It's been awhile since I've posted anything but I wanted to share these outside of facebook...Here you go friends.....

For Erica

For Fitz

For Tristen and Brandon

For Kelsey

For TJ

For Brianne

For Dave

For Cecil

Thanks for stopping by and looking!  Hope your Valentine's Day was great.

mojo 510a

Here is another entry for this mojo challenge.  A little different background...I had to play with some of my new stuff from the expo last month.  I've played with this one, just not with colorizing it so to speak. 

It's a 3D embossing folder from Spellbinders in a 5 X 7 format but I trimmed it down to be a square.  I then used some little finger daubers to color the raised areas.  I used Victorian Velvet for the flowers, Forest Moss for the leaves, Antique Linen for the background weaving and then Vintage Photo around the sides.  The butterfly stamps and dies are from Anna Griffin as well and the tag and sentiment stamp.  The curly leaves above and below the sentiment are from Verve.......I have to put some Verve on every card I submit here...just for me!

mojo 510

Well, it took me awhile to get to having fun but I finally got a card done.

My attempt at "smooshing" failed, I probably don't have the right kind of ink.  I just threw some Dusty Concord down on the silicone mat and spritzed it then shoved the cardstock on it.  I was going to add a little Faded Jeans with it but figured it would just turn a darker purple so I opted to use some background stamps called "Splat".  Still used the Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans Distress Inks.  I don't know who made the stamps, they are either Fiskars or Hero Arts if I remember correctly.  I used my blending tool to put the Dusty Concord on the sentiment  -  Had to cut a piece of cardstock since the sentiment didn't show up well on the background, even with using embossing powder.  So I "quieted" it down some and it stamped beautifully.  This is a wonderful stamp from Julee, one of her Verve stamps.  Funny how you can do the same thing and it turns out different.....the first background  paper is cold pressed watercolor paper, and the small square is just some scrap white CS.  They came out with 2 different colors, two different mediums so it is to be expected.  The butterfly dies are from BoBunny.  I just made some more colored cardstock with the Distress Inks and cur out the two and layered them up.  You can't see it here but I used some Nuvo Crystal Drops, Navy Blue, on the corners of the small square, just looked a little bare to me. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the inside.   My Grandson LOVES purple and his BD is coming up in April sooooooo......

Other Valentines

I had Dave take me over to the Scrapbooking Event in Boise on the 9th  (Sat) I think it was....anyway, I was so proud of him....... he hardly ever sighed or rolled his eyes.  I spent way too much money but had a ton of fun looking at all goodies.  You can see some of the dies I bought, mostly hearts.  I am really enthralled with the 3D heart from Tim Holtz (Sizzix).

Here is my son Cecil's, he likes it simple.  the background is a new 3D embossing folder that I emphasized with some Metallic inks from Spectrum Noir, (also new) this is the copper. The smaller heart is a Sapphire die from Sizzix.  The larger is a new one from Memory Box.

This card is for my youngest daughter, Brianne - she has to have Blue.  This is that new 3D heart

and another view of it.  The other dies are a set from Tonic that I've had for quite awhile, Venetian Lace, the flower is from the Vintage Rose dies from Heartfelt Creations.  The squiggles in the corners are a new thing (at least new to me!) from Krazy Kreations.  They are vinyl outline stickers.  I bought an assortment of stickers, some you can lay down on glitter paper and color them in....they look awesome.  I wish I had taken a picture of the inside because I colored in this pretty little tulip, in blues of course, on silver glitter paper.

This card is for my sweetheart, Dave.  He loves paisley so I had this pretty paper in the Bella Bohemia pack of papers from The Paper Studio.  Then I laid down another new die called Heart Wave from also from Memory Box, and then the little dotted hearts are from the Shaker Heart - from Poppy Stamps and from the Sapphire Hearts and Flowers die set.  I cut the Heart Wave out in blue and gold and then pieced some gold back into the blue outline.  I've done the same on another card below.  The "Love" is from Ultimate Crafts, Magnolia Corners set.

 Here's that 3D heart again.  this card is for my Grandson, Brandon.  He is just a little retro and likes lots of movement so I did paisley in his background too...and the Heart Wave Die only partially pieced in.  the Banner stamp and die are from Verve.  I've used some Diamond Stickles on the red hearts to pop them out......it's also covering the big, blue, 3D heart.

I've cheated a little on this next card for my Grandson, TJ.   I got some Valentines from the Dollar store and took the biggest one and decoupaged it, then popped on a smaller 3D heart to top it off.  He loved the Star Wars theme!

Here we have my oldest Daughter, Erica's card.  I like to go all sweet and flowery on hers, she it the only one who likes it that way.  Here are the same new dies in the hearts.  The flowers are an assortment of different dies and to tell you the truth, I sit around and just make them and put them in a little box sometimes so I can't tell you which dies they are from except the pink rose, it is from the Heartfelt Creation's Vintage Rose Stamp and Die set.  

This card is for my Grandson, Tristan...he loves purple.  The background die is from Tattered Lace and the heart dies are from Sapphire, Shaker Heart and some sticker heart I got out of the bargain bin from Michael's a couple of years ago, don't have the brand name any more.  Then it is finished off with some sequins for some bling and some Glitter Foam stickers I got for my Granddaughter. Kelsey to use.

 Hope you all had a wonderful St. Valentine's Day! 

Mojo508

Here is my Valentine for my granddaughter.  These are all papers from "Making Memories", the "Je t'dore collection, except for the black patterned with love written all over it.....that is from "Bo Bunny".  I used the Mojo Monday sketch from Julee Tilman's blog,

Here's the outside,

The "love" word dies are from the "Ultimate Crafts, Magnolia Corner's" and I've used some Ranger's Distress Inks on the hearts, Vintage Photo.

Here is the inside,

The Little Girl stamp is from the Polkadoodles - Holly set called Delightful Daisy, the papers are again Making Memories, the word stamps are from Verve, the Love Notes set.

Hope you all have fun making Valentine's....I am!

Mojo507

I cannot believe it has been so long since I last posted!  Thank you Julee Tilman for bringing back Mojo Monday.  You have no idea how much I have missed those Monday mornings to see what kind of sketch we have this week and then checking out what everyone else was doing with it.  It made me feel connected with other crafters.  Just wish I had discovered it sooner.

Without much further ado here is mine...

The papers are scraps I've had for a couple of years from "Making Memoeries", "American Craft - Je t'ador", and "Bo Bunny".  The stamps are from Verve, "More Than Love" and "Love Notes" sets and the inks are Ranger Distress Inks, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, and Fired Brick.

Thanks for stopping by

Loralei

Mojo 495c

Here's the last poppy card for this week, now I will have to make a little stationary box to put them in, well maybe not little, they are all 5x7.  I wonder what next week's inspiration will be?

I love using black as a base, it just makes color pop.  The first mat is a sweet pastel pink but it doesn't show up that way in the pic, the fuchsia sure does!  The pinks are both from Coordinations, the poppies from Hunkydory's Little Book of Poppies, the butterfly is Bo Bunny, the diecut on the bottom is Tattered Lace and the sentiment stamp is by Verve.  I would have posted yesterday but I had to wait for the Nuvo Crystal Drops to dry before I could prop it up for a picture.

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend.

mojo495b

Here's the next poppie card, one more to go.

I thought I would do a black and white card to make the picture really pop but it didn't quite work out that way.  I have to tell you, I am not a fan of grey....it's the new rage and all but I'm just not a big fan but after going through my stash of black and white paper, I discovered that I am sadly lacking in black and white patterned paper (Heavy sigh...I have enough different papers to open up a store - I have so much I've run out of places to put it all - I've seen pictures of other crafter's rooms and although I'm not as bad as some, I'm just as bad as most.  Why do we think we don't have enough?  I'll tell you why....because you go to find something you're thinking you want to use and YOU DON'T HAVE IT!)  Anyway, I did find a pad I've been meaning to use called "The Black Currant" and after perusing in it I found all the black patterned paper would have totally eclipsed my poppies so I settled on some charcoal grey for the base, had a piece of black with a glitter design in my scraps and went from there...the striped paper is from the pad.  So, I thought white would look good in the background..not so good... so I threw it in an Anna Griffin embossing folder and distressed it with some black soot distressing ink from Ranger.  Added a little interest with a Tattered Lace die and the Martha Stewart Butterfly punch.  I am still missing my other butterfly dies....I guess I will discover them eventually.  The tag is from Verve (Sweet Tiny Tag) and so is the sentiment stamp.

That's 5 Poppy cards down, one more to go.  I should get it done tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by....

Mojo495

I cannot believe I haven't posted since last August.  Wow, I was not able to craft at all since January due to massive snow amounts this year which caused a leak in the roof.  I had to pack everything up and move it out so the Disaster Clean-up Crew could get in and do the work.  It took 3 months to get everything done and put back.  I still can't find some of my stuff!  I used last weeks sketch to start on some cards featuring art work with Poppies from Hunkydory's Little Book of Poppies that I bought last fall and had not yet used.  First up is the card I made last night with this weeks sketch....still with the poppies.  I had cut out 6 different scenes and I intend to do 6 different cards all together.  I think I will make a folder and put them all in to give away.  I think this week's sketch card is my favorite so far.

These are the cards in made from last weeks sketch.  I didn't get the pictures taken in time to post them so I am doing it now.

Hope you like them.
With happy thoughts....stay crafty and sane!

Mojo459

I haven't posted to Mojo Monday for quite a few weeks, been doing my own thing and problems with my little photo area........life happens.  But I started one today and got it finished, may even do another one tomorrow, I really like this sketch.

I got a new light above my craft area...5 bulbs!  I can see.  I put in daylight bulbs and now my pictures don't have that yellowish cast to them.

This is so not traditional but I had this snowflake paper and if you look real close on the bottom right of the tag, you can see that it has green snowflakes mixed in with the blue.  there is also one peeking out on the top right corner if you look real close.  It's too bad that I'm so miserly or I would have cut it so there would be more showing and the others got covered up with stuff.  The plaid paper just makes me happy and it matched which made me even happier.  I really, really wanted some striped paper  but I couldn't find any in the right colors in my stash so I made some of my own.  I taped my white CS down on my cutting mat at a 45 degree angle and just lined my steel ruler up with the lines on the grid and drew lines with the broad tip on my Copics.  Turned out perfect.  Where there's a will there's a way.  Anyway, the plaid paper is DCWV and I believe so is the blue snowflake paper.  I had a strip of very light green glitter paper in my Christmas folder that just begged to be used here....now if I could just remember where it came from........I cut the large snowflake (Sixxiz) out of the striped paper then matted to some matte silver CS from Kanban with the Glitter paper sandwiched in between.  I stamped (Verve, Holiday Treats) and embossed (A la Mode clear sparkle) the tag and added a sweet little bow.  I finished it off with some snowflakes (Heartfelt Creations Snow Kissed Collection)  mounted on Dimensional foam.  I haven't done the inside yet but I mounted the snowflake that was cut out of the striped paper to a square piece of the glitter paper and it's going in somehow.  I almost forgot to mention that both the snowflakes and tag have coordination dies, there's no way I could fussy cut that well!

Thanks for stopping by, if you have a minute, check out my last couple of posts to see what else I've been working on...there's a gift bag and a couple of cards.  Comments are always appreciated but not required.

Happy Crafting

Mixed Companies

Ever have one of those cards that start out as one thing and end up another?  This one started out as a CASE from one of the cards from the Heartfelt Creations blog but I don't have all the stuff they used on theirs so I started out with just the general sketch.  I wanted to use mostly Heartfelt Creations but it ended up not to be......Here's the card then I will tell you what I used.

 I used some Coordinations CS for the base, then matted with some pearlescent in a soft grey...I wanted to use white but I didn't have any.  I ordered pearlescent from Create and Craft but it was all different colors .....a real sweet deal, 50 sheets for 12.99 but no white.  I also used the soft grey for the corner dies.  The center is the same as the base CS.  I used some Theuva Super Smooth from Clarity Stamps to stamp out the little Poinsettias and some lighter weight CS (generic) for the larger poinsettias.  The wreath is also cut out from the lighter weight and then colored with my Copic Markers since I couldn't find the color CS I wanted.   So, the corners are dies from Creative  Expressions (the Austrian Collection), the wreath is from Tonic, the large poinsettias are from Tattered Lace and the smaller poinsettias, the sentiment and the holly stamp are from Heartfelt Creations Celebrate the Season Set...the inside sentiment is also from the same set.  The Heartfelt Set also has a wreath but it wasn't big enough to fit the Merry Christmas sentiment inside.  I forgot.....the blue mat is Matte Mirry card from Create and Craft.  Here is a close-up of the front.

And the inside.  The snowflake paper was in my Christmas stash but I don't remember what company it is from.  I think it came out of a Christmas pad from DCWV.

So there is some of my latest projects.  Hope you enjoyed.  Stay Happy Crafters!

DB Christmas

I'm on a Christmas card binge right now since I've been buying Christmas in July.  Here is another Debbie Moore design.

Isn't she beautiful?  The face reminds me of the actress who plays Beckett on Castle....Stana Katic.

She is another Freebie, I believe she is from the Regency Collection.

Again, that website is

Debbi Moore Designs

The red background is some shimmer paper (DCWV), then layered with Gold Mirror from Create and Craft, then the green is from the Debbie Moore Christmas Fairy CD.  The sentiment was on the sheet I downloaded along with a couple more toppers and the ribbon on the inide.  The poinsettias are from Heartfelt Creations Celebrate the Season Set I just got (Stamps and coordinating dies) and the bling is from Michael's.  The inside sentiment is from Heartfelt's release last year, Sparkling Poinsettias. and the Holly is from Celebrate.

Upcycled gift bag

I have not blogged lately, sadly a lot of my creations went out the door without any documentation...breaks my heart because they are all my babies and I hate to let them go without something to remember them by.  Crazy, but that's how I feel.  My guys took over my space I use for taking the pics and my craft space is so small, therefore always a mess that I am plain embarred to have it show up in my photos.  I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I took  my latest creations outside on the deck for some natural light.....I fight with lighting all the time because the inside lights always give a grungy yellow cast to my photos.  I haven't had the funds to buy some lighting equipment to fix the problem, so this was a surprise.  I doubt anyone will see these since I don't have any followers to speak of outside my family and they don't really follow what I do.  It's strange, they grew up with crafting, we used to have such fun in February making Valentines together and any time I would drag out my stamping stuff they would all be in the middle of it.  I was always doing some kind of craft, sewing, knitting, crocheting, crossstitch, even had a go at quilting, cake decorating was a must do since I had 5 kids...and they had some really awesome off-the-wall cakes.  But I digress......

So, I have some pictures of my most recent projects..

First up, My son orders pizza from a well known pizza chain and they put the paper plates and accouterments in this really sturdy bag.  Since it's not any actual food products the bags are pretty pristine so I decided to upcycle one.

I missed the tag in the first one........

The background paper is from Kaiser Craft, I got it about 5 or 6 years ago from a Website, advertised a 10 pack and naive me thought it would be 10 different sheets.  I like it or I wouldn't have bought it but I flit around a lot with papers when I'm making cards....no 2 are the same so I will still be using it a couple of years from now.  the next paper on the corner is from a CD I got from Debbie Moore.  She is the creator of the wonderful Fairy artwork in the center.  The fairy is a decoupage sheet that I downloaded for FREE (I love free) from her website.  The sentiment, flower and little button on the tag are from her Christmas Fairies CD.  The gold Mirror card is called "Silk Mirry" from Kanban.  I ran it through an Anna Griffin Cuttlebug Embossing folder and then sanded it a little bit.  I also used a little piece to mat the sentiment.  I choose to put up these two not just because of the tag but also because you can see a little of the glitter bling on the flower and sentiment.  After watching some demos from Debbie Moore, she takes an embossing pad and inks up an entire piece of something and uses some clear powder with sparkles in it.  Gives it a soft look with sparkle.  I thought "Why didn't I think of this"  I tried it, I like it.

If you would like to see more of Debbi's artwork you can catch it at
Debbi Moore Designs
m
Unfortunately it's a UK company so ordering is out of the question since the shipping will kill you but you can buy the CDs every once in awhile from Create and Craft.

So that's the bag.  I will post this and get busy on blogging the cards.

Happy Crafting

Mojo444

Here's my take on the sketch.......I was thinking about when I first started out making cards (other than in school!) and being "guilted" into having a D.O.T.S. Demonstration at my house because I missed the one at my cousin's.  I just didn't think it would be something I was interested in, remembering the little rubber stamps I used when I was young....they never stamped an image that was worth coloring in and I never really played around with them much so I was not looking forward to this evening at all.  Much to my surprise, quality really does matter and I was hooked.  This focal stamp was in the first order and was always my favorite so I decided I needed to use it no matter what, it had been too long.  My wooden stamps are in a Sterlite chest of drawers and I rarely use them only because it's much easier to go through my stash of clear and cling stamps to find what I want.  The wooden stamps I use a lot have been transferred to cling mounts just for that reason.  So, this stamp did not lend itself to a circle since it would be huge and blot out the panels so I just went with a rectangle instead.  The background paper and panels both come from a CD I just got from Tattered Lace.  The background is actually yellow with tiny little GREEN leaves although they show up kind of tan in the picture.  The card is 5 X 7 in black CS.  I think the black just pops the bright colors when you mat with it and a real thin mat doesn't detract much from the overall look.  The focal stamp is called Springtime Spray and was stamped 3 times so I could 3D the little bow.  I layered it with some little pieces of heavy CS instead of foam so it wouldn't jump out too much.  The banners are just some scraps I had on my work space.  I may add some little jewels in the 2 opposing corners but the jury is still out on that, I kind of like the simple look.  The inside of the card is the full panel that I reduced the opacity so I could write in it.  Not sure what it will be used for yet but you can bet it will be for something Springy.  I also used a Nuvo glue pen and added some glitter I also got in that first order called Prisma glitter.   Super, super fine and kind of transparent although it looks a little pink on the paper and shines iridescent.

So that was my Mojo Project this week, Stay Crafty and have a great Weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Loralei

Mojo443#2

I ordered some printed vellum paper made by Kanban and I have to say that they are the prettiest vellums I have ever seen.  They have this pearlescent sheen to them, I hope I captured even a fraction of it in the pictures.  I got a new camera for Christmas, it's a Canon EOS and is pretty fancy - takes good pictures....outside.  I spend my extra (Ha Ha) cash on papercrafting but will have to eventually find an economical way to make a light box.  I have seen a few examples on the web but need to do a little more research.  My manual talks about bounce lights and such but I won't even look at the price for those!  I'm getting really tired of not being able to capture my cards the way they look to the naked eye.  OK, life is too short to whine.  This is has some cheat elements on it......I took the round picture of the roses with it's frame on put it on here as the focal point.  It is from Kanban's Antique Florals kit.  Sorry, but I really like the artwork and pictures and want to use them.  I started out with Mojo Monday Sketch, but ended up with something a little different so there's a little me in it...same with the card, I may have started out with something but had to build something around it so it makes it...me.  I refuse to think of it as cheating as some would say.  My inspiration was the vellum and I went from there.  Everything is Kanban (paper) the butterflies are Bo bunny (the swallowtale, my favorite butterfly die) and Hero Arts.  I also used some Vintage Photo Distress Inks to do a little distressing and some Offray ribbon.  The frame is popped with some dimensional tape from Scotch.  there isn't any sentiment on it yet because I haven't decided what kind of card it is.....Birthday, Thinking of you, Sympathy, what have you.  I'm leaning more towards sympathy.  What do you think?

Here I used a flashlight to try to highlight the "sheen".

Here is a little closer up.

Thanks for stopping by,

Have a great week, see ya tomorrow for another sketch.

Mojo443

Here's my take on this weeks sketch...I must go downstairs and cook for my boys so I'll leave the recipe to your imagination.  If anyone is interested on what I used or how/what I did, leave a comment and I'll reply.  Have a great week and Thanks for stopping by.




Outside

Inside

Mojo442

This week's Mojo Monday card

I may have gone a little overboard here, but I like it.

I started with all Kanban papers from the Madison collection except for the gold, it is also Kanban but I just got it the other day.  It's called Gold Silk and it is gorgeous, not that it shows here but it has a more brushed look than the other foiled CS I have and not as brassy.  The stamp is a Teresa Collins set, the lacy butterfly is a Martha Stewart Punch, the two small are from a Hero Arts Stamp and Die set, the bling is from Hunkydory.  I used an embossing folder for the gold CS, it is from Cuttlebug designed by Anna Griffin. I put the inside together but left it out to get a pic, it's all Kanban.


Here's the inside

I'm not going to put up all the details on these cards...most of the stuff is from Hunkydory but it's a couple of my valentine's that I didn't get a picture of earlier.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Weekend!