Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Learn Something New Every Day!

Today's card technique (brayered roses) came from Patty Bennett. I saw her video and had to give it a try! They are even more pretty in person! You need the textured impressions manhattan flower die and the big shot. I ran glossy white card stock through the die and then brayered the roses with rose red and summer sun. Finally I cut out the roses. This was a new technique and a lot of fun! I encourage you to learn something new every day! You'll be amazed at the results!!!! If you want to check out Patty's video go to http://pattystamps.com/pattys_stamping_spot/2009/04/brayered-roses-technique-and-video.html. Enjoy!

Playing around in the craft room this evening :) I used the "negative" cut out from the decorative accents die to sponge the basic gray background on the sky blue card stock. I am still loving my Pocket Silhouettes stamp set - especially when you add a little bling (dazzling diamonds glitter)! Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Make Friends With Something That Scares You!

Who knew that May 19th was Circus Day?!? Who comes up with these "official" days anyway? Well, when I saw it was Circus Day I immediately thought "clown!" I have to admit...I have a strong dislike for clowns. They scare me! I don't know why I dislike them. I can't remember any close encounters of the frightening kind with any clowns when I was little. But somehow, someway, I developed a strong clown aversion. So today I decided to try to make friends with something that scares me and I created this punch art clown. And believe me, he doesn't have a mean bone in his punch art body :) Sometimes you just have to stare fear in the face :)

His hair was made with a square scallop punch (I cut the square in half). His bow is 2 hearts with a circle in the middle. His hat is a combination of the key tag punch and a small oval punch. I brightened his nose with crystal effects. I think everything else is self-explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions :) Hope you like him...and I hope he doesn't scare you :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Too Much Of A Good Thing Is Sometimes A Good Thing!

Yes, it's daisies again! I seem to be in love with this Big Shot die! Or maybe I'm just in love with the fact that it's Spring and everything is blooming. Maybe feeling cheerful is something I can't get enough of right now. Maybe too much of a good thing is a good thing right now :) There are just some things that fit into the good thing category right now and I just can't get enough - daisies, sunshine, love, time with the people and animals I care about, creating, laughter, breezes, breathing...I know the saying goes "everything in moderation"...but for today I'm all about excess!!! :)

This card was a lot of fun to make. I used the clear circle die in my big shot to make the circle card. The daisies were made with the daisies die in the Big Shot. I embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder. I hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Everything Happens In Its Own Time

This is a difficult time of year for me. You would think the joy would overtake the sadness - everything is in bloom - the sky is bright blue. And yet, as it gets closer to May 9th, the anniversary of my father's death, I find myself getting a bit melancholy. One of Michael's friends is also in the hospital right now - everyone is waiting to see what will happen - to see if he will rally or if now is his time. I realize that everything happens in its own right time - whether it is life or death or a creation we are making. We try to manipulate when and how things happen, but ultimately, everything finds its own right time - a time that is perfect and right.

This card had its own right time too. Had I not walked by the Cheerios box this morning I would not have been captivated by the bright yellow, red and black on the box and this card would not have come into being today (or maybe any other day).

So today recognize that all is well. All is happening in its own right time. We can sit back and take a deep breath and exhale....

Mother's Day is almost here. A special day to celebrate the women who birthed us and raised us. It also marks the time when we can begin planting in the garden here in Denver without fear of a deep freeze! Yeah! I made this card this morning for my mom. I love the combination of baja breeze and kiwi kiss. Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: You Never Know Where Something Has Been

This lesson sounds like something my mom used to tell me when I would pick something up off the ground and want to keep it! But I digress...Have you seen the movie The Red Violin? It is a wonderful movie about an antique violin. The movie traces the story of the violin - where it has been over time, who has "owned the violin" - a peek into the past of an inanimate object. So often in life, however, we do not know where something has been, and instead, we base our judgments on what we see - we make assumptions without knowing the history behind what we see...

So let me share a secret...the background on this card was another card! It was my first attempt at today's challenge. An attempt that got me frustrated - I almost posted it with a lesson about "loving ugly!" But then my creative process got the best of me and I tore the card up (you probably can't even see the inspired by nature flower stamp with the white dots all over it and the sponged blue circle with the sponged coral background...). The torn pieces got put back together to be the back of a garden green card...which I then decided didn't look good, but would work better as a background piece on a ballet blue card. And so, what you see in front of you is a finished product that I am quite proud of...and part of my pride is the history behind what you see. The other part of my pride is that I stuck with it and didn't let the "ugly" get me down :)

OK, so I had to play again! After I did the last card, I couldn't get the image of snake skin out of my mind, so I decided to make a punch snake :)

I did the embossed wax paper resist technique and then brayered with green inks. After I brayered, I ran the sheet back through the Big Shot with the texturz plate again. The snake has a tag punch head and a round tab punch body. Hope you like him. He likessssssssss you :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Say Thank You And Go In A Different Direction

I've had a few days off in a row and I find that when I start to slow down, my internal voice starts to speed up! I have to say that at times my internal voice really doesn't have anything nice to say - it's like I have my own little internal bully :( Good thing I also have an internal voice that also loves to nurture and that voice is teaching me to say "thank you" to the bully and then head in another direction - a place where I remind myself that I am a beautiful, creative being :) So if you find your internal critic is being a bully...say "thanks, but I'm not headed in your direction!"

It was fun to try the embossed wax paper resist technique on SCS today! It was like magic! I used a texturz plate and brayered with real red ink. The cupcake was made with a series of punches and a bunch of stickles :) Enjoy!

The sky in the park tonight was purple and gray. I had never seen a purple sky before. It was awe inspiring and prompted me to create this card.

This set is sooo cute (Voila by Stampin' Up!) - love it! I thought the image was perfect for a small notebook to use as a grocery list. I broke out the bind-it-all and the stamp set and...voila!

Playing and cleaning in the craft room today! The images for this card are from the Kindred Spirits and Organic Outlines stamp sets by Stampin' Up! The colors are summer sun, old olive and pumpkin pie. Enjoy!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Let It Come To You

I had a dream about making a scallop edged card...how funny that today's featured stamper on SCS had a wonderful scallop card in her gallery to inspire me!

It's funny how some things just come to you when you need them. Today's gallery card gave me the extra little nudge I needed to sit down and make my own scallop card. I took a 10"x5" piece of whisper white card stock, scored it and folded it in half and then used my scallop circle die to make the card. If you line up the fold line just beneath the edge of the scallop circle on the die (inside the scallop circle), the die will not cut through the folded edge and you will have a scallop card! Today's color combination also "just came to me." I was looking at my mess of a craft table and there, in the center, were the new rolls of ribbon that I just got from SU! The tangerine tango ribbon was on top of the baja breeze ribbon and I thought "what a pretty combo!" Sometimes you have to just sit back and let things come to you :)