September Mini

While fooling around at the desk over the weekend I whipped up this simple little mini. My plan, in an effort to jumpstart the creativity, is a little image-a-day September daily. I know September is going to be nuts. Adjusting to the new school schedule, all the after school activities and the full-time work schedule is not going to be easy. I figure this little project will force me to take a photo each day and write a little blurb - think creative thoughts maybe?

It's tiny, only 2 1/2 " x 4"and simple. (I made the cover out of the packaging from a Pink Paislee product.)

Room for a wallet sized photo (trimmed down) and a brief bit of journaling. That's all. No pressure. The little cards (numbered 1-30) are Pink Paislee Daily Junque, as is the pointing hand.

materials: cards, sticker: Pink Paislee; label sticker, stamp: Studio Calico; number stickers: Sassafras Lass; ink: Staz On

I'm not sure if that is the final binding - I guess I will see how thick it gets once the photos are attached. I'm thinking my December daily this year is going to be similar, tiny format, too! How about you? Making a December daily this year?

After the storm...

Well, we made it through the storm and were very lucky. Houses all around us have not had power since Saturday night. Aside from a few brief outages, we've had power the whole time. We're still pumping water out of our crawl space and are grateful that is the worst of it. My heart goes out to all those who fared much worse.

Spent a little of my hurricane time at the desk - lots of purging and organizing. Yesterday I made a scrapbook page though, just because. It's been a while since I've really gotten to make anything so I wanted to get back in the groove before I start digging into my Pebbles DT work. Also feeling the need to start using up Studio Calico kits...so here's what I made:

Used Studio Calico Boardwalk for this one. I really love that kit. I made that flower with those Pink Paislee mistable trims and a Gluber. I used Heirloom Blue Mister Huey to color the trim after I made the flower. Here's a close up:

materials: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: MME, Simple Stories, Basic Grey, Authentique; journal spot: American Crafts; trim: Pink Paislee; letters: Sassafras Lass; brads: Basic Grey; string: MME; tape: K & Co.; flower base: Cosmo Cricket; spray ink: Studio Calico; transparency: Hambly; die cutter: Big Shot

Has anyone seen this yet :

That's the Close To My Heart Fall catalog. (sorry it's such a teeny photo -that's all I was able to grab off their site) Way back in my early days of scrapbooking I used to sell CTMH.  I really couldn't devote the necessary time to it and honestly, lost interest in the products - so my little biz folded. One of my beefs with them was that their papers were too thin. Well, now they print their papers on cardstock. While I was perusing the catalog I noticed that the patterns & colors are more on trend and many of the products seem to have undergone a design overhaul. New designers must be on board because even the stamps look different. I couldn't help but do a little shopping from that catalog. I'll let you know what I think when the box arrives.

It's a beautiful day here in New Jersey - hurricanes always seem to leave gorgeous weather behind - and I've been given the day off due to lack of electricity in our office. Will head outside with the kiddies today - maybe do a little back to school shopping. That's just around the corner now!

Giveaway Winner!

Oh boy - in the 'natural disaster' craziness of the week I forgot to post my giveaway winner...so without further ado...

Congrats commenter #1 - Margrethe! Send me an email with your address and I will ship your prize!

We are almost all prepped for the storm - headed to ShopRite at 6 a.m. this morning and was really happy to see the bread guys restocking the completely empty shelves. No water. No batteries. But I got plenty of other stuff just in case we get stuck. Hoping we are spared a power outage and trees falling on or around our house, oh, and a great big flood in our crawl space.

Despite the weather, I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Earthquakes and Hurricanes...oh my

What a week here in the Northeast. I was sitting with my co-workers at 2 pm on Tuesday afternoon - just about to eat lunch - when the table started shaking, then rolling and the chandelier over us started swinging. It was the weirdest feeling ever. We knew right away we were having an earthquake. The rolling was so strong that I was actually a little sea sick for the rest of the day (mind you, it doesn't take much to make me sea sick) Now we are preparing for Hurricane Irene which is due here sometime on Sunday.

So unpredictable, but so far all paths are pointing to a hit for New Jersey. I haven't been in a major hurricane since I was in grade school. I live closer to the bay and ocean now - areas only a few blocks away have mandatory evacuations so I'm getting a little concerned. We've got one more day to figure out it we stay or go. Today we prepped the backyard and put away all the pool stuff - not before enjoying a beautiful, warm sunny afternoon. I have a feeling we won't be seeing the sun around here again until Monday.

Now I thought I'd share a little project from my daughter. The back story: I feel so guilty leaving them home while I go to work. It won't be so bad once school starts but right now I feel like I've ruined what's left of their summer. In an effort to keep them both busy the other day (which happened to be Tuesday, aka 'Earthquake Day'), I set them up at the kitchen table with a great big stack of assorted (purged) scrapbooking supplies, adhesive, a digital camera and a quick tutorial on how to print photos right from the SD card. I asked them to make me a a scrapbook about what they did all day. And they did! Well, she did. He's just not into crafts...and that's ok. But my girl ran with it. Here are a few of the pages she put together.  I was quite impressed with her crafty ingenuity!

Here's page 1 - she bound here 'book' with a metal ring through punched holes. She actually took a photo of the computer screen showing her virtual fairy on Pixie Hollow online - then paired it up with a photo of herself:

This is my favorite - she took this candid photo of my hubby working in his office and even journaled - I love the everything about this:

 Here the clever crafty girl ran out of "Y"s, so she made one out of a lowercase "L" and a small "V":

What really amazes me is how both of them mastered the photography/printing process so quickly. I'm so glad I asked them to do this!

I will definitely have some crafty time on my hands this weekend and will post more in the next few days. Now I need to get to sleep, as it's been a crazy long week and I've got to get up at 6 tomorrow to go food shopping! It's awful but I still need bread and milk.

Stay safe East Coast people!

Sunday At The Studio (and a little giveaway!)

I love a challenge from The Studio - this week Amanda challenged us to make a layout about something we are looking forward to. This time of year, with summer about to end, I'm always looking forward to Halloween - the weather is great, it's fun to decorate and there almost no pressure. Love everything about it! So, here's my page: 

Dug into the Studio Calico Boardwalk kit for this. Also used a little of the Tide Pool add on and a few extras from my stash. Didn't think I was going to but I love that kit & add on. This layout is kind of a first for me. I don't usually ever tip things at an angle. Here's a detail - you can see that mistable muslin trim from Pink Paislee. I need a lot more of that stuff:

materials: patterned cardstock: Authentique, Sassafras, Crate; trim: Pink Paislee; letters, spray ink: Studio Calico; brads, fabric shapes: Basic Grey; journal spots: American Crafts; small letters: EK Success; words: Girls Paperie

I hope you will stop by The Studio Challenges and play along. You could win a great kit from Scrap Rat. The team did an amazing job this week if you are in need of inspiration!

I remember when I was in my 20's wondering what it would be like when I was double that age. Well, now I know. To celebrate this day - my birthday somewhere in the 40s - I thought I'd giveaway some items I've accidentally purchased twice or received doubles of.  There's some Pink Paislee metal name plates, a Sew Easy head, some great 7 Gysies chip alphas, some Tattered Angels, a little Maya Mist and a Lemon Drop Jenni Bowlin ink (one of my faves :). So, just leave a comment - tell me what you are looking forward to - and you will be in the running! I'll pick a random winner on Wednesday!

Thanks for stopping by!

a big thanks!

...to everyone who left comments and sent emails about the Pebbles DT. I love hearing from you and really appreciate your encouragement & kind words! I'm very excited about getting started on my DT projects.

Today I've got a couple of cards that I made last week - used some new Studio Calico Memoir, some cool new Jillibean stamps for Unity & my butterfly die:

Did a little water resist on the card above - also covered the butterflies with Distress Ink then stamped over with the same color. Like the subtle effect. Some more water resist on the butterfly below, along with some white heat embossing:

materials: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Studio Calico; ink: Ranger (Distress & Perfect Medium); embossing powder, butterfly die: Stampin' Up; stamps: Unity for Jillibean Soup; string: Martha Stewart; button: Crate


I hate that summer is coming to a close but I the Fall weather & Halloween...plus our Disney trip is approaching. (Disney at Halloween is the best!) Can't wait for that. Be back tomorrow with a fun 'Val's Birthday' giveaway  (yep, tomorrow is the big day!) and my page for The Studio challenge. See you then...enjoy the day!

FYI Challenge #12

A bittersweet post today with my last card for the FYI Challenge Blog as a member of the DT. I'm so glad Steph started that blog. It has really taken off and I know it's because of her interesting inspiration photo selections. I've really learned to stretch the way I see inspiration from her and definitely plan to play along in the weeks to come. Here's my project for this week's photo, a little tag in an envelope that is the perfect size for a gift card:

I was inspired by the color of the fall foliage in the photo (which you can view on the FYI blog). I used an ink color similar to the color palette in the photo to stamp the big elements on the envelope and to cover the tag. I used a water stamping technique to stamp these little leaves onto some Ranger Distress Ink:

materials: tag/envelope: Melissa Frances; stamps: Stampin Up; ink: Ranger; stickers: SRM; string: Divine Twine

Last week we had a record number of participants at FYI - hope you will join us this week. And I can't finish off this post without gushing about the design team's work. What a talented group of ladies - stop by and check them out - and link up your own project while you're at it!

Hope you are all having a good week. Be back soon, as I've been unusually crafty despite the hectic schedule :)

Monday Check In

Happy Monday, all - end of Monday, that is....
Monday has a whole new meaning to me now - and honestly, I don't think I mind. I definitely function more efficiently if I'm on a schedule. I spent the weekend running errands and was grateful yesterday when it poured all day. No guilt about staying in & catching up. My DH even took the kids to the movies so I could have some 'alone' time - hes' the best. Can't share much in the craft dept today....so I thought I'd do a little summer fun recap...

When I found out I was going back to work full time, I tried to squeeze in as many 'summer fun' activities as I could with the kids. Here are a few of my fave photos from our adventures...

We headed into the city last week - with the intention of going to the American Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, there was a train derailment which made our train about 2 hours late. Despite my efforts to take connecting trains to lower Manhattan, we still got in too late to head to the museum. Instead, we headed to Times Square - had some lunch and did a little shopping, just in time for some torrential downpours. Got this picture as it started to drizzle:

The Times Square Toys R' Us has a giant Ferris wheel inside: 

M & C were all over the Star Wars department...these are not the droids you're looking for - oh wait, these aren't even droids at all...

and Marilyn loved this giant size Calico Critters display (one of the bunnies is reading a subway map): 

The week before, we took our annual road trip to Knoebels in Elysburg, PA. A 3 1/2 hour ride but well worth it. We go early and come home late. Here's we are en route: 

Marilyn on the Italian trapeze: 

One of my fave photos - waiting on line for the Whipper. (check out that dude's ponytail & the enormous back tatoo on his lady - crazy good people-watching at Knoebels!) 

This old opera house is on the way into Elysburg - I always want to stop and take photos of it. It's just a great old building. Love that they have (had) opera in Elysburg, PA!

The week before this we spent a day on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant. I think I spent about $40 earning one of these smurfs. So grateful she actually got one! My kids could play these crane games all day long: 

Sadly, Chris was not as successful and was not too happy about it!

I've got about 300 more summer fun photos but I'll spare you - promise I'll be back with some craftiness very soon. Hope you are enjoying these last few weeks of summer vacation!

Pebbles, Inc!

I can hardly believe I get to write this post...I've been asked to join the Pebbles, Inc. Design Team!

I had convinced myself at the end of last week that it just wasn't meant to be - that surely all the calls had gone out. Tried to bury myself in work so I wouldn't think about it. Then there it was...the email invite. I think I made a very quiet squeal and couldn't do much more since I was reading the email at work. (If you've been reading, you know I started a new job last week. It was only day 3 when I saw the email on my phone.) Not sure my new colleagues would have understood my sudden burst of excitement - and I didn't want to have to explain the whole thing - so I had to keep it on the down-low. Inside however, I was jumping up and down like one of those people who has just been chosen to be the next contestant on the Price is Right.

I am so excited and honored to be a part of this team. What an amazing group of women I get to work alongside! And the product line...I have loved Pebbles, Inc. for a long time. I love the graphic patterns and fun color combos. I can't wait to get started! You can check out the announcement on the Pebbles, Inc. blog and I can assure you, there will be lots of  Pebbles projects to share in the weeks to come ;)

Almost Friday....

Just checking in with a quick post - I'm still here! This working full time biz definitely throws a kink into afternoon craftiness. I've got ideas piling up though and as soon as I get used to the schedule, I'll get back to the desk in the evenings. Looking forward to this weekend, Sunday in particular, which is supposed to be rainy here in the northeast - then I won't feel guilty about being inside at the desk all day!

So I'll leave you with these photos - not sure if I shared these cards, which I made for Anam's second edition of her Sketches4Cards app - there was a new baby theme:

As you can see - I broke out the SRM Stickers and embossing folders for these cards and kept them fairly simple.
Thanks for stopping everyone - have a great day!

Sunday At The Studio

I am so excited to be on the new layout team for The Studio. We changed format a bit back in the Winter and I was on the card team. It was fun but I really missed the layout challenges. So glad Amanda decided to go back to the original format of bi-weekly layout challenges (with a card thrown in here and there :) and that she included me on the team. So, on to this week's challenge...

She challenged us to make a layout inspired by books - whether it be a title, a passage, a book cover design...anything inspired by a book. Recently I snagged a circa. 1974 set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books at a yard sale with the intention of saving them for my daughter. I started reading them again and remembered how much I loved them when I was a kid. They were the first 'real' books I read - thick books with chapters and only a handful of illustrations. I knew right away my page would be about them.

Compared to my last layout, not a ton of dimension on this page. Most of my material came from the Paper Lanterns add-on to the Lawn Party kit from Studio Calico. I fussy cut my most favorite Crate paper ever and made that my background. I used a pure white base because I thought my photo printed too yellow and I needed to tone it down. It's an 8 1/2 x 11 page because I ran out of 12 x 12 white cardstock. (Sometimes it's really handy when necessity dictates some of the design choices :) Here's a close up:

materials: cardstock: Wausau; patterned paper: Crate, Simple Stories, Studio Calico; letters: Girls Paperie; tag: We R Memory Keepers; veneer circle: Studio Calico; chipboard:, blue sticker Crate; house: Maya Road; 'remember this' tag: Scrap Rat; metal tag: Tim Holtz; buttons: MME

I hope you'll play along with us. Always love seeing what everyone links up! There is a great prize up for grabs - a gift certificate to Scrap Rat Kits - good for anything in the shop. If you are in need of more inspiration, The Studio design team does not fail to provide. Check out their amazing work right here.

Thanks for stopping by - have a great day!

Polkadot Door Bloghop for August

So excited to be part of the 4th Polkadot Door Designs blog hop for August!

If you are here from Dee Dee's blog - welcome! If you're hopping and  lost your way you can scroll down for the blog list. This month's photo is loaded with some great elements and if you play along at Polkadot Door (where you could also win some great prizes!) you can use all of them, or just one or two to create your inspired project. Here's is our inspiration for the month:

For my project I used the sentiment, the colors and the frames as my main inspiration. The colors in that photo are so pretty - when I saw all those frames I was definitely feeling a layout.  I plan to put this one in one of those shadowbox frames, since it's too dimensional to be put into an album.

I tried to duplicate the look of the hanging paper flowers and ornaments. I downloaded and cut that cute cursive font in my title with my Silhouette. Here's a close up:

materials: patterned paper: Studio Calico, Sassafras Lass; frames: Studio Calico; silhouette: Maya Road; daisy die: Stampin' Up; circle dies: Spellbinders: flower centers: Prima, EK Success; cursive font: Lollihop by Silhouette

Great prized to be won on this blog hop! If you take the challenge and link up your project, you could win the prize provided by the Pork Chop Show. They will be providing 3 sets of wooden cut-out embellishments.
Blog hoppers could win a prize by Live the Chaos, who is giving away a gift certificate to their shop and mini stamp.
Duetica is providing a HUGE give-away for the featured designer. The prize consists of their innovative software for creative fonts and fonts valued at $38.

Next stop on the hop is Trina. Here's the list to help you find your way:

Diana
Smitha
Mazlina
Angi
Elizabeta
Libeeti
Nicole
Dee Dee
Valerie (you are here!)
Trina
Sabrina
Polkadot Door Design

Be sure to vote for your favorite designer at the end! Thanks so much for stopping by today!






 

FYI Challenge #11

I haven't been the best blogger over the past couple of weeks. Between travel and changes at work, it's been a little hectic. I need to get back on a schedule with the craftiness. I'm hoping the job I'm about to start will knock me out of my crafty rut and make me more efficient. I heard a quote somewhere "if you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it' - I find this to be so true. The more I do, the more I can do. I don't think the next few weeks will be easy, but bear with me - I will find the balance!

Ok, today I've got FYI Challenge #11 - my second to last contribution as a DT member, as my term ends with the next challenge. (To check out this weeks inspiration image, stop by the blog post here.)

I was inspired by the mirrored reflection and the color with pops of white (in the clouds in the photo). Here's the close up:

materials: patterned paper, spray ink: Studio Calico; sentiment: Pink Paislee; stamps: Scrap Rat (medallion), Stampin' Up (circle); ink: Versamark; embossing: American Crafts, Stampin Up; pin: K & Co.; string: Divine Twine

For this tag, I used a new technique I learned at CKC last week in Nicole Samuels Studio Calico class. It's a resist technique - that I have not quite mastered yet. I stamped the flowery circle with Versamark, heat embossed with white powder then sprayed some Mister Huey and wiped off the excess. The white embossing resists the ink so you get this high contrast image. Of course, learning this new trick prompted me to purchase 12 new Misters (but I had a buy one/get one free coupon - so it was really only like buying 6 :)

Besides amazing and challenging (really challenging) inspiration photos, FYI boasts an amazing design team. I am so impressed with their work - you can check out what they did with this weeks inspiration on the FYI blog. We'd love it if you would play along!

Bittersweet end of summer sign (#1 is a series): the arrival of the new Ikea catalog.

This is one of my fave 'by the pool' reads - check out this clever spine detail (and it's accurate, too!)

Back tomorrow with the Polkadot Door Designs Blog hop for August.
Thanks for stopping by!