Craft Fair Crazy

This year I did my first round of craft fairs here in Colorado. A ton of fun and got to meet a bunch of new people. I was in my 'workshop for about 2 week prior to the craft fairs just getting ready. I would say the turn out at the craft fairs this year was not as good as others, but still I met a lot of great people. Here are just some of the items I had on my table.

Of course I had a bunch of cards, a staple for any papercrafters table. I thought I had a great variety but it seems that handmade cards aren't in 'fashion' anymore.

Alteralbe items were made, including Picture frames and Shadowboxes. With funky colors and a great price, I was sad they didn't sell.

Here is what did sell, Purse Books, a little notepad with matching pen. Also coil notebooks sold, looks like people are big writers in Colorado. There were also a great variety of 'Clippy Boards' were there and they didn't sell very much either.

Last but not least, I made some quick Gift tags and stuck them all over this tree. Thanks to my Cricut this idea went really fast and also looked beautiful. However being on the tree, I think customers were scared to touch them...wish they had. I also made a bunch of gift card holders for the ever popular gift cards...we had a good response for those. All in all, it was well worth it...even just to meet new people. I look forward to next year and all the new items I can create!

One Holiday down, One to Go!

What fun we had that the Harvest Brunch for church. I decided to decorate a table with my friend Kim. I had seen what Jeanette Lynton had done with her Thanksgiving placesetting and decided to base my design off hers. Check out Jeanettes post here. I had lots of fun making all the little items like, Glass Wraps, Napkin Rings and placemats, lots of other ladies brought some delicious food to feed us. I then used the items we made and put them on my own table for our Thanksgiving dinner this last Thursday, It looked great, I am glad I got more than one use out of them. However after our family dinner the placemats had to be thrown out...who knew we were soooo messy.

Creative Cards

I would like to applaud everyone who is a dedicated cardmaker, I was never intending on being a card maker, I actually still send E-cards to the family on thier birthday. Bad Memory. However, the ladies from the swap were obviously cardmakers.

This great card is simple with big appeal. The fun stamp is new to this season's Idea Book called Holiday Jingle. With bright paper and whimsical ribbon, it catches your eye from anywhere.

I am amazed at all the little details put in this card, from embossing the card itself to faux stitching. Lots of great features and definately a crowd pleaser!

A fun winter card featuring a smilling snowman. Even though the design is simple, the fun addition was actual twigs added to the snowman for arms! Look close. Paired with cute jewels and shiny snowflakes and this card is a winner.

I was blown away when I got this card. Not only is it full of great ideas, the zig zag pattern on the card base is actually stamped christmas trees! Amazing what you can do with CTMH's clear stamps! I also love the punches of bright red.

I love this card, every inch of it has been well thought out. From the heat embossed background to the paperpieced dress on the new 'Ms.' stamp. There are more little things to look at on this card, so take a peek and let me know what else you see!
I am expecting my next swaps any day now, along with craft fairs this next weekend and family in from out of town it is bound to be a busy time. But I will hopefully have a great Thanksgiving post for you soon,

Christmas Tags Swap

I am always amazed by everyone elses creativity. They always tend to do something unexpected which makes it unique and wonderful. This is why I love to participate in swaps, these tags are a sample of the unexpected creativity that I am talking about, fun, whimsy and now to be cherished for years to come.

I fell in love with this great ornament tag because of the great design and 'POW' colors. The snow on the front is heat embosses and cute jewels jazz up the front, but if you look closely, you'll see the ornament hanger is a different paper, that is because it opens up to reveal the names, to and from.

This awesome tag was a suprise as it is a Shaker tag. Snowman and tree are inside with of course...snow, then she had cut some great smaller snowflakes that are drifting down. Totally creative and I would love to make 100 of these.

Classicly beautiful tag. I love all the layered ribbons and tied together with a gorgeous brad. The stamp if from Close to my Heart called 'Heartfelt Christmas', it is gorgeous and I think I have almost worn my set of this stamp OUT!

Even though this tage is cute and pretty...it's the minature bells on the bottom of the card that really struck me as ingenious. I also love the clear embossing and glitter on the tag. I think without glitter, Christmas isn't near as pretty or magical. Next, I would love to show you my favorite cards I got from the swap, also full of great ideas!!!

Swap Spoiler

Busily working away in my basement trying to get my swaps completed. So yesterday I sent out my next set of swap items. I had to make 10 double page layouts, all made of the same paperpack, 'Jingle' and I will get back 9 different layouts.

This first layout was made was with Clost to my Hearts new Jingle Creative Basics pack. This pack of paper is for card making, but I couldn't resist the cute patterns and juniper colored ribbon.

This layout was made with the Jingle Bulk pack. This has papers from the retail paper pack in it and I love the cute presents. The real Jingle paper pack is fun and has lots of great papers in it to help with your christmas scrapbooking. Check back soon as I will be posting the swap items that get returned to me so you can see every awesome idea to make with the new Jingle paper pack!!!

I'm dreaming of a Creative Christmas

Here we are the beginning of November and I have already sent out a box of Christmas related items. I have joined a ton of swaps and need to get them done ASAP. So these items are from the first swap and I had to make about 10 of each of these items. This candle I thought was really cute because it was kinda vintage Christmas, with awesome heat embossing and cute paper this was lots of fun to make.
This item was a 3" circle tag and I think it is really cute, but I used a 3-D foam dot on the white circle and so it is no longer practical to write your name on there. Oops!

Here is another tag for the swap, I really like the way that this tag turned out, it has classic elements of the season. I also jazzed it up with some Liquid Glass from Close to my Heart to make it shine.

This sweet card should warm everyones heart this season. I had fun making this card and am planning on replicating it in the future for card workshops. If you live in the Denver Area, I will be holding Christmas Card Workshops in my studio. If you are interested please email me and I can get you the workshop information. We there are lots more Christmas Ideas to come, so come back for more great ideas.

Confusing

So just before I left to Calgary I submitted this 3-d project to CTMH for thier monthly contest. So sure I was going to win, it was a shock to me that I didn't even rank in the top 6, only cards and layouts did. So do I email CTMH and ask for this project back after they clearly state that no projects will be returned? Or do I let them show this at convention and have lots of ladies love the project and I get nothing in return for my awesome idea? I am not sure how to continue but I am confused!

Motivation

So before the wedding I had signed myself up for about 5 different swaps with about 20 different projects to be made in multiples, and I haven't started them. I am have lost the motivation to go down stairs and get my scrapbooking started again. That must be the reason why you don't go away for a month. All of my swaps are christmas related so keep looking back for great christmas ideas. My goal this week is to get all my swaps started and finish one multiple project a night. I am sure I can do that. Stay tuned for me trying to meet my goal.

Wedded Bliss!

Phew! The wedding is over! As all weddings do, it took a while to get there and there were some bumps in the road, but now it is over and we can relax again. Of course everything turned out lovely and I even had some time to help out with certain creative aspects of the wedding like the placecards. My daughter had been waiting so long to be a flowergirl with her cousin and they did look cute in thier dresses. The pictures above are just a little peek of over 600+ pictures we took that day. So what is on the agenda for the next 3 months...I have a bunch of christmas stuff I am going to be making in the next couple of weeks and need to get other things ready for thanksgiving and valentines day. With so many holidays lumped up in the next little bit, I should be like Santa's elves and be working non stop till then. Keep looking for pics of all the swaps I am in and other great ideas!

My Sketch World

See what I mean about a great September. My Sketch World has also asked me to be a guest designer for the month of September. Such a talented group of ladies over there, I am awestuck by the creations. My Sketch World also has great galleries and forums, lots of great ideas and tips on there. Look for my Daily 'Creative Dose' to give you inspiration and I will also be shelling out '{Blog Love}'in the forum and great place to focus on someones blog for that week. Now my September did NOT get off right...it's only the 2nd too. My big open house that I scheduled turned out to be a bust. NO ONE showed. Bummer. I guess it was the wrong night? Oh Well, maybe next time.

Scrapping Out LOUD!

What a great month September is going to be! Scrapping Out LOUD! has asked me to be thier Guest Designer for the week of September 1, with a great challenge: Scrap out of Season! We all buy products for the time of year, and then have to store them away for a whole 50 weeks until they are allowed out again! So why not experiment and use seasonal products unconventionally? Snowflakes could be spring flower centres, halloween spiders on a summer page....Those products will never get used up otherwise! Think outside of the seasonal box! I love to do layouts that require me to think about materials in a different way. As you see above my chipboard snowflakes have been turned into summer flowers. With an abundance of stitching and a cute picture of my daughter I love the way this layout turned out. Why don't you head over to Scrapping Out LOUD! and play along with us.

A Year to Remember

This great Mini album was made with Creative Cuts and More 8"x8" Mini Album Set. It is a 10 piece die cut set with 2 covers, four dividers, four pages and four 1" rings. I ordered mine in Bazill Bling Cardstock - String of Pearls. I love the color it came it, it's soft and textured, which is awesome. I also used Basic Grey's Urban Couture Collection and Close to my Heart My Acrylix Stamps. This mini album is going to my In Laws, I did and album for the first year of my daughter's life and gave it to them for a Christmas gift almost 2 years ago and just recently they asked if they were ever getting another one? Well of course. It's going to be great for them because we are no longer living in the same country and they do miss thier only grand-daughter. I hope they will enjoy it.

Autumn/Winter Idea Book Open House

Three times a year my heart gets all fluttery and I get really excited about the release of the latest Close to my Heart Idea Book. Well that time again is upon us, as of September 1st the Autumn/Winter Idea Book is available. With great new paper packs, unbelievable embellishments, awesomes stamp sets and an idea on every page, this is a book that you don't want to miss. I am having my first Open House to showcase the new Idea Book so if you live in the Denver Metro area and want to come down to take a look at the latest and greatest Idea Book, I would love for you to email me. I have prizes, giveaways on the hour and awesome ideas and ways for you to save or even earn free product. This is a great time of year for scrapbookers and I would love to share my passion with you. If you aren't from the Denver Metro Area and would love to get your hands on this hot item, check out Close to my Heart!

Clearly Beautiful Cards

Another clearly great project using Acetate from Creative Cuts & More. These two cards are the 5 x 7 Acetate card, I actualy cut it up to make 2 different cards. I quality of the accetate is awesome and easy to manipulate. I love the fact that the acetate gives the card some great dimension, not just paper layered, but great shadows and floating sentiments. In the back grounds I used Basic Grey Paper and Rubon's for the Bridal Card and the other card features all Close to my Heart Paper and Rubons.

To Carry or to Capture?

For my next project as Guest Designer for Creative Cuts & More, I decided to take the basic Gable-Tall Box in Acetate and fashion it into a Phot Box. What better way to capture my daughter's boundless energy than by encasing it into this box. I wanted to create something with depth, color and fun techniques. This has eye-catching qualities and some great products helped that along. Of course we have the Gable-Tall Box in Acetate, Basic Grey Paper and Killer Red Tacky Tape from Creative Cuts & More. Rhinestones, Stamps, Inks and Ribbons are all Close to my Heart. I think this photo box is darling and only wish I would have found a way to make it rotate!

Stay in the Line!

So the next challenge for Whimsical Scraps and Bugs was a color challenge. You can see the colors in this post. I am a firm believer that companies put thier products into 'lines' so it makes you, the scrapbooker's, life easier. When you combine all the elements that you can find in a line from a manufacturer, you will always get a beautiful layout! I know that the trend is to mix and match, and in the beginning, that is all you really could do. But don't make your layouts harder then they have to be by doing unessessary extra work. This layout was made from Making Memories 'Chloe's Closet' and I think it worked out fabulously.

Moments Recorded

This is the latest from a great challenge site called Moments Recorded. Lots of great challenges. This last challenge was to use a sketch, mask and use mist of some kind. I do not own any kind of mist so I used paint splatter to recreate the mist effect. Messy! I do love my niece in this picture, she is really cute. Next time I think I will buy real mist for a great effect!!!

Back to School...Already?

How shocked was I to find out that school in the state of Colorado starts in August! The height of summer where I am from. Up in the frozen North we only start school in September, that way we have the warmest days to play outside. So one of my good friends daughters is off the the Honor Academy in Texas, giving a year of her life to God. I hope she has a good time, but, before she went I thought I would make her some great items to help her along. I think they will definately decorate her drab room and add some flair! I made the whole set of items I already had sitting around and SEI's Chocolat line of papers, goregeous!

This was my Eco friendly project...obviously made out of a tin can...the only thing I would differently is put something around the edge to protect her fingers and pens from getting cut, acrylic perhaps? Suggestions?

This is a great pen and notepad, just recovered. Picked up the notepad/pen set for a $1.

Great Dollar store buy, a horrible little picture frame that we recovered with our paper, Cork is painted and stamped and the letters are 'Color Ready' Sticker letters from Close to my Heart and my gel pens, love them sooo much!

This Journal is the best, with front, back and inside covers done with the paper I am sure all her thoughts will be well written. Just for fun I also stamped random inside pages...to give it some color!

A great Michael's buy, this little tool kit just needed some ribbon and a tag and it was done!

Of course the coaster post-it note holder! Recovered and AWESOME. I know that I missed some Must-have items that belong with this kit like pens, but I only had so much time. If you have any suggestions as to what else I could make with this kit, leave a comment I would love to hear from you!