Inspiration

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One of my favorite websites is Paper Crafter’s Library (PCL).  Now you might be wondering what that it well it’s a huge online library of video tutorials created by their experienced designers/educators, with new videos added weekly. Whether your interest is in stamping, card making, scrapbooking, creating 3D items or altered art – you’ll find all the resources you need to navigate the world of paper crafting in ONE place, organized and indexed so that it’s quick and easy to find.

The a few months ago they where showing how to use the wonderful, Lots of Thanks (Stampin’ Up!) Stamp set and using what I had in my stash came up with this card:

This stamp set was found at a yard sale with no tags – so I can’t tell you who made it.  Ink:  Really Rust (Stampin’ Up), 1438 Gold Rush (Close to My Heart), 800 Rich Cocoa (Memento Dew Drop); Stamp:  DUDE! – Kelly Purkey

Thanks for visiting, and as always Happy Crafting

You asked for it, A DIY Planner Tutorial {on the cheap!}

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Here is a frugal take on the new planner craze! Lindsay knocks it out of the ballpark as always.

The Frugal Crafter Blog

Hi friends. I am super excited to share today’s project with you, an inexpensive, custom, refillable planner! Did I mention is was cheap to make?

planner5

I even made the jump last night and moved everything over from my month at a glance calendar, I love having more room to write “to-dos” in the week at a glance book as well as having the monthly calendar pages for other projects and events coming up. Best of all I was able to put as many pockets and sections as I liked which was the problem I had with other planners, some things were redundant and it just looked like you were creating more work for yourself if you used it. I think a planner should make you more efficient, not less. But, there is room to get creative! Watch the video to see how I made it, you can whip one of…

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Mother’s Day (Throw back Thursday)

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This blog post was written on my earlier blog (www.maymaycrafts.blogspot.com) a few years ago.  You can still find most of the items used over at Simon Says Stamp 

It is amazing!!!!  I totally love everything that came with it:

1 Simon Says Stamp Exclusive set of stamps designed by Kristina Werner “Best Mom Ever”

1 Sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ Neenah Solar White Cardstock

12 Sheets GCD Double Sided Designer Papers

1 Fancy Die Cut and Embossed Card Front

1 Foot String of Pink Hearts Ribbon

1 Foot of Lace Trim

1 Sheet of Elle’s Studio Custom Design Cut Outs

35 Chipboard Hearts from Maya Road

1 Webster’s Pages Pocket Envelope

1 Bottle of Ranger Liquid Pearls in Petal Pink

1 Sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Bazzill Vintage Pink Cardstock

1 Sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Bazzill Rock Candy Cardstock

1 Sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Bazzill Taffy Cardstock

1 Sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Bazzill Butter Mints Cardstock

1 Sheet 8.5″ x 11″ Bazzill 40# Vellum

My favorite item is the Stamp set. The roses on the card below are embossed black or red on white card stock and then colored in with the opposite color using CTMH Z2305 Black or LePlume II No. 65 Cherry.  On the “red” rose I chose to leave a little of the white showing giving the effect of a “Fire and Ice” rose.  If you have ever seen them they are exceptional.  The red card is from DCWV and is A2 (standard size) matchbook card

The center of each rose has been stamped, cut and dimensional tape added to adhere it to the larger part.   All parts of this card are made using the May 2013 Simon Says card kit unless otherwise noted.  Thanks for stopping by, be sure to leave a comment or two. Have a great week, and as always happy crafting.

Prom oh my

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Well it’s that time of year, flowers are blooming, trees are getting their leaves, Spring is very much on its way along with PROM.

Man, my son is 18.  Where did the time go. .

My sons date sent him pictures of her dress so we could match his tie and get a corsage ready.  Has anyone priced out a corsage ????  Holy Crap when you price out real flowers its $25-35 for one of those babies and that if you get a generic one (white flowers, and ribbon for color).  It’s not very pretty if you ask me – which my son did and I told him we could make one for about $10.

   So off to the local hobby stores here to find the right colors and items that I needed and of course along the way I found some other treasures I couldn’t live without.

Here is the product

 one sprig of fern leaves, one sprig of blue flowers, in the bridal isle we found a pearl bracelet that everything tied too and the small blue flowers and then navy and silver ribbon that is on the bottom and top.  Best part of all of this (as I am talking to my favorite designer at Michael’s) she starts telling me all the easy ways to put it together

  • take a pipe cleaner in a similar color and  twist into a figure 8

  • cut small pieces (about 2-3 inches long) of the  ribbon and twist another piece of pipe cleaner in the middle until its secure

  • cut a few leaves off the sprig of fern leaves attach to the figure 8 pipe cleaner

  • then attach the ribbon and then start to assemble the flowers building up and out (until you are happy with the arrangement).

The whole thing is held together with hot glue.  It took about 25 minutes to make.   All of the items were purchased at Michael’s Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I have crafted, until next time Happy Crafting.

Using what you have

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As with all things in our industry it’s expensive if you run out to buy all the latest and greatest (and if you wait it usually goes on sale within a few weeks or months).

A year ago I took a Stenciled class with some great designers (Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, Laura Bassen, Shari Carrol, Julie Ebersole and Debby Hughes).  Nothing could be easier—or more satisfying—than seeing a beautiful design magically appear when you lift away a stencil. In this class, we learned sixteen exciting new techniques for this inexpensive and popular tool, including embossing paste, layering, masking, embossing, and more!

While I would love to buy all the new stencils that they featured, it just isn’t possible.  One of my new sayings is – Use what you see, so that you can use what you have to create fun, beautiful new designs.

This sentiment is from the Simon Says stamp “Very Special”.  It wasn’t as large as I needed I typed it into my computer and picked the font color (hence another way to use your stamps).  After stenciling this heart I just followed the design and cut it out. The light caught just right so you can see the embossing gloss on the heart.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting, hope you can use this design to create your own beautiful creation.  Until next time – Happy Crafting.

for this card I used BAZZIL 2-253 Peppermint paper, pink and white card stock. The stamp set is Simon Says Very Special, Hearts stencil set found at Michael’s crafts, 3D Gloss Enamels RED, Classic Stampin Up Rose Red ink, and Gelly Roll Glitter Pen.

Spray mists, Daubers and cards oh my

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Hi everybody,

I want to throw a great big thank you to the Frugal Crafter (you can find a link to her page on the right here).  She did a video some months back on how to make spray mists and sponge daubers.  So I set out this week asking a friend of mine to keep all of her pop bottle caps for me and then headed to the dollar store to pick up make-up sponges.  Holy cow these were really easy to make and work wonders on your crafts (not to mention being way less expensive).

Here is a shot of all the daubers I made in about 15 minutes, 28 in all.

Each dauber will get a number that corresponds to the individual ink pad that will be used with it.  They hold and transfer the color just like you get with the higher more expensive daubers.

Now when you tear the sponges apart you get that little ridge that you see down the middle of the above picture.  It will not affect your project and will eventually fall off.

Now on for the fun part – I took a class on Stenciling.  Jennifer McGuire is one of the teachers.  She talked about different ways to get more out of your stencils – one of them is to turn your stencil over and continue the pattern.

I have this cute stencil from Heidi Swap, the diagonal stencil is the one that I used along with four different stamp pads from Stampin-Up (Pretty in Pink, Summer Sun, Lavender Lace and Ballet Blue), the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp (Very Special)

Here is what I made for my one of my homework assignments (the colors on the 2nd card are a little lighter because of the lighting).

Hope you learned a little something today, until next time – Happy Crafting.

Thinking of you

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Going thru some of my scrapbook/card ideas I found this idea for pattern paper that is busy.  By breaking up the pattern with a bit of solid color it really does do wonders.  Noticed when I was editing the photo that my spacing was a little off between the strips (hey that is what makes things homemade so unique right?).

The card is a standard 5.5×4.25 inch card, with the fold on top, all the supplies except the sentiment/embossing powder are from the Simon Says Stamp February 2014 Card kit (these kits sell out fast.  Sneak peaks for up coming kits can be seen at Simon Says Stamp on the 14th of each month).  The sentiment is from Stampin Up Sincere Salutation set, I love this set because it has a lot of everyday sentiments. As always thanks for stopping by and happy crafting.

Almost forgot to mention that I used my new Wink of Stella pens on the flowers for a bit of shimmer.

Hope you enjoyed this card and until next time Happy Crafting.

Crabby – How a memory can make us smile!

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About 10 years ago I was sent on a work trip back to the East Coast and while in the Baltimore airport there was this cute shirt that said “Don’t bother me I’m Crabby” – didn’t think twice about it; bought it for my son who at the time was in elementary school.  He wore that shirt until it was thread barren.   We laugh about that shirt all the time because when he is in one of his moods I call him “crabby” and he immediately gets a smile on his face remembering that wonderful t-shirt.  Well that memory is what inspired this cute card today.  Simple and straight forward.  Thanks for visiting and until next time Happy Crafting.

Don't bother me I'm Crabby

Fishes and fun

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Hi All,

I have gotten some much needed time in my crafting area and I feel so energized (oh yeah).

Today I made this birthday card finaland used my NEW Chameleon pens – they are amazing – for me (you might be happier with Spectrum Noir or Copics).

Have been watching Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner videos!  They both do a lot with Distress Inks and make it look so easy – guess what with a little practice it is easy.

First started by taping my paper down to my work area using some washi tape that I had.  Then used Salty Ocean distress ink to color in the background.  The seaweed on the bottom is from the Dylusions Clearly under the sea (Ranger) stamp and the Fishes are from a Hero Arts Celebrate stamp.

cropped 1st step step 2 semi final final

Thanks for visiting and as always Happy Crafting.

Valentine’s Day and class prep

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Afternoon all,

Just wanted to take a minute to post a picture of one of my cards that I just made for the clean and simple class (it starts Monday).  If you would like additional information on this great class click here

We have a couple of red foxes that are in the area so when I got my foxy valentine set from Unity stamp I knew it would be used quickly.  The sentiment is from the Penny Black so very much set.  The white, red card stock is from Simon Says Stamp and black poke dots is from the Twinkle Glints stack DCWV.  Hope you enjoy – until next time Happy Crafting

Heart pink background