CRAFTS FOR CHRISTMAS!

Today was a FANTASTIC day as it was CHRISTMAS in my house! The lovely Bobbi and Lin gifted me 2 BOXES of stamps, inks, paper, ephemera, punches, and ONE GIANT CUTTER! I am so beyond excited, you have no idea. Tomorrow night will be PLAY PLAY PLAY because I am a REAL crafter. NO MORE HANNAH MONTANA GLUE STICK BABY, I HAVE THE BIG GUNS.

Okay, I'm a little over excited. Just look out for tons of craftiness coming your way.

Peach blossom shave soap to the rescue!

As a crafter, I recognize all handmade items as craftiness, and this lady's soap: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MissTine?ref=seller_info, is PURE craftiness. Natural, amazing soap, especially the shave soap, that I had to share it. I only buy natural and this lady has my business forever. I pride her on being a crafty pioneer.

Creative Cafe book "things we love"

Before I start, I'd love to know why my pictures upload in reverse order. Nevertheless, I'm almost too stressed to explain this project, but see as it's so col (imagine 1000000000000 times cuter in person), I will try my hardest.

Creative Cafe was, for once, not taught by Kristen. And darnit, I cannot remember the woman's name who was teaching it. She went through the steps and was rather practical, but her nonchalant use of the word cadiwhompus (or however you spell it) has stuck it into my brain and I find myself cleverly slipping into my conversations.

This project is made of an envelope book by 7 gypsies and is soooo cute. The funniest part is that the book originally came with 10 pages, but somehow, our teacher got a special book that accidentally was made with 11! She planned the entire project around an 11 page book and she was the only one that had such a thing, so she had to bust open a couple and pass out pages. Luckily, the books were bound with some simply bindery thing which made putting the extra page in a quite simple task.

I really loved this little craft because it didn't take much. It was the book, paper, ink, and ribbon. Well, and pop-dots, but those are a given. The only thing that would make it hard and even impossible to recreate this piece is not having one of those fancy cutter machines that cuts pictures and figures; a machine which I do not have. It's a crafty little bit of inspiration, though, to show that you can go pretty far with only a few tools. Let me tell you, I am an INKER and I went nuts on this book. It turned out pretty cool though.

An idea of my own!

So, this card began with Lin and I doing similar things, but something took hold of me inside and I began stamping and punching and weaving and tying until I realized I had a tiny hanging card with a bow that prevented it from closing. I imagine you can't tell a thing about this card via the pictures, thanks to my photo friend room lighting (sike), but I can describe that ribbon was weaved in and out of some holes punched via Japanese screw punch (I think that's the name?) and it turned into a little handle on the outside and a bow on the inside. The task was to keep it closed. Lin and I threw around a few ideas but we decided a white brad with some cool string to tie around it like an envelope would look the classiest, and it did! Wish you could see it in person, it's way cool. (:

Now, this card was really cool and easy to make. It's an EASEL card, which means it sits up like an easel... Duh, haha. So, we used a 2-step stamping method (my first time), which was pretty swell, though I kept missing. The card was mostly orange (my favorite color), which was a lovely plus. I think I'm going to make more of these on my own when I get my paws on some good (not Joann's) cardstock. No offense to Joann, but her cardstock is like public restroom toilet paper. Love the sales, though. 40% the Crop-a-dile (or however you spell that) is not something to be argued with.

Same set, 2 adorably different cards

Two different cards, same stamp set. Apparently, birds are SO in right now and they really are adorable. Momma bird and baby birds are two separate stamps and I must admit, I like the green and brown one best, seeing as the brown is actually embossed to look like tree bark. Yet, for some reason, that didn't thrill my mother...

Christy is having another baby.

This card is for Christy, an old friend of mine, who is having her second baby to be named Charlotte Olivia. I was so excited because I never have friends who have babies (seeing as I'm 17 and NO ONE at 17 should be having babies) so I jumped on the opportunity to make a baby card. We used a stamp roller (my first time) and then colored in the images. On the inside, we just used a simply baby carriage, which I, at first, messed up by stamping on the paper with tiny dots stuck to the stamp (only to me, could that happen) so I restamped and have it a 3D effect. (more like a Parkinson's hand effect.)

Stuff my mom is fascinated with

When I came home from Lin's house and showed my mom this card we made, all of the other cards were chump change. She just FLIPPED over the embossed dots. She's like CAN I COME WITH YOU NEXT TIME!? She was so excited about this card. We used the Big Shot with the embossing folder. BUT! we stamped the white paper BEFORE we embossed, which made it extra special.

Now, the accordion flower which, when given the proper directions, took about 5 minutes to make, was the second most interesting thing I came home with. She was like YOU HAVE TO SHOW ME HOW TO MAKE THAT, and I'm thinking whoopee. She thinks my cards or nice, but is thrilled to the nines of a 1 1/4in accordion flower. Well, at least she likes something. (:

Creative Cafe flowers

Yet another wonderful creative cafe! Kristen had us making flower arrangements from a package of punched out flowers, a sweet vase from Target, and some wire from Michael's. But let's keep it between us that she outsourced. (; I used pop-dots to add dimension to the flowers, butterfly and bird. I used hot glue to adhere the flowers to the wire. Hot glue is a pain. |:< I kept sticking my fingers in it and burning myself. Nevertheless, it turned out wonderful and I actually impressed my mother with one of my crafts. She liked it so much, she asked to keep it. I don't think I've ever been so proud. (:

Just to say, Creative Cafe was yesterday, but I was too busy to photograph.

Intent to landscape

I refuse to take no for an answer in landscaping my backyard. I want to do a container only flower/food garden with lots of vintage containers and free-standing art. I hope I can pull through it and make it fabulous!

Creative Cafe cards

Creative Cafe tonight was pretty great. (: As usual, Kristen had a great project for us to do. But, of course, I was in space cadet mode and forgot ALL of my craft stuff. Luckily, crafty people are also nice people who let scrambled-egg brained crafters borrow their stuff. Then, of course, my scatter-brain kept making mistakes, like cutting things too small, gluing them too close, or inking too heavily. BUT, nevertheless, everything came out pretty well. I'm especially proud of the orange card, which I'll be sending to my aunt, as that button sewing on the tag was completely unique to me. :D I need to get ahold of some more tools and stamps so I can make cards like this at home.

Flying solo

My first attempt at a card with no assistance. I must admit, as a novice, it's a little intimidating trying to set sail on your own without your guide to give you some inspiration. With this card, my main tools were office scissors, pop dots, and a Hannah Montana glue stick. I really need to increase my inventory of crafting supplies.

First cards!

These are two of the first cards I made, ever! Lin taught me stamping and punching and putting the two together. I didn't have a blog or a MacBook then so I'm catching up with these here.

A little about my inspiration...

Jessica Thomas and I have been best friend's since we were 2. (We're both 17) No matter what has happened, no matter how we've grown up, or how we've changed, we still lived 5 houses away from each other and still have every excuse to laugh every moment we're with each other. We've been through break-ups, boyfriends, make-ups, divorces, and just about everything best friends can go through. She's my one and only best friend for life. And I know we'll be 80, reminiscing the old days while she knits and I crochet.

Stamping with my best friend

As you can see by the silly girl making funny faces in the background, I had help with these simple cards. We were just playing with some stamps and inks that Lin lent me and these were our silly creations. She did most of the stamping while I did most of the pasting and cutting (as I didn't want her to chop her fingers off.)

A little about my inspiration...

This boy is the sunshine in all my days. He knows just what to say and when to say it. When I weigh myself and look disappointed, he laughs and says "Sweetie, you have big hair, it's all hair weight. Nothing to worry about." When I ask him if he wants some vegan meat instead of me cooking chicken, he says "I'll eat anything, sweetheart." He makes me feel needed and wanted and loved all the time and he never lets me forget that he cares. He inspires my happiness and inspires me to make him all kinds of cute crafts and cards. Best of all, he inspires me to face my fears and really fall in love. <3

Dog-themed chipboard album

I made this chipboard album in a class at Whim So Doodle, a local craft EMPORIUM. The class is Creative Cafe and you pay whatever amount between $2-$15 and they give you a complete kit, a model, and teach you to put the kit together but give you plenty of free-reign and options. I don't have a dog so I made this album for my boyfriend's dog who DOES NOT smile in just about every picture. So, though this album is much shorter than the others people made, (mine is only 8 pages while everyone else had something like 12 page albums) it turned out rather well as I mixed clean pages with distress-inked pages. I also used cute quotes from the kit that were printed from the computer on cardstock, which is an AWESOME idea, rather than using stamps. The binder ring has a ton of cute ribbon around it, which my dad calls 'rags' when he laughs at my crafting style. Silly pops. Hope you like it. (:

Exploding box with 8 paper pockets

I made this exploding box for my darling Jon on his 20th birthday and filled the small slots with coupons and complimentary lists. The directions made it look super complicated but it really wasn't that serious. But, when you don't have a cutter and you're freehanding with scissors, don't plan to follow the measurements; it will be necessary to improvise. Just today did I invest in an actual cutter. I hope it'll make my life easier.

My favorite card for my favorite guy

Last card of the day that I made for my sweetheart. Pop dots behind the heart really made the front. On the inside, it says "you mean everything to me." (:

Same stamp set, 3 unique cards

1 stamp set - 3 different cards. Got up and started crafting with Lin and we've already made 3 cards since 8am. Armed with a protein shake and a metabolism tea, I'm ready to face the music.

Playing with CS5 and Content Aware

I just got my hands on CS5 Extended and I was playing around with content aware aware feature and was able to get rid of everything in that left corner while keeping it pretty natural. I haven't been on Photoshop in what feels like years so I'm still having a little trouble getting back into the swing of things. I feel like I'm at a brush-block with making brush projects. I'll have to work on that.

First post!

I've been crafting with Lin for HOURS and this is what we've come up with. An owl card that took FOREVER because we just could NOT understand the video's directions. When we finally got a handle on it, I went into zone mode and my brain starting roaming like a metro phone in Wisconsin. So, mine looks nice, but the pop-out mechanism is a little iffy. The other two cards were pretty fun. The purple flowery one was cut out with sewing scissors which are a NECESSITY to all crafters. And, for the vintage collage card, we used stippling, which was a new thing for me. Guess I'll continue photoshop crafting for now. Ciao!