Monday, August 30, 2010

Card for Tea Swap

The theme for this month's swap is, "Primary". It was a stretch for me to come up with a card within that limitation as nothing was really clicking. I started with an old rubber stamp that I had with a sweet teapot. I stamped it, cut it out & colored it in a cheery yellow. I thought that with the black & white & red & white polka dots it really felt like the primary colors were "popping". I kept playing with the idea of having some sort of math equation on the card to reference the fact that today was the first day of school. I came up with: 1 + 1 = 2 4 T. Only later on did I think that I should have put 1 + 1 = 240, but it's ok. With a window cut-0ut it makes for a nice, friendly card. I'll send it along with 2 tea bags that I hope my swap partner enjoys. After a busy summer I think that we're all ready for some Stash Mellow Moments tea bags. This card's off to Hawaii. I hope it travels safely.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mary's Pin


I hope that you can see what this actually looks like. I loved making it for Mary because she adores cats & Halloween & birds. The little "dream" word seemed to be perfect for what a cat would be thinking about. She doesn't wear necklaces very much so I made it into a pin. I pulled apart an old pin in my jewelry box to use on the back. She's a recycler so I knew she'd like that aspect. I've been so very busy with making cards. M & M are going to be vendors at a show & I wanted to provide them with some goodies for their table. I made additional card-fronts based on the design in the post right before this. They were all different, but lots of fun. Last night I made a card that I thought Mary would like. The quote is, "Til death do us part. Happy Anniversary" It's got a little skull on it ... If I can get my camera to load correctly onto my laptop I'll be able to upload the image & then you can weigh in on how tasteful/tasteless it is ~
I've also been hard at work on the projects for the September 26th class at Life's Memories & More. The samples should be there by the end of the weekend & I think that Tanya also loads images up on her Facebook account.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Rainy Day in New England


This card is the finished product after an entire morning of playing with paper. I was inspired by the need to come up with more ideas for an upcoming class that I'm going to teach (September 26) called, "Reduce without a Diet". It's a reference to reducing your waste (vs your waist) by re-using items that might otherwise end up in the trash. This card won't be part of the class because of the time involved, but the technique is definitely going to be used. The recycled items on this card are the re-used dryer sheet (washed, ironed & spritzed with Lime Twist Glimmer Mist), 3 random pieces of bling in the upper right corner, extra beads that were in my box & a small piece of wire (through the beads). I really wanted to use my new Tim Holtz stamp & there are several Distress Inks on the papers. I started with a simple cream cardstock & it's the same piece for all 3 pieces of the card (background, letter stamped torn piece & focal image). The variances are due to the inks used to distress the pages. I primarily used: Vintage Photo, a little bit of Shabby Shutters & some Faded Jeans. The image in the forefront was mounted onto a scrap of black cardstock. The number 13 was stamped twice. I cut out the rectangle (along with 2 more to add depth) & lightly blended some of the Faded Jeans over the top to just take a little of the starkness out. I glued three layers & put some Glossy Accent over the top to make it shine. I wanted to bring out the subtle blue in the Faded Jeans ink, so mounted on a perfect piece of dark blue cardstock that I had just the right amount of.
I love rainy days in New England & today is drizzly & grey outside. It's ideal for time spent playing with paper. I'm going to get to work on my next project. It involves some old sheet music & might incorporate some of the ideas I used for this card. If I like the outcome I'll post a photo.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Summer necklace design


My BFF Mary sent me this quote today & I knew it HAD to be incorporated into something creative. "In the summer, the song sings itself." So -- tonight I came home & put together this design for a 1" x 3" glass covered pendant (ala Tim Holtz). I took the photo before I put it in the frame because of the glare with the overhead lights on & use of a flash. I think that you'll get the idea ...The background piece is a scrap of paper that I'd used glimmer mist on for a little bit of twinkle. The piece was made with some Tim Holtz doo-dads & the bingo token with the #73 (our house #) is perfect. The butterfly seemed to be a good way to add a little movement to the card & it's from one of the Mariposa pages. With the vintage frame around & a key or metal note from the bottom ... It came out just the way I wanted.
I made Mary a pin on Sunday (using the same technique, but different images) but didn't get a chance to take a photo. If I think of it, I'll ask her to send me a photo to upload.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A Western Fence



This view of the Grand Tetons was taken on a gorgeous July afternoon. We were at the beginning of our 3300 mile trip throughout the Southwest & I thought that it was important to start my new blog with a "fence" picture. Mostly this blog will be to highlight paper projects that I've either completed or received.


I'm going to be teaching a class this Saturday for the August Kit of the Month. David had the idea to offer a free class with the purchase of the kit. It's a multi-page mini-album made from envelopes. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone makes the book their own. I filled the sample with flower/scenery/family photos from our summer trip. It was a lot of fun to make & there's room for all kinds of creativity.