Magazine Monday!

Can you believe this is the final Monday of January, 2011? This month just seems to have flown by.

How many years have you found yourself scrambling at the last minute to get your Christmas cards made and ready to mail? Or ::: gasp ::: caving in to sending store bought cards. If you are an avid card maker, you know how painful that last ditch effort to wish everyone merry is for you.

On Splitcoaststampers, I belong to a thread called the Christmas Card Challenge 2011 (CCC11). The concept is to have all of our Christmas cards ready to mail by the end of November, rather than waiting until the last minute to get them finished. You determine how many cards you need to mail and divide it by 11. That is your target number of cards to make each month, January through November. By December 1st your handmade cards are finished, ready to mail and you can stress over something else about the holiday. (You know you will. We all do!)

My target goal per month is to make 10-12. Technically I only need 10 per month but I seem to have started doing things in sets of 12 lately so I’m adjusting my goal. This month I pulled an idea from the December 2007 issue of Stamp and Scrap Magazine. This card is designed by Sandie Bachand. I wish I could have found a blog or website for Sandie. She does lovely work. For this particular article she chose to showcase the fundamentals of 4 stamping techniques – embossing, masking, direct-to-paper and watermark inking. I did a modified version of her MASKING technique.

Sandie’s card LO is close to mine. her matted JOY is more centered, with 3 red rhinestones in a column below it (near the edge of the printed mat) , and an Antique Gold Snowflake charm.

We both used an A2 card for our base. However, I liked positioning my JOY mat lower – eliminating the rhinestones at the bottom. I didn’t have a Cuttle Bug embossing frame so I chose to just cut the center out with my Sizzix Md Square sizzlit, but keep the deckle edge. It still gave it a ‘framed’ look.

Recipe:

Tools- Sizzix Md. Square Sizzlit, Fiskars Deckle

CS- GP White, SU Wild Wassabi

Stamp- Village Arts Press (VAP)

Ink- VersaMark

Embossing Powder- Stamp n Stuff Red Tinsel and Gold Tinsel

Accessories- Folk Art Metallic Inca Gold acrylic paint

So January cards are done. Now to figure out what I’m doing for February. It’s a short month so imagine how fast it will pass. ::: smile :::

So, are you thinking Christmas now?

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday!

Happy Monday!

I’m really enjoying Magazine Monday. It encourages me to go through the stash of magazines I have and actually try some of the projects that have caught my eye.

This week I pulled out the Feb. 2008 issue of Crafts n Things magazine. The designer, Lindsey Botkin is multi-published in magazines and is a SplitcoastStamper member . I hope you’ll check out her blog and her GALLERY. She does great work!

Here is a sketch of the card Lindsey created. If you can get a hold of the magazine, check out her color scheme. It is pretty and went well with the verse image she used.

She used Dutch Girl Collection – Audrey papers, black buttons, a white heart, and narrow

black organza ribbon with white polka dots.

I kept the sketch as it was but changed it up a bit.

I substituted the buttons for bling to help pull the bling from the sentiment mat. I also chose to go with a more Victorian look with the lace and color tones.

The papers are from a K & Company vintage slab.

What magazine do you have stashed back for 'someday'. Pick your 'Someday' and play!

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

Stylish Blogger Award

I LOVE Happy Mail!

Who doesn’t right? So imagine my surprise Wednesday when I opened an email from my bestest buddy, Carla. She has given me the honor of the…

Please check out Carla’s Blog. She is an amazingly creative woman!

Deciding what things to share with you that you might not know about me is proving difficult. So is deciding who to share this award with.

I’m going with the easy one first. I have four blogs I check frequently… beside’s Carla’s. hehe Each of these talented people are listed for their individual and varied styles.

Please make sure to visit:

Curt

The first time I visited his blog I felt ‘at home’. He’s fun, funny and overflowing with talent.

Michele

Michele is one of my buds on the Stamp2Spend thread at Splitcoaststampers. Her generosity towards others is inspiring.

Michelle

I’ve known Shell about 5 years. She is such a talented designer.

Soni

Over the past twenty years Soni and I have been friends and co-workers. I’ve watched her talents emerge. She’s slow to give herself credit when her work deserves so much more.

Okay… now what you don’t know about me. This one is tough!

1. I love water but am petrified of being in a boat

2. I twisted my ankle at a charity event and was carried to a chair by Tarzan (actor Miles O’Keefe)

3. I would love to visit Italy

4. I used to be afraid of voicing my opinion to a group (really!)

5. I’m self-taught in everything I do except One-Stroke painting. (thanks Carla!)

Magazine Monday! - On Tuesday

Yep... a day late and I apologize. I took off yesterday to make use of the WiFi connection in town so I could work a little quicker in getting caught up. Left the house with out the flash drive holding all of my pics.

So here we are today - Tuesday. I'm showcasing another one of the items I created for the Babies Are A Blessing swap on SplitcoastStampers This one comes from PaperKuts - Pure Girl 2003 Page 24. This was a special issue from PaperKuts that if you held it right side up on one side - it was all Girl pages half way through the book. Then turn it over/ flip it up and you had all Boy pages coming at you from the other direction. I fell in love with the Angel page for a single photo layout... something I don't normally do. I like to put lots of pictures on a page but this one just grabbed me.

Their ANGEL and live joyfully quotes came from Deja Views. Not having the items, I recreated them in my Print Shop Program.

I chose Marina Mist (current) and Blush Blossom (retired) SU CS/ DP for my color pallet. The vine paper in the middle is from my scrap drawer.
The 'a' was cut from Base Camp, the scalloped mat from Lacey Labels and the flowers from Recollections Boutique Fleur. The butterfly in the top of the ANGEL quote is a Martha Stewart image stamped in Marina Mist and given dimension with a Pop Dot. You can't see it well in the photo but to create the antenna, I dyed a 1.5" length of paper twine by coloring it with a black perma marker, bent it in half and secured with a glue dot.

I hope to do an Adrian page very soon to show you what this layout looks like with a photo of my ANGEL of a granddaughter.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday!

This week I'm going to give you a peek at a swap I took part in over at SplitcoastStampers. The swap was entitled "Baby's Are A Blessing", inspired by the hostess who will become a grandma for the very first time on Feb. 11 of this year. She's so excited. They've just closed on a new home so she's in a decorating frenzy, she's going to be a grandma... her year is off to an awesome start!

Anyway, since I've not actually STARTED my grandtoddler's book yet, the swap seemed like the perfect fit for me. It was the largest swap I've ever taken part in, object wise. I normally stick to ATC's, Tags, Cards, Images - that kind of thing. But this one just called to me to play. There were three categories: Card Candy, 2 pg LO - components only (no background page) and a 1pg LO all inclusive.

For the Card Candy category I found the CUTEST project in ScrapbooksEtc - Baby 2007 on Page 29. It's 1.75 x 3 mats - one for each month of Baby's First Year. Great for doing an 8x8 album.

The items at the very bottom were bonus for the packs. But I love this set and can't wait to put them to use.

Valentine Additions

Because Creative Dreams is about ALL things I get my fingers into, I was planning to show you a picture of a baby quilt I made last fall. I have another one to make just like it. But for some reason I failed to save a picture to the flash. I can't believe I failed to do that. I THOUGHT I saved a pic of everything. Guess not :-) So here's your tip for the week... make sure you file a picture somewhere. You never know when you might want to share it with someone.

So instead, I'll show pics of the other 2 Valentines I told you about on Monday. I really liked how they turned out and I hope they bring smiles to the children at Ronald McDonald House in Little Rock AR.

This first one is for the BOY category. I used the school boy from Stampin UP that reminds me of the old Dick and Jane primer kids. He is part of a single stamp with a little girl. He is carrying his lunch sack in his right hand and books in his left. The little girl half of the stamp is carrying an apple for the teacher. I used my exacto knife to separate the kids and masked off the books. Then I stamped a heart, heat embossed it with Stamp n Stuff Glitter Red embossing powder and placed it in his left hand.

The NEUTRAL card was made using images from a foam stamp set I got years ago. I stamped the center heart on the balloon on scrap GP white cardstock and colored it with a red LePlume

marker. Then I gave it dimension by placing it on the card with a small pop dot.

Until next time...

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday!

This week we're going to visit Crafts n Things Magazine

I'm in a swap at SplitcoastStampers to create Valentines for the children at Ronald McDonald House in Little Rock Arkansas. I have the most adorable stamp set from Stampin Up called Greeting Card Kids. I've combined it with some $1 stamps from Michaels and HEARTS stickers from EK Success . The CASEd pic (removed for copyright purposes) is from February 2008 Crafts n Things Magazine.

In making these cards for kids, I've modified it a bit but the basic sketch is there. I used ValuCardstock in Baby Girl and Seaside collections. The stripe through the center is from ThePaperStudio. I stamped my own DP on the Baby Girl CS using a $1 stamp and SU Regal Rose. Both the little girl and the sentiment are matted on the SeaSide mint green. After coloring with Memory Maker pencils, I added a puffy heart sticker to her hand and smaller ones as an accent.

I made 5 of these for Ronald McDonald House - Little Rock AR. I have 5 I'm doing with the little boy from this same set. I used the school boy but eliminated the bundle of books from the image and placed a heart in that hand. I'm using Blue tones of the CS. I've also created this same layout in Lavender using a bear image. He appears to be drifting through the sky with a bundle of heart shaped balloons. Hopefully 15 children will like what I've created for them and make them smile when there are days they just don't feel like it.

So, What's in your Magazine?

Creative Blessings!

Happy New Year!

Yeah! A new year, a new start, and my time is my own again. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED spending time with my granddaughter. I wouldn't have traded the time I spent with her for anything. That said, it does feel good to be playing in the Studio again.

The remodel of the Studio is nearly complete. Just a couple of decorator touches like the table skirt and finding a place to put my Christmas presents :-) We measured the finished area last night and I'm working in 73 square feet of space! On one hand that isn't a lot of space. But it does put everything at my fingertips.

Yesterday I finally got to sit down and PLAY. I'm going to be posting at least 3 times a week. Once everything gets into a routine I hope to post every day.

Mondays will be Magazine Monday. What is Magazine Monday?

How many scrapbooking and stamping magazines do you have on your shelf? Have you bookmarked projects you want to try? How many of them have you ACTUALLY tried?

Well, I've pledged not to buy another magazine in 2011 until I've used everyone I have bookmarked as a spring-board for a project. And every Monday you get to see what I've come up with. I'll tell you which magazine it came from, a shot of the project I cased (if it's a really old magazine), and direct you to their website for current projects.

So let's get started!