Butterfly Fairy and WOYWW #143

WOYWW #143

I just finished up some tags yesterday for the Tag Tuesday Inspiration, so there is  not much on my workdesk today, just a few stamped images that need to be mounted on patterned paper.  Those will get finished up and dropped off at a few of the stores that carry my cards locally. 

I've been taking lots of photos for my Photo Assignment Class and incorporated this photo from the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory onto the tag I made for Tag Tuesday.  I love the contrast of the butterflies against the white of the statue,  and how the plant curves around the little fairy and frames her.  Check out my post from yesterday to see the 2 tags I made.

Here's our boy Tucker, laying right across the patterned paper next to the paper cutter.  He loves to be where the action is.  He was no where around last week, but is right next to me today.

Check out all the other interesting workspaces at Julia's Stamping Ground, and see what all the crafty gals are up to!  I hope to visit lots of blogs this week.

Have a creative week!  Thanks for stopping by.

Books

Two Tag Tuesday

I have a few tags to share with you today, so this post is a little longer that usual.  This week I am playing along with Tag Tuesday, and the theme is "Books"  As a teacher, and avid reader, this is a subject that is close to my heart.  I spent many happy hours reading as a child, and remember walking the half a mile or so up to the town library by myself to check out books when I was about 8 years old. 

The first tag has a school photo of my Dad on it.  He looks like he is about 10 or 11 years old, and is holding a book.  As soon as I saw the week's theme, I knew I wanted to use this photo.  I stamped the tag with a clock stamp, and sprayed a little Smooch Spritz on in with the same tones as the ink.  I found an older Stamping Up sentiment stamp that has many words that I associate with books and reading, and I stamped that above the photo.  I knew I wanted the word "read" on it somewhere, but I couldn't find my alphabet stamps, so I stamped "dream" again from the sentiment stamp and cut it apart.  I like the way it looks, I feel like it fits because it is printed with the same font as on the big stamp.

The second tag includes my photo of a statue of a fairy reading.  I found her at the butterfly conservatory last weekend, and loved the way the two butterfies were resting on her.  Their bright colors really pop against the muted colors around them.   I imagined that she was engrossed in her book and enjoying the solitude of reading quietly in the garden, so I used part of two different stamps to write "Treasure Solitude". 

Check out all the other great tags at Tag Tuesday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks a Latte!

I have been wanting to use my stamp sets with the coffee and tea cup images this week, and when I saw the CAS-ual Friday challenge of making a card with a pun, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  The tablecloth patterned paper is perfect for this stamp set with lots of coffee cups by TPC Studio.  It reminds me of the tablecloths people used  in the '50 and '60, so I had to use some retro colors on the cup to go along with that era.  I have lots of "latte" sayings, and sometimes put this type of sentiment on cards that I sell at a local coffee shop.

I stamped the cup twice, first on the off-white cardstock, and again on a piece of scrap cardstock.  I painted the one on the scrap, cut it out, and mounted it with pop dots to give it dimension. 

I am entering this in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC 41 and the Skipping Stone Design Sketch Challenge #116.  I hope I win some Skipping Stone Stamps, I don't have any, but they look great.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heart and Home

It was a busy, crafty week!  I made quite a few cards, tried to take some "painterly photos", and attended a scrapbooking crop at one of my favorite local scrapbook stores.  I hadn't done any scrapbook layouts since the summer, so it was fun to get back into it.

This is one of the projects I made this week. 

This cute little house stamp came from my Unity january Kit of the Month.  I stamped it on patterned paper, and mounted it on a patterned background.  The heart was stamped on paper I had spritzed with my Adirondack Color Wash spray.  I am entering this in the Unity February Kit of the Month Sketch Challenge- the sketch is shown below, and also the Unity February Heart Challenge.  This challenge was to use a heart in the design that was not red or pink.

I think this stamp will have lots of uses.   It could be used for an anniversary card, or a card for congratulations on a new home.  It could also be used on a scrapbook page.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunsets and Stamps

WOYWW #142

Today my workdesk is piled with new stamps and dies!  I just got back last night, and haven't even had a chance to really look these over, but I am excited to try out some intricate dies and stamps from a new (to me) company, Red Lead Paperworks.  Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, I got up early, and it was still dark, so I had to use my Ott light, and the photo is grainy.

We went off on a little trip this weekend to Clinton, Ct., and stayed overnight at a friend's house right at the coast.  I managed to get down to the beach just as the sun was going down, and snapped a few photos.  The light was so soft and beautiful, and I loved the vapor trail the airplane was making in the clear sky. 

The next day we enjoyed exploring the area's antique shops, and then stopped at a big scrapbooking store, The Papercraft Club House in Westport.  I picked up a few stamps there, and then discovered that right down the street was another store that specialized in rubber stamps.  It's called Beautiful Impressions, and it was great!   They had the largest variety of rubber stamps I have ever come across.  And yes, that is another bird stamp, just had to get it, it says "nest" on it, and I thought it would make a cute card for someone with a new home.  Since we are on vacation this week, I should be able to get some creative time in on this workdesk.

Check out all the other neat creative spaces over at Julia's Stampin Ground.

Thanks for stopping by!

Button Collection and WOYWW #141

WOYWW#141
While I was working on my photo assignment last week shooting  pictures of a "group or collection", I came across this great collection of buttons in Metaphor Yarns, a fiber store next to my friend's fabric shop.  I got so inspired by it that I got my button jars together to see what I had in my collection. 

Another friend and I started to sort them out, and we were amazed by the variety in the jars.  As you can see, we got some sorted by color, and put some of the unusual ones together, but I have a lot more to sort.  I use them frequently on cards, and I had been wanting to glue them down on to a heart shape, similar to some I had seen in some cardmaking magazines.  This tag happened to be on the table, left over from my Tag Tuesday post, so I cut a small heart, put it on top and began to fill it with buttons.  I am planning on using little pearls to fill in some of the empty spaces.  It may not end up on this tag, it may go on a canvas, it's a work in progress.

Stop by the Stampin Ground to see other interesting work spaces.
Have a great week, would love to have you leave a comment!

Brighter World

Finding things around the house to use in papercrafting is always a bonus because you can feel like you're getting multiple uses out of an object.  When I saw the Around the House Challenge on the Moxie Fab World Blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to use.  I'm know for winning frequently at raffles, and last year I won a basket filled with goodies for baking from the local school PTO raffle.  One of the items in the basket was a package from Ikea with several decorative cake plate liners.  These plastic round disks come in 4 different designs, and they go on top of the cake plate before the cake is placed on it, similar to a doily.  At the time that I won them, I could not really imagine using them, since my cake making skills are somewhat limited.  I kept them, though, because they reminded me of the masking sheets that many paper companies are selling to use with spray inks.  They only have a design on the edge, but they are nice and thick, so I decided to give it a go this week, and got out my Smooch sprays and tried them out on solid and patterned paper.

I loved how the yellow and pink looked sprayed over the hearts,  it reminded me of a sunrise, and I found the perfect sentiment to go with it from Ali Edwards.  It's a simple one layer card, but I think it works because of the bold graphics and bright colors. 

The other card has a very different look, it is soft and subtle, with pastels, patterned paper, pearls and a flower.  The fairy was on the patterned paper already, and she got covered up a little by the spritz.  I dyed the lace to match by spritzing with the same color Smooch spray.  

I love this technique, if you've never given it a try, you should!  It's easy, and each one comes out differently. 

These are the cake plate liners.  I couldn't find them on the Ikea website, so I can't provide the link, but your local scrapbook store might carry a similar product.  Don't worry, I won't be serving cake on them!

Thanks for stopping by!