December Daily 2011- Day 13

Supplies: Patterned Paper & Number Tag- Making Memories; Digital Tag- AE Studio;

Chipboard Accent- Echo Park; Glitter- Recollections; Gold Metallic Marker- American Crafts



So since there are NO RULES with scrapbooking or the December Daily project, last night I decided to focus on that day, instead of trying to catch up with days 7-12 that I haven't done yet. I don't want to get stuck worrying about catching up, because then I'm afraid I won't finish. I'm thinking that if I can try to keep up from here on out, once I get to the end and every page is done (except 7-12) then I will be able to finish those and have a complete book for 2011! So let's just hope this tactic works... *crossing fingers*

So day #13 is about the holiday cards that I mailed out yesterday morning. I took a picture of the cards in the mailbox and added one of Ali Edward's digital tags on top, along with the sentiment that is inside the cards. On the back of day #13, I used the front of my "prototype" card, to decorate my DD album and to have a keepsake of the card I created this year. I really like how it came out- simple yet effective! xo

Crafting Spaces #2

Hello friends! Today I wanted to share a few creative craft spaces with you that have caught my eye lately. I think these places are so stylish but yet functional for all your creative needs! Have a look and while you're at it, add some of these fabulous details to your craft space list! Enjoy! xo

Image Source; Becky Oehlers

Image Source; Unknown

Image Source; PB Teen

Btw, if you have a fun craft space that you love and would like to share with us, shoot me an email and it might just be featured in my next Crafting Spaces post! Don't think about it, just do it! *wink*

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!

Learning to celebrate the little things.

Well here I am, back again after a long hiatus from blogging. I do apologize for disappearing. Sometimes life just gets away from us, and before we know it, 6 months has gone by and we can't even say where the time has gone! 

So much has happened since my last post in February, too much to touch upon in just one post. However the main things are; we moved to a 2 bedroom apartment (about 10 mins. from our old place), where I now have a craft room (yeeaaaayyyyy!!) and the other is that I was recently laid off from my job (not so good). Losing your job is always tough and now so much more personal for me, but with the way the economy has been, it's really no big surprise. Sometimes you clearly just have to take the good with the bad, try to see the brighter side of things and realize that perhaps your situation may be a blessing in disguise. Maybe it's an opportunity to do something greater, to be happier, to pursue what it is you truly want to do. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and there's always experiences that we can learn from and then move on. 

Which leads me to the point of this post- no matter what happens, and no matter how bad things may seem, we always need to remember to celebrate the little things. It's the little things that make up our lives, and tell our stories. Life wouldn't exist otherwise. They are the things that make you- YOU and me- ME! So regardless of your next obstacle or challenge, never forget to celebrate the little things along the way. And here's my interpretation of that;

 

I came across this color palette on Pinterest via Piradee Talvanna from the Photo Card Boutique (and pinned it to my color palette inspiration board). So I thought it was perfect for creating a card about celebrating the little things in life. These colors are so happy and fun!

I recently joined Pinterest within the last few months and I think it was one of the best things I could have done! It's basically a website where you can store an endless amount of virtual inspiration or "pin" boards. You can "pin" any image that can be found on the web to your boards according to theme or category. It's awesome! The best part about it is, all of your inspiration can be found in one place and is easily accessible! Definitely check it out if you haven't!

On the right is my hand sketch of the card (which was inspired from a LO by Piradee Talvanna in the September issue of Creating Keepsakes entitled; Fall) . I've realized that planning out my projects ahead of time, definitely helps to cut down on time and makes the final product look more cohesive.

And here is the final product! This card is 5x7 and most of the products used came from the Studio Calico Lawn Party kit. I love it's vintage feel! I used a lot of layering and dimension to add interest. I also like how adding the ruffle gives a more finished look and the yarn with butterflies create movement.

Butterflies symbolize change and celebration, which is why I thought they were perfect for this card. With every change, no matter how big or small, we should celebrate.

Valentine's Day wishes for you and yours!

Image courtesy of;  Graphics Fairy

Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day, filled with love and happiness! Enjoy!

Love is a friendship...

Supplies- cardstock; bazzill, patterned paper; sassafras & basic grey, rhinestone flourishes; prima, mini metal brads; making memories, distress ink; ranger/tim holtz, lace trim, thread & cameo embellishment; other 

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! Today I wanted to share my newest creation. This is a love card that I made using some papers from my Studio Calico Metropolitan kit and some of my own supply stash. It's girly and cute with a hint of vintage. I also did something a little different by off setting the title to overlap off of the side. It adds a bit of interest, you know!?! *wink*

Steps;

1. Make card from cardstock
2. Print sentiment on contrast colored cardstock and cut to tag shape, ink edges. Then cut another tag out of the same cardstock used to create card, but 1/8" lager and use this one as the tag border. Attach with 2 mini metal brads on either end and add rhinestone flourishes. (put aside)
3. Cut patterned paper 1/8" smaller than size of card and distress edges.
4. Fold down top right corner and secure with a mini metal brad.
5. Cut strip of a coordinating patterned paper to adhere to bottom edge & stitch a piece of lace trim on top edge. (lace trim is distressed with ink)
6. Sew 2 rows of wavy lines around both pieces of patterned papers to add interest and adhere to card.
7. Create a bow with the lace trim and sew a cameo embellishment to bottom center, adhere to card.
8. Attach tag/sentiment to card using foam squares to add dimension.

Finished size: 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"

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  )

Studio Calico- December 2010

Metropolitan is here!!!! And this my friends, is why I LOVE the beginning of every month! I always get SO excited when my new kits arrive and this month is NO exception! I'm already thinking of new ideas and looking at all the goodies makes me want to create aaaaall the time! (If only...*sigh*)

METROPOLITAN;

Coordinates with the following:

Mists: Lunch Tray, Applejack, Sunshine, Calico White, Calico Cream, Dark Calico, Warm Calico, Classic Calico
Inks & Paints: Lemon Drops, Malted Milk, Brown Sugar, Stick Candy


Complete kit contents:

Cardstock:
Kraft (Bazzill)
Hazel (Bazzill)
Lima Bean (Bazzill)
Cinder (Bazzill)
Vanilla (American Crafts)


Patterned Paper:

Exclusive Designs - 2 papers (Sassafras)
Digits (Studio Calico)
Swatch (Studio Calico)
Perfect Embossed (Pebbles)
Lagoon Calendar (KI Memories)
Metropolis (Basic Grey)
Pattern Dot (Making Memories)
Ledger (Making Memories)


Embellishments:

Tiny Type - Yellow (Cosmo Cricket)
Parisian Anthology Tickets (Pink Paislee) 5 tickets
Ledger Envelopes (Making Memories) 3 envelopes
Shimmer Alpha - Silver (Making Memories)
Entwined Blooms Turkish Turquoise (Sassafras)
Green Grid Mixtape (American Crafts)
Weekdays Black Scribbles (KI Memories)
Velvet Pleated Ribbon - Cream (Maya Road) 1/2 yd
Crystal Star Pin (Maya Road TK1411) 2 pieces
Globe Stamp (Studio Calico)

Season's Greetings!

sea·son

 1. a period of the year immediately before and after a special holiday or occasion.

[see-zuhn]
–noun

 
Origin:

1250–1300; (n.) ME sesoun, seson < OF se ( i ) son < L satiōn- (s. of satiō ) a sowing (VL: sowing time), equiv. to sa- (var. s. of serere to sow) + -tiōn- -tion; (v.) ME seso ( u ) nen < OF saisonner to ripen, make palatable by aging, deriv. of seison

I can't believe it's already December 1st! My, how this year has flown by! Which brings us to the matter at hand; its the first day of the 25 days of Christmas and 'tis the season for Holiday cards. I still need to work on mine for family and friends (which will probably end up being something simple), but I thought I would share this Christmas card that I made a few weeks ago...

The title was stamped onto textured card stock with black archival ink and then outlined with glitter gel pens. The snowflakes were stamped and then I added pearl rhinestones in the center.

To break up the card I added borders out of patterned paper and some gros grain ribbon with stitching & a loop/tie. The button is sewn onto the ribbon loop with green embroidery floss.

Below is the color palette;



Hope you've enjoyed the card for today, thank you for stopping by!

December Daily 2010: Sneak Peeks

de·cem·ber dai·ly

[dih-sem-ber] [dey-lee]
–noun –adverb
1. the twelfth month of the year, containing 31 days. Abbreviation: Dec.
1. every day; day by day

Origin:
Ali Edwards 2008

Yesterday I mentioned that my mom and I were able to spend some quality time together while I was home this past weekend. We spent a good part of Friday and Saturday working on our December Daily albums which I first posted about here. It was so fun to work with my mom on this new project because she is new to scrapbooking and gets so excited when she learns something new! In the first image, I'm sorting out the holiday themed papers that I brought and in the second image, my mom is just getting started! She was definitely a trooper this weekend! I'm so proud of her. :-)

Below are a few sneak peaks from my December Daily album. I'm still working on the "body", and hopefully will be done soon, so I can focus on filling it with festive holiday memories!

Have any of you created a December Daily before? If so, what was your favorite part of the process? And do you have any good tips for a first timer?!? Do tell...

Birthday Wishes

Supplies: Textured Cardstock- Bazzil; Patterned Paper- Sassafrass; Ribbon- Making Memories;

Distress Ink- Ranger; Stamp/Button & Embroidery Thread-Other

home·spun

[hohm-spuhn]
–adjective
1. spun or made at home: homespun cloth.
2. plain; unpolished; unsophisticated; simple; rustic

Origin:

1580–90; home + spun


This birthday card I created a while back and thought I would share it with you today. I used the Studio Calico Back 40 kit. I really like the patterned papers that have the decorative scallop edge, they're perfect as a finishing touch! This patterned paper is from Sassafras and I love their papers, they always have a homespun feel, very vintage. The patterned paper is attached to the card using a zz stitch with a ribbon running across the center attached at the sides with zz.

The sentiment was created with a stamp on a piece of textured card stock that I shaped using a tag stencil. The border was made using a glitter gel pen and Tim Holtz's Ranger distress ink. The button is attached using ivory embroidery thread wrapped and tied into a bow.

Below is a color palette I've created inspired by this card. Maybe it will inspire your next project! Enjoy!

December Daily 2010

de·cem·ber dai·ly


[dih-sem-ber] [dey-lee]
–noun             –adverb
1. the twelfth month of the year, containing 31 days. Abbreviation: Dec.
1. every day; day by day

Origin:
Ali Edwards 2008 

Last week while I was blog surfing, I came upon Ali Edwards' site and discovered the December Daily Project. I immediately fell in LOVE with it! Its exactly what I've been looking for, to capture the special happenings of the holidays! This is an album created just to document the 25 days leading up to Christmas, or it can be whatever you want it to be. Some people choose to create an album about the 12 days of Christmas or the whole month of December, it's your choice, but it's a GREAT way to capture the holidays all in one place! The idea is to get your album ready before December even starts, so that all you have to do next, is add your photos/journaling throughout the month with no added stress of creating the album as you go, isn't that the perfect scenario?!? It think so!

I stumbled upon this kind of late in the season, since most scrappers start thinking about December Daily in October, but either way, I'm glad I did! I called my mom to get her in on this, since I've been trying to get her into scrapping for the last year or so, and she was delighted to join in! I'm really happy because it's a great way for us to spend time together and start a little holiday tradition of our own. We live 4 hours from each other,  and it's hard to spend so much time together, but when we do, I like to make it quality time.

So this weekend I started creating our albums right away so that next weekend during Thanksgiving break while we're at my parent's, mom and I can decorate our albums together, it's perfect timing! I'm so excited and she is too!! Here they are so far...


 I made both albums out of chipboard that I cut by hand with the good ol' exacto knife and ruler-they are my favorite, trusty tools!

 This is my album, it has 4 chipboard pages with tab separators for each week in December because I decided to make our albums for all 31 days so that we can keep documenting right to the end!

Our albums side by side, as you can see, I wanted to keep them a little different, so mine has the tabs and my mom's just has the chipboard pages separating the 4 weeks. I'm thinking of adding ribbon tabs to her album so that the reader can easily navigate through it and the two will still remain different.

These pages are where we will add our photos and journaling, they are inspired by Ali's pages here. Each page has the day of the week and "December Daily" at the bottom inside a journaling block. The outer boarder is dashed lines to represent a stitched look.

I can't wait to start adding different ephemera to this album to make it come alive!! I already went through all of my holiday stash I've collected through the years and I have A LOT of stuff!!! I will upload our progress as we go so check back! :-)

Excitement in the Air!

Today is the BIG day! It's the start of the Summer 2010 CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Trade Show!!!! I'm so excited, you would think that I was going to be there!! (Not quite, but wish I were, for sure!) I look forward to reading/seeing all the new products that are coming out from other bloggers that will be there. For now, I have to live vicariously through all of them, but hey, it's better than nothing!

There are many sites that have already been posting updates on the show for weeks, building our suspense even more! A couple in particular are; Studio Calico, Scrapbook Update and CHA's very own blog. Check into these sites for continuous updates throughout the duration of the show. This year its in Rosemont, IL at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, July 27th-July 29th.

A-MAZING!

Happy Monday all! I just wanted to pop in and tell you a little bit about this A-MAZING book I own! Its titled- Paperie for Inspired Living by Karen Bartolomei.

This book is beautiful, wonderful and caters to the papercrafter! If you are looking for a book with inspiration galore, this is the one you need to buy! The images are fantastic, and the information is abundant! I love to flip through this book when I'm looking for fresh papercrafting or stationery  ideas. The author, Karen Bartolomei, is very VERY talented (not to mention you can find her company, Grapevine Couture Paperie in the BEAN (my home), which in itself is great!) This is one of the many inspirational books that continues to keep me so excited about PAPER! For more great inspiration please check out her website here! Also if you haven't yet, go pick up a copy of this F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S book and enjoy! *wink*

On a side note...I'm super excited because I can see that Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design is more within my reach than I could have ever imagined at this point in my life! (Those of you who know these programs well, know that even one costs a small fortune, let alone the whole bundle!) lol. I'm crossing my fingers that all goes well and I'm able to purchase this software, update my dinosaur aged version and get with the times using my new design programs very soon! Wish me luck!

A Crop Weekend!

This weekend I attended 2 crops which were back to back Friday night and Saturday night! They were the first crops I've ever attended and very amazing might I add! I met some WONDERFUL women and enjoyed every minute of it!!! I will definitely be attending again!

The crop I attended Friday night was sponsored by The Manhattan Scrapbooking Meetup Group, which I'm a member of (http://www.meetup.com/Manhattan-Scrapbookers). The organizer is Cheryl and she is an amazing woman! Very talented and very sweet! It was a very welcoming and friendly atmosphere, not to mention a very inspiring group! I will definitely be attending more throughout the year!

The Saturday night crop was held at Portrait Bug, a brand new scrapbooking store on the Upper West side of Manhattan @ 92nd & Broadway (http://www.portraitbug.com/).
The store is great, there's lots of really cool scrapbooking supplies and they had a whole tool bar setup that we could use to help create our LO's or cards. The snacks were really yummy too! I highly recommend you attend one if your into scrapbooking or paper crafting. I promise you won't be disappointed! :-)

I wish I had some pictures to share, but unfortunately my camera was not cooperating this weekend! Oh well...there's always next time! ;-)