Wild Thing Mini Book

Here is another cover of a different mini book I made for my boss.  This was a Christmas gift for her neice.  She said her neice loved animal print and I couldn't resist this sticker when I found it!!

Ella Mini Book

I have been having so much fun creating mini books for friends and family.  This is one I made for my co-worker Jamie.  I love the fabric she had picked out for the nursery and was thrilled to be able to incooperate it into this book.

This book gave me a chance to play with all the girly colors I love playing with!!

My Notes

I needed a book to keep notes in for work and figured what would be better than a one of a kind creation of my own making...something to bring some brightness to my day when I need it.  This is what I came up with...

Best Friends...

Hi everyone - 5 days straight...I wonder how long I can keep this up???

So how do you thank a friend for always being there for you? For over 11 years my best friend has been at my side and now that I am going through this divorce they are even more supportive for me. Now most people who will read this will and say that is what a best friend is for ~ the only difference for me is my best friend is a guy. I talk to him about everything and he always offers me a shoulder to cry on if needed and does his best to lift me up when I'm down. He was the main force behind my starting church almost a year ago and is working on helping me find my self confidence. I wanted to show him how important he was to me when he had his birthday so I picked two of my favorite quote from the bible and framed them for him...

The quote for this is Esslesiates 3:1-8

A Time for Everything
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

The second one is 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7



4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I will say that he did appreciate both of these. It does make me feel good when I am able to make a gift from scratch and have some one enjoy it.

I used Inspired by Nature for both of these and various sizes of scalloped circle and a sponge dauber to create the skies. The sayings are printed on vellum and mounted over the backgrounds.

Desk Top Photo Book

Hi all - 3 days of posting...Oh My!! First of all I hope everyone is having a blessed day! I'm so excited to go to church this morning and find out what our first sermon of the new year will be... I have scheduled this to post while I'm at church today, who knows what will be going on once I get home ;)

I made this a few months ago, I just never felt like publishing it. You will notice that the pictures displayed have my soon to be ex in them and i am talking about being happily married. I am still proud of the album.

12 Month Card Organizer

I was greatly inspired by Patty's Stamping Spot to create this project. It is so very easy to make and is a wonderful gift to give someone.

I used my Cricut Expressions to create the title, using the Calligraphy cartridge for the font, my DD picked out the colors and papers for the organizer so I'm giving it to her to be able to track and store the cards she makes for people's special occasions. We used the retired Bali Breeze DS and the coordinating card stock and ribbon.

The supply list is pretty short: 6 pieces 12 x 12 DS paper, the chipboard support piece from the pack of paper, BIA, large O rings (1" or larger), accent paper, embellishments.

Start by scoring your paper at 4" then turning and scoring it at 6". You want the score marks to cross on the paper. Fold at the 4" score mark first to create the pocket and then fold at the 6 " mark to create the two pages. Repeat for the remaining 5 pieces of DS paper.

This is what that stack should look like:

Next decorate your covers and punch your holes through all the pages and covers with the BIA. I chose to bind at the top and bottom of the book, but you could create the rings all the way down if you wanted.
I forgot to take a picture of the inside pages and the calender section, but you can go here and download the months from Splitcoast Stampers.

I hope everyone enjoyed my rambling first tutorial...I promise as I do more I will get better at it ;)

Punch Book & Card

Hi everyone!! I made this great little book a few days ago and haven't had a chance to share it with everyone. Tami White offered a Punch Fun Class where she shared with you 20 different paper art designs you can make with your SU! punches - like a horse, hamburgers, camera and popsicles. Along with the instructions came an On Board Art Journal. I decided I had to dress my journal up so this is what I came up with. I used my Spiral punch to punch the length of my Brilliant Blue card stock and matched it with Jersey Shore DS. I pulled out my Cricut Expressions to create the title using the Tear Drop cartridge. I made my shadow using Textured Basic Black and my letters using Wild Wasabi. The medallion on the bottom uses 6 different punches to create a flower. I also decorated the back of the book using the same layout, just with no lettering...

Since I had some leftover card stock I decided to make a card to match my book...my base is Brilliant Blue with the Jersey Shore DS layered on top. About half way down I added a ribbon holder from the Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware, which is retiring this year :( and some coordinating Jersey ribbon. I made a slip knot towards the edge of the card and left a little tail for some added interest. I used Heartfelt Thanks for my main image inked in Only Orange, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green and Old Olive and outlined in Basic Black. I inked the edges in Only Orange and mounted it on Brilliant Blue and then on Wild Wasabi, both of which have had the edges inked in tone on tone. The sentiment comes from Short & Sweet and is inked in Only Orange and has the edges inked in Brilliant Blue. All-in-all this is one of my favorite cards - and in a color family that I rarely use...guess I will need to break into those Bold Brights more often!!

Priceless Memories

I decided to make another mini book today patially becaues they are so easy to do and partially because they are adictive!! Instead of a book of tags, this one is a mini scrapbook...it has been a long time since I worked on my scrapbook and this has really given me a kick start to work on them some more...

Danny got to pick out the paper color and pattern that I used so he went with Blue Bayou Prints Designer Series paper and I picked Priceless for the main stamp set. I pretty much stayed with 3 colors for the whole book, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Whisper White, with just a touch of Basic Black.

I added a good mix of my favorite pictures. I think this is a perfect size to tuck into my purse and be able to pull out quickly and easily to show my loved ones off...

I had to include a picture of our Davidson Puppy...even though we lost her over a year ago, she is still a part of the family and greatly missed. I kinda feel bad that my puppies Bonnie and Clyde didn't make it into this book, so I guess that means I'll just have to make another one...

I'm thinking this is going to be a great little gift I can make for people. I'm guessing the next few I make will be for grandparents and family members.

Supplies:

Paper - Blue Bayou DS, Sofk Sky, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stamps - Priceless, Baroque Motifs, That's Nice

Inks - Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou

Accessories - Bind-It-All, Step Corner Punch, Ribbons, Ticket Corner Punch, Tag Corner Punch, Photo Corners Punch

Mini book for Hubby...

Yesterday my DH came home from work quite a bit earlier than usual. While we were thrilled to see him at dinner time, I was curious as to what had happened at work. He told me he had a really bad day, some of the higher ups were in his shop most of the day, his co-worker was not getting as much done as he needed to, trucks were needing more parts than they had on hand...the list just kept going, all-in-all just a yucky day. He was feeling a little depleated so I wanted to make him a little something to be able to keep with him, so when work starts to bring him down he has something from us to help lift him back up.

I have been seeing these great mini-books using the Bind-It-All and of course wanted to make one...I found a great tutorial on Barb Mullikin's blog Stampin' IS my job (how cool of a title is that??) on how to make one so off I went to my room to try to make hubby feel better...

I started with a peice of Brilliant Blue 12 x 12 Prints Designer Series Paper and layered a piece of 3 1/2 x 2 1/4" textured Basic Black cardstock with a piece of 3 1/4 x 2" piece of Whisper White. I used Baroque Motifs for my main image, the large swirl was inked with Bashful Blue and the small flower was inked in Soft Sky, both images were stamed off one time before being stamped onto my cardstock. On top of the background I used a stamp from Smarty Pants inked in Brilliant Blue.

All the inserts are Whisper White cut to 3 1/2 x 2 1/4" . I followed the same stamping pattern as I did on the front of the book. I used the stamps from Smarty Pants to add the tone for each tab. On the back of each card I wrote a personal message for DH that related to the stamp. On the final tab I used a stamp from the Occassions Mini Full of Life, just to help keep things in perspective. I can say that he was very happy with it and tucked it into his work shirt for today so he can keep it close incase today is as bad as yesterday. I think I will be making similar books for each of the kids to take to school with them next year...

Summer Challenge Done!!

I was able to complete my summer challege cards today from Susan Daly...and these are what I came up with using the goods supplied and a little from my stash...

First I made this 6 x 6 double page layout. I sponged the outer 1/4 inch edge of the Pixie Pink cardstock with Pink Passion to add the look of another layer. Then I stamped with my Embrace Life in tone on tone for the pink and green layers. I cut the Ginger Blossom DS 1/2 inch smaller than the background to keep my border visible. I layered some River Rock Double Stitched ribbon on the Old Olive rectangles to help add some interest.

The next project I made was this Believe card. I started with a 5 x 4 1/2 inch card base of Pixie Pink and layered a piece of Old Olive wrapped with Linen Thread. I stamped the ribbon from Hope Is in White Craft ink on Basic Black and colored it with my Prismacolor Pencils in shades of pink when it dried. I heat embossed the word Believe in clear on Whisper White cardstock and sponged Pretty in Pink over it. I also sponged Rose Red on the mini clothes pins to try to keep the pink theme going. I added a small pink silk rose to the corner to finish it off. I'm very happy with how this card turned out.

The next project I did was the little gift box. I stamped the swirl from Baroque Motifs in Blush Blossom amd the small blossom in Perfect Plum, stamping it 3 times before I re-inked it to get a nice faded look to the flowers. I stamped Cherish in Elegant Eggplant and finished the whole thing off with some thin organza ribbon.

My next card was the So Saffron Z fold card. It had a few swirls stamped in tone on tone so I added some more swirls and Rose Red butterflies from Priceless. I stamped an extra butterfly on Very Vanilla and cut it out an mounted it on a bit of coiled wire to give it a little bounce. I stamped the sentiment in Old Olive and finished it off with some Old Olive Poly-Twill ribbon.

The final card I made was this one. I started with a Rose Red base and stamped some swirls from Priceless and then layered some Ginger Blossom DS and covered the seam with River Rock Double Stitched ribbon. I stamped the sentiment on Confetti Cream in Rose Red and layered it on a piece of Basic Black. I wrapped the ends with Linen Thread and added a small Library Clip with more Linen Thread tied to it. The main image is from a soda can that was colored, embossed and stamped. I finished off the card by piercing the upper right corner.

The final project was a 6 x 6 piece of desk art. I started with 6 x 6 piece of Going Gray and layered a piece of 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 textured Basic Black cardstock. On that I layerd 2 1/2 inch squares of Pixie Pink and Ginger Blossom papers. I stamped the swirl from Priceless on the pink squares and them used a black rub-on from the SAB set with swirls and flowers onto the squares. In the lower right corner I added another rub-on that says "You make me happy."

I'm very happy with all of the projects I was able to make from this kit. Susan thank you so much for letting me join. I hope everyone like what I was able to come up with.

Michael's Challenge

Hi again, as most of you know I work part time at Michael's Crafts (to help support my habit...) and a few weeks ago there was a board posted by the break room that's white with a question in the middle that says "How do you define Michael's?" The goal is for everyone to put up something that we feel defines what Michael's means to us...there were jokes about pay stubs and work schedules going up, but the point was to put up something that you would go to Michael's for...so I got out my Cricut Expression last night and combined my 2 loves...flowers and paper crafts and came up with this... it is about 15 inches high and was made using the Walk in my Garden cartridge. I mounted it onto a piece of clear acetate to help give it some stability and then trimmed it once the adhesive dried. I also added a tag to the ribbon that said "Michael's allows me to express my creativity!" I also put up a few cards to help add some color to the board. So far the reaction to my flowers has been pretty good. I can't wait to see what you think of it!!

My Husband Book...

I did this project for my DH for Valentines Day (anyone who knows me knows that he has already gotten the book...yes I know it is a couple of weeks until Valentines, I just don't have the patience to wait for it to get here...)...it is my first altered item and I had an absolute blast creating it...it is a board book that has had the pages cut down to spell out the word husband, the letters are part of the page that was cut (that was a little tricky...lots of curves) and then I covered the book in some Stampin' Up! Prints Designer Series Papers using the colors Rose Red and Certain Celery. The letters are cut out of Tempting Turquoise. I had to make sure that I cut a front and a back letter so it would look finished from all angles. For the covers I used a demin print patterned paper. I discovered as I was putting this together that layers didn't really work in a board book, so I played with inking the edges of my journaling to give it the look of layers without adding too much bulk. I went through all of our family pictures and picked some of my favorites to tell the story of our 14 years together so far...Some of the pictures made the kids laugh...especially at dad's bushy beard period. DH was quite surprised, even as he was telling me that it wasn't Valentine's yet...he was quite moved at the work that went into making this surprise for him. He was (and always will be) worth what ever extra effort it takes.