Project 365/ Days 56 & 57/ The Shady & Flowery Side to Crafting

Being on a design team, you get to inspire others with your creations...the same as what I attempt to do here on my blog. Many don’t realize that the people doing the inspiring search for inspiration themselves. This next project was inspired by an idea I saw a number of years ago on Better Homes and Gardens website, a way to give an old lampshade a new look. So, I paired up some buttons with my favorite adhesives and revamped Kylie's lampshade. For more details you can check the Glue Arts blog for instructions and supplies. To purchase Glue Arts adhesives, go to their website.

Day 56/ Kylie’s Lamp Shade Makeover

Day 57/ Paper and Pencil Flower Bouquet

This was a project that I made along with a tutorial for reapplying to the Glue Arts design team.

The flowers are made from Marvy punches, some small flowers, pearls, ribbon, #2 pencils, lime green cardstock, patterned CS from Cosmo Cricket’s DeLovely collection, adhesive squares , hot glue and gun and fringing scissors from Martha Stewart Crafts. The vase was made from a upcycled salsa jar using May Arts ribbon for the fancy bow and rhinestones for bling! You can see it in the photo above, too!

Here is a closer up view of the flower buds...

And an overhead view of the vase...

I hope this inspires some creativity in your home crafting today and gives you some ideas for recycling, upcycling or creating your next altered work of art!

Project 365/ Day 19 - "Tweet" Photo Valentine

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Some of my favorite colors are in Cosmo Cricket’s DeLovely collection so I just had to use this collection again when creating a personalized photo valentine for my daughter Ashley. The fun colorful chipboard embellishments were perfect for creating this square valentine card. I angled the striped cardstock, layered a patterned paper square on top, raised up the chick with U-cut-It double-sided adhesive foam and attached the flowers with an extreme adhesive square, both from Glue Arts. For the main assembly I used my Pro with high tac adhesive. I added my own hand-lettered verse following the same angle as the stripes. I used an old technique for adding the bow accent which involves punching two circles close together, threading the pointed ends of ribbon down through the holes and back up through the opposite hole. I fringed the ends of the ribbon for texture and added the epoxy sticker with the word glamorous.

Try making a personalized photo valentine for someone you love. I am following this same project theme on day 20’s project. Check it out!

Project 365/Day 18 - Glue Arts & Girls Paperie Hearts Shadowbox

Tired of making boring covered boxes? Try taking them apart and making them into a fun item of home decor. That is what I did with this heart shaped paper mache box from Darice. Pairing it up with some favorite supplies, Glue Arts adhesives and papers from The Girls Paperie, I was able to turn this box into a fun little Valentine shadowbox of Dan and I. I had a harder time locating pictures than creating the project! LOL. See if you recognize any of the diecuts or punches used here. I also snuck in a crocheted poisie from Fancy Pants that I have had stashed away for too long now and a leftover flower chipboard from my favorite summer collection from Cosmo Cricket, DeLovely. The possibilities are unlimited when you have a little bit of paper and some endless creativity!

A little bit closer view...

The back view (great when it is set on a ledge and viewable from both sides)...

Keep watching the Glue Arts blog for a complete supply list and instructions on how you can make this fun project. Also, if you haven't signed up to receive email alerts for their blog posts, be sure to do that. If you are on Facebook, be sure to comment on their page. They are giving away products to celebrating hitting over 4,000 fans!

Here's How to Do Digital Right!

I know the world of digital seems a bit scary for those who are used to traditional ways of scrapping and stamping, but there are so many fun ways to cross the bridge and try using digital on your projects. My fabulously talented friend, Susan Stringfellow, put my new Sodalicious set to use on this great layout of her son Chris eating an icecream sundae. Don't you just love how she printed the image onto the patterned papers and layered the sundae to make it oh so yummy! You can alos just hand color the graphics if you don't feel so skilled with using a knife to cut out the paper pieces.

She also made the title from the artwork in the set into a wonderful 3-D element using her cricket diecutter. To see more of her work, click the link under Other Creative Chicas on 

the right to visit her blog. She always amazes me with her fabulous 

handling of titles and the most creative use of embellishments.

Trust me you will be inspired!

Here is a close up shot of the sundae.

If you love her work as much as I do, nominate her on Cosmo Cricket's blog to 

be a guest designer and help her win their latest paper collection. 

Vote for her by simply leaving a comment on Cosmo’s blog raving about Susan Stringfellow.

To see the Sodalicious set, click here to view it in my shop at mygrafico.com

Birthday Bliss By the Sea

With all the recent tropical storms, the ocean has been a bit choppy and at times a surfer’s paradise. It reminded me of this recent birthday card I created using a color palette of two bright colors mixed with a neutral. The beige tone ink is Sahara Sand, the polka dot 5/8" grograin is from Bo Bunny’s Double Dot collection. The color is coffee. The blue ink is Pacifi Point and I used the stamping off technique to get lighter waves in back. The red ink is Poppy Parade and the two stamp sets are Just Surf and Birthday Bliss. All inks and Stamps are from Stampin’ Up!®. The red patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket’s Garden Variety collection. It is the opposite side of Tossed Salad Cardstock sheet. The Royal Blue cardstock is from The Paper Company. I used dimensional adhesive foam and the Glue Glider Pro with high tac adhesive from Glue Arts.

Technique Spotlight:
Stamping off - create lighter shades from a colored ink by stamping image onto pad, then stamping onto a scrap sheet before stamping on project. For even lighter shades, you can stamp multiple times on scrap sheet before stamping on paper.
Dragging - to make a cardstock layer pop out without matting in a contrasting cardstock, simply drag the edges of your cardstock over an ink pad to frame it and make it stand out.
Sponging - use a sponge stamped into ink to apply light shading to cardstock or to drag around paper edges for a soft framed effect.

Class Kit Projects for CHA Summer 2010

I won’t be at the Summer CHA show, but I created some project samples for a Class Kit offered by Glue Arts, Cosmo Cricket and Core’dinations to store owners. I created some pocket note pads and gift card holders using the fabulous products and adhesives from these manufacturers. Be sure to email me if you want a complete supply list. I just adore Cosmo’s DeLovely collection’s yummy colors...vibrant jewel tones mixed with some summer brights...and the chipboard designs are so adorable. You will want this collection, trust me! Pairing them with Core'dinations textured cardstocks was very fun, especially using sanding blocks to add some distressing to bring out the texture and patterns. I have a template for the gift card envelope and measurements for the holder, which can be used with Glue Arts’ Glue Glider™ Pro and repositionable adhesive to create your own post it note pad or paired with high tac adhesive and patterned cardstock to create a custom gift card holder for gift giving. Here are some pictures. Leave me a comment and your email if you would like to receive the template/instructions.

Here are individual photos of the projects. I used gold cording with buttons and adhesive squares as closures for the holders. I also used Glue Arts new Raise N’s to give dimensionality to some of the chipboard layered elements. You can even cover a standard pen with some adhesive lines and cardstock to create a matching pen and notepad set. These tiny size holders can be glued to the inside of a standard greeting card or tucked neatly into a putse or backpack for school or shopping.

Rise & Shine Journal

Shortly before my aunt passed away, I made her a special journal to record any last thoughts she might want to share with her family. I called this project the Rise & Shine Journal. It features cardstock and elements from Cosmo Cricket to transform an ordinary composition notebook into a special gift. It is featured on Glue Arts website as one of my design team projects. I fell in love with the wonderful colors in this collection. They were so bright and cheery! Check out some photos of the inside and outside covers...

Mother’s Day Stitchery

Yesterday I finished up on some Mother’s Day cards I made using my newest digi stamp set called “Sew” Long Flowers. I am providing a link to my sample album for this set and samples of the Mom Stitched Verse freebie that I told you about in yesterday’s post. If you click on the card photo you can read a description of what I used and how I created these. They are also in the photo gallery on MyGrafico so be sure to check them out and leave me comments. Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek. Be sure to check out the other samples! These cards, below, use the cute patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket’s Earth Love Mini Deck papers. I also posted some tips in my photo descriptions on using Glue Arts adhesives for attaching some of the 3-D elements.

A “Boo” Can Sometimes be a Good Thing!

O.K., so life has been super busy, hectic, full of tricks and not enough treats lately (except if you count the couple hours stolen at the beach yesterday with just the right amount of sun, a cool breeze and surfers to watch, wooo, much needed)! I know I am posting this project too late to make in time for this Halloween, but now you can feel less pressure by working on it for next year. Here is a link to the instructions on Glue Arts’ website. I am totally in love with Cosmo Cricket’s Halloween collection and had to create something fun with it. I got inspired by some paper mache letters I spotted on sale at JoAnn's before Halloween and the creativity grew from there in working with the Cosmo papers and stickers. I hope this is a boo that you will say “Yay” to!

Here are some close up shots, below, of the individual letters.

The RIP tombstone was also a purchase from JoAnns to add to the spooky setting. It has brought a smile to my face every time I have passed by it going in and out of the door.

An honor to be interviewed

What a treat during my birthday month to be the featured interview and have an article in the Sept. 2009 issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine. If you still can't find it on the stands, you can click this link to order a back issue! It features my Dive into Birthday Party Planning article featuring the Snorkel collection from Cosmo Cricket as well as the interview with Warren Gruenig  of Posh Impressions. Accompanying the interview are some Fall card ideas and a Fall themed layout of our dog, Bella which I will post in my gallery and on the blog soon. Here is a layout that was also done with the Snorkel collection which I love so much!

Day 4 - Pocket Full of Sweets

These treat pockets are fun and easy to make using patterned papers, some punches, ribbon and cardstock trimmed to 4-1/4" x 11" and scored at 5-1/2" and 9-1/2". You can make two of these from a single sheet of letter sized cardstock! For the side two pockets, I used the cheery, brightly colored patterned paper from Cosmo Circket’s Get Happy Collection, which match great with the brightly colored stick candy purchased at Cracker Barrel. I used a large circle punch to spotlight the embossed snowflake from Stampin’ Up’s Snow Swirled set and rimmed the edges using a stampin’ sponge and ink. On the middle snowflake, I embossed using clear embossing powder on white cardstock and swiped a baby wipe containing drops of ballet blue ink over top of the flake for a streaked effect. Again, I edged the circle with ink to make it pop. For the middle pocket, I used the blue patterned paper from the Frosty Days collection found in the Stampin’ Up Holiday mini catalog. These can also be filled with gift cards and a candy.

Assembly of these is a piece of cake. First fold pocket in half, then bend down the 1-1/2" flap and use corner rounder on ends. On the white cardstock, I rimmed the edges with ink and a sponge to add a little something extra. Next, flip the bottom panel down, run one strip down each side of the pocket using Glue Arts’ Permanent Adhesive and a Glue Glider Pro. Fold up to secure the sides, place one small strip of adhesive under the flap to secure and punch two 1/8" side-by-side holes through the right and left sides of the pocket. These will be used to attach the decorative side bows. Cut taffeta or satin ribbon for the large bows and thread points through the holes so the two points are front facing. NOTE: Before you tie the bow, place small piece of contrasting ribbon in the center. Make two bunny ear loops from the large ribbon and tie bow. Knot the contrasting ribbon over top of this and trim the ends of all ribbons. Decorate the pockets with stamping, stickers, whatever you like and have fun filling! These are perfect last minute appreciation gifts for teachers, the post man, neighbors, as classroom treats or for party favors. They also are a fun way to present a gift card, gift certificate or check. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Scrapper’s Challenge: Scrap A Treasured Item from Childhood

Maybe it is a favorite snugly, treasured toy or a well-remembered article of clothing. Today, dig out your camera or a photo of one of your favorite items from childhood. If you don’t have one, then choose one of your child’s treasured items to scrap about. 

The Curious George stamp set was from Target, all others are from Inque Boutique and the cool papers and phrase are from Cosmo Cricket.

Curious George was always a favorite of mine. Over 30 years later, he sits in my office to remind me of a carefree life filled with many big dreams. Leave me a comment about your childhood favorite.