Mailboxes!!!!

I absolutely adore these little mailboxes! I heard about them on Gingerwood, and knew I had to make some for the gift shop. I did a search for other people's mailboxes, and was so impressed! I live in the middle of nowhere, so my mom got ten of them for me and brought them down when she visited us this weekend. Thanks, Mom!

I was grateful to find an amazing tutorial, otherwise, I could not have done it. I am not a crafter, and had no idea how to get around the little flag! I also did a couple of things differently; I found it easier to apply the tape to the mailbox, then slowly put on the paper. Also, undercutting for me just does not always turn out well. I ended up scanning the lid and reducing it, then printing it on cardstock for a template. I kept them all very simple; I did not want to make a huge project out of it.

Actually, the one with the buttons was not as quick; hunting through my large collection of buttons for the right sizes that were not to concave or thick, etc, was time consuming. I was really happy to come up with the idea of using my half-inch hole punch to decorate them.

The mailboxes come in pink, red, and white. These are the pinks.

Salt challenge: encouragement

This week's challenge from Salt is perfect for me. I started "Encouraging Impressions" to encourage people to uplift one another; to look for opportunities to be a blessing and encourage those around us.

Background made with alcohol inks. Text is from Eureka, butterfly is unknown.

I will post a better pic tomorrow; embossing looks really rugged in this scan, and I want natural light when I take the picture.

Edit: Well, I had used repositional glue for the card because I wasn't satisfied with it. This morning I realized it was because it was unbalanced, so I added the ribbon. I cut three little strips of variegated organdy, twisted it and applied heat.

One last card set!

It amazes me how quickly cards are made when there is no layering or embellishing!

Edit: Main image is from Chapel Road Artstamps, text is from Eureka, and the dragonfly is from SmARTworks.

Peacock feather

This card set was made with peacock feather from Eureka, embossed in silver, and painted with Twinkling H2Os on sparkle white cardstock.

A song in your heart

I needed to make some more card sets for the Daily Grind. These are always simple designs with no layers or embellishing.

This one is from part of a set I had been wanting to get from SmARTworks ever since I first discovered the site. But I really do have plenty of music stamps, so I couldn't justify the purchase. But, I finally weakened! There is a darling little mouse with a violin that is part of the set, but coloring him in for each card in the set would have been too time consuming.

Be Still

Earlier this month I had started making cards from pictures my Dad had taken. This is another from those pictures. I just got back the stack of them that I had gotten these from, and look forward to making more.

rose hearts

This is a card from last year that was damaged, and needed some surgery. I'm really trying to use card parts from my huge stash of unfinished/slightly damaged work, so this was good. The text (Stampin Up) looks a bit overwhelming in the scan, but it really isn't. Hearts are from Biblical Impressions.

Music Journal

I started this journal some months back. I had it in mind to do black music notes for the background, for a primarily black and white cover. I honestly don't know where my mind was when I went ahead and embossed them in gold!!! I think I must have had in mind another journal idea that involved gold embossing, and just forgot what I was doing. At any rate, it just was a bit too glitzy for me, so I set it aside until I came up with a design I liked. I also had not planned to add the extra music symbols, but I accidently put a very noticeable smudge on the "God gives us music" panel, and did not want to redo it! So, I did a cover-up!

The last journal I made got me really thinking for the first time about sealing some of my more delicate journals. But after one is complete is not the time to figure that out! I asked on Gingerwood, and one suggestion was a clear plastic cover. At the time, I was rather set on coating the journal; it seemed a shame to cover such nice texture! But with no experiencing with sealing, I can't bear to risk ruining it. So, a quick call to the church secretary got me a few transparencies to work with! (I live in a small town, not sure I'd find any locally). I decided this journal, though less "fragile" could use protection for the white, so I've covered it as well.

I hope next month to experiment with a few sealers, and I'll post here or on my website when I'm finished.

Background music notes from Stampin Up, "God gave music" from Eureka, large music note from Stubby Stamper, remaining stamps from Merry Stamper.

Have a blessed day!

wallpaper covered journal

The background of this journal is wallpaper. I have been using wallpaper on the back of every journal I make because it's so easy to dirty the back of a journal, and wallpaper can be wiped off. I'm guessing the corners will get less wear as well. This time I decided to use wallpaper for the cover as well, and I really like how it turned out. I used coordinating wallpaper on the inside and back cover.

I was short one soft gold brad, so I applied versamark ink to a bright gold brad, and embossed it with some really old gold embossing powder that had lost it's luster. It is a near-perfect match!

Text is from Biblical Impressions,.

Travel Journal

I don't know what to call the matt I am using. I found it at a craft going-out-of-business sale, right along with scrapbook papers, but it definitely is real wood strips. If you look in the lower left corner you can see that cutting the matting snapped threads. I plan to glue them down, but wanted to scan first; I glued them down once before, but in punching it with the bind-it-all they all came up again.

Toad-ally adorable stamp!

So far, every card I have made for Valentine's day has involved using something from my drawers of previously stamped pieces that I had not found use for, or were duplicates that were not finished, etc. This time, I took a colored image from Biblical Impressions' "atti-toads", that had never made it onto a card.

Salt Challenge:

This SALT challenge, "For where your treasure is, so will your heart be also," was very difficult for me; I knew I wanted to use a treasure chest, but did not have one, and did not want to attempt to create one. I saw this one at Kmart last week, but did not even want to spend $2.50 on it, which was the current clearance price. It's very cheaply made, wobbly, etc, and the gold paint is a bit much! However, today it was down to $1.24, and I hadn't come up with any other ideas, so I decided at that price I'd give it a try! (I saved the bath supplies that came with it for next year's stocking stuffers.)

I had a number of ideas for this chest, but all would just have been too time consuming, if I could even have carried them out, and I'm on a bit of a time crunch right now. I decided I'd give myself just a couple of hours tonight to figure it out, and if I couldn't, I'd just not do this particular challenge. The result was not particularly successful, but as I am always doing cards or journals, I thought it would be good for me to step outside the box a bit.

Anyway, I got an idea (finally!) of making coins, and I wanted what was on the coins to represent the treasure I seek, which is to be like Christ. I started out with Fruit of the Spirit stamps. However, only love, joy, and peace could fit on the coins I punched! Hmmm... I looked through my scripture and encouragement stamps, and found a few more "character treasures" contained within verses. Then I actually stamped and punched portions of scripture that encourage me, and finally, some symbols of the Greatest Treasure, Jesus Himself. I found a lamb, a Bible, and a dove for the Holy Spirit.

The cardstock I used really does shimmer like gold and like silver, so I was happy with the coins, but definitely am not really happy with the project overall. So, why am I posting? Because I spent $1.26 on that chest and wanted something to show for it!!! :-)

Faux Batik hearts

I have two plastic drawers filled with backgrounds and other stamped images that I never used. The background of this card is one of those, from Valentine's Day last year. The hearts were clear embossed, then markered in. I put the panel between paper towels, and ironed off the embossing (faux batik). I embossed in white on vellum, scroll hearts that are a larger version of the ones in my previous Valentine post. I almost gave up on using it, I just could not get the look I wanted. I finally had a design I was satisfied with, glued down the panel onto the card, then realized I was using it in a landscape style, so the hearts were sideways! With the panel already glued to the card, I could not use a corner punch, which would have helped the design a bit. At least I realized the mistake before I glued the embossed hearts over it, lol!

textured hearts

I bought the wave cardstock used in this card a couple of years ago, but haven't used it since last year. It's kind of funny that the only time I seem to be using this earth tone, "rugged" looking cardstock is for Valentine's Day! But, I like to have some cards for the guys as well! The twine was an afterthought; I like the simplicity of the hearts, but the card was a little too plain. I decided a bow was too girly, so I did the basic knot. But when I added one to the second heart, it looked funny. So, I made a bow, and put that on the other heart to see if I should do that instead. But, as you can see, when I saw the two together, the knotted piece suddenly became a bow tie, and I now instead of just hearts, I had sweethearts! :-)

First swap!

I've never swapped cards before, but Mary Bibow from Gingerwood offered to send me one of her noel cards, because I wanted to see it, and she does not have a way to put her cards onto the computer. So it seemed only fair to do a swap! I just recieved it this week, and was absolutely delighted! At first glance, they are very similar, but the overall "feel" of the cards is very different.

Mine has a bit more color (looks almost loud next to Mary's, lol!), and the embossing is a brighter, crisper gold (Ranger gold detail).

Mary used "quieter" colors, and then she added (I think) some foiling on the berries, and maybe some holographic embossing on the mistletoe berries. The parchment background with the raised embossing, the muted colors, and the darker gold give a beautiful antique look to the card. Very, very classy and elegant! Thanks, Mary!

I had made two other cards with this stamp, and while Christmas is over, I'm linking them here simply as an encouragement for all of you to look over stamps that you may have gotten bored with, and see if you can get some fresh vision for them!

This card was done with alcohol inks.

This card was was embossed with holographic embossing powder with blue ink, I believe. Picture did not scan well. :-(

If you are unfamiliar with Gingerwood, it is a message board for rubber stampers, full of helpful links, great advice, etc.

Computerless!

We suddenly were without computer for two days, and it was so odd! I don't realize how much I use it! It's my major source of stamping support - Gingerwood stamping message board for advice, almost all my stamping related purchases, inspiration from blogs, etc. Because we don't have TV, it's my main source for news. I tend to misplace recipes, so I keep them on the computer. I had half the ingredients (the memorized ones) mixed together for something when I realized I couldn't get the rest off the computer, lol!

But I got lots of stamps organized, and soon hope to have them on my website. In fact, I hope to have a lot things on my website in the next month or so! If I can stand to, I may continue doing that for a couple of days, and then I'll be back to stamping! I just got in some cardstock to make a few more journals as well...

And just for the fun of it, I'll post the recipe I was attempting to make when I realized I had no computer to retrieve the recipe. It's a really, really delicious snack. Don't let the odd ingredient throw you! ;-) Also, I always double the recipe, use small pretzels instead of nuggets (cheaper that way) and actually throw in extra. Totally addicting.

Cranberry Bog Gorp

¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1½ cups dried cranberries
1½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts
and/or slivered almonds
1½ cups lightly salted pretzel nuggets

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Melt butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in curry powder and cinnamon. Add cranberries, walnuts and pretzels; stir to combine.
2. Spread mixture on greased 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake 15 minutes or until mixture is crunchy and lightly browned.

Valentine

I was able to make 6 hearts from the panel I used for the last card, and was going to just make a duplicate of it. But, instead I made this variation. Text is from Biblical Impressions.

Valentine's Day

It was hard to break from Christmas card making; I had a few stamps I did not get to use this year that I was really looking forward to working with!

But it is fun to work on a new holiday. This card was done with alcohol inks and gold embossing powder. The hearts came from Biblical Impressions, the text from Stampin Up.

Sympathy Card

I won't be able to sell this card because of the lines from the printer running through it, but I hope to re-create it sometime. Both the paper upon which the flower is printed and the blue background cardstock are "sparkle" cardstocks. Text, from Eureka, is embossed in silver.

This is the day

Another photo card from my Dad's pictures. As with the last card, the scan does not do it justice, the picture is beautiful.