December Daily 2013

Hola peeps! I have a surprise for you all today – a video! I am going to warn you all that it is a bit long. And, because of my health issues, my voice is definitely higher than it used to be.

This is kind of serving as the introduction to what will be a little series that will run until I am finished. As of right now, it will spill over into 2014. I am okay with that. I know that I can only do so much and I don’t want to stress out. My plan is for the videos to be posted on Sunday’s.

Like I mention in the video, I am not generally a scrapbooker, so this is going to be a learning experience for me. I have a general idea, but for the most part I am going to go with what feels like me.

I mentioned in the video that I will primarily be using my iPhone and, when it comes, my new Rebel T3i to photograph the pictures for my album. To expound upon that, I will say that my everyday photos will be with my iPhone or maybe my little Kodak point-and-shoot. I am saving my DSLR for family gatherings and maybe some of the things that I do with the kids in the family. Also, I will be providing an InLinkz list of many of the products I will be using, but here is another list of basic supplies I will be using in case you’re wondering:

Album: Simple Stories Sn@p 6”x 8” in Red. All of the inserts will be Sn@p as well. I am using a random assortment.

Photo Paper: HP Premium Photo Paper (Gloss & Matte)

Printer: HP Photosmart Premium (It’s older so I will link to a newer model.)

Cameras: iPhone 4; Canon Rebel T3i; Kodak Easyshare C1450.

Photo Editing Software: Picasa & Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink.

Other Supplies (click on picture for more information):

Happy Holidays Paper - Tis The Season - Echo Park	Gingerbread Man Paper - Snow Village - Pink Paislee	Buttered Rum Paper - Snow Village - Pink Paislee	Peppermint Patty Paper - Snow Village - Pink Paislee
From Me To You Paper - It's Christmas - Websters Pages	Gingerbread Man Paper - Snow Village - Pink Paislee	Magical Time Paper - Tis The Season - Echo Park	North Pole Paper - Reflections: Christmas - Echo Park
Bundled Up 6 x 6 Paper Pad - Crate Paper	Mini Flat Kraft Colored Bag By Canvas Corp.	Mini Flat White Bags By Canvas Corp.	Red 6"x8" Snap Binder - Simple Stories
Snap Alpha Letters Stickers - Simple Stories	Snap Label Stickers - Simple Stories	Daily Clear Stamps - Snap - Simple Stories	Mistletoe Magic Brads - My Minds Eye
Merry & Bright Mini Stamp - Websters Pages	Mistletoe Magic Enamel Dots - My Minds Eye	Bundled Up Ephemera Pack - Crate Paper	Bundled Up Adhesive Badges - Crate Paper
Let It Snow Clear Stamps

InLinkz.com

That’s all I have for you today! If you don’t want to miss out on the videos to come, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. I decided that integrate my blog with my personal channel.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a blessed day!

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop

Hello. Yes, it’s been forever since I’ve posted, but I’m popping in before I head off to work! I wanted to join in on the festivities this month. Nichole selected some non-traditional color schemes and given that I am a bit out of the box with color, this was right up my alley.

Here is the scheme I selected:

And, from that, this is what I came up with:

This is one of the quickest cards I think I have ever made. Kept pretty true to what I like. I had he hardest time incorporating the Berry Sorbet. I love the color, but it’s much brighter than what I generally like to use, so I used it to compliment the Melon Berry.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Background Basics: Sheet Music, Peaceful Pinecones & Think Big Favorites #20; Acanthus Background from Delta.

Cardstock: Spring Moss, Harvest Gold & Melon Berry.

Patterned Paper: Colorbok Victorian Parlour.

Ink: Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery, Calypso Coral & Groovy Guava; Versamark and Harvest Gold.

Dies: Peaceful Pinecones and Mat Stack 4; Woodgrain Impression Plate.

Other: Wilton Doily and Doodlebug Lily White Sugarcoating. 

That’s it for me! Thanks for stopping by. and I wish you a blessed day!

My Creative Time Designer Challenge

Happy Thursday everyone! September is off to a great start, and I am here with a really sparkly Christmas card to share as part of our new Designer Challenge.

Emma has decided to replace Throwback Thursday in favor challenges that members of the Design Team come up with. This week, Veronica, from VK Create, challenged us to recycle or reuse a product that wasn’t intentionally made to craft with. I decided to incorporate wrapping paper into my card (thanks to the lovely Shar!).

Okay! The really cute paper that you see on the bottom portion of the card is actually wrapping paper. I bought it at Hob Lob . . .  2 season’s ago, I think. I love their paper, it’s really thick and the rolls have so much paper on them.

The top portion of the card is covered in patterned paper from the original My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found collection.  It has glitter, and y’all know how I lurve my glitter! I did a perimeter zig-zag stitch around the top of the card with my sewing machine. I then diecut a border using my Super Star dies with Aqua Mist felt. I sewed that directly to the card (VERY SLOWLY!) where my to papers met.

I used Expression to diecut some snowflakes using the Christmas/Noel Solutions Cartridge. The red snowflake was cut at 2.59” x 2.18,” the aqua and vellum ones were cut at, 1.79” x 2.18.” I used the base snowflake for the red, and the other two are actually the shifted image. I used my spray adhesive to coat them, and I covered them with Martha Stewart Glitter in Garnet & Blue Topaz. SPARKLES, yeah!!!!

For my sentiment, I used one of last new releases, Warm Holiday Fun. The sentiment is what actually inspired the card. Personally, I fell like sentiments should fit in with the design of the card. It’s an integral part, so that’s where the glitter and shiny paper come in.  Anyway, I stamped the sentiment onto a strip of vellum with Versamark Dazzle in Frost, and I embossed it with Pewter Zing embossing Powder from American Crafts. Cut a notch in the end, and adhered it with red line adhesive. I put a glittered brad from Hob Lob through the snowflakes, and adhered it to the card with red line dimensional adhesive. Super cute right?!

Anyway, thanks for coming by. I adore you lovely people. I wish you all a blessed day! Oh, a while back someone wished I would do a layout . . . Monday!!! I’m not a scrapper so wish me luck!

Edited to add: If you want Warm Holiday Fun, I would suggest you order it now, because I talked with Emma, and she mentioned that they keep selling out!

Tag, You’re It!

Hey there! Glad you came by today. I have a really quick little tag card to share with you all. Super easy and super simple. And it’s using a cartridge that I know most of us have, an oldie, but a goodie, Tag, Bags, Boxes & More.

I know what you’re thinking, he brought back the glitter. Why yes, I did. I just can’t help it.

I intended to only make tags today. But, I saw this gem on the TBBM cartridge and I was like, “OMG window card!” You have to say it like you’re from Valley – like on Saved By the Bell. I’m a child of the 90’s, don’t judge.

Once again, I have the Gypsy file. If you want it email me. Now, down to business!

This one is pretty straightforward. I found the candy cane cut on the Gingerbread Seasonal Cartridge. I used Pure Poppy, and Stamper’s Select White. Normally, I use good ole Georgia Pacific because it’s umm, affordable. But I knew I was going to cover that layer with glitter, so I used something more sturdy.

Okay, so, between me and y’all, I cheated on Martha. Yeah, I used Doodlebug Lilywhite Sugarcoating on my candy canes today. I feel terrible, that counts, doesn’t it?

Because the card front has a window, I didn’t want any adhesive to show. So, I had to size it just right. After I cut them, I used Background Basics: Houndstooth to stamp on them. I’m an Alabama boy, what can I say? No seriously, I like the pattern, that’s all. I used Lucky Limeade and Real Red. Full disclosure, I had to lay the card flat and mask the back with Post-It Notes when I was stamping. After that, I cut my clear cardstock (Save your acetate!) to cover the window, and I adhered it with my Tombo Mono Multi. I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch a hole through the top of the card, and I set eyelets on the front and the inside.

The only tricky part was positioning the foam adhesive so that it wouldn’t show on the inside. Does it matter? Probably not, but I’m OCD, so I just have to have it a certain way. For this I used red line dimensionals from Jody, they’re super strong. I used them because I knew I was going to tie bows around the candy canes. For those, I used some saddle stitch ribbon from Hob Lob.

Last thing, a little Caribbean twine from The Twinery, and a sentiment on the inside. For that, I used another new My Creative Time set, Warm Holiday Fun.

Okay, that is all for me today, but I have a really special project for tomorrow! I cannot wait to show you all. Thanks for stopping by, have a blessed day!

Tree-mendous Wishes

It’s beginning to look a lot like . . . summer. Cause I live in Alabama and it’s hotter than a box of firecrackers on the Fourth of July. Anyway, I welcome you on this great Wednesday!

I have a quick Christmas card to share with you today. I was trying to make it vintage, yet fun.

For today’s card, I wanted to incorporate a little more stamping –because that’s what I mainly consider myself to be these days, a stamper. And, one of my favorite things to do is stamp onto die cuts. In this case, Cricut cuts. I stamped on the lighter green cut with my Just Jeans stamp from Stampin’ Up.

I totally winged this card. With the exception of the Kraft base an the Christmas tree cut from Winter Frolic, the rest just kind of came to me as I was creating. Just to let you all know where I was going, the Christmas tree is basically a vintage pin. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. When I cut the tree, the little circle that are meant to be balls were incredibly tiny. But no matter, I grabbed my Melissa Frances pearls and colored a few with my markers, problem solved. A little Crystal Stickles and my little tree was complete. The button card stamp is from Button Boutique and I stamped it with Real Red ink.

Standard card base, no need for reinventing the wheel today. Continuing the theme, of the week, my pattern papers are from the Echo Park Merry Christmas Collection. The green polka dot measured 4” x 3,” and the stripe is 4” x 2.25.” Adhered them with a small amount of ATG – just enough in the center so they won’t shift while sewing. By the way, I use Coats & Clark thread for all of my sewing. While I had my machine out, I stitched some lace over the seam where the papers met.

Once I added the lace, I figured I might as well keep with the fabric/texture theme, so I stitched some burlap with Liz’s Boutique onto a scrap of Vintage Cream cardstock. Initially, I was going to distress the edges, but I decided to trim it with my pinking shears to match the little paper sack I used. Which reminds me . . .  Before I stitched the burlap, I used Background Basics: Houndstooth to stamp on a Canvas Corp bag. I used Stampin’ Up’s Soft Suede ink. Words cannot describe how much I love that color. Love it. I know some of you are thinking, Trell, it’s just brown. Errr, no it’s not, so there!

From there I tied a bow with some red seam binding, because everything is better with a bow. I adhered the bag and the button card to the card with red line tape. I have found that I like to use it because it has such a strong hold. Anyway, I stamped my sentiment from My Creative Time’s newest sets, It’s a Magical Season, onto a negative from a frame that I kept. I know it’s on Elegant Edges. The main cut is a postage note frame.

To finish it off, I inserted a corsage pin into the bow, and inked around the card with Antique Linen Distress ink and a little Soft Suede.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving such wonderful comments. Have a blessed day!

Joy

Hello crafty peeps! So, you’re in for a treat this week, because I am guesting on the Everyday Cricut blog! That’s right, every single day. Before I get into my project for today, I want to thank Joy and Melanie for having me, it’s an honor.

I think most people that read my blog, know that I am a cardmaker. That’s my passion, but would it surprise you all that I did something, “off the page,” to kick off the week?

Joy to the world . . . Kidding, I have a terrible singing voice. But, this makes me want to sing! I wanted to offer some ideas for the upcoming holiday season, and banners are great décor items. I opted to keep it simple and small, but if have a mantle, why not go all out?

The inspiration for this came from the Fontopia Art Cartridge. When I looked through the handbook, I knew I wanted to make a banner with the letters. I just love the typography. But, I digress! I’ll walk you through the process, it was really easy, and I worked on it for a few days (I have this job . . . I know, ugh. Joking, I love it.), but it really wouldn’t take long to do in one sitting.

I woke up my Imagine from a deep slumber, and printed out three patterns from the Teresa Collins Black & White Pattern Cartridge. Because everyone loves a visual, I took a picture of the patterns I printed:

I am a big fan of options. Know what I’m saying? In the end, I went for the sheet music because I think it conveyed Christmas the most; to me, anyway. Also, as you can see, I printed on Kraft cardstock and it came from Jo-Ann. I think I spent more time deciding on and printing patterns,  than anything else during the making of this. Trell’s creative method is to sit and stare at the paper. It works though!

I sized my cuts and everything with my Gypsy. I have the file for those that want it. And, I might even make a Craft Room file. I used Birthday Bash for the pennant cuts.

I am a man of few embellishments. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but I can’t afford to buy everything under the sun, so I tend to concentrate on a few. I will sing the praises of paper doilies. I love them and you will see them again this week, I’m sure of it. They’re cheap, and we all have at least one place where we can find them. Anyway, I used my Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Inks to age the pennants and doilies. I then adhered them with some Tombo Mono Multi. I punched a scallop border strip from cream cardstock and adhered them to the bottom of the pennants. And, I added a little trim to the top of the pennants.

In this case, I also use paper as an embellie. I make my own rosettes with my score board. I measured my the width of my pennant, and I deduced that my rosettes should be 3 inches. So, I cut my patterned paper, from the Echo Park Merry Christmas collection, to 1.5” x 12.” Inked them and adhered them with my hot glue gun. I find it to be the fastest and best adhesive for rosettes. I adhered them to the pennants with hot glue as well.

Next up were the letters, I cut out three of each letter because I wanted them to be like a lightweight chipboard. I adhered them all together and sprayed them with Krylon Spray Adhesive. I then coated them with Melissa Frances Glass Glitter. I got that, and the Melissa Frances Pom-Pom trim from Liz’s Paperloft Boutique. I like spray adhesive because it cuts down the drying time, and it holds glitter very well. I also adhered the letters with hot glue. In the center of the O, I used my small star punch to cover the center of the rosette.

Lastly, I used some twine from Liz’s Paperloft to tie some loose double bows and connect them. Little extra nugget, eyelets would have been great, but I didn’t have any! I finished it off by tying some double bows with some ribbon I picked up from Hob Lob eons and eons ago.

Welp, sorry for the super looong post, but I like to leave no detail spared! Thanks for stopping by, have an amazingly blessed day!

MCT August Release Blog Hop!

Hello again crafty peeps! I want to welcome you from wherever you came, but I hope you hopped here from Tracy’s wonderful blog. If not, start here.

I was assigned the 3” x 3” card and envelope for the hop, and I decided that instead of reinventing the wheel, I would keep it short and sweet. I think that is the point of a note card anyway. And, once again, I used vellum for my envelope, but I like it, so there! (Imagine me sticking my tongue out like a little kid . . .)

I know that we all get really busy during the last few months of the year, and most of us are cardmakers, right? So, I figure, take a few hours and diecut a few of these little beauties and have them on hand for the upcoming holiday season.

Now, I will admit that I might have went a bit overboard with the bling and pearls, but they were cheap coughdollarbincoughcough. And just because I love the Melissa Frances pearls, I couldn’t stop at one!

The snowflakes are element stickers from the old Echo Park Merry Christmas collection. Confession, I haven’t purchased Christmas paper for the year yet. But, I like to use what I have, and what better way, that to embellish a quick card?

Before I forget, I diecut the card from Rustic Cream cardstock. My personal advice is to keep these light, you don’t want to have to put a layer on the inside. I feel like the Rustic Cream satisfies my need to give it a homespun feel without using Kraft cardstock.

My sentiment is from Gift Card Sentiments. If you don’t have this one, you need it. I use it all the time – it has a special place on my work table, along with a few other sets. I stamped it with my favorite red ink, Stampin’ Up’s Real Red. I opted to finish it with a silk ribbon bow, but I don’t think it is absolutely necessary.

BLOG HOP GIVEWAY ALERT

For our Blog hop giveaway, there will be 2 winners chosen from ALL the comments combined!  The 1st prize is: A guest design spot for our next release in Sept & the 2nd prize is you can pick $50 worth of products from the "My Creative Time" store! All you have to do is leave a comment here along w/the rest of the design team's blogs AND also leave a way for us to contact you!  Emma will use random.org to pick the lucky winners!  All you have to do is leave a comment on all blogs in this hop for more chances to win! The deadline is Sunday, August 19th at midnight! EASY PEASY!!! GOOD LUCK!:)

Blog Hop Line Up

Emma

Amy

Cassandra

Cathryn

Cindy B.

Glora

Jeanne

Katie

Kim

Leanne

Liz

Micia

Nancy

Nikki

Ruthie

Shar

Tracy

Trell (You’re here!)

Veronica

Before I let you go, I want to invite you all back next week. I’ll have more Holiday (both Halloween & Christmas) themed projects that you don’t want to miss! I even have a 3D project!

Thanks for you coming by and leaving such awesome comments, I love reading them. Have a blessed weekend!

Christmas House–MCT Sneak Peek Day #2

Hello crafty friends! I know I have been around, but I kind of needed a bit of a break to get the creative energy flowing again. But, I think I am good for a while now, and it couldn’t be a better time – it’s release week at My Creative Time!

I have a card to share with you using the new Christmas House stamp set. Keep in mind, I do not consider myself an alcohol marker expert, so go easy on me! I’ve recently started acquiring Copic markers, so we will see where this all goes.

 

When it comes to Christmas, I consider myself a bit of a traditionalist. So, I knew that I wanted to stick with a red and green palette.

I started by stamping the house image onto Stamper’s Select White cardstock with Onyx Black Versafine ink. I cut it out with the second to largest rectangle from my Spellbinders Classic Rectangles Large set. I loved that embossed border, makes it look like an old painting.

Next came the coloring, and believe it or not, I used six markers – three for the door alone! I used a combination of Prismacolor Markers and Copics. I started by adding a small amount of color to the snow covered roofline with PM-193 Mint Cream. Then I used B000, Pale Porcelain Blue, to color in the ground snow. I made very light flicks with the brush tip away from the house. For the door, I colored it in with R24, Prawn, and then I added shading to the right corner with PM-5, Scarlet Lake,  and PM-4 Crimson Red. I also added one little dot of PM-167, Apple Green, to the door handle. That probably sounds way more complicated than it really was, but, I try to give all pertinent information!

I inked the colored image with Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain Distress inks. Basically working from lightest to darkest. I added some dimensional adhesive to the back and mounted it on a small block of Scarlet Jewel cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I also used my trusty edge distresser to rough up the edges.

My patterned paper if from the My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found Christmas pad. It measures 4.25” x 3.” I adhered it temporarily to my Kraft base. Then I trimmed a piece of Ripe Avocado to 4” x 2.5.” and embossed it with the Candy Cane Stripes Cuttlebug folder. I adhered it with some Tombo Mono Multi glue and took the base to my sewing machine for some perimeter stitching.

I tied a bow with some Scarlet Jewel satin ribbon. Let me say that this was probably one of the fastest bows I have ever tied. I only mention that because normally it takes me ages to tie a bow with satin ribbon. I threaded a Vintage Cream button with some button twine and tied it around the knot.

I stamped the sentiment from Christmas House with Cherry Cobbler ink from Stampin’ Up. I LOVE that color. Instead of my usual banner end, I opted to trim at a diagonal.

Sneak Peek Giveaway Time!
With all of our Sneak Peek weeks, I love to do FUN giveaways!

All you have to do is leave comments on our blogs! You do NOT have to comment on every blog, BUT if you do, you will just have more chances to win!

SPREAD THE WORD TO THE WORLD ON FACEBOOK about this release & whatever connections you may have! Let us know on "My Creative Time's" FB page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Creative-Time/364568506334 that you spread the word!

I will randomly pick & announce all winners on Friday, August 17th during the blog hop release happening @ 12:01am PST in my video! GOOD LUCK!

That’s all for today! Thanks for coming by and I wish you a blessed day!

Celebrate the Occasion Challenge #44

Happy Tuesday and welcome to the last CTO challenge for the year! CTO is having a design team call that ends today, so if you haven’t applied yet, get busy! With that said, while I have enjoyed my time on the CTO Design Team I decided not to reapply. I wanted to give others a chance to be on a DT. And, the second reason was because I made it to the 2nd round of the Spellbinders Design Team Competition. Which brings me back to reason number one, had I not been on the CTO Design Team, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have had the confidence to try for My Creative Time or Spellbinders. So, everyone needs a chance and I’ve learned that you really never know unless you try. I’ve been making cards for only one year, so I feel really blessed and thankful to have come this far.

Now, the challenge for this week is to make a shaped Christmas card. I’ve had this card planned since the summer! Can you believe that? I think this is my third card with a snowflake, so I guess that means I have a things for them. This is a Gypsy designed card. The snowflake is on the Christmas/Noel Cartridge. The base of the card and the top layer are Aqua Mist from Papertrey Ink. The second layer is Kraft from PTI as well.

Now, here is the deal, I have a stamp that says. “Seasons Greetings.” It’s not a photopolymer stamp – it’s acrylic and I think when I pulled it off of the acetate, it stretched. Long story short, it doesn’t stamp straight and since I really wanted to use that sentiment, I decided I would just write it myself. I highly doubt that you will see me writing my sentiments like you see here. I got a new computer and I haven’t purchased the newest version of Microsoft Word, or transferred the files from my old computer, so I have a serious lack of fonts.

The card itself is simple. I will say that just so it wouldn’t look flat, I adhered the top cut with dimensional adhesive. When I want a little dimension, I highly prefer the Stampin’ Dimensionals, when I want more, I used the Sticky Doos from Hobby Lobby. To finish my card, I took some adhesive gems and adhered them to the points of the snowflake. Really simple to make.

That is it for me. I am so thankful you took the time to visit my blog. I hope everyone has a super blessed day and just incase I don’t post again before Sunday, a very Merry Christmas. I work retail and I’ve been super busy lately.