Halloween Card Party

So yesterday I had a card party/exchange at my house.  What is a card party, you might be asking?  Well, everyone that attends makes a card in a design and makes enough of them to give one to each person that attends.  Each person that attends does this and at the end each person leaves with cards in lots of different layouts and designs. It's way fun!  At least for a geeky card maker like me!  It was my first attempt at having a card party and I got a lot accomplished during it, two other friends attended and even though it was a small group, we had a lot of fun.  It of course was a Halloween/Fall theme and I shared out all of my supplies for everyone to use.  I ended up making 5 different designs and 6 each of the design.  I made them all square format because that is my latest obsession, it just lends itself so well to nice layouts.  Looking at them now, I see that I liked the bat and moon elements this year, as they are used on half the designs! The party was a good time and I'm planning on having another one next month right before Thanksgiving for those that would like to come and make holiday/Christmas cards. I'll keep those that are interested up on the date once I decide.

September COF Swap

Another swap completed!  This month, September's swap, is hosted by me, and of course I picked Halloween for my topic (no big surprise there!).  Recently I was at the Renaissance fair in our area, and while there, saw these fun "Skeleton Fairies".  I almost bought one, but for the price they were asking, I couldn't really stomach it, knowing that I could make my own custom one for a fraction of the price. (that seems to be my problem a lot.  I love to support other artists, but sometimes I just end up making my own version, either directly or indirectly influenced).  Anyways, I wanted to make a Halloween themed fairy, so here it is.  I found these great Monarch butterflies to use and gave a orange and iridescent halo along with (which is hard to see) a sparkly black "Boo!" sign in the left hand.  I finished it off with a leather cord for hanging.  I had a lot of fun making these and I hope the COF gals like them too! 

Time for another Round Robin journal to get started!

As I have mentioned in a previous post or two, I'm part of a group of stampers/mixed media artists that have been together for what, 5 years now?  Anyways, we have decided to do another Round Robin journal project and this time I've chosen a very different theme.  I hemmed and hawed (spelling??) quite a bit this go-round, and finally decided to settle on the idea of multiple characters/personalities.  Recently hearing about Lady Gaga's alternate persona sparked something in my mind that I've had hovering there for some time now (ever since I realized Garth Brooks became Chris Gaines, anyone remember that?).  Questions like, how do they start? How many different ones can there be? Who has them?  Do we each have our own different characters and personalities and not even know it? etc., etc., etc.  And I'm not just talking about medically diagnosed multiple personalities necessarily, just any time that an individual takes on another character in their life to perform a task, cope with something or just for fun if they're living in some type of altered state.  But enough about that. 

I chose for my journal this time to have this "theme".  I have created a base or original character/persona, "Molly Winters", a quiet, shy librarian on the surface (directly inspired by a series of books I've been reading recently) and the task for each person that gets the journal is to create a new character/persona for her.  I needed to create an example and her first persona, so I created "Addison Black", saucy show girl extraordinare.  I have attached a couple of pictures of the journal, so if any COF journal participants are reading this, sorry for the spoiler!  :)

Baby Card

Well, I had a spare minute tonight, so I finally had a chance to sit down and make a baby shower card for a co-worker that has a shower at work this Friday.  She's not finding out the sex of the baby, so I went ahead and added blue and pink into the traditional green and yellow for some variety and punch.  Here's the finished product on the left.  There is this company, Stamps by Judith, that makes these really cute little chubby/stump stamps and this year at the scrapbooking convention my friend and I decided to stock up on a variety of the styles.  I had plans to use these little mini stamps as ornaments for my bare tree.  We ended up getting for a variety of occassions and holidays, so I'm sure you'll see more of this type of style over time.

Busy, busy, busy!

Yikes, so I just looked at the last date I posted somthing on here, nearly two months ago!!!  Shameful!  Not really I guess, but I've really fallen off the wagon with posting.  You know how it goes though, I've been so crazy busy with so much stuff going on that I've been buried and am trying desperately to dig myself out of a hole. 

Anyways, so what have I been up to lately?  More needle felting!  I am signed up to do two craft fairs, one at the end of this month and another at the start of next.  I LOVE love love Halloween and all the cutesy, crazy stuff that comes out around this time of year and I decided that since I love it so much, why not just primarly focus on it for the items I'm making for the fairs.  Here is a pic of some of the needle felted creations that I've been working on this past week or so.  I actually really like them (which I don't say very often at all about anything I make) with the exception of the witch's head.  She ended up getting too big and needs to get refined a bit more, nor did she photograph very well.  I've also been up to making a whole crapload of mini cards to sell as well, I'll post some of those soon.  What do you guys think of the felted creations?  I'm planning stiching a type of bail on it and using them as the focal pendant on a necklace. 

More Minis

Okay, I think I am a self-professed mini card addict.  I absolutely LOVE working in this format!  I have been working with the square format for my larger sized cards as well lately.  Maybe it's a phase...

Anyways, I got my new Lawn Fawn stamps in the mail last week and finally had a chance to sit down and use them today.  I really like the quality of the stamps as they have a nice clear, solidly inked image.  Some clear stamps have a so-so image quality when they are inked/stamped, but not these ones, it was like stamping heaven using these ones.  LOVE them!  Here are some of the designs I came up with today. 

Hope everyone is doing well and surviving this humidity!

Cupcake Birthday Cards

Tonight I had a chance to work on some cupcake themed birthday cards.  I think they turned out alright.  On the two larger cards, I wish I would have made the actual cupcake figure dimensional, so I am going to have to remake them and try it that way.  The "lady" card and the small card each have some glitter pen added and a little bit of bling, but it's hard to tell with the lighting I had to use.  Normally, I've been trying to work during the day so that way I can take my photos with some natural light, but that just wasn't happening today, ah well.  Anyone that's actually taking a look at these things, I would love to have some feedback about them, any feedback, good, bad or ugly, I can take it all.  I'm planning on signing up for a couple of art/craft fairs in the fall and would love to know what the general population thinks about them and so on so forth.

Another Mini

Had just a little time to myself today as little one was napping, so I had time to do one mini card.  I chose to do a pregnancy/expecting card as I have a few people I know that I could send this card to.  I love this stamp and it's matching sentiment (from Stampin Bella again).  I'm looking to order some new stamps very soon, so I will have some fresh inspiration to do some new cutesy cards.  I am planning on signing up for some craft fairs this fall, so I need to get my butt in gear! 

Redemption

I was very unhappy with the thank you card that I had made last week, so I had to redeem myself.  I like this one much better, it's the same basic idea of the first one, but a little jazzier and in a larger square format.  I've really been into the square cards lately, they're just a nice format to work with.  

I also made a birthday celebration one that could be used for either guys or girls I suppose.  This one (on the left) was a pain to get the pom string fiber to adhere down.  I think if I were to do this one again that I wouldn't put the swag on it, but instead have it just drape from one side to the other in one swoop.  Today, I found this other birthday card (on the right) that I had done awhile ago, so I thought I would go ahead and post it too.  I used a four square/window view and used some of my favorite DoodleFactory stamps in it.  I love these stamps, the images are so fun and playful. 

And the last of today's creations is a "dude" card.  I find that making cards for guys, of any age, are always the most difficult.  I'm not sure why, but I do.  Anyways, I used more of my DoodleFactory stamps for this card and some fun guy-ish plaid paper. 

Have a great day everyone!

Friday creations

So today was pretty uneventful as far as my creative endeavors went.  I tried my hand at another felted heart pendant, it turned out not too bad, although the picture I took of it came out really really dark.  It's a pretty vibrant purple and the picture here does it no justice. 

Awhile ago, I also created a pink ribbon necklace, but just recently went back and re-finished the beading.  I made the ribbon out of polymer clay and strung it with various shades of pink beads to complete it.  Again, this picture isn't capturing the right colors in this necklace either...

And the last thing I did today was create a "thank you" card.  Anyone that has ever crafted or made cards with me knows that I can't bear to part with even small scraps of paper (which I'm sure gets annyoing at times), so I decided to see what I could make with some of my scraps.  These scraps came from the same paper line, which means they are meant to co-ordinate together and I used cardstock stickers for the wording.  I am usually not a fan of using stickers on cards, even though I buy my fair share of them, but I went ahead and did it anyways.  I'm not exactly thrilled with this one, it just doesn't wow me, but I'll blame it on the weather as it is greyish and overcast outside.  Which I'm sure explains why my pictures I took today aren't coming out that great.  Ah well, that's how it goes...

Yesterday's creative

So my attempt at tackling something new and creative yesterday was pretty much a bomb.  I tried to make cake pops for the first time.  Nuff said.  I am not even going to bother to take a picture of how pathetic they turned out to be.  I will however, be eating some of the disaster though.  Now I'm going to go and try to do something that's worth looking at...I'll keep you posted!

Felting

In my quest to fulfill my challenge to myself, here is today's creation.  Not too long ago, a friend brought to my attention the art of needle felting.  I of course decided to say, what the heck, I'll try it, and have made a couple of little practice attempts at the technique.  It's been a bit since I've done some felting, so I decided that's what today's creations would be about.

The flower on the left was directly inspired by a card creation I just saw in the most recent issue of PaperCrafts magazine.  I would have to say that it's a pretty sad attempt at a flower, I realized what I did wrong with the technique of course AFTER I was almost done sewing everything up of course.  Ah well, I can try it again next time right?  The heart on the right is my first in a series of heart pendants I think I'd like to do.  It's a needle felted red heart with a lavender "rope" around it. (can't think of a better descriptive word right now...)  As I mentioned, I plan on making it into a pendant, so I've included a silver headpin that will be used as the attachment to the chain eventually.  Thoughts? 

Creative-a-day

I have so many ideas running rampant in my head about all of the things I would like to try and create, from cardmaking to jewelry to paintings and the list just goes on and on.  Lately, I seem to have a bit of a mental block.  I kind of just sit and stare at everything and my mind goes blank because there's just too much, I guess...(at least that's what I'll tell myself...).  I have decided to challenge myself this summer, yes, another challenge.  I have so obviously FAILED the challenge of not buying any new product and just work with the existing stuff that I have, so I'm abandoning that one.  But a new challenge to myself to try and do one creative thing a day, even if it's just something small.  I've got two days worth of creations to post.  The first day, yesterday, I have been very into creating small mini cards lately, so I've done a set of 10 of them, here they are.  Just very simple and straightforward is what I was aiming for.

I really like working in this format because it's a change from the traditional rectangular format I've been working in for so long.  Here are a couple of close-ups of some of them.

          

Anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE most anything robot or robot/space related, so these are a couple of minis I came up with based on that theme that I did today.  



 

Sweet Success!

Yay, so the second attempt seems to have worked out better...thank goodness for non-stick baking cooking spray (go PAM!!!).  I haven't tried one yet, but probably should do that tomorrow before I make people try and take them!

Brownie Bites...kind of...

Okay, in my quest to do all things crafty/artsy/fun/cool, I have decided that next thing on my radar are cake/brownie pops and bites.  I tried the other night to make my first batch of brownie bites, using a mini muffin pan and a silicone baking mold. 
There is a reason they recommend you use non-stick spray.
A good reason.

Otherwise, your goodies turn out to look like this.  A pile of brownies that look bitten and recycled because you have to scrape them out of the pans and molds.  I mean, they still taste good, but they really don't look appetizing...
So yeah, I'm going to give it another shot, and hopefully it will work out better this time...

Mega Move Giveaway

Hi all, so to update you on one of my previous posts, I couldn't make the one month challenge of not buying anything new...How could I resist with the new October Afternoon's Rocket Age line??!  It is too cute and I will just have to try again this month...

I have a friend in my stamping/art circle that is moving and has posted a giveaway on her blog for what looks to be some fabulous goodies she's cleaning out.  You can check out the giveaway here at Glitter Tart Designs.

Hope everyone is doing well.  I plan on trying a second attempt at baking today and if all goes well, I'll post te results!

Art/Craft Room

I'm nearly done with the organization of my art/craft room!  I made myself stick with it so that way the next time I have an opportunity to work in there, I will have a clean slate to start with.  There are still a couple of things to be done in there, but for the most part, it's pretty functional and even, gasp,...organized!  Here are some pics of my little domain.  My husband can't stand to be in there for more than about 5 minutes at a time and then he has to get out, and when my 9 month old son crawls in there, he keeps turning this way and that way over and over just looking at everything.  It might be borderline visual overload, but hey, that's me!

Organization

So I'm working on trying to get my art/craft room organized.  Why is it that in organizing, everything turns into a complete and total utter mess before it actually gets organized?  I really need to sit down and put some thought into how I want everything organized so I can do it once and do it right.  I will have to post some pictures of my room when I've got it all done.  Here's to hoping that I can get it done soon!  I've got some cards that need to be made!

OMG!!!

So all missing items have been found.  My wonderful husband came to the rescue!  Thank you hubby!  Now I can move on to worrying about things that are actually important.  Yay! 

So the trend continues...

Okay, so apparently I have misplaced my brain (I guess that's what a 9 month old will do to you...), but I went out to do some yardwork this afternoon and couldn't find my hat anywhere!  For the past couple of years I have been wearing a fabulous (I think it's fabulous anyways, some people would beg to differ I'm sure) navy blue military inspired hat nearly every time I step outside in the summer.  I searched EVERYWHERE for this hat today and came up empty handed.  It must be hanging out in the same place with my googly eyes (see previous post).  I can only assume that it must have been left in my car when I traded it in a couple of months ago.  So sad...  Now I have to go through the pain of finding another one...sniff, sniff, sigh...  At least my head is attached so I won't misplace that...

A challenge to myself

I've thought about this before, but haven't had the guts or fortitude to actually try it.  So here goes, for everyone to witness, here is my challenge to myself (which if I can actually do it, my husband will love...)

I challenge myself to NOT purchase any new product, with the exception of solid-colored cardstock, for the term of one month.  So that means I would not be permitted to purchase any fun new paper or any type of embellishment until June 22nd.  That includes in the stores and online.  Cardstock is the only thing tha would be allowed if necessary so that way I could actually make the cards to use up what I have now.  Whatever I want to make, I need to make from my current stockpile of stuff.  Granted, that shouldn't be too hard because I have a TON of stuff.  I'm a paper junkie! 

Whew, that will be tough for me.  I will need to stay out of the stores and away from my favorite sites! I'll keep you posted on how I do!

Lost...

So yeah, don't you just hate it when you misplace stuff?  I do.  The other day I was looking for my container of googly eyes and can't find it.  I use them to make my crazy pom creatures mainly, but needed to take them into school for a student to use on a project and couldn't find them anywhere!  I have since searched my entire art/craft room from top to bottom twice and haven't found them yet.  I am really bugged by this.  It's literally annoying me and I can't wait to find them so I can move on and use my brain energy for something more important.  Maybe I left them at work/school and just haven't looked hard enough there.  I will feel so unsettled until I find them.  Like, I'm really so bugged by this that I think I might actually go into work tomorrow on my way to the grocery store to look for them.  Seriously.  I know, I've got problems...

May Swap Challenge

For the past 3 or 4 years I have been part of a stamping/art/swapping group called "The Circle of Friends".  Each month a new challenge is posted by one of the members and you can choose to participate or not.  This month's swap, childhood themed, was/is one I'm really looking forward to.  It was cancelled, but then brought back, which I was really glad about because I had already purchased my supplies for it and was getting ready to start.  It ended up being a small group which is just fine with me because it allowed me to be a more elaborate with what I created this time.  I was so gung-ho about this swap, that I chose to do two different designs as I couldn't decide on just one.  The first one I did was a standup card with a pull out panel.  I used the Old MacDonald PaperDoll paper from October Afternoon's 5 and Dime line.  Each of the cards stand up and have a different set of the "paper dolls" that go with the phrasing on the card.  I used a variety of other resources to create the rest of the card too. These were a lot of work, but I really had a lot of fun doing them.  I think they turned out pretty decently if I do say so myself. 

As the second part of my swap, I found this little girl riding a tricycle stamp in a local store and couldn't resist, it's so cute and manufactured by Stamping Bella.  I've bought some of their stamps before and really liked the images and quality.  The Dr. Seuss quote was just perfect with it too, it makes me think of what my little man will do and see in his life. 

I can't wait to send these off, and I'm excited to see what the other ladies in my group have done!

Mother's Day Cards 2011

So I'm actually working ahead of schedule for once and have completed the Mother's Day cards I plan on sending out this year. In order to save some time, I did one basic style and changed the colors that I used for the card base and accent paper. I've also decided to go ahead and use some of the fabulous new colored envelopes I purchased recently from Cards and Pockets. I love their nice quality envelopes, they are nice and thick and have the european style flap for some added elegance. It's always so much more exciting to get a card in the mail with a fun colored envelope. (not that there's anything wrong with the regular white ones! I send those out 95% of the time :) )

rain

rain, rain, go away. come back in the summer when we need you!