Tonight's Lesson From The Craft Room: Watching Other People Create Is Inspiring!

Tonight's card was inspired by Kristina Werner's "A Year In Cards." If you haven't checked out her work, take a look - her videos are a ton of fun! (You can find them on her blog at www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/). I love watching her create - it makes me want to rush into the craft room and play! Tonight I watched her video and immediately wanted to try stamping on transparency with staz-on. Very fun! (fyi, the "transparency" is actually the packaging from a cuttlebug embossing folder - I just can't bare to throw away clear packaging these days!). The finished card size is 4.5"x4.5". Hope you like it!!!! Thanks Kristina! :) (ps once i get some equipment i am planning to try making some videos...i'll keep you posted on when they will be showing up!)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: It's Instinct

No sooner had I let my cat out into the backyard the afternoon, she was pouncing on a small brown bird. I screamed out to try to startle here, but to no avail. The little bird was too injured and died very quickly. It's moments like these that make me both sad and thoughtful. After all, my cat hunting a bird is just instinct. She is doing that which she was born to do. And so it is with me and creativity. Whenever I am in the craft room creating, I feel that I am doing what I was born to do - that creating is just instinct.

Today's challenge on SCS was to stamp something with a summer theme. Summer makes me think of all of the amazingly beautiful trees we get to enjoy! I added a dash of dazzling diamonds and got my bonus points using a tag :) Hope you like it!

Today's Second Lesson From The Craft Room: It Feels Good To Clear...

My mom is in town visiting and I am so grateful that she has the patience and energy to help me clean out my closets! It feels so good to clear things out - things that have been sitting in that closet without seeing the light of day for ages! Hopefully I can stay motivated to start clearing out in other places in the house - I can feel the house breathing a sigh of relief as I help to unload the burden I have stuffed into it! :)

This card was soooo simple. Just some specialty designer paper, a few punched hearts, a stamped greeting and a ribbon and ta-da! Hope you like it!

My mom and I had so much fun making the first cards, we decided to make more!!!! Here is the result. My mom got to play with the Big Shot for the first time and made these flowers! The flower centers were made by running some Chocolate Chip card stock through a Cuttlebug embossing folder and punching out with a circle punch. Hope these flowers cheer up your day!

Today's Lesson From My Mom In The Craft Room: It's Fun Creating With A Loved One!

Today I had a special treat as my mom is visiting from Atlanta so I took the day off and we went into the craft room together to create! I asked my mom what her lesson was from the experience and she said "It's fun creating with a loved one!" :)

The top card is the one I created and the bottom one my mom created - this is the first card she has every made! Yeah mom!!!! :) We used basic black and brushed gold card stock. We embossed that beautiful image from the new Charming stamp set in the SU! Holiday Mini Catalog and added a little lace edging. Hope you like the cards and hope you can spend some time creating with a loved one very soon!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Even If You Just Have 5 Minutes, Go For It!

Today flew by and I realized that I was about to head to bed without having created anything. So I told myself "Okay Michelle, you have 5 minutes to create something, anything!" Off I went into the craft room. Of course, doing a full-size card in 5 minutes seemed a bit daunting to me, so I went with a 3x3 - small amount of time, small space :) I took out my new Hello Again stamp set and grabbed the flower stamp and my whisper white craft ink and went to town! The center of the flowers were the perfect excuse to use the new embellishments I had created using gold liquid pearls by Ranger (have you tried this stuff yet? it was a lot of fun!). The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes, popped up with dimensionals. Hope you like it...and if you only have 5 minutes before you head to bed or start your day, go see what you can create! :)

As you will see from the post below... I never made it past the craft room to head to bed :) But I am heading to bed now - just wanted to share this card that I made for my aunt - her birthday is this week and this handmade card is the least I can do to celebrate the day she was born :) She is such a treasure!!!! I used Basic Gray card stock and a retired designer series paper that I love. I highlighted areas on the paper using my 2-way glue pen and dazzling diamonds. I stamped the leaf image on the Basic Gray card stock using Versamark ink to create a watermark effect. The thin strip of Whisper White card stock was run through the crimper. I added a row of paper piercing, a greeting and a final touch of bling! On the inside of the card I added a piece of Whisper White card stock stamped in the lower right-hand corner with the leaf stamp. Hope you like it! Sweet dreams!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Life Is Good :)

It is great to be back in the craft room!!!! I had a wonderful time at the Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City!!!! I won a beautiful necklace (more on that in an upcoming post), made some great new friends, and got excited and inspired!!!!! Yeah!!!! Life really is good! I can't wait to share so much with you in the upcoming days!

I also have an exciting personal announcement. I have decided to leave my full-time position with my company and instead do contract work for them so that I can pursue a more creative/artistic life! I am incredibly excited about this transition - it took me quite awhile to reach the point of making a decision, but as my wonderful aunt wrote me in an email "a miracle happens when you are strong enough to surrender." So although I am surrendering with one foot still in my work world, I am moving forward and cannot wait to experience what is yet to come!!!!! I look forward to sharing my creative life with you!

This card was inspired by the above pillow (from a Crate and Barrel catalog). My brother and sister-in-law will be celebrating their anniversary this week, so I better get it in the mail! Enjoy!