Happy New Year's Eve 2018

Journal Walk Through and 1st YouTube Video

Hello everyone, I hope your 2018 was a crafty success.  I managed to squeak in one of my goals of 2018 before the ball dropped!  I created and uploaded my first YouTube Video.  It is a walk through of my December Daily Journal for 2018. 

The journal is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" with a 1" spine.  The flaps were created with index cards and are mostly 3x4", but there are a few that are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2".  I used index cards because I wanted the lines  on the back, to make it easier to write on through out the month.  I did find that having the flaps already attached in the album made it a little tricky to write on sometimes. 

I started making this album in 2015.  All of the supplies I used where purchased in 2015.  The paper packs are My Minds Eye Vintage Christmas, and Lost and Found Christmas.  The number stickers where also by My Minds Eye Lost and Found Christmas collection. I only wrote in it for the first 5 days of that year.  I love the paper so much though, that I decided to take it out and finish it in 2018.  I did add a few 3x4 journaling cards for the days that I had already written on the flaps back in 2015. It is never to late to finish that project.  I love how this album came out.  I have written in it everyday for December 2018.  There is still room in it for me to add some pictures. 

Happy Crafting in 2019!

ICAD 2018

Day 21

Courage is fire, bullying is smoke. 

--Benjamin Disraeli

ICAD 2018

Day 20 

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” 
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

ICAD 2018

Day 19

It takes a long time to become young.

--Pablo Picasso

ICAD 2018

Day 18

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. 

--Pablo Piscasso

ICAD 2018

Day 17

“Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

--Douglas Adams 

ICAD 2018

Day 16

“If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.”

--Coco Chanel 

ICAD 2018

Day 15

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves." — Victor Hugo

ICAD 2018

Day 14

“I think the only way to properly face doom is to be on time.” 
― Jennifer duBois, A Partial History of Lost Causes

ICAD 2018

Day 13

In thirteen years, every aspect of the universe can change - ask a thirteen-year-old. 

--P. J. O'Rourke

ICAD 2018

Day 12

Peace begins with a smile.

--Mother Teresa

ICAD 2018

Day 11

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future. 

--Bernard Meltzer

ICAD 2018

Day 10

 “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” ― C.S. Lewis

ICAD 2018

Day 9

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
― Francis of Assisi

ICAD 2018

Day 8

“There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.”
― Pearl S. Buck

ICAD 2018

Day 7

“If You Are Working On Something That You Really Care About, You Don’t Have To Be Pushed. The Vision Pulls You.” – Steve Jobs

ICAD 2018

Day 6

“The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

ICAD 2018

Day 5

“Water surrounds the lotus flower, but does not wet its petals.” – Gautama Buddha

I wanted to draw a lotus flower from the water's edge.  I think this is pretty whimsical flower today.  I hope you enjoy the quote included with today's card. Going forward I am going to add quotes to my post each day. 

ICAD 2018

Day 4

Here are five fun flower buds.  I love how these flower buds turned out. The frame is a very doodle inspired.  I think the whole card is playful and whimsical.  

ICAD 2018

Day 3

Pretty fun flowers to enjoy a nice quite Sunday!

ICAD 2018

Day 2

This weeks images are going to be flowers.  The inspiration for these cards is both real flowers and Victorian drawings.  In order to break up some of the negative space in the background, I am adding some different types of shapes.  Pencil smudging for my shadowing gives the image some depth.

I had a lot of fun creating this card!

ICAD 2018

Day 1

Index Card A Day starts today!  This is going to be my third year participating in the challenge.  This year I am keeping it simple.  I am just going to do a drawing with pencil and ink.  I will add some shadowing by smudging the pencil.  My focus is on the drawing and composition.  

Each card will be numbered and there will be a frame of some type surrounding the main image.  The images are going to be kept loose, so I am not going to use any rulers for perfect straight lines.  

I plan on creating a mini-album to house all of this year's cards.  The challenge is for all of June and July: 61 days.  I decided to make a cover page for my first day.  

Supplies List:

Index Card

Mechanical Pencil with #2 Graphite

Pigma Micron Pens in 005, 03 and 05

Smudging Tool - Large

Join and have fun creating for two full months!

GCW - Week 5

Greeting Card Wendnesday!

I was inspired by a YouTube video by Mandi Mance for Unity Stamp Co. She stamped her image and then cut it into three equal parts with a sentiment at the bottom.  Simple but beautiful card you should check out by clicking on her name above.  I took a little bit of twist on it and cut the stamped images into three different sizes.  This is an A2 card size. 

Product List:

-With Her Own Wings Stamp by Unity Stamp Co.
-Tombow Markers: 933, 946, and 055
-Vellum PrePrinted Sentiment
-Green Cardstock
-Fun Foam
-Tombow Mono Tape Runner












The little butterflies are beautiful stamped in the three different colored markers colors.  A bunch of butterflies always remind me to live joyfully, so I had to use that sentiment.  It was long enough for me to fold over the green cardstock and tape on the back. 

Have a Joyful Day!

GCW - Week 4

Greeting Card Wednesday

This was a quick card for a quick blog post.  I took inspiration from the CAS(E) this sketch! blog challenge #264. This sketch can be used in so many ways.  I took scraps from a previous project to make the lines.  I had colored the Cheeky Fairy from the Greeting Farm ages ago.  I was practicing some monochromatic coloring with my colored pencils.  Her blue hair and dress just coordinated with the papers perfectly.  I popped her up with some fun foam. 

Product Used:

• Citrus mat stack 4.5 x 6.5 inches by Die Cut With a View
• Greeting Farm Digi Stamp Cheeky Fairy
• Soho Colored Pencils
• Stickles
• Tombo Mono Tape Runner
• Fun Foam from Dollar  Tree

Relax - Craft - Repeat!

GCW - Week 3

Greeting Card Wednesday

Scrap Attack!

March sure has roared its wintery best today.  We had a winter mix of snow and sleet rain down for most of the day.  This calls for a nice springy card to brighten everything up.

I dug through some of my scraps and created this playful card in a standard A2 size.  The designer paper all came from the same paper pad. I love to layer my pattern paper with a neutral color. I think it gives the card a more professional finished design, but sometimes it can make the card very heavy.  I decided to use white for my layers in order to make this card bright and light. I also used a white card base.  This way I element a layer, by using the card base as the bottom white layer.  Then I cut the bee pattern paper 1/4 of an inch smaller. This really helps to keep the card light. 

I took some baker's twin and wrapped it around the honey comb layer three times, and then tied a bow.  The main daffodil image was a cut apart in the paper pack.  I brought in some blue textured cardstock to help it pop off the card.  I also popped up the daffodil image with some fun foam.  Lastly, I added some Glitter Pen to the daffodil flowers to give the card some extra sparkle.  

Products Used:

• Garden Party 6x6 Paper Pad by Pebbles from 2013
• Blue Texture Cardstock
• White Cardstock
• Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter Pen
• White and Gold Bakers Twine
• Tombow Tape Runner

The card just screams spring to me.  I hope today was the last of the sleet and snow with warmer days are on the way. Along with the some pretty flowers!

GCW - Week 2

Greeting Card Wednesday

Today's card is a yummy ice cream cone card. 

This card came out very cute.  The color scheme is very neutral that makes this a great card for either a male or female recipient.  It is a standard A2 card size, so there is plenty of room for a message and a treat (such as a gift card) inside.

Products Used:

• Light brown and Cream Cardstock 
• Stampin' Up Frozen Treats Framelits Dies 
• Stampin' Up Marbled Die
• Stampin' Up Tangelo Twist ink (Retired)
• Craft Smart Embossing Folder from Michaels
• Spectrum noir Clear Glitter Brush Pen

I first stamped the Marble die onto some white cardstock.  Then I positioned the die over a part of the stamp that I liked the swirl and cut it out.  I also cut out from the die set an ice cream cone.  This particular die both cuts and embosses at the same time.  I then embossed a piece of cream card stock, which was cut down to 4 x 5 1/4. This embossing folder is very cute and works so well with this die set.  

*Note: I have a Sizzix Big Shot machine.  The first time I used this embossing folder with the normal sandwich, it actually cut some of the shapes out of the paper.  I had to play with my sandwich to get a good embossing without it cutting through the paper. 

The square pieces are 2 1/2 and 2 1/4 inch squares that I just turned on it side.  The only part of the card that is dimensional is the ice cream swirl.  I popped it up with a piece of fun foam.  All the rest of the pieces I adhered flat. This way you get some dimension without it being to hard to mail.  

Lastly, I added some sparkle to the ice cream with a the glitter pen.  I did have to be careful with the glitter pen, because the Stampin' Up ink is a die ink. It will react with water.  If you quickly dab with the pen instead of swiping, you can add the glitter without moving to much of the ink.  I think it just adds that extra punch to the card.  

Happy Wednesday!

GCW - Week 1

Greeting Card Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

I am back.  My full time job was very busy in January and February leaving me little time to craft and even less time to blog.  The job has calmed down. No more six days work weeks, so I am focusing on how I would like to grow this blog.  I am starting off with Greeting Card Wednesday. 

Greeting Card Wednesday is my commitment to post a new greeting card each Wednesday for the rest of 2018.   I will still be doing the Cas(e) this sketch (CTS) challenge, but not necessarily every week will be challenge inspired greeting card.

This week is the CTS challenge number #261, which was a retro sketch challenge.  The sketch originated on there blog at #93.  I really liked this sketch, and had several ideas pop into my head immediately.  I had also just received an order from Stampin' Up, so I just had to play with those new items.  

I love how this card came out.  It was super fun to make and I made it in very little time.  The lavender sprig is a multi-layer stamp that was very fun to stamp out.  I am definitely going to stamp out more of these. The outline is one stamp and then the color pieces are each their own stamps.  This makes using a lot of different colors very easy, because you don't have to worry about inking to much of the stamp.  

         Products Used:

Stampin' Up Marble Stamp

Stampin' Up Lots of Lavender (Salebration stamp set available from January 2018 through March 31, 2018)       

Stampin' Up inks: Soft Suede, Blushing Bride,Delightful Dijon, and Wild Wasabi       

Stampin' Up Very Vanilla Cardstock       

Neenah White Cardstock for Card base       

Dollar store Gold Poster Board       

Pop Dots       

Tombow Xtreme tape runner

Mini-Misti

The marble background stamp is very lovely.  I used Blushing Bride to stamp the background on Very Vanilla cardstock. Looks like designer paper, doesn't it. I also stamped out the lavender sprig on the same cardstock.  I love Very Vanilla cardstock.  It is the perfect shade of cream. The marble background is cut to 4x5 1/4 inches, and the mirror gold is the full 4 1/4x5 1/2 inches. The gold strip is 4x1/2 inches. I taped it onto a card base that is also 4 1/4x5 1/2 inches.  I like the inside of my card to be white, so I typically always use a white card base. I think this card came out very elegant and pretty.

I didn't add a sentiment on purpose. My style is to have the sentiment inside of the card instead on the outside. This allows me to use the card for several different occasions.  It also encourages people to open the card to see what is on the inside.  This card could be used for so much.  It can be an easter, birthday, anniversary, sympathy, wedding, or thank you card and so much more.  I do want to try to utilize some of my sentiments stamps more, so I am thinking of challenging myself to use them in an unusual way.  Such as a background instead of a focal element.

Please leave me a comment below.  Relax - Craft -Repeat!

Happy 2018!

A new year needs a little love. 

I created this card from some left over pieces from different projects.  The squirrels came from a christmas 6x6 pad that I am using to create a mini album that I will be posting soon.  Tease, tease.  I wanted to use those cute little squirrels in a way that didn't scream christmas.  Sometimes you can use an element or paper from a themed pack in a completely different theme.  I did have to fussy cut each of the squirrels out of the paper. I kept a small border to help them pop out from the background papers. Fussy cutting this way makes the elements appear die cut, and means you don't have to worry about getting inside small places with your scissors. 

The hearts are a sticker that I had in my stash.  I backed it on white cardstock to give it more stability.  Then I used some foam dots to pop it up.  I rounded the corners of all the pieces with a 1/4 inch corner rounder.  

The image on this card can be used for more than one occasion, so I left a sentiment off of the front. All focus on the cute squirrels. I can add the right note or sentiment on the inside when I go to send the card.  I think of this as more of a note card.  I like making note cards, because it allows me to use my cards for a lot of different occasions.  

Keep it creative in the new year.