My First Card Publication!!

Today I wanted to share the excitement because one of my cards has been featured in the March 2012 issue of CARDS magazine, and the feeling is SO awesome! 

The cover of CARDS Magazine March 2012 issue
(the card on the cover is not mine)

Looking forward to creating more- feeling very inspired to be featured in a magazine full of great talent!

xo

December Daily 2011- Days 1-3

 Supplies: Paper Flower- Prima; Glitter Alphas- White Blossom; Sticker and Tag- Making Memories 

I've been doing a bit of catching up on my December Daily album in the last day or so. Around this time of year, the days seem to get away from us, which makes it hard to keep up with a daily project such as this one. Nevertheless, I've finished a few more pages and wanted to share them with you. The image above, is the back of my first page shown here, where I decided to document the CMA Country Christmas special that I watched on TV that night (while creating my first DD page). I collaged images I found online from the show and then added my own personal touch. This year, I've decided that I'm going to try to document 2 events for each day. The front page being the main story and the back of that page, being the second story (which could be a movie I watched that day, or a poem, quote or song lyrics that pertain to that day's story). So far it's working out quite nicely!

 Supplies: Patterned Paper- Cloud 9 Design; Rhinestone Spiral; Want 2 Scrap;

Word Stickers & Circle Alpha Stickers- Authentique; Chipboard Accent- Echo Park

DD day #2 documents the Beyonce interview on 20/20 with Katie Couric that I watched with my cousin Faithe. I'm a HUGE Beyonce fan, so I just had to watch this interview! Here I also used pictures that I found online from the interview and Beyonce's Roseland Ballroom Concert (since they spoke about it during the interview). I absolutely adore this picture of Beyonce performing that I found here. To personalize it, I added some of the lyrics from her song Best Thing I Never Had and part of a rhinestone spiral from Want 2 Scrap.

  Supplies: Patterned Paper- K&Company; Number Tag- Making Memories

The back of day #2 is dedicated to the movie A Golden Christmas 2 (which is what I watched later that night). It was the cutest Christmas movie with a beautiful love story! *wink*

Supplies: Patterned Paper- K&Company and Jillibean Soup; Tag- Jenni Bowlin

On day #3 I went to the mall for the first time this season, and Santa was already in the building! Of course they also had all of the decor up, and I couldn't help but get a picture of the winter wonderland! The title is part of the patterned paper background that I used by K&Company. I wanted the pictures to look like Polaroids, so I created the Polaroid frames in adobe photoshop and placed them over the pictures before resizing and printed them for my DD. The quote at the bottom of the page says; "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace & goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."- Calvin Coolidge

Supplies: Patterned Paper- American Crafts; Paper Flowers- Prima; Tag- Making Memories;

Brad & Chipboard Accent- Echo Park; Decorative Punch- Martha Stewart Crafts

On the back of day #3 I added the song lyrics for It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (which coordinates with the title used on the front of the page- and the pictures). I printed the lyrics on brown kraft paper and flicked a small paint brush (dipped in Mister Huey's holly berry ink) over the page to create little ink splatters. I also inked the edges of the page with tea dye distress ink from Ranger Inks. The bottom edge was die cut using the eyelet lace punch from Martha Stewart.

Now to catch up on days 4-7! Gotta keep the December Daily flow going! *wink* xo


Album photos taken by: Wahkuna

Holiday Card Making 2011

This week, I've been working on my holiday cards! For this year's card- I was inspired by a design from Cards 2010 Christmas Card magazine. The inspiration was an image of a Christmas tree stamped out of green spirals, with the sentiment Merry Christmas stamped across the tree in red ink, about 3/4" down on the card. So for my own spin on this, I found a Christmas tree graphic made of birds from the Graphic's Fairy and added a Season's Greetings garland along with my own digital sparkle button with a red/white twine bow. Here's how the card was created;

First I created the design using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and printed it on 6"x8" blank white cards from Studio G (that I bought at Michael's for $1.50 for a set of 8 cards/envelopes).

After printing all of the cards, I used tacky glue along with a tooth pick for spreading/smoothing and created the base for fallen snow on some parts of the tree. Then I sprinkled extra fine white glitter over the patches of glue to make the snow.

Once all the glitter was completely dry, I used Fabri-Tac permanent adhesive glue to adhere red and green rhinestones used as ornaments on the tree. And here is the finished product;

There's a sentiment printed on the inside of the cards that says; "May the spirit of the season bring you love, happiness and joy!"

I made 24 of these cards to send to family and friends. There are a few more to finish up today and they will be in the mail by the end of the week! And soon this will be another holiday project crossed off the list. I'm slowly but steadily getting things done over here. *smile*

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my holiday card making process for 2011! Happy Holidays! xo

Supplies Used:

 

Photos taken by: Wahkuna

Weekend in Review Vol.#7- Our Christmas tree search

This weekend was full of holiday cheer! Christmas decorating is in the midst, and we also took a trip to A Quiet Place Tree Farm to find our lucky tree for 2011! We actually visited two tree farms, but the second one was the charm! We spotted our tree within 5 mins. of being there, and realized we lucked out this year with a beautiful white spruce!! Mom is totally excited, and I'm happy because it was my first time searching for a Christmas tree at a tree farm, of which I picked out (yyeeaayyyy!). While we were there, I also met the cutest little dog named Netty...she was so sweet and naturally had to be featured here on my blog! Anyway, there will be more pictures to come once our tree is up and decorated! I hope you're enjoying this festive time of year! Be back soon...xo



Photos take by: Wahkuna

December Daily 2011 Part 4- Getting Started

So yesterday was officially December 1st, and the December Daily days have finally arrived! Here are a couple images of my first page. Nothing much happend yesterday, so page one is all text with a little description of my thoughts on the holiday season and being joyful for the "everyday" blessings that we often overlook.

Today is another day, and another page...looking forward to the progression of it all. *smile*

A preview of my first digital scrapbooking collection!

My first digital kit sneak peak

First came my love for traditional scrapbooking while shopping the isles of a local craft store in early 2007 and then came my love for digital scrapbooking- once I joined a few online scrapbooking communities and discovered the beautiful digital creations of others! And if you know the software, then digital scrapbooking is just as creative as conventional scrapbooking, if not more! I say more, because you can easily manipulate paper and embellishment colors and customize anything to fit your style or whatever look your trying to achieve! I've dabbled in the world of digital for a few years now...more for my career in fashion design, but also for scrapbooking and have recently decided to create my own kit to incorporate into a baby memory book. It's been a slow process, but it has been going much better than I expected, so I'm pleasantly surprised! First I decided on a theme and then created an inspiration board and decided on a color palette;

Images on the inspiration board are from; Bump Smitten and On to Baby

And from there, I started to create my first digital scrapbook collection. I'm far from finished at this point, but very happy with the progress I've made. I'm looking forward to the finish product-a personal goal that will finally be accomplished!

The best part of scrapbooking for me is the tangible elements and how you can add so much texture and dimension to a flat page, but with the nature of digital scrapbooking, this gets a little more complex. But I've found that I love digital scrapbooking kits that are very realistic with a lot of dimension, texture and look as if they are popping right off the page. One of my favorite digital designers is Vinnie Pearce. Her work has a very realistic look to it, so I love working with a lot of her products. Unfortunately I don't scrapbook as often as I'd like (let alone digitally), but I still love to have all the options! I'm also a big fan of hybrid scrapbooking, where traditional meets digital scrapbooking. All the possibilities are awesome, which is why I love this hobby so much!

What are your thoughts on digital scrapbooking?





December Daily 2011 Part 2

December daily is finally under way (for me)! A little late, but it's happening nonetheless! I spent some time yesterday afternoon planning the outside cover of my album, and this is what I came up with. I really like it so far- I'm a very traditional Christmas kind-of girl, so of course it's red & green. As I said in my previous post here, I'm using the December Daily kit by Ali Edwards & Studio Calico and I'm loving it! I'm also using some things from last year's Christmas stash that I still have, after all, that's what scrapbooking is all about right, using up those "scraps"!

The numbers and title in the above pictures are not stuck down yet...I'm still deciding if I want the cover arranged this way, or slightly different. But the general look will remain the same- even if some of the placement changes. The background paper is already adhered to the album, so that part is permanent! BTW, I strongly suggest that if you are doing a December Daily, and you're on Pinterest, check out all the DD inspiration there, because there's A LOT! Good luck with your DD, and I'll be back soon to post more updates with mine. *wink*



Photos taken by: Wahkuna

Friendship Card for a Special Person

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper- October Afternoon & Fancy Pants Designs; Distress Ink- Tim Holtz/Ranger ink; Brads- American Crafts; Sentiment Label- Designed by Wahkuna

I know from experience that receiving an unexpected but thoughtful greeting in the mail can make your whole day! I've taken notice of this feeling and I'm trying to spread that same cheer around to more people in my life. This friendship card was created for a special person (who will remain nameless for now). The mix of patterns and colors fit perfectly together and the sentiment expresses exactly how I feel about our friendship. I used the Lawn Party kit by Studio Calico to create this card and my favorite part is the crochet lace ribbon, which adds a homespun touch-not to mention that the aqua color is just GORGEOUS!

I can't wait to mail this to that special someone, and hopefully make their day too! *smile*


Happy Friday everyone- enjoy your weekend!



Photos taken by: Wahkuna

December Daily 2011 Part 1

I can't even believe it's that time of year again, to start working on my December Daily album! I probably should've already started thinking about how I'm going to set up and decorate my album this year, but I haven't! Life always gets away from us and before you know it, you have to think fast! Luckily I took enough initiative to order the December Daily kit by Ali Edwards and Studio Calico before it was sold out- PHEW! I also tweaked the design of my pages from last year and was able to get the file to the printer earlier this week. I picked up the printed pages yesterday (for my mom and I) and now need to focus on the fun part- decorating!! The possibilities are endless and that's what I love most about this album...I'm so excited!

Unlike last year, I plan to complete my December Daily and be proud of the outcome! So I'll be back sometime soon with updates on my progress. Until then, happy crafting my friends!

BTW, are any of you working on a December Daily album too? If so, how do you go about creating your album? Please feel free to share your crafty tips!



Photo taken by: Wahkuna (via camera phone)

New Card: A Baby Boy Is...

Supplies Used: Animal Crackers Jack Collection- Making Memories; Ribbon & Metal Decorative Bobby Pin- Making Memories (Chloe's Closet); Cardstock- Bazzill; Font- CK Ali

It seems this has been the Year of the Babies (at least in my family). We've already had 2 new additions and have 2 more on the way (one who's expected any day now). It's so exciting to see all these new little faces, fingers and toes- they are too cute! I'm happy to have an ever growing family full of amazing people! *smile*

This card (with matching envelope) was made for one of the newest additions- Jaydin (whom I blogged about yesterday). I'm working on his baby memory book which will have a similar theme, but in the meantime- this was his "welcome to the world" greeting!

Tip: To get the sentiment on the journaling tag I first found a quote that I thought was appropriate from Scrapbook.com. Then I copied it- opened a new document in Photoshop and pasted it into the new document. I resized it and printed it out on all purpose printing paper. Once I felt the size was perfect, I taped the journaling tag right over the printed quote and re-printed the document (using this same piece of paper). The quote was printed onto the tag (which was placed directly on top of the original print). After it was printed, I carefully removed the taped journaling tag from the paper (being careful not to tear it) and adhered it to my card.

Enjoy! xo

Photos taken by: Wahkuna

Handmade Inspiration Board #3: Thanksgiving

It's about that time- to start thinking about Thanksgiving and I can't wait for the day! I love this holiday the most because if focuses on family, thankfulness and AMAZING food! This year I am in charge of the Thanksgiving dinner (it's my first time, so all helpful tips are welcome *wink*), so I thought I would gather some inspiration for the day and build from there. Here is my inspiration folder, I hope you're able to gather some ideas from it as well! xo

Supplies Used; Patterned Paper- Cosmo Cricket and Crate Paper; Cardstock- American Crafts and Bazzill; Transparent Scroll Design- K&Company; Doily Rub-Ons- Hambly Studios; Gem Brad- Making Memories; Paper & Crochet Flowers- Prima Marketing Inc.; Alpha Stickers- Making Memories; Stitched Brad- Basic Grey

Images Used;

Leaf Printed Linens- Martha Stewart 

Thanksgiving Table Setting- Martha Stewart 

Fall Floral Basket- Martha Stewart

Give Thanks (Gobble Gobble)- Better Homes and Gardens 

Thanksgiving Poem- Better Homes and Gardens

(Photos of inspiration board by; Wahkuna)

Just for you!

I can't even believe it's already Nov. 1st! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this time of year?!? I'm pretty sure I have, but I still don't think that's enough! So today I'm here to share another fall inspired card that I created.

I used products from the Mind the Gap kit by Studio Calico, a lace punch, lace trim and ribbon with scallop to create the feminine feel. The colors are ivory, green, orange and brown- perfect harvest inspired colors! The pumpkin in the background was actually picked during my visit to the Westport Rivers vineyard- which I posted about here. And speaking of fall, I think now that we are officially in November, I need to get started on my Thanksgiving inspiration board...so stay tuned, there will be more to come on that! xo

Supplies Used: Cardstock- Bazzill Basics; Patterned Paper- My Mind's Eye, K&Company; Buttons- My Mind's Eye; Lace Trim- TPC Corp.; Rose Trim- Webster Pages; Letter Stickers- Sassafrass; Ribbon- Making Memories; Kraft Envelopes- Pebbles Inc.; Lace Punch; Martha Stewart Crafts; Distress Ink; Ranger/Tim Holtz; Stamps- Other

Photos by; Wahkuna

Memory Books & Journals

 Smash book Image

Yesterday I received my newest issue of Creating Keepsakes for October 2011, and there is a whole section in the back dedicated to Memory Books for Everyday Scrapbooking. In this section they feature Smash Journals and other sketch/composition book type memory keeping. I love this style, it's unconventional and full of character. To me, it's the new alternative to traditional scrapbooking. Looking at these books, filled with pictures, ephemera and memorabilia is so interesting and exciting. It's almost like every time you look at the pages, there's something new to see- like looking at it for the first time. It's busy, but fun and that's what I love about it!!

Kim's Book Image

Here is the perfect example of this unconventional creativity that I love so much! There's so many places for your eye to wander, and it keeps you coming back for more! All of the layering and color is so exciting! These types of books remind me of the inspiration journals I used to create while studying Fashion in college. The content within the pages tell a story and are inspiring all at the same time!

I definitely think that creating an unconventional memory book is something we should all try at some point. As usual with crafting, there's NO rules and NO right way to do it, which is the beauty of it all! I dare you to try it- you won't be sorry!

Inspiring Inspiration Boards

I don't know about you, but I just LOVE inspiration boards. To me, they are the first step toward any design. Creating an inspiration board, helps you to visualize all the elements that make up your final work of art. They also help guide you through the design process ensuring that important design details aren't left out and helps you to stay clear and focused along the way. It's almost like brainstorming for artists!

Now there's many places to find inspiration boards that have been created by countless others, to help jump start your own board. So here are a few resources I turn to often and you'll see why...

Ivory/Pink/Gold Vintage Notions Inspiration Board

This first lovely board was taken from the book French General Treasured Notions, written by Kaari Meng. I absolutely love this book. The photos are beautiful and the history behind this book and the story of the Tinsel Trading Company in NYC is incredible! If you appreciate good design, I would highly recommend this book to add to your inspirational library, you won't be sorry! The details on this vintage notions board are priceless, and the old world elements are rich with a history all their own!

Lavender/Lime Parisian Themed Inspiration Board

The second board is from the book Paperie For Inspired Living by Karen Bartolomei of Grapevine Paperie. This is another wonderful resource, full of stationery and decor ideas for weddings, parties and other special occasions. I love how this book starts out by explaining the design process and how to be a great host (2 key points to throwing your own successful gathering). In this book, Karen Bartolomei explains how she begins each new project by creating an inspiration board (like the one above), to get all her ideas in one place, and she often takes it with her and references back to it when choosing elements for each event. This Parisian style inspiration board has a vintage feel with sophisticated details. How inspiring?!?

Naturally Elegant Inspiration Journal

The last inspiration board I want to share with you today, is more casual in presentation. It's a "working" design journal by Leslie at A Creative Mint. Leslie has such a beautiful blog, with so many amazing photographs! When I stumbled upon this picture, I found it so inspirational, with so much depth and character because it's literally a work in progress and that is the beauty of it. The style of this inspiration is feminine yet natural and simply elegant. You should definitely stop on over to A Creative Mint and explore all the lovely photographs and beautiful inspiration there, you'll be glad you did!

Thanks for stopping in and I hope you enjoy these great resources! Also, how do you usually plan for your next design project?

A diamond in the rough...

 Living in a bustling city like New York definitely has it's pros, like the fact that you can always order-in no matter how late (or early) it is. The nearest "Bodega" or (corner store as we call it), is never further than your nearest corner, for all of those household emergencies, at any hour. But most importantly the best shopping & inspiration you'll find around. I love to wonder the streets of NYC in search of a new gem, a place that is bursting with culture and history. A place like Tinsel Trading Company! This store is one of THEE places to visit for vintage trims, treasures and notions! It's unbelievable and the story behind it is even better. Check out the book dedicated to the finds from this lovely place and if you're ever in the area (37th St. between 5th & 6th ave.) stop in for endless inspiration and lots of new possibilities! It's a crafter's oasis!

I've heard that this shop is one of Martha Stewart's favorite places...and I can totally understand why. I'm so very thankful that my job is literally down the street and around the corner. If I'm in the mood for an inspiring lunch break, I just walk on over and I'm in paradise! :-)

(Images; vintage spools of thread-www.suchprettythings.typepad.com; outside image of shop-www.knityoursocksoff.blogspot.com; flowers-www.colettepatterns.com; book-french general  )