Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Smile and Slow Down :)

I woke up early this morning since I was facilitating a webinar on negotiation from the comfort of my office - no webcam so I was able to wear my comfy clothes :) Whenever I do a webinar I post little notes to myself around the computer that say things like "Smile" and "Slow Down." Today I realized that those reminders aren't just good when I'm doing webinars, but they are also great when I am going about my day-to-day life. Maybe I need to start carrying a little bulletin board around with me wherever I go so that I can cover it in notes that remind me to smile, slow down, and appreciate every moment?

Today's sketch challenge was a ton of fun and, of course, I had to pull out my new alcohol inks! It's amazing what you can do with a few colors...I had no idea I'd be able to create orange so well with butterscotch and perfect plum! I applied the alcohol inks to glossy white paper and then stamped the More the Merrier stamp, with black Staz-On onto the inked cardstock. I cut out the pumpkins and raised them up on dimensionals and used my 1 1/4" square punch for the squares. I ran the kraft card stock through the big shot with the distressed texturz plate. Hope you like it! I know it's not November yet, but after being in the store yesterday and seeing X-mas decorations out already, I figured I was okay making a Turkey Day card :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: A New Supply or A New Technique Might Be Just What You Need For New Inspiration!

Today I rewarded myself with a trip to Hobby Lobby (yes, I deserved it!) and purchased alcohol inks - something I had been wanting for awhile. They really inspired me and when I saw today's color challenge I put the new inks to good use!

I pounced, blended and pounced again with the alcohol inks on glossy paper. Then I ran that paper through the bigz butterfly die. I put 2 smaller pieces of pretty in pink card stock through the top note die to create the "sides" of the card. I stamped the background with an image from Kindred Spirits. I then took some white organza ribbon and ran it across the really rust ink pad and poof - some really rust ribbon appeared :)

Hope you like the card - I had a really fun time with the new products and this whacky color combo!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Give Your Brain A Rest :)

Some days I try really hard to think up a meaningful lesson from the craft room and today I found myself thinking really hard, but nothing was coming...ahh, there's the lesson - give your brain a rest :) Sometimes not thinking and just enjoying is exactly the lesson we need :)

I had fun with this new technique challenge...even if it required ironing :) I also threw in another fun fabric technique and embossed the center piece of die cut velvet with one of the Circle Circus stamps. Hope you like it!

This is the second card today- this one is for my second niece who is at sleep-away camp :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Alas For Those Who Cannot Sing, But Die With All Their Music In Them

I have this quote taped beside my computer. It is a reminder to sing our song - whatever that may be - everyday so that we live our music and do not die with our music never having been a part of this world. Making cards, creating, is a part of my music - it is one very vital way in which I sing. Thank you for sharing my song with me :)

My nieces are away at sleep-away camp until the end of the month so this card will be headed to one of them. I purchased the Wild About You set right before it retired - I was tempted to not buy it since it was retiring...but I loved it so much that I couldn't resist :) I stamped the lion image twice - once in close to cocoa and once in more mustard - and then cut out the more mustard face and adhered it with dimensionals to the cocoa body. The certainly celery card stock was run through an embossing folder. The "window" was punched using my oval punch and then I stamped the greeting on the layer beneath. I added the ribbon and the button latte button as a finishing touch! Hope you like this particular song :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Get Acquainted With Your Boundaries

Boundaries are an interesting thing. There are reasons why our cells have boundaries, why our skin creates a boundary with the outside world. Sometimes it is very important to realize where one thing ends and another begins. And sometimes it is equally challenging to honor those boundaries. Today I am all about getting reacquainted with my boundaries. Reminding myself that there are some things I will do and some things I won't and respecting that. Have you gotten to know your boundaries lately?

Today's card was so simple! The limited supply challenge on SCS was to use your high school or wedding colors and a staple, clip or photo turns. My high school colors were purple and yellow...I still have my high school jacket in the basement...not sure when I'll wear it again, but you never know :) I scored the yoyo yellow card stock horizontally and then vertically - this was so easy to do with my Scor-It board! I then sponged the card with yoyo yellow and so saffron to make the texture stand out a bit more. I covered the chip board bird with yoyo yellow and cut around him with a hobby knife and then stamped a little yellow flower all over him in yoyo yellow ink. His beak was colored with an Only Orange marker. Hope you like him!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: It's Never Too Late To Find Yourself Again

I have always found my way to wherever it is I need to go...at least when I'm in my car. In my life, I seem to have a knack for getting lost and it takes me a little bit longer to find my way back to who I am. For the last 2 years I've been a little lost...and I'm finally finding my way back home. It's been an interesting journey and I have to say...it's nice to be back :)

This card was soooo simple! Just 2 bugs stamped with sahara sand ink (I stamped off one of them so the ink was lighter). I stamped them again on a separate sheet of card stock and cut out the bug bodies and popped them up on dimensionals. The greeting was computer generated and the holes paper pierced. I hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be." - Shel Silverstein

This may look familiar if you check out the post right after this one :) This is the 4"x4" card to go with the little notebook. I couldn't resist the urge to duplicate the layout in a smaller size. This time I used really rust and old olive card stock and retired Haiku designer series paper. Once again I die cut the "A" out of the sueded mat board using my Sizzix Simply Serif alphabet. Inside it says "happy birthday."

Busy in the craft room today - making thank you cards and birthday gifts...this notebook is for Michael's sister Allison since tomorrow is her birthday :) The finished book size is 6"x6". The rust-colored mat board is "sueded" - my Aunt who owns a wonderful little frame shop call Glen Roc Gallery in Trenton, NJ, gifted me some pieces of mat board she had in her shop and I am having a blast!!!! The inside of the book is filled with blank white paper. Hope you like it!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: Live Fully

This card is a thank you card for one of my aunts - I had to fly unexpectedly to Boston last Monday as my cousin Myles, 44 years old, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. It's hard for me to even know what to write right now - so many lessons are tied up in his life and his death. Myles was a person who lived his own way - he did what he was drawn to do and touched so many people along the way. One of my other cousins told a story at the house, after the funeral, about Myles going to visit a college president when he was 18 years old. He was considering the school and the president turned to Myles and asked, "What would you like to be in 20 years?" And Miles looked at him and answered, "38." I smile just thinking about the exchange :) I also realize there is so much I don't know about my cousin - so many things I could have learned - so many opportunities I could have tried to create to get to know him more...and now, I will have to do so through others since he is no longer here. We never know when our time will be. All we do know is that each day we get closer to the time when we, and those we love, will no longer be here - at least not in the way we are now. So today, and every day, live fully - take it all in - this is a beautiful experience we are blessed to have.

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!

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!