A card for Markus

Chloe's friend Markus was born one day before her, and thus he just turned two. This is the card I made for his birthday. His mom borrowed the same SU set to make the invites, so it coordinated well (although I used different colours). All products are Stampin' Up, except for the ribbon, which is from one of Tie One On's monthly ribbon kits, and the embossing powder (unknown manufacturer). I used my Pure Color Pencils to colour the images, and then used baby oil to blend the colours in.

I had planned to use the same set to make Chloe's party invites, but ran out of time :(

I've completed a few layouts in the last week, but aren't really happy with either. I've been inspired by Ms. Crafty if You're Nasty's Halloween layout, but have yet to do it justice. Third time's a charm?

Avacados, cookies, and the Carribbean

That's what this colour scheme says to me. It's Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, and Tempting Turquoise (plus a bit of Chocolate Chip), all from SU.
It's hard to see, but the centre of the circle is filled with Crystal Effects, so it's nice and glossy. Here's the inside card:
I'm in love with the Earth Elements colours lately, which is strange, as I'm not a earthy-colour person. I usually like bright colours (so I'm glad the Turquoise goes so well here!).
Have I mentioned that Dare bought me a bunch of crafts stuff for Christmas? Lots of paper, ink, and fun embellishments, like ribbon and eyelets.

I may have provided a wishlist, but he asked me to ;)

One New Year's Resolution Complete!

I've been thinking about cataloguing all my stamps and punches. I've collected quite a few stamp sets, and often forget which ones I have. One of my New Year's resolutions was to get organized. My crafts desk has been fairly organized for a while, but I've done a bit more.

So, here's the desk. I've got scrap paper in the bottom set of plastic drawers, and patterned paper in the horizontal storage shelves. SU paper and cardstock is in the vertical storage (magazine holders). The majority of my stamps are on the top shelf (on the wall) with photo boxes below holding things like acrylic paints, die cuts, more ribbon, chipboard, misc embellishments, and stamp wheels.


The adhesives drawer (yes, I'm obsessed with adhesives!):

The tools drawer - punches, rulers, and trimmers. Oh my! Hmm...there's a few punches missing from this photo. Whoops!
The stickers and rub-ons drawer (sorted by categories):

Brads, eyelets, and beads: I found this great bead container at Wal-Mart, and it's perfect for brads, eyelets, and of course, beads.


Buttons, paper flowers, metal embellishments, etc.


Ribbon storage: I keep the rolls of ribbon on three dowels hanging from the shelf:


And loose, shorter ribbon is clipped together and hung on the closet door:


I have a drawer for: my markers (to keep them stored horizontally), misc tools, glitter and powders, my brads/eyelets holder, gift wrap supplies, gift wrap, and misc (including an industrial sized bag of glue sticks for the glue gun :p)

Here's what I did to catalogue my stamps and punches. I scanned the stamp images in the SU catalogue, scanned the actual stamps (the back side, with the image sticker), or just stamped the stamp on the paper. For the punches, I just punched each shape in blue, and glued them (using the Xyron machine) to the page. I'm going to put all the pages in a folder, and I'll be able to easily flip through and see all my stamps and punches! Of course, there's plenty of room for expansion ;)


And finally, the inspiration for it all, the photos drawer - all the photos waiting to be scrapped! As you can see, I'm way behind. And I have a year of photos still to be printed!

What do you do with them?

The old Christmas cards, that is. Here's a blog with a few ideas: Recycling Holiday Cards

I know an elementary school teacher who uses them with her class, to practice writing skills, so I'll be sending mine to her!

Edited to add (04 Jan 2008): Here's another cool idea! Pillow Boxes

The Christmas Cards

Here they are! I was inspired by a card I made in a workshop last year. I already had all the supplies, but decided I needed a new Christmas stamp set ;)


Stamps: Hung Up on the Holidays, Stampin' Up
Ink: Real Red, Green Galore, Stampin' Up
Cardstock: misc (unknown)
Ribbon: dollar store
Dimensional adhesive stickers
Other: Tag punch, Stampin' Up

Hmm...I'll have to find a close-up of one of the cards, to show the detail. So who else made their cards? I'd love to see them, so if you don't mind sharing, post a link in your comment!