find joy in the little things

This sweet card was completely inspired by Lauren's most recent Frankie the Flamingo card. I am (self-proclaimed) one of Lauren's biggest fans. You gotta go see her Frankie card. Click away, I don't mind! Then come back and leave me a comment too, okay?

The card base is DCWV, but the cs, dp, yellow ribbon, scallop border punch, and dimensionals are all SU! The white ribbon is from Michael's. I glued the yellow ribbon on top for added dimension. The ovals are Nesties Santa Claus brought :)

An Interview with MOI?

About 2 weeks ago I received this e-mail:

Hi June,
My name is Deborah and I run a homemade gifts and crafts website called elegant-crafts-and-homemade-gifts.com. I came across your site while searching for card ideas, and I fell in love with your style and creativity. Your cards are so elegant and beautiful. I think my readers would love to learn more about you. Would you be open to an interview with us?

Can you believe it? How exciting! I went to Deborah's website and fell in love with her style and creativity. Deborah asked me if she could also choose pictures from my blog for the interview. I hope you have time to check it out :)

On her website, Deborah has lovely handmade decor that is truly elegant! I noticed she made some tumbled tile coasters. I made a few sets many years ago for my mom and a friend. My Supreme friend, Elaine Maudlin, had actually come up with the idea and her tumbled tile technique was published in a stamping magazine. Off we went (The Supremes: my bf Kaye, Elaine, Martha, Dianne, Sharon, and me) on a field trip to Home Depot to buy tumbled tiles. Can you picture me sitting on the dirty dusty floor at Home Depot opening every box and hand picking the ones I liked best? Anyway, I still have many tiles in The Closet. I will have to get them out and make some more.

Hello There, Kristie and Corie!

My blog friend, Corie, has inspired me with her gorgeous coloring using Sharpies. I love to color and find it therapeutic. I e-mailed her, and Corie told me Bic also makes markers. Of course I went to Staples the next day and bought a set of 36 markers for $19.99. This was my first attempt using my Bics. Not a keeper. I cut out the branch and leaves since it stamped so nicely.

I have this one sheet of Basic Grey Urban Prairie that I have not been able to bring myself to cut. But then I saw Kristie's "Love them" tag book. Kristie inspired me! (Michael's has the entire Basic Grey Urban Prairie 12x12 pad on sale this week, but I am being strong...)

I paper pieced the bird from the BG dp. All the cs I used is SU! I could not find a ribbon to coordinate, so I made some faux ribbon (more Old Olive cs). What do you think...good salvage?

Sending Happy Thoughts Just For You

I ordered this Simply Sent kit from Sue last month at Stamp Camp and picked it up from her last Wednesday. I didn't want to put it away (and therefore forget I had it). I changed the sentiments (supposed to be "thanks") and added some Stampin' Up felt flowers with an American Crafts brad.











I went to all three coffee shops today. Before I walked out of the Leesburg store, 3 of the cards I had just dropped off had sold. Before I walked out of the McLean store, the same three cards had sold. Two of the six cards were the iris folding cards from yesterday's post. Two were the Basic Grey cupcake card I made using up those rub-ons and posted February 10th. The last two were also BG cards I never took a pic of and did not blog.

One lady approached me and asked me if I was the artist who made the cards :) Amy and I have had this conversation...it is difficult to think of ourselves as "artists." She introduced herself to me, purchased the iris folding card and said she was going to frame it and put it in her house! Yeah, she totally made my day.

One of the barristas asked me if the cards are from random designers. I said, "Sometimes I have a few cards from friends Leslie and Amy. Everything here right now is a card I have made."
I try to make different types of cards to appeal to different customers, my friends and my family members. My challenge is when I make cards out of a designer paper I do not particularly care for. I do not want all my cards to look the same or be just my style. After all, I am not sending the card to myself ;) This is when a kit can come in handy. That way I don't have scraps of a paper I don't like. But I do like the SU! kit I used today...what's not to like? Old Olive ink and ribbon (yum), chocolate chip (yum), dry embossing (always popular) and scallops (oh yeah). Don't you agree? I thought so :)

Iris Folding Magenta Card

I am still thinking of my conversation I had with fellow Design Diva, Sheryl, from last week.
I mentioned that I had numerous class kits from when I taught at Memories from 2004-2007 (in The Closet.)
I also mentioned to Sheryl I have other kits in my computer armoire from classes I taught at various rubber stamp stores from before Memories.
Today's card is from an extra kit I still have from an iris folding class I taught at The Rubber Chicken in Maryland. The cs had already been stamped , embossed, and cut. All I had to do was assemble. I may have enough to eke out one more card. The stamp and dps are by Magenta. The cs is from XPEDX.

I have taught at the following locations:
1. The Eclectic Stamper (Mint Hill, NC), closed
2. Rubber Stamp Palette (Westminster, MD), closed
3. The Rubber Chicken (Montgomery Village, MD), closed
3. Memories (Sterling, VA), closed and
4. Ashburn Family Scrapbook Center (Ashburn, VA) closed.

Do you see a pattern developing here?
Today's moral: If you want your store to stay in business, do not have me teach classes at your location ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I learned to make this cute little box from Sue at her December Stamp Camp.

Instead of snowflakes and a mint (like Sue had us make), I made it a wee bit smaller (two 1"x5" strips, scored at 1" intervals) and used a Hershey kiss. The cs is SU! Ruby Red and Bazzill Blue Bling. The stamp is SU! colored with SU! markers. The ribbon is from my m-i-l, Cathy, who bought it at the dollar store. These went to the teacher assistants in Julia's classroom and to Julia's adaptive P.E. teacher.

I made this little box (all SU! except the Hero Arts hearts stamp) for Kathryn & Julia's teachers and therapists, and the secretaries at school (13 boxes total!)

My bf, Kaye, emailed me the tutorial from Beate Johns. Guess what is inside! Yep, it is 4 squares of Ghirardelli® Dark Chocolate.

Speaking of Kaye, remember when I made this snowman card? Kaye loves snowmen, so I try to come up with a good snowman card to use as a thank you note for my Christmas gifts from Kaye. Kaye already had a Cuttlebug and many embossing folders, but not the snowman embossing folder. She also didn't own any Nesties...until now.

This pretty box came in the mail on Saturday from Kaye. My snowman card got her excited again and she ordered Nesties and more CB folders. (She even embossed hearts on the pearl belly band!)

And look inside! I love the folder she used to do the flowers on the right side of the card. I gotta buy that...

A Hershey Nugget tin! She even used CB folders to emboss each wrapper.

And guess what is under the tin? Directions to make the paper box. Aren't paper crafting friends the best???

DH & I are taking the girls to their Autism specialist this weekend in Florida. We fly out today, and will return late Monday night. I won't be blogging until Tuesday at the earliest, so I hope you enjoy the long weekend! And if you live across the pond, have a great regular-sized weekend :)

Love Coupon Book # 2 & # 3

Late Tuesday morning I started the mini book pictured. I found two kits like this in The Closet.

I started both at once. Why? Because ME being ME:

#1 it is more time efficient

and

# 2 after making one very time consuming project I rarely want to go back and make another for a very long time.

I pulled out my MM Philadelphia font foam stamps ("LOVE" on front cover) that I just had to have (I purchased over two years ago and just now used for the first time on this project :)

While I had the foam stamps out, I made 4 of these cards from scraps of Valentine-themed papers that are strewn all over my craft room floor.

After making these projects Tuesday & Wednesday, I started Valentine teacher gifts. I'll post those tomorrow :)

Then I think I will have to clean up all my Valentine papers and doodads. I can't think straight anymore with the mess. Time to clean it up and start something else.

Coming Out of The Closet

What a fabulously busy week! January card sales are usually slow (second only to September), but usually Valentines help me out a lot. Even these have been sitting until...

Sunday afternoon I took 6 more Valentines to add to my basket at the coffee shop here in Leesburg, to make a total of 12 Valentines as of that afternoon.

Monday morning I was chatting on the phone with my Design Diva friend, Sheryl. Somehow we got to talking about class kits from Memories. She mentioned she had quite a few. I have 3 crates full in my closet. I taught at Memories for about 3 years, teaching 1-3 classes each month; easy to collect class kits. Once I made the store sample, I rarely went back to make one for me. (I had the best of intentions!) Sheryl and I discussed that we should try to slowly work on these at our monthly meetings. She also mentioned she would like to see my craft room (this month's meeting will be at my house). She said she thought it must be perfectly organized (oh, if she could see the piles of Valentine's papers all over what little floor space I have in there right now!) I told her it is a constant work-in-progress and that I try not to open the closet door.

I started selling my cards in hopes of streamlining my craft room for new stash. Somehow I seem to be collecting more than I am getting rid of...
After speaking with Sheryl, the owner of the coffee shop called and said he only had 3 Valentine's left at the store.

So I pulled up the courage to open the closet door to see if I had anything in there I could sell.


I found a "Love coupon" mini book I had made at Memories out of coin envelopes and lots of metal embellies. No, I did not take a picture. I invoiced it, and took it over to the coffee shop around noon.

When I got home (a whole 6 minutes later), the phone rang. Yep, it was the coffee shop. My mini book had sold right after I walked out the door...could I make another? I told them it was a one-of-a-kind, but I would make another type of mini book.


So I went back in The Closet (to steal a term from Leslie, who talks about her stash in The Other Room). I had one kit to make the accordian mini book pictured (above). Now I know where I got all those glittery chipboard pieces I have used recently. I had pulled the "extras" from this kit a long time ago.

After making the mini book, I made two Valentine's from the scraps (pictured).

Tuesday morning I took these three items to the coffee shop.

Can you guess what happened next? Yes, it sold too. So I went back in The Closet for another mini book kit...

(to be continued tomorrow)

Oh, Baby! Thank You

As you can see I still have my BG "Oh, Baby Boy!" dps out. This lovely floral was in the pack. I wouldn't ever use it with the numbers dp (yesterday's card) or the other dps in the pack that have trains, etc. Isn't it pretty?

I need to write some thank you notes, and I don't have any in my stash. I loved this sketch that I created (quite by accident) with this card back in December.

I fugured I could get 9 scallop circles from the 12x12 of the green, so I made 9 of these cards. The base card is Michael's Value Pack Ivory, the brad is DCWV, the ribbon is from Michael's, and the ink is CTMH Sweet Leaf.

I'm off to Sue's today for our monthly Stamp Camp :)

Two Awards & Basic Grey Scrappy Cupcake Cards

I received two more awards from sweet Kristie.

This first award is the Marie Antoinette award. This one came with rules and they are- Link the one who awarded it to you (see above), post the award and nominate 7 people who deserve it.


The second award is the Your Blog is Fabulous! award. For this one I'm supposed to nominate 5 bloggers and tell you five things to which I am addicted.

To borrow from lovely blog friend Lauren:
1. If you 're reading this, you are deserving of these awards. Consider yourself NOMINATED.
2. If you 're reading this, and you don't want to be nominated...YOU'RE EXCUSED!...but...
3. If you're NOT READING THIS...you're disqualified! (I am sorry, but I am afraid I cannot make ANY exceptions on point three! But if you choose #1, leave me a link, I'd love to hear YOUR addictions!)

My addictions...dh & our girls, chocolate, paper (Bazzill, Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket are my top faves), Indian food, and my body pillow.



My friend, Vicky came over for a playdate on Saturday afternoon. She wanted to make cupcake cards with her new giant cupcake SU stamp. I love being with Vicky, but I was a zombie. Saturday mornings we take the girls for their special needs swim classes. We spend 45 minutes in the water doing all kinds of fun activities to get the girls used to the water. But every Saturday when Doug and I come home and we are totally wiped out.

For these cards I pulled out my BG "Oh, Baby Boy!" dps. I drew the "wrapper", cut it out, and distressed with black ink. Then I pulled out my blue Bazzill scraps bag and drew the "icing", cut, distressed, and dry embossed in my Cuttlebug folder. I cut the numbers dp (also BG Oh, Baby Boy!), distressed, and mounted on a DCWV card. Then I was stuck...too tired to think. I decided to pull out my big bag of rub-ons. I used up all my birthday rub-ons by TLC, and added "Party Time!" rub-ons from American Crafts. And one more..."Wish" is a Making Memories rub-on.




I think they are cute, but certainly not my best. I LOVE Basic Grey!

Am I a kit snob? Yes and no...it's Bittersweet

Am I a kit snob?

Yes, I rarely purchase a card kit. I am very particular about the quality of both papers and embellishments I want to use.

The first Stampin' Up! kit I bought I altered very little. It can be very rewarding to create cards and not have to worry about design. Especially when life gets in the way...those times when I don't have time to make a card for several days can be frustrating. When I am able to get back to crafting, I can be blocked creatively. I have found that a card kit can be the perfect remedy.

The second card kit I purchased was also Stampin' Up! I bought it only because I just had to have the stamps included in the kit. Then I used the elements in the card kit to create my own cards.

I have been admiring Kristie and Amy's cards using Basic Grey Bittersweet papers. I have not been able to find these at my local craft stores. I did manage to find and buy a Basic Grey Bittersweet card kit (the last one)! And I did not change a thing on 6 of the 8 cards. I have a theory that it is impossible to make a bad card with Basic Grey papers and products. I did not design the cards pictured; I simply followed the directions. And it was fun! I cleaned up my Tivo'd American Idol auditions and made 8 cards in the time it normally takes me to make 2 or 3. I only took a picture of 5 of them. I did alter two of them for use as anniversary cards for my parents and my dh. I'll post those in March and June, respectively.

Make it a great day!

Happy Birthday, Angela!

Today is my sweet sweet sister's birthday. I love you, Angela!

I have been wanting to use these Making Memories products (card and dps) that Lauren sent me for my birthday. I love the colors and patterns!

I didn't have much direction...I decided I wanted a cupcake card (surprise!) I drew this cupcake on the dps, then I cut it out. For dimension, I decided to use white acrylic paint around all the edges. I wasn't too lazy to pull out my paint and brush for this card because it is for someone who is really special to me. (Have I mentioned how sweet my sister is???)

I was going through my embellies, looking for ribbon, flowers, etc. I wanted to add some white grossgrain, but couldn't figure out where to add it. I went with 3 plastic Queen & Co. flowers and 3 orange DCWV brads. For the sentiment I used American Crafts rub-ons (Kate font). It looked a little pale, so I went over the font with my white gel pen. Now the lettering looks more like paint. The rub-ons are lower case only, so that capital "A" is my handwriting.

I hope your day is extra special, Angela :) XOXOXOXOXO

100, 99,...

I was inspired to make these cards from blog friend Leslie. She sells birthday cards with special birthdays on them (16, 21, 30, 40,...) My new Thickers chipboard stickers arrived from JoAnns.com, and I just had to use them :) I made these two cards yesterday for dh's great aunts (who are sisters-in-law). These ladies are next door to each other at the old folks home in NC. They both have January birthdays, so I am late! Happy birthday to Aunt Edna, who turned 100.

And Happy Birthday to Aunt Martha, who is only 99 :)

All papers are DCWV except the solid blue cs, which is Bazzill.

Don't you feel young?

Love...Be Mine!

This time I added a Nestie circle from a scrap of white Bazzill cs, and a large white brad from stash (MM?) The white rub-ons are by American Crafts. And no more red glittery chipboard (well actually 1 teeny tiny heart) and no more polka dot dp. Wahoo!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Sweet Talk

I still have PLENTY of love/Valentine's Day doodads strewn all over my work space. I picked up the glitter chipboard heart and thought, "Reds are so hard to match." I dug through all my scrap dps and found this polka dot dp. A very nice match! Now to match the polka dots...I found this nice tan in my ziploc bag of brown Bazzill scraps.

I usually like three colors on my cards so I needed to find a third color. I could not find another red or brown in my stash that went well. I noticed this "sweet talk" heart also had the same red, so white become my third color. Then I went to my DCWV box and pulled a white card and embossed it with the Fiskars plate.

Now I have one small rectangle left of this dp and two more red glitter chipboard doodads. I gotta find a way to put them on one card. Do you do that? When I find a match for something that is difficult to match, I try to use it all up right then and there (mostly so I don't forget!)

Two You and Me

I had two rectangle scraps cut exactly to 4"x5.25" from yesterday's card, so I had to go ahead and use them, right? I was also inspired by Julee Tillman. On this card she used her primas, but added stickles for some bling.

I have two packages of stickers I purchased when I taught at Ashburn Family Scrapbook Store. It was a sign to make two of these cards ;) This "You & me" came from that sticker pack. Since the "me" has some glitter in it, I added stickles to my Bazzill prima and a gem brad from SU! (just like Miss Julee.)

U are # 1!

My ever-so-clever title ;) came from the fact that I had only one "love" left in my huge bag of rub-ons. (This "love" is by MM). I also had only one "n" in this color. Yep, it's an "n". When Memories was closing, these "n" die cuts were marked down to .27 and .16 (depending on the color). I find it hard to pass up a deal when it comes to scrapbooking supplies. I purchased them to make I (heart) U, Happy 4 U, Happy Birthday 2 U, Love U,...U get the idea.

The base card (DCWV) coordinates nicely with the blue hearts in the dp IRL. In this pic they seem to clash. I blame the photographer :)

Be Mine, Punxsutawney Phil!

Yep, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today. Six more weeks of winter. I hope I look as cute as he does when I am 120 years old :)

I have mentioned before I try to store my dps by manufacturer. When I taught classes at Memories, our class kits came in large ziploc bags. I keep the scraps from those classes in their original ziploc bags, which is usually also a single manufacturer, but also because the scraps coordinate; no thinking for me. Today's card is from scraps of that class I taught in 2006 (the jellies, the MM metal embellie, and the Bo Bunny dps.) I wanted a light color cs for the base card, and I found a scrap big enough to cut 8.5"x5.5" in my "browns" scrap bag. In the class I taught, we distressed the papers with acrylic paint. I was too lazy to pull out my paint brush and paint, so I distressed with a CTMH cranberry ink pad.

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Live Laugh Love

These epoxy photo corners and the "Live Laugh Love" are also in my little jelly jar (from yesterday's post.) This card was very difficult for me. The process involved lots of staring at the embellies, wishing them into a design. (I often use this technique, but I do not recommend it...LOL!) I could not find good matches for the pink or brown/black in the epoxys. No cs, ribbon, or dps matched well together. I found a pink Bazzill that matched well, but no brown/black dark enough. I finally settled on this small scrap of American Crafts dp, but the pink in it clashed with the pink Bazzill. So this is it.