Constellations Blog Hop

Prelude: Can you believe the first month of 2015 is nearly over?! I guess I've been having a LOT of fun, because time has really been flying lately!

I'm so happy to be part of Club Scrap's blog hop featuring the January 2015 collection, Constellations. To start from the beginning, click HERE for the Club Scrap blog. There you can find a list of all the bloggers showcasing their Constellations creations this month. If you are following the hopping order and you just came from Hetty's blog, Craft Chaos, you are in the right spot!

As it is the day before the hop, my Constellations creations are simple. I've been needing to make some birthday cards, and the "Make a wish" UM stamp from the Art Nouveau sheet really caught my eye. At first, I was going to look through my collection stash of stamps for one featuring candles, but then I got a song stuck in my head. Can you guess what it was? It's from Walt Disney's Pinocchio, and it's called "When You Wish Upon a Star." Are you familiar with it? If not, here's a LINK to the song sung by Jiminy Cricket. There! Now you've got the song stuck in your head, too! (You have to get something from reading this blog!) 

Anyway, I opted to use stars instead of candles for my cards. Here they are.

This card (we'll call it Card #1) uses a base and panels from the set of 3.5x5" cards in the Constellations Greetings to Go pack.

 

This card (let's go with Card #2 for this one) uses the same base card, but I cut a Burgundy panel from the Constellations half pound of paper pack. (If you can get one of those packs included with your kit, do it! Those smaller papers really enable you to reserve your 8.5x11 and 12x12 papers for pages and larger projects.)

For Card #1, I used Spellbinders A2 Curved Matting Basics A dies--the two smallest dies.

After lining up the panels, I placed the larger die on the top panel and taped it in place. (Tip: Instead of using tape right off the roll, stick a piece to your jeans or sweater to get some lint on it--really helps when removing it from your paper!) I ran the White panel through the diecut machine.

Once the window was cut in the top panel, I lined up the smaller die on the bottom panel. Placed a piece of linty tape again, and ran the Black panel through the machine.

My "Make a wish" greeting was stamped on the card base--I used the window in the Black panel to line it up. I sprinkled black glittery embossing powder on the greeting, heat set it, and added a star brad.

I didn't snap pics of this part, but on the White panel, I stamped a couple lines of stars in random areas, sprinkled with silver embossing powder, and heat set. Both the Collection UM Rubber and the Art Nouveau UM Rubber in the Constellations collection have the tiny star stamps (I opted not to cut mine apart, then I laid the long stamps side-by-side on the acrylic block.)

As I mentioned, I used the same type of base for Card #2, but with a Burgundy panel. Instead of die cutting a window, I used the White die cut from Card #1 for the greeting (same stamp with the black glittery embossing powder). The star stamp is from an OWH stamp set by Hero Arts. (Silver ribbon is included in the Greetings to Go pack.)

Here's Card #2 again. I love how the ribbon makes it look like a gift and how the metallic silver is repeated in the stars. Makes me smile!

This year, I'd like to add some information about my craft room and how I organize my large amount of supplies. I have to admit, it's really too big to call it a craft "room." In our last house, I crafted in a room that was about the size of a small walk-in closet. When we built this house (the first, and hopefully last house, we've ever built), I knew I wanted a large, expansive place to get creative. I call it a craft "studio," as it is quite large!

So, this month, I'll share how I organize my Club Scrap unmounted stamps. (I do have some other companies' stamps, but they haven't been organized quite yet--at least not photo and blog-worthy organization.)

My stamps are kept in binders on a counter. On the left, I have holidays and occasions, so I only have to pull out one binder if I'm working on baby or Valentine cards. I made tags out of metal tags inked with alcohol inks. I then made labels that tell me either the holiday/occasion included in the binder or the months/years inside.

The other supplies I use are Club Scrap's Mount-It adhesive, Tim Holtz scissors (mine have black duct tape on them because a puppy got hold of them a few years ago), basic sheet protectors, and white card stock.

After putting adhesive on them, I store my stamps on the outside of the page protector with the plain white card stock inside for a bit of stiffness (but not much bulk). I use the index sheets included with the stamps to print out TWO pages (at 100%). I use one under the stamps--really helps me to know if I've forgotten to put a stamp away--and another on the left side so I can read the text.

Since Club Scrap has reduced the number of sheets of stamps with each collection, I'm able to put the largest one by itself on one page, and then after that I have the Borders & Backgrounds sheet and the Art Nouveau and Greetings sheets below. Just two "pages" per collection in my binder. I'm now able to fit an entire year of stamps into a 4" binder.

(As a bonus pic, here's one collection's 4-sheet UM stamps with Mount-It on it (I use my finger to spread it out--I feel there is less waste than using a paint or foam brush). This set is ready to cut out and place on the page protectors with the copied index sheets inside. 

Hope you enjoyed my Constellations' "Make a wish" cards and the little tour of my UM collection. If you leave a comment below (and I read them all!), let me know what area of my studio you'd like me to feature next month. I promise to get it all cleaned up and organized before snapping photos!

The next stop on the Constellations blog hop is Ann's blog Crzymom's Tidbits. Can't wait to see what Ann has in store for us!

Until next time, hoppers!

Lisa Kay

Homestead Blog Hop

Welcome to the October 2014 Club Scrap blog hop featuring the Homestead collection!

If you got here from Tiare's blog, you are on the right path. To start at the beginning (and to see the list of bloggers), head over to the new Club Scrap blog. 

I created one little card for this month's hop. It's the only thing I've created with the gorgeous and down-to-earth Homestead collection, but I've got lots of ideas for more cards and projects. 

For inspiration for a card to make, I checked out the amazing "please inspire me!" site, Pinterest, and searched for "ribbon" and "cards." I created a board with my favorite uses of ribbons on cards. And here is the card I created:

I started with one of my favorite Spellbinders dies (I'll use the die cut on another project). 

And on the reverse of the card panel, I started attaching ribbon strips. I found it best to add adhesive around the shape plus use tape to secure the ends.

 Here's the back side of the panel with all the ribbon secured.

And this is what the front looks like.

Again, here's my finished card. I will definitely be doing this technique again with other dies and my extensive stash of ribbon!

Thanks for taking a look at my blog today. The next stop on the hop is Marya's blog. If you want to see the list of bloggers, return to the Club Scrap blog.  Until next time, Happy Fall, Y'all!!

March CS Blog Hop--Trees

Welcome to my stop on the Club Scrap Creates Trees blog hop! If you got here from Tiare's blog, then you are on the right track. If you want to start at the beginning or see a list of all the bloggers contributing this month, click HERE. 

This month all the bloggers are featuring projects using the March 2014 kit, Trees. Here's a pic of some of the kit elements. You can find more kit items HERE.

Ever have a bad case of crafter's block? Well, that's what I had this month. I often have at least a small idea of what I want to create with the new kit when I first open it. This time, though, nothing was coming to me. I'd looked at the kit, seen projects other CS folks have made with the products, even created a mood board in Pinterest featuring trees and the many beautiful colors in the kit. Still, nothing came to mind when the deadline was approaching for this blog post. Absolutely nothing.

So, with the deadline right around the corner, I pulled out the kit elements and spread them out on the floor. Hmmm . . . nothing.

I opened my stamp binder and found two really cute leaf stamps on the Trees Art Nouveau unmounted stamp sheet. I felt a glimmer of hope when I saw those stamps!

They have text on them, which reminded me of some stamps in the Up, Up & Away! collection from February 2013, so I pulled those out and some of the plain Trees papers and CS inks and started stamping.

Using the leaf trio stamp, I created a background panel using Leaf, Moss, and Earth Club Scrap hybrid inks. 

I then used the dictionary page stamp from Up, Up & Away! to create another background on the dark green paper.

Still not knowing just what I was going to do with these stamped papers, I used Sandstone ink and another UU&A stamp and Moss ink with the Trees row of leaves stamp.

Here are the three stamped papers I created. It was getting late, so I went downstairs to read a few pages in my human resources management text book. This serves several purposes: It checks off another thing on my to-do list for the day, and it puts me to sleep (please don't tell my professor!). But most of all, it enables me to take a break from my creative venture, since at this point, I still wasn't sure what my final project was going to be. I had a start, but I what path I was taking was still a mystery.

A new day brings a refreshed mind (isn't that great?!), and I could finally see what I was going to do for this project. The leaves and the light green paper both reminded me of pears--that's right--pears. And I just so happen to have a pear die! (From Spellbinders' Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents die set.) With a new-found direction, I used the dictionary page dark green paper to die cut two pears. (I didn't use the leaf die, though it's pictured.) I also stamped the leaf trio a few time and cut out a couple leaves to add to the pear die cuts.

And here (finally) is my completed card. The sentiment strip was made using the UU&A stamp and Sandstone ink. I made the row of leaves lighter by stamping first onto scratch paper. The "thank you" stamp used on the top and bottom is from the Milestones kit, and the "thank you" in brackets came from Pure & Simple. (These are both extinct wood-mounted stamps.) The sentiment strip and the pear/leaf on the left are raised with foam adhesive. The fiber is from the Trees embellishment pack. 

There you have it. Sometimes when creativity is blocked it helps to just get out some paper, stamps, and ink and stamp away. Then, get a good night's sleep, and in the morning you'll find your mojo has returned. Mine just happened to be in the form of pears!

Thanks for making it to the end of my blog post. Your next stop on the hop is Marya's blog: A Notebook Novel. I can't wait to see what she has in store for us!

Until next time,

Lisa

OWH WCMD Blog Hop!

 

Isn't the modern world full of acronyms? You often have to be "in the know" to understand what they mean, right? Here's what my title means:

OWH=Operation Write Home

WCMD=World Card Making Day

 And you probably know what a "blog hop" is! 

I am so excited to be part of the 2013 OWH WCMD Blog Hop--I can't wait to see the amazing creations for this year! Our task was to use an OWH sketch to create a thank you card.  I chose Sketch #8. I like the two-tone background and circular focal image.

And here is my completed card. All the papers are from Club Scrap's Random Doorways collection (January 2013). For the stamps, I used CS's Tribal (August 2013) circular images unmounted stamps and the greeting wood-mounted stamp from Milestones (December 2008). The perfect circles were cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities dies--love those things!

Here's a close-up of the greeting--a bit blurry (I think my camera focused on the ric rac--also from Random Doorways). 

 

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. Enjoy the rest of the hop, and I hope you are inspired to make some cards for the troops!

Nesting with Take Wing collage stamp

Earlier this month I posted my first attempt at layering a stamped image using Nestabilities dies. You can see that post here. Last week I purchased the A2 matting dies and found that they are perfect for playing with this technique.

The card features the collage stamp from Club Scrap's Take Wing collection UMs.  Isn't this a great sheet of rubber? So many possibilities! The green paper is from Take Wing, while the beautiful blue and the red ribbon are from Peacock (October 2012).

Stay tuned for my next post where I show how I used one of these stamps on a Christmas card. Hmmm . . . which one will it be?