Today's Lesson From A Craft Room: Go Play With A Friend :)

Today I went to spend some time with my friend Elizabeth. Her 2 children were sleeping when I arrived and we decided to play with some of her latest SU! arrivals! It was a ton of fun - I hadn't had a play date in a while :) It's amazing how taking some time out to go play with a friend can really lift your spirits! We were also quite productive in making the above thank you notes for her daughter's birthday party (notice the new SU! In Colors!). These cards were so simple. Just a piece of colored card stock cut to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Then a piece of white card stock cut to 4 x 5 1/4 inches. We stamped the white card stock and then used the crop-a-dile to create two large holes at the top (through both pieces of cardstock) and then tied the ribbon through the holes...no adhesive required! So simple and so cute! I need to go play with a friend more often :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Some Things Are Beyond Reason...

Have you ever found yourself staying in a job that is killing you just so you have health insurance? Or maybe you've listened to a boss tell their staff that they have always aspired to be a part of a team like this when you know the team is unhappy, undervalued, and ready to leave? Today I'm realizing...not for the first or last time...that some things in life are beyond reason. They just don't make sense...as a matter of fact, they make non-sense! And it does become almost laughable. So today, I will choose to laugh :)

Today's card was made for a friend to give to his wife for her birthday. The greeting inside says "bark, bark, bark" and underneath that it says "happy birthday." I started with kraft card stock and then used the lace border punch on a piece of certainly celery card stock and attached that. Next I took some designer card stock that I had bought about eight million years ago at Hobby Lobby and cut it into strips and attached the strips to the card stock. The dogs were stamped, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. (They are from the SU set Man's Best Friend...which will still be available...it's just on the dormant list so it's not in the new catalog). The circles were punched using the 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 circle punches. I hope it makes you smile :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: A Little Walk Can Soothe Your Soul

Today, like so many days lately, was a stressful one at work. I finally decided to shut off the email and end my day. I wanted to do some creating, but I just felt all out of sorts. So I decided the best thing to do was to go and visit with Mother Nature. Buddy and I took a walk up to the park - watched a little boy playing t-ball in the park - he was adamantly saying to his brother "You need to listen to me or I will not do this anymore forever!" Oh how I wish that I as an adult could just say those words at work! How fun would that be?! :) Anyway, the visit to the park - the slow afternoon walk - really put me back together again and gave me the change of pace I needed to be able to walk back home and into the craft room.

I pulled out an old SU! stamp that I had picked up at a flea market - it's called Romantic Rose. Seemed to be the perfect image for aging. I stamped it in close to cocoa on very vanilla card stock and used the tearing edge to rough up the edges. Then I began my sponging with creamy caramel first, then close to cocoa, then chocolate chip, then basic black...and finally a little more chocolate chip for good luck :) This was a really fun technique! The ribbon and the greeting were the easy part. I hope you like it.

This is frame makeover #2! Everything used to decorate this frame, except for the small piece of ribbon and the adhesive, came from the same Simply Scrappin' kit as the frame below and I still have TONS of card stock, paper and sticky die cuts to use for a lot of other projects! Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: It's Time For A Makeover!

I bought the above Merry Christmas frame after Christmas last year at Hobby Lobby. It was 50% off and cost me about $1.50 and I knew that although it looked quite sad, with a little time and attention I could make it into something beautiful! As a matter of fact, I felt a bit like Stacey and Clinton of the show What Not To Wear when I looked at this frame. I mean the poor thing...kind of dumpy, kind of dreary...but what great bone structure! This frame just needed a little TLC :) So today it was time for a makeover!

I used a retired Simply Scrappin' Kit that I had sitting unopened in the craft room (this was my first time actually using one of these kits and I am now addicted! It comes with card stock, matching designer paper and a huge number of sticky die cuts all for $19.95 and it is great for cards, scrapbook pages or makeovers :) The only thing I added was the one small piece of ribbon and mono adhesive to attach the paper to the frame and a few pop-up glue dots to adhere the flowers...and voila!!!

So if you're feeling drab or dreary or are just in the mood for a change...maybe it's time for a makeover! Today is the perfect day!