Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse

Peggy must have known about all my reorganizing in TM before she set the challenge this week on Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog. The challenge is based on Spring cleaning and recycling, repurposing and reusing. I just finished reorganizing my scrap box, and made the statement I was determined to use some of them up. Well Peggy has given me that opportunity.

I had this card base already made with DP and ribbon left over from making some OWH cards. I had stuck it back thinking I would use it at some point. Well that point has come. The other DPs used on the card came out of my scrap box, again sticking to the challenge. I even printed my sentiment courtesy of Create with TLC on some scrap white card stock.

Finally the image from the Sassy Cheryls Store is called Cross Eyed Butterfly, and even with this I stuck to the challenge rules. When I print off an image for a card, I usually print two in the likelihood that I mess up on the coloring of one. This image is one I found in my surplus image stash, and it just so happened to be one that fit on my card. I colored her with Copics.

This challenge was actually fun. Thanks Peggy for helping to use some of my "stuff".

Oh Sweet Spring

I have to say first thing that the weather here in my area has been incredible this week. Last week it was bitter cold with a snow on Thursday, and today temps are in the 70 and the sun is shining. Surely Spring is truly on it's way. I'm so ready for Spring, I'm all about this week's Spring Challenge over on the Phindy's Place Challenge blog.

This adorable image is called "Something Sweet". Spring is definitely my favorite season and so sweet, so this little cutie with her ice cream cone said Spring to me. She's colored with my Copics.

When I was looking for a sketch to follow, I found this incredible project over on the Tuesday Morning Sketch this week, with a link to Splitcoast Stampers for the instructions on how to create the Folded Frame. It's so easy to do, and yet it makes a great presentation.

My papers are from a digital paper pack from Correen Silke called Another Tea Party and can be found at ComputerScrapbook.Com. Oh and they were free. The ribbon was some I picked up out of a sale bin. I created the flower using my MTC and my cricut and some free svg files for quilled flowers provided by Sandy McCauley. I inked the edges of the flower, and I love the way it turned out. Finally, my sentiment was created by me in Photoshop and this time I played with the shadowing features.

I absolutely love this card.

Going Buggy for Spring

I think the whole country is ready for spring this year. Even the South has been inundated with cold weather and three snow storms since Christmas Day(a very rare occurrence this far south in the United States. Well to encourage Spring along, this week the challenge is "Spring is on the way" over on the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog. I totally embraced this challenge, because I am so over Winter.

Phindy recently released this cutie called Bug Buddy. He and some Wee Babbies just jumped right into my cart the last time I was at Phindy's Store. I'm holding off poking my head in there until she adds some more Babbies. I still have a coupon to use, and I know I want, because I know I have to have each and every one. I colored him with my Copics.

The sketch is an old one from Tuesday Morning Sketches. Isn't it funny how you can see a sketch and instantly visualize how you want to make it your own? The paper is from my huge stash. I used my MTC software and my Cricut to cut out the red band with the circle. I was going to make a wobble card, but my wire wasn't thin enough to make him wobble. Instead, I decided to make him into a Spinner card.

I created the sentiment in Photoshop. I used my Martha Stewart ladybug edge bunch to create the ladybug embellishments. I layered them about 6 deep to keep them some from being so flat. I love the way this card turned out. Makes me really want Spring and with the gorgeous weather we've had this week, I hope I'm not getting my hopes up too soon.

Show Me Thursday #11

Man, I can't believe we've been doing the Sassy Cheryls Show Me Thursdays for nearly 3 months. The fun part is that I'm still as nosey as I was the first week and look forward to checking out everyones space and what they have going on. Hey the fact that I might win a free image out of the deal is also a good incentive.:)

Since I got home from our vacation, I've gotten a few cards made, but mainly I've been working on doing some reorganizing and cleaning up in TM. My neighbor is back working on scrapbooks on her half of the table, so I needed to give up some of the space I've been using(like the whole table instead of just half of it). I used to have a tray that besides holding an organizer bag, also just seem to collect junk. I was forever searching for things. I took the long wooden crate, added some pen holders and a box and separated out my scissors, glue pens, embossing tools, razor cutters, etc. I also used the pink folding bag on the left to hold my ATG gun and some glue runners. The green folding bag has all my glue dots. The binder has my Copics Classroom information in it. By getting rid of the tray, I now have enough space for my Cuttlebug and my cutter on the far end of the table

The first thing I did was to reorganize my scraps into a small container by colors, then by solids and patterned. I have them cut down to sizes that will easily fit on a card and in the box. I then cleared out a space in my paper cabinet, that I can slide the box into to get it out of my way, yet easy enough to get to. The paper on the top shelf and the second shelf you see is cardstock that my sister got for me. The company she works shut down there printing room and was just throwing all this paper away. The last time she was here, she brought me a huge stack of 11" x 17" chipboard. The lower shelf is colored 20 lb. paper, and the bottom shelf has 11" x 17" 90 lb cardstock.

In my crafting space, you can see a small photo album. One of the things cluttering up my work space was card sketches that I had printed and saved. I kept trying to decide how I could actually store them so that I could use them. I thought about a Rolodex, but it would have needed to be too big and in my way. When I was in my office, I spotted this photo album that contained a bunch of out of date names, addresses and phone nos. for Weight Watcher leaders. PERFECT and to make it better, the cards with the names and addresses were there for gluing the sketches too. The good news is that I still have half the book to add sketches too. I still have to tackle my DP paper rack, but for now, I think I'll get back to being creative.

Glad you stopped by and don't expect things to look this good next week. I don't want to spoil you.

Love is in the Air

It for sure is today, since it is Valentine's day. It's also in the air over on the Tiddly Inks Challenge blog, as we were to create a love inspired project. For this one I chose the image "Some Bunny Loves You". What coloring I did was done with my Copics. There are tons of Love inspired images at the Tiddly Inks store, so be sure to check them out.

I have been watching Make The Cut tutorials, and in one they did a tutorial and created a scalloped rectangle with a lattice interior that I loved. I thought it would be great for a Valentine card with some red heart embellishments added to the lattice work. Obviously the bunnies were the perfect image to use. I have to say, I was amazed how easy it was to create the scalloped lattice rectangle and how well it cut. Paper was nothing more than plain red and white cardstock. I found the red heart buttons a couple of weeks ago at a Walmart that has a whole lot better craft department than mine.

It's a pretty simple card, but I like the way it turned out. I think the simplicity just serves to accentuate the image.

Some Color Inspiration

This week over on the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog, we were given this Image to use for a color inspriration. Not only did I love the colors(how can you go wrong with a quilt that has ever color covered), but it was also the inspiration for the image I used.

Reading is absolutely one of my all time favorite things to do, and I love escaping into the world of a good book. The best is snuggling under a quilt with your book.

This is one of my favorite images, and I didn't find it at Cheryl's Store, but at Squigglefly before I ever knew who Sassy Cheryl was. The image is called "Avid Reader". It was so much fun to color this one, since the choices of colors were wide open. She is of course colored with Copics.

The sketch is from this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge Blog. Again, it allowed for a mix of colored papers. I spent all of yesterday sorting and organizing all my scraps of paper. I've committed to using more of my scraps and deplenishing my supply. Why save it, if you're not going to use it, RIGHT?

The sentiment was a take off of an anonymous quote I found today, but it says it all. I created the sentiment in Photoshop. Finally the flowers were created using my Cricut and my MTC software. I am so loving that software, and all that it allows me to do. I also used it to cut my ovals, and I was able to make them exactly the size to fit my image, instead of making my image fit the side of the oval.

Thanks for stopping by.

Another One Slid By Me

While I was busy getting ready to go skiing, I neglected to make birthday cards for three of my friends. Since I got home from skiing, I've been using any challenge out there to create a belated birthday card. This week on the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog, we were tasked to use embossing of some form or another. Needless to say this was a challenge that called for a belated birthday card.

Since the reason I was late with the birthday cards was because I was out in Colorado playing in the snow, I thought it was very appropriate to use this image, called "Whoosh", one of Phindy's Winter Cuties. Be sure to check them out at the Phindy's Place Store. I colored my image with my Copics. I created the dark blue scalloped rectangle with my Cricut and my MTC software, and then used my Marthat Stewart ScoreBoard to emboss the diamonds. I also cut a rectangle of cream paper and embossed it with my Cuttlebug Polka Dots folder and gave it a hit with some blue ink. For the card itself, I used some DP that I had in my stash.

Finally, the sentiment in keeping with the reason I missed getting the card done in the first place was something I created in Photoshop. . Hope my friend can forgive me for being late with her card. Now I need to get busy on some Valentine cards.