Kath's Scraps

Adam and Gabe....

2013-03-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, in a large United Methodist church in sunny Venice, Florida, the church’s annual missions conference was being held. One day, during the conference, a ten-year-old boy named Adam sat in his children’s class listening to a story about Daniel in the lions’ den. While trapped in a pit, facing down a pack of hungry lions, Daniel exhibited an extraordinary amount of courage in the face of great danger, all the while believing that his God was bigger than the lions’ appetites. For his faithfulness, God spared Daniel’s life.

When the story was finished, Adam and his classmates went off to craft time. To coincide with the story of Daniel, the children were asked to make pillows in the shape of a lion’s head. Adam set to work on his pillow, tying off the fleece strips to create a mane, meticulously cutting out and pasting on felt eyes and a nose, and carefully drawing on a mouth and whiskers with fabric paint.

The completed pillows were then collected and placed in a big pile on a table. Adam and the other children were told that people would come by the table, take one or two of the pillows, and give them to children who were struggling with a difficult situation in life. The teachers asked Adam’s class to pray for each child receiving a pillow. The children prayed that the pillows would remind the young recipients to be brave and remember that God was always with them – especially in scary situations. Adam and the others didn’t know who would be receiving their pillows. They only knew those children needed prayers.

As Adam watched, a pastor from Pennsylvania who was visiting the missions conference, picked up Adam’s pillow. Proudly, Adam informed Pastor Mark that it was his pillow the pastor was holding and he was happy that Pastor Mark had chosen it. Pastor Mark said, “I will find someone special to give it to – I promise.”

Twelve hundred miles away from Adam’s home in Venice lives a little boy named Gabe. Gabe is two years old. He was born into the most horrific surroundings one can imagine – the stuff of nightmares. But God had plans for Gabe from the day he was born. He was rescued from that awful situation, cared for by loving foster parents, and finally adopted in November of 2011. Gabe now lives in a bright, sunny world full of possibilities. Not only does he have a mother and a grandmother who love him absolutely, Gabe also has an entire village of devoted friends, “aunts”, and “uncles” who consistently surround him with love. Wherever he turns, someone is there to offer him a hug, to hold him, to tickle him, to give him “knuckles” – his term for a fist bump. He is a sunny, self-confident child who has earned every bit of the devotion poured out on him.

Happily, Gabe is too young to understand that there are some cloudy days ahead. In January, Gabe was diagnosed with metopic craniosynostosis or trigonocephaly. I can say them. I can almost spell them. I wish I didn’t know what they meant. Even more, I wish they did not apply to Gabe.

In common speak, this means that the frontal bones in Gabe’s skull have fused much earlier than is ideal. For now, the fusion of these bones isn’t presenting much of a problem. But, if Gabe is not treated, his brain will continue to grow and push against his skull, causing pressure to build up. This pressure could stunt his mental development or cause him to go blind – or both. Treatment for this diagnosis is surgery. It will involve separating the bones in his skull again, giving his brain the room it needs to develop. Surgery is scheduled for the end of July.

I was blessed with the job of making sure Gabe received his pillow - as Pastor Mark is my husband. :) I made a card and enclosed a brief synopsis of how the pillow came to be.

I didn't sign it because the pillow was really a gift from Adam and I really thought Gabe's mom, Jeanette, would be be able to figure out who left it. I wish now that I would've signed it and spared her the hassle. She spent a few days trying to piece the mystery together and then gave up, posting this on her facebook page:

As I write this today, over 125 people have "liked" this status update - a testament to the surrounding community's love for Jeanette and Gabe and the wonderful story surrounding these two boys.

Thank you, Adam. As Gabe, his family, and his village prepares for this surgery, we will be reminded again that somewhere in Florida, a young boy named Adam made a pillow, filled it with prayers for courage, and sent it on its way to Gabe. It will remind all of us that in the darkest of times, God is there – always loving, always faithful.

Seeing Stars....

2013-03-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Time to fill you all in on what I've been up to lately in the crafting world.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine handed me a brown, paper mache box similar to this one:

She asked me to do something with it. The guidelines were that it was for her son and was going to go into his room. She wanted the muted country red, white, and blue colors on it. So.....off I went. And this was what I came up with:

The lid reads, "Four wheelin', tractor lovin', overall wearin', all American country boy. This kid is all about tractors, four wheelers, construction vehicles, trucks, motorcyles - anything that makes the "vroom" noise gets his undivided attention.

The lid on the box was actually in two pieces - a rim and an insert. I covered the insert in an embossable metal. I found a picture of a barn on the internet and engraved it into the metal. To highlight the engraving, I wiped in a little black alcohol ink.

The "rivets" on the corner are brads that I picked up at Michaels. I beat them up a bit before putting them through the lid to give them a more rugged look.

This is a little bit better picture of the embossed barn. :)

The bottom of the box has hand painted stripes on it and the box is lined with dark red felt.

This was a fun project - it wasn't too difficult and I was able to try something new with the metal embossing.

My buddy, Gabe

2013-02-14T15:27:00.003-08:00

Hi all:

I'm back with two of my favorite subjects - My Mind's Eye and Gabe.

My Mind's Eye posted a sketch challenge for January. Using their layout idea and materials, they asked us to scrap our own pages and submit them. Here is a link to their January sketch challenge so you can check it out yourself.

And here is my take on the sketch:

Gabe is my very favorite little guy. He's a bundle of smiles, sunshine, and sweetness all rolled together with two-year-old sass. He belongs to my friend, Jeanette, and the two of them have brought many blessings and wonderful memories to my life.

This year, Gabe and Jeanette took a trip to Andrew and Pat's farm to cut down their Christmas trees. Gabe picked out his very own little tree and, with the help of some grown up friends, hauled it around on the roof of his little car. This picture was the one they used for their Christmas card this year and I was delighted to see it. It was propped on my desk when the January sketch challenge came along.

I also loved, loved, loved the All is Bright collection from My Mind's Eye this year. I bought tons of the stuff and had great fun playing with it.

I had a great time playing with this sketch. Enjoy!

Kath

Winter Projects

2013-01-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

I've been pretty busy for the last month. In mid-December, I held an ornament class. Six ladies attended and we had a wonderful afternoon getting creative with printed tissue paper, inks, stickles, glitter (Oh, my. The glitter...) ribbon, and Copic markers. I took pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get them off my old phone before it went on to phone purgatory - where it belongs. :/ You'll just have to believe me when I say that some absolutely splendid ornaments - and even better memories - were created.

The big project this December was creating seventeen little cardboard houses, reminiscent of the villages people placed under their trees in the 40's and 50's. We used them to decorate our tables for the Warren Players' production of "It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play". I was making little houses almost right up to the last minute. Each one contained an LED tealight so that they softly glowed on the tables during the production. Each one was a little different. They were well received and I sold almost all of them. I guess that's a good sign. :)

We also made snowflakes for The Snowflake Project sponsored by the Sandy Hook and Connecticut PTAs. There were about fourteen of us that came together on January 5 to create a beautiful "snowfall" from Warren County, PA. My little friend, Dakkota, and her mom also stopped by. They donated another spectacular snowfall from The First Church of God folks.

Here are some photos, taken by my wonderfully talented friend, Jeanette:

Simply gorgeous and "snow" much fun! The deadline for submitting these to Sandy Hook was 1/12/13. I boxed them up on January 6 and went to the Snowflake Project site to retrieve their address. Sadly, the address was gone. They had been bowled over by an absolute blizzard of snowflakes, distributed them all over town, and simply couldn't take anymore. They suggested that we hang them in our town and send them pictures. We will do exactly that, so that they know Warren County, PA is thinking of and praying for them.

And finally, my church has thrown down the gauntlet. They have created a snowman contest for the month of January. The goal is to populate the church with snowmen of different sizes, materials, and designs. Well, you know, I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to create a little guy of my own.

With the exception of the bird, he is made entirely from scratch. He has a paper mache body, covered with a soft, powdered glitter. His nose is from Martha Stewart's crafting clay and colored with Copic markers. The eyes are painted on and the hat and scarf crocheted just for him. The arms are the stems from hosta blooms. They're not as sturdy as I would have liked them to be, but I didn't have time to go foraging too far from the house. I had so much fun making him that I'm considering making one or two more...

Stay warm out there, folks!

Kath

Christmas cheer

2012-12-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Hi all:

Yesterday was our Coffee Girl get-together. I dearly love to hang out with these four friends. I believe that it's because they have my best interests at heart. They listen to me whine, forgive my faults, bolster my spirits, and encourage me when I feel inadequate. We have our favorite places to eat (Moe's, Ruby Tuesday's, Wegmans, Olive Garden) and our favorite places to go (the beach, Sara's, craft stores) and our favorite things to do (shop, craft, eat, bake, and gab). We've created many memories together over the past few years and I, for one, hope it is just the beginning.

Most years, they are the ones creating fabulous Christmas cards and this year was no exception. Rita's was a stunning pattern of embossed white snowflakes on a dark blue background - one of my favorite combinations. Susan's was a thermal coffee cup - the Starbucks take-out kind - and the lid pulled out to reveal the sentiment. Extremely clever! I don't usually do handmade cards, but this year I gave it a whirl. Because I'm into the subway art, I decided to create a piece that highlighted who we are and what we do and like. I had also found the All Is Bright line from My Mind's Eye when three of us went on an excursion to Archiver's in November. So pretty and I was so anxious to play with it. So, the subway art and All Is Bright came together to form this:

It's one of my favorite pieces ever and I had fun putting it together. The girls seemed to enjoy getting them, which made all of the hard work worthwhile. Here's a close up...

Tons of fun and good times wrapped up in this little card.

Have a warm, wonderful, merry Christmas season!

Kathy

Learning something new

2012-11-06T13:08:00.002-08:00

Hi there!

I saw a card recently that I loved. It had a piece of subway art on it. Since I love the look of subway art, I decided to track down the stamp, scrapbook paper, or whatever the card's creator had used to make the subway art. I had no luck.

While talking to a friend, she mentioned that she planned to make her own with her Photoshop program. I didn't want to purchase Photoshop because I wasn't sure if I'd like it our how much I would use it. In the end, I downloaded GIMP. It works almost the same as Photoshop, but it's free.

There is a learning curve involved with this kind of a photo editing program. My family can attest to the fact that I spent hours trying to figure out how to do this. Finally, it was finished. Looking back, there are some things I wish I'd done differently, but it turned out pretty well, I think. My brain is full of ideas about how to take this newly acquired skill and run with it.

Anyway, here is the completed card.

Came out pretty well, I thought. Black and white isn't a typical color combination for Christmas, but in this case, it works. I think the touches of red Stickles really added something to it - makes it a bit more Christmas-y. :)

I've already created another piece of subway art, using the words from a famous Christmas carol. I hope to post it soon.

Talk to you later!

Kathy

Country Christmas basket

2012-10-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hi all:

This week, I've been working on a Christmas project.

On November 10, the youth group at my church is sponsoring a harvest dinner and gift basket auction. They ask for the gift baskets to be donated every year. What do you think about a Country Christmas gift basket? I'm creating a set of six cards, three ornaments, and a write on/wipe off board, all done in a vintage country theme. So far, I have completed five cards. I got a little carried away on Wednesday night and stayed up all night working on cards. You girls know what I mean when I say "I was in the zone", right? Yeah - that's where I was. I got three cards completed that night and then I slept from 7 AM until noon!

Sooooo...here they are. Which one is your favorite?

Okay, off to spend time with the family for the day! Enjoy all!

Kath

Tree Trimming...

2012-10-02T12:45:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday was Crop Day at Michaels. I decided to pick up a new Sizzix die and play with it. I'd been toying with some ideas for this particular die and decided it was time to try it out.

I planned to make cards with this and, because it's a tree, I started playing with different patterns of green paper. As I was cutting out the trees, I thought it would be cool to use the negative side of this die, too, so I made the first tree card using a negative.

I placed a glittery, embossed piece of green cardstock behind the shape of the cut-out tree, matted it, added the ribbon, and I was done.

This one is using the negative method, too. I glittered the card, placed the negative cut-out tree over the glitter and added the snowflakes made from Martha Stewart's Punch Around the Page set in the Aspen pattern.

I used the actual tree on this one. I did kind of an ombre glitter effect. The ombre turned out really well, but this was a bit more time consuming. I mounted it on an embossed mat reminiscent of swirling snow.

As I was taking a picture of the last green card, Lucky decided to photobomb the picture. This card has two cut out trees mounted on it - one cut out of a pattern, the other cut out of plain green cardstock - and then decorated with Stickles. The snowflake pattern along the edge is a Martha Stewart punch.

By this time, I was getting a bit tired of green, so went with a couple of other color patterns.

What's Christmas without the red to go with the green? :) This card is a cut out tree mounted on a plain white card, embellished with Stickles, and tied with a glittery, red ribbon.

Again, a white tree mounted on a white mat, mounted on a white card. Martha Stewart's turquoise and silver tinsel glitters add the sparkle here, as well as three colors of her fine glitter as embellishments.

Off to play with paints today! Enjoy those fall colors....

Kath

Blessings!

2012-09-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent some time doing some paperwork. Today, I need to send some of that paperwork to a friend. I started to reach for a plain old business-sized envelope, but then I decided to make her a card instead.

I dug out all of my fall colors and some really cool fall stamps and went to work. The stamps are by Inkadinkadoo and the colored papers are all by Bazzill and Core'dinations.

I colored the image with my Tim Holtz Distress Markers in Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade. With the inks still on the stamp, I lightly spritzed the stamp with some water from my
Mini-Mister. Then, I stamped the image onto some watercolor paper. After that dried, I tore the edges of the watercolor paper and set the stamped image aside.

I mounted the background colors on to the card - Scarlet by Core'dinations and Tangelo by Bazzill - then tied some jute around the top color -Mango by Bazzill - and mounted it on top. I added some 3D foam pieces by EK Success to the watercolor stamp to lift the image over the jute and give it some depth.

Next, I applied the same watercolor stamping technique to a Martha Stewart maple leaf stamp, using the Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade markers. I cut the maple leaf out to use as an embellishment. Then, using Tim Holtz's Gathered Twigs Distress Ink pad, I stamped the word "Blessings" on a piece of plain white cardstock and mounted it and the maple leaf on another piece of the Tangelo paper.

Finally, for a little sparkle, I place small dots of Copper Stickles among the branches of the tree, as well as on the Blessings tag.

And there you have it - a sweet little autumnal card that I hope will bring a smile to my friend. :)

Blessings!

Summer Send-off

2012-09-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

It's one of my favorite kinds of days here in Pennsylvania. It's rainy and cool - 59 degrees. Just right for fall. I have a candle burning and my cats are sleeping beside me. The leaves are just beginning to change right outside my window. It's a soup, snuggle, and sleep kind of day.

But, summer officially ended only five days ago. So, as a last hurrah for the summer of 2012, I have a beach card to show you today.

Isn't it pretty? I really like this one - simple, airy, light. I stamped the little girl on watercolor paper with black Stayzon ink and colored her with watercolors.

The background is also watercolored. After mounting the background to the front of the card, I tied a piece of jute around the card, then cut out the stamped image and mounted it over the background and the jute with foam squares.

This stamp set from Clear Arts is called "Seaside". It's one of my favorite stamp sets ever. Besides the stamp set and ink, this card uses only watercolors, watercolor paper, and jute. Simple. Summery. Sweet.

Good-bye, summer.....

New Goals...

2012-09-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hi all:

First of all, before I forget, the date for the September Crop has been changed due to scheduling conflicts in the store. It will now be held on September 29 from 10 - 4. The cost is $5 and you can come all day or for just a couple of hours. There are three Cricut machines and several cartridges available for your use, as well as a Cuttlebug, two paper trimmers, and several stamps and punches. You can work on Christmas cards or your Back to School album. Bring your pictures, your supplies, and your excitement. Have a day with the girls! You deserve it! :)

I have a new goal. I would like to be a part of a design team within the next year. As a member of a design team, the designer or the manufacturer sends you some of their product and an assignment. You create something with their product, following their guidelines. Amazing fun! You get free product, tons of exposure in the paper arts world, and you get to make cool stuff. Sometimes, you even get paid. How cool is that?!

Currently, there is a corporation looking for members of their Creative Arts Team. They asked for four projects demonstrating specific styles they want to see. So, I put together a couple of things to send in to them. I must admit I had fun doing them. I created five things to submit, but these two are my favorites.

The first is a card. I used one of EK Success's Inkadinkadoo stamps for this card. I really like the symbolism and appeal of a single flower kept alive in a soda bottle. Who hasn't done that? And, sometimes, that single flower - picked at random - means more than a dozen of the finest roses. It's a memento - someone was thinking of you. It's a souvenir of a stroll on an otherwise forgotten summer day. It's a reminder of the beauty and exquisiteness in the little things that are all around us. This card reads: "For you." "For everything." Simple. Heartfelt.

The stamp and ribbon are colored with Tim Holtz's Distress Markers by Ranger. The crystals are by Jolee's. The image was stamped on watercolor paper.

The second project is close to my heart because I love the beach - the solitude, the freshness, the warmth, the colors - just love it.

Here is a clean and simple beach layout:

The stamps are by Clear Art Stamps. I created the dimensional shell, sand dollar, and starfish with Martha Stewart's Crafter's Clay by EK Success and they were colored with Tim's markers. I really liked how this one came out - it gives me the same feelings as the beach. :)

Be back soon. I'm working on an album from my recent trip to Louisiana. I'll be sharing it with you soon. :)

Kathy

Christmas in July

2012-07-25T16:33:00.001-07:00

In this age of technology, it's a huge frustration when a computer goes down. Mine went silent on June 12. Since then, I've limped along with my iPad, but frankly, it just doesn't do everything I'd like it to do. So, my blog writing has suffered.

The lack of a computer has not hampered me from creating new things, however. I've been super busy cranking out item after item. Over the last ten days, I've been feverishly working to get sample items together. I wanted to use them to apply for Heidi Swapp's media team. I completed all of the samples, only to find myself stymied by the lack of proper computer technology. Kind of tough to actively promote your technology skills with...well...technology. Three hours before the deadline, I gave up. There will always be next year.

I also recently put together a mini album. My sister's branch office assembled a "Christmas in July" basket for a company picnic that was held last week. She asked me to create an album for the basket. I pulled out my Christmas papers and went to town. It was kind of fun to bring out the Christmas stuff again.

The album measures 5" x 5" and there is room for a minimum of 18 pictures. There are four pockets in the album, a tiny "openable" as Heidi Swapp calls them, and lots of pretty things. My sister was thrilled. I hope the recipient of the Christmas in July basket was also thrilled! :)

This page features one of the pockets and some little embellishments on sticks. It's finished off with some silver and white twine. Super cute!

Pennants are a hot theme right now - love these made from lots of pretty papers in the stack. The embellishments at the bottom include a snowman - his scarf flapping in the winter wind -, a little penguin floating his star shaped balloon, and a sparkly snowflake highlighted with a blue Swarovski crytal.

Another pennant banner, this one being held up by two cute little snowmen. This banner floats free of the page so that a picture or journaling can be added under it.

Another pocket page - this one on the side between the two pages. I love the cream and blue winter-y colors on this page. More glittery snowflakes are highlighted....

This pocket holds a journaling tag, or two, if you prefer. More pretty blue and cream colors.

I love plaids. This one is so cheery! More sparkly snowflakes and Swarovski crystals.

My favorite page of the book! This is the cover of a mini open-able flip album, as Heidi Swapp calls them. There is room to mount pictures and journaling on this page, if desired. But the coolest feature is....wait for it....

The pages flip up to reveal MORE places to put memorabilia, pictures, journaling, notes, or whatever you desire. On this one small 5" x 5" page, the flip book allows room to store at least five pictures. Amazing! More pages of the flip book follow....

This last page is a pocket, too, which allows it to hold more than one picture or memorabilia. It could also be used to just frame some pictures and skip the pocket altogether. I love versatility!! :)

ANOTHER pocket. More great ways to store things in a small space. The tag sports red glitter dots along the top edge. I also love that super glitzy, glittery arrow. So pretty!

Aren't these guys adorable?! Love, love, love them! This is a pocket page, too. You can see the tag sticking up out of the top of the pocket.

Here's the tag. I love the word "this". Remember this. Feel this. Think about this. Experience this. Celebrate this.

The back of the "This" tag. Sweet little bow and some gingham. You can't go wrong there. :)

And finally.....

Santa Claus!!!

I hope you enjoyed this little album. I had a great time making it.

Hidden treasures

2012-05-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all:

I love looking through all of the January CHA releases. Since winter CHA happens right after Christmas, all of the pretty new things to look at and dream about using are a great way to escape the winter uglies that happen in February and March.

This year, there were two new products that really drew my eye. One was Tim Holtz's Distress Markers because - hello - I'm a Tim Girl. The other was Heidi Swapp's Memory Files. What a great way to collect all of the bits and pieces of an event into one compact, easy to store album. Heidi's Sugar Chic collection is full of bright splashes of aqua, pink, and yellow, set off by stabs of black here and there. Pure awesomeness! The cutest embellishments ever are also available.

I couldn't resist combining Heidi's ideas with Tim's flair for the vintage and steampunk. Here is what I came up with:

The adorable little truck is one of Tim's stamps from The Journey by Stampers Anonymous. The label on the file folder tab was cut with Spellbinders' Grommet Tags die.

Here is the entire cover. The gold scrolls were created with Martha Stewart's Craft Clay and the Frames and Flourishes silicone mold. The flourishes were then painted using Martha Stewart's gold metallic paint. The paper is Antiquities by Donna Salazar for gcd studios. This was a plain old manila folder when I started. It's colored with some of Tim Holtz's Distress Inks - Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo, and Gathered Twigs.

Here are some inside shots:

Same Spellbinders' die, same paper, same distress inks. The pink tinsel glitter is Martha Stewart's. The silver glitter is Stickles by Ranger. The ruffled newsprint is Tim Holtz tissue tape, simply gathered into ruffles as it was adhered. The copper and white twine by Bead Landing, the letters, and the Recollections flowers are all from Michaels. The letters were white. I colored them with a gray Copic marker. :) The button is an old one - from Bo Bunny, I think.

Here is a complete look at the inside:

This nifty little album lies almost flat when closed, taking up very little space, yet it will hold up to 24 pictures and journaling notes! Isn't that amazing?! I love that concept! That little booklet that say, "Magic" on the bottom right flips open to display 12 pages. The "Captured" note flips up to display one or two pictures or notes and you can also put something on the front of that if you like. The button closure hides places for two pictures and a note or three pictures. It has a magnetic closure. And the gadget tied with jute on the left side will also hold 3-4 pictures. And that doesn't even count the front where you can add a title or a picture or both.

I just love this little file. Hope you enjoyed looking at it!

Kath

Summer frames

2012-05-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've been a busy girl for the last week.

In February, a little girl named Isabella was born. She was premature,weighing only 1 pound and 2.8 ounces. She had to have surgery to close a hole in her heart. She is so tiny - so very fragile. And she is already an important member of our community.

This is Isabella at one month old.

In a few weeks, our community is holding a spaghetti dinner fund raiser for Baby Isabella. There will also be a Chinese auction. My friend, Tracy, asked me if I could contribute one of my handcrafted items for the Chinese auction.

I happened to have a couple of unfinished frames and some new Martha Stewart Crafting Clay in my stash, and I had a few ideas running through my head. On Wednesday night I got down to work.

Here are the final results. First up is a summery, rather beachy scene, inspired by Webster's Page's new line called the Palm Beach. I loved the colors in this line and wanted to find a way to work with them.

There is a quote written around the heart opening that reads, "The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dinsen

The other frame is also summery, although it's more about our summer holidays. So...it's...ya know - patriotic and stuff.

So, which one do you like best?

Cool beach blues....

2012-05-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hi all:

Occasionally, I break away from paper crafting and get my hands into a different area entirely. I apologize for those of you who like to read about my paper adventures, but hope you'll enjoy today's post anyway.

My favorite color is blue, but it's a special blue. It's that Caribbean turquoise -- that "I want to dive into this" blue. Pool blue. Beach glass, sea tile blue. The blue that makes you feel a bit cooler just to look at it.

I recently bought a new t-shirt in that color. I like to pair my blue with white capris or shorts. So far, so good. But what could I add to really make it sparkle?

Once day a week or ten days ago, I noticed a new display at Michaels. On one of the end caps in the jewelry aisle, there was a collection of beach-themed charms. Seahorses, shells, starfish, sand dollars - all done in an antique-toned silver and set with iridescent blue/green glass. I didn't have any idea what I was going to do with them, but I bought a set of three charms just because they were so me. And - hello - blue/green iridescent jewels? Yum!

They sat on my desk for a while and I looked at them nearly every day, forming ideas in my head. Last week, all of the beads at Michaels were 40% off. It was like the universe was practically commanding me to scoop up beads. I fetched a t-shirt off the shelf in nearly the same shade as my new one and went to work, choosing colors, textures, shapes, and sizes that I loved together. I came home with eight different packages of beads and went to work.

I finished my project on Saturday night and wore it to church yesterday morning. What do you think?

I love how it came out. Right at the bottom, you can see the little starfish and off to the right, about halfway up is the shell. Way at the top, you can see the tail of the seahorse. There are so many sea-like beach finds on here, I can hardly stand it! I love the chunks of shell and the freshwater pearl pieces together. I also love all of the blues. I found a few other beads in my stash that were frosted and added little bits of a beach glass touch. You can see one in the lower left. Most of the beads are my favorite blue, but I put some greens in there as well. Here's another look...

The top half of the necklace is simply a chain. All of the party is in the lower half of the necklace. It measures about 30" in length, so it's long and slips over my head easily - another thing I prefer.

I love, love, love this and will be wearing it many times this summer with my new t-shirt - and probably with my new white t-shirt as well.

Enjoy that summer-like weather!

Kath

A Banner Day...

2012-04-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

May is National Scrapbook Month, and, more specifically, May 5th is National Scrapbook Day. There is much going on at the store in preparation for this awesome event.

Today, I stayed after work for a few hours. I'm working on making some attention grabbing items to put around the store to promote NSM. Last Saturday at crop, I began making a banner. I found a Recollections paper pad that I really like. It's a light weight paper - not anywhere near card stock weight - but for what I'm doing, it works well. I like the colors and I'm hoping we can hang it over the scrapbook aisle.

I've talked about Martha Stewart's Scoring Board before. I love using this tool. Martha's products are well made and they often include built in storage for all of the little pieces you need to use with the tool. This one is no exception. The scoring tool itself stores inside a little compartment at the top of the scoring board and the triangular piece that's used to make envelopes slides into a convenient slot on the back of the tool. Excellent!

Primarily, I use this scoring tool to make rosettes of varying sizes and colors. To make these rosettes, I started with a 12" x 12" paper. I cut three strips measuring 12" x 3 1/2". I scored each strip at every 1/2" mark and folded the strips in an accordion style.

In the foreground, two folded strips. In the background, the last of the three strips, waiting to be folded.

When making rosettes, glue the folded strips end to end. When all of the strips are glued into one strip, glue the ends of the one strip together to form a perfectly pleated circle. Set it aside.

Cut out two circles for the center of your rosette. In this case, the circle I used was 4 inches across. I wanted a larger circle because I planned to put a letter in the center of each rosette. The size of the circle is a matter of preference. It just needs to be big enough to cover the center of the rosette.

The next part is a bit tricky. Set the pleated circle on end. Gather the top part of the circle together in one hand and gently pull out the bottom part of the circle with the other hand. With practice, you'll get a feel for it. The circle should kind of splat out. Glue one cut out circle to the center on the front and one to the center on the back. Keeping the rosette in formation while gluing on the center circles comes with practice, as well. I like to use hot glue because it sets and holds almost immediately.

The banner that I'm working on is in shades of green, blue and pink. Below are some pictures of the completed rosettes on their pennants.

I did get the letters cut out and glued on to each rosette today. I also glued on the loops for hanging the banner. But, alas, I forgot to take pictures when they were done. I will post them as soon as I can. I will also post pictures of the banner when it's hung. Stay tuned....

Kath

Summer Frame of Mind

2012-04-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Wow, it's been a while. I've been pretty busy with several things all at once - some paper related, some not. I'll be posting as much as I can over the next few days to get you all caught up.

I'm going to begin with the project I finished most recently. Michaels offers a class called Paper Crafted Gift Frame. This class was first constructed for Christmas. Sporting the word "JOY", the background papers were the traditional Christmas colors of red, green, and white. Obviously, I didn't want to put something related to Christmas out on the store floor at this time of the year. I'm also kind of beyond spring right now - I'm kind of done with the flowers, chicks, and lace. So, I opted for a summer theme. Those of you who know me will smile because I've gone with a beach theme - and I love the beach.

Unfortunately, because this is a class that Michaels offers, I'm bound by their public relations policies, so I can't show you this piece in its entirety. If you live near me, it's on display at the store and you can check it out back in the frames department.

The flowers, some trim, and tag are handmade using paper from the "Four Seasons" pad by Die Cuts With a View. I LOVE this pad and plan to use every bit of it - not something that happens with every pad of paper I buy, trust me.
The solid colors of paper are French Vanilla, Avalanche, and Turquoise Mist by Bazzill.
I sketched in the seagrass using three different shades of yellow green markers by Copic. I borrowed one of them from the store, so I can't give you the number for that one, but the other two are YG93 and YG95.
The tag is hand lettered using a brown Zig marker.
The punch is Martha Stewart's Punch Around the Page in Deco Fan.
The large letters were cut on the Cricut Expressions machine using the Jubilee Celebration cartridge. I think this was a promotional cartridge that was given away last fall with the purchase of two other cartridges. I couldn't find it on the Cricut site, so if you find it somewhere, please correct me. :)
The frame is a 14" x 8" (I think) float frame from Michaels. It comes in black, but I painted it because - ya know - it needed to be kind of beachy. :)
Paints on the frame are by Martha Stewart. They're Beach Glass and Porcelain Doll in the satin base. It took several coats of the Beach Glass paint to cover the black, but I love how the frame turned out. I brushed the Porcelain Doll paint on as a very, very light topcoat.

Sorry for the size and fuzziness of this one, but I cropped it so as not to show too much. The seashells came from the DCWV pad that I listed above. I just cut them out and adhered them to a trim strip made of papers and punches that I also listed above.

The word down the middle of the project is "breathe". I always seem to relax and breathe at the beach - something about that great, uninterrupted expanse of beach and water....

Remember to breathe....

Kathy

Emily's Book

2012-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hi all:

So, after I got all three of my cards done for the Stamping Royalty challenge, I started to focus on other projects that were lined up.

Last year, I experimented with making some small graduation albums for my nieces and nephew. They measured about 5" x 5", making them small enough to be pretty portable if they wanted to take them to school. I'm not sure if they ever used them (they are teenagers, after all), but the adults seemed to appreciate all of the effort that I put into the albums. :)

This year, my mom asked if I'd do one for my cousin's daughter, Emily. I promised her I'd get started with it as soon as the cards were done for the challenge. Tonight, I finished it. It was kind of fun to do this album for Emily, as she is graduating from my alma mater.

That's our little mascot - the Lakota Raider. :) I got him off the Raiders' facebook page. I printed him, cut him out, and then highlighted him with glossy accents. The words were printed off and cut to fit the matted piece.

The corners of the striped paper were punched with a Martha Stewart punch, then blue cardstock was placed behind the punched corners to bring out the detail.

I like how this page turned out. The matted areas can be used for pictures, memorabilia, or journaling. These are different colors of cardstock, one matted on top of the other. A couple of them were highlighted with patterns using a white gel pen.

I drew the volleyball and then filled it in with glossy accents. The words were printed out in blue ink and then matted on matching cardstock.

The paper lace was cut out with a Fiskar's punch called "lace". The tag was cut with a spellbinders die. The pearls were colored with a copic marker and the words are handwritten. The page on the left is actually a pocket page. I like to include pockets to catch things the folks might not want to glue into a book.

Just cardstock and blue glitter letters. I included all of the textspeak to make it more teen friendly. :)

Emily was in the school play this spring. The rose under glass is hand-drawn.

The paper with the lace edges is punched with a Martha Stewart "Punch Around the Page" set. The word is printed off and then adhered to the page.

I hope Emily enjoys filling this with all kinds of memories from her senior year.

Take care ~
Kathy

Spring Bird

2012-03-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

From time to time, Michaels schedules In Store Demonstrations. This past Tuesday, the demo was called Decoupage Egg. Here is my rendering of this craft project.

The instructions called for the use of a wooden egg. Unfortunately, all of the wooden eggs at our local Michaels store were recently marked down for clearance and they were all gone. We decided to substitute a styrofoam egg.

Step one was to decoupage the scrapbook paper with the music notes on to the egg. This was probably much easier to do on wood. The porous texture of the styrofoam didn't allow the Mod Podge to stick very easily. It helped to tear the paper into smaller pieces and be very patient.

The egg is resting on a wooden napkin ring, painted white, and sprinkled with Martha Stewart's Sugar Cube iridescent glitter. Spanish moss is glued on top of the napkin ring and the finished, decoupaged egg is hot glued on top of the moss.

The bird and the flourish were supposed to be cut with dies, but neither the store or I had the necessary dies. Instead, I sketched the bird and the flourish to the best of my ability, transferred them to colored paper, and cut them out by hand. They were both sprinkled with the same glitter before adhering them to the egg.

The final touch was the ribbon and bow. The ribbon is wrapped around the egg and glued. I made the bow and hot glued it on separately from the ribbon. This whole project can be made for right around $10 or less.

I thought it looked very springy and Easter-y - a cute little decoration on a side table or as place holders for Easter dinner. Once supplies are purchased, you could make several of these little guys from the same sheets of paper, bags of moss, and spool of ribbon.

A few more shots....

Enjoy this lovely summer-like weather we're having! :)

Take care ~

Kath

Cure for the Winter Blues

2012-03-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

So, last night I'm reading through the blogs and websites on my Google Reader list. I like to read "A Blog Called Wanda" (check it out here). She was talking about The Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge at Moxie Fab World. I followed the trail of breadcrumbs and was shortly off on another project.

Yesterday, I was thinking that I didn't really have anything creative in the works at the moment. I've been so busy getting ready for Open House and doing the samples I needed to get done that when Open House was over, I suddenly found myself with some choices and had to step back a bit to look for direction. This Winter Blues Challenge came at the perfect time and it really did challenge me a bit.

I'm not a huge fan of navy blue. It's "professional". I mean, I don't hate it, but I generally don't use it to decorate and I don't dress in it. As a consequence, I'm kind of short on navy blue items in my stash. Was I up to this challenge? Did I even have enough to create something worthwhile?

Winter. Navy blue. Night sky. Crisp. Clear. Cold. Peaceful. "In the stillness of a frosty winter night....peace." Love that, but...too Christmas-y. (And in the end, too long for my project.) Oooo...a Tim Holtz stamp with three pine trees in silhouette. I can use that. And.....Martha Stewart's Silver Ink Pad. Oh, here's some muted silver paper and some glittery snow white paper from the Immortal Stack by Die Cuts with a View. Oh, yeah...now I'm on a roll.....

I started with white cardstock then layered the silver and the white glittery paper on top, finishing the base of the card with a navy blue layer. I did find a nice shade of navy blue from Recollections by Michaels, by the way.

With the base layers complete, I pulled out the silver ink pad and inked up the stamp with the three pine trees on it. I made two impressions. The first layer was bolder, of course. To bring one tree out to the forefront, I filled it in with a silver Sharpie paint pen. Stamping again without re-inking the stamp created the lighter impression, giving the look of trees in the background. I inked the stamp up again, and stamped a piece of white paper. I cut out the center tree, colored it in with the silver Sharpie paint pen, and popped it out with some tiny foam pop dots.

To create the look of the hills in the background and write the words, I used a white gel pen by Gelly Roll.

The "stars" are dots made by the silver Sharpie paint pen. Three Swarovski crystals by Jolee were added for sparkle. I finished the card off with a sheer navy blue ribbon from Michaels.

Enjoy my cure for the winter blues... :)

Do be impresssed, won't you? It took me forever to get that "star" (crystal) to twinkle just right! :)

I took this one so you could see the silver trees. In quite a few of the pictures, the trees looked white. You can also see two of the crystals in this one.

I like the depth of the trees in this shot. I really brings out all of the levels.

Twinkle, twinkle little star.... A closer shot of the trees and stars.

Peaceful, isn't it? See, now....winter isn't quite so bad, is it? :)

Take care ~

Kath

Inspiration from Tim Holtz for March

2012-03-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

Hi all!

Due to Open House preparation, I feel a little behind on my blog reading. Yesterday, I was able to catch up a little bit and...there was Tim's March 2012 Tag! Yay!!! I told myself it was too late to get started on it, I have tomorrow off, I can do it then. That lasted all of about an hour before I gave in. At 1:00 AM, I decided I was getting dangerously loopy and didn't want to ruin what I'd started.

Again, I did a card rather than a tag. Tim's tag was a promotion of spring - butterflies and flowers - whereas mine is more about St. Patrick's Day. You could say I have a little bit of Irish in my background (my maiden name was Ireland), so I love this holiday. I love the green, the gold, and the rainbow. I love the wry, humorous Irish blessings. I love QVC's Irish show - all of the wool sweaters and capes, the Galway crystal, the Belleek china...but I digress... :)

So, forgive me, Tim for doing something so blatantly "March", but....I couldn't help meself.... :)

The finished product. There are many parts of this I'm very happy with. I loved learning the new technique Tim taught us. The "tiled" or "stained glass" butterflies were the focus of this month's project.

The butterflies are cut out of grungeboard then covered with double sided super sticky tape. The tiny pieces of paper are cut and adhered to the butterflies. Once the mosaic look of the paper snippets were done to my satisfaction, I sprinkled Ranger's Distress Embossing Powder in Black Soot over the butterflies, shook off the excess, and then heated the embossing powder, melting it and making it shiny. I applied Glossy Accents to the paper pieces, giving them a glassy look, then attached some Swarovski crystals by Jolee to the wings for added sparkle. This picture doesn't show the colors well. The paper snippets are in varying shades of greens and creams. The crystals are peridot or pale yellow in color. (For more detailed instructions regarding the butterflies, please visit Tim's blog at timholtz.typepad.com ) While the butterflies were drying, I worked on the background.

I started with a sheet of pale gray textured cardstock and ran it through my Vagabond, using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Woodgrain Texture Fade. To bring out the wood grain, I highlighted the raised parts with the C5 Cool Grey Copic Marker. I roughened up the edges by scraping my Cutter Bee Scissors along them and then I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad in Weathered Wood to darken the edges. The scroll is made from regular old run-of-the-mill copy paper. I went to DaFont.com and downloaded a font called Stonehenge. (By the way, I know folks are used to seeing Erin Go Bragh, but as I was researching this, I found that the words I used are actually closer to the authentic Celtic version.) The font size is set at 44 for this one. After printing off the words, I tore the paper, around the words, leaving extra lengths on both sides of the words. This allowed room for me to roll the scroll. I pretty much antiqued the whole paper with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink Pad and then went over just the edges with the Vintage Photo Distress Ink Pad. I rolled the ends of the scroll in opposite directions, holding them there for a few seconds and then, adhered the scroll to the cardstock background.

To make the charm, I used a piece of paper from Tim Holtz Seasonal Paper Stack. I traced the facet I wanted to use onto the paper, so I could get the sizes correct. The gold flourish is simply painted on with gold acrylic paint.

I painted the shamrock with watercolors on watercolor paper and cut it out. I adhered it next to the gold scroll work on the paper then cut the shape out. Using Glossy Accents, I adhered the facet to the paper backing, set a heavy object on top of the facet and left it to dry. When the Glossy Accents was dry, I trimmed the excess paper around the facet. This is an acrylic facet, also by Tim Holtz. I used Copic markers G09 - Veronese Green and YG93 - Grayish Yellow to color the ribbon that's threaded through the ring on the facet. I hotglued the ribbon to the card and voila! - done!

Lots of fun and lot of green St. Patrick's Day goodness!

See you soon ~

Kath

Punched Cards

2012-03-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

Hi all:

I'm still working away at samples for Open House. In the midst of preparing for that, our bathroom is undergoing some minor renovations, so we have a couple of workmen in the house this week, too. Also, I worked an extra day this week, so the pressure is on. I'm tired, tired, tired - but cautiously optimistic about the Open House on Saturday from 1-3.

I still have to put my storyboards together. One will showcase the classes I offer, so I'm trying to finish up a few things - like paper flowers and cards - to attach to that board.

On Friday, April 13, I will be offering a class called Punched Card Tricks. This class teaches you how to use a punch in some new and interesting ways. Most of the time, we simply use a punch to put a decorative hole in the project we're working on, but this class makes you think about other ways to use your punches.

The class offers five cards, but I only have three done so far. Here are pictures of the three that are finished. The third one is a little blurry. I didn't realize that until just now and it's too dark to take another good picture. I apologize...

I'll try to get the other two finished and posted tomorrow. I will also work on posting pictures from the open house. Take care....

Kath

Crafting with Martha

2012-02-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone!

"This is the day that the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24

This verse resonates with me today, not only because it's Sunday, but because my son narrowly escaped a pretty frightening accident on Thursday night. He lost control of the Jeep and hit a tree, but escaped with only a few cuts and sore muscles. God had my boy in His hands that night...

On to the crafty side of life!

I'm getting ready for the Open House at Michaels next Saturday. Michaels instructors will be on hand from 1-3 to discuss class offerings and offer you a 25% discount off of the classes in which you enroll that day. To my knowledge, it's the only day the classes are on sale all year, so I hope you can make time to get there on Saturday.

This week, I played with my Martha Stewart Scoring Board. I love, love, love this tool and you'll see why. Back on February 9th, I bought the board and posted a video demonstration from madebymomo. This week, I finally got around to using the board to make a card, an envelope, and a box. They turned out sooooo well!

Here is the scoring board and the pieces that come with it. The triangular piece sits in the corner of the board when you want to make envelopes. The other small tool is for scoring and folding.

The envelope guide is a little difficult to understand. I know that you have to label the envelopes somehow, but if you don't know what the labels mean, it's kind of hard to know which size you need. I didn't know the difference between a #1 and an A6!! Obviously, the sizes are listed in inches, so I kind of knew where to start. I played with the A2, 4 bar, and #1 which made the smallest three sizes. The one I ended up using for my card was the 4 bar.

Since these were pieces for work, I continued using the Four Seasons pad from Die Cuts With a View. I choose a spring-like lavender and purple page, full of pansies. And here are the finished products:

The Box:

This is the top view of the box. The white paper demonstrates the Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page punch in the Vintage Floral pattern. Yes, I created the lacy edges using a punch. :) Isn't that pretty? The recipient's name, a significant date, or other well wishes can be written in the center of the white paper.

Side view of the box. I used the Vintage Floral punch along the edges of the box lid, too.

The Card:

Here's the card. The Vintage Floral punch was used along the front edge. The pansies were cut out of the sheet of paper I chose and adhered to the card. The words were printed in dark purple in ivory cardstock. I chose a Mother's Day theme as it's timely and seemed to go well with the papers I picked out.

This is the inside of the card. Again, pansies and leaves were cut out of the papers, words were printed on cardstock, and edge was punched with Vintage Floral. When the card is closed, the pretty lavender print along the bottom of the inside of the card shows through the punches on the front of the card. (I forgot to take a picture of that - so sorry... :( )

The Envelope:

I made the envelope out of regular copy paper, using the instructions on the Martha Stewart Scoring Board. Because the card has a little bit of thickness to it with the pansies, lace, cardstock, etc., I had to adjust the measurements of the envelope by 1/8" to make it a bit bigger. Nailed it the first time! Whoo-hoo!!!

Then, I used the corner punch from the Vintage Floral set to add the cute little trims on the envelope. I rounded the corners on the sides of the top flap. The card fit inside of the envelope perfectly!

Card and envelope...

This is the only picture I got of the whole set - not a very good one, but I didn't think of a picture with all of them until just now.

I used the scoring board to score the folding lines on the box, envelope, and card. It really helped with the measurements, getting all of the lines in the right places, and folding them neatly. I will use this board again and again, I'm sure! :)

Kath

Summery sample

2012-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hey there, everyone!

Sorry it's been a few days. Sometimes life gets in the way... :)

Michaels is having their annual Open House on Saturday, March 3 from 1:00 - 3:00. This event showcases the talents of the instructors at Michaels, giving them an opportunity to display their samples of the Michaels curriculum. Since our store is so new, none of us have samples from past years to draw on, so it's a bit frenzied as we all work to create some spectacular samples for our customers' viewing pleasure.

Not only are we working to make samples, we are also working to make story boards - kind of a portable bulletin board display listing our class offerings. Some of our samples will be posted on the story boards; some will be displayed on tables.

I am the scrapbook instructor, of course, but the beading, knitting/crocheting, fine arts, and cake making instructors will be there as well. I'm really excited about spending a couple of hours with my fellow instructors and sharing our crafting enthusiasm with prospective students.

Yesterday, I set out to knock out a few more samples. I'm very particular about my finished samples, so I put a little extra time into them. For that reason, I didn't get as many samples done as I would've liked, but I'm pleased with what I finished.

Die Cuts With a View (DCWV) has a stack of papers called Four Seasons. I picked that up last week because the summer pages really caught my eye and I wanted to play with them. I picked up two sets, in fact. One for store use and....one for ME! :)

I love the country, cheerful, sunniness of these two pages.

So, this is how my day started out:

You'll see a lot of my basic tools in that picture - Tim Holtz's ruler, my Cutterbee detail scissors (LOVE those!), my Fiskars corner rounder punch and one of Martha Stewarts' Punch Around the Page sets. The other bits and pieces are the logos to put on my story boards.

One other picture of note:

When I'm in "the zone", intense on my work, I tend to set up a semi-circle. Oh - there's my Recollections paper trimmer. :)

After four hours of creative fun....

Voila! I really liked how this turned out - it's so me! Unfortunately, I don't usually scrap in the 12 x 12 format, so I wouldn't do one of these for personal use. I might, however, replicate it on a smaller scale for one of my books..... Stay tuned.... :)

Kathy

Paper Roses

2012-02-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone:

I finished another altered canvas. This one has many more flowers on it than the first one did and I experimented with different types of papers this time.

I particularly like the way the vellum flowers turned out. I like the translucent quality of vellum papers anyway, and the texture is always fun to play with. It has a rather brittle feel to it when you work with it. Torn edges take on ink in an interesting way, as well. And when I color on vellum with Copic Markers, the colors don't absorb into the fibers of the paper. In this way, I can kind of "slide" different colors around on the vellum, play up the strokes at bit, and sometimes create a kind of textured feel to it. I particularly like to use Copics on vellum to create leaves. So cool! You'll see some of them here, though I didn't take a close-ups of the leaves to highlight the texture. Maybe on another post! :)

I also like to color ribbon with my Copic Markers. For this ribbon, I colored it with YG97, then dragged Tim Holtz's Gathered Twigs Distress Ink pad over the ribbon. I pulled out a small paintbrush and brushed the ribbon with a controlled amount of water. Water can be reduced or added, depending on your tastes. Then, I crumpled the wet ribbon, clamped it, and heated it with my embossing gun. I had to un-clamp, re-crumple, and re-heat about three times to get the ribbon dry and produce the degree of crumpled-ness that I wanted.

I learned something in this process. The amount of water I used and the lengthy drying/heating time washed out the ribbon in several places. You will notice how the ribbon took on an almost silvery, rather than green, tint in a few places. I like it, so I left it. In the future, though, if I don't want to wash out the color so much, I may have to crumple and air dry (Oh, dear - the patience) or crumple and heat much more sporadically, allowing the ribbon to cool between heatings. I'm always learning!

The surface of this canvas is covered with Mod Podge and then torn bits of plain old white tissue paper were added. When that was dry, I inked it with Gathered Twigs, too. I love that color and am sad that it was produced in a limited edition. But lucky me - I got one!

Anyway, enjoy!!