Simple and classy

I had so much going on this weekend between holiday fun and crafting projects that I am worn out!  To appease my craft addiction last night I decided to make things simple.  I tried out something I have been wanting to do forever now, make a birthday banner card.  I really have no reason as to why I haven't done it before.  It's the easiest thing ever.  Hmm, maybe because I didn't have any twine, maybe because I am always trying to be too detailed, maybe because I am always trying new techniques.  Either way, it was time to go simple.  Sometimes I overthink projects and get things all jumbled up when really a simple classic card could work just as good or even better.

 This card took just minutes to throw together.  I played with the files in Silhouette Studio and found these lovely banner flags free.  I used twine from Trendy Twine to hang the multi-colored banners on.  Actually, they aren't hanging.  Each banner is secured to the paper using a small pop up square to give the illusion they are hanging.  I stamped the sentiment in red.  I would have rather used a stamp that had the letters much smaller and in a straight line but I didn't have any that were plain.  I was going for the plain, classic, simple is more look.  

If I had better picture-taking skills I think the image would have come out clean and crisp showing the contrast of the colorful flags against the white card.  Well, that's a project for another time!

Side note**
.....pssst, check out Trendy Twine.  I love their colors!

Some new bling...

So did you notice something different?  Look to the right.  See it yet?  Well, let me give you a hint....I made the SVG Attic design team!  OK, that may not have exactly been a subtle hint but I'm just way too excited not to spill the beans.  Meet the new design team members HERE! 

This is the first design team I have ever been on and I am so honored to have been selected.  I have been papercrafting for under a year and to have come so far to have been chosen to design for a company is an amazing feeling.

So what does being on the design team entail?  It entails me creating projects to inspire others.  I will be using SVG Attic's SVG collections to create something that will make you say, "Oh, so that's what I can make with that collection!" then it will motivate you and inspire you to make something as well....even purchase the collections I used.  I promise they are all really amazing SVG files.  You can also get updates on new collections, news, and contest information at Jessica's Crop Corner.

Have you checked out SVG Attic?  You definitely should.  Jessica, the owner, just opened up shop and has some really great SVG collections to choose from at extremely reasonable prices.  On top of that she has partnered up with the stamp company, My Thoughts Exactly, to create SVG collections that correspond to the stamps.  An amazing partnership if you ask me.  I ordered my set of stamps and will be using them along with one of SVG Attic's collections for my second design team project.  Head on over to both sites.  You won't be disappointed! 

Look for my first design team project this Friday!

It's beach time!

Well, guess who got their Silhouette this week?  Yup, this girl!  Wait, can a 30-something year old be considered a girl?!  "Yes", whispers  my readers.  Oh well, then thanks!

Back to Silhouette news.  Last night was the first night I got to really play with my new toy...*cough cough and a few others a bought cough cough*.  I got home from work and set out to make a card for two challenges.  Yes, two....kill two birds with one stone right?  Oh so cliche.  Before I show you the card, let me tell you how AMAZING the Sil is on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest (the need to clearly explain the scores of a scale was drilled into me in college!).  The Sil gets a 9!  The cutting ability far surpasses that of the Cricut but the cut width is it's downfall.  Maybe it's because I'm used to the full 12" of the Expression and not having to cut my paper down to size all the time.  Either way, the Sil is my new best friend and poor Mr. Cricky will be left on my desk to gather dust.

Now to my cool card.  It's beachy, it's colorful, it's fun.  It's perfect for this holiday weekend!  I am entering this card into two challenges.  One is for the Paper Dolls challenge which requires the use of a stamp.  Just a stamp and SVGs.  Super simple.  The other challenge is over at SVG Attic.  The requirement is to use the colors red, white, and blue and also use one of the way cute SVG files that Jessica has made.  It just so happens all but one of the SVGs in my card are made by Jessica at SVG Attic.  I seriously love her files!!

Pictures, you say?  OK OK, I'll stop blabbing now and show ya.  Be warned...you may get overloaded.

It's beach time!

Surfs up!

Stair step card

Dimension shot

Surfer chick

Surfer dude

Flipper

The end

It was a lot of fun making this card.  All the ideas that were floating around in my head!  I used SVG Attic's Just Beachy SVG collection for most of the elements and the Paper Dolls collection for the dolls (psst, that one is free...go grab that and a few other awesome SVG files!).  The dolphin came from SVG Cuts free files, DeWayne the Dolphin from 7/28/09.  

The card measures 5 1/2" by 11 and I scored the steps at 1.25", 2.5", 4.25", 6" and at 8.25".  I then folded the smallest step (1.25") down the folded the rest like an accordion.  This creates the stairs of the card.  I used kraft paper for the base DCWV Linen Closet stack for the sand and open stock paper from either Joann's or Michaels for the water and the front where the sentiment is.  For the doll's bathing suits I used paper from Me & My Big Ideas stack, Renee Argyle Green (part of their Renee Family collection I guess).  I picked this stack up at Marshall's for $6.99.  I love discount stores!  

Oh, I have to at least briefly mention my other toys!  I bought a Crop-a-Dile and used that to set the eyelets on the sentiment part.  I also bought Martha Stewart's scoring board which is what I used to score and make the creases for my card.  It made life so much easier!  Why didn't I buy this before?!  

Hope you enjoyed!  Now off to blog hop!      

Silhouette for Cheap!

Just wanted to let you all know that the Silhouette is $153 at Overstock.com after using coupon/discount code 206572!  That includes shipping.  It also comes with a $10 download card.  Jump on it!  It's a great deal!  Guess who bought hers last night!

Paper Galore!

 A look into my paper obsession.  I copied this from one of my other blogs.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Oh my goodness did I go crazy at Joann's today.  I walked in there intent on raiding the open stock paper.  It is on sale for 6 for $.96.  This is the best sale I've seen on open stock paper anywhere so of course when I saw it in an ad a few weeks ago I was excited and impatient.  They don't have their paper this cheap too often so now is the time to buy and buy I did.

I walked in a few minutes after they opened and walked straight to the paper.  I was like a madwoman and by the time I had raided just two sections I was overloaded.  I had to take a step back and reassess my game plan.  How is it that I already had over 100 sheets of cardstock and I had only gone through two of the rows?  I know how...madness!  I put it all the paper back in their proper slots, left the store and went to my car for a moment to breathe.  "OK, there's no way I can buy 4 of each color paper, that's insane" is pretty much what I told myself while standing at my car trying to figure out how to go about calmly buying paper.

After a few minutes I was ready to go back in.  This time around I slowly grabbed one of each solid color cardstock and a few of some of the colors I already have plans for.  I went to the patterned paper next and did the same, well kind of.  I grabbed two of some that I really liked.  I counted the paper after I was done and had about 250 sheets.  OH GOSH...still way too many!  I went through each piece and put back some of the duplicates I had grabbed of the decorative paper and whittled down the amount of paper I had by a little but not much at all.

Next it was off to embossing powders and embossing folders.  I found a jar of sparkle powder for $1.97 on clearance.  Not too bad.  I also bought two sets of two embossing folders that were originally $15.99 but on clearance for $6!!  Woohoo!  Two are obviously Christmas folders but the other two can be used for any occasion.  I still had a 50% off one item coupon so I bought a ribbon I can us for Valentine cards and my adventure was over.  I made sure it was over.  I had to.  I knew the total was going to come out to way more than I had planned on spending.  Oops!

I apologized as I walked to the cash register.  The nice customer I was, I set up the paper for the cashier so all the barcodes were on the same side as she was scanning.  She chatted with me as she rang up my massive amount of paper and we joked about how long the receipt was.  What if I needed to return something?!  Hahaha.  The damage wasn't too bad but still a nice chunk of change.  But guess what?  I  have plenty of paper to last me forever!  Now all I need is more storage!  *Side note....I think I was lying to myself about the paper lasting forever because I havent' stopped stocking up!.*

Oh how I love thee!

That is he longest receipt I have ever seen!

 As of today, June 23, 2011, I have yet to buy very much more storage for my paper.  My obsession is growing out of hand! I keep buying and buying and buying.  Today I am trying to fit this:

Just hanging out on my couch

and this....

into this....

Sad little bitty bit of storage

Those sad containers hold all my paper (not including paper packs) and scraps!  I am overflowing.

Oh, there's more paper than that!  There's some more paper stacks laying around on top of all the paper I bought this past weekend which includes more paper packs and more open stock paper!!  Don't say anything about that though.  It's cleverly hidden in the trunk of my car patiently waiting to be sneaked into my craft room!

My Treausry Made the Front Page!

Just had to share my joy!  This morning I kept getting emails up the wazzoo from Etsy stating this person likes my item, this person added me to their circle, this person favorited my shop, etc.  I had no clue what the heck was going on!  Was Etsy messing with me?  Was it spam?  What the heck?

When I got home from taking my husband out to lunch for Father's Day I decided to take a look at my Etsy account.  I noticed that a treasury I made yesterday, Ode to Dad, had a ton of hits.  Wow.  OK.  That's super cool.  That explains the massive influx of people checking out my shop.  Then I got an email from RCTees thanking me for featuring their super cute men's Ghost Elephant Tee in my treasury which made the fron page of Etsy!

Wait what?
Say that again?
Did you say FRONT PAGE?

Woohoo!  I had no clue at all!  Now all those emails make complete sense!

Go check out my Ode to Dad treasury to see what landed me on the front page!

You Light Up My Life

I am really working on my distressing and inking techniques, as is evident in what I made today.

I made a center step card for a challenge at SVG Attic (see the forum or Jessica's Crop Corner for rules) using the lighthouse from their Cape Cod collection.  I am so extremely proud of this card!  I have been thinking about this project for a few days and how I was going to tackle it.  I couldn't wait to make it. 

Ta-daa!!!

You light up my life step card

I used ink on every edge of the paper

A brad stands in as the light

Sentiment

The step makes the front of the card pop out

Laying on it's back so you get an idea of the dimension

This was my first time ever making a step card.  I was browsing blogs this morning (while I was supposed to be at the gym) and happened upon a tutorial for this (don't worry I went to the gym after).  It looks little complicated to make but it was really easy.

I used paper from a stack I bought today at Joann's for half off.  It's the Linen Closet pack from DCWV. 

I'm so glad I bought the Tim Holtz' ink blender.  It blends and spreads the ink so well.  The blender I was using before wasn't cutting it for me.  And as you can tell, I inked the pop out of that card!

One thing I think I may need is the Zutter paper distresser.  Distrezz It All, I think is what it's called (don't quote me on that).  I am using a hand held distresser and it takes some time to make the edges just right.  I sometimes bend the paper doing it.  No bueno ("no good" in Spanish).  With the Zutter machine you stick it in an zoop it's done!  Agh, I better stop talking about toys...my husband barely OK'd the Silhouette and here I am wanting MORE! 

So I am thinking this is my favorite card I have ever made.  I can't stop looking at it.  Corny, I know!

Now it's time for you to stop by SVG Attic and join in on the fun!!