Happy Monday!!!

....And today is going to be a FUN day because I am starting a brand new class over at Color-Me Creative Classroom.  This class is being taught by Marti Wills (Pez-a-doodle) and is a Cricut class featuring the Pagoda cartridge and Marti is called it a Pagoda-Palooza!!   Now that I have seen all the projects I know it's going to be fantastic!   And if you are interested and sign up quickly, you can still get get discount on the price!!  Here is a picture of the ALL the awesome projects we will be creating in Marti's Pagoda class --

  Yesterday, I actually ventured off to my LSS, AC Moore and Michaels to pick up some needed supplies and also a few things for the class.  I had not been shopping in ages, so it was nice to get out of the house, plus I had money put away and had saved up about $100 to take with me.  I also took along my coupons and did well.  
   AC Moore had all the Cricut products on sale, so I picked up on set of Vinyl, which we will use in class, plus an extra set of 12X12 Mats, along with a few small things form the Clearance row.  My next stop was Michael's and I always start in the Clearance where I happily found two Martha Stewart punches I had been wanting on sale for $4.95.  I also picked up a new Marvy punch at 40% off and some glue and adhesives.  The last thing I bought there was some Bazzill Cardstock (also on sale) and a 12X12 Frame also for a project.
  I ended my spree at my LSS, which is my absolute favorite store.  I could spend hours in there, because they have all the newest products, its so much better than either of the chain stores and has much better stamps too.  I bought some Memory Box papers (2 sets) which I love, and also found some gorgeous Asian style papers that will work out great on this project.  I also stocked up on on Bazzill Cardstock and picked up a lot of new colors and colors that would go well with my new papers.  I had a coupon for 20% off my entire purchase, so I did very well. 
     I am off now to watch Martha Stewart and the Craft Shows on HSN!  I wonder if there where be any fabulous deals that I MUST have!!  I'm still trying to stick to my 24 hour rule.  This really helps me to make sure I want things.  I put them in my cart and then sleep on it...you'd be amazed at how many time, I find the next day, I am NOT as interested.  I really think sometimes the hype makes me jump on the idea, but then I find I am not as interested the next day!!  It's a great tip and hint and helps me be a more frugal shopper!!   and see if there are deals that I need to have.  LOL!!  I do like her punches, but I have a least one punch of both sets she has today, so they are not going to be for me!  :)
   Happy Crafting and if you are watching HSN - Happy Shopping!!


 

Organizing Day for me....

   My first project today was to do some organizing in my craft room and one big project was organizing all the the cards I have created in the past few weeks.   I have two huge wicker baskets overflowing with cards and had another huge pile and no where to put them.  I started by going through them all again and pulling out ALL the cards that I could send off to  'Operation Write Home".  I made sure none had glitter and matched each up with it's own envelope.  Now all I need to do is stamp them with my OWH Stamp, and tuck them into their envelopes.  I hope to get that done something this week and send them off to my shipper by Friday!   My goal has been to send one big packet of cards each month, and I'm right on schedule!   I think I have about 35 or so going in this shipment!  :)
    After I had those put aside, I sorted the rest by size and and type.   I then put each with a matching envelope and put them all in clear cards bags and packed them into a large storage bin.  After those we put away, I had plenty of room in my basket for all the newer cards.  While I had cards on my mind, I finally remembered to send another card off to my Secret Sister.  I will work on her July goodie package in the next week or so and get that off too!  

   Once I finished that project I was ready to make a very sun and easy cards.  The first two were created using some of the distress paper flowers I made the other night.  These work really well to create a very quick and easy card. 

     I then started looking online for a new challenge card to work on, but amazingly could really find one that seemed to interest me today.  Go Figure!  So, I decided to simply make a card or two with some of my favorite colors and paper.  Wanna guess what color that might be?  If you guessed PURPLE, then you know me well!!  I also picked out one of my favorite Stampin' Up Designer Papers - 'Cottage Wall' and this is the card I created...super easy, but pretty!!

   I think I may try and finish one more card and then maybe look for a challenge again.  If you have any you want to suggest, please leave me a comment!  

    Happy Crafting !!

A Happy Friday!!!

  Yesterday, was not one of my best crafting days -- I really think it was a BUST!  I was not at all happy with any of my cards and feel much better, since I started over again today!   I am not going to re-create the Two Peas cards again, as they simply were not my style.   But...I have created a brand-new card for Simply Scrapping Crafts.    I guess it was just one of those days, when things do no turn out as well as planned!

    For the Color Combo Challenge at SSC, I really thought it was nice combo and would be easy....WRONG!   Very wrong.   These colors do NOT all work so well together.  Blue and Green are Nice, Pink and Blue and Pink and Black are cool too...but all four....YUK!  After several ideas and starts on cards, I ended up creating this card and finished it last night.  But, just is not one I really like!  !

  This morning I decided to start ALL over and was inspired by these flowers.....

  And created a whole new card....

   This new flower was created but using a combination of shapes that I punched/cut into shades of blue/green, blue and pink patterned paper.  I added a pink brad for the center adhered it to my card with a large glue dot!  It did not photograph very well, but I still think it's a much better card!!    I also had used some 'smooch' on the flower to add some shimmer!!   I really love these handmade flowers, they are so easy to make and look cute on any card or even on top of a gift box instead of a bow!!

   Off to find a NEW challenge...Happy FRIDAY....!!  What's up for the weekend??

Happy Thursday....

   It seems like it's going to be another pretty good day!  Yippee!! 

   Today, I am going to start my crafting with this month's 'A Year In Cards' over at Two Peas.  The cards this month are really cute too, so it'll be fun to try.  If you want to join in and try the cards, please go to Two Peas and you'll find the July challenge cards HERE!  There is a great little tutorial and even a PDF file you can print out and save for future use.   The classes are taught by Kristina Werner, a fabulous stamper and they are FREE!  

   Update!!  -- Good thing Blogger has the auto-save...as I took a phone call early this morning and TOTALLY forget to finish my post!! LOL!

   Now, I'm back and her to post the newest cards I created for the Two Peas challenge.  I ahve to admit, this was NOT one of my favorites, and I definitely struggled in getting the cards done.  The basic them was 'Repition' and I don't think it's one I would necessarily use a lot.  I can't tell you how many times I tried a fiew of these cards....needless to say my paper recycle bin is over flowing today...!  These are the cards I did finished!   

 

 

 This ended up being my favorite and this

one I may actually keep!  It's a large 5" square card and 

much better looking in person!!

 

 

    And as I mentioned, I am really not overly pleased with any fo the card, but I am happy that I did complete the challenge and kept trying.  You might wonder why I posting cards that are NOT so hot..well that is so I can go back and year from now, and HOPEFULLY see a big improvements.  (And maybe laugh)!!  I wish in some ways I had been blogging or taking pics of my cards when I first started, although I can recall my beginning cards and they were far worse then these!  LOL.
    I have also been working on this week's Color Combo Challenge card for SSC, and that too is giving me trouble, even though I really love the colors -  Pink, Bright Green, Bright Blue and Black.  I think the green in this pics look a bit more like lime and I will likely learn more in that direction.  I've made two cards so far, but they too are in my trash bin.

    
I think I have worked enough for today and need to give myself a break!  I need to rest and start over tomorrow and HOPE my Mojo will be back!   See you all them and for any of you who are in Suzanne's Classes, do not forget the tonight there is a LIVE CHAT at 8 pm.  I hope I can make it!! :)

    

  

A few more cards.....

   I am having such a nice day in my craft-room.  Feeling sooo much better and NO signs of any stomach pains today...!   I am having a blast creating cards and have a few more to add.


  The first card was created for this week's Card Challenge over at SSC.  The challenge this week was to create a card using the 'Rock  N' Roll' Stamping Technique.  If you have never heard of it or tried it, please go HERE for a great tutorial.  Once I started stamping I decided to make two cards with the same design and the second card was created for the Midweek Throwdown Challenge over at the Stars and Stamps Blog.  Both cards will actually be in my next shipment to OWH! 

  This is the first card, which was submitted

to the Card Challenge at SSC. 

And this is my card for the Midweek Throwdown

Challenge for OWH!

  It's really a fun and easy technique and you can use any two or even three colors.  I stamped all the hearts first.  For these card I cut out the hearts, and used different backgrounds papers and textures to make them each a bit different. I created them both to be ' I Miss You' cards, so that both would work well for OWH. 

   This is my next card, (which will also be sent off to OWH), was created for this week's Copic Coloring Challenge at SSC.  Our lesson for this week was coloring fur, so I chose this adorable teddy bear image from Meljen Designs.  I think this makes such a sweet card and it was fun and easy to color with my Copics.  I added a bit of Distress ink to the edges and some red & white polka dotted ribbon to make it all work together!  I think it ended up being my favorite of the day!!

  And I think that I will now take some time to rest a bit.  I have so much organizing I need to do in my craft room, so I may work on a little of that.  I'm feeling kind of tired, but not sick and that's what matters.  I'm very happy to be back to creating and hoping tomorrow will also be another fun day!!

  

    Hugs,

     Lisa