One More Valentine

Hello all!

I have a late Valentine's day card to share with you today. This post was supposed to go up yesterday but my weekend got a little crazy what with working and sneaking in some time with the partner-in-crime last night for dinner and a movie. =) I still wanted to share this card though because I used my kit from this month to make it, and I was excited that I got a second use from this kit already. The Echo Park 6x6 pad I chose for my kit has a good range of colors in it so that I could make a nice Valentine without it feeling too frilly. Also, I thought the arrow paper I liked so much could stand in for Cupid's arrow. =) Here's the card I made:

I really liked this floral corner embellishment which made it easy to use a big piece of patterned paper as a background, and all I had to do was build the focal point. I made that using one of the Project Life cards from my kit, and I layered some of the gold glitter tape under a strip of the arrow paper to help it stand out. 

I thought this sentiment card could use a little something extra, and since I was already thinking about using some stitched elements on these Project Life cards this month, I broke out my sewing machine and did a zigzag stitch at the top and bottom of the card. I left the tails of thread hanging off a little to add a bit more texture. I got a sewing machine for just this purpose but I rarely use it, so it was nice to dust it off and get some use out of it! =) 

The sentiment itself is from the Simon Says Stamp stamp set "Paper Hugs". It's the same set I used on my previous Valentine's Day card. 

I think that's all for today! I've already set a new record for this year by getting two projects out of one kit. =P (Although I still have last month's kit and plan to use it some more.) 

Thanks so much for looking!

*~M~*

Valentine's Card...with Foil!

Hello all! I have a quick share today of a card I made using a new-to-me technique: foiling! Foil has been super trendy for at least a year now - maybe two - but it's taken me a while to jump on this particular bandwagon. I just wasn't a huge fan of it at first. Recently, however, there have been a lot of new products designed so that you can add your own foil to projects like, for instance, the Minc machine. I'd been contemplating buying this machine more and more lately as they came out with cool products to use with it that mean you don't have to worry about printing things in toner in order to have fun with it. When my local stamp store, Impress, offered a class showing different foil techniques, I decided to give it a whirl in the hopes that the class would help me cement my feelings about foil, and the Minc, once and for all. In the end, it definitely did; I fell completely in love!! =) I ended up buying the machine and some accessories. I haven't had time to play with it at home yet, but I'm hoping to have some projects (or at least experiments =P) to share soon. One of the techniques in class involved using foil with double sided adhesive and die-cuts so that you could have foiled die-cuts without needing a machine at all! I loved this technique and tried it almost as soon as I got home. The card I have today is the result.

When I was at Impress for the class I picked up this beautiful Basic Grey paper pad (why, oh why have they stopped making patterned paper?? =..(  ) and the foil-patterned washi tape in addition to my foiling supplies.  The butterfly die and XO stamp are both from Simon Says Stamp.

This foiling technique uses some double-sided adhesive made for using with foil. I think it's really the same as any other foam adhesive except that it comes in sheets and is thin enough to use with wafer thin dies. You just cut your die cut, remove the top protective sheet from the adhesive, lay your foil down and rub it into the die cut with your fingers. Like all foiling techniques there is a little magic moment when you remove the foil sheet and a beautiful foiled creation is left. =) The results for this technique aren't as smooth as when you use toner with the Minc or a laminator, but it is still shiny and beautiful, and less of an investment if you don't want to buy fancy equipment.

Foil is notoriously difficult to photograph, but I managed to get this fairly nice close up where you can see the true color of the foil. I used the gorgeous rose gold color from Therm-O-Web. 

Thanks so much for looking today. I would definitely recommend trying this technique...but only if you are prepared to become completely hooked! =) 

I will see you Sunday with a Valentine's Day card made with my February Counterfeit Kit! 

*~M~*

February Counterfeit Kit

Hello again!

Today I'm sharing the kit I made for this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge. To start off, let's see the inspiration kit:

I have to admit I struggled a little with this kit this month. Nothing in the inspiration kit really felt like my style. I decided to start by picking out a 6x6 pad from my stash that had some vague resemblance to the inspiration. I realized last month that I should have included a 6x6 pad in my kit because I actually use them a lot for scrapping. Usually I pull them out for photo mats, journaling blocks, or just a smaller scale pattern to punch or die cut. Plus, I have way too many of them. =P I think I will try to include one every month when I make a kit. This month I picked out an Echo Park pad called "The Story of Our Family 2", which I think is relatively recent. It had a lot of the same colors as the inspiration, plus an arrow paper that reminded me of the handmade arrows in the original kit. 

Here you can see the pad plus the few solid cardstocks I pulled out, as well as some cream colored mulberry paper (how old is this stuff?!? =P) and a 3x4 card set from the Project Life Honey Edition. These colors matched the pad and I originally purchased the cards with the intention of making some layered embellishments much like the layered, stitched hearts in the original kit. We'll see what I can come up with this month. =) 

I found my patterned papers in a stash of old monthly kit papers. The doodled leaves on the bottom left reminded me of the "hello" patterned paper in the original, and I have a triangle paper that reminded me of the original kit too. The rest of the patterns I just picked because they matched the larger patterns and I liked them. =) It's hard to tell but the vellum on the bottom right has feathers on it, again going back to those feathered arrows in the inspiration kit. 

My embellishments don't really match anything in the original at all, they were more about just picking out some older stuff that matched the papers I had chosen. An older Dear Lizzy sticker book, some turquoise and cream labels that have been floating around in my stash forever, my beloved Studio Calico butterfly stickers, and buttons, just because I have so many and never use them. Those stitched felt pieces are literally a million years old and I threw them in because they match the papers and who knows? They might finally get used. =)

I remembered letter stickers this time! I've got a few basic Thickers in some great, versatile fonts and colors. I also threw in some glitter tapes (I was feeling very sparkly while I put together this kit) and a pinwheel punch that I've only used once (got to get in those abandoned tools!). 

I've already made a page with my kit, which I shared yesterday. I'm trying not to panic that I just broke into those gold Thickers for the first time and I've already used 4 "e"s for one title! =D However I also used two of those turquoise labels that have been haunting me so I guess it all balances out. I am having a lot of fun getting to know my supplies again by making these kits and I believe it's really helping me get scrapping again. It's so much easier when I actually sit down with a photo and I don't have to look all around my craft room for coordinating supplies...I already did that step! =) Here's the link for Counterfeit Kit Challenge again if you're feeling inspired to make a kit of your own. 

Thanks so much for looking! Hopefully I will see you again with a second page this month! 

*~M~*

Selfie Challenge

Hello all!

I've got a last minute entry today for the selfie challenge over at Shimelle's blog. I am so excited about all the fun new things happening at her blog right now. There is so much inspiration it's got me wanting to make about 3 or 4 new pages already. I've settled for one this weekend. =) I lifted the design entirely from Shimelle's take on the selfie challenge which she shared here. Without further ado, here's my take:

Ironically, I just did a selfie page featuring my cat and I. I have to admit I felt a little weird scrapping another photo of myself. =P This one is my partner-in-crime and I at the Space Needle. Despite the fact that I have lived in Seattle my whole life, this was only my second time visiting the Space Needle. We were playing tourists on this particular occasion, so we definitely needed to take a selfie at the top. =)

Almost everything on this page is from a kit I put together for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge for this month, which I will be posting tomorrow. (Normally I would post the kit first, but I had to get this page posted for the challenge).

I did manage to sneak a tiny bit of Shimelle's new Starshine collection in for this center embellishment. I just got the paper pad this last week and it is SO. BEAUTIFUL. I may have squeed a few times. =P This little bit is a card from one of the cut apart sheets. I embossed the globe stamp from the collection around the flower and then stamped a couple of the words from the set in some grey ink. I also stamped the little camera onto my journaling area. Once I started using these adorable little stamps I couldn't stop! =)

My embellishment clusters feature some old Dear Lizzy stickers, some Tim Holtz word stickers, and some older Studio Calico butterfly stickers. I love these stickers so much I bought two sheets of them. I'm going to be really sad when I use them up.

I'm feeling pretty good about this page because it means I've already met my goal for this month! I might even get more than one page in this month. =D

Thanks so much for looking!

*~M~*

Birthday Card...and First Time Using the Fuse Tool

Hello everyone!

I have a quick card to share today that I made for a special little boy for his birthday. I bought the Fuse tool as a Christmas present to myself and the first thing I wanted to do was make a card completely encased in a shaker. Ever since I saw this tool I thought this would be a fun idea. Here's a picture of the card so you can see what I mean:

I cut some white cardstock with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Squares dies then stamped some balloons and stars from their Birthday Balloons stamp set. The sentiment was cut from some DCWV glitter cardstock using the Simon Happy Birthday die. 

After writing my message on the back of the cardstock, it was time to start fusing. I bought a package of relatively inexpensive page protectors from Office Depot. They were a medium weight protector that seemed to have the right feel for a shaker card without being too flimsy. After fusing three sides of the plastic I put some Martha Stewart confetti stars as well as some coordinating sequins inside the pocket. Then I closed up the top and trimmed off the excess plastic. 

Since this was my first time using the Fuse tool there was definitely a learning curve for me as I was making this card. The biggest thing I noticed was that it really makes a difference what sort of surface you are using the tool on. Obviously you can't have anything that might melt under your project, but when I tried fusing straight onto my craft mat it didn't work very well. The surface has no give to it and the Fuse wheel didn't turn very well on such a smooth surface. The thing that worked the best was placing a few sheets of paper underneath. This seemed to have just the right amount of give as well as friction for the wheel to turn properly. The other thing I learned was that it's actually pretty tough to make a straight line with this! I think the most helpful thing would be to get some kind of grid-lined paper to use under a project (maybe this one), so that you could see a straight line under the Fuse ruler, as well as have some measurement guidelines. We R Memory Keepers just released a special mat to go with the Fuse tool. I assume this surface works well, but I wish it had even smaller grid lines printed on it. I need to hunt down some videos and reviews for this to see how other people like it. =) 

I think that's all for today. I'm looking forward to making more fun shakers and I hope you will try one too! I have it on good authority that 2 year old boys really enjoy shaking them. =D 

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*