Getting Back Into the Swing

Hello Fellow Crafters and welcome to my little blog.

I've been away for quite a while and have decided to get back into the swing of it all. Trying to get the creative juices flowing and make some stuff to Spark my Creativity so I can Share my Love.

Fishy Kisses & Birthday Wishes

During my absence, I've moved houses, graduated with a masters degree, started a new job, had a kid move out and had another kid reach out and start talking with me again. It has been a productive couple of years, just not crafty creative.

With the kid moving on with their life, I have been given an opportunity to turn the extra room into my craft room and have my stuff out all the time. The camera is ready to video the crafting of the projects, the mics are ready to pick up the giggles as I go along, the lightbox is ready to highlight my latest creation, and my computer is ready to put it all together so I can share. I still have my YouTube channel and all the previous creations that I have done, but I did give up my site over a year ago. So I'll use this one for now.

My lightbox in the closet of my craft room

I hope you will join me as I get my crafting legs back under me and start posting my projects. I've missed the creativity of card-making and hope to get in a little scrapbooking also.

More Creative time & Paper Pumpkin!!!

Well, I've been lax with posting stuff here and all the cool stuff I've been making. A couple months ago I started getting the Paper Pumpkin and have been having a BALL with it.

Paper Pumpkin!! Yeah!!!

It is this cool box that shows up once a month in my mail and has paper, stickers, stamps, instructions, etc. I get excited thinking about the cool stuff I'm gonna get to play with when I get the notice that it's on its way. Check out what I got last night! I haven't started playing yet, but I'm gonna!!

June Paper Pumpkin

Here are the cards I made with my previous Paper Pumpkins and the cool box I found on KarenTitus.com.

My version of Karen's cool card box

My cards from Paper Pumpkin

So, I have been making other stuff also. I had a friend come visit me for a week. Her and her husband drove all the way from Ocean Springs, MS to Sierra Vista, AZ to visit with us. We all had a ball! In preparation for her visit, I made us each a stationary holder...but I forgot to get a picture of her's after I finished it. :-( Anyway, here is a picture of mine. The holder is made with Stampin' Up! ® Riding Hood Red Cardstock (discontinued), Chocolate Chip polka dot ribbon, and a stamp I got a couple of years ago when I finally passed my motorcycle riding class.

I stamped with black Staz On and
colored with Stampin Up! markers.

I had to fold my envelopes cause I didn't quite
get the measurements right. I did better with my friends.

Anyway, I had fun making all these little things and I'm looking forward to my new Paper Pumpkin and playing with those cards. Talk to you later!!!

Birthdays

Birthdays can be looked at with great excitement or great dread. I personally view a birthday as a reason to celebrate the fact that I knew you and that I look forward to celebrating knowing you again next year. Yeah, I know...there is age attached to birthdays, but there is also enjoyment, fellowship and joy.

My baby brother is turning 35 this month and I wanted to find a way to celebrate that...an extra special way to celebrate it..cause we are so far apart and don't get to celebrate together any more. So, I found a video on YouTube where Connie Stewart made a tuxedo card with her flash cards. I didn't have the punches she has (those are yet to come) so I cased it and made my own. I'm still writing up everything but if you want the directions, let me know.

 Anyway, Happy 35th Birthday Seth. Love you and miss you!!

P.S. >I'm such a rotten sister...I missed his age by 1 year! He turned 36, not 35. He still LOVED the card, so he forgave me the mistake in age. LOL

Dreaming...

Well, I started playing with stamps 14yrs ago and never really did much else but make a few cards here or a couple of scrapbook pages there. Then I started doing things with a daycare and ended up getting a Sizzix Big Shot machine and had so much fun having the kids make stuff and then embellishing with the Big Shot. Most of my ink pads were okay but I will admit to being worried how I was going to replace my favorite colors when the pads ran dry since I bought them in 3 different states. Well, to fix that issue I signed up with Stampin' Up and figured I would just use it to get discounts and let my friends know if they wanted anything they could get it from me. Now I've found new ink colors to love and they have REFILLS!!! Yeah!!

Check out these cards I made

I'll have to get some decent pictures of some of my other ones, but these were fun to make.

If you decide that you want to order something from me, let me know. If you want to know how I made these cards, drop me a note.

Homemade cards, stationary, and scrapbooks

I've been having fun watching different videos on card making and other things on YouTube lately. There are lots of creative women out there. I was mainly doing it to get more ideas for Activity Day Girls projects for the holidays that are coming up, but it reminded me of all the times I made homemade stationary for family for Christmas gifts, how I would make my own cards to send to people on birthdays, holidays, or just 'cuz. I've been carrying around these little 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" cards in my purse to give to people for smiles if I see someone
I don't know or someone that looks like they could use a Pick-me-up. 

These little cards started out as To/From cards that you could attach to presents. I would make up a bunch of little squares and stamp my To:/From: on them and then save them for later. One day I was going along and thought, "Hey, I wish I had a little card to just pass to this person to let them know I was thinking about them even though I don't have a lot of time to stop and chat with them at the moment." Another time I wanted to just leave a little note to say Thank You to someone or even a Thinking of you for them to find later on...so my To/From tags became little cards I carry in my purse. Most of them are blank inside so I can add my little notes if I want or I can leave them with a tip at a restaurant. They are fun and don't take a lot of time.

Many of my friends have said that they would love to be able to make something like these and I'm like...It's not that hard. I have thought about putting together little kits with all the stuff you need to make them, minus the stamps and adhesive, and see if any of the ladies I know want to get together and make them. Start out small. Then maybe I can get them interested in making bigger cards for birthdays, holidays, thank you's, etc. I don't mind...I find things like this relaxing.

I hope to help my friends realize that it isn't hard to be creative...the hard part is getting out of the box you've put yourself in. We are all creative in our own way...

Gift Card holder

Fall Gift Card Holder