Take me out to the ball game....

It is common knowledge among friends that both my husband and son are avid readers.  They sign up for the local library's summer reading program every year, and it is always a safe bet that they will exceed the set goals.  This voracious love for books really paid off during the summer of 2010.  Both of my boys read so much that they each earned a pair of tickets to a Tigers game at Comerica Park.  We took my dad along as our fourth person, and we had a blast!  Of course, we were accosted by the camera carriers and a fairly awesome picture was captured.  It took me a while to get online and actually order prints, but I finally did that this year.  I decided that it would make a great Christmas gift for my dad if I were to scrap the picture and frame the page....and I finally did it.  I feel pretty safe posting this here now because my dad has no love for computers...but if anyone out there knows my dad, please don't mention this to him! You have my thanks!

17th Anniversary

This year my husband and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary.  I made this card to celebrate the occasion.  

Quick Card Craft

Crafting B-day cards tonight.  I used paper from Hootenanny collection by My Mind's Eye.  They're fun and colorful, and definitely birthday themed!  

Baby Shower!

I think it is safe to say that I'm hooked on these tri-fold cards!  A good friend of mine has a baby due in two weeks.  Below is the card I made for this awesome occasion.  This is their first baby, so I wanted the card to be special.  

Tri-fold and Tags

The past week and a half has been pretty busy, but I did find some time to craft a bit.  Last week I made a tri-fold card for my friend's birthday.  I went with an oriental theme this time around.  I really like how this one turned out. 

And later in the week I was inspired to make some tags.  Bunnies were the theme! 

Another Tri Fold Card...

There's another family birthday this weekend, so I spent some time crafting Saturday evening.  I really, really like the tri-fold template, so I made another one of these for this occasion. There are so many different ways to embellish these!  This time around I went with papers from my favorite company, BasicGrey.  Since I had a little experience under my belt, finishing this one did not take nearly as long as the first one.  I definitely will be experimenting more with this type of card!

Weekend Wedding

The card closed

The box

This weekend my family and I attended a wedding.  Since this was a truly special occasion, I felt I needed to go above and beyond when I crafted their card.  This card style is known as a tri-fold shutter card, and while the card base looks complicated, it was actually fairly easy.  It only required a scoring board and two cuts with an Exacto knife.  The hard part was deciding how to embellish it, but the process was fun, and in the end I was really happy with the finished project.  I ended up having to craft a small box for it though, as it was way too bulky to fit in an envelope!

The card fully opened

August Birthdays

Wow, I can hardly believe that August is already here!  It's already shaping up to be a busy crafting month.  There are two family birthdays, and I'm currently working on two cross-stitch projects that will be baby shower gifts.  (I'm running a little behind on that one, so I'm going to need to work on that this coming weekend!)  Here's a pic of the first birthday card of the month...had to wait to post it until after my sister-in-law's birthday.  (I'm hoping the snail mail has delivered it to her by now!)  Stay tuned: I'm currently working on a card for a wedding I'm attending this weekend.  It's the longest card project I've done--worked on it for close to three hours last night and I expect to work on it for a few more hours before I'm done.  

Sunday at Archiver's

This weekend I kidnapped my mother and we went to Archiver's to take part in their Bunch of Cards workshop.  We made a total of 12 cards, three each of four designs.  Our instructor, Gloria, was knowledgeable and had a wonderful sense of humor.  Mom and I plan on participating in future workshops, and we both hope we can spend time with Gloria again!  So, here are pictures of each card design.  I really like all four of them, and am already cooking up variations in my head.  

Weekend Creations

This weekend I did a great deal of scrapbook shopping, and I picked up the recent issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine.  This particular issue came with a free pack of patterned paper, and after perusing it a bit, I was inspired to do some crafting! I ended up using two sheets of paper from the pack and stamps to craft this card and 4 tags.  I'm really pleased with how the card turned out, even if it is slightly different from what I had envisioned in the planning stages!

Reorganization to Inspiration

Yesterday I decided that some reorganization was in order.  My workspace was cluttered with paper scraps and recent supply purchases, and there really wasn’t much space left to work!  It took me about two hours to move some things around and put everything away.  Of course, there were some scraps I found under a paper pad, and inspiration distracted me.  I ended up crafting five tags last night, and this picture shows two of the five.  The other four look just like the green one.

World Gone Grey

So, we’ve established the fact that I like paper.  Let’s get down to details now, shall we?  Like any enthusiasts, I have favorites.  When it comes to patterned paper, BasicGrey rocks my world!  I have so many of their 6x6 pads that I am forced to take a list of those I already own when I go shopping or risk buying duplicates!   (Not that buying duplicates would be a tragedy … believe me, I’d use the paper!)   I use BasicGrey paper in my creations as often as I can.  I think my favorite line so far was Boxer, but I also loved Euphoria.  I noticed the last time I visited Archiver’s that they’d recently released a line called Konnichiwa, which is a double whammy for me—I’m fascinated by all things Japanese, and the art on the papers carries a distinct Japanese influence.  Sadly, they didn’t have any 6 x 6 pads available at the store, so I had to settle for a few 12 x 12 sheets.

At any rate, here are some pictures of tags and cards that I recently crafted using BasicGrey papers.  Enjoy!

Why Paper Over Shoes?

Paper in all its incarnations may very well be my favorite thing.  Whether it be a college ruled notebook or a pad of scrapbook paper, there’s something about paper that draws me like the proverbial moth to flame.  I love setting a colorful gel pen to a clean sheet of paper when I journal.  I love the patterns on scrapbooking paper.   I love playing with paper—drawing, painting, cutting, gluing.  There’s just something about creating a card or tag from pieces of paper, especially when it turns out just right.  Whatever that “something” is, it keeps me coming back for more.

My love of all things paper is a sort of running gag among my friends and family…and one day my husband summed it up perfectly.   “Honey,” he said, “some women buy shoes.  You buy paper.”   Yup.  That’s about right. 

 

Paper Over Shoes.