a card made today too. I just found the laundry pile. I asked the girls to empty their laundry baskets........Whooooooooooo Nellie.....where did all those clothes come from? Geez, who needs snow drifts to play in when you can jump off the laundry mountain?

Don't forget, I'll be back at lunch time for a new kit! Quantities will be very, very limited though. ;)

Who is this person?

Hi everyone. I'm not sure who snuck into my body this morning. I woke up at 5am, same time Eric gets up. We chatted until it was time for him to leave for work. I was up and at 'em by 6am. I mean out of bed and actually awake and functioning. Josey has a big sleepover party to go to this afternoon and Jordy is having a friend over. My kids are getting more New Year's Eve party action than Eric and I are. I did plan a big supper for us and I already have everything prepped and ready to go. I made a mandarin orange jello salad, my mom's BBQ meatballs, my mom's cheesy macaroni and corn casserole and pickle pinwheels. The girls came around 'bout the time they smelled the dill pickles. We'll be having about half a batch of pickle pinwheels tonight it looks like. Nothing like pickle pinwheels for breakfast! Goes good with a cup of coffee.

So now what do I do? We took the ornaments and holiday decorations down last night. I'll have the girls get the ladder out today and we'll unassemble the tree and take the lights off. I think I'll vacuum and clean after that. Again, who is this lady inside my body?

Since I have so much energy today, I think I'll offer up a new kit today in my Etsy shop. I'll make the announcement here on the blogaroonie later on so stay tuned.

And how about a little New Year's Eve fun? For those of you tying one on tonight, drink a margi for me!! For those of you staying snuggled inside your warm home, let's get the crafty party started. I'm going to offer a sketch challenge for you later this afternoon. Let's call it the Hip To Be Square challenge. You know, for all of us folks who are in the non-party crowd tonight.

Okay, I'm off to hop in the shower while the girls are at ball practice. I'll buzz back in soon!! :)

Jot this down...

Edit: Hi everyone, my cards are a little late getting up in the Etsy shop. My friend Lori called and got her car stuck in a snow drift on a country road. I had to track my dad down to get his tractor and go pull her out. My good ol' dad. Anyway, I have a gihugic headache now...the computer guy is coming this afternoon...I want to start a fire in the fireplace to get cozy....so the Inspiration Station is being postponed. I will get it organized here soon and will post....sometime before Valentine's Day I promise. ;)

Hello my lovelies! It feels so good to break out some different stamping supplies. I just fall head over heels for Valentine's Day. It's such a sweet holiday. Today I used my Take Note stamp set that Nichole so awesomely illustrated. And once again, I worked in mass production mode. I love to see all the little design elements grouped together in little piles.

For my card design, I used a pink circle embellishment as my main focal point. I used the *jot this down* sentiment along with the large parenthesis and dotted circle outline, then punched out the circle using my EK Success 1-3/4" circle punch.

The rest of my card has lots of heart elements such as the hearts from Simple Valentine, the *i love you* sentiment from Tiny Treats: Valentine, a dotted heart outline from Borders and Corners: Hearts, Simple Valentine patterned paper and the adorable pencil from Take Note.
The card base is Sweet Blush and is finished off with Pink Hibiscus ribbon, pink velvet ric rac and a pink sequin. The envelope is finished off with more hearts and a sentiment from Simple Valentine.

Here's a closeup of the card front. I found this great pink graph paper that I recycled from some old note cards...I love to re-purpose items that have been in my stash.

That's it for today folks. If you like my cards, I'll have some added to my Etsy shop soon. Have a great day everyone! I'm off to clean up my stamp room so I can work on my Valentine Inspiration Station.

Folk Heart Valentine

Oh how I love this sweet Valentine. Papers and markers.....and scissors......and ribbon. It's everything homemade Valentines are meant to be. Endearing, reminiscent of our younger school days and downright fun. The only thing missing is Elmer's glue..and maybe some glitter.Karen Lockhart's Folk Heart stamp is the perfect addition to my Valentine. It's got such charm with it's pretty floral images and blanket stitched edging. I used my Copic Sketch markers to color the heart image in pretty pastels to match my patterned paper by Fancy Pants.

My heart image was cut out and adhered to a journaling block from Fancy Pants. The *be mine* sentiment is from Papertrey's Simple Valentine stamp set. My card is finished off with Papertrey Swiss Dot ribbon in Sweet Blush.

I hope you're having a simply sweet day. We're off to basketball practice this morning....but later on I'm hoping to put away my Christmas supplies and break out all things pink and red and glittery. Stay tuned for my 2010 Valentine's Inspiration Station. I'm happy just thinking about it. :)

Pink and brown butterflies.....

Edit: Thanks for the nice comments, ladies. The little pink stick on sequins were from Archivers. I don't have the packaging still so I can't off you the manufacturer's name, sorry about that.

Hey everyone, it sure feels weird posting something other than Christmas cards or holiday gifts. But I'm definitely ready for some fresh new designs.

Today I'm using Karen Lockhart's Checkered Butterfly stamp that I paper pieced along with some punched polka dot hearts. I popped all three items up on pop dots for a really dimensional look. I added a Papertrey sentiment and some pink sequins for the finishing touches. The patterned paper for my card front is from October Afternoon.

To color my image, I used my handy dandy Copic Sketch markers, pictured below. I still have to brag about the wonderful Copic markers. They are a tried and true tool that I reach for so often. If you're looking for a way to rev up your cards and projects, Copics might just be what you're looking for...especially if you like to color images like Karen Lockhart's.

Hope you're having a great day today. We're just relaxing and enjoying our time off from school and work.

Friendly mushrooms..

Hello everyone. I hope you had a joyous holiday with your family and friends. The weather was quite treacherous around our neck of the woods. We had a full blown blizzard Christmas Eve. Our poor neighbor lady was coming home from a family celebration and got her truck high centered on the drifting snow on our country road. She had no cell phone and had to walk more than a half a mile to reach my mom and dad's house. My dad got dressed, got the tractor and pulled her out, nearly getting the tractor stuck. I'm thankful our neighbor was okay.

We had two wonderful Christmas celebrations with my folks and Eric's folks. Good times, just visiting and eating wonderful food. The girls were blessed with many gifts and their sweet smiles warmed our hearts.

I am very excited to use some new holiday papers to scrapbook our Christmas memories......but after that's done I'm putting away all my Christmas goodies. I'm ready to move on to Valentine's Day and flowers and more spring like creations.

So here we go. I've been wanting to ink up this cute Hero Arts set called Sending Happy Thoughts for some time. It's got the cutest little images, including the friendly mushrooms that I chose for my card. The new 2010 Hero Arts catalog is now out and it's fabulous.

I used some of my favorite October Afternoon paper as my color inspiration, then reached for my handy dandy Copic Sketch markers color the mushrooms. If you zoom in close on the photo below, you can see that my mushrooms have spots. After coloring the images, I took some of the markers and made dots all over the mushrooms, using the pointy brush tips. Such a cute effect. I finished off the main image with some glitter and green sequins.

You can see the Copic colors I used below:
Well, I hope you're having a great day. It's a perfect day to stay snuggled inside and play with all the new Christmas goodies. I got a home spa kit, complete with a bubbling foot spa and warm paraffin hand treatment. The girls and I are going to try it out today. Don't hate us because we're beautiful. Ha.

Winter Time

Winter is on it's way folks! The wind is howling outside and the first signs of snow are starting to fall. Oh my, is it ever freezing here......brrrr. I've had two cups of coffee, 3 sugar cookies and about a dozen raspberry peanut M & M's. I think my body is going into hibernation mode.

As we prepare for Santa's visit tonight, we're doing a little last minute cleaning....and making sure we have all the cell phones charged and something to eat just in case the electricity goes out. (Oh, here comes more snow...big time!)

I thought I would show you some more of my holiday decorations. You all have seen this tiered wire stand that I use often for holiday decorations. This year, I filled it full of my aqua blue-ish ornaments. I had planned to make this giant wreath using the ornaments, but never got around to it. So I just nestled all the little pieces into my stand. There's rustic snowmen, snowmen ornaments, jeweled greenery, vintage ornaments that I picked up at an auction............

.....and little bird nests and eggs.......

I also added a few things to my hanging bird cage.

I love the birds and flowers so much that I couldn't take them down for winter. They remind of spring time and how much I love that time of year. So I just added some holiday stuff.....glittery silver snowflakes hang from the framed botanical prints......

Little snowmen ornaments are tucked into bird nests...........

And knitted stockings are hung with clothespins........

A small crystal wreath and a glittery *jolly* word is hung from my fern wreath..........

And Jordan arranged the snowman people......complete with a few new additions that she bought for me this summer.........

Wherever you are tonight.......whether it be snowy and blowing......or hot and breezy.........I hope your hearts are warm and filled with the holiday spirit.

Christmas funny for the day: We made the rounds last night and delivered Christmas goody trays to all the country neighbors. I prepared decorated sacks of sweet and savory party mixes....my homemade jellies.......and banana bread and sugar cookies. Our neighbors gave us gifts of peanuts and candies and breakfast burritos for this morning. My folks were our last stop of the night. As we were leaving, my dad followed us out into the garage and reached into a box. He said he's been giving out some Christmas goodies too. I thought I spied big round oranges. Nope. He handed Eric two giant Vidalia onions. Snort!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey, don't knock it...onions are always a practical gift to give and receive. :)

Well, I'm outta here for today. Eric's gonna start a fire here soon so we don't freeze to death this Christmas Eve....the girls are calling each other butt heads on their walky talkies......and I'm going to start a new book: The Friday Night Knitting Club. Ho Ho Ho everyone!

Happy Birthday Cupcake

Hi everyone, thank you for the nice holiday wishes. You guys are the best! Today is all about preparing for the big winter storm that is to pass through tonight and tomorrow. It's already wet and rainy so we're staying inside, all snuggly and warm by the fire. Jordan and I mixed up a loaf of banana bread and have some sinful sugar cookies waiting to be baked too. Hopefully we'll be able to get out tonight and deliver our goodies to our country neighbors.

On a crafty note, I have a birthday card to share with you today. I used Karen Lockhart's Violet Cupcake stamp and happy birthday sentiment for my main image. (While at Karen's site, be sure to check out the homepage for some fun new stamps being released!)I colored the image in with Copic markers, using my patterned paper as a color guide. As I've said before, Copic Sketch markers are perfect for coloring in Lockhart images because the pointy tips allow for very fine detail. Love my Copics!
I embellished the finished, colored image with ribbon snippets stapled with my new tiny Tim Holtz stapler.....I've lovingly named mine Tiny Tim. I found my stapler at my local scrapbook store. I also finished off the image with a hand drawn line using a fine tip marker and some pink sequins. The eclectic mix of pretty papers are from October Afternoon. I hope you're on the downhill slide with your Christmas preparations. I have a few more recipes to make for Christmas day festivities and some fun snacky stuff for us to munch on while watching Christmas movies and playing games. The girls are hoping for LOTS of snow so they can go sledding.

Coming soon: I have LOTS of new things planned for my blog and Etsy shop for the new year. Think Valentine's Day......and a new way to approach some of those New Year's resolutions........more fun kits, notepads, cards, embellishments, etc. Ohhhhh, it's going to be fun!

Well, the rain is pouring down now.....hoping it turns to snow instead of the freezing rain we usually get. Later kiddos.