Bringing In The New Year Craftin'

I hope everyone is having fun preppin' for the New Year. Me? I'm hunkered down at home with my son...and while he is getting the most of the last of Winter Break - I'm paper craftin'!

Right now however, I'm stuck regarding my card inserts. Since I missed sending out Christmas cards to some, I am sending out New Years Greetings - and I am kinda torn as to how I'm going to "frame" the cards on the cover. I think I know what I'm going to do .. just have to work it out in my head a bit more.

So wherever you are, whatever you have planned - I hope you all have a SAFE celebration!!


Edited at 1:53pm to Add: Psssssstttttt!!!!! I finished them

Father's Day Is Just Around The Corner Mom ....

...and I need a card.

That's what my 11 yr old said on Sunday - so I dug through my stuff and came up with this card. I am really happy with how it turned out. I left the inside blank, so that he could write something special to his Dad.

Celebrate Spring ATCs

I still don't know sometimes if I have the hang of ATCs. I have seen beautiful ATCs made with stamps and bits and pieces of paper and ribbon ... beautiful images that make me oooh and ahhhh.

Then it's my turn.

Maybe I need a theme? ... I don't know, but when left to my own devices with blank ATCs - the doodler in me is strong. I like to put swirls and dots and hearts and simple flowers on paper ... all over the place. My mother tells a story about sitting in her kitchen, thinking about me after I had just left for college ... and she looked at the wall by the phone ... and on a small piece of paper hung one of my doodles that she'd found. "Back then", when I was in my teens, there were no cell phones and cordless phones were too much money! The kitchen phone with the 100 foot twisted cord was all there was!...and I can't htink of how many days I'd sat in the kitchen on that phone, yakking and doodling.

So in the spirit of a doodler, my latest ATCs which are to be Celebrate Spring!, were born. Materials used were 2 pieces of blank watercolor paper, a pencil, pearlescent chalks for the background, a black sharpie, H20 Twinkling pots to add the bursts of color, and a bottle of Sticklies for that textured glitter in the hearts.

Mellow Yellow Card

Well, on the Art For The Creative Mind list, our swap for cards was Mellow Yellow. I am not a "pastel person", so the thought of thinking in terms of YELLOW were not easy,LOL.

I don't know how other folks lay out their cards, but I start with the cover, and then for me, it determines the rest.


I don't lay out my colors or anything beforehand, because I don't really know what I am going to do...I like to let the designs of the papers guide me. It took a while to decide what to do to the inside, but I kinda like the idea of giving a little something extra and making things "useful"... so I added some cute tags ready for the recipient to play with.

Brrrr...it's A Chilly April..Anyone Heard Of Paper Bag Books?

Well, I'm still burrowing in my house as the last couple of days its been in the 30's!!!...and it's April!!

What better way to pass the time waiting for the sunshine, than to play with paper. I've taken a little break - not too long - from painting, and I have totally immersed myself into paper crafts.

Most recently, on the Art For The Creative Mind yahoo group, we were issued a challenge to create a paper bag book. I was REALLY skeptical about this, but dove in, as it has been cold outside and I needed something to pass the time!LOL Well, how surprised was I to totally love it! Now, since this is for an upcoming swap, I'm not going to post any of the inside pages - YET - but I promise that as soon as I mail it out, I'll post some of the step by steps and inside pages.

Organizing Your Scrapbook Supplies

This weekend I tried my hand at making cards. For the past 4 years - yes, FOUR YEARS - I've been "collecting" all the beautiful papers, gadgets, brads, ribbons, inks ... all to make scrapbook pages.

Nope, nada - I didn't like it. I preferred digital photos and didn't like cutting up my pics - even if they were copies. But, I STILL bought the supplies, thinking well...maybe ... maybe I'll try again.

ATCs!!!..I entered a couple of swaps, loved the fact that I could use the scrapbook supplies for the ATCs ... and then this weekend, I spent Sat and Sun just making cards and doing some ATCs.

What fun I had ... and what a mess I made!!LOL


But, I took some old suitcases that I bought from EBAY a couple of years ago, and intended on painting - but found they were perfect for storing all those scrapbooking supplies I've accumulated.


Also, I picked up a wonderful set of chip board boxes - they will be painted one of these days, trust me - and put away the rest of my supplies. These boxes are so nice, and make everything so much easier to store my supplies right out in the open.

That's it for now, hope you got some ideas for storing some of those paper craft supplies you have hidden all around the house!