I haven’t had much time to spend in my craft room lately as I’ve been working on some other “personal” projects that are a higher priority.  I sometimes feel guilty letting all those craft goodies go to waste while I’m doing other things but I know they’ll be there waiting for me when I do get time for creativity.

Happily, I had to make some cards for events so I had a legitimate excuse to spend a little time in my happy place.

I also got to use a PTI stamp that I bought last year but forgot to order the matching die when I placed my order.  My last order included the die and I got to play with it for the first time today:

I was going for “earthy but happy”…hope I pulled it off!

This card has to be Canada Post friendly so I didn’t pop the trees or the green panel up off the card but made up for it by adding some tiny prima flowers and some pearls.

Must dash!  Miles to go before I sleep.

Yup!  I officially love this layout!  After yesterday’s post I decided to colour another bear image and swap out the colours to see how different a look I get just by switching the colour palette.

I went über-girlie this time – it’s a fantastic layout for using LOTS of patterned paper – which I have.  Too much.  It’s my not-so-secret shame.  Whenever new papers come out in my favourite lines I stalk them until I finally cave and buy them.  I have managed to dial back my Basic Grey purchases though as those papers are more my original  card-making style and they don’t get enough love.  Echo Park and My Mind’s Eye, however, are the current rulers of my craft supply budget.

Anyhoo, enter today’s card – the only difference is the patterned paper and the sentiment placement:

I really love the vibrant colours on this card.  Got to play with the enamel dots again.  Woohoo!

Lots to do this week and we’re having a little dinner party this weekend so craft-time is probably not happening again for a few days.

I finally got to use some MME Enamel dots yesterday.  Every time I went to place an order, the ones I wanted were sold out (or they were in stock but the coordinating paper was sold out).  I ordered from a different supplier this time around as I couldn’t wait any longer to get my hands on those dots!

They ARE fabulous!  A little pricey at $5 per pack but the colours are great and they’re a perfect accent on a card.

Funnily enough, I paired my first dots up with paper from a totally different line from MME.  The dots I used are from “Boy Crazy” and the paper is “Fly a Kite”.

I also dusted off some Whipper Snapper stamps and stamped up a bunch of images to use on my next handful of cards.  The above layout was CASEd from the fabulous Alice Wertz.  A freakin’ genius when it comes to patterned paper accents.  (she actually uses a LOT of washi these days but my supply isn’t that extensive so I just cut some paper on an angle to mimic the look)

The sentiment is Paper Smooches – I was going to go with a Happy Birthday sentiment but I saw this on my desk and couldn’t resist.  I also wanted to use another dot next to the sentiment but I made the card a little top-heavy.  Next time I’ll place the sentiment at the bottom left and stick another dot right there!

…bring May flowers…or in this case, the thought of Spring is causing me to use retina-searing colours on my cards!

I made two more cards for work yesterday – they’re out of my comfort zone colour-wise but they’re certainly cheerful!

Construction is self-evident.

Card 1:

Card 2:

Must…go…find…sunglasses…

As work is getting busier, it’s getting harder to feel energetic and creative enough to pop into my craft room in the evening to see if I can come up with something fun to make.  Other than some 3-D Easter projects and a couple of cards that I NEEDED, I have been spending more time watching TV in the evenings and baking/cooking on the weekends. (lazing around and making food are probably NOT the best activities for the waistline)

Today, I promised myself I’d make something paper crafty before doing anything else and I realized yesterday that I’ve run out of little “way to go” cards at work – I use them when I want to write a special thank you to one of my fabulous team members when they do something above the call of duty.

Enter today’s project – so far I’ve only made two note cards – and am going to make two more but with a different layout – and matching envelopes.  I used some cute Doodlebug paper and Doodlebug pearls as well as a new die that I got this week.  I teamed the supplies with one of my Paper Smooches stamps and came up with this:

I think they turned out pretty cute!  Here they are individually:

(this card is standing on the two envelopes)

…and the second one was a deliberate attempt to use more masculine colours.

I got 4 card bases from one sheet of cardstock – these guys measure 4.25X2.75″ and a sheet of 6X6″ paper is just big enough to make a coordinating envelope.

I am determined to make 2 more cards but have to come up with the concept.  I’m surprised how few smaller images I have that are good for fussy cutting.  Must keep that in mind next time I’m trolling for new images.

Enjoy your Saturday!

A real quick card to share tonight – my dad is leaving in a day or so to visit one of my brothers (and my brother’s wife and their gorgeous daughter) and I have to drop off an anniversary gift for him to take to them.  Also, I’ve done something funky to my little camera and I’m having lighting issues with my pictures (DH will have to take a look tomorrow – it’s late and I’m tired and I will be cranky if he invades my territorial bubble this evening).

Anyway, die cuts and patterned paper to the rescue.  It took about 15 minutes to make this card – I admit the sentiment is not stamped as cleanly as I’d like but I’d already added the bling and it would be such a waste of pearls and rhinestones to pitch this one out.

Quick, simple, cheerful…done!  Now to pop the gift card inside and swing by the old man’s house tomorrow to drop it off.

Enjoy your day off tomorrow for those that get the Good Friday holiday – it’s the first holiday of the year for most Canadians.

I didn’t spend any time in my craft room last weekend.  I was busy spring cleaning the living room (with the help of DH as it was a real deep clean).  Every piece of furniture removed from the room, curtains down, blinds, windows and baseboards washed…

I also bought a new rug for the room – something I’ve been wanting for a while.  We scored a decent-sized rug at HomeSense (= Marshall’s in the US) and I also bought some new throw pillows and lighter curtains for the room.  You might notice the use of a $ and a ¢ in the post title – I spent beaucoup dollars with my revamp but it really made a huge difference.  I don’t have a before picture but I think hubby has one somewhere so I’ll add it later for comparison purposes.

Here’s what the room looks like now:

The lighter rug, pillows (the brown ones are not new) and curtains really brighten up this room…just in time for Spring.  Now if it would only stop snowing here!

I have two important birthdays to make cards for in March – my younger brother’s and his wife’s (a day apart).

So far today, I’ve made my brother’s card and I’ll be working on my SIL’s card later today (plus I have to get a package ready to mail).

I used one of my favourite Whipper Snapper images for this card – it’s just fun to colour and only requires a few different colours so it’s not too overwhelming.

My picture is a little yellow because I had to borrow the item that props my improvised photo booth up so my lights are not as close to the card as they usually are when I take a picture…

I stuck to a fairly simple layout for this card – letting the image take centre stage (or center if you prefer).  A few sequins (thanks again, M, for the samples!) and an “old school” sentiment – a technique I used to use a while ago and have recently adopted again.

I popped the paw claw? holding the gift up for a fun touch and used some Pebbles “Seen and Noted” patterned paper because the colours worked with my image. (Naughty Kelly – I coloured the image before I chose the paper)

Back to the drawing board to see what I can come up with for card number two.

Just made a batch of treats for the workers at the Tim Horton’s that I frequent.  I need to pick up a basket to present them in but I’m well ahead of schedule to get these to them before Good Friday.

I bought some marshmallow Easter treats at Dollarama (5 in a package) and fancied them up by making little holders.  Rather than decorate directly on the holder, I made separate panels which act as  an extra “leg” to keep the treats standing upright. (I made the panel a half inch longer than the holder so it sticks out on the front).

I used the same papers I’d selected for the batch of notepads I made last week – it looks like a little Easter Boutique in my craft room at the moment!

I stamped the image on a 3X4″ panel and added a 1 1/2″ strip of cardstock at the bottom using the word thanks from one paper smooches set and the word chickie from the sentiment “hey chickie” that went with the bird image I used.

After adhering the sentiment patterned paper I used a border die to create an interesting strip from coordinating paper and cut out thin (1/4″) strips from another coordinating paper to hide the join.

I kept the colouring simple (only 2 shades of yellow and I didn’t shade the beak or feet) so I could power through the mass production and embellished with some sequins that a co-worker was kind enough to procure from me so I could try out that trend without heavy investment in supplies.

Here’s a side view so you can see what I mean about the “leg”:

…and here’s what’s inside (they come in assorted colours and styles):

I whipped up 20 of these in less than 2 hours and that included the planning stages so it’s not too bad for time if you’re looking to mass produce a little something for Easter.

We did get the pantry project finished last week.  Surprisingly, there’s “less” space in the pantry now that we’ve added a shelf but it’s organized and we’ve majorly reduced the risk of breaking a toe via falling canned products…on to today’s post…

The sun has been shining for a few days now in St. John’s – while we still have snow on the ground, the sunny (but cold!) weather makes me gravitate to the more colourful cardstocks and papers in my stash.

Enter Echo Park.  I find the Echo Park line of paper to be fun and whimsical.  The colours are so fresh and you are guaranteed to have one or two patterns in a paper pad that you just can’t bear to cut into.

I matched up some EP paper with a package of stickers I purchased at Dollarama a few weeks ago.  I also picked up a few of my favourite Dollarama scratch pads (sometimes you can’t find them there and sometimes the paper is more grey than white but I scored some brilliant white pads there last visit) and decided to make a batch of colourful notepads just in time for Spring:

Step 1 – Cover the scratchpads with cardstock in fun, Spring hues:

Step 2 – pick out coordinating patterned papers to decorate the front of the notepad (I kept it simple this time and cut a piece large enough to cover the entire front):

Step 3 -  Find some fun stickers for the front panel – or stamp and colour images for the front panel (I placed a piece of white cardstock that I was using to cut panels behind the stickers so you could see them more clearly):

Step 4 - Stamp a sentiment on a white cardstock panel and adhere a sticker above the sentiment.  Use a few pop dots to adhere the panel to the front of the notepad – I chose to place mine off-centre:

…repeat:

…and repeat:

…and keep going until you get a stack of notepads perfect for gift-giving:

This layout would be great for a set of notecards too (I’d probably change the orientation to landscape for a notecard).