March Art Journal

I'm posting this a bit late, but it's actually been done for a while.  Instead of doing a daily journal, I decided to do weekly summaries.  To me, March is the beginning of the rest of the year.  Flowers like daffodils and tulips start to send up shoots, trees are forming leaf buds. I don't like winter and March gives me hope.

This page was very simple. I just inked up the background, stamped a couple of images and the rest is doodling with markers

Wedding Scrapbook

My sister-in-law got married this past August.  For her bridal shower gift, I made her a scrapbook. For the actual shower, I had the cover done and most of the layouts set up inside, but obviously had no photos. In the end, I ended up putting the photos in and embellishing as well so she had a completed scrapbook.  This is the cover.

 

I used:

Want2Scrap's Swirls Finess - silver rhinestones 

Some Prima flowers

A Bind-It-All 8x8 Cover-All, and heart shaped Rivet closure.  

and some extra bling in the lower right corner.

For the Want2Scrap bling, I cut up the original piece to get others that could be spread out. It made a completely different design that works well with the flowers. 

Linking up at:  February 2013 Time2Create Challenge

A CAS(E) Birthday Card

I made a simple birthday card for my mom following along with this weeks CAS(E) sketch.

I wanted to make the butterfly look more dimensional, so I print-and-cut two sets of butterflies, attached them at the body, then added a pop dot to make one of the wings stick out more.  

The Sketch!

Another Christmas Card

This card follows along with the simplicity theme I've been enjoying lately.  The card was designed with Make-the-Cut and Lettering Delights Nordic Christmas svg files.  It was printed out then layered on top of the card with a red layer.  I added some Want2Scrap bling in the corners for some shine.

I'm entering this card in two challenges.  The Jingle Belles Scandinavian Challenge's criteria was to make a card using the color red. I also stuck to their Scandinavian inspiration.

Alway's Playing With Paper's Merry Monday challenge is to use birds in your Christmas card. 

Art Journal Calendar - January 2013

It's been a while.  My crafting has really gotten pushed to the side lately mostly because of work and classes.  My one New Year's resolution this year is to craft a little more.   To start off, I decided to participate in a monthly art journal calendar over at ...the kathryn wheel.  I wanted to participate last year when I finally heard about it, but never got around to joining in.  Her journaling is amazing.

At the end of the year, I plan on using my Bind-It-All to bind all the pages. On the left side, you can see that the January page is glued to another. That is the cover and is still a work in progress.

For this page I mostly used my new distress inks I received for Christmas from my wonderful husband. I've never used them before and so far they're awesome.  I also used a little bit of Glimmer Mist and the sparkly Mod Podge (down at the bottom of the pages).

So far so good...now I just have to start filling in the circles.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday.

Recycled Christmas

This week's prompt over at the Jingle Belles blog is Peace on Earth(Day) where we are to recycle materials to make the cards. I chose to use a piece of cardboard for the front and some scraps for the rest. Most of the paper on the cardboard came off, but not all. I like the look. I slapped on some gesso then spritzed with some glimmer mist. The snowman stamp is a $1 one from JoAnn's and the words are from a stamp set by K Andrew. They're all embossed except for the snowflakes. I did follow the Merry Monday sketch from last week, but wasn't able to download the image until today, so it wasn't linked up.




 In other news...my semester is almost over! I have one crazy take home exam and possibly another. It's been a busy semester with working full time and taking two grad level courses. I'll be happy to have my evenings back for the summer and be able to make more crafty things.

The chicks are doing well. I'll be able to move them into their new coop hopefully tonight. We just have to get some hinges and latches on. I don't think I can call them chicks anymore though. They're getting so big. Pictures will come very soon of the coop and the girls.

Easter Egg Card and Chick Update

For Easter, I made two versions of this card. Both are purple and white, but for the other I used different colors for the butterflies and flowers. I took inspiration from a card someone else made on the Make the Cut forum.



It's being entered in Getting Cricky With KAndrew's simply Sunday challenge.

My chicks are getting big. The books warned they'd go through this ugly phase after their cute chick phase, but I think they're still pretty cute. It's been really neat to watch them grow. They're getting more friendly too.

Christmas Card

This card is for the Jingle Belles Neutral Noel challenge and



The tree and dots are actually embossed with a pretty gold powder, it just came out poor in the photo. I took inspiration from the tree pillow, then found some grungy papers and went with it. I don't think it quite works, but I still think it looks okay.

On a side note, I got chicks today! I've been wanting some laying hens for a few years, but living in apartments hasn't allowed for it. Last summer was so crazy with buying and moving into the house. So now I have some. There are six of them and they are golden comets.

Jingle Belles Challenge

As a break from working on my organic chemistry homework today I made a Christmas card for this week's Jingle Belles' challenge. It was to create a card using stickers or rub-ons.

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The 'let it snow' words were from a sticker pack. The snowflakes are adorable dimensional stickers from K&Company. I added some glitter around the edges of the card using some Martha Stewart paint I received with my Live from CHA kit. It was very easy to put together since most of it was stickers.

Inspiration for the 'let it snow' theme came from our crazy weather. Yesterday it got up to about 65F and today we had some snow. I had the song running through my head all day.

Pink Birthday Card

Tonight I made a birthday card for a friend.

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I used this week's Mojo Monday Sketch for inspiration. I'm almost certain the paper was a small 12x12 $1 pack from Target. The flowers are Prima.

Pink Christmas

The Jingle Belles challenge this week is to make a card using pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The best part of this challenge is that $2 will be donated to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure for every card that is entered. I'm not a big fan of pink, but there's no way I could pass this up. It really was a challenge creating something for Christmas with pink.



For the background I used pink card stock and spritzed it with Tattered Angels pink bubblegum glimmer mist. The tree is from a set from Hobby Lobby. The adorable little deer and text are from K. Andrew's Christmas stamp set. Flowers are Prima's, ribbon from the dollar section at target. All stamps are embossed.

It didn't show up in the picture, but below the deer and tree, I used Tattered Angels chandelier glitter paint. I haven't used it previously and wasn't sure what to expect. I wanted to add some glimmer as snow. Next time I will add a little more definition for the snow first. Maybe do some clear or slightly off white embossing then add the glimmer.

Cupcake Toppers + Freebie!

Today I made some cupcake toppers for Halloween. They're not quite finished because I discovered that I didn't have any toothpicks or skewers to attach them to. The inspiration for this project came from Getting Cricky's Simply Sunday Challenge in which we were to make a fall treat craft. I have plans later this month to make some cupcakes and thought this would be a nice touch.


The circle and star shapes came from MTC shape files and the font was one that came with my computer. You can download this file below. It's in MTC format. The bat is a Lettering Delights simple shape file and the ghost came from the web.



Halloween Cupcake Toppers

Jingle Belles Peace Challenge

The theme for this weeks Jingle Belles challenge is Peace on Earth. We are required to incorporate either a peace sign or the word Peace into our holiday card.

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I stamped and embossed the background and the lettering. The bird is from a Lettering Delights SVG file.

Mojo Monday Challenge

I recently came across the Mojo Monday sketch challenge blog. I really enjoy making cards from layouts. Probably because it's one less thing to worry about. I can follow along but still be creative and make it my own. For challenge this week I made another Christmas card.

Halloween ATCs

Halloween is the one holiday that I don't really do any crafting for. I love Halloween, I guess I just never found a reason to make crafts related to the holiday. Kristal over at Getting Cricky posted her Simply Sunday challenge last week to make something Halloween related. I wanted to enter and decided on a shaped ATC since they can be quick to do and I hadn't done much crafting lately. So I made one. Then I decided a whole series was in order. Though one gravestone alone is very spooky, it still needs more. For the cards I used Lettering Delights shaped files. They all measure to the correct dimensions of an ATC... 3.5"x2.5".



In case you're having trouble reading them, they each say
1. 1985 Mary Lass Missed the brake and hit the gas
2. I told you I was sick! 1810
3. C. Dracula 1236, 1458, 1527, 1703, 1823, 1995
4. Kerry M. Off 1846
5. Barry M. Deep-1996

And no, I didn't come up with these myself. I pulled them from the web here.

Jingle Belles Christmas Card

I love making ATCs. This weeks Jingle Belles challenge was perfect for me to jump back in to non wedding crafts. I made an ATC then decided that was enough for the card along with a patterned background, so I didn't add any more embellishment beyond a red border to the card itself. The card is also small. Only 5 1/2 x 4 inches. Very simple and fun.

Sketchy Thursday Layout

I really liked this weeks sketch at Sketchy Thursdays that I decided to do a layout with photos from my recent trip to Tennessee with my fiance. The trees and lettering font are files from Lettering Delights. The strip of trees is a punch.

First ever altered tin

I decided to make an altered tin recently and am entering it in Getting Cricky with K Andrew's All A Flutter Challenge

Some of my daffodils have started blooming and this was my inspiration





I also received a Leibster Blog award from Debbie. Thank you!

Marion Smith inspired art journal

This project is also being entered in K Andrew's Simply Sunday "All A Flutter Challenge at Getting Cricky.

I've been watching some of the Prima Live videos lately and really love Marion Smith's projects. She made a couple of altered art journals lately and I was inspired to make my own.

The cover is painted canvas art board. The lace was my grandmothers and was spritzed with blue and green Glimmer Mist. It's mostly to hide my chop job on the bottom of the cover. The paper butterflies were cut from one of Lettering Delights doodlebats font. They were inked and the dark green one was embossed. The 'create' was made with rubons, then dabbed with liquid glue to make them stay on the canvas since they wanted to come off.


Below are a few pages that I have complete. There are lots more to do.

The shapes were randomly cut from scrap paper pieces and inked.


Tim Holtz stamps were used for the tag


I love the little owl in the corner and the tree punch I used for the bottom.


My favorite page so far. The bird was hand cut and lightly stamped with black ink then embossed. The quote says "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song" by Lori Holtz.

Another Christmas Card Challenge Entry

I made this Christmas card for Jingle Belles' Text Me challenge. We were supposed to use text in our card as a main element.

I used Lettering Delights SVGs for the card shape and the tag on front. I made the little half fan dodad on the top to add some more dimension.