Saturday 28 April 2012

Progress Made

As I mentioned, I have been sick......only thing that I do other than sleep, sneeze and use millions of tissues is go through my magazines.  Who knew there were so many ideas that one can use?  I have little sticky notes throughout each issue and my better half says that it might be more beneficial if I sticky noted those pages I didn't want.  What does he know?  I'm keeping the economy going by buying sticky notes.

As I was finding treasures, one card jumped out at me and said "Make Me!!!".  Seeing as how I own the stamps that the card designer used, I kept the page open and put the magazine aside to make the card.  Next, I went downstairs to my nicely organized stamps and much to my consternation.....I couldn't find one of the sets!!!!  Looked in a couple of other spots and realized that I may have to clean up my craft room to find the missing stamp set.

This started on Thursday.  Friday saw me downstairs in my craftroom cleaning and finding other things to organize such as my word stamps.  I am constantly frustrated at not knowing or finding the right sentiment so that meant I had to empty the six drawers, check my inventory binder and sort the stamps properly.  Somewhere along the way, I discovered the missing stamp set and put it on my pegboard so that I knew where it was.  Late Friday night, I was learning how to format cells in my Excel program because this cold wouldn't let me sleep and I was determined to enter my verses in their entirety in my new computer file.

Saturday morning ---  early,  very very early, I was up and entering my sentiments into the computer.  Had breakfast and went downstairs to this:

8:30 am  Saturday, April 28
 There is a six foot table and a four foot table under all that.  I know it looks bad, but given a little time I will get it under control.  How much time????  Hours, days, weeks, months.......???

Noon on Saturday, April 28
Notice the daisy card and the bag beside it....that's the project!!!  Beside the bag is a tag that I had to put back together and the stamps behind that will be categorized and put away later this weekend.  Notice my Cricut?  It hasn't seen the light of day since I got it (unless I use it) and languished under the table.  Believe it or not, the four table is completely clear and ready to use.

Hooray....one major goal accomplished!!!  Still have the stinkin' cold though.....

Have a great day,

Carol

Thursday 26 April 2012

Been busy - part 4 (the final part)

I have decided that I'm not extremely creative in the design department, but that I can usually see the other items being used in a card other than what is presented.  Sometimes, this is because I don't have the supplies listed or that I don't like the presentation or that I am on the lookout for the use of a particular stamp.  Whatever the reason, I very seldom follow the design to the letter and I encourage anyone who looks at my cards to do the same.  I am presenting a platform from which you can perform the most amazing feats.

The next two cards are a sample of the process that I go through when developing class ideas....not every card I make is a class sample, but can be the beginning to which I follow a path to design the card that I want to present.

The first card is a card that I remember seeing in a Stamper's Sampler about a year or so ago.  Thought I'd try to duplicate it. 

Top two flower stamps are Magenta stamps and the bottom one is Stampendous.  Can't remember where the FOR YOU is from.

All the punches are from Martha Stewart.  When I presented this card to my students, it was not coloured and I wasn't happy with the card.  After colouring it in, it looks much better.

For the card that I adapted and presented to class, butterflies came to mind only because I have this great Martha Steward butterfly punch that helped make this card pop.

C1299 - Butterfly Kiss

Hope you enjoyed my cards.

Smiles,

Carol

Been busy - Part 3

It's official!  I hate being sick!!!!  I am now into week two of this miserable cold and there are very little signs of it abating.  Type 3 words, cough, type 3 more words, cough, cough, cough.....arghhhh!  I know this too will pass, but patience has never been my strong suit.

Onto the cards.......

While perusing the net, I found a cute card on a youtube video from AmuseStudios.com and adapted it to my stash.

Here are two examples.

Used Inkadinkado Cat Inchie Stamps & C1494 - Card Word Puzzle

Used A1116 - A Melody and D1447 - Universal Backgrounds

Quick, easy, simple.....my kind of card.

Smiles,

Carol

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Been busy - Part 2

I have to admit that I love the new Quick Cards stamp sets.  I also love the Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.  My brain and mindset do not go to the fancy end of the scale and I find myself happily puttering around making simple cards.  Teaching these cards to my students is a learning experience for me as I watch them manipulate my simple ideas into works of art.  That's what teaching is about...watching your students taking flight with their ideas.

Here are some label cards using <Square3> on page 43 and CTMH sets A1120 - Quick Cards Butterfly, A1128 - Quick Cards Shell and C1498 - Country Life.  The Quick Card stamps were stamped on, but the Country Life Rooster seemed to need a background so I used an out of date Stampin' Up chicken wire background.  I think Rosewood stamps (www.frogswhiskersink.com) may have a chicken wire background.  If not, then Rose Marie may consider doing one.  I used Z1335 - Opaques Licorice on the Butterfly and Rooster card.

A1120 - Quick Cards Butterfly



A1128 - Quick Cards Shell

C1498 - Country Life

Part 3 will soon be up.

Enjoy your day,

Carol

Been busy - Part 1

Took my limited skll set and designed my own blog header.  For the first attempt, I am very happy with what I have done and when I further my skills, I am looking forward to what I can come up with! 

Taught a class on Sunday, April 22 and here are some of the cards that I did.  The theme of the class was Flowers, Inchies and Circles.

Fell in love with Melanie Muenchinger's card in the March 2010 CardMaker magazine when it came out.  So much so that I raced upstairs to buy the set Elegant Elements from Gina K Designs because none of the circles I had looked as nice.  Being a lazy stamper, I changed the butterflies to punched ones.  The punch was a Martha Stewart punch and all I did was direct to paper with the ink pads.  I used Adirondacks for the Melanie card and Distress inks for my CTMH takeoff card.  The stamp sets for the CTMH card were C1459 - Stitched Together (the flower) and C1494 - Card Word Puzzle (for birthday).  I upped the ante by using the LJ812 Dreamweaver stencil to place my stamps and after stamping, dry embossed to make raised squares.  I added Stardust stickles to all the butterflies on both cards.

adapted from Melanie Muenchinger's card from CardMaker magazine March 2010


C1459 Stitched Together CTMH set


Watch the next post for the next set of cards.  Until then..........TTFN,

Carol