Rrruff Day

A clean and simple card without using dies. This card would be great for a fun loving dog owner. The colors yellow, black and white are classic.  The harlequin patter paper given a new layer of contrast.

Challenges I participated in:

Cas-ual Fridays - No dies Allowed (April 4) (April 4th)
Simon Says Stamps - Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
The Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes/Clean and Simple (CAS) [April 4]

Vintage Soul

Yesterday, I had some time for art therapy by creating this vintage feel card. The colors (brown, 2 shades of purple, black and various green shades) just work together. Art therapy is a form of therapy that encourages creativity and self-expression as vehicles to reduce stress, improve self-esteem and increase awareness.

You do not have to be an artist to enjoy the benefits of art therapy. In fact, most of the exercises rely not on the final product you create but on the therapeutic, meditative ritual of the creative process.

Challenges I participated in:

Stamped Blessings - Anything Goes + Stamp (April 2)

http://sundaystamps.blogspot.com/2017/03/ssc149-rich-succulents.html (Sunday)

Made In The USA

I had fun experimenting and combining various materials for the original mixed media journal page! The background was created with acrylic paints in various colors. After creating the background, I added a piece of a McCall's pattern which really fit with the theme.

Next, I added additional shapes on top along with several ephemera pieces. The finishing touches were real buttons and a magazine tag out of a magazine which read, 'Made in the USA.'  

Can you see the theme in my journal page?

Anything Goes Mixed Media



Live Life Love Pocket Letter Embellishment Tutorial

All the rage right now is pocket letters and embellishments for them. Per Jeanette Lang, she created  the idea of Pocket Letters™ as a new way to send letters to your new or existing penpals. Basically, you fill all the pockets of a 9 Pocket Trading Card Protector and send the whole page to someone who wants to swap with you. You fill the pockets with anything you like (stickers, tea bags, a note, washi tape samples, pictures, etc.). I decided to take this idea and only use one of the pockets from the card protector. I added punch pieces, beads, sequins then sealed it with washi tape.  I'm adding this in my flip book for an added embellishment.

Trading card protector. I used one square from the protector to create my diy embellishment. The embellishment was created with sewing or using a fuse gun.

Sunday challenges I participated in:

Come and Get It Challenge - Anything Goes

Glitter n Sparkle Challenge - Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

A Warm Hello

Today, I have a masculine clean and simple card to share. The card features a technique called 'off the edge.' To accomplish this, one of the feathers was positioned off the edge of the center mat. Embossing on the feathers and wood grain background works nicely together.   

Challenges I participated in:

Crafting by Designs Challenge - For a man (Wed)

Crafty Creations Challenges - #336 Anything Goes (03/28)

Scrap Embellishments

I had time to play around with my scraps and create embellishments. These can be used on cards, journaling pages, pocket letters, and even flip books. I created punch art cameras, photo frames and fringed hearts embellishments. What do you think? 

You can watch the Tutorial Video for the punched camera. Access the fringed heart video.

Scrapbook Soup is now Make It Artsy

Over the last few years Scrapbook Soup have done more and more non-scrapbooking projects. So it should come as no surprise that the name of the show -- and the focus -- is being changed this year.

That's right! Scrapbook Soup is becoming Make It Artsy. It opens up a whole wide range of fun new projects and techniques to share. They are filming the first season of the new series in May and it will debut on TV in the Fall.

What do you think? I have seen a few of the previous recorded shows. The website is located here.

Laugher Shall Fuel Your Spirit's Engine

This journal page was created for the February Pick a Stick Challenge group on Facebook. This challenge group is like using craft supplies you have forgotten about. The prompts we had to use in the correct order are listed below. I didn't use the wild card when creating this page.

I think of this month's challenge as a collage project. I really felt out of my comfort zone when creating this page. Collage is defined as a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric onto your journal page.  Generally I go through magazines and tear out images that catch my eye by their shape, color or the emotion the image conveyed.  I store my images in one box and words/phases in another one. This makes it easier when searching for the perfect pieces. 

The item I used in order of the challenge: die cut flowers, my ephemera piece was a fortune cookie message [Laugher shall fuel your spirit's engine], I used pattern paper and white sharpie for the polka dots, step 4 I created a stencil using a circle punch and then applied yellow acrylic paint, I colored the bird/flower image with copic markers and then fussy cut it out for step 6, I add an mountain image from a magazine, the ticket stud and heart was given to me from a happy mail exchange with Debra, for something old I randomly stamped an background stamp in Tuxedo Mento Black ink. Final step was to add black shading around the bird and the edges of the journal page.

Challenge I participated in:

Kraftin Kimmie Challenge - Anything Goes (W)