National Craft Month - March 18 - Archiver's trip

I went to Archiver's after school on Monday afternoon. They had a special offer for the day - the Simple Stories variety pack for $2.99! It is 25 sheets of double-sided paper. Some Christmas, Birthday, 

Travel, and Baby designs. I love Simple Stories paper. They are great collections. And so many of them!!

The weight of the paper is great, the distressing is wonderful.

While I was getting my one-day special pack, I had to use my Archiver's 30% coupon of the week. I got the  new Urban Traveler pack. More cameras with lots of planes, trains, and boats. There are 2 sheets of stickers. There are 2 alphabets too. It has journal blocks and borders. It will be good for a couple of upcoming road trips this summer.

National Craft Month - March 19 - Graphic 45

I .. Have...to ...stop...going...to ......Tuesday......Morning!!

Yup, I stopped by today and found more Graphic 45 double-sized paper. The 3 papers I purchased on Tuesday are shown below. The middle paper is Wizard of Oz paper. It has munchkins on one side and the other side is words about Wizard of Oz.

The other two papers are actually punch-out tags with a pattern on the backs of the tags. The circus tags has red stars which is the same pattern as green paper I purchased a few weeks ago. The black tags are the cinema themed paper.

I have had this Graphic 45 Wizard of Oz stamp set by Hampton Art for a bit and have stamped the shoes (embossed in red) and the home saying but then I didn't have any cool paper for the images. Now I can complete the design, using this companion Graphic 45 paper. 

Yeah!!!

National Craft Month - March 18 - Love Art Impressions!

I LOOOOOOVE Art Impressions' stamps. I have a bunch of the Girlfriends set. The Girlfriends remind me of my friends at Table 7 - not looks but the love and friendship we have for each other. The Ai Girlfriends make me giggle as Table 7 does too. 

I purchased the Show the Love stamp set at Archiver's a few weeks ago. I had stamped and embossed a bunch of the images. I have been coloring them while Hubby flips around the TV channels, trying to find to find something to watch. (That drives me crazy! I get interested in a show, it goes to commercials, he flips to another show, and he forgets what show we were watching. Plus Hubby watches too much Pawn Stars, American Pickers, the trucks in ice, and such.) 

I colored the images with Tim Holtz Distress Markers. I like the brush ends but I'm hard on them. I left the Girlfriend in the paper white because I can't find a good skin color. If anyone has a favorite skin color, PLEASE let me know!! And I think that all markers are darker than the lid's color. I didn't use a sketch so I could fit all my pieces on the card. I used a piece of Graphic 45 paper - the black floral - and the pink patterned paper from the Dear Jane stack by DCWV and a dotted Swiss pink from Archiver's. I did most of the images' cards like this one but I made a few scrappy ones too. 

I matted the sentiments on scraps and added a few sticker hearts.

Show the Love stamp set -- Art Impressions (6101984)

I have more Girlfriends to stamp and color so I'll see you later.

National Craft Month - March 13 - Riley

Riley!!

Stamper's Ink had another $1 sale on Riley stamps. I called rather late so the selection was getting slim. Of course, I still managed to order a few!! I think that this is the last $1 sale that Stamper's Ink is having. Which is good and is bad!! Good so I don't get anymore. Bad because I can't purchase any more. Now I need to get to stamping and coloring!

National Craft Month -March 14 - Shopping for Supplies

I had to go to Joann's for some supplies on Thurs. after school. And I found these things.

 Hmmm, more stamps and, hmmm, more paper.

The little St. Pat sets by Studio G were 50% off and the other two were on clearance. The St. Pats sets are for nest year (got to remember to put them with the other St. Pat stamps). I got some for Sister M at Table 7 too. Yes, I know, the TPC Studios set has a camera in it but it has other fun items with punny sayings. The Fiskars set is smaller size stamps and they will be great for cards. They are just everyday sayings.

Since it is National Craft Month, Joann's still had the DCWV stacks on sale for 50% off. They are hanging the stacks on pegs now. I noticed that they are carrying more new ones.  I got the Juniper Berry stack - lots of blue!! It has butterflies, umbrellas, and clouds. It has foils, and chevrons. It is wonderful!!

The other stack is My Sunshine stack. It is bingo sheets, and toys, and graph paper. It is kinda a boy's stack but it will be fun for whatever I use it for.

I have about used all the Green Tea stack and I noticed that DCWV had a stack called White Ginger at Joann's. It looks just like the Green Tea stack. I wonder if they just changed the name or if they rename stacks when it is in different big box stores. 

I finally found some more owl stickers so now I can finish up my cards with the moons on them. I had made several of the design but had run out of small owl stickers. I found a booklet of sticker for $1.00.

National Craft Month - March 15 - New Punchs

New Punches!

Archivers on Friday night had a bunch of new EK Success punches and they are 40% off too. I could not resist these! Table 7 all bought at least one punch of different designs. I got the filmstrip punch, the balloon punch and the anchors one. There were a few new people at Archiver's ScrapMania. One of the new ladies at our table used the anchor punch. She punched it out and threaded twine through the little holes at the top. It was pretty cute on her baby page. I had punched the 12 x 12" edge of black paper with the filmstrip and cut a piece big enough for a picture to fit on it. I used a white pen to journal under the picture. I cut a piece of white paper to go behind the frames. You could journal there too. I saved the little rectangles for a future card. Another lady asked for a piece of the paper with the filmstrip as she was doing a page about her Girl Scouts earning a movie badge.

I used the balloon punch today to see what it looked like. It is very delicate and will definitely need to be run through the Xyron to adhere it to a page. I used the balloon bits for a card to make a flower. But the package the punch came in showed that you could pop-dot the balloons in place on the border to give some dimension.

I also punched the anchors out today too. I was afraid that the anchors would be very fragile but they punched wonderfully. No bits to save from this punch. I have a few projects in mind for this punch but none done yet.

The last punch in the photo is a Fiskars punch I found on clearance at Joann's. Little scissors! Not sure what I'll do with this one but it jumped in my cart.

National Craft Month - March 17 - Sketch #164

Sketch #164

Yeah! It's Sunday which means it is time for a new OWH Sketch for the week. I viewed the post on OWH's blog but didn't do it right away. I had to read the Sunday newspaper, pay a few bills, play a bit of Scrabble with my sister online, and finish up some laundry. While I did those things, I thought about the new sketch. I recently purchased some new paper stacks and decided on some papers from the stacks.

I used the new paper from the Dear Jane and the Everyday stacks by DCWV. This Sketch #164 used several pieces of paper in several different sizes. The sentiment is from Ai's Valentine set with the lady in the heart covered dress. I got the stamp set at Archiver's and haven't seen the set on Ai's online site. The flowers are made from bits punched from the new balloon punch and the black dots are from the filmstrip punch. 

The Sketch is done. With all the measuring, cutting, and matting, I got only a few cards almost done for this Sketch. I added these flowers on this card but. on the rest of the cards, I'll add some different ones.

National Craft Month - Riley card on Sketch #159

OK, I did this sketch # 159 already but I had to post another version of it that I made.

Sophia in pretty pink pj's. I used some love/Valentine papers for the base and mats. I added a sentiment from Paper Smooches across the top instead in the middle as in the sketch. I used a glittery ribbon with this card but a plain red ribbon for the OWH version. The few I made with the glittery ribbon would not have worked for OWH. The glitter flaked off too quickly and everywhere! I have colored a blue version of the fun little moose for a boy's card but they are not ready for posting yet.

National Craft Month - March 12 - Sketches #75 and #154

Two more Sketches done!! #75 and #154. I had puzzled over both of these 2 sketches for a while. But I finally completed them.

Sketch #154

I had purchased a package of polka-dotted 8 1/2 x 11" paper from Michael's Recollections paper while it was on sale. Then I was not sure I would use it. I cut orange paper with embossing on it for the small matte under the squares and then cut the squares. I cut the orange dots as a scalloped circle. At first I had just the big scallop cut in the orange but all the dots weren't playing together well. So I matted the orange dots on a slightly larger white scallop and I was happier. I had a bit of dotted ribbon and, when I ran out of that, I used dotted washi tape. The stamped sentiments had been in the birthday pile for a while so I placed it on the bottom. I had the shiny Happy Birthday stickers too and placed it across the cupcake, which I fussy-cut from a paper from a stack from Hobby Lobby.

Sketch #75

I had the tiger paper leftover from an album of a trip to the zoo. It was double-sided so I flipped some of the strips over. The sentiment was one stamp and I cut it into strips to fit the sketch. I added the sheer wired ribbon. I tried a bow but it was too big. I just tied a knot. I inked the edges of the strips to distress.

National Craft Month - March 10 - Sketch #163

Arrrgh, Maties! Tis Sunday and time for another Sketch!

I didn't totally follow Sketch #163 as I didn't use the little squares but I did put 3 little elements there. I had purchased a set of pirate stickers at Michael's last weekend for $1 and they have been sitting on my table to be put away. I had gotten a set of unicorns/flowers too but they will have to wait for another time/sketch. Then I saw this morning's Sketch #163 and thought they would work well for this.

The paper is DCWV from a boy's stack but I don't remember the name of it. I used most of a roll of the washi tape by My Mind's Eye 8 roll set from Archiver's. I inked the edges of the 2 pirate papers with brown ink. I cut the plain brown paper in the 4.5 x 2.25" rectangle and tore and inked the edges in black. I also crumpled the paper a bit and inked the folds. I matted it on paper I got at Tuesday Morning. It is called Uptown Gold and it is a metallic but you can't see it very well in the photo. The 2 word stamps are by Hero Arts Crafts' Pirate stamp set., which is a set of 18 tiny stamps (about 1" square). I could have used them but I had the colorful stickers and used them instead. I got about 24 cards done and could make a few more with the bits and pieces. The pirate stickers are almost gone and I have a lot of fish left. The little words probably should have been stamped and matted but I was done before I didn't like it as stamped. I didn't add any ribbon (shock) since the card is  for a kid/a guy. 

Wow, I have Sketch #163 done for the week already. Now what other trouble can I get myself into?  It is so spring-like here. I have my new windows open and the dog is enjoying woofing at everyone walking/biking/running by our house. Have a great Sunday!!

National Craft Month - March 10 - Sketch #162

Sketch #162

I forgot to complete last week's sketch. I do like this sketch. Easy to do. Scrap wrangling or not. Fun.

I do kinda wished I had matted the 4 1/4 x 2" and the 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" pieces but they still look good. 

The saying is from Pebbles' stack of journal blocks and I had to cut it a bit to fit the sketch and to fit the scrap blingy paper I had in the right color. I did a few more cards, using some other sayings from the same package and I trimmed some of those. I added the brads (Making Memories Chloe's Closet) to the cards. A simple card but bright and cheery! Most of the paper is from Michael's 8 1/2 x 11" patterned paper in the packs that are frequently on sale.  

National Craft Month - Fri. 3/8 and 3/9

Amazing how life goes along and you have nothing to do and then bam! you have too many things to get done and definitely not enough time. Friday and Saturday flew by without a crafty post so today's post will have to do.

Friday was scrapbook night at Archiver's with Table 7. Archiver's was quite busy that night. Most Fridays lately, we could push 2 tables together and have a half table each. But Friday night there was a full house so we had to remember how to use our 1/4 of a table. I stamped a bunch of images - the new girlfriends stamps by AI and some new Riley stamps from one of the $1 sale Stamper's Ink had in Feb.

Saturday morning, my Hubby helped me with a couple of my white storage cubes. One of the cubes was bowing and so the shelves were falling down. The cubes need to be tightly arranged next to each other to help the framing. Then we discovered that while the various store brands' cubes are probably manufactured by the same company, the cubes do not always line up right. We could not get two cubes to hook together with the white posts. Finally we set up six cubes closer to the wall and left a space between the new ones and the old ones. Then we added wooden shims in the gap. This is not an attractive way to fix my storage but we'll see if the shims help before I paint the shims or change to a big board. The shims are keeping the cubes straighter so that is the good news. I do need to rearrange some items and I'm not sure about the drawer units at the top but it is all good for now. I do need to do some purging and that would help quite a bit. I do have the biggest part of my supplies in my scrapbook room now, instead of the items being in the kitchen or the TV room. I keep a small basket of images to color in the TV room so while Hubby is flipping the channels, I can color. Happily!

National Craft Month - Thurs. March 7, 2013 - Cricut Craft Room

After a busy day at school, I made it home and put a pork roast in the oven with baby carrots and  spices and poured the rest of the jar of spaghetti on top. As it cooked, I was in my room , looking for the white cable to connect my Cricut E2 to my computer so I could try out the Cricut Craft Room (CCR). After dinner and a bit of tv, I went up to my room. I had designed a couple of cards on the CCR earlier in the week. But I couldn't cut the 2 free cards out because I couldn't find the white cable.Finally, I found the cable in the rolling bag where the E2 usually is stored. Once you have the right cable in your hand, it is easy to connect the E2 to the computer.

I had a rough time resizing my designs. It took CCR a while to think about changing the size. I also tried to rotate the small design so I could see if I could cut more out on a page. But I couldn't find the way to change the number for 0 to 90 and the up button would not move but 1 or 2 numbers at a time then it went to "not responding". I finally got the cards resized to fit the base.

Cricut is letting you cut some designs free for a week or 2. The designs are from their newer carts. CCR is just like the Gypsy - you have to own the cart before you cut from it. The free ones let you cut ones they pick but once the free week is over, the design is gone from the program unless you buy it. I don't like that I can't upload my carts to CCR because they are already on my Gypsy and Cricut is allowing you to have your carts in one place or the other but not both. 

Here's the free Rain card. I added some teardrops to the card, which I like but not sure the teardrops would make it through the post office. I added a scrap piece of blue behind the words.

This is the second free card. These are simple cards without any layering. I want to play around a bit more on this one. Maybe I'll use 2 different papers to back the design.

Cricut now has the Southwestern on CCR for free for 2 weeks. I have a couple designs on a mat on the CCR and later in the weekend, I hope to cut them out.

Thanks for stopping by.

National Craft Month - Wed. March 6 - Snow Day

WhooHoo! I got a snow day from school today!! A heavy, wet snow! So I enjoyed myself with an extra hour of sleep, a quick breakfast, and then into my scrapbook room. My stomach dinged at 11 am, which is my lunch time at school, so I had lunch and a nap. Then back to my room. I made a bunch of cards without sketches and with the bits and pieces on my table as I cleaned it off. Hubby came home and made a quick dinner. As we watched TV together in the evening, I adhered my designs onto the card bases and filled a large priority box and I have still more cards!

That was my snow day. Quiet. Fun. Productive. Great!!

National Craft Month - March 5 - new paper line and cameras

 I loved Mama-Razzi line Bo Bunny produced a few years ago. It was a little late for my kids' cross country season photos as they felt I was their mama-razzi by taking so more photos at the races. They had a saying if they felt I was taking too many photos and it was "Mom, this is not a scrapbook moment!"

Now Bo Bunny has expanded the Mama-Razzi line with Mama-Razzi2. It is wonderful!! Table 7 and I were drooling over the new items and filling our arms with the papers, stickers, and embellishments. Archiver's had the new items right up front for our shopping spree.

The first line had many sayings with mom in them. This line has more dad sayings. The colors are a bit brighter than the first line. The new line has even more cameras and such on the papers. Here's the 12x12" pack with papers, stickers, and more. I haven't get the 6x6" pack yet. Maybe the next time I'm at Archiver's.

Below are some of the papers. The line has the popular chervons and diamonds. 

I love the small stamp set. Oh, Snap!! and the camera are my favorites which I plan to use a lot.

The Mama-Razzi2 has a cute little album. It is shown with the papers peeking out to see the fun colors.

If you want to see more of the items of Mama-Razzi2, check out Bo Bunny's website at

http://bobunny.com/lightbox/mamarazzi.html .

More cameras!! These are by Hero Arts. The big camera stamp with the matching die is fun to easy. I stamped then cut the images out using my Cuttlebug. I haven't used the all-over camera stamp yet but I'm thinking to stamp it and then pop-dot the big diecut camera on the front.

 I'll let you know how the card turns out.

Another cute set is this one from Amy Tangerine I found at Archiver's. It has a little camera and a big Hello and they will make a great combo for an OWH card.

Trendy Tape by Queens & Co. was on sale at Archiver's this past weekend and all of Table 7 bought some of this design. We all fell in love with this. The filmstrip will be fun on any card. 

Check out the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of PaperCrafts Magazine starting on page 87. 

They have a cool article with lots of cards using all kinds of cameras and photographic sayings. 

Thanks for stopping by.

National Craft Month - March 4 - Another Rocket card

 I did this rocket card first but posting it second, having posted the kiddo's rocket card first in my last post.. Again I had to wait till the card was gifted before posting. I made the card, using two pieces of white 8.5x11" cardstock and stapling them together in the middle.

I used several different patterned papers of space-themed designs. The cloud papers were in a boy's-themed 8x8" paper pack. Additionally, the planet, shooting stars and boy in rocket in the last photo are from the paper pack too. I punched stars from blue bling paper and the yellow moon was cut using my Cricut. I inked the stars and the moon with shiny silver ink as well as some of the paper. The long rocket in the middle of the card is from K& Co., I think.

The retiree collects pop-up books so I decided to try my hand at making a very simple pop-up card. I made 2 strips of papers and glued one to the card. After a bit of trial and error, I fit another strip at the top of the card so when the card was closed, you see the strips. But when it opens, the rocket and stars dangle and move.

I used stickers from Bo Bunny and another space-themed sticker set.

Inside, I wrote:

As you set a new course to retirement at supersonic speeds,

We’ll continue the mission of helping the wiz kids and the scientific wonders here at school!

Best Wishes on your new journey.

From

The Captain and Crew of the Sizzlin’ Rockets at

 Elementary School

The retiree hadn't read the card before he left the building as he didn't want to cry. He did like the pop-up though.

National Craft Month March 3 - Kid Rocket Card

 I created a card for a kiddo at school the other day and finally got all the signatures on it to give it away today so I can post it at last.

I used a piece of white 8.5 x 11 cardstock and folded it in half. I trimmed about 1/2" on one long and one short side. This way it fit inside the first piece without  the edges peeking out. I used my long armed stapler to staple the 2 pieces together.

I used lots of  BoBunny and other rocket stickers. I used a couple of the Graphic 45 double-sided papers from Tuesday Morning. I punched blue bling paper (Archiver's) stars, using a small Marvy punch and randomly added them on the card's front. I pop-dotted some of them and some are glued to the card. I added 4 navy mosaic squares to the front too.

I added a thin strip to the top of the middle card. I cut a second thin strip and folded it to make a square when the card is open. I'm not explaining it very well. I pierced holes in the hanging strip and in the little decorations. I used fishing line to string the decorations so they could hang on the strip.

The blue rectangle of  bling paper from Archiver's on the last page now has a little saying on it.

Our report from the Captain is;

The Crew misses You!

Your Mission is:

To feel better.

Please Report to:

School

as soon as possible.

The Captain and Crew will

keep you in their thoughts

Till your return.

From: 

Captain and the Crew 

of elementary school.

With 4 pages for signatures, the card filled up quickly. Unfortunately, I didn't have an envelope for the card so I slid the card in the clear packaging from the sticker set. The teacher showed the card to the class before they sent it to the kiddo.

Thanks for stopping by.

National Craft Month - March 2 - new washi tape dispenser, Dear Jane stack, and a book review

I usually go to Joann's and Michael's without my hubby as he gets bored there easily and he doesn't need to know exactly how much I spend in the craft stores. Imagine my surprise when today Hubby wanted to go to Michael's and did I want to go with him??? What!!! I had mentioned to Hubby that Michael's had little foam paint brushes 14 for $1. He has been redoing some woodwork and needed the small size. 

Of course, while he looked for the paint brushes, I found a few things at Michael's, papers on clearance, and a new dispenser for the washi tape explosion in my scrapbook room. I have the We R Memory Keepers dispenser but this is a stackable one. The one I purchased has 2 dispenser. I think they had packages with just one too. Fortunately, it was with the white storage cubes and matches the cubes' white finish. And the best part it was 40% off today on the last day of the sale. The paper labels covers the cutting edges. It has holes in the bottom and pegs in the dispenser so you could stack as many as you need. 

Hubby was still looking for jars so we went across the street to Joann's. He wondered around while I looked at the scrapbook aisles. I hadn't realize that almost all of the scrapbook items were 50% off. So I had to buy this new DCWV stack  Dear Jane. It is so pretty!! I loved the paper with the books and wish I could get more of it without buying the whole stack again. Half of the papers have foil on them. They have 2 or 3 designs that are in 2-3 different colors. Lots of pale pinks and pale greens and some that look like red work in embroidery. I think that the cards I make with these papers will have an elegant feel and will probably need lace/ruffly ribbon and doily paper too.

These papers remind me of a more recent book about Jane Austen. The Death of a Schoolgirl is written by Joanna Campbell Slan. The author has read a few reference books about scrapbooking, which deal with journaling and having your scrapbook tell a story. Then Slan started a mystery series about Kiki, who works/owns in a scrapbook store and solves mysteries too. Now the author has started another mystery series, using Jane Austen and her husband as the characters. Her books are good, the characters are fun, curious.  You can found the author's books on Amazon and her website. Here are some of her books. Hope you'll check a few of her books out.

Happy Dr. Seuss Day!!