Perpetual Calendar with Time To Flourish

Good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your day is starting off nicely. I've been working like a crazy woman in my craft room for days and days finishing up projects for the Graphic 45 booth for CHA, having a great time. I can't wait to go to CHA and see their fabulous booth plus all the other amazing companies and new products. I'll be sharing on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so be sure to follow me. My links are in the righthand column of my blog.

While I can't share anything new just yet for the show, I do have something fun I created along with a YouTube video tutorial over on the Graphic 45 blog today. It's my Perpetual Desktop Calendar using Graphic 45's Time To Flourish collection and their regular book box. Here's a peek at the project...

I call it "perpetual" because the date portion of the calendar is removable and replaceable year after year. All the remaining month's cards and dates are stored inside the book box.

I've supplied some PDFs of the 2015 littler calendar parts on their blog too. You can download them and print your own.

Thanks for checking in today. Now I'm back to the craft room for one last project for CHA. 

See you again this Saturday with the next Compendium of Curiosities III Challenge!

Compendium of Curiosities #18 - Pocket Pages

It's another happy Saturday with a new challenge from the Compendium of Curiosities! Now that I've got my project done, my day will be filled with making Christmas cookies with my daughter and one of her best friends. We get pretty artistic with our cookie decorating, so if you like that kind of thing, check me out on Instagram or Facebook this weekend.

But I digress...

It's another challenge in the Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III series, hosted by the lovely Linda Ledbetter, featuring techniques and products from the master of distress Tim Holtz. We're working our way through his fabulous book and the new challenge is Pocket Pages and can be found on page 36.

We invite you to join us by creating your own project using the technique or product featured, upload it to Linda's site here, and thus be entered to win one of two fabulous prizes! We LOVE being inspired by you! You can read all the details at the end of my post, and remember, there ARE rules so read those carefully.

Okay, on to my project...

(click on photo for a closer look)

As with all the challenges, before I begin I ask myself "What do I need? What function will my project serve?" Since it's almost the end of 2014, I decided on a year-in-review mini album made with a variety of pocket pages.

I started by creating a front and back cover for my pages by cutting two pieces of thick black chipboard 4 1/2" x 7 1/2", punched a hole with my Crop-a-dile and inserted an elastic loop to the back cover.

I started to decorate my cover with Wallflower papers and Thrift Shop ephemera. I die cut 2014 from the Word Play die.

I added more Wallflower paper to the back cover and to the insides of the front and back covers.

I grabbed 8 assorted Pocket Pages and followed the technique in the CC3 book...

...then connected the first to the cover and the last to the back cover.

Now it was time to print some photos. I scrolled through my iPhoto albums, which I always label as I import new photos, and therefore can find specific photos quickly. I decided to choose the top 20 events throughout the year. For certain events, I selected just one photo and for others--such as our trip to London--I selected a few. I came up with a total of 25 photos. 

I set up a letter-size page in PhotoShop Elements and after cropping each photo to fit the space in my pocket pages, I pull each image onto the letter size page. I try to get as many as I can on the page, sometimes rotating photos to get them to fit. Then I simply print and use my paper trimmer to cut them all out.

To adorn my pages, I stuck with the ephemera packs (Thrift Shop and Expedition), several remnant rubs, chit-chat stickers, label letters, and industrious stickers. 

Sorry for the glare. It was tricky taking these photos at night in my studio. 

As you can see, some of the photos I selected are just everyday types of things, like Jamie with her new ombre. And other major events such as Paul at Arlington National Cemetery at his father's burial ceremony. And then there's Jamie and her best friends all stuffed in my bedroom closet during a tornado warning.

Other photos: Hubby Paul and I celebrating our 22nd anniversary, my first official art journaling class with Dina Wakley, my girlfriends making cards together, and of course our sweet Suki walking on the beach.

Flip the album around and more photos. Our trip to London, more Suki, and Jamie at MetroCon.

The final three pocket pages have photos of Jamie in color guard, Paul and I cracking up, more girlfriend time, and our little family photo at Thanksgiving. As you can see, the last space is empty, waiting for one more photo on Christmas Day.

After completing the inside pages, I came back to the front cover and embellished it further with a heart charm sewn to the elastic band, industrious corner stickers, remnant rubs, and an adage ticket cut down smaller to focus on the word Story.

The band comes all the way around the book to secure it. When lifted away, the album can open all the way out.

I love that I have this quick Year-in-Review mini book to scan through to remind myself of the fantastic year we had. I might just do this every year!

Now it's YOUR turn to give Pocket Page a try!

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Do you have the fabulous Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III book by Tim Holtz? (the master of all things vintage and distressed.) If not, you can find one at your local craft store, scrapbook store, or you can get a signed copy by Tim himself by going here. 

You can find all the CC3 Challenge details and FAQs here.  The lovely Linda Ledbetter is our hostess of this fun series of challenges, and all you have to do to participate is create your project, and upload to her site. Be sure, though, to read through all the FAQs so you're eligible to win...

We're working our way through this fantastic book of techniques and tips, and challenging you to join in the fun. This round's challenge is sponsored by the great folks at The Funkie Junkie Boutique who have a fabulous gift voucher to give away to one lucky random winner. Also, the Curiosity Crew's Choice scores a giant prize pack of goodies straight from Tim and Mario!

And don't forget, you can find many of these great products I've used today at The Funkie Junkie online store. 

Quick Cards & Tags From Only Two Sheets of Paper

Hello and good Monday morning all. Christmas is just a week and a half away and if you're like me, you're a little behind on card making. Every year I say I'll start early, but I never seem to. So I've got an idea for you. I challenged myself to create as many cards and tags as I could from only two sheets of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, plus two sheets of cardstock for bases.

I used Graphic 45's "Time To Flourish" collection. In this wonderful collection, there are 24 sheets. Two sheets for each month of the year. One of the two sheets is called the Flourish page, the other is the Cut-Aparts page. So I took December's Flourish and Cut-Aparts and created the following:

2 - 4" x 6" cards

2 - 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" cards

4 - gift tags

2 - gift card holders

I'm featured over on the Graphic 45 blog today with more details, photos and a Snapguide showing you step-by-step how you can make your own. And did you know you can order single sheets of Graphic 45 papers on Scrapbook.com? And they ship super speedy! Click on these links below...

December Flourish

December Cut-Aparts

Thanks so much for dropping in today. Have a wonderful day!

Filling the (Blog) Gap with 3 Card Ideas

I hate to put so much time between my blog posts, so as I'm working away in my craft room on CHA projects I can't yet share, I thought I'd share a few cards I've made lately.

5" x 7" birthday card using Graphic 45's Time To Celebrate and accents of black. Black?! Why not?

The bright colors in the papers serve as a nice contrast with black cardstock and stamping. The stamps are from Hampton Art for Graphic 45. I've added some glimmery accents with my Gelly Roll pen. (You may have to click on the photo to get a closer look.)

A few extra strips of the paper and some stamping make the inside pretty too.

This baby card measures 6" x 6" and features the re-released Baby-2-Bride collection by Graphic 45. Lots of love and layers went into this easel card for a special friend of mine.

Again, the stamps are from Hampton Art's Time To Celebrate set for Graphic 45. This Congratulations piece serves as the prop for the easel card.

Sometimes, but rarely, I go to other papers from companies other than Graphic 45. But I have to be really crazy about the paper to do such a thing. LOL. When I saw the Warm & Cozy collection from Carta Bella, I knew I had to have it. I'm in love with all the knit sweater patterns, the plaids and the natural images of wood and pine. This is a 6" x 6" card. I mixed some 12 x 12 and 6 x 6 papers from the collection. 

The stamp is from Close To My Heart's Snowhaven Card Making Workshop on the Go. Sometimes I buy the entire kit if I love the stamp set in it. Crazy, eh? I knew I had to have this one when I saw this lovely stamp in the set. I paper pieced the red portions over the green. The little acorn at the bottom is stamped in Chocolate ink and paper pieced too. You could achieve a similar look by masking off areas, but sometimes I find that a little tricky, and I don't mind cutting stuff out anyways.

The mittens were cut on my Cricut Explore from the CTMH Artiste cartridge. The sprigs coming out the tops are from a Martha Stewart punch.

Again, the inside of the card shouldn't get neglected. It doesn't take long to put down a few strips of coordinating paper and stamp something inside. As you may have noticed in the first photo of this card, I made a custom envelope from more of the paper collection using my Envelope Punch Board by We R Memory Keepers.

Okay, off I go back to creating for CHA! Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. Hope you're having a great day!

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 17 - Woodlands & Tinsel Twine

Hello and happy Saturday everyone! As Christmas races toward us, it's that time when things get SO darn busy I can hardly think straight. But taking the time to craft is the one thing I always insist upon, because it's my happy time, my reprieve, my quiet little break from the hustle and bustle.

I had the best day creating this holiday birdhouse for the next Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, "Woodlands and Tinsel Twine" which can be found on page 60 in the fabulous Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III by non-other than Tim Holtz. You can find the current challenge on our lovely host, Linda Ledbetter's, blog and join in the fun. There are prizes to be won and inspiration to be had. You can read all the details at the end of my post today.


On to my creation for this challenge...

I am quite fond of birdhouses lately and have been creating them for each season as home decor pieces. If you're like me, you change out your home decor as holidays and seasons change. Not ALL of it, just a few pieces here and there. (I'm not CRAZY, after all.)


The original idea in my head began as a gingerbread birdhouse, which I still might do (okay, maybe next year) but instead it took on more of a peppermint candy birdhouse with all the reds and whites with some touches of pink. Here's how it all came together...

I love the wood crafts aisle at my local craft store! There are so many types and sizes of birdhouses to pick from. This house is about 4 inches tall. I gathered my basic supplies to build my house. 

After painting my wood pieces with Antique Linen Distress Paint, I colorized my trees with Victorian Velvet Distress Stain spray. A very non-traditional color, but Victorian Velvet is one of my all-time favorite colors in the Distress pallet. So why not start there?

After the stain was dry, I gave my tree a haircut to make it flat on the back side.

I blobbed dots of Glossy Accents and sprinkled Distress Glitter in both Spun Sugar and Festive Berries over those glue blobs and set them aside to dry completely.

I used the 12 x 12 Merriment paper stash to cover most of my house, but the stark white background didn't seem vintage enough for my project, so I gave all the papers a blast of Antique Linen Distress Stain. After the papers where dry, I started adhering them to the my wood pieces.

For the opening of the birdhouse and the peg area, I made a printer paper template first, then traced it onto the Merriment papers. I also inked the edges of all my pieces with Vintage Photo.

On to the house the papers go.

Next I cut out a couple strands from the Holly, Beaded and Snowflake Garland die from red and pink Kraft Core cardstock. I cut away the bows from the red and glued them to the pink. I cut each strip to about 4 inches in length. Basically from bow to bow.

I spread a thin layer of Glue & Seal over the surfaces and then sprinkled an even layer of Distress Glitter over them to give a sugared effect. 

After doing Tim's technique to some tinsel twine, I added some to the base along with some Red/Cream Trimmings. 

And did the same to the house portion. As you see, I added the snowflake die strip to the base of my house. Red snowflakes? Why not?

I added some lace trim, then my sugared garland strips around my house's base, then more lace to the top of the roof. The woodland tree and wreathe were next, then a mirrored star. You may have noticed more tinsel twine added to my base. I added a pink-ish colored string of it to bring more pink into the base to tie in with the rest of the house.

I used the pink snowflake strip to adorn the top of the roof. 

An adhesive pearl is attached to the end of the perch peg.

And my little cardinal sits on the ledge.

At first I colored this mirrored star with Cranberry alcohol ink, but it came out rather purplish and icky, so I dabbed some Silver Alcohol Mixative over it and LOVED how it turned out! Don't you love when that happens?

Here's a final look at my little peppermint birdhouse. It was so much fun to make. Can't wait to see what YOU create with this challenge!

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Do you have the fabulous Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III book by Tim Holtz? (the master of all things vintage and distressed.) If not, you can find one at your local craft store, scrapbook store, or you can get a signed copy by Tim himself by going here. 

You can find all the CC3 Challenge details and FAQs here.  The lovely Linda Ledbetter is our hostess of this fun series of challenges, and all you have to do to participate is create your project, and upload to her site. Be sure, though, to read through all the FAQs so you're eligible to win...

We're working our way through this fantastic book of techniques and tips, and challenging you to join in the fun. This round's challenge is sponsored by the great folks at Inspiration Emporium who have a fabulous gift voucher to give away to one lucky random winner. Also, the Curiosity Crew's Choice scores a giant prize pack of goodies straight from Tim and Mario!

And don't forget, you can find these great products I've used today at Inspiration Emporium's online store.