Sunday, January 24, 2010

Replacement Valentine's Day Card

Happy Sunday Everyone! I hope you've all had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend, I know I have. My dh and I ran a few minor errands yesterday and spent the night watching a movie by the fire. It was so nice! Today I spent some quality time in the craft room and am happy to say I was able to replace the Valentine's Day card I showed you in my last post.

Here it is:


So what do you think? It's definitely better than having negative words and phrases all over it! LOL I still can't believe I didn't notice that. What a "duh" moment that was.

The pink paper is Berry Sorbet from PaperTrey Ink. I stamped the heart image using Versamark Ink and the Heart strip stamp from the Around and About stamp set from PaperTrey Ink. The cat stamped image and saying "be my Valentine" are from the Tiny Treats; Valentine's stamp set, also from PaperTrey Ink. I used my Coral Copic and the Air Brush System to add some slight color to the white scallop circle which I cut out using my new Scallop Nestabilities dies. For a final touch I added some Martha Stewart glitter to the heart on the kitty.

Overall I'm very pleased with the outcome. Next I think I'll tackle some Birthday cards and I'm hoping to complete a collage of pet photos for this really cool mat and frame that John and I picked up a couple of years ago while on vacation in the White Mountains. It's been tough as I'm still learning my new Photo program and the pictures don't always come out the way I would like. But I'm determined to figure it out ... all in good time.

Have a wonderful week!

-Janice

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Valentine Cards

Good Evening! I have a fairly quick post tonight. With Valentine's Day coming up soon I wanted to get a jump on making my cards. Unfortunately I made an error in one of my paper choices and will need to remake the card. I picked up two sheets of paper from a LSS which had four sections, each 6x6, double-sided. There were red and white polka dots, brown and white polka dots, text (this is where I went wrong), a floral design and waves of hearts and text.

The text was in two different styles, a positive and a negative. I didn't notice the two different types of text until recently when I went to use some of the scrap pieces. See what I mean:



You can click on the picture for a closer view. Here is the second card which I am much happier with. What do you think of this one?


I still have one other Valentine's card to share but it's for my husband and sometimes he reads my blog so I want to wait before I post it. I will remake the first card and show you that when I am done.

I have also been sorting and choosing pictures to make a Memory Album for one of our pets who passed away a few years ago. I started it once before but I couldn't finish it. I'm hoping for better results this time. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by during your busy day. I hope you have a wonderful week.

-Janice

Sunday, January 10, 2010

January Calendar Page

Hello! Today I wanted to post the first month in my completed calendar. You may remember that I posted earlier (in December) that I had picked up a scrapbook calendar for 2010. Well, I haven't quite got the entire calendar completed yet but I did get January done!



What do you think? It's kind of plain but I really wanted to just showcase the winter photo. Here is a closer view.

This is one of the pictures I took when it was snowing at the end of December. We've had about 9 inches since these were taken but I still think the snow sitting on the pine trees, or in this case the Hemlock, is just so pretty!

I have an idea for a February picture but I haven't created it yet. Actually I haven't created Feb - July yet! But I did get Aug - Dec done, does that count? LOL :) As each month arrives I will post the calendar page for that month.

In the meantime I have begun making my Valentine cards and hope to get some pictures soon. DH and I bought a portable photo studio this weekend so I'm hoping for some better shots of my cards. We'll see how it goes!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week.

-Janice

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Welcome to 2010!

Can you believe it's already 2010? I started this blog a year ago without really knowing where I wanted it to go. I knew that I wanted to show my paper creations by posting them online and I was aiming to post once a week. I really enjoy looking at other peoples creations and I envy those people who can post daily! After looking back over the last year I see that I have actually posted about every other week. That's not to bad considering how my life has changed over the last year.

When I started this blog I was working for a consulting company and traveling to CT three days a week. In April I lost that job due to the economic difficulties many companies were/are facing. I was incredibly lucky to land another full-time, permanent job in July. The unfortunate part of this job is that it requires me to commute approximately 3 hours a day. That doesn't leave much time for crafting during the week. Thus I am only able to get creative on the weekends and have something to post approximately every other week.

This years family holiday party was held the Sunday before Christmas at my sister-in-law's house. Each year we typically give all 7 neice's and nephew's gift cards. Last year we created some hand-made gift card holders and decided to continue the tradition this year. Here is what we came up with:



The template was purchased from PaperTrey Ink in the My Timeless Templates section of their store. You get three different options for $5.oo! How amazing is that? I ended up cutting each of them out by hand and John, my dh, scored, folded and assembled them to move the process along. Isn't he sweet?!

I also made a bunch of bows for the actual gifts we gave the adults. I wasn't able to get many photos and when I cropped the first photo it altered the picture permanently. Ugh! I was able to salvage this one picture:


I was totally in love with this candy-cane striped paper. I used every last scrap of it this year. I'm a little bummed but I'm sure I'll have a new favorite paper next year! I used my Bowdabra to make the bows. I know, it's kind of cheating but it just makes things go so much quicker than making them all free-hand. For this particular bow I purchased the red ribbon from Michael's, it has little white pom-pom's on it, and added the white satin ribbon I found in my stash. I thought it came out really well. My husband kept telling me that our gifts looked professionally wrapped this year! What a nice complement!

If you are a regular reader then you might remember that I was making a calendar for 2010. Well, I worked on it off and on over the last week or two and John helped me bind it last night with the Bind It All. I think it came out really well but it still needs a few more photos. I need to get the month of January photographed and then I'll post it for you to see. I tried to get the photo today and the camera battery died. Figures huh? Well it gives me something to post next week! HAHA! :)

I hope that 2010 is everthing your heart desires!

Until next time,

Janice