Magazine Monday

Squeaking in under the wire tonight.


This week’s Magazine Monday challenge comes from the May/June 2012 issue of Paper Crafts Magazine. They showcased a Designer Challenge of creating a Feminine and a Masculine card using the same product. I knew I wanted to use DCWV Once Upon A Time. I fell I love with this slab when it was first introduced about six years ago. With a mixture of lights and darks, burgundies and deep purples with a mix of fairies and dragons, I knew this would be an easy challenge.

I paired the DCWV papers with SU Very Vanilla. For the feminine card, I also added SU Cherry Cobbler. With a few antique pearls and a rich double-layer flower, a bit of vintage lace and decorative ribbon is all I needed to pull everything together. I used the SU Vintage Labels for the sentiment.

The guy card came together just as well. I have very few ‘guy’ images. (I can work on fixing that problem when I go to the convention in a couple weeks) But with the blues in mind, I flipped through my binder of UMs to the Coastal/ Maritime collection by InkaDinkaDo. I chose the small sail boat and a sentiment from what I believe may be a Gina K designs collection. I created a pendant flag to stamp the sentiment on. The backgrounds of both mats was inked with SU Baja Breeze.

 I then stamped both the image and the sentiment by first inking the stamps with Baja Breeze then over-inking with Perfect Plum. The ribbon is from Michaels.

This one I’m going to sneak into my husband’s suitcase when he goes back out on the boat in a couple weeks. He knows I made him a card but I told him he never knows where it will show up. I’m ornery like that.

Magazine Monday

I tried to get this card up last night but I needed to wait for the glass effects to dry.

The card I chose this week came from a Go-To Sketch design in the current issue of Paper Crafts Magazine and fit a challenge on the All Occasion Card Challenge (AOCC) at SCS. I seldom take time to combine challenges but this one just seemed to fall into place.

As you can see in the pic, the Sketch LO was originally set vertical. Becky Cowley was one of 2 designers to flip it. Where I have ribbon, she used SU patterned papers. But I knew it was perfect for the AOCC12E challenge to use a minimum of 3 pieces of ribbon. I used 10 plus a piece of vintage lace.

The ribbons were from SU seam binding and from my ribbon drawers. The background paper is from Paper Studio called Mirabella Floral. I LOVE this paper any time I want to create something vintage. You might recall I used it on one of the Altered Books I did a couple months ago. The die cut and the butterfly are from a kit I got as part of a Quacker Secret Sister swap from Maggie last winter. It's from Hot off the Press (division of Paper Pizazz) I accented the butterfly with glass effects.

Hmmm just noticed my business name is on the cards. Need to remember to change that :-)

Magazine Monday

Today's card was created with a special friend in mind. MaryLou is a sweet lady whom has been going through so many medical and personal issues of the past several years. She is the sister-in-law of my dear friend, Soni, whom I've introduced you on here in the past year with trials of her own. To say this entire family has been bombarded is an understatement. I just wanted to send a little cheer MaryLou's way.

MaryLou and I connected several years ago during a visit she and her husband, Bill, made to Soni and Wally's. We discovered we both love and collect bears. So I know when I began this card for her, it had to include a bear. All of my cards for MaryLou have included bears. LOL We agree you can never have too many!

The design for this layout came from the Spring 2006 issue of Paper Creations Magazine. Designer Rhonda Palmer created a square card. She chose 3 coordinating colors of DP from Scissor Sisters for the panels. Her senter mat was a SU flower as well as the sentiment on the tag (Thank You!). Rhonda used a black gingham ribbon knotted at the top of the mat and a button for the flower center.

Where Rhonda positioned her panels vertically, I chose to flip the card and run them horizontal. I selected DP pieces from my scrap drawer to coordinate with that soft, cuddly Ted E. Bear from RubberStampede. The peachy/ brown stripe is from S.E.I and the green flourish is from. Ted E. is stamped in Memento Brown and accented with Derwent WC pencils. I colored him first very lightly in ORANGE then went back over him with DK. BROWN. When I took the water-brush to him, the two colors blended beautifully to create the soft caramel tones with a perfect shading. I matted him with SU Chocolate Chip. The ribbon is from Ribbon Trends. Although the flower brad looks orange in the picture, in real life it comes very close to that peachy stripe in the DP.

I hope this very special bear brings a smile to MaryLou, if even for a moment.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday - Weddings!

So glad to be back to a routine. I've spent the morning playing catch-up on business then made a trip down to the Studio to create 2 weddings cards. My husband's niece as well as a dear friend I've known most of her life are both getting married Memorial Day weekend. It is impossible to attend both so I'll be representing Bob and I at the family wedding in Oklahoma while sending lots of prayers and well-wishes to Dasha and her fiance in southern Illinois.

The card today comes from a 2008 issue of Crafts 'n Things magazine. The sophisticated stamped wedding ensemble on page 19 is the creation of Keri Lee Sereika. We've visited Keri's Pink Lemonade blog at typepad before. Probably because her designs are beautiful and inspiring.

My inspiration was actually the cover of a wedding album. I didn't change anything except the technique for this card. Keri chose a lace background stamp to create her DP strip where I used the Starry Night CB folder for mine. Keri also used hers for the top strip, where I used mine as the mat for a coordinating DP. She used a ribbon accented with flowers on top of the strip. I chose not to use any additional accent because it seemed to get lost in the striped paper.

I chose SU Elegant Soiree papers, pairing them with Marina Mist and Very Vanilla CS. The sentiment is from Rubber Stampede. Though I used the same layout on both cards, I did reverse the mat/ pearls positioning on the other one.

One thing I did notice in putting this week's card together is I do not have enough 'elegant' DP. So guess I'll have to fix that as SU, as well as a couple other of my fav paper designers, have a great selection.

I'm hoping for a TPT card tomorrow. I already have a post for Wednesday. How is it possible to be ahead one day, yet still behind LOL

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday

I'm so glad I got the posts for this week and next pre-written. We're having so much fun with Adrian but it seriously cuts into my computer and creative time. I'm hoping we can get some stamping in today so maybe... maybe I can get a Teapot card done for this week. We'll see.

In the meantime I came up with this card during the last Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) over at SCS.

Okay, so this card is a couple weeks late. But being Irish, it’s St. Patrick’s Day all year long for me. I made three of these cards. One went to my granddaughter, one to my oldest sister and one to a 2nd cousin whom I’ve not seen in years but we share the same surname.

This is another one of those horrible pictures I told you about last week. It isn’t yellow – honest. It’s supposed to be SU Very Vanilla paired with ValuCS Primary Green. I used a St. Patrick’s Day sentiment stamp from Studio G and cut the mats from the Cricut Lacy Labels cartridge.

I kept the layout the same from a card by Beth Opel, called Joy to the World in Nov/ Dec 2012 Paper Crafts magazine. I found a link to Beth’s typepad, which she closed on March 22nd so I can’t link you to her creativity.

Beth did a business-envelope sized horizontal card in silver from DCWV. She created a 2-layer ribbon strip black on red. She used a gold doily rub-on from Hambly Screen Prints onto a red base and fussy cut around the red base about 1/8” from the doily edge. Her sentiment (rub-on from American Crafts) was done on the silver CS. She rounded the corners of this and the black mat she adhered it to before placing in the center of the doily. Beth’s card had a simple elegance about it and suitable for any Christmas recipient.

Next week I’ll give you a very early (say 6 months) peek at my husband’s birthday card. I’ll tell you why it’s so early… next week.

Creative Blessings

Magazine Monday

Until I got out of bed this morning, I didn't think this post would happen. We've been told for days to expect strong thunderstorms today and tomorrow with added rain through Thursday. All of this meant no computer for most of the week. Agh!

Imagine my delight when I woke up to no rain or storms. The skies are a bit overcast and the temperature about fifteen degrees cooler than past mornings. But it was pleasant while I was out filling the bird feeders and saying good morning to my dogs.

With tomorrow being the first day of spring and Big Bird's Birthday, I thought I'd show you one of the birthday cards I made for VSN this month. The challenge was to showcase spring.

I found a 5-step card by Designer Lana Lepinski called Within Your Heart in the April/ May 2006 issue of Paper Crafts magazine.

Lana used Stampin' Up product layering Always Artichoke on Mellow Moss. She did a running stitch border. Then she tore the right edge of a Bordering Blue and Whisper White cardstocks, layering the white on the blue and adhered them to the stitched mat. To the left side of the white, she stamped flowers from SU Fresh Fields in Mellow Moss (leaves) and Bordering blue (flowers). She stamped the Dreams sentiment in Basic Black to the right of the flowers. For an accent, she added a rustic wooden button with linen thread centered over the sentiment.

Her quote: Within your heart keep on, still, secret spot where dreams may go. ~ Louise Driscoll

I thought that quote would also work well as a Sympathy card.

Here is my interpretation of Lana's card. I made two of these. One using Bashful Blue and the other Pink Pirouette.

I used GP white and ValuCS for the base (still trying to use up that stuff). Because of the 45 min time limit per card, I opted not to set up the machine for stitching. The tulips are from SU Simple Florals. After stamping them with the markers, I added a soft color with the Derwent wc pencils. For the sentiment mat, I used SU Bashful Blue. The sentiment is printed off the computer: Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. ~ Franz Kafka

The butterfly is by Co-Motion. I stamped it in the Bashful Blue then brushed it with Iridescent Stickles to catch the sunlight as it flies. The antennae are highlighted with the black Glaze pen.

I have a couple of options for tomorrow's Teapot Tuesday card. I started deep cleaning the office side of The Studio last week and my work table is still a bit cluttered. The other thing will be determined by the weather. Let's cross our fingers I get to stop in.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday!

I had a really good weekend. I hope you did too. I spent the entire day on Saturday working on some of the challenges from the SplitcoastStampers VSN that was held on Friday night and all day Saturday.

When I participated in the VSN back in December, I focused on Christmas cards, using the challenges as my guide to get all of my 2012 Christmas cards done. It worked out very well. Each time I opened up a challenge, I figured out what I wanted to do, used a Christmas theme (unless the challenge called for a specific theme) then cut enough of everything to do 10-12 cards of that one challenge.

This time my focus was on Birthday cards. One of the threads I co-mod on SCS is a monthly reminder thread to get our birthday/ anniversary cards out on time. Because I’ve been busy playing catch-up on the business, I haven’t been getting my cards out like I wanted. So I decided I needed to get some of these cards done up ahead of time.

I found this birthday card inspiration in the 4th quarter 2011 issue of STAMPING-STATIONARY-AND-SCRAPBOOKING, an idea magazine from Hobby Lobby. For $1.99 you get a ton of great ideas for card and scrapbook page layouts.

This particular card was under Thanksgiving – not a birthday card. It was a Happy Thanksgiving design by Regina Farrell of TX. I tried doing a search for her without success. I kept her sketch pretty much the same. Where I have 2 sunflowers, she used 2 pumpkins, accented with a couple of green oak leaves. Where I used the Vintage Labels, Regina used an actual tag with Happy Thanksgiving stamped on it, a bit of chocolate ribbon tied in a bow on the tag and a brown oak leaf. Across the bottom of the printed band, she added a row of the brown oak leaves.

I tried just using the sun ‘flowers’ but decided they really needed the stems/ leaves. I used the Marvy Daisy punch for the flowers and the SU Build A Blossom stamp set for the leaves. The green stripe is from a 2-sided paper by Heidi Grace Designs called Baby Girl. In trying to use up stash, I’m using my ValuCS on cards I know will probably be tossed after receiving so I used ValuCS Yellow and Green from their Primary collection as well as SU Garden Green. I used my favorite SU Vintage Labels for the sentiment. The MS Daisy border punch gave a nice country look to this card in keeping with the sunflowers.

Magazine Monday

Draggin' in here late with my Monday post. I've had the card done since last week but today has been crazy. When not working in my studio, I'm also a freelance writer and for the next two weeks I'm connecting with Texas musicians. Today, I just got lost in some pretty intense eyes and awesome voice. hehe

Today's card is a take on a card by Carolyn King. I found the card as part of her collection of coffee/tea themed cards in the February 2008 issue of Crafts n Things magazine (pg118-119).

For this card, Carolyn rounded the corners of the base and all the mats except the sentiment mat in the bottom right corner. She used SU cardstocks beginning with a Chocolate Chip base. She then added a layer of Old Olive topped with a layer of Whisper White. From there she divided the card in three horizontal areas. The top 1/4th is a mat of drown designer series paper. The bottom 1/3rd was a striped soft green desig

ner paper. To bring the 2 sections together, she created a band by layering a floral dp on chocolate chip, using it as a wide ribbon. She then centered a Chocolate Chip scalloped circle, matted with Old Olive then a coordinating DP circle. In the center of the circle she matted her stamped image on square mats.

I chose to flip things a bit, using items from the swap kit.

I turned everything vertical and eliminated the multiple layers. Everything except the sentiment (Studio G) came from the kit. The cup is from SU Morning Cup.

I'll try to get my behind out of bed earlier in the morning and have the Teapot Tuesday card posted at the beginning of the day.

Magazine Monday

Bob has gone back to Chicago, the house is quiet and I can get back to a working routine. Saturday night while he was at a Lodge meeting, I had four hours to live in the studio. I enjoyed some uninterrupted creative time while 70's music on the Direct TV/ Sirrus channel kept me company.

I started by looking through past card swap kits I've received and decided to start with January of this year and work my way back... all the way to April of 2011. Yeah, it's been that long since I've been able to keep up with the kits.

The card kit from January was all about tea and coffee. Yum! Talk about inspiration.

Flipping through my magazines, I found a LO in the Oct. 2009 issue of Crafts n Things magazine just perfect for one of the items in the kit... 3 individual coffee/ tea cups.

Ya'll know I'm not a big fan of non-traditional shaped/ sized cards but I seem to be doing more of them lately. Probably because the inspiration card calls to me. Do me! Do me! This particular card and LO was a 5"x5" card from Michele Boyer entitled Happy Anniversary. She used more vintage-toned DP and her images were 3 Dogwood flowers. Michele is a very talented paper artist. Aside from having her own blog, Paper Cuts, she has been featured in multiple publications and on-line company sites. I knew her name was familiar. Checking out her blog showed she is a Dirty Dozen alumni at SplitcoastStampers! If you really want to be inspired, check out Michele's GALLERY.

The papers is from Martha Stewart, the cups from TeaCup Parade by Printworks and the sentiment in the corner is from a Studio G coffee set. I colored the cups with Derwent WC pencils, popped them up for dimension and placed them over a vintage trim. The mini brads (Recollections) on the sentiment echo the black knots on the trim.

I hope you find inspiration and make time to play today!

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday

This week I'm revisiting another artist - Elizabeth Allan. I didn't intend to, it just happened. I guess when you find someone who's style you like, you can't help but tune into them.

I started with the image for this week from The OutLawz Freebie challenge. The watering can full of flowers seemed to lend itself to a birthday card. One of my nieces has a birthday next week an I thought this would be perfect for her.

Elizabeth used a Teal base and a different CB folder for her background. Her image was on a circle, matted with light pink then again in a teal scalloped circle. She stamped the sentiment in the bottom third of the card.

The watering can image didn't lend itself to a circle so I went with the clean lines, adding a bit of curve with the sentiment mat to mimic the curve in the heart on the watering can.

Although you can't see it very well, I inked the CB folder with Pretty in Pink before embossing the white cs. That is a neat technique if you want a 'letter press' look to your embossed image. Simply stamp ink all over the inside of the folder - the 1/2 that will be the top of your image. Place your CS in the folder and emboss as normal. Carefully remove your embossed image and wipe the folder clean with a bit of stamp pad cleaner and paper towel or a baby wipe.

Recipe:

Almost Amethyst (SU-Ret.)

Pretty in Pink

GP White

Happy Birthday CB folder

Pretty In Pink ink

Almost Amethyst ink (ret.)

Lavender Lace ink (ret.)

Watercolor Pencils (Derwent)

Digi Image from Sandie Hugget

Vintage Labels (SU)

Mini brads (Recollections)

Pop Dots

This also covers:

Magazine Monday

The Outlawz Freebie Challenge

Magazine Monday

Happy New Year everyone!

This week I'm not sharing inspiration from a magazine. I've joined a new group of creative people called The Outlawz. A couple of their members, Sandi Huggett and Anne Fenton, do beautiful digi images and offer up 2 Free every two weeks. To get the next ones, all you have to do is make something using the current freebies. Last week I squeaked in just under the wire with this candle card.

I used Pacific Point as my mat and colored in the candle an charger with Derwent watercolor pencils. The wick is a 6-strand piece of black embroidery floss.

Tomorrow is a very special Teapot Tuesday card.

Magazine Monday

Today’s card is a play on the production ‘Wicked’. I love the frog stamp. Don’t you think he’s cute?

My inspiration came from a card by Diane Jackson in the Take Ten Volume 4 called CELEBRATE. Each Take Ten issue has a challenge LO. This one called for a 6x3.25 card. I chose to use a 9x3.25 to accommodate a business-size envelope. It also meant I had a bit more room to work with. The first card was a challenge for me because I don’t work with this size as a rule so it took adjusting my creative brain to the new format. Once I did, I had fun creating cards – as you’ll see over the next 3 weeks. (yep, my cards are done and ready to post!)

I like to include links to the original artist’s page whenever possible. However, I could not find one for this Diane Jackson (Ponte Vedre Beach FL). If you know her, please let her know I thank her for her inspiration.

Diane used a black base with a purple print panel. Then a smaller white panel and a grape vine/ word patterned paper. Where I have WICKED, she spelled out CELEBRATE on white. My adorable frog replaces her cluster of grapes. I loved her card but needed something for my Halloween post.

My papers are from an old holiday slab, ValuCS neon green and SU Vintage Violet ink (letters) Tuxedo Memento Black for the frog

Magazine Monday

Wow!

It seems like it's taken me forever to get to this point. And, granted it's Monday evening before I'm getting the card up... let's just say life still isn't slowing down. I'm like an expectant father every time my phone rings or I get a text message I fear it's my daughter telling me to head for Nashville. Yep, we're still waiting on the granddaughter. But technically she isn't due to make an appearance til around the 14th, so we have some time.

This week's card was inspired by Michelle Boyer. Rather than go back to an old magazine, I decided to periodically pick up a new one and showcase a current artist or technique. She is in the Fall 2011 issue of Paper Creations (pg. 33). My copy pretty much fell open to this page. Combined with the fact I had the perfect image from

an kit swap I'm in at SCS, it just seemed to fall together. Oh yeah, and my challenge on the Stamp2Spend thread at SCS this week was to incorporate APPLES and CINNAMON... but the cinnamon had to be done in such a way that it scented the card - like a scratch n sniff.

So here's the card I came up with:

I think it's the energy-saving bulb that gave this a yellow cast. It really is Very Vanilla.

The image is from The Greeting Farm as are the apples. I water-colored the image with Derwent watercolor pencils. I colored the apples red and embossed them with a mix of Red Tinsel embossing powder and ground cinnamon. The image and the apple paper in the upper-left corner were from the kit swap, everything else came from my stash. The only thing I did different from Michele is where I have the all green background, she used 2 different DP papers in a top half, bottom half LO. She also used a vanilla strip where I have the polka dot and the sentiment was stamped directly onto it. I raised the image, vintage label and the apple in the upper corner with pop dots.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

I'm back!

It was not an easy journey. The HughesNet guy, Trevor, was really sweet. He had 3 modems on his truck 'new' from the company. It took the 3rd one to get one that worked. I also learned that I shouldn't have to shut my modem down. It sounds like HughesNet was hoping to extend the life of my modem until the warranty ran out and then I'd have to replace it. LOL I love their connection - just not their customer service.

On a more creative note, I'm scrambling to finish up 2 sistah packets to be mailed tomorrow. My daughter called this morning to ask how I felt about becoming a grandma NEXT WEEK! Ummm... if Abigail says that's when she wants grandma there, I guess it will have to work. LOL So I'm trying to get all of my deadline stuff out of the way by Monday - just in case.

So Monday, I will have a Magazine Monday card for you, at least 1 Teapot Tuesday card and then from there it's whatever I can accomplish while I wait to hear from my daughter.

Creative Blessings

Kel

Magazine Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!

There isn't going to be a new card for today. I'm on the final touches of the mini-album for the More Outstanding Mini Albums submission deadline. Which is tomorrow!

So for today, I'd like to suggest that you click on the I've been featured in Outstanding Mini Albums button to the right and see the new mini albums that Jessica has showcased in the past couple of weeks. The people who submit to her are so very talented. I hope I can produce what she's looking for. I don't want to compete - just fit in.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

Magazine Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!

Yep, I have a card and on time this week. I could say miracles happen but truth be told, I needed a card for my oldest sister's birthday last week so decided it was a good time to try and stay ahead of the game.

I'm still pulling from the 2005 issue of Take Ten Studios Volume 4. My card is done almost identical to Kathy Skinner's God Bless America (pg 70-71) She used a stripe stencil as her template to roll the stars and stripe wheel over to create image-stamped stripes on her white background. Would never have thought of that. (I'll have to do a card using that in the near future) She cut her red panel ribbon from CS, sponged the edges of a Stars and Stripes image (SU) and matted it on blue as her focal image. It was very striking and I thought the layout would play well with other images.

I chose to dry emboss my Very Vanilla base with the Happy Birthday folder, I made the ribbon from Anna Griffin DP and stamped the flower basket (Memories of the Heart - SU) I love working with my Derwent water color pencils. For the flowers I chose Light Violet, Deep Cadmium, Copper Beach, Sap Green and Pink Madder Lake.

Bob leaves for his 3 weeks in Chicago tomorrow. My plan is to do the Tea Pot Tuesday before I outline the rest of my very long To Do list.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday Returns!

Yep, although it is late afternoon I do have a card for this week. As I told you a few weeks back, I'd selected several 'inspiration' items from the 2005 Take Ten by Stampington. This week I combined MM with my SCS August Challenge envelope from Shell.

Shell's items for us to play with were some stamped images from Clear Dollar Stamps, a couple of mats of DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies paper and embellishments. I decided to get ahead of the game and get my daughter's birthday card done ahead of time. Sometimes I manage this better than others.

My inspiration card is by Jenn Mason. Her concept was Gifting in Ten Minutes... cards that include either a handmade postcard or a gift card. I'll be including a Starbucks GC in my daughter's. Although she isn't a big fan of pink, the color lent itself to the paper I had to work with. She'll live through one year. With a new baby girl due in just 4 weeks, it's not the only pink she's seeing these days.

You'll find a link to Jenn's website HERE and a link to her BLOG For Birthday Kitty, she used a beautiful image of a cat with a birthday hat from Lost Coast Designs stamped to the far right of a tri-fold card. She also used ribbon/ bow to attach the mat on the front of the card bearing the sentiment. I went girly and simplistic with mine. With my daughter, the less froo froo the better.

Because I know this is not a 'keeper' card, I used ValuCS in Baby pink to go with the DCWV DP.

I cut the 2 scoops of ice cream apart and popped the caramel scoop with 1 pop dot and the cherry with 2 pop dots. I also added red stickles to the cherry.

The grandtoddler is here this week so I don't see a lot of stamping going on. Well - except for her. She picked out 3 of her own stamps at Michaels yesterday and was stamping with Grandpa before bedtime... and again right after breakfast this morning.

Creative Blessings

Magazine Monday

We're back on-line and back to normal. I really enjoyed the peace and quiet without power last week. I was off for 48 hours - almost to the minute. Rather than try to clear the desk off downstairs, I sat and read the newest book in the Sons of Chance series by Vicki Lewis Thompson. She has become a dear writing friend over the past couple of years and has guest-blogged for me a couple of times at my author blog. It was nice to actually read a book while it was still new on the shelf. LOL

For this week, I'm taking a bit of a detour. The concept behind Magazine Monday was to apply some of the ideas I find in magazines. Well, I think it also applies to those technique books we just have to have. One of my favorites is Outstanding Mini Albums by Jessica Acs. She is such a talented lady. You can see her blog, as well as a link to purchase the album HERE

I told you a few weeks about about the altered CD mini-albums I was creating and teaching a class on. So I thought today I'd show pics of the completed album. I used the poem, 8 THINGS THAT DON'T COST A CENT. I have no clue where I got it from so if you know, please drop me a note so I may give credit where it's due. First the pics, then I'll give you a couple of tips.

The ones I did for the swap, I obviously had my brain turned off. To have enough pages to fit the poem, you need to cut 12 circles. I had 5 albums to make plus mine and I cut them all by hand! When I got ready to make up the kits for the class, I was inspired to use my Cricut. The circles are 4.75". I chose flowers from Recollections that matched the 50's style DCVW slab. I printed the poem on vellum so the background papers would still show through.

I love how this turned out. It could be used for so many things and a great way to repurpose those old CDs and DVDs.

Until next time...

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday!

It's storming in the Ozarks yet again but I did want to grab a quick couple of minutes and show you this week's card before I drop it in the mail.

I've nearly depleted my magazine stash. I find myself going back to the same ones over and over. That's a good thing, right? One area I haven't touched are the Take Ten magazines from Stampington. I love this quarterly publication because it's all about cards created by people who LOVE to play with ink/ stamps/ paper and cardstock. So for the next several weeks, all of the designs will come from my back issues of Take Ten.

This week I'm starting the series from the 2005 Volume 4 issue. Rather than be inspired by a layout, I had an idea in my head and went looking for one to coordinate. I spend a lot of my mornings in a local small-town cafe called Flossie's Apple Barrel. There are your regulars who come in. One gentleman just turned 95 years young last month. Ray Haynes is as sharp as a tack and has grown up around Winona MO all his life.

Until a week ago he's been getting around under his own steam. Still drives his little blue pickup to the cafe several days a week - just to get out of the house. But last week, Ray took a nasty fall and he's looking at several weeks in rehap at Birch Tree Care Facility. So I wanted to send Ray a card to hopefully brighten his day. Now if I can just sneak him in a piece of his favorite pie :-)

So with Ray in mind and a pre-stamped image from a swap in hand, I went through the Take Ten. The closest I could find to an idea I had is from Linda Beeson - check out her blog at PaperCutting Kind of Day. It's a really cool blog!

Linda's creation for this issue was called Giraffe Greeting. She used a image and sentiment from Stampin UP, coloring the giraffe with a yellow crayon (when's the last time we used those!) Her center panel is an animal print layered on a black cs strip. Her giraffe image was layered over a caramel stamped background which she'd mounted on black and it was off-set to the right of the card. She stamped the sentiment on a smaller matted square and overlapped the image a bit. Everything was neat, clean and crisp. Very pretty card.

Well, you know I like texture and before finding this, I'd already torn my paper strip. LOL All my papers were from the DCWV Old World slab and the image is from a retired SU set.

Here's what I came up with for Ray:

I decided not to color the truck. I thought it looked fine just the way it is. I think I am going to add a little color to the flowers. I was so concerned with getting this uploaded before I had to shut down due to storms, I didn't even think about it. LOL So picture those flowers with a bit of color.

Tomorrow I'll show you pics of the CD albums. They are finished and ready to go postal!

Magazine Monday

Happy Monday friends!

You'll notice an absence of card this week. I'm not even going to attempt a Magazine Monday on Tuesday kind of post. I'm just going to fluff off :-)

Today is the final day I'll have the teenaged friend and my husband home. Tomorrow he will drop her back off at her home in central IL on his way back to work in Chicago. Then my time will be my own to do whatever for the next three weeks.

Today, I'm taking Kassie to our local library where she can shop for used paper backs to take back home. Hard to believe my once 5 week old daycare child is now old enough to read the softer Harlequins :-D They grow up way to fast. But I am very proud of the young lady she has become.

This evening while Bob is off fishing, Kassie and I will be creating a CD album. This album is a project featured in Outstanding Mini Albums by Jessica Acs. I love her projects. They are so basic to do with beautiful results. I'm creating 5 of them for a swap with the theme... 8 Gifts That Don't Cost A Cent.

But first we're off to soak up the humid weather in search of a Pepsi Can. I'll explain it later... with pics.

Oh and while you're out and about... pick up the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studios. There are some great storage ideas you won't want to miss. I'm always inspired by these gals and it's how I met Roberta from The Love Shack!

For now... Have an awesome Crafty Week...