Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Third Time's the Charm?

Drum roll please.... Post #3 for today! Woo-hoo! (Check here for my Magnolia card and here for my DSB card.)

This card is for the January sketch on Jen del Muro's i{heart}2stamp blog, part of her SFYTT (Sketch For You To Try) monthly challenge.  The sponsor was The Cat's Pajamas and although we didn't have to use their stamps, I am a TCP fan and was happy to use some TCP stamps on my card.


I just love those little TCP penguins! They always look like they're having such a good time!

Magnolia Recipe Challenge

Wow, two posts in one day! (Scroll down to see my weekly DigiStamp Boutique card.) It's been a while since I participated in a challenge, so I decided to play along with this recipe challenge from the Magnolia-licious Highlites blog.


The recipe called for 4 flowers, 3 different patterned papers, 2 Magnolia stamps and 1 ribbon. I paired this adorable Tilda with the Magnolia bench. (I love that stamp - it looks so cute with all the sitting Tildas & Edwards!)  Although the green paper looks solid it actually has a very subtle floral pattern on it. The green and paisley papers are both from the Tiffany stack by We R Memory Keepers. Other supplies: pink swirl dp (Paper Studio), flowers (Prima), ribbon (Michaels), leaf punch (MS), copper brads, pop-dots and Copic markers.

DSB Birthday Greetings

Today's DSB card features the adorable Shelly from the Murtle and Shelly collection.

Supplies: Shelly turtle with cake (DSB), kraft and pink cardstock, Noir Palette ink (TAC), ribbon (Michaels), greeting (retired-TAC), pink swirl db (Paper Studio), Simply Delightful stack (My Minds Eye), glitter brads (We R Memory Keepers) and Copic markers.

Be sure to visit the DigiStamp Boutique on Monday to check out the new releases!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

A Promise Kept

When I cleaned out my craft room recently, I found myself hesitating over a flower punch that I'd bought but never used much. I decided to keep it, but made a promise to myself that I would use it soon. Thus the inspiration for today's card. Not only did I use that poor forgotten punch, all the paper is from my scrap stash and the flower rick rack is from an old PWCO PaperCard Kit.


Supplies: Picnic Fun plaid paper (A Walk in the Park Collection, Echo Park), buttons (Paper Studio), ribbon (Michaels), sentiment (retired-TAC), Noir Palette Ink (TAC), leaf punch (Emagination) and assorted cardstock scraps.

Friday, January 28, 2011

An Almost Not-So-Fab Friday

My original Fab Friday project had some, ummm, "technical difficulties". But, I have a wonderful project link to share with you instead!

I ran across this adorable Valentines project on Laurie Schmidlin's Just Give Me Stamps blog the other day and bookmarked it:  Heart-Shaped Goodie Box . I've been looking for an excuse to buy those heart-shaped Nesties. ;-)
 
You'll have to scroll down part way to find the heart shaped box tutorial. On your way down, check out the link for her mini notecard holder. It's pretty awesome, too!

Have a wonderful weekend! I'll be checking in on Sunday with a new DigiStamp Boutique card and I may even sneak in another card on Saturday.


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Oops!

I finished my Wednesday with Wings card Monday, photographed it on Tuesday but completely forgot to schedule my post for today! I remembered at work - eek! This will be a fast post, because I have to go back to work shortly to sell tickets for tonight's basketball game.

This week's card has a definite vintage feel from the dainty violets (Flower Trio set) to the rich vintage papers (Juliette SWIC with Kraft & Ivory TAC cardstock). I used Prismacolor pencils and OMS to color in the images. (I don't have the right Coic colors. My purple selection is growing, but it's not there yet.)

Other supplies: Burnt Umber Palette ink, MS daisy border punch, dark brown ribbon, flat-backed pearls, distressing tool

Sunday, January 23, 2011

DigiStamp Dinos

After some debate, I've decided to leave Sunday as my "DigiStamp Boutique day". So, here's this week's card, which features the adorable Rex and Roxy.


I think they make a cute baby card - something a little different from the usual (often girly) stuff. Perfect for a baby boy, especially. (The dp is from a mat stack that I bought at Hobby Lobby.)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Fab Friday

I ran across this adorable Valentines project a week ago and knew it would be perfect for Fab Friday!


I wanted to try this out first. It was a really easy project to put together, in part because of the great tutorial. I love step-by-step photos! (My apologies for the photo - my project doesn't show up very well against my work surface. Once my craft room renovations are complete, I hope to move my "photo studio" to another area of my craft room.)


(The sentiment is from a TAC set (Mice Day-T3301). The cardstock and dp were from my stash.)

If you're in the mid-MO area and would like some hands on help making this project, I'll be hosting a Valentines workshop on Sunday, January 29th. We'll be making one of these mini-mailboxes, as well as a candy bar wrapper and the Mice Day Valentines Day card recently featured on my blog. If you're interested in attending, please email me (lisajtmo@yahoo.com) no later than Thursday January 27th.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

SNOWED IN!

For the second week in a row, we've been hit by a winter storm. Between holidays and snow days, I've lost track of what day it is. I realized when I woke up this morning that I never posted Wednesday with Wings card yesterday. Oops!!

I'd love to say I spent the day in my craft room today having fun, but I didn't. However, I finally put all of my Christmas decorations away (YAY!!) and did some more sorting/purging in my craft room -- and I did finally manage to make a card this afternoon (double YAY!!).

Today's card is a two-fer. I recently discovered the 365 Cards blog. It's awesome - there is a new challenge each and every day, so there's sure to be one you like. I knew as soon as I saw Wednesday's Bliss challenge that I wanted to make a card with this image TAC's Good Dog set. And, while bloghopping this afternoon I stumbled across Mischelle Smith's card for Heather Scott's Sketch Challenge #135. It's been a long time since I played along with one of Heather's sketches, so I decided to try this one out and combine it with the 365 Bliss challenge. Fun!

Supplies: Good Dog-T3296, Kraft and Ivory cardstocks (TAC), Lilly Anna SWIC and coordinating cs (TAC), Palette Noir ink (TAC), Petunia Pink Versamark Ink, distressing tool, brown and pink ribbon, pink rhinestones, Copic markers.

Copics used: Collar: R83, R85, R59; Dog: Y21, YR20, E35, E31 and R83 (inside ears); Shadow/ground: W1, W3.


Now, that's one blissed out dog! :) She reminds of me my dog, Dixie, when she lays on her back and gets her belly rubbed. (I tried to color the dog image to look like Dixie, who is a yellow lab.)

Monday, January 17, 2011

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

It's not perfect, but my craft room clean up is (almost) complete! I actually spent some time creating in my room this afternoon and it was so nice!! I don't have any "before" pictures, but suffice it to say that I hadn't seen an inch of my counter in months and you couldn't walk anywhere in the room without stepping over something. Here's what it looks like now.

Desk area. Mostly, I just cleaned this. I've had the tilt bins for embellishments for a long time. (Very convenient, although not portable.) I love these stackable ribbons holders from Michaels. I also have a little ribbon storage tutorial here for ribbon that's not on spools. That thing under the right side of my desk holds my ink pads. It's actually some kind of tool box I bought at Home Depot years ago.
Here's the corner of my desk, which is obscured in the above photo by the grid cubes. My absolute favorite thing is my new craft tote for my Copic markers. I was inspired by Shelly's storage idea (I even have that same tote) but, alas, her Copic collection is obviously much bigger than mine. I couldn't fill the tote enough to keep my markers upright. This tote is just the right size and, if my Copic collection ever outgrows it, I can move the refills to separate storage and use those pockets for markers. (I only put them in the tote because they fit.)
 
My Scor-Pal is hung on the wall (I'm paranoid it will get broken so I keep it up and out of the way). Some of this storage is repurposed - ribbon scraps are in a mason jar, and my pencil cup is an aluminum can covered with pretty paper. Most of my TAC stamp stamps are in CD cases. I bought these new photo boxes (50% off at Hobby Lobby this week) because my old ones had broken lids. To decorate the boxes, I used strips of some Tim Holtz paper I bought recently on clearance at Michael's. I've decided on a black/pink/white color scheme. I'm never going to have the time or ambition to repaint the walls, so I decided to work with what I've got!

Bookshelves: This isn't all scrapbook stuff. (there are books & office supplies in there, too.) I store all kinds of things on these shelves - everything from magazines, to more stamps (in binders), to all of my 12X12 cardstock and paper stacks/pads. This area needs more work, but I need to decide how to store some of my larger stamp sets. (I'm not thrilled with the binders -- too awkward to leaf through.)
More paper. The crate stores 8.5 X 11" paper in hanging folders. The clear 12X12 paper holds my patterned paper. I got these on sale at a local (now extinct) scrapbook store.

Area next to my desk: This saw the biggest re-do. I switched out a plastic cart with 3 deep drawers for this set of grid cubes (Target). I added extra "shelves" by attaching panels with zip-ties inside the cubes. The 2 black boxes were a "buy one, get one" deal from Michaels last week. One holds all my autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving themed paper and the other holds Christmas/winter paper. The papers were previously stored in 12X12 plastic envelopes, which were getting old & cracked. The boxes can also hold autumn and Christmas embellishments with the papers - an added bonus! Wood mounted stamps are in plastic trays (re-purposed shadow box frames) on the bottom shelf. These were previously exiled to my craft room closet. I think they'll get more use now. I left my paper flowers in their original packaging, but corralled them in the little white bin. My bulk buttons are also in their original snap-top packages on the top shelf (next to the flowers).
I love the wooden shelves in this photo & above my work surface.) Purchased at a going out of business sale, they were display shelves made of real wood -- sturdy and pretty! Oh, and if you're wondering about the weird holes in the wall... For several years, I was plagued with water seeping into the room. (My craft room in my basement.) DH finally had to do a little "excavating" to determine the cause. (I'm hoping now that the room is clean, he'll be inspired to patch up the wall.)

Oh, and of course I have to close my post with the card I made today in my CLEAN room! :)

I've used one of my favorite female DSB characters, Birthday Poppy. The birthday ticket is part of a great new Birthday Sentiment set also available in the shop. I'm happy to say this card also features paper from my scrap stash, ribbon from my scrap jar, and some buttons from those sometimes ignored tilt bins. :)

BELLA B DESIGNS BLOG HOP PARTY: For more great organizing ideas, be sure to follow the links below.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Fab Friday Returns!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm revamping my posting schedule with the new year. One of the changes I'm making is the return of "Fab Friday". What's Fab Friday? Well.... it may be a freebie I've found, it maybe a link to an amazing tutorial or whatever else I think is Fab that week. ;-)

This week's Fab Friday is about organizing your crafting supplies. There's something about a new year that just lends itself to a major reorganization & cleaning. That's certainly what I've been doing since the start of the new year.

Today I ran across this invitation to a craft room blog hop: Bella's Link Party/Blog Hop. Check out the blogs that are linked at the bottom of the post. There are some great tips out there! My favorite one was Karen's Sew Many Ways craft room makeover. Not only because it looks FABULOUS (don't you wish you had that much space?) but because it has a lot of great, low cost tips.

I subscribe to BHG's Scrapbooks Etc. newsletters and the most recent one featured lots of articles/links on organizing your craft supplies. I have to say that I don't normally find their tips all that useful, but I found some good ideas here: Low-Cost Scrapbook Storage Solutions and Mini Storage Solutions. (I still hate that you have to page through the tips one at a time.)

My plan for this weekend is to finish my room so that I can join in Bella's craft room blog hop. I can't wait to be done so I can sit back and enjoy crafting in my room. :)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Wintry But Warm Wednesday with Wings

Brr! We got snow on Monday and are in the midst of a deep freeze. (High today: 14 degrees.)  I've taken advantage of the snow days to work on my craft room (I can see the top of my crafting surface for the first time in a very, very long time!) and work on some cards. For this week's Angel Company card, I decided to use these cute and cuddly little mice to make a Valentines card:

Aww!! :)

Although this isn't a Valentines set I thought this happy couple, along with the sentiment, made a fitting Valentines card. You can see some other sweet projects featuring other stamps from this set on Mischelle's TAC Savvy Projects blog:
Copic Coloring Tutorial (card)
What a Treat Backpack with matching notebook

Supplies: Mice Day (T3301), Miss Moxie SWIC (V841), Noir and Moulin Rouge Palette ink, Scarlet cardstock, Lupine Bazzill cardstock, Copics, scallop border punch (Fiskars), heart button

Monday, January 10, 2011

Sweethearts

Oh, the weather today is frightful, but these two are very delightful:



Supplies: Pippa and Sonny (DigisStamp Boutique), scallop border punch (Fiskars), heart punch (Creative Memories), Copics, Scarlet cardstock (The Angel Company), organza ribbon, pink striped paper, Valentine confetti. 

Despite the snow outside, I am SO done with winter & Christmas. If we get a snow day tomorrow, I'm looking forward to finishing up my craft room reorganization and spending some time working on Valentines Day projects. Spring, here I come! (Even if Mother Nature is not cooperating!)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Schedule Changes for the New Year

I'll be changing my posting schedule for the New Year. I haven't quite worked out the new schedule, but my TAC feature will remain on Wednesdays as part of "Wednesday With Wings". I'm moving my DigiStamp Boutique feature to another day (TBD) and I"m planning on bringing back an older feature - Fab Friday.

The past week I've been working a lot on cleaning out my craft room as part of my fresh start for the New Year. I've thrown out some stuff, given away other stuff and sold a few things as well. I'm proud to say that my craft room floor no longer resembles an obstacle course! :) I can't wait until it's all done so I can get back into full craft mode. I know that a cleaned up, streamlined craft room will make creating a much easier and more enjoyable process!

Tomorrow night I'll post a cute new Valentine featuring this month's DSB release, Pippa and Sonny. You can check out Pippa and Sonny as well as the rest of the January DSB release here: DSB January release page.


Friday, January 7, 2011

More Mini Valentines

Here's another mini-Valentine designed to fit the mini envelopes from Archivers.



Isn't that little doggie so cute? He's part of the Puppy Love set from There She Goes (TSG) stamps.

Brr! The weather is turning colder by the minute. It will be a good weekend to stay in and stamp! Come back on Sunday to see some more projects using this month's DSB special offer, Pippa and Sonny.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A Teeny Weeny Wednesday with Wings

When I was at Archiver's last week, I found these oh so adorable little envelopes:




I just had to get some!

For this week's Wednesday with Wings project, I decided to use this cute little GWP stamp from The Angel Company. (GWP stamps are FREE with an order o $30 or more. Email me for details.)



Come back Friday for another cute little mini Valentine idea.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

January Images from DSB

What perfect timing! Sally-Ann's internet was restored just in time to issue some cute new images for this week's DSB Sunday card. This little sweetie is called Pippa and you can find her, along with her sweetie Sonny, at the DigiStamp Boutiqe.They're part of the January Offer of the Month.


Here's Pippa and Sonny sharing a kiss. :) They'd make a cute couple for Valentines' Day cards! :)



Saturday, January 1, 2011

January DigiStamp Boutique images

Sally-Ann is having some computer issues, so the monthly announcement of new DigiStamp Boutique images will be a little late this month. Stay tuned! Hopefully, things will be resolved soon.