On a Roll

Oooo...two blog posts in two days.  I am on a roll. :-)

After I finished my card yesterday, I still had part of the dictionary page that I used for the card image left over.  Instead of filing it away for later, I decided that I would glue it in my art journal.  The next thing I knew, I had sprays, paint, bits of ephemera, washi tape and my cup of tea next to me....and soon all of it was on my page....even the tea.

Just playing like this seems to have unblocked my creative flow.  It is nice to have the time to be able to play again.  I have even started a second page today....who knows, I might even have another post again soon. :-)

Have a good Monday.

My Poor Neglected Blog

Alas, I am afraid to say you have fallen by the wayside lately.  Life has gotten away from in the last few months and crafting has been the furthest thing from my mind.  I have spent the last few months shutting down our office and dealing with all the employees that we laid off.  I, myself, will soon be looking for work as well.  I only have a few more weeks left.  It has been an incredibly busy few months and it feels very strange to be thinking about looking for work after almost 17 years at this company but I am looking forward to doing something different....just not sure what that will be yet.

It is not a doom and gloom situation.  I am leaving with a good severance package that is going to enable me to take the summer off with the kiddos and spend it goofing around and exploring our area of the world.  I expect to have lots of pictures and layouts to share.

After months of not doing anything, I finally finished a card that has been sitting on my dining room table since January.  It is a very, very, very late birthday card.  The person for whom the card is for is coming to visit in a couple of weeks and I thought it would be nice to have it finished for them when they arrived.

The image is from an old French/English dictionary that I discovered someone throwing out at work.  The paper is fabulous for art journalling and other crafting projects.  This particular image has to do with metal working with is perfect for the person who will be receiving this card.

It is nice to get back into crafting and hopefully I will have more to share here soon.

Happy Sunday and Happy Easter.

Another Christmas Card

I decided to simplify my next Christmas card design.  The first one I made took quite some time but I still wanted to use the Memory Box holly leaf wreath die.  I liked how it turned out with the Martha Stewart branch punch die cuts.  So this time, I thought I would make the standard A2 card.  I would create a nice background using modelling paste.  I would mount the wreath and add a sentiment.  I also decided that I would make all the ones that I was mailing the same so that it would go faster.

Less time consuming -- yes.  Simpler design -- yes.  Not too thick so easier to mail -- yes.  Able to complete a whole whack of them in time to mail today -- um, well, see, um -- no.  I have managed to get two completed and the bits and pieces ready to do 4 more.  Thankfully, I only mail about a dozen cards. 

The rest of the cards that I have to make get shipped in my Christmas packages so I don't have to worry about whether or not they are "mailable".  The added bonus is that they don't have to be completed this week.  I still have at least one more weekend since they don't need to be on the Greyhound until later next week.

Here is design #2 with the Memory Box holly wreath die:

Not the best photo I am afraid to say.  We are getting some snow today and the lighting sucks.

Have a good Monday.  Off to pick up the kiddos from school and try to get a few more of these done.

Christmas Cards

Every year I try to figure out what I want to do for Christmas Cards.  Should I do one design over and over again or should I do separate designs for each person.  Should I just give in and buy the cards instead.  This year, I thought that I would try to do different designs for different people. I would try to use up some of this stash that is littering my house.

So here is the first of the cards, I used some old Basic Grey paper that I have had for years. I embossed it, painted it with white painted, inked it with Distress ink and then painted it with Gesso to emphasis the embossing.  The wreath was made with a Memory Box die that I picked up recently and my favourite Martha Stewart punch - Branch.  The gold bow on the wreath is also a Memory Box die.  Boy was that fiddly to fold and glue but it was worth it.  The banner is a Tim Holtz die which I embossed Merry Christmas in gold.

I finally used the WRMK envelope punch that I have had for a while.  I am loving the idea of making special envelopes for the cards -- adding that extra touch.

Since the envelope is a dark colour, I needed to have a light coloured label for the address information.  I used a large Spellbinder's label die.

One down...many more to go. :-)

Have a good Monday.

Last of the Retreat Layouts

This is the last of the retreat layouts that I completed.  This is a more clean lined and much less layered layout than I normally do but I did not want to take to much away from this photo.  It is hard to get both kiddos looking at the camera, smiling reasonably, and not goofing off at this stage.

I coloured the canvas resist flowers with Distress markers so that I could be more precise in my colour placement.  I, then, misted the canvas to spread the ink.  It also made the colour less intense.

Now that I have shared all the layouts that I completed last weekend, I just need to keep this going.  I need to sit down and work on some of the ideas that have been percolating over the last week.

Have a good Saturday.