Monday, March 25, 2013

Spring is Coming! Happy Easter!

It doesn't feel like it today...its only 35* outside & very cloudy...but the calendar says Spring is on the way!
I really enjoy the change of seasons and the beauty in each season! Many of the challenges this week are asking for Spring themes or Easter themes, so I've combined those two and here is what I came up with.


For the Easter theme I chose Tilda holding the little lamb, and the "Happy Easter" sign.
For the Spring theme I used spring/pastel colors, robins and flowers (and the baby lamb).
Ingredients:
The yellow flowered background is a recycled card,
the green pattern paper below is Paper Studio
The vellum flower is Jolee's
The stamped images are both Magnolia: "Tilda with Lamb" & "Sign with Birds" -
(colored with colored pencils)
Swirl die cuts are TH/Sizzix "Elegant Flourishes"
Rhinestones are KI Memories - "Sweet Life"
Inks: Memento "Bamboo Leaves" & Stampabilities "Lime Green"
Adhesives: Glue Dots minis, ScorTape, Scotch ATG tape & gun, Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares
Ribbon: American Crafts
Ranger Stickles "Star Dust"

The challenges I've decided to enter this one in are:
http://dutchmagnolialovers.blogspot.com - #53 "Use a Little Wood" (sign post)





Saturday, March 23, 2013

"Welcome Little One" Baby Boy Card

Hello Friends! Hope you are having a great Satruday! I got to go shopping with one of my daughters today...came home with a new summer dress for $10!!! Aren't coupons wonderful! Also picked up some lovely beads to make more stick pins...later!
Today I am posting a baby card for a new baby boy at my church. I'm entering it in a few different challenges so I will list all the necessary info below.


Ingredients:
Spellbinders dies- Classic Scalloped Squares, Standard Circles Lg, Big Scalloped Circles Lg, Foliage
Cuttlebug embossing folder- Tiny Hearts
House Mouse stamp- Bunny Buggie 
(colored with colored pencils)
Pizzazz Aplenty flatback pearls- Ivory
Scrapbook Adhesives- foam squares
Hand-made "rough rolled roses"
Cardstock, paper, ribbon, twine- from my stash
Stitching

These are the challenges being entered:
http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.com - #140 "Ribbons & Pearls"
http://littlescrappieces.blogspot.com - "Use a Handmade Embellishment" (flowers)
http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com - #11 "Circles and/or Squares"

Thanks for stopping! See you next week!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

My Craft Room

Here is a post I made for the Techniques and Tutorials website that I am a DT member of. Tuesday is my turn to have a new "tutorial" ready so I decided to show what I do for storage and organization in my craft room. Thought I'd post it here too because that site requires a paid membership (which IS worth it!). To learn more about it just click on their icon in my sidebar!


The Storage & Organization of My Craft Room
                                   …such as it is!

Welcome to my craft room!
Today I’d like to just show how I have organized my supplies and tools to make my craft time more productive and enjoyable. I have found that to have a (somewhat) neat and organized work area is essential to my creativity. I have collected quite an extensive supply of crafting materials (Thanks, Cindy!) and have found that if I can’t easily find them I don’t ever use them! So I like to have as many things as possible “at my fingertips” without having a cluttered work area.
Just to let you know before I get started, all the * (starred) items are available at www.stampingscrapping.com.

My work table (facing east)

What I keep close at hand: on the right, small paper cutters, tape gun, boxes of paper scraps (one is just small white pieces for sentiments); and on the left is a basket with odds and ends such as die cuts, stamped images and embellishments I made and didn’t use (yet), a box with stamped and computer-generated sentiments, categorized by occasion, my stamp-cleaning pad, wet wipes, McGill cushion pad* & tools*, and my new favorite: a little tray for holding my tiny Tsukineko sponge daubers*! The tray is a Crafters Companion* for holding Copic markers but the daubers fit perfectly. In the middle of my table is a self-healing Creative Memories pad with a grid on it, some Tim Holtz applicators*, Stickles*, my can of colored pencils and my glass container of miscellaneous tools, pens, scissors, tweezers, etc.
Under the table I have most of my wooden stamps* in the three-drawer box and in containers on the shelf below: the clear & cling stamps* are in the basket and box and need to be organized much better! I’m open to suggestions for these!! Wastebasket on right (I’m right-handed) and way in the back is a little shelf unit with all my old photos waiting patiently to be put into albums…LOL! 

 To the left of my table (facing north) is a small desk where I keep my sewing machine ready for use, with boxes of thread, needles, bias tape, etc. underneath. I picked up the tall shelf unit at a garage sale for $4, had my husband drill holes in the sides for ribbon rods and then packed it full of ribbon and trims of all sorts. The shorter ribbon holder Cindy helped me get from a friend! (I use the tops of every cupboard to display cards.) On the left is my paper/cardstock holder cube – note that the slots are vertical. I had it horizontal for several months until I saw someone else’s online and realized it is so much easier to get papers in and out this way…duh! The file cabinets, desk and tables in my craft room are all old office furniture that I got at an auction “dirt cheap” (like $25 for all of it!). It is SO heavy…like moving a dead pig…so Hubby said to be very sure this is where I will keep my craft room forever! No problem! I’m just SO thankful to have a whole room to have all my “stuff” in! (It does have to double as a nursery when the grandbabies need a quiet place to sleep…I just put the Pack&Play in the middle of the room where little hands can’t reach any of my goodies!

                                 Raised  work table (facing west)

This table is raised about 6” with plastic leg supports so it is ideal for standing at to cut, emboss, and use my glue gun or heat embosser…those are stored under the table and connected to a power strip. On the table I have my large paper cutter (found at a flea market), my Cuttlebug (still my favorite!) and my Spellbinders Grand Caliber. In the corner are the SGC plates & mat, and  all my Pack N Store* notebooks with most of my dies; the rest are on magnetic sheets* attached to my bulletin board or on 2 clip boards with magnetic strips to hold them. All are labeled with names, but the Card Creator sets* I need to go back and organize correctly and number each die because I’m sure I didn’t put them back right! The little shelf unit holds all of my embossing folders, Cuttlebug plates, and several jars of buttons, all organized in baggies by color.
The bulletin board is just a piece of cardboard covered with cloth and framed. On it I put all kinds of items that mean something special to me…just for fun!







          










In file drawers (left): embellishments*,     
odds and ends, back-up supplies.  

In file drawers (right): sentiment stamps,
inks*, 8x10 papers/card stock/plastics/etc.

Here are more pix (some close-ups) of certain areas in my craft room:
I use paper-covered boxes to store many             My large button jars are from Hobby   items;.justmade the small one to hold my              Lobby, but any clear jars work great!
small embossing folders that kept getting              I even decorated a few: my color theme
lost & ignored. The large folders are just               for my craft room is black & white with
held in a small black letter holder.                        accents of pink and green.

 Punches just piled under ribbon! Hmmm…

Inside the PackNStore notebooks

My huge box of scraps! The white envelopes
hold really small scraps! Yes, I’m Dutch!!

My 12x12 paper, solids separate and
prints divided by main color, labeled.

Now, as always, I am open to questions, comments and suggestions! Please!
You can message me through this Techniques and Tutorials website or contact me via my email: fivensandie@aol.com
I’d love to hear from you! I’d LOVE it if you’d share some pix of YOUR craft area and ideas on how to organize and store craft supplies! If you’ve seen something but can’t find it in a store or online, just ask Cindy…she can find ANYTHING!
Thanks so much for reading all the way to the end!!

Sandie Lobbezoo   (aka ScrappySandie)

PS – A little treat for you all! Well it was a treat for me anyway…to meet Stephanie in person and spend a little fun time with Cindy and her, last spring!

Me, Cindy, Steph - May 2012

******************************************************************************
Well, that was my "tutorial"...what do you think? Any questions? Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. We are going out for dinner tonight with good friends who we haven't seen for over 3 weeks now! I'm ready for a gab fest! Bye now!
Blessings to you all!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Pale Pastels Sympathy Card


Good evening!
This is my second post today! I got 2 cards finished in less than 24 hours!
I had already embossed the background paper and made the 2 flowers (a couple weeks ago before leaving on our trip)...all out of the lovely sparkley Cryogen pale ivory cardstock. The leaves that have inked edges are also Cryogen, but the other leaves and the base diecuts are a pale mint green paper from my scrap box.


The Bible verse on the front of the card is the FREE one this week at Word Art Wednesday. Very appropriate for a sympathy card for a Christian lady, a precious grandma, who went home to be with her Lord last Friday. 
Not sure if I like the "With Sympathy" on the inside, but I didn't want it on the front this time. 
What do you think?


For this card I used a Sizzix embossing folder called "Flourish, Dots" and four sizes of the Spellbinders Labels 4 dies. I also used the Sizzix/Tim Holtz "Tattered Flower Garland" dies to make the layered flowers. The leaves are all cut from the "Foliage" Spellbinders die set. The green ink edging is Stampabilities, lime green; the lavender is Studio G ink. 
And that's about it!
So I will be entering this in:
http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com - Challenge #71 "Anything Goes"
Thank you, WAW, for the lovely digital scripture!
I am also entering this in a new challenge I found recently...lots of really creative stuff there!
and the challenge this week (#32) is "Flowers".

Anniversary + Sketch + Monochromatic Green

Hello Friends!
I'm back after a little break. Hubby & I went to Gulf Shores again to visit my cousin. I will post some pictures of our trip on my other blog, Picture This: Everyday Beauty. We were gone about 12 days...Wow! I'm not used to being away from my craftroom that long! It took me a while to get back in the groove. Still haven't figured out how to get back in the house-cleaning groove! LOL
Anyway, I needed a couple cards, one for my daughter and son-in-law's anniversary and the other is a sympathy card. Here is the first one:


Believe it or not, I don't have a "Happy Anniversary" stamp...yet. So I found this one and thought it would fit nicely with a green color scheme. I am entering this card in the Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge #189 and they added a "twist" this time, which is...it must be done in Monochromatic Green. 
Here's the sketch:
Tuesday Morning Sketches #189
Also entering this in
http://papercraftstar.blogspot.com - Challenge #136- Green
http://flourishes.org/category/challenges/timeless-tuesday/ - Challenge #211 "Go Green!"
http://tsgclearstamps.blogspot.com - #198 "Color Challenge- Green"

And here is my little list of ingredients:
Spellbinders die - "Foliage"*
Sizzix TH die - "Tattered Flower Garland"*
Washi Tape - Green*
DP's are Paper Studio (all are from my scrap box!)
Pear stamp & sentiment is Studio G
Inks are Memento* & Studio G
Pale green pearls are Zva Creative
Button, from my stash
*These are all the things I got at my favorite online craft store www.stampingscrapping.com

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you are all having a lovely day!