Summertime Crafts

Hello!

Today I have a special kid-craft post over at the write. click. scrapbook. blog.

Hope you can fly by and check it out!

Have a great day! :)

More Spring Crafting

Hey! Happy weekend!

Look what I made yesterday...

I used the last bit of jute from this spool and thought I'd make something with it. I wrapped some 1927 sheet music around it, then added a bit crinkled seam binding, a vintage mother of pearl button and a jute bow. Then I topped the spool off with a sweet little nest from the craft store and some millinery flowers purchased on Etsy. I rather like it! What do you think?

I think it looks darling under a little cloche on the coffee table with a few of my favorite things. What a fun project and it's perfect for spring!

Hope you have a lovely weekend! :) Kathy

You've Got Mail!

This was just too fun to make and turned out so very cute! Wouldn't it be perfect for a little girl's room, a place for mom and dad to leave a note or special little surprise? I've got this mailbox and another one that's decorated with flowers in my etsy shop at http://www.cardblanc.etsy.com/. Come on by and take a peek. I also stock the Berry Sweet card stock I used for this project for those of you who would like to make your own mailbox and other paper crafts.

Fifth Avenue

I've been making projects with this line of paper from Making Memories for over a year now and I still love it! Some paper lines get old after a while, but this one, Fifth Avenue, has staying power. Here's just a sampling of the projects I've created. If interested, you can purchase the card in the first photo and/or a 6"x6" stack of these gorgeous papers in my Etsy shop at http://www.cardblanc.etsy.com/.

Cute on Etsy

I love shopping on Etsy! Why buy gifts and home decor items anywhere else? The wares on Etsy are handcrafted one of a kind pieces that you will find no where else. And I'd rather support individual artisans instead of mass marketing. Have you perused Etsy lately? There are so many down right adorable things to be found! Case in point, this little blue bird jewelry dish by Elm Studios at http://www.elmstudiosonline.etsy.com/. The shopkeeper takes custom orders so I ordered a few dishes for end-of-the-year teacher gifts with two birds, a teacher and student, printed with the word 'fly.'

The second photo, featuring a fabric poppy is made by Middleburg, a folk art studio. How cool to dress up an ordinary denim jacket with a pretty little flower. This shop features papier mache figures made of 100% recycled newspaper, so this is also an environmentally friendly shop. To view these adorable pieces log onto http://www.middleburg.etsy.com/.

Now, how about this elephant in the last photo? Irresistible, huh? Too cute with it's pink and white polka dot outfit holding onto a little pear. This little guy would make one smile every time they walked by! To see more adorable critters made by Lizzie Jane click on http://www.lizziejane.etsy.com/. Happy shopping!

From Trash to Treasure

Reduce, reuse, recycle...the three 'r' words that reside in the forefront of my mind. Even though my husband and I have brought our own grocery bags to the store for the last 10 years and have driven fuel efficient cars since the purchase of our first Honda Civic in 1992, and have been avid recyclers before we met one another, there's always room for improvement and we made some big ones last summer. We switched all our paper products from toilet paper and facial tissue to paper towels and napkins to brands made from 100% post consumer recycled paper. We also started buying natural household cleaners and make some of them ourselves. There's been a lot of little changes made along the way and we keep discovering more ways to live a greener lifestyle.

With that said, I decided to take this old chocolate heart shaped box that my husband gave me a couple years ago for Valentine's Day and dress it up to be used as a Valentine decoration. I covered the top of the box with this pretty glittered heart patterned paper and then used some wide rick rack along the underside of the lid to give it a scalloped shape. The top is then decorated with a wide white grosgrain ribbon bow, some mini rick rack and a strand of faux pearls. The tag is made from a Sizzix die cut machine and features a cute three dimensional glittered sticker from K & Company. I found this big white button in my stash and used it to attach the tag. So there you have it...from trash to treasure.

Valentine Shoppe Open

I know, Christmas is just a couple days away, but if you like to craft you have to think ahead and give yourself plenty of time to make your cards and Valentine projects. With that said, I'd like to invite you to my Etsy shop that has a section full all things hearts, love, pink, red and ready made, like the photographed card, for your crafts and Valentine gift giving. You can find all this in store at http://www.cardblanc.etsy.com/. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

'Tis the Season Collage

Just when all the cards were mailed, the ornaments made and teachers' gifts delivered, I would have thought I'd be a little tired of Christmas crafts. Then it hits me on Friday night after visiting Elsie Blaha's blog (addy to the right) that I should make a similar holiday collage. I wanted mine to be unique so instead of the usual square pieces of holiday themed scrapbook paper on a solid background, I used these triangles on glass. This frame was sitting in a closet for the past four years collecting dust waiting for my creativity to strike and give it a second life. I added a bow to the upper left hand corner which I don't think I've seen anyone do and I glued a couple jingle bells directly on the front of the glass. Another thing I was jazzed about is that I only had to use one sheet of scrapbook paper instead of half a dozen since Basic Grey designed this lovely paper called 'Tree Lot' from their Wassail collection that already has these triangles shapes in an assortment of designs. So there you have it, another fun way to deck your halls or make a fun gift.

Make Lemonade from Lemons

A lot of my holiday crafts are either given away or sold on my Etsy site, so I wanted to document the things I've made this season with a scrapbook page. I really like the way this page turned out. I think it's simple, but pretty. With some of my pages, it takes more time to figure out a design, color scheme and embellishments, but this page just came together. And as I was standing back admiring my work, I gasped to realize that I left the 'r' out of my title!

Like many other things in life, my scrapbook pages do not always turn out the way I envisioned and I have to find a way to fix my mistakes. In this case I didn't have an extra capital 'c' sticker that would allow me to cover up my misspelled word and then spell over it again. In this case, my only option was to squeeze the 'r' in and make it look as good as possible. In doing so I had to do some creative cutting with my craft knife. Well, there you have it...it's not perfect, but I salvaged my page.

Let's Talk Turkey

It's turkey time and in honor of Thanksgiving, Christopher's second grade class was given an assignment to dress up a turkey. All the kids brought home a simple turkey drawing to decorate with their family. Christopher and I decided that we would first color our turkey's tail in a rainbow of colors and then fill in his body with tissue paper. I remember doing projects like this as a child. It's so simple...just cut up tissue paper in small 1.5" squares, wrap them around the eraser end of a pencil, dip in glue (a little goes a long way), and place onto your project. Lift pencil quickly and there you have a fluffy piece of tissue. So, here you have it, Christopher's perky turkey! By-the-way, he named it Wally!