Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Papertrey September Blog Hop

 

Here's a fun, rolled paper Christmas ornament to try, made out of triangles. This is for the September Papertrey Blog Hop where we are challenged to make a wreath.


 

Papertrey does have some dies for this, but you can certainly cut your own triangle banners. As long as you have a consistent height on the short, flat side you'll be fine. You'll never be able to tell if the two long sides are not at the same angle. 


At first I did some out of magazine paper, but since it was so thin, each roll was pretty skinny. And that would mean I'd have to make A LOT of them to complete the circle. So instead I used some fun card stock (Crate Paper Acorn Avenue Chestnut Boutique). Just make sure to mist the top of the triangle with water if you're working with a thick paper. Otherwise it's impossible to roll around the toothpick.


Once you've rolled the triangle, make it into a bead by putting some glue on the tip to hold it in place. Then start gluing them all together to form a wreath. I alternated long, patterned rolls with short, white rolls to give the wreath more variety.
  

 Since this is for our Christmas tree, I added our initial in the middle. It's die cut from the Papertrey Modern Alphabet Uppercase set. At first I hung it with fishing line, but it was too hard to get the letter to stay in the right place, so I ended up using a fine gauge wire instead. The hollow white paper bead worked perfectly to thread the wire through and then bend to keep it in place.


Because I wanted it to look nice on the back, I chose to spend a little more time and glued the beads together on the sides, instead of gluing them on a circular base. Just glue the beads together on the very bottom sides so they form a more natural circle. Not that I want to point out my mistakes, but you can tell on the left side where the white beads are facing a little down instead of straight out. That's because I glued them too high on the bead. Next time I'll know : )

Thanks for looking! It's been awhile since I've joined the Papertrey Hop and I've missed it!
- Kelly

A Few Randoms

Hi guys! It's my turn on CAS-ual Fridays Stamps to show a couple cards. Here they are ...


Watercolors for the flower and bottom of the zig zags. The sentiment is pieced together from three different sets. 

 Loving Thoughts, Rad, Frankly, Zigs and Zags 
   
ombre houndstooth handmade card with sequins

 A layered sentiment, and an explosion of sequins! The houndstooth border is inked in the middle and then on each edge with a different color to get a gradient effect.

Frankly, Houndstooth

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Craft Swap - Very Dangerous!!!


We are so lucky to have a lot of crafting friends who like to get together and do card swaps, workshops, parties, demonstrations, or whatever fun thing comes up. Our friend Helen is usually the ring-leader, and recently she came up with the idea to host a craft swap. Oh my!


Being as smart as she is, she announced it 3-4 months in advance so we all had plenty of time to set things we no longer needed aside. I thought I was doing pretty good with my two boxes of stuff, but when I got there I was absolutely amazed. 
 

 She had 8-10 banquet tables that were jam packed full of crafting goodness.


The tables were all organized by type of supplies. Wood stamps, clear stamps, cutting tools, general craft supplies, fabric, paper, stickers/rub-ons, tins, etc.


 We all received numbers in the order we arrived.


 Everyone had a chance to browse through the supplies, and then according to your number, we all got to individually pick out one item.


 I picked a Creative Memories double hexie punch (above). I've seen the circle and square ones before, but had no idea they made a hexagon set!


 On the next round we got to individually go through and pick three things.


Then there were a couple rounds where you had one minute to stuff whatever you wanted in your  bag. Sounds easy, but it's definitely harder than it seems. You get a little paralyzed! 


 Finally at the end, we all went through and leisurely picked among the remaining items.
 

The dangerous element to this whole event is that you seem to come home with more than you brought. Because how can you pass on cool number stamps?! Or a binder full of Quick Cuts dies? An assortment of Prima flowers? A mini album kit? Vintage lace and ribbons? Or a set a mini pie tins from your friend's grandma?

Right?!

Your nicely purged work-space doesn't stay organized for long! 



The other surprising thing is how much you missed. People would come out of the garage with the coolest treasures that didn't even register with me when I was looking.
 

Amazingly, there was not one item that remained. We invited a lady who worked with disabled folks, and she was going to find a use for whatever was left. 


What a fun time we all had!

Thanks, Helen, for a wonderful afternoon! And Rene too, I know a LOT of the goodies came out of your craft wing : )

ETA: Here's a photo of all the goodies that came home with me ...

 
From left to right, in a kinda clockwise order:

spools of ribbon, 2 stamp sets (travel, calendar), black cat lace, Christmas beading ornament kit, large acrylic blocks, double hexagon punch, Prima flowers, album of Quick Cuts dies, yellow moire ribbon, belt buckles, red Teresa Collins mini albums, huge box of alpha stamps, bag of ribbon, make your own album kit, 7 gypsies vintage tags, several stamp sets & individual stamps, typewriter rub-ons, yellow centers for flowers, mini pinecone bunch, white daisies just waiting to be colored, vintage jello mold tins, circle punch, gold hoops, metal-rimed tags, bendable thin rubber ribbon, large bag of buttons, leather straps, cool set of large alphas on blocks, round felt/fabric pieces, several sets of clear stamps (calendar, alpha, numeric, designs, etc.) square chipboard, 4 different laces. Oh, and about 30 old Paper Crafts magazines and special issues still in my trunk.   

 Thanks for looking!
- Kelly

Friday, September 20, 2013

Fusion #18 - Hi, Chicka!

 

I have to admit, the new Fusion Challenge was a tough one for me. I wanted to use the photo, without stamping teacups. The patterns on the teacups and pots are fun, but I finally settled on the pattern that is floating around in the middle. It's the round, green, kiwi-looking design that appears twice in the photo below.



That kiwi inspired the arrows I stamped around the sentiment. Originally I stamped them all right from the ink pad, but it looked rather stark. So next time I used generational stamping to get the arrow shapes to stand out more from the dark impressions, yet still fill the circle around with the light impressions. The green was sponged on.

I was inspired to use my label maker by Aga. Her cards always look so fun with labels! Would you believe the label maker is actually my own from the early 80's? I have plenty of tape left over (that still sticks, amazingly!!) because, apparently, even as a child I hoarded craft supplies. I'm better now : )

Come by the Fusion Challenge to see what the other talented ladies created:


Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

PS. upon looking up the slang word "chicka," I've found that it's a misspelling for the word "chica." After some reflection, and consideration of making another label, I decided that's the beauty of making your own cards. If you and your girlfriend type "chicka" back and forth to each other, you can darn well make a card saying that, and know that it is completely custom for her!

CFC #115 - "You Are Awesome" Leaf


Jackets on the weekend, windows open at night, summer flowers fading in the garden ... it's definitely time for Fall at home! Time for Fall at CAS-ual Fridays as well, as we have a fun challenge to get you in the spirit. The winning card receives a wonderful gift from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp.



Use any combination of Fall colors, and at least one leaf, and you'll fit right in.


The "you are awesome" Dear Lizzy rotary stamp is repeated on the left side of the leaf to mimic the veins in the leaf. I cut out a leaf shape from the greige paper, as well as mat board that is underneath to give it dimension. Does anyone else hate using dimensional tape? I don't like when your panel is squished and you end up with little mountains and valleys. Using a flat, consistent piece of thick mat board seems to work better for me.

Please check out the other examples from our very talented CAS-ual Fridays Design Team, as well as consider entering a card of your own. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Happy Birthday to you, Kara!


Surpirse, Kara! Happy birthday : )

Joyce is such a great bloggy friend, organizing a big birthday blog hop for our friend Kara of kandrdesigns.
 
Recently, Kara created this graphic stunner (here is her post, which shows her inspiration piece) and I thought it would be fun to try something like it in honor of her birthday.


After wondering how to get a bow holding the flowers together, it dawned on me to just draw one with the same chalk pencil I used to trace over the "celebrate" stamp. Duh! Sometimes the best solutions are so darn simple. 

Happy Birthday, Kara!!

Your next stop on the hop is Kelly S.. If you're joining in midway, here's the list of birthday well-wishers:


Thanks for looking!
- Kelly

Saturday, September 7, 2013

CAS-ual Fridays - Yes, I Did Just Grab Your Used Wrapping Paper


It's my day on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog, and this time I'm focusing on the sentiments and letting the DP do much of the remaining work.


This paper is one I hoarded before I was really into card making, and probably embarrassed myself over. It's from our cousin's wedding shower ... and one of the aunts (who is well-known for her ah-mazing presents that take 1/2 hour to open because there are so many) wrapped a present in this hand-printed paper. I couldn't stand to see this beauty lying on the ground, all torn and crumpled. So I dashed into the middle of the circle of guests and grabbed it all. Each and every piece. It was so darn worth it. You should feel how thick it is, with a chalky coating. Mmmmm ...

Since I slacked on the on the pattern part of the card, I did some extra work on the sentiment. It's made from three different sets and masked to break the words up. Some double stamping in a different color and the arrow, helps break it up a little.

Rad, Only You, Exclamations

Paper on this one is from a Dear Lizzy 6x6 pad, and the roses are just cut out. Layer it with the glitter jacks and some rhinestones and it's an embellishment.

The sentiment is from two different sets, they coordinate so well. Love the different fonts together.

Frankly, Exclamations

Thanks so much for looking!
-Kelly

Friday, September 6, 2013

Fusion #17 - An Alternatve to Inktense?




For this week's Fusion Challenge I managed to incorporate both the photo and the sketch. What a great photo, too, so many possibilities in that one!


A little cheeky, so definitely for one of my closer friends! The DPs are a recent purchase from the Scrapbook Expo that I got to hang out at with my crafting partner-in-crime (she even lives behind me, how dangerous is that?!?)


 We took a SEI class, and bought lots of discounted paper!!


Another recent purchase has been the Reeves Water Soluble Wax Pastels. Does anyone use these? I wanted to by some Inktense blocks, but after standing in the aisle looking at its $39.99 price tag, and the $13.99 price tag for the wax pastels, I got the cheaper ones instead. 


They seem to work pretty well so far. Great coverage and really intense colors. I have to think there's a reason they are so much cheaper though. 

Anyway, please stop by the rest of the fabulous Fusion Challenge designers, and hope to see you in the gallery! Remember, it's still a 2 week challenge, so you have plenty of time to cook up something fun!



Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

CFC114 - Ride On, Little Man + pics

 

Even if you don't have any "school" stamps, this is still a fun challenge to tackle at CAS-ual Fridays. Think math, primary colors, notebook paper, inspirational quotes, anything related to school or learning. Our sponsor is Ellen Hutson, and the winner of this 2 week challenge will receive a $25 gift certificate for whatever awesome new products you've had your eye on!



This one is for my 4th grader, who's been getting frustrated as the work has become more difficult over the years. My sentiment is that even when you feel you've speeding down the road on two wheels, hang in there and "ride on" until all four wheels are back down. I'm sure there's a more eloquent way to say that : )

paper - Indie Chick, My Mind's Eye
washi - Ruler, Studio Calico
stamp - The Paper Company
font - Courier New
sequin stars

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

PS. Here are some back-to-school pictures. Hard to believe they've been back for two weeks already!


Only picture of the 4th grader ... he darted off to the bus stop right away.


The Kindergartener was much better with tolerating the photos.


I got the range of emotions, from super-excited ...


to perhaps a little bit of uncertainty (which is unusual for him). 


Grandma even came for the day!