A fun announcement and a new kind of position for me!

I am excited to share that I got a position on the design team for a STAMP COMPANY! I am going to be working with Joy's Life Stamps. You should check them out because they are awesome, funny, punny sentiments! I just fell in love with them!

Here is the DT announcement post http://joyslife.com/joys-life-march-2011-may-2012-design-team/
can't wait to work with all of these wonderful ladies!

Hello Friend card

For this card I was inspired by the inspiration challenge for this week at Ruby Rockit. I always love the way paper collections look when they are all laid out together. So I was inspired by the part of the image where the different papers are all together. I chose a collection that I had a bunch of scraps from and used a small square punch for the Create Magazine punch challenge - to cut squares from all of the coordinating papers, then I glued them down in a pattern.Finally I used my sewing machine to sew a zig zag pattern across them.

here is the Ruby Rock-It inspiration piece

The paper on my card is Crate Paper restoration (oh how I loved that line!) the stickers is SRM stickers, the pins are jillibean soup and little yellow bicycle. The trim is may arts.

Map Card

I made this card for the Moxie Fab Map to your heart challenge.

I used an old map with a controlled tear on the edges. I cut the house with my cricut from the Jubilee cartridge. Then I sewed around the edges, stamped the sentiment and wrapped with twine before adhering it over the map with foam tape. The cardstock is Coredinations for a little bit of texture.

Hearts Card

This card is for the Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. 
For my around the house tool I used my sewing machine. Yes, I mostly use it for scrapbooking now, but it was something that was just around my house before I stole it for my paper crafting. I used it in a unique way by sewing layers of die cut hearts together.
I was also inspired by the Runway Inspired Challenge shown below

I kinda adore this card! I love rainbows! Something about them just makes me happy.

This is also for the Charisma Cardz clean and simple challenge.

To make this card I used my Cricut with the Jubilee cartridge to cut the hearts in various sizes. The papers are from Simple Stories, Jillibean Soup and Bella Blvd. 

Pinterest Color inspiration

I saw this on pinterest and loved the color scheme. I couldn't get it out of my head. So when we went to get our hair braided in key west, I chose colors for the thread and beads that mimic these colors. I think they were a good more 'grown up' choice compared to the purple and white that I had last year. (If hair braiding can be grown up.)

Source: flickr.com via Megan on Pinterest

Anyway, I am happy with how it turned out and proud to be sporting this, IMO, chic color scheme for the next month or so. Here is how it turned out, even if Im not particularly thrilled with this photo. Do I really look like that?! I am going to go with no! I'm going to blame it on the angle, the early morning, the lack of makeup, the photographer ;) basically anything really. But I still wanted to share. So check out that braid! It matches nicely with my hair color don't you think?

Card with rolled paper

I made this card for the Create blog rolled paper challenge and for the Cas-ual fridays scallops challenge. I have used pretty much every last scrap of this Jillibean Soup paper, so I had to make the rolls shorter than I had hoped to get them to go the whole way across.


Also, sorry about the photo. It isn't the best because it was EARLY morning and dreary outside, but it's been a rough week with me being sick. You do what you can.

Valentine Card

I created this card for Carrie's challenge over at the Ruby Rock-It blog - to use a banner, tag or pocket. I have had this My Mind's Eye banner garland for a while, but had not used it because I find banners difficult. This challenge inspired me to break it out and make something.

I combined this challenge with the Embossing & Debossing Challenge in the Moxie Fab World challenge. I used pre-embossed coredinations cardstock for the front and sanded it to show the embossing more. I also debossed the card itself for a little added texture.

Paper Crafts call creations

I haven't been posting new stuff for the past couple of weeks because I was busy working on cards for Paper Crafts magazine's latest call. (and ok, I was just plain busy with holiday stuff too)
Anyway, I am happy to say that I got TWO - count em TWO cards picked up for publication in the July/Aug issue of paper crafts magazine. So... that means I can share the ones that didn't get picked.

So here are a couple:
Here is one that I created for the sketch challenge. I just adore this card, it's so bright and fun! Don't you think?

and here is one that I made for the back to school call. This one is so simple, but I love how crisp and clean it is. 

7th Birthday card

For this card I used the sketch from Ruby Rock-it. Check out their contests over on their blog!  I used sketch #1.

To create this card I used Jillibean Soup papers and sticker, SRM sticker sentiment, my cricut to cut the 7, and some twinery twine.

I was also inspired by the Moxie Fab Tuesday trigger for this week. I was inspired by both the numbers and the quilting. I used my sewing machine to 'quilt' the 7, and add some sewn borders around the card panels.

Umbrella Digi Stamp

One of my new year's resolutions is to share a free digi stamp on my blog once a month. I enjoy drawing and making digi stamps. I LOVE sharing them. But I don't always make it a priority, so I figured that once a month is a good goal. It isn't something that really NEEDS to be a priority, but it is something that I enjoy.

So here is the first for this year. It's simple, but useful I think.

I used it on a card here for a paper piecing. I also used some Lily bee papers and an SRM sticker sentiment.

Webster's Pages Vellum card in Create Gallery

Here is a card that I made last weekend with some older Webster's Pages papers and vellum, and an SRM sticker. It's in the Cards magazine Create blog Vellum cards gallery this week.

I wanted to use the cherry blossoms but keep it simple, so I backed this gorgeous vellum with white cardstock and matted it with coordinating patterned paper. I used a less embellished part of the vellum for the sentiment sticker.

New issue of Scrapstreet is available!

The new issue of Scrapstreet magazine is up and my first column is in it! Check it out!

You can see the whole magazine by clicking on the image above, but if you want to check out my article - Wall Street, you can go HERE.

And here is the call for my next column: Wall Street. Recycle! What better way to save money than to recycle something that was destined for the trash. It's good for your wallet AND good for the environment. Show me pages that recycle something - packaging, cardboard, even travel brochures. Anything that would have been thrown away is fair game.


I would love to see some of my blog readers submit! 
You can check out all the other calls here.

2012 resolutions

Scrap resolutions:
I think I am going to go for more of the same as last year. After all, that seemed to work out pretty well.
1. submit every month
2. work on my photography
3. remember what I love about this art

Personal resolutions - these are also the same as last year, but let's hope the results are better. Not that they were bad this year, but it could be improved.
1. run
2. skin care - I really need to take better care of my skin - not washing my face with hand soap, and moisturizing on a regular basis.
3. work on stressing less - yoga, meditation - whatever it takes.

Welcome 2012

here are a few of my favorite layouts from 2011. In reverse chronological order. It's interesting to see how my style has changed I think.