L'Shana Tova

I finally got around to making a banner for the New Year. I had great aspirations of decorating each panel with flowers or other "prettiness" but time got away from me. Still its nice - and I used a bunch of my stash!!  Maybe 15 or so sheets of 12 x 12 paper that I had been "saving" for good - bet you have some of that too!!

The paper is from Scrap In A Snap - a now defunct company for whom I was a consultant. Everything was cut with my new Expression - I used Basic George for the triangles and the letters.

My sister should get her gift tomorrow so over the w/e I'll post the pix.

L'Shana Tova to those that celebrate and thanks to all for stopping by!

A fast card!

Here is a fast and easy card I sent to my DD this weekend. The flower stamp is one from Gina K designs. I was smart when I first got the set and stamped quite a few with memento black ink and colored them with copics in several color schemes. They've sat on my desk for months and every once and a while I decide to use one in a card. I just ran some purple c/s through the Big Shot with the SU! dots embossing  folder - I had a certainly celery butterfly cut from the SU! butterfly die in my stash so I also ran it through the dots embossing folder - put a little pearl "ribbon" from Hobby Lobby on for the body -attached with a glue dot - and had a super fast card - took me like 5 mins - but thats only cuz the "ingredients" were mostly done. Oh yeah - I also used the SU!hole punching template thingie (whose proper name escapes me right now LOL) to make the little triangle design in the corners...you know - for a nonSU! demo - I sure to have ALOT and use ALOT of their supplies LOL

. I am hoping to create a little "stash" of ingredients for future fast cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Two days in a row - can you believe it?? Although the pictures don't look like it- these are actually the same color IRL. One of these days I really gotta find a better way to take pictures of projects.

I made my sister a gift for her bday - but I think she stops by here - so you're gonna have to wait till she sees it but I'm gonna "risk" the card!

Supplies - Basic Grey patterend paper, Fiskars border punch, circle punch Ek Sucess, glitter, scor-tape, SU! always artichoke cardstock, SU! stamps  vintage labels and whimsical words (both retired Sale a bration stamps) and lace ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for stopping by! Andrea

A card!! Yeah!!

I finally got to play with paper!!!

I made a quick card for my DD who is spending her sophmore high school semester in a semester school in the North Carolina mountains.

 Its an amazing program and opportunity for her - but needless to say I miss her - so y'all may be seeing lots and lots of cards. So far I've sent her several from my stash.

Today's card uses some retired SU! patterned paper,SU! retired barely banana grosgrain ribbon, SU! tempting turqouise cardstock. As well as punches (y'all know I love punches) I used the SU! tab punch and the two step bird punch. The I love you stamp is an oldy clear stamp from ages ago and I have no clue who made it. Oh yeah - the border is a fiskars (?) border punch - I'll have to check on that

Here is a close up on the "trio". I've noticed that many of the cards I seem to admire are grouping details together so I thought I'd give it a try.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mini Album Tutorial - Books I've Read so I won't buy duplicates anymore!

Oh how I've missed crafting! Like lots of folks - summer is a busy time here - and quite frankly - I just haven't had the mojo - till today!!

I've missed scrapbooking - I have a problem - I have two teen girls (well one will be twenty next month) who refuse - flat out refuse - to let me take their picture - kinda makes it difficult to scrapbook, no? Yuppers I have tons and tons of old photos I could do - but that would take organizing them - I'll leave that for another time.

But I do love my mini albums - my theme albums. I do think this is my favorite type of album - partly cuz its one story from beginning to end. I love to come up with different type of mini albums.

Unlike my friend, Sharon, I hardly ever like my first effort at a new technique or type of project. I learn as I go - she likes to carefully think and plan each move she makes - hence, her first efforts are great and mine are learning tools.

So why am I boring you with this? I had an idea for a mini album and wanted to "test it" I decided to make a little booklet of books I've read so far. I don't like to read the back of the book as I feel it gives away too much of the story - and since I read so much - sometimes (often) I forget if I've read a book and then buy it twice - course most of my books come from our neighborhood used bookstore so its not as huge a mistake but still it wastes money!!

Here is the booklet I made - I didn't make the cover too "pretty" with embellishments cuz I figured they'd get ruined in my purse.

Inside Flap - I love this book stamp from my stash - I watercolored it in with SU! Tempting Turquoise.

I used the Bind It all to bind the book and index cards for the pages - I figured I better have lines to write on! Neat I'm not LOL

Here is where I had  my "new" idea. I use cereal boxes for cardboard all the time. I have tried lots of glues and like Zip Dry the best. You need to sand the cereal box first. It adheres well but what I don't like is the sides of the book - you can see the cardboard between the pieces of cardstock - I just don't like it.. So I figures since I'm making a mini album why not "wrap" the cover. Here - I'll show you what I mean.

Clean Edges!!

Sample Page

Now that I know I like how this comes out - I plan on making pages from cardstock and making a mini scrapbook album. Look at what I want to use for the cover

Whew!! I got long winded today!! Sorry about that! Thanks for stopping by! Andrea

Stash Busters!! 4 Quick and Easy Cards

Ok so I have lots of "goals" this summer - some crafty and some not - One of my major Crafty goals is to use up some of my stash. If you've seen my SB room online or in person - you can tell I have lots and lots of paper - lots  of it is from the early days and I don't love it anymore - so guess -what I'm gonna find a way to use it or give it to someone else (like a school).

Idea 1)
Personally - I think since I just got the Cricut Expression (YEAH) I'll use it - either for projects or practice cuts - I don't know about y'all - but when I cut something with my Cricut I often have to so a second cut cuz the size is wrong -

Idea 2) Envelopes for the cards I make and am encouraging myself to SEND vs Store and thus increase the STASH

So my youngest is at camp for 3 weeks and I try and mail a card to her almost everyday. Thats a good way to bust my STASH!!!

Here are 4 quick cards I made with the DCWV Green 4 x 6 mat stack, SU! kraft and SU! sahara sand cardstock.

This last one I was in the ozone I guess when I cut the base cardstock cuz it was 6 x 4.25 (instead of 5.5 x 4.25) and it won't fit in a normal A2 envelop so I made an envelop with my Expression and the Wild Card cartridge. I am putting the paper inside out so the printed side is on the inside and it will look like a liner and the outside will be white and easy for the post office to read.

Thansk for stopping by! I'm sure I'll have lots more cards over the next few weeks -

Andrea

PS note to self - another big crafty goal is to make a SB page!!

Another Crochet Purse

I love it!! This is my latest crochet purse and I gotta say - my favorite by far! I don't know if y'all are like me - but most of the time I don't really "love" what I make - I tend to see what I could a /should a done differently that would make it better. But this one - I love. I used it tonight for the first time and it works great - right size - light - pretty -

I seem to not be able to follow patterns. well - I mean I know how and all but somehow when I get involved in a  pattern my brain just veers off and starts down its own path and before I know it - I'm way off what the designer intended. Which is fine - once you are somewhat familiar with the craft and know what you're doing. Not so fine when you're first starting out with a craft which explains why I didn't like some of my earlier purses.

So after making several earlier purses - I had an idea in my head that turned into this one - I didn't use a pattern - and unfortunately I didn't write down how I did this one because I think I'd like to make another one with different colors. But maybe I can figure out how to get "close".

I did have a pattern that I mostly followed for the rose flower. Its from Fashion Flowers to Crochet by Darla Sims published by American School of Needlework. Isn't it cute?

Thanks for stopping by! Till next time - Andrea