Just a Note

Hey!

We're inching our way into another weekend! I don't have any particular plans I'm looking forward to, but I am thrilled for some sunny spring days ahead since today marks the fifth day in a row that the sun has been a no-show. My battery is in serious need of recharging!

How about a crafty card share? I created this 'Just a Note' card with October Afternoon's 9 to 5 collection. All the office icons are so cool! Love the clock brad! Oh...that awesome black circle die is from Papertrey Ink. They seriously rock the thin metal dies!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your day includes a little sunshine! :)

A+ Thanks

Hi!

How are you this fine Tuesday? I hope your week is going well so far.

Guess what? Even though I create crafty things daily to share with you, I didn't have anything for today so I challenged myself to come up with a card in a half hour.

I had a 6" by 6" Crate Paper 'On Trend' paper pad that I added some old October Afternoon stickers and journaling cards to. This challenge taught me that when I'm in a hurry to create something quickly, I stick to tried and true techniques and accents. I love layers and butterflies! ;)

I had fun whipping this up for you this morning....hope you like it and have a little time to get crafty too. :)

Banner Day

Good day!

I have a festive project share for you posted on the Love My Tapes blog today. I was challenged to create a banner and decided to make one for a holiday scrapbook page.

I hope you have a few moments to pop over and take a look! Enjoy! :)

Special Delivery

Hello!

Yesterday I was creating a scrapbook page with the Christmas Wishes collection from October Afternoon and before I put things away I made this Christmas card for you.

I never get tired of creating with this line! There's so much to love about it...so many awesome accents and vintage images. What a dream-come-true it would be to design for OA! Who knows....maybe someday? A girl can dream, right? :)

Thanks for stopping in! Have a wonderful Friday!

Christmastime in the City

Good day!

I'm popping in quickly today to share a Christmas card with you that I made a while back using one of my all time favorite lines, Christmas Wishes by October Afternoon.

What a jolly vintage looking Santa! So festive, isn't he?

I layered the chipboard wreath over Santa to make it look like he's holding it. I also added a few mini jingle bells. They make such a sweet tinkling sound!

Well, I have to run down to the kitchen and put a pot roast in the slow cooker. Cooler fall weather has returned to our region so I thought some warm comfort food for dinner would be nice.

Hope you have a wonderful and creative day!

Merry and Bright and a Recipe

Hello!

How was your weekend? Yesterday afternoon our house/kitchen was a slice of autumn goodness with some fresh pressed apple juice simmering on the stove in mulling spices and I baked a batch of pumpkin cookies with caramel frosting. It never ceases to amaze me how happy and content I feel about the littlest things! When I was done in the kitchen I was sitting on the couch in the family room reading and every once in a while I'd get a big whiff of the apple cider and I would close my eyes, breath deep and smile. Ahhhh......

Today I'm going to jump ahead just a bit a share a Christmas card with you that I made a while back.

I used one of my all time favorite collections, Holiday Style by October Afternoon.

I couldn't get enough of the little flags so I made some of my own with the sentiment stickers included in the line.

I can't believe Halloween is this week, can you? Do you have any spooky fun plans lined up? I plan to eat some more of those pumpkin cookies I baked yesterday, if they last that long! ;) I got the recipe from Pinterest.

Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Frosting

The recipe is from Let's Dish. They're really easy to make.

Thanks for your visit! I hope you have a good Monday!

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

Did you know that Holiday Cards and More, Vol. 7 went on sale last week? Have you seen it? It's so inspiring, loaded with the most beautiful holiday cards and projects! I'm so excited because my first publications for Paper Crafts is included!

The thing that I love the most about this issue is the variety of styles and levels from quick and easy to the more technical. There's something for everyone!

Here's one of my three projects that appears in this issue.

I used October Afternoon's Holiday Style. It's one of my all-time favorite Christmas lines.

I love the vintage vibe to this collection!

I also have an interesting story to tell you with regards to this card and who ultimately inspired its creation.

 This 'version' with the green buttons was created by Amy Heller and pinned by yours truly. I absolutely adore Amy's work and pin just about everything she makes!

Apparently, this design was memorable enough to influence the creation of my card and it wasn't until after I finished it, submitted it to Paper Crafts and got it picked up that I was perusing my pin boards and came across Amy's card for a second time. I nearly fell off my chair! I couldn't believe the similarity and was alarmed that Amy would see it in the magazine! What would she think?

I was in a panic. Not only does it look like I copied her card, but I submitted it for publishing! I didn't know what to do. I believe that we should always give credit to those artists that inspire our work or give us a great design to 'lift.'

I decided I'd send Amy an e-mail and tell her the whole story and include a photo of my card. I had no idea how she would respond. I wondered how I would if the tables were turned? Well, I can tell you this, not only is Amy Heller an amazing paper craft artist, but she's also a class act when it comes to handling situations like this! While she acknowledged that the cards were indeed similar, she said she thinks my work is good enough to be published on its own merits. How cool is that?

Anyway, I wanted to tell this story when the magazine came out because I want to give Amy some credit for this fabulous card. Thank you, Amy! And thank you for your grace in handling this situation! I also know that in this industry, we all experience times when a project or unique technique is borrowed by another crafter. Personally, if someone is inspired by a project of mine and lifts it, I don't mind so long is this is mentioned when their project is blogged. This often gets a little fuzzy because most ideas out there are not new, just reinvented and given a fresh new perspective. I suppose we must all be mindful of where our inspiration comes from and be willing to credit an artist in our posts as we do with our listing of supplies.

Do you have any thoughts on this topic that you would like to share? Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you think.

T.G.I.F! Hope it's a good one!

Mom's Christmas List

Good day!

Here in North Carolina the temperatures are slowly dropping and the days are getting shorter. Autumn is closing in. It's such a splendid time of year, isn't it? I'm one for living in the moment as much as possible and enjoying one season/holiday at a time. I'm also one who likes to prepare ahead of time.

With that said, here's a Christmas card I created with October Afternoon's Holiday Style collection. I have a lot of cards already made for the holidays.

Mom just wants a little peace for Christmas. :)

I made that little 'peace' flag with an old Making Memories pin, a My Favorite Things die and some rub on alphas from Doodlebug Design.

Oh, the twine is from Doodlebug too. Can you believe there's no stitching on this card? I did make those stars with 'coasters' from Papertrey Ink and cover them with patterned paper. Can you tell they are thicker than paper?

Hope you have a lovely weekend. Enjoy these beautiful autumn days!

I Believe in Santa

Hello!

How about a Christmas card share today? I created this card, along with a half dozen others a couple months ago when magazine pub calls went out for holiday cards. This one was a no go.

Luckily I did get a few others picked up.

I created this card with October Afternoon's Holiday Style collection. Remember this line? I love the vintage vibe!

Hope you like. Thanks for your visit!

Office Birthday

Hello!

Today I have a quick birthday card share that's perfect for an office co-worker.

I love October Afternoon's  9 to 5 collection with its inter-department envelope, telephone brad and library card!

The 9 to 5 collection also has flags, but I wasn't able to score those so I made my own. The doily die is from Lifestyle Crafts and the alphabet stickers are Teensy Type from Doodlebug Design.

Hope you enjoyed my card and have a terrific day!

Hi!

Good day!

I have another Scrap-Mart project for you today. I bit of a bonus since I didn't realize I only needed to do three posts.

My focal point, this gorgeous flower die, is one of my favorites of the Lifestyle Crafts Bloom and Grow die series.

I love the beautiful detailing of this die!

I stitched the hexagon background of this My Mind's Eye paper from the 'Follow Your Heart' collection.

The dark wood grain background paper is from October Afternoon's '9 to 5' line. Accents include die cut cloud from My Favorite Things, Prima wood button, Jute from May Arts, Teensy Type alphabet stickers from Doodlebug Design and a Memo Pin from Tim Holtz.

Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend? Christopher wants to spend some time at the pool today. Sounds like a great way to spend a lazy summer afternoon, don't you think? Hope you have a great weekend!

Pinspiration

My name is Kathy Martin and I'm a Pinterest addict! ;)

I love Pinterest! I think I've mentioned that a time or two! :) So it should come as no surprise that I was perusing pin boards the other day and came across this very cool wallpaper design from Timothy Sue.

Wouldn't this make a great background for a scrapbook page?

 Since I didn't have a lot of time to play, I made a card instead. It's really easy to create this look. Just take three strips of card stock/patterned paper and applied some scotch tape on the back to hold them together. Then centered your die over the seam of the paper and run it through your machine. A little tip...to make sure your die stays centered while cutting, use a piece of removable tape to keep it in place.

Instead of hearts like on the wallpaper, I used butterflies...cut with a die from My Favorite Things.

The 'Happy Spring' stamp and the die I used to make the gray frame are from Papertrey Ink.

The photo corner is an old Quickutz die. Do you have some of those? I still use a number of them pretty regularly.

The finishing touches include some vintage mother of pearl buttons and some hand stitching.

Oh, I should mention that this pretty patterned paper is from October Afternoon's Farmhouse line. Lovely stuff, don't you think? I swoon! :)

So do you Pinterest? What Pinteresting things have you found lately? Care to share? Last weekend I found a recipe that made me get up from the computer right then and there to go make it! I'm serious!

These are Oatmeal Peanut Butter Snack Squares by How Sweet it Is. They have that chocolate peanut butter combination that I love about Reese's peanut butter cups. They're better for you since they're made from scratch with oatmeal and whole wheat flour.

If you should also decide that you need to go bake these right now...the recipe calls for pastry flour which you can make by sifting together two tablespoons of corn starch per cup of flour. Nice thing to know, huh? I can't remember where I ran across that bit of helpful information? Could it have been Pinterest? ;)

Thanks for stopping in today. Tomorrow I have a jam packed post for you. There will be a birthday celebration, blog hop and prizes. Plus, I have an exciting announcement to make. That's a lot for a single post, huh? Hope you can join me!

Kathy :)