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!

Closing out 2010

Okay, it was brought to my attention I've not updated this blog since September. It's just been a really crazy, unusual year for me all the way around. But things are FINALLY settling into place and I've learned some things along the way.

Beginning the first week of January I will have specific types of things posted every day. Some days will have pictures, some days not. This will have to be based on the days I'm able to travel to WiFi. I hope you'll follow along on my new journey. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A-Z Grunge Tags

Wow... very chilly morning in Nashville. I wound up not getting into town last week so just decided these pics could wait until I got to my daughter's in Nashville. I can sit comfortably on her sofa and use the WiFi. I'm so spoiled. But I'm headed back to MO today... with my granddaughter as my co-pilot. She gets to spend the whole week with grandma so I probably won't get much creating done. Though she does like to play with my stamps, so.... maybe.

Here are pics of the Grunge Tag swap, I promised. I had the letters R and W. I had to make 26 of each letter and I'd get 26 tags back - 1 for each letter of the alphabet. Well... I wound up making 52

of each! The first set I mailed out, never made it to NY so 2 days past the deadline I was frantically recreating the 26 tags. When I create something, I keep a 'recipe' card of how I made it so when I post it to a gallery I can list what stamps, inks, papers, etc I used. Good habit to get into if you ever plan to submit for publication -just a tip. :-)

Well, it's time to pack up the laptop and head for MO. I'll check in later in the week with a couple of links I think you'll like.

Creative Blessings!

New Creations

FINALLY!

I was so excited to have the house to myself a couple weeks ago with nothing on the agenda except create. I managed to create 9 of the 17 cards for the Splitcoaststampers AUG. VirtualStampNight challenge. Each of the challenges had something to do with summer. Many suggested using a specific technique.

The first one I'm going to show today were were given a color pallet to work with and what we think of when we think summer. For me, it's camping. Of course, now that my house sits amongst 24 acres of timber I don't camp as much as I'd like. But I have the view from my back yard on any given clear night. The stamps I used were from 2 different SU sets. In The Sky is a retired hostess set and the other is one of my favorites... Lovely As A Tree.

One more card to show you. This one was to be reminiscent of the beach. We were to use a shell of some type. The only 'shell' I had was a stencil from the art box I used to use for daycare. I pulled out the light box, dry embossed several, then cut them out. The flip-flops are a Michaels $1 stamp. The netting in the background is drywall tape!

I'll be going into town in the next week and be able to share more with you. I've recently taken part in an A-Z Grunge tag swap. I made 26 identical tags for each the letter R and the letter W. In exchange I got 2 each of every letter of the alphabet made by some very creative gals. Can't wait to show you!

Creative Blessings!