Digi designs

I've been on a card kick lately. I've created three different designs if you can the fairy cards I did this weekend. Here I used a digital design (first time using one of those) and I like what I see. The dp is CosmoCricket, with oranbge organza ribbon to embellish. I also used my new nestabilities die to cut the shape. I love these, and will have to work a lot harder and earn more money to feed my nestability hunger.

New Cards and a Bookmark

I'm loving these new manga fairy stamped images. I can't get enough of these. I've made several cards, including the ones
here, as well as this Book Fairy Bookmark.
I visited my local HobbyLobby yesterday and found the patterned paper that I used on the cards on clearance--10 cents a sheet!! I like the Spring look to it.
The bookmark was made with a page torn out of a white gel pen journal. Then I used white gel pen to embellish with a few extra swirls here and there.
The cards are also glitzed with Stickles and Liquid Glass. If I'm going to make any more cards with these images, I better check YouTube for coloring hints. Anime is a little different coloring technique than my usual . I like how they turned out though.

Fairy Card

I can almost smell Spring--it's close, even though there is still a foot or so of snow on the ground, and I'm still in my winter jacket. It's close..

...so saying, I celebrated ther return of Spring with anew card. I haven't had tiome to post anything new in a while due to work consuming me. I finished fifteen pages at a crop, and several cards and tags.

This card was made using an image I received in a swap. I don't know who makes the fairy, and I have other images like it. I love them all and want to buy more, but havew to wait until some king person IDs the maker for me LOL.

I wanted it to have a bit of other-worldly feel to the card, so added pearls and flowers and sparkles wherever the mood hit me. I love the colors. I would like to learn how to color manga images. It's a bit different than what I'm used to, not as much blending.

Spooky Saturday

Cropped last Saturday and really got a lot accomplished. The most difficult pages to layout are the ones using old printed photos from before I got a digital camera. I mean, really old. My kids are 24 and 14, and there are photos of the 24 year old of his first Halloween.

Anyway, the theme for the day was Halloween. I had most of my papers and embellies for Halloween in a couple huge plastic baggies, and had just finished organizing as many photos as I could find. I finished 13 pages, starting from 1986 and finishing with the year 2000. I'm not done, either, plus I'm missing photos as well, but I really feel like I accomplished a major task.

Scrapping those old photos to me is both enervating and gut-wrenching. I haven't touched some select sets of photos because the subject matter is near and dear to me, but on the other hand I'm looking forward to tackling them.

Now if I just didn't work, I could have all the time in the world to make pages and put my photos in their "frames".
And I have been holding onto some of the papers and embellies for so long I wouldn't know where to start to ID them. I'm just happy to have so many photos scrapped in one day.

A few of them had been scrapped already, but then our basement flooded and I lost a bunch of photos and the scrapbook was salvaged, but the pages were going to mold (sewage) so I had to either remove the photos or pull the dry pages out to revamp later.

I wasn't too worried about using all one design of paper either. I just wanted to get the photos ON paper and record some of the events, thoughts and stories that went along with each year.

All this makes me want to rummage through every box of photos i have to see if I can come up with any morte pics of Halloweens past!

Just in Time, but too late

I finally altered this Target mailbox. I've only had it for over a month.

I also just came in before the deadline on one of my Yahoo groups for the February Challenge Project of the Month, which was a treat container.

Of course, Valentine's Day is over, so I blew that chance to make someone's day a little sweeter. Maybe if I take off the Valentine's Day greeting and replace it with a Birthday sentiment, or thinking of you...hmm, that would work. As I'm ruthlessly cleaning out my craft room, I just can't afford the space to store this little box until V Day rolls around again. So it's getting a makeover!

So Simple, so cute

A swapping friend (Hi, Patti) sent me an envie filled with these little PIFfing tags. PIF stands for Pass It Forward, and in swapping groups, can be anything from a paperback to a handmade layout ready for photos. When you send a PIF to someone, it's more than likely they are expecting others from other people, so PIFfing tags are really handy to ID the PIF you're giving.

Anyway, I thought these were so adorable in their simplicity that I made a few...and a few more...and, well, I didn't get to sleep early last night.

Mine shown here have a definite tropical flavor. It's a great little craft because a sturdy piece of cardstock leftover from a project, along with one of those stickers you just can't picture on a page, and a little black pen for the borders...voila, PIFfing tags! It's a great way to use up your stash. However, the backdraft of this idea is that now you won't want to throw away even the smallest of scraps, or the very last sticker, because look what you can do with them!!

Jumbo ATCs

I love ATCs. No matter if they are standard sized or jumbo, they make perfect pieces of art. I can use them as tags, on card fronts, even on my layouts.
I made these Jumbo ATCs (JATCs) for a swap on LuckyBug Yahoo Group. The challenge was to go green, or to recycle something on the card. The flowers used on mine are from my daughter's sheers she used to have in her bedroom. They were made up of long lovely strips of white sheer material, with these flowers sewn on every 6 or so inches.
When we redid her windows, I couldn't bear to give/throw away all those lovely flowers, so I spent one entire evening snipping them off the sheer strips. And people wonder why I often lose sight of my craft table, and can't find an open spot in my craft room. I guess I am a hoarder, but not quite on the same level as those poor people on TV.
And I do try to clean out. I used to name my years each January 1st, like The Year of Living Healthy, The Year of Organization. I gave that up because every year became The Year of Ruthlessness. I try to be ruthless in my cleaning out. Try being the operative word. Here I sit with my computer balancing upon a stack of 12x12 papers, my ScorPal and my paper cutter. There are two envelopes ready to be taken to the P.O., and my trusty tape dispenser, the heavy duty one used for taping boxes shut, lies on its side next to several stamp pads. Hmm, I think it's time again to be ruthless and at least atttempt to clean off my desk. I know it's around here somewhere. Later!