PaperFections

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek!

You can color me happy -- I was ecstatic when I learned Taylored Expressions would be carrying some unique calendar products this year! Any of you who are regular readers here at my blog know how much I love my monthly calendars! My project today showcases the Frame Your Imagination vertical wood stand and coordinating 6x6 calendar inserts. The calendar inserts and Frame Your Imagination stands were designed to be used with the Calendar Cuppie stamps but the possibilities are only limited by your imagination! There is also a perpetual birthday calendar option (links to those projects are shown at the bottom of this post). The wood frame is beautifully crafted, very sturdy, sanded smooth, and left to be finished with a coat of paint or paper in the color of your choice. This stand will be for my young girls, so I started with a coat of pink paint and then used papers from the new Valentine Key Ingredients kit to cover it, using ModPodge. There are many different patterns on the double-sided papers in the Valentine kit to choose from -- I chose some of the more generic ones with many colors that I thought would work well... Read more →

Folk Heart

I'm ready to move on to Valentine projects, how about you?!! This Folk Heart (#2056) from Lockhart Stamp Company was my choice for the focal point to this week's CPS#97 card sketch. It's stamped on Neenah Classic Natural White cardstock (my first choice for Copic markers) and colored with these Copic markers: The image was cut out and mounted with dimensional foam tape to a mat cut with Spellbinders Pinking Circles. Papers are Cosmo Cricket Wonderland 8x8. Card base is Memory Box Crimson notecard. Foof-a-La buttons tied with linen thread finish off this design. I apologize for the off color of the photos -- the Copic Y21 I used honestly does match the paper better in real life but the camera picked it up as a lot brighter. You can see in the second photo that the patterned paper is really more yellow than in the top photo, which got washed out when I was trying to adjust the color of the heart! Don't forget about Ellen Hutson's "We don't want to count inventory" promotion going on today until midnight Pacific time -- 20% off anything in the store. Just enter the promotion code: COUNTLESS IMPORTANT DATES: --This Wednesday &... Read more →

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3 on the CLASSroom

Today is the Third Day of Christmas over at Ellen Hutson's CLASSroom. Pop on over for a visit and I'll show you what three products I used to create this project that you could enter for a chance to win! Be sure to check in over at the CLASSroom each day and enter for a chance to win that day's product(s) and also to see that day's creative project! Image credits: Sweet Spring stamp set by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms, Cornish Heritage Farms Scrapblocks: Fine Houndstooth, Perfect Plaid & Scroll -- all available from Ellen Hutson LLC. Read more →

12 Days of Christmas Celebration

(The photo is of my girls on Christmas morning, so please excuse the wild hair!) Just when you thought Christmas was over, we've got another 12 days to celebrate with you over at the CLASSroom! You'll want to visit us every day for some fantastic projects using the products we are giving away as well as some wonderful new product releases! The First Day of Christmas has started HERE on the CLASSroom and there are some important announcements on Ellen's store site HERE, including a discount code to use this coming Monday, December 29 -- just in time to use some of that holiday cash you might have received! Read more →

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! This was our Christmas card this year. The photo came from our Halloween trip to Disney this year, where we all dressed up like the Pirates of the Caribbean! I hope your day is filled with family and wonderful memories! Read more →

12 Inchies of Christmas-Snow TicTacToe

My bad back last week threw a wrench into my 12 Inchies of Christmas plans . . . so here's the last one I've worked up for you. A new winter-themed tic-tac-toe set for my girls. You may remember the one I did for the CLASSroom, using a CD tin. This one is very similar, except I just used the lid to the CD tin and then put a "header" on it, to make it a little prettier and so it can hang on the refrigerator! Here's a look at the back of the header -- I put some of those heavy duty business card magnets (that I've shared with you before) on the back of Craft-a-Board that I cut with Spellbinders Scalloped Long Rectangle MegaNestabilities: The front of the Craft-a-Board is covered with Memory Box Winterberry paper that I stamped with JustRite's Curlz & Times New Roman fonts. When designing custom-made wording, I like to use the space I'll be working with as a guidline. So I chose the die I wanted to work with and then adjusted the wording on my JustRite Harmony Rectangle Stamper to fit: A stamp positioner made sure of proper placement of the words... Read more →

JustRite Merry Christmas Gift Set

Here's a quick and easy gift/card idea using JustRite stamps. Their Christmas Set Ensemble has come in very handy for me around the holidays . . . there's such a great mix of stamps just perfect for many holiday occasions & gifts! And while linking to this stamp set, I see JustRite has a special going on -- you can add the wooden mount for this set to your order for just $4.95! This box of Harry & David Bing Cherry Chocolates found at Target was very easy to alter and make into a more presentable quick gift. Here's what the box looked like before altering -- I liked the shape: As you can see, I just used a few scrap pieces of patterned paper, cut with some Spellbinders Nestabilities dies (Classic & Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Scalloped Long Rectangle MegaNestabilities and Scalloped Classic Rectangle Nestabilities) to fit around the front circle cut-out and cover up the box labeling. Otherwise, the box colors worked well with my patterned papers (Fancy Pants Happy Holidays). The Merry Christmas center was inked with Tsukineko VersaMagic Red Brick chalk ink and then Jumbo Java applied around the edges of the stamp. The VersaMagic Dew Drop... Read more →

Magic Reindeer Food

With the help of a bunch of new meds from the doctor, I was finally able to sit at my desk long enough to make a quick project today. If you have an elementary-school aged child, you've probably seen this before. It's become a tradition in our family, so my girls helped me put together food for Santa's Reindeer this morning! You simply fill a baggie with uncooked oats and add some colored sugar crystals. Some recipes call for glitter, but this can harm birds or wildlife, if ingested. This recipe is also safe, if your child happens to want to taste the food reindeer eat -- ask me how I know this! Here's the poem for you to copy and paste, if you'd like to make this project: Sprinkle on the lawn at night The moon will make it sparkle bright As Santa's reindeer fly and roam This will guide them to your home. I've also seen this version of the poem: Be sure to take this magic food and sprinkle on the lawn, On Christmas, Santa's reindeer travel miles before the dawn. The smell of oats and glitter path will guide them on their way And you'll wake... Read more →

Elfy Christmas Wishes!

I'm still holed up with the achy back, unable to sit at my desk and create, but found this (post below) and had some fun today . . . Merry Christmas from my Elfy family!! Read more →

Elfy Christmas Wishes!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards Read more →

12 Inchies of Christmas-5,6,7

Thanks so much for all of your well-wishes for my back . . . I'm still hanging in, with medication but may have to head to the doctor today if it runs out! While in bed with the laptop, I managed to edit these photos and get this post put together for you . . . I hope you enjoy this round of the 12 Inchies of Christmas! A few Inchie Arts White Inchie Squares and a card kit make for some time-saving holiday cards! I found this Frost Signature Series card kit by My Mind's Eye online, which contains 10 cards & envelopes, sticker accents & buttons: I stamped Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty images (from left to right: Christmas Border #3045, Christmas Light #6018, Mittens #3050, Wreath #3044 in the photo above) with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto Inchie Arts White Inchie Squares and then colored them with the Copic markers shown above. For the first card, I matted the Lockhart Itty Bitty Wreath Inchie with Spellinders Scalloped Square Nestabilities and used the Labels One die to cut the Merry Christmas sticker. The edges were inked and a button from the kit added to the label. I used Pink... Read more →

Fun Stuff

I seem to have thrown out my back and am in bed with a few pain killers & muscle relaxers in me, hoping they'll do the trick so I can finish up my Christmas shopping this week while my girls are still in school. So I probably won't have any new artwork to show you today (we'll see how I feel over the next couple of hours), but found this while blog hopping this morning in bed with the laptop and thought some of you might find this interesting -- I did, but it might just be the meds! My hubby mutters this ("There's only one of YOU") under his breath occasionally, but now I have proof: HowManyOfMe.com There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name? Yep, I seem to be one of a kind, LOL! You can click on the link above and try it for yourself. And here's a cute poem I've seen in a few places over the last week . . . I'm sure none of you can relate, can you?! :) Twas the Night Before Christmas Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree. I'm wondering... Read more →

Spellbinders Design Team Call

Spellbinders, the makers of your beloved Nestabilities dies you've all come to know and love over the past year and a half, is beginning the search for their next year's design team. You can read all about the details and requirements on their blog HERE. Best of luck! Read more →

12 Inchies of Christmas-4

With my 12 Inchies of Christmas series, I'm trying to think of some new and different ways to show you how to use Inchie Arts products, so how about a faux tile magnet made from Inchie squares? This project came about when I happened to have a business card sized magnet lying on my work table next to some Inchie Arts Inchie Squares and I discovered that six tiles fit almost perfectly onto one magnet. The magnets are 2" x 3.50". These came from Staples Office Supply in a box of 50 for $12.49, which makes them about .25 cents each -- a fairly economic project! I've also found the magnets at Office Depot for about the same cost. I started by stamping Karen Lockhart's Della Robia Tree (#6031) with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto my favorite Neenah Classic Natural White cardstock and colored it entirely with Copic Spica Glitter pens -- this little tree packs a LOT of sparkle impact! A little bit of Copic G40 Sketch marker was used to fill in the tree. Copic R22 marker was used to color the base of the tree pot and the bow, then red Spica glitter pen was used to... Read more →

12 Inchies of Christmas-2/3

On our 2nd day of the 12 Inchies of Christmas, how about dressing a small Christmas tree with Inchies? Here, I've made a tree ornament and gift to go underneath my tree. I forgot to photograph the step-by-step process I used to create the ornament shown above (because I wasn't sure it would work yet!), but here's how it's done. The ornament was made my adhering two Inchie Arts White Inchie Squares together, back-to-back: Then I put some glue around the edges of the doubled Inchie Squares and adhered a long piece of ribbon around the perimeter. I tied a knot at the top of the squares and then glued the loose ends together at the very top (or in this case, the bottom right of the photo), forming a loop to hang the ornament: I had plenty of ribbon left over when I made the tree ornament above, so I tied a knot in the top of its loop. Here's a closeup: I stamped the Lockhart Itty Bitty Christmas Tree (#3046) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto the Inchie Arts White Inchie Square and colored it with Copic markers and touches of pink Copic Spica Glitter Pen. The gift... Read more →