Wednesday, October 30, 2013

My Go-To Craft: Card-Making


Hi there -- Carla here!

I have some exciting news from The Crafting Journals -- but we're not ready to share just yet!  Let's just say you'll want to stay tuned for the next month or two for an announcement!

Today I'm getting ready to go to a crop.  Whenever I have a crop I'm not prepared for (and let's face it, that would be most of the crops I attend), I turn to my go-to craft.  I grab a bunch of my paper scraps, plus maybe a few embellishments and stamps, and challenge myself to make cards.  I thought I’d share a few of these cards with you.

The first card is one I made for a swap. This is pretty representative of the style I find comes most naturally to me -- simple design, bright colors.  A couple of layers, a little patterned paper, ribbon, embellishment -- done.



Second is a card I made in a class with Heidi Bound at my friend Michele's Little Bird Creations. The scraps for this card were part of the class kit, and we made our own creations.  I challenged myself to go outside my comfort zone and create something more vintage-y and collage-y, with clustered embellishments.  I had a lot of fun with it, and I like the way it turned out.



The third card is one I made for my new neighbor.  I like house motifs, so I thought I’d try paper-piecing some houses from my patterned scraps to create a card welcoming her to our apartment building.  



Once I cut the houses, I was inspired to complete the scene with grass, a fence, clouds, and a greeting.  I added the word “welcome” with rub-ons on patterned paper, then used a tree punch to create the clouds.  I added dimension to the fence with 3-D Dots.





What's your go-to craft?  Knitting?  Stitching?  Scrapbooking?  Tell us about it!

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Monday, October 21, 2013

Have A Boo-tiful Halloween



Happy October everyone!  
Elizabeth here with some Halloween décor eye candy. 

Mmm. Candy. The best part of Halloween if you don’t count the ability to dress up as a witch and behave the part without any complaints from your family.

Not that I have any experience with that.

Ahem.

Anywho ... here are some pix of what’s topping the horizontal spaces in my family room this month: lots of printables, more big paper mache letters and an entire patch of pumpkins.

First. The mantle.  Frames. Paper flower wreath. Thematic knick-knacks. Banner. Done.







Next.  The bookshelves. Big paper mache letters. Piles of pumpkins ... including my newest addition ... the large chevron. Hanging pattern paper letters. Twigs. Light-bulb lit jack-o-lantern. Which, I should remember to put on a timer ...


Lastly. The console table. Glittered pumpkin. Triangle banner made by my dear friend Kay. Flying bats in a frame. 10-minute bright orange table runner ... man, I wish I could run for 10 minutes without turning bright orange.

 

And finally last ... what Halloween post wouldn’t be complete without a picture of a black cat? Um, none. So here she is. 

 
Ahhh ... isn’t she sweet?  Ok. Indulge me.  My only child has left me for college.  I’ve got nothing else to lavish all this pent up mothering pride on.

Have a Boo-tiful Halloween everyone!  I’m off to find the bags of candy I hid from myself.  It might take a while ... I’m either getting really tricky or really forgetful in my old age : ).

And speaking of forgetting, before I do so ... here are the links to the printables I used: Trick-or-Treat Chalkboard; Halloween Subway Art; Witch with Cat; Batty Trick-or-Treat and Boo Signs; Chevron 31; Keep Calm.
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