Entry for Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #126

Hello Everyone!

I am so happy that it is finally starting to warm up here in New Hampshire. I think my dogs are very happy too. The other day as I was huddling in my blankets surfing the internet I stumbled upon a new blog to read. Freshly Made Sketches has a variety of fun challenges and sketches to spare my imagination.

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #126:

Here is my entry for this challenge:

The paper used in this card is from American Crafts part of the Bookshelf Collection. The image is from TPC Studio Retro Greetings and colored with Copic maker in Lionet Gold (Y28).

Thanks for stopping by.

Stampin' up Three Little Words Card

Good Afternoon!

It's a shivering 8 degrees F here New Hampshire USA. What better way to warm up than with a little love. Today I have a tutorial using the Three Little Words stamp set from Stampin' Up. With Valentine's Day is only 20 days away, I thought I would get a job start on the holiday.

I hope everyone stays warm.


Video:



Materials Needed:

• Dark Pink Cardstock (4 1/4x5 1/2") folded in half at 5 1/2"
• Medium Pink Cardstock (4x5 1/4")
• Pattern Paper (3 3/4x5")
• Light Pink Cardstock (4x5 1/4")
• White Cardstock (3 3/4x5")
• Heart shaped die cuts--mine were cut using the Victorian Romance Cartridge from Provo and cut using the Cricut at 3 1/2"
• Tattered Rose Distress Ink and Inking tool
• 3 Heart shaped brads
• Piercing tool
• Adhesive
• Three Little Words stamp set
• Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black

Instructions:

1. Adhere pattern paper to coordinating sized medium pink cardstock
2. Ink and stamp sentiment "Three Little Words" with flower and stamp on white heart
3. Distress edges of white heart with Tattered Rose Ink and adhere to red decorative shadow heart
4. Color the T and Flower as desired
5. Adhere Layered heart to pattern paper
6. Using piercing tool poke three holes in pattern paper---1/2" in from right side of card front and 1/4" up from edge of pattern paper---space the three holes 3/8" apart
7. Insert brads through holes and secure
8. Adhere card front to card base
9. Ink sentiment for inside of card and stamp on white cardstock
10. Distress edges of white cardstock with Tattered Rose Distress Ink
11. Adhere white cardstock to coordinating sized light pink cardstock. Adhere this panel to the inside of the card.

"Joyous Elf" 2013 Holiday Card

Good Morning Everyone!

It's a chilly Autumn New England (USA) morning here in New Hampshire. It's the perfect weather for hot chocolate and card making. This weather always puts me in the mood to create holiday cards. I've noticed that this years seems to be going by faster than usual, so I better get in gear.

This card is created using an idea I found in the Summer 2013 edition of Card Maker magazine. The image was found doing a Google image search for "Digital Stamps." I do not own the rights to the image or the layout idea. This is just my interpretation of them.

"Joyous Elf"

Materials:

• Computer with printer
• Copic approved white cardstock
• White cardstock cut to 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, folded in half
• Core'dinations Vintage Card stock in Asparagus
• Polka-dot holiday pattern paper
• Holly print pattern paper
• Crochet lace in white (1/2" width)
• red/white baker's twine
• Red button
• Copic Markers in G05, G17, R22, E000, E00, E02, R27, E18, Y26
• Copic Colorless Blender
• Adhesive and dimensional adhesive
• Scotch tape
• Zots
• Zip Dry 
• Fun Flock in Cotton Ball White

Directions:

"Joyous Elf" Card Tutorial Video

1. Print image on Copic approved paper with a width of 2"
2. Color image as desired. I used the Copic colors listed approve
3. Trim image
4. Cut Asparagus cardstock- (1) piece 4 1/4 x 5 1/2", (1) piece 3 1/8 x 4 3/4, (1) strip 2 1/8 x 4"
5. Cut a piece of the polka-dot pattern paper to 4 x 5 1/4"
6. Cut a piece of the Holly pattern paper to 3 x 4 5/8"
7. Adhere Holly pattern paper to coordinating size Asparagus cardstock
8. Using the wrap around method adhere a piece of the crochet lace to the polka-dot pattern paper about 1/2' in from the left side along the long edge. 
9. Adhere polka-dot paper to the coordinating Asparagus cardstock and adhere to card base
10. Wrap a piece of baker's twine around the layered Holly pattern paper about 1/4" in from the long left side and secure using Scotch tape.
11. Adhere colored image to 2 1/8" Asparagus cardstock so that it sits center along three sides and trim excess. 
12. Adhere layered image to Holly pattern paper so that it sits along the edge of the baker's twine. 
13. Using dimensional adhesive adhere the image panel to the card front so that it covers half of the lace. (See picture above)
14. Using a piece of the baker's twine tie a bow through the button and adhere to card front using Zots.
15. Using the Zip dry adhere Fun Flock to image on ruffle of hat and shirt, and the pom-pom.

Re-organizing my Crafty Space

Good Morning!

It is a bright, but chilly day here in New Hampshire. One of my New Years Resolutions is to clean, eliminate clutter, organize and use the crafting items I have on hand. Prior to the New Year, I went to JoAnn's when they were having their huge sale on totes and organizing systems. I was able to purchase two storage units designed by Iris for less than half price (SCORE!).

New System-Iris

 Here is a picture of the door organizer I purchased. These organizers replaced the drawer system I had originally purchased from Wal-mart. My old system of the Sterilite drawers was great until I stated to accumulate paper. The amount of paper I needed to store was getting too heavy for the plastic. It began to warp, crack, and break down. Plus it didn't give me the flexibility to organize the paper by theme/season/color that I really needed to.Due to the length of the drawers, I could fit a stack of 12x12 paper with about 5-8 inches of unused space. Paper was getting damaged when I opened or closed the drawers.

Old System-Sterilite

The new system of doors from Iris is a stronger plastic and has individual containers that lock shut. This provides me with an easier way to sort and organize my paper. If you enjoy purchasing the slabs from Michael's or JoAnn's, each drawer on the Iris system holds 4-5 180 sheet slabs. My two organizers sit on the floor verses on the wheels. These new organizers take up less room than the Sterilite drawer system by about 6-8 inches in depth and 12 (unused inches) in length. These means that by replacing the old Sterilite system with the new Iris system I save about 12 of floor space along the length.

Now I'm able to find what I need for paper, when I need it. I highly recommend the Iris system of drawers. Keep your eyes out for coupons in the Michael's or Jo Ann flyers. The Iris drawer carts are usually around $90 USD. However, you can get them for 50% with a coupon or during sales.

My next step is to reorganize my craft closet. It's kind of scary in there.

Thanks for stopping by. Make it a great day.

Day 2 of Winter Holiday Fun

Good Morning Everyone!

Here is the second creation in my Holiday Fun blog event.

This creations is using a stamp from Stamping Bella and paper from Core'dinations and DCWV. This is an A2 card measuring 4"x5.5".

Instructions-

• Cut a piece of Core'dinations White Wash Grandpa's truck cardstock to 4x5.5" and 2.75"x2.75"
• Cut piece of pattern paper to 3.75"x5.25". (My pattern paper is from DCWV 2011 Holiday Stack.)
• Cut a piece of smooth white cardstock to 2.5"x2.5"
• Using Tuxedo Black ink from Memento ink and stamp image on white cardstock
• Color image using Copic Markers
• Use Fiskers Heritage punch to cut the corners of the image cardstock and coordinating sized Core'dinations
• Ink edges of image with Tea Dyed Distress Ink by Tim Holtz
• Adhere image to cardstock and pattern paper to card stock
• Adhere image to pattern paper
• attach ribbon and bow
• Adhere card front to base measuring 8"x5.5" folded in half
• Write "Wishing you many 'Cups of Good Cheer' this season" on the inside of card. (Lyric from "We Wish You a Merry Christmas")

Today's challenge

Use a holiday song lyric in your project. When posting your project please state the song title. Please link through the comments section.

Let the Winter and Holiday Fun Begin!

Hello Everyone and Welcome!

 Last night my boyfriend and I snuggled up to watch "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carey. Wow, there were some parts of the movie that were not very kid friendly for a Disney movie. I was looking all over the box for Tim Burton's name, but I guess he didn't work on this film. I love who Jim is able to project and change his voice. His voice just carries the emotion and energy of the Scrooge character so well. It was very good and followed the original work by Charles Dickens very well.

On another note...

Today kicks off my 12 Days of Christmas Blog challenge. Guess what? I'm even starting on time! Today's challenge is a Joy-Fold Card.

Here is a picture

The card measures 4"x5.5"

Materials:

• Core'dinations Vintage Cardstock in Kisses and Clover Patch
• SEI Holiday Traditions Dreams of Wonder Cardstock
• (3) square metallic green brads
• Smooth white paper from the Paper Loft
• Tuxedo Black Memento Ink pad
• Adhesieve
• Outlines small and medium snowflake
• boner folder
• paper trimmer

Instructions

• Cut a piece of the Clover Patch to 4x8.25" score and fold at 2.75"
• Cut a piece of the Clover Patch to 2.25x7.5" score and fold at 3.75"
• Cut 2 pieces of the Clover patch to 3x3" and adhere back to back
• Cut a piece of the Clover patch to 1.75x1.75
• Cut a piece of Kisses at 2.75x2.75" and one at 1.5x1.5
• Cut a piece of smooth white to 3.5x2"
• Cute a piece of pattern paper to 3.75x5.25", and (2) pieces 3.75x2.5"
• Stamp images on smooth white and trim around the edges

 

• Adhere images to coordinating sized cardstock
• Punch holes and secure brads in lower right hand corner of larger panel of pattern paper. Adhere panel to inside of larger green cardstock
• Adhere one of the smaller panels of pattern paper to the flap of card base. Reverse pattern for inside of flap. 
• Adhere folded strip of green cardstock so that the flap of the card base is sandwiched between. Center the strip on card base before pressing into place
• Adhere smooth white strip to the front of the strip flap then adhere medium snowflake layers to the strip flap
• Adhere small snowflake to inside of the card

HERE is the challenge-
Create a Joy Fold card using snowflakes. The snowflakes can be part of the paper, stamped, or both. Be creative and link your card through the comments (meaning put you blog/flicker/etc. address in the comment) Deadline is December 31st 2012.

Fun Things in the Works

Hello Crafting World!

Only a few days left until the 12 Days of Christmas online fun. I plan on posting a variety of cards, scrapbook pages and other projects to spur on your own holiday creativity. All the fun starts December 13th. Remember you can join in the fun by linking your projects through the comments section. As the date gets closer I will post more information.....



I'm working on new posts for the Technique page too.  Joy-fold cards, alcohol ink and more

On another note-

An exciting opportunity has presented itself. On December 26th, I will be at Steele Hill Resort in Belmont NH from 1pm to 3pm. I will be giving paper crafting lessons, selling kits (scrapbook and card), scrapbook layouts and greeting cards. Here is a link to the resort.....just click here

Thanks for stopping by,

T