Happy Monday!

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I know I did.  Beside the fact that the weather was a little bit cooler, I got to spend a good bit of time in my craft room!

I work with a woman who has a daughter that goes away to camp each year.  The woman tries sends her daughter a card every day.  Each year for the past three years she has asked me to design the cards.  I usually make her 10 - 12 cards.  I got a good start on making the cards this weekend.  Today I'd like to show you the first card I made.  It was inspired by a card I saw Mary make on www.cardztv.blogspot.com.  Mary makes some really great cards.  Her blog is one of the first ones I started following and I still do.  If you get a chance you should visit her blog and see her work and check out her amazing stamp sets.  You won't be disappointed.

So here's my version of one of Mary's cards.

I started with a white cardstock base cut at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.  The green layer was cut at 4 1/8 by 5 3/8 then another white mat cut at 4 x 5 1/4.  I embossed the top of the white mat with my Cuttlebug Divine Swirls embossing folder.  Then I started layering patterned papers.  The yellow and polka dot strips were cut at 4 x 1 and the green dotted piece was cut at 2 x 4.  I then cut a shaped mat in white and the shadow in green using my Cricut Elegant Edges cartridge.  The flower was cut using my Gypsy and the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.  I put a rhinestone in the middle of the flower it's from Michaels.  I cut a white rectangle and a green slightly larger rectangle to put my sentiment on.  My sentiment was stamped using a Close to My Heart stamp and their Olive ink. 
Well that's it for today.  I hope to be posting some of the other cards I made soon.  I hope you'll come back and take a look. 

Hugs,
Paula

Twinchies!

Hello Everyone!

I know it is shocking, two posts in one week - LOL!!  I'm really going to try hard to post more often. 

Today I'd like to share a project I made for a swap with my favorite swap group http://www.swappinscraps.blogspot.com.  For this swap we were asked to make something called a Twinchie!  I had never heard of a twinchie, so I thought what the heck.  I was told a twinchie is 2"x2".  The theme for the twinchie swap was travel and you had to use arrows.  Sounds like a lot to fit into a two inch square right?  Well here's what I came up with.

I started my project with a two inch square of black cardstock.  Then I took a white marker and drew a dashed line all around the square which is supposed to represent the lines in a road.  My next layer is a piece of a local road map.  I thought it would fun to use a map that had local streets that my fellow swappers might recognize.  Then for my arrow(s) I found this Which Way To Go? sign online and thought it would be perfect. 
Well that's my first twinchie!  I hope my swap group likes it and I hope you do to.  I'd love to hear what you think. 

Hugs to all and have a great weekend!
Paula

Craft Room Makeover

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. 

Today I'd like to share some pictures of my craft room makeover.  Please bear in mind that the room is really small so it was hard to get good pictures.  I had to get into some pretty awkward positions to take some of these shots with my cell phone. 

This is what you see when you walk into the room -- my book case straight ahead.

And my desk to the right.  I'm so loving the sections for paper storage.  I have assorted patterned papers in the slots and my 8 1/2 X 11 and smaller paper pads on the bottom.

Here is the rest of the desk and my chair. 

The desk has tons of storage.  I keep my laptop in the center drawer.  My adhesives on the top right, ink pads and markers on the bottom right.  To the left on the top shelf I have my longer Sizzix dies and the box with the Eiffel tower holds all my wood mounted stamps.  Also on that shelf is my Art Bin container holding all my Nestabilities.  The drawer on the bottom has a pull out shelf which holds all my decorative paper bags and I usually keep a roll of paper towel in there.  On the very bottom in the actual drawer, I have some punches and a hot glue gun. To the left of the desk is my TV and some more storage.

Continuing to the left more shelves and storage.  On these shelves I have my Cricut cartridges, ribbon storage boxes, Gypsy, Crop-a-Dile, Corner Chompers, Smash Book, and other assorted items.  Down below is a rolling cart and on top of the cart I have my acrylic stamps, Big Shot, a container with some special paper collections and some miscellaneous stuff.

Continuing around the room I have a small Futon.  It is the kind that the arm rests fold down to make it a twin size bed.  This picture doesn't show it, but I put a dust ruffle on the frame of the futon and used the space underneath for storage.  The banner that is hanging on the wall was the inspiration for the color scheme in the room.  I fell in love with the shade of pink on one of the flowers I used on the banner.  I took the flower to Home Depot and matched the paint color. 

Well that's the end of the room tour.  This room makes me happy and I look forward to spending many hours crafting away!  Thanks for coming by.

Hugs,

Paula

Birthday Card

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend.  Mine was good because I got to spend some time crafting.  I spent some time working on a swap project and I made a birthday card for a friend's birthday.  Today I'd like to share the card.

My card is a 5x7 card.  The card base is GP white cardstock, then a black layer - I can't remember the name of the manufacturer of the black cardstock, but I get it at Walmart where I get the white cardstock. 

My next two layers are from the fabulous Kaisercraft In the Attic collection.  This collection has all kinds of fun elements.  I fell in love with this collection because it depicts a lot of things one might find in an attic.  One of the items that are featured in the collection are records.  There are so many people who never had a vinyl record, but growing up they were a huge part of my teen age years, so I had to have the collection.  While I'm saving the records and other elements for some scrapbook pages, this collection also has some lovely patterned paper.

I just adore the red paper from the collection.  It has little tiny tan hearts and lines running through it and I thought it coordinated beautifully with this gorgeous floral paper also from the collection. 

My sentiment stamp is from Close to My Heart and I stamped it with Momento Tuxedo black ink.  The flower is by Recollections and the black pearls are by Queen and Company. 

I'm really happy with the way this card came out and I hope my friend will like it too.

This card has been "Linked Up" on www.pinkcricut.com.

Hugs,
Paula

I'm Back!

Good Morning Everyone!

I know it has been forever since I've posted anything.  I apologize.  Sometimes other things have to come first.  Hopefully I'll start posting a little more regularly.  While I've been away I did manage to do a partial room makeover on my Craft Room.  I am so happy with the way it turned out.  I promise to share some pictures soon.  Here is a sneak peek of what I've done.

The room is really small, but I've managed to pack a lot into it.  It used to be a really dark burgundy and there was carpet on the floor.  I primed and painted the walls a lovely light pink and removed the carpet and put down the black and white floor tiles.  I did it all myself and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.  More pictures to come. 

Today I also want to share a picture of a card I made for a crafty friend.  She is an amazing crafter and a sweet, kind friend.  She recently sent me a huge package of crafty goodies too numerous to show here, but I was totally surprised and overwhelmed by her generosity.  She has a blog www.craftinblind.blogspot.com.  You really must go check out her work.  Her projects are awesome!  To thank her and to enclose with a package I sent her, I made this card.

My card base is Bazzill cardstock, then a white mat which is Georgia Pacific white cardstock, then a patterned mat which was cut from the DCWV Primrose Stack.  I used a Martha Stewart punch to create a border using the same GP white cardstock and added some sheer pink ribbon and a pink rose from my stash.  The shape at the top was cut with a Sizzix die and my Big Shot and the stamp is an old Fiskars stamp.  All edges were inked with Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress ink.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to post again soon.

Hugs,

Paula