Sunflowers

I wanted to post the photos my friends made at our card workshop, based on the card that I made.  I love that they each expressed their individualtiy and came up with such beautiful ideas.

 

 

Arshay, Vanessa and Felicia, thanks so much for coming!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

I had every intention of posting over the weekend,  the cards I was preparing for a workshop I was doing with my co-workers.

There were a few glitches with my plan.  First of all, I had yet to come up with all of the cards I wanted to make.  I had one definite card, but I promised we would make 2 cards and 1 Christmas tag.

The next glitch was that all the stuff I ordered to make the tags, didn't come on Friday.  It was delayed until Monday.  So, no tags.

This part is not really a glitch, but let's call it that.  Saturday was a gorgeous day!!  First day of fall and I LOVE all things fall.  My hubby was home, preparing for a conference, and my son didn't have anything going on.  So we took a ride to Northeast, Maryland and headed to Woody's for crabs.  Crabs and Cosmos for me!  A strange combination you may think, but don't knock it until you try it.  And let's be honest; Cosmos go with EVERYTHING!!  We walked around the quaint town, stopped for ice cream and went to Elk's Neck State Park - the place my husband almost proposed (he did a complete fake out, took me to this gorgeous park and dropped to his knee.....to tie his sneaker!!)

But I digress.  By the time we got home, it was after 6.  Sure, plenty of time to do something, except I didn't feel like it.

So.........what happened?

SUNDAY morning, I got up early, started dinner and went to my craft area for a few hours to prepare.  I cut paper and prepped for the card I knew were going to make :

This was in an earlier post.  I made this card with one of my besties, Maureen.  Maureen, besides being my dear friend and sister for over 20 years, is now also my upline with Stampin Up!!  We saw the layout of this card in a Stampin Success magazine.  We used the Patio Party Designer paper (#126916)  for the strip, scallop punch ( 2 3/8"), circle punch (2 1/2") and the Make a Cake stamp set (#126740).  We added a little bling by using Dazzling Details (#124117) piece of Seam Binding Ribbon in Baja Breeze (#122331). 

My co-workers are all so creative and did their own variations of the card, all of which came out great!

So, the card I came up with, after using up TONS of paper was Sunflower card.  The first try, I used the traditional black and gold colors of the sunflower:

It's nice, but it seemed sort of....blah and cold to me.  So thinking of fall, I switched the colors and viola!

This is the  Sunflower background stamp (#123606). I used Soft Suede ink pad (#126978), paper colors are Soft Suede (#115318), Crumb Cake (used to be called Kraft Paper # 120953) and Dafodil Delight (#119683).  I added Linen Thread  (#104199).  I used my blender pen along with Summer Starfruit ink (##126991, part of the In Color Collection) to color in the petals.

I took a photo of what our stamping group made.  They each put a different spin on their cards.  They all look great!! I will post that photo later. 

And then....(wow, this is a lot)...

I pulled out my Halloween stuff.  Since I didn't have my Christmas items, I thought I would work with what I had. I purchased the Ghoulish Googlies Designer Bundle  (#129853), which includes everything you need to make treat bags for Halloween. I bought it thinking this would be great for my son's class.  The bundle includes, tags, bags, googlies for eyes and a 6 piece stamp set with a Halloween motif. I made one to show my son and he said - Mom, that's for babies!!  I thought, but you are my baby, but I knew not to say it.  He's in 5th grade and when I thought about it, I thought, yeah, maybe it is a little too baby-ish.

So, what to do?  I also bought the Howlstooth & Scaringbone Designer Series Paper (#126906). This is 12x12 size paper.....so I thought- A BOOKMARK!!  The students at his school have to read at least 20 minutes a day.  I thought bookmarks would be great for them.

I cut the paper 6X2.  I used the cardboard piece that comes with shoes to put between the paper.  The Howlstooth paper is double sided.  I cut 2 strips and put the cardboard in between.  It's thinner than card board; more like what comes in a pack of pantyhose. I used this to make it a little thicker.  I stamped and then cut out my ghoul and added an eye to it. Punched the top and added a piece of black ribbon and here is my bookmark:

And here is the back of the bookmark, which you could also decorate:

I showed this to my son and he loved it!!  He now wants me to make (are you ready) 27 MORE for his classmates and friends!!! 

Okay, so that's what I've been doing.  Why don't you go get your craft on?  Be back soon!!

Kind of a Craft....

Wanted to share an example of what is "sort" of a craft.  My son attends a great summer camp here in Delaware.  My husband and I share the duty of drop off and pick up, which is great.  However, DH's being who they are, he sometimes misses the many announcements that are on the board.  After a couple weeks of doing pick up, my husband casually mentions he "may have" missed a few announcements. So, I said okay - I'll check the board.

I do pick up and read - TOMORROW, Dress up as your favorite animal.   TOMORROW? Where the heck do I get an animal costume on such short notice.  Once my son, Chris, was in the car, completely exhausted from swimming, I said are you dressing up? He says HECK NO, that's for babies (he was soon to be turning 10). I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't have to make a 6pm run to Michael's and went home.

9pm - Chris gets out of the shower and says, "I'm going to be a white tiger tomorrow".......
Huh?  How are you going to do that? He says - you can just make it mom.  I can do many things, but a white tiger costume? At 9pm and Master Chef is coming on?!! 

Chris - the White Tiger!

So, I thought, hmm, what do I have to work with.  I go in my craft bin (which is a storage closet in my attic) and find face paint from Halloween, and no fabric. I fire up the laptop and google White Tiger face paint and thank you Lord!! There are pages and pages!!  So, this is what we ended up with...

 

He was pretty happy with the result!!

Just a few more...

 Well, this whole "blog" thing proves something; I am NOT as technically savvy as I thought I was!!  Talk about totally clueless, Geesh!!  That being said, please bear with me as I attempt to get my blog to look the way I would like.  In the meantime, I am doing something I know I can do - post a few more cards. 

My favorite -the Waterfall Card using Floral District Paper & Betsy's Blossom Stamp set.

 

 

 

 

A Few Cards...

Today, I am posting a few cards that I have made.   I have ideas for more, I just haven't translated my ideas into reality, but that will come soon!!  All cards were made using Stampin Up! products - paper, inks, stamps and embelishments. 

 I have tried other products, but for me, Stamping Up has the best paper and inks - bar none!! The quality is like nothing else. Funny enough, when I was a demonstrator in the past, SU! changed a lot of their paper colors. For whatever reason, those papers caused my fingers and hands to break out! That was another reason I stopped. I have to say, I tried everything to stay with it - I even tried to stamp in GLOVES!! LOL!!  I hope to add a few more cards later today.

Hello!

Hello!! And welcome to "Get Your Craft On"!!

I am a new (well sort of) demonstrator with Stampin Up!!  One of the best places for scrapbook and card supplies, as well as crafts.  I was a demonstrator in the past, until I almost ran myself bankrupt with the need to buy everything that I saw.

Now a few years later and a few years older (and wiser) I realize that the key to crafting (at least for me) is to do so on a budget!!

Besides scrapbooking and making cards, I love to sew!! I learned from my mother, starting at the age of 5, by helping her pin and cut patterns. I was always by her side when she sewed. I would just sit and watch and help where I could.  Then one day, she let me use some leftover fabric to make a blanket for one of my dolls.  She truly started something.  And, as an added bonus, my dad was a Tailor with a major department store (big doings back in the day), he was one of the first African American tailors at Gimbels Department Store in Phildelphia.  My grandmother and 2 of my aunts also sewed. So I got my love of sewing honestly.

And - my mother and grandmother both crochet, embrodeired and did a little quilting.  All of these things translate into what I hope will be easy ideas for gifts, or just personal crafts, that provide a creative outlet.  We all have some creativity somewhere inside. It doesn't have to be hard to enjoy it or for the craft to be good!!

So, the reason I don't say get your card or scrapbooking on is because I want do more than just that!! There are so many other crafts you can do that are easy. And I don't mean easy like Martha Stewart claims..."just put a little fondant on the top of the cake".  Ok, really? I don't have fondant on hand, do you? 

My hope is that this blog will bring a smile and a little creative happiness to all who read it.....nothing to complicated, just something for fun!!

The attached picture has nothing to do with crafting; I just happen to like it. It makes me feel happy so I wanted to share.  This is my front porch on a beautiful late summer evening...

So, that's it in the nut shell.  See you soon with some ideas for cards. I figure, we start off easy...