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!

I'm having fun in the craft room this afternoon and this card came together so quickly! I used Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke ink and card stock. The flowers are from the Cheep Talk stamp set and the small green centers are from the new Circle Circus stamp set. The greeting is from the new Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (I'm going to be using this set A LOT!). Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Don't Ask Why

Today's lesson seems quite odd without an explanation because I think the question "Why?" can be an important question to ask a lot of the time. However, today, it was important for me to not ask my intuition why it was drawn to pink pirouette or why it was trying to stamp a little bird in gray for a baby card. Instead I gently asked my internal voice to shhhhh, and just followed what my intuition was saying. This card is the end result. It is in moments like these when I am truly in awe at what can come forth - what you can't imagine - that just pops into being if you follow and trust what your intuition is calling you to do. Now might be the perfect time to ask you internal voice to shhhh and to not ask why and to just follow where you are being led.

The pink background was run through the cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder on the Big Shot. I used the Cheep Talk stamp set from SU! and stamped the branch in certainly celery - I stamped off once and then stamped the image. The little bird was stamped in going gray. The greeting is from the brand new Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (finally, a stamp set that has a greeting for just about every occassion!!! yeah!!! You can order it beginning July 1st at my site www.m.stampinup.net). The greeting was stamped in going gray and punched out using the word window punch. I punched the little flower using the trio flower punch with barely banana card stock. I added the pearl center and popped the flower and the greeting up on dimensionals. I hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Acknowledge Your Contribution

It's funny how it can be so easy to blame others for whatever situation we are in or for whatever we are upset about. We say things to ourselves like "I can't believe she is making me do this! What a (insert your choice of word here)!" The more difficult thing to do is to step away from blame and acknowledge our contribution - what have we done or not done that has brought us to this place. I realize one of the things I'm really good at NOT doing is saying "no" and by not saying "no" I can find myself in situations that I am angry about and begin to blame everyone. What I need to do is recognize my contribution - it's not about blame - and ask myself if I want to keep contributing in this way. I'm going to work on saying "no" a bit more often :)

Today's card looked fun in my mind, but maybe a bit goofier in reality :) The limited supply challenge was to make a masculine card with limited supplies that we could select from a take-out style menu - quite fun! I used the color spritzer tool with a basic black marker to make the background and punched holes in the whisper white paper with my crop-o-dile and my 1 1/2" circle punch. The boy got a mohawk with a marker :) Hope you like it...and if you don't, it's okay, I think you rock anyway :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Start Your Day Your Way

It can be so easy to wake up and get right into the grind of the day. It seems that how we start our day can really set the mood for the rest of our day. So today I decided to start my day by creating rather then getting caught up in work. It feels good to honor myself first and then move into the rest of my day.

I decided to make some bright cupcakes for today's challenge. I am really loving the new The More The Merrier hostess set! It is incredibly versatile - you can color it, paper piece it, use just parts of the images...soooo much fun!!!!! Anyway, I'm trying not to eat sweets right now, so I think these cupcakes were my way of trying to get sweets out of my system for the day :) I paper pieced the cupcakes and put some of the pieces up on dimensionals. The white background was run through a texturz plate. The greeting is a combination of 2 different greetings in the stamp set - I took the "so" from one stamp and the word "sweet" from another - I just colored the words I wanted on the stamp with my basic black marker and stamped away! Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: When You Are At The End Of Your Rope, Trust There Is A Net And Jump!!!!

It is so nice to be back in the craft room after more planes, trains and automobiles! And yes, I have been feeling lately like I'm at the end of my rope with all of this travel so I am just about ready to jump and to trust that a net will catch me! I know it will be there - the Universe has always provided - all I need is to have faith. I'll let you know if it's a soft landing :)

I kept today's card clean and simple. The background was stamped with the heart image from the More the Merrier. Punched hearts were popped up on dimensionals as were the cut out birds' wings and hearts in the center image. The images were painted in with my aqua painter. Hope you like it.

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Sometimes It's More Fun To NOT Wait For A Rainy Day!

It's that time for SU!'s new in colors...and so I tend to look at last year's outgoing in colors as precious...I mean, what's a girl to do when she can't purchase anymore kiwi kiss or baja breeze card stock?! When I saw this pair of shoes on Bugaloo http://www.bugalookids.com/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=doggy I knew my Baja Breeze needed to be a part of the challenge. And so today's lesson - rather than save the limited supply of baja breeze for a rainy day that may never come - I decided it was more fun to not wait for that rainy day and use it today instead :)

I paper pieced the dog and used a greeting from Best Yet that I cut into smaller pieces. I have what I think is called a perforating wheel that I used to perforate the edges. Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From Boston and Not The Craft Room: Feed Your Need For Creativity Wherever You Are!

Yes, I'm back on the road again...this time one of the flight attendants recognized me from having been on the Denver to Boston flight a few weeks ago - How pathetic is that?! When flight attendants start recognizing you, you know you've been spending too much time on airplanes!

So tonight I went to dinner and noticed a bookstore right next door so I wandered right to the Graphic Design and Craft Section and started feeding my creative need, as opposed to my stomach! What an amazing amount of creative food there was! I could have sat there for hours devouring all kinds of books and images! I ended up buying one book (I have yet to discover the secret of how to walk into a bookstore and leave empty-handed) - it's called Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain. I figured it had to be as good as a Starbuck's Vanilla Latte with a name like that! It is chock full of amazing activities to stimulate your creativity. For example, on p. 225 the challenge is to create a postage stamp design by choosing among a few different scenarios...I particularly liked the scenarios of "Gerbils have overrun the White House" and "Peanut Butter and Jelly was elected National Sandwich!" The stamp can be any shape or size, but must include a denomination. Seems like us stampers could have a lot of fun with a challenge like this...does anyone have a Gerbil stamp????

So even here, in a hotel room far away from the craft room, there are still ways to keep the creative juices flowing! Feed your need for creativity wherever you are! And if you decide to take the postage stamp challenge, please email me your creation at michelle@figmentsofmyimagination.com - maybe I'll post it on this blog! :)

A quick Father's Day card for Michael to send to his dad in time for Father's Day. This Branch Out set is so versatile - I love it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Some Lessons Are Hard To Learn

It seems I keep repeating certain patterns over and over. Not in my cards (although probably there too), but in my life. I know someone out there once said that you will keep repeating the same patterns as long as there is a lesson that you have yet to learn. So here I am, trying to be as good a student as possible, hoping that this time I will learn my lesson so that I can graduate from this pattern :)

I kept today's card clean and simple. I made the hole for the ribbon using the crop-a-dile and stamped some ruby red card stock with the background dot stamp from the Branch Out stamp set. The layers were sponged around the edges. The hearts were punched using the heart to heart punch. You can't really tell from the photo, but the baja breeze layer and 3 of the hearts are popped up with dimensionals. Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Do What You Want :)

Today I took the day off from work. It was so nice to have a day to do whatever I wanted...and I did my best to not fill the day with all the "oughts" and "shoulds" and "coulds" that seem to always be on my to do list! I even checked out the challenge on SCS and decided not to do the challenge, but rather to do what I was inspired to do, which was to keep working on this series of cards using the Branch Out stamp set. There is something about the pure simplicity of these cards that is really making me smile right now. So today, or tomorrow, or whenever, feel free to do what you want :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Do Nothing :)

Today I finally decided to do nothing! It may sound strange, but I really can't remember the last time I actually did nothing. Usually if I'm not working, I'm reading a book or creating or walking the dog...always something. But today...nothing. I took a blanket and laid it down in the backyard and then I sat on it and eventually sprawled out on it and listened to the birds and the thunder that was far away. Buddy decided doing nothing was a great idea and he sprawled out next to me. I had my shoes off and could, at times, feel the grass tickling my toes. It was a wonderful way to spend part of my day. Our time outside ended when the thunder got closer and the rain started to fall...although it might have been fun to have done nothing in the rain too :)

Today's card is part of a series I've been working on. The first card was made yesterday and now I can't seem to stop working with this theme or with this Branch Out stamp set! The possibilities are endless! Hope you enjoy the splash of color on this card. And if you have a few minutes...do nothing :)

I made this card based on my desire to try stamping on designer series paper. I started small since I hadn't done it before and didn't want to mess up a big piece of paper if I didn't like how it turned out :) I tried it and I really like the effect you get stamping on designer paper - I plan to do a lot more of this! After making this card I realized that I could have made it with an image of a boy with the same sentiment and given it to Michael. He has taken such great care of me since I returned home from my crazy travels and I am a firm believer that nice truly does matter!

I'm having fun in the craft room today! These two quick birthday cards are for my sister-in-law and niece. I have gotten too far behind in sending out birthday greetings and gifts so I'm happy to be making progress today.

The brown and sage shadow card was stamped with the baroque background stamp using chocolate chip ink. The pixie pink and white card was stamped with an image from Kindred Spirits in pixie pink. The greeting was stamped with Whisper White craft ink.

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Positive or Negative? It's A Choice.

In art we sometimes notice the positive space and sometimes the negative space. In life it seems that for so many it is much easier to notice the negative space. I have been thinking about making some changes in my life lately. I mentioned this to my neighbor today and I heard in response a list of reasons why that would be the most insane thing to do right now...everything negative.

Where is the neighbor who will bombard me with all of the amazing reasons why now is the perfect time to pursue my dreams and follow the path that is beckoning me? Maybe that's what sites like SCS and this blog are like when it comes to creativity. A place where we can support and encourage one another to do that which we love. Thank you for providing this sense of community!

Today's inspiration challenge on SCS was to make a card inspired by lovely packaging at www.lovelypackage.com. This card was inspired by this packaging: http://lovelypackage.com/kanella-gift-chocolates/. I love the simplicity and elegance of the design. Of course, I had to add a little "glitz!' The card size is 3x3. The Branch Out images (tree and butterflies) were stamped in Going Gray ink and the greeting (Short & Sweet) was stamped using my Stamp-a-ma-jig in Basic Black. I added a bit of 2-way Glue to hold down some Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Look Up!

It seems I walk around with my head down a lot. I realize that by doing this, I'm missing at least 1/2 of the world! So today, when I was sitting down for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, I looked up...and there, on the wall, were some pizza boxes that had been painted by artists. One of them had a lot of eggplants on it and I loved what the artist had done. The artist had left the eggplant images on the box black and white, except for the center section where the artist used color - it was as if the picture came to life in the middle. This is what inspired this card.

So if you find yourself walking around with your head down, look up...you never know what you might see!

These pictures show you how I made the card. I first stamped the image multiple times in basic gray on the front of the card. Then I took a 3"x3" piece of chipboard and adhered it to the inside of the front of the card using removable adhesive. I turned the card back over so that I was looking at the front and I used my embossing stylus to emboss around the square (which was directly underneath the front of the card). I removed the chipboard square from the inside of the card and then began coloring the leaves that were inside the embossed square with watercolor pencils. I used the aqua painter to blend the colors. The gold button is a faux button - I punched a 1/2" circle out of gold card stock and then used another punch to punch the 2 small holes. Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Creating Cures Jet Lag Blues!!!!!

I knew it! Creating does cure jet lag blues...at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it! It has been waaaaaay too long since I created. I was on an around-the-world work trip and while I saw so many things, I missed creating a lot! Today was my first day back in the craft room and these distressed flowers are HAPPY!!!! :)

I have a feeling creating can cure a lot more than just jet lag blues - I'm wondering if it can cure almost any type of blues... :)

I sprayed the card stock and paper with a little bit of water and then crumpled them up. I sanded the designer paper. I used pastels to shade the yellow flowers and cut some fringe "petals" with scissors. Hope you enjoy it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: There's No Place Like Home!!!!!

I finally arrived back home late last night after a very long trip. 2 weeks around-the-world...it is still hard to believe. This picture was taken at the Great Wall in China. It seems fitting to me for this entry - a wall, built to try and protect that which is important - our "home." There is nothing like the feeling of coming back home - hugging Michael, petting Willow, loving on Buddy, seeing how much each of the plants in the garden had grown. I did not make my way into the craft room today - I think my body is trying to rest from all work - whether that work be the work of my day-to-day job or the work of creation. Today was a true day of rest. And tomorrow I depart again - this time for a quick trip to Houston, Texas and I am already anticipating my return and time to sit and create in the craft room. Maybe there's a chance I'll make it in there first thing tomorrow morning before I leave, but I don't want to pressure myself - I need all the relaxing I can get right now!

So tonight, enjoy your home - the place where your heart is - the place where those you love are - the place where you are. It really is the most special place in the world.