An Early Spring?

Dylan and I went on a walk around the 'hood last week on one of the sunny days.  Just wanted to share some of the loveliness...

Americana Tags

My mind is full of Valentine's and Easter basket ideas.  I love to put beautiful tags on my gift baskets, so here are a few that I made.  The rooster and the horse use my new favorite papers by Webster's Pages.

I did not cut out the shapes myself.  I found some really cool heavy kraft tags at a gift store downtown.  They were already cut into ducks, bunnies, roosters and horses.  All I had to do was cover them with paper and embellish them.

You can see individual pictures in the new store area.  Click on the link above this post called "Get The Goodies".

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft Area Makeover

It's been a month since I last posted anything.  Why?  Busy, busy.  My day job has been really busy, which is great - billable is good!  And my company, Compass Human Resources, was a sponsor at the Green Professionals Conference here in Portland.   So, I haven't had much time for crafting lately.

In the small amount of free time that I've had, I embarked on a giant re-organization of all my crafting stuff.  Up 'til now, my storage has been very slapdash at best.  So, I took some of that profit from my day job and made some investments in organization - shelves and bins for the closet, and an EZ View Craft Desk.  OMG!  This thing is the Mercedes of craft tables.  I just sit and stare at it :)  So, without further adeu some pics...

How cool is this?  You can see through the top into the divided drawers.

The insides of the doors have felt backing and tons of little zip pouches that Velcro onto them.  The left side has deep shelves. 

The right side has external shelves and canvas drawers.  The big ones are 12"x12".  Perfect for punches, tools, etc.

This is just a pic of the new closet shelves.  The little trolley to the right is filled with embellishments.  Yes, it's full.

This is just the beginning of figuring out the ribbon situation.  This is about half of what I have.  The most-used is in these StampinUp containers, which I Velcroed to the wall.  I can pull them off whenever I want.

I am in crafting heaven!  Still a bit of work to do with some wall shelves so I can put all of my cute glass bottles and vintage cigar boxes up.  But, the bulk of it is done.

Whew!  Now I just need some time to craft :)

Feeling Vintage-y

I'm just getting over a whopper of a cold, so the narrative on this post might be a little short.  Hard to get my brain engaged.  But, I have been being creative.  I picked up some new Webster's Pages paper, and I'm in love.  Those plus some vintage-inspired digital art equals...

Some of the things that are hard to see:  German glass glitter on the gate and the clouds, gold leaf paint on the swirls, 3D multiple layers on the images.

I had so much fun making these, and am going to make some Easter cards next. 

There's something very nostalgic going on with my mojo.  Maybe wishing for simpler times when a certain elegance was expected in everything people did...

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #41

HSE's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge hit me this week, so I decided to participate.

I took my inspiration from those great colors as well as the little tags on the top of the cakes.

There's a whole lot of K&Co going on in this card.  Extra Distressed Ink on the background paper to really "somber it up".  I couldn't resist the little teardrop bling.

Sorry I'm short on time today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Lovey Dovey

I was having a good day today with my artsy mojo.  I installed a new piece of software today that has oodles of art graphics.  These two little birds really caught my eye and I decided to build a card around them.

I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder with some Basic Grey patterned paper, then brayed the design with distressed ink.  It created a ghostly mysterious-looking background.  Much cooler than I thought it would turn out.

The music paper is handmade, and when I painted the back with Diamond Glaze, it got very soft and pliant.  Then I just scrunched it a little and pressed it onto the front of the card.

The sentiment and flower die cut are from K & Co.  I popped up the birds and flowers, then used my Patina Stickles to circle the birds.

I don't know if I'll be able to put this one in the craft show next month, it's too cute!

Happy Monday, thanks for visiting.

Cool Art Store Find

One of my favorite gifts this holiday was a certificate to my much-adored art store, Collage.  I re-stocked some necessities, but I also found these handmade polymer clay buttons.  I believe they were the result of one of their classes.  Just what I was looking for to make some non-traditional Valentine cards.

Isn't this great?  The button is about 1.5", so it really stands out on a card.

All I did to it was edge it with a Krylon gold leaf paint pen for some elegance.  I did the same to the metal word sticker (it was originally silver).

The finished card turned out pretty well.  Something suited to a guy, which is always a challenge for me.

That's it for today.  I'm hoping to get a bit of time this weekend to do more crafting.  So many ideas, so little time :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great day.