Jack and Lily

Finally uploaded pictures from DD's camera so I can have some new pictures of Lily and Jack. She is getting so big and chunky. She has come a long way from 1lb 12 ozs! Jack is still enjoying his role as Big Brother... that may not last much longer. Such sweetness... Grandma and Grandpa are loving it.

Hawaiian Shores color

Got my PTI order (did it seem a bit longer than usual to you?) and immediately had to make a card with the new color.  I just love this color and it works very well with so many of the other PTI colors.  Since the order included the new rick rack die, BBII die I and felt, I thought it appropriate to include these tools in making the card.  Very easy and quick... I did not give it hours of thought seeing as it was 10:00 at night and I had worked all day.  Included is a small strip of the new patterned paper as well.  The sentiment is from Delightful Dahlia and I just love the font used in this set... so classic.

Next on my list is a Mother's Day card for my Step Mother... always hard to do as she married my father when I was in my late 30's, more than 10 years after the death of my mom, so she didn't raise me.  Do you realize how many Mother's Day cards say things like "you were always there for me"....  Ummm, no.  I was long out of the house.  I do appreciate her being my dad's wife, especially in his final years.  So.  I need to come up with a card that says I appreciate her but she really never had the role of my mother.  Ahhh, life.  This should be the hardest card I have to do!  Sympathy cards are always harder.

On to Hawaiian Shores lusciousness...

Hope you like it!

It's Diane's fault

Diane at the PTI forums started a thread complaining that she has a hard time doing Clean And Simple (CAS) cards.  Well, I do too, yet I love the look of them.  I figured I would combine a CAS with a 10 minute time limit.  I figured that would help me stop embellishing it all over the place and actually keep it clean and simple! 
Diane, if you read this, I think that is the trick!  Time limits!

My supplies are as pictured except for the scorpal to score 4 lines on the lower front and the pop dots to pop up the focals.  I picked papers that I liked together and used the scallop punch on them.  Then I punched 3 circles that mat them.  Popped the scallop on the black and attached to front.  Used the small circle punch to recess the edges for the grosgrain black ribbon and tied a simple bow.  The notches hold it in place since I don't have a mat on the front to tuck the ends behind.  Cut a strip of the middle pattern paper to place on the bottom edge of the inside and attached.  Done!

I almost started adding a button to the ribbon and stopped myself.  My time was up.  If I was going to mass produce them, they would take under 5 minutes each with practice... it was really that easy.  I like this card.  I don't LUV it, but I really do like it.  I think I will make some more... 10 minutes each, that's it.

Supplies included:

The only part I stamped:

I did clear emboss the butterfly.  The hello looked lonely... took 2 minutes, tops.
Thanks for checking it out!  Where is your CAS?

Craft Cave Re-do done!

 

It was pure clutter.  It had grown by bits and pieces over a few years.  It was downstairs in our family room and seldom seen by anyone but family.  What started with one table, grew to four.  As I needed new storage, I bought some with no plan in mind.  It had gone on long enough.

 

I had no room to spread.  Heck, I didn't even have room to work, let alone be creative.  Who can create when you are enclosed with stuff (I really LIKE stuff).

 

In the first picture can you see the recessed area.  This is a closer view.  This is going to be the New Craft Cave.  Nice window (it's a basement so no view, per say).  Not huge but adequate.  Plenty of room for a one fanny cave.

 

Complete (for now).  Very ergonomic with a nice work triangle.  Three tables and storage galore.  The DH put up the shelves and they hold a tremendous amount of stuff.  Ribbons on the left, photo boxes on the right.  Took me very little time to remember where everything was located.  I can leave out the Cricut, leave out the sewing machine, leave out the Big Kick and I have table top clear space on both sides.  The chair was a must since I needed to be able to swing back and forth with ease.  White may not be the best color for a crafting cave chair but I figure that as it gets smudged with various colors of ink, it will gain character.  Hey!  I may just help it along.

 

The window sill is deep.  These CD crates were a dollar each at Walmart.  Perfect!

 

The small embellies storage was found at Lowes and I think it was meant for nuts and bolts.  I had better things in mind.

 

PTI buttons line the top, stored in cute little jars found at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 each.  I didn't even bother using a coupon.  I bought all they had (7) and will go back for more next week!

 

Rubber stamps under the table (and my forgotten knitting ). They are on rollers and quite easy to wheel them out and rummage around to remember what I have.

 

Six of these towel bars, 3 on each side, hold all my lever type punches.  The rest are in 2 of the drawers in the Jet Max Cube ensemble under the window.  All my regular ink pads are in these 2 towers.  The small pink container between them holds my small cubes.  Several small baskets hold current embellies, my glues, etc.  Everything at my fingertips.

It is wonderful to come down and get inky.  I have a place for everything and it helps to free my mind and relax.  Once I am relaxed, the ideas come.  I still want to decorate it a bit.  I am not entirely satisfied with my current paper storage system (or lack thereof) so I am still plotting and planning.  I may require my DH's services yet again....  

These frames are painted and waiting to be hung.  Sheet metal in one for the magnet containers and cork in the other for my PTI wants list!  They will get hung this weekend.... I promise!

 

I hope you liked my tour.  Maybe you can grab an idea or two.  If you have some of your own ideas that may help me, please, suggest away!  I am always looking for improvements, even if the space is working at the moment.  Thanks for joining me!

Gettin' Inky...

Finally got the Butterfly set and Year in Flowers: Violets inky today.  Played with the Copics (and ordered a bunch more).  I have a ways to go on Copics 101 but that is OK.  I'm pretty happy with my amateur attempt. I know it takes practice and time.  Very simple card to make.  I decided I wanted a white base and since I wanted to stamp in Plum Pudding color for the background yet still wrap a ribbon, I matted it white on white.  Gives it a nice clean look.  Colored the 1/4" ribbon with Copic V06.  Looks marvelous.  If you haven't colored a ribbon with Copics yet, do!  I love that any Copic color I own is now a ribbon color I own, too.  WooHoo.

Though the flower looked quite lovely without the butterfly, since I made it... and colored it... by gosh, I was going to use it.

Hope everyone has a very crafty day... if not today, then soon.

A good day off...

Haven't had a lot of time to bury myself in my craft cave lately.  I have managed to grab one half an hour here and an hour there, however.  I seem to be on an Aqua Mist kick with a splash of black which just makes the Aqua Mist the most yummy color and gives it lots of pop!  I have been playing with the new dies (butterfly, label and large scallop) and next I will dive into the impression plates.  I bought both of the plates and have just tried it once so far.  My last order was so large that it is taking me a while to work my way through it all.  I want to give each set the time it deserves.  So far, this order is the best EVAAH!  Really, the stamps are just so fun and versatile. I got the butterflies, violets, frames, Irish, dots and tin types. WOWSER.  I could create for a year with just these sets.  Plus the dies and plates, plus the spring buttons, plus the felt... serious crafting time ahead.

You will notice some of the above listed PTI in each of these cards.  I haven't even inked the butterflies yet, but I sure have used the butterfly die!  If anyone is interested in my sandwich for the Big Kick, I used the platform with all tabs closed, die face up, paper or felt and finally the 2 top plates.  No problems and like buttah.

(See that middle butterfly. I didn't have any dots to match Aqua Mist!  Copic BG13 to the rescue!)

 

  

Edit: I am not sure why the last picture looks like I used Smokey Shadow instead of the True Black that I actually used.  I am sure it is my photography skilz (or lack thereof)... it is really black IRL.

 

Well, off to work on the best sandwich for the Impression Plates... I'll let you know what I think works the best for them.  Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

Becky's Challenge

I finally am entering Becky's Compose a Card challenge.  I have printed up all of them and I still want to make a card for each even though the earlier ones are over.  They are straight forward challenges that I like.  Thank you, Becky!

I changed the dimensions of 2 of the mat sizes but it fit my design better. I hope that is allowed and all the parts are there?  I was also knocked off my feet in love with Betsy Veldman's Apron Strings card.  Since Becky's challenge included a darling picture of a red dotted apron, any design dilemma was gone.  I had to try that apron!  I think it turned out cute.  Not in a "Betsy Velman Class" but, Hey!  Who is?  Very fun to make and a very 3 dimensional card.  This is definitely a "Hand Deliver" card.

Hope you enjoy it!

 

Supplies: All supplies are PapertreyInk unless noted.

Bitty Dots PP, Pure Poppy CS and ink, Aquamist CS, Colorbok metal dots, silk ribbon 1/4" and HL white satin ribbon.

Only one day off...

I had such a short weekend. I signed up to work my Saturday off because with the incentive pay added to the overtime, it was too hard to pass it up.  It will help pay for my last order from PapertreyInk since it was a big one. That only left me with today off.  I'll survive.

I have lots of February birthdays in my family and am starting to run a bit low for cards so I wanted to be sure to make some that would work for males or females.  I then decided that an extra Thank You would be handy, too. Both cards are PTI products except for some PP scraps that I used in the Thank You card. 

 Wishing You a Happy Birthday:  I just love the Turning a New Leaf PP and think it makes for some excellent "neutral" type cards (meaning it can be easily turned into a card for a male or female).  I was very pleased at how well the Terracotta Tile color went with the colors in Turning a New Leaf.  I will certainly pair those colors again.
 
Thank You card: I had a single smallish piece of this green and blue plaid PP sitting in a bag of scraps and it was just enough to punch some circles and match it with some Aqua Mist and Spring Moss scraps.  The tree and sentiment are from Through the Trees stamp set and the ribbon is the new narrow silk ribbon that PTI carries then colored with my Copic Marker color YG93.  It came out spectacular!  I am so excited that I can color this ribbon to match anything in which I have a Copic to match!  It was quick and easy to do, too!

I'd love to hear what you think...

 

Close up of the sentiment banner

  

Copic colored ribbon to match!

You've Come A Long Way, Baby!

 

Lily turned 6 months old on Jan 31st and I thought I would post a quick photo showing how far she has come.  She's smiling!  She has cheek bones!  (We couldn't tell because her cheeks are so fat that we were unable to see the underlying bone structure.)

Isn't she adorable?  She may be small for 6 months but she is HUGE compared to where she started!

CPS Challenge

I have decided to join the challenge over at Card Positioning System (CPS).  The sketch is a simple one and I just used it as a jumping off point.  I wanted the primary focus to be the large black bow.  I just love how striking black is against both pink and red so I incorporated all these colors in my card.  I still wanted there to be a heart on it so I made it a dangling tag with the circular sentiment from Simple Valentine from PTI and included a small stamped heart in the center. I also edged the white heart with black PTI Perfect Match ink.  PP is from PTI Pretty Pastels and the red cardstock was from my scrap pile, edged with the EK Success Scalloped Border punch on the red CS and a Martha Stewart edge punch on the PP.  Can NOT  wait until the PTI border dies are released!  Such a clean looking edge they make!

Hope you enjoy:

Don't you just love that big bow?  I do!

Kiss Me!

Worked on 2 cards today.  One is for my hunny, the other is for a very red headed Irish friend that loves all things St. Patrick!  She also loves to get cards from me and I love to oblige.  My hunny likes to get my cards, too, but somehow, it is even more fun when it is a friend that appreciates it.  Why is that? 

The "lips" paper was found at my LSS. I only bought one sheet (12 x 12") because I knew I could get at least 6 cards from it... more if'n I want to.  All cardstock is PTI.  These are both very simple, straight forward cards to make.  No special techniques required.  I made the clover from 4 punches from my Marvey heart punch, attached a brad to hold it together and placed a PTI button over the brad cause I like buttons better!  Both cards were done in well under an hour. 

So, here they are:

 

  

I just love the Martha Stewart punch on the St.Patricia day card.  Don't you?

So, what did you do today?

I Scrapped!

I haven't made a page in ages.  My rediscovery of my love of paper started with scrapbooking and I have abandoned it for far too long.  I finally sat down, grabbed 3 pictures that I knew I wanted to use on a scrapbook page and just plain ole' made myself do it.  I didn't care if it was brilliant, stunning or a work of art.  I just wanted to MAKE one... and I did. 

Of course, I had to make one of Lily.  She is the only Grandchild I haven't scrapped (that is how long it has been). Background paper is from Stampin' Up, accent papers by K& Company and cardstock by PapertreyInk.  It turned out simple and nice.  Just what I was aiming for.  I even did some journaling, something I seldom do.  It is complete, done and in it's storage case. Ta Daaa!

 

Eveeryone, say Hello to Lily.  She was born at 1 lb 12 ozs and 5 months gestation.  She was 15 weeks early and it was very touch and go for a long time.  She came home at over 4 months of age (2 weeks past her original due date) and she is one cute, sweet little girl.  She is doing great.  She had to have laser eye surgery at 6 weeks of age and may have some periferal vision loss and nearsightedness.  She may or may not even need glasses or not for a long time.  Her lungs are still finalizing in maturity and she is now off the oxygen except at night since these pictures were taken.  So far, there doesn't seem to be any neurological or mental impairments but the final jury isn't out yet.  We are very confident that all is well.  She had almost no brain swelling or bleeding on her brain after delivery which can be common in these micropreemies.  She is now smiling and cooing and is a really good baby.  Those nurses trained her well!

Oh, yeah, we kinda like her, too.