Covered box

I wanted to give some hand made cards to a friend's mother but wanted something prettier than a zip bag to put them in. As a shipper for the Cards for Soldiers project, I get a lot of packages. One gal, Joan, makes her own boxes for shipping. I'm a saver--aren't we all. So, I used one of her boxes and covered it.

This was the first I time I had covered a box and what I discovered was putting paper on the in and out of the sides for both the top and bottom makes the fit snug. So, I used the crop-o-dile to add a piece of ribbon with an eyelet to the bottom to help in opening the box. The "T" is from the Storybook Cricut cartridge. I just love the bird that is cut from Indie Art. On the final version, which I did not take a picture of, I put a dull yellow as the top layer of the bird. Just thought it needed a little more color.

This is some of my favorite paper. The flower print is from Anna Griffin. The lavender is from K&Company. I purchased quite a few sheets and have used it to alter several different items including this notebook that I write swap info in and a few other things I don't want to forget.

January, 2010 COM

The Card of the Month swap starts off the year with designers choice. Mine is Jade with Jute.

I'm pretty excited about the card. I used my brand new cuttlebug embossing folder entitled Journaling and also used two stamps from my "collection" that I had never used. The flower image with colored with Prisma pencils. I wasn't wild about the white around the edges, but I had a limited supply of the color paper I needed. The paper was a giveaway at an Archivers swap by Bazzill Basics. The line is Fourz and these sheets are from the Mossy Green collection.

Project 365 - Introduction

I'm off and running with my Project 365. The thing that is slowing me down is waiting for photos. I would prefer to print my own but I need a little more practice so I'm not wasting ink and paper. In the meantime, I'm "sending" them off to Shutterfly on a free 50 photo Archiver's deal. This is my title page. I needed Leslie and daughter to help with (well, really to do) the flowers.

Page 2 is a calendar that shows the whole year. I'm excited that I used the fancy cut paper and some Grungeboard that I HAD to have and have now finally used.

My first page shows Friday and Saturday photos. I'm going to begin my weeks starting on Sundays and ending on Saturdays. This page got me ready to start a full week with a 2 page layout. Right now, I'm having fun making my journaling cards match the subject. I'm finding all kinds of images to cut with my cricut. Who knew everything I could possibly want is on the cartridges I already own!

Crackle ATC swap

The January ATC swap theme was crackle. I wanted to try the heavy embossing powder method. I did locate some Melt Art brand Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel at Michael's. I looked at Archivers and Joann's first and didn't see anything similar there although I may just have missed it.

I was thinking of the brown ware pottery when I started the project. Here is an example of what I mean by brown ware. I believe there are many interpretations on what it is.

I used the Inkadinkadoo Mindscape hummingbird stamp with Color Box Brown ink. I believe it is the first ink pad I owned and Leslie gave it to me. (See what she started...) I inked the edges and lightly on the front. The card on the left in the picture is before I started adding the UTEE. I put 3 coats of UTEE on the cards. It was fun to watch, sort of like melting puddles of water. I may have held the heat gun on the card a little long and that is why it is darker, however, it accidently made the card look exactly like I wanted. I put the card in the freezer for a few minutes and then crackled them. I ran the ink pad over the crackles to make them more noticable and rubbed off the excess ink, which also darkened the card.

Tangerine with Tears COM

December's Card of the Month theme was Tangerine with Tears. I had seen some Basic Grey paper in the Ambrosia line that I thought would work perfectly and I loved the orange and grey papers. First I had to locate some because it is an older product and I didn't have any. Finally found some on the internet and had to order 3 - 6 x 6 stacks just to make sure I had enough. (insert sheepish look here) The orientation of this card is supposed to be portrait.

My daughter didn't think anyone would know what it was, so changed the card to open in landscape form. I was pleased with the finished card.

Gift cards

Just wanted to post the last three flip flop cards I make to send Archivers gift cards to Leslie and friends. Used some Basic Grey that I had and the middle one is from the latest Christmas Basic Grey line-Eskimo Kisses.