Card Box

At times it might be an understatement that I make a lot of cards. *blush* I like to give my cards as gifts. A few months ago I found this neat tutorial/instructions to make a card box perfect for holding the card-size I make. I am putting 12 cards + 12 envelopes in the boxes; it seems to be the right amount for them to fit perfectly. I made three boxes all together, but I am only showing one of them here.


This is the front of the box.

A side view.

I didn't make this card to go with the box, but i think it will go with it now. Ha!

I sprayed some yellow glimmer mist on the flower to give it a pretty shimmer.

This would be a cute little box for cards, chocolate, or other fun treats. I will definitely be making more in the future.

Pie!

Before I go cut into this sweet dish...I wanted to say 'Happy Easter'. He is risen...risen indeed!

Shadow Box Decor

I had this square shadow-box frame that was waiting for me to do something pretty with. I was in a decorating mood yesterday, so I got to work.


This is the picture I printed after editing it in Photoshop. Behind it is the watercolor paper. I saw this idea in my head and I just went with it.

I stamped flowers on the watercolor paper and then painted some color onto some of the flowers. I used Soft Sky and Baja Breeze ink.

I normally don't care for the Stampin' Wheels, but this friend one has found a permanent place on my table.

This is the end result. It was SO much fun making this!

Cards...

I got these three card ideas from Nichole Heady's blog and Dawn McVey's blog. Sometimes I just need something to get the creative juices flowing.

I'm almost out of Kiwi Kiss paper! I'll have to stock up on some of that pea green enriched color. *smile*

Another purple card!

This is my new storage system for my ribbon. The bottom compartment is the ribbon I use the most and the top is ribbon I don't use very often, but I wanted to save it 'just in case'. It will be nice to not have to dig through so much now.

Hybrid Prep-work

Usually when I create hybrid pages I print from home first and then add everything, but this time I'm going to have some pages printed professionally first and then I will add embellishments to it later. I'm keeping track of these ideas on a Word document just in case if I forget what I wanted done.


This is actually a 2008 page of a picture that I kept on waiting to scrapbook. I think it's such a beautiful picture of my friend Carrie's daughter and I didn't want to scrap it for the sake of scrapping it. I'll add some flowers/butterflies and other embellishments to it later. This page was inspired by Elizabeth Kartchner's layout on page 101 of the March Creating Keepsakes magazine.

This page was inspired by a layout by Jennifer McGuire on page 41 of the same magazine mentioned above. I really liked the scalloped layers. I'll be adding buttons and some journaling strips later.

I'll post the completed hybrid pages in the future.

Childhood Scrapbook

I didn't mean to do this, but I guess it's time. For many years I have been thinking about making a scrapbook of my childhood. I've been putting it off because it's one of those projects I want to be really special...like really special. I don't plan on working on this a lot, but just when I feel like it. The album pages won't be in any special order. I'm thrilled to start!

This page was inspired by page 25 in the March 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes. The page was originally created by Lisa Truesdell. She did a great job! I was drawn to it as soon as I turned to that page and I decided I would have to create something similar using Photoshop. I love this brightly colored page. When I was looking through childhood pictures, I spotted this one and thought it was perfect.

Wednesday Cards

I guess I was in a card-making mood this evening. With all of these cards I used Baja Breeze, Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss, white, or colors similar to it. I also used the Summer Love Rub-Ons from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog. I don't normally use rub-ons like this, but I thought it would be a fun challenge for myself. (For those of you in my club, a sheet from the rub-ons mentioned above is the prize for the name drawn for whoever makes the challenge card). They were super fun to use!


Rob-ons: leaves, flowers, bird and "love"

Rub-ons: small butterfly, leaves

Rub-ons: flowers

Rub-ons: the "inspire" along with the butterfly

Me

Do you ever just have something on your mind you feel that you need to get OUT? That's what I'm feeling like right now. Ok, here goes...

Lately I have been finding myself looking at other people's blogs and doing something that is bad, bad, BAD...I've been comparing myself with others. And the thoughts that go through my mind are like these:

"I'll never be as good as she is."
"I wish I could do what she's doing."
"How come they have more comments than me?"

Um, hello Christina...that's called COMPARING yourself with someone else!! Hello, earth to Christina!

I know that I've said this stuff over and over and over and over again like a broken record, but we (I, me, and myself) has to let it sink in that I am not "they" and "they" are not me. I have my own style, my own way of creating, etc., etc.

One of my favorite sayings (that I made up...haha) is, "Be yourself! That's the best person you can be!" And it's SOOO true!

I love looking at other people's blogs. I love looking at what they have created. I love seeing each individual being themselves. I love the simple creations, I love the complex creations. I love them all. It makes me feel all comfy and cozy inside knowing that people are being true to their style, no matter what style they have. I like being challenged by what I see. Like I'll see something I really like and it will inspire me. But I am on the wrong path when I start to think I'm not good enough because I'm not like the next person. Being ME is good enough. I don't need to be more or less.

So I need to snap out of the comparisons and be ME!

Tuesday Page

This page was actually created last week. I thought I had posted it, but I didn't. Do you ever have those projects where you just keep tweaking things until you think they look right? That's what I did with this page. I notice that when I'm creating sometimes, I'll worry about what others will think about my pages if I post them. I realized I was doing that with this page and I had to tell myself that it DOESN'T MATTER! If I like it, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks! Right? Right! It's been fun working with these vacation pages. I remember when I had this plan of how I was going to do this whole album for our vacation pages and I just have to laugh. I had totally boxed myself in. Thankfully I snapped out of that. Whew!

My sweater is coming along nicely. Last night I finished the other sleeve and I just stared at the directions for the next step for a long time. I really wished I had someone there to interpret what the directions were saying. I ended up reading it outloud a few times and continued to read them over and over again until something clicked. Oh, knitting videos on You Tube helped so much too! It's a cowl neck sweater, so now I'm working on the neck part. After that I will sew up the seams and it will be complete! I'm SO excited! Knitting a sweater is a lot easier than it looks...honest! Ha!

Fabulous

I'm definitely wishing it was spring...like you know, flowers, WARMer temps, NO snow... So I guess if it can't look like spring on the outside, I will bring spring to what I create. Do you see the purple? Yes, purple! I'm opening up my color world just a bit to let in some rays of purple. I think this card needs something else, but I'm not sure what. Maybe some white ribbon? This card was inspired by the cover of the April Creating Keepsakes magazine. The Fabulous Flowers stamp set retired just after I purchased it, and I'm so glad I got it because I just really like it...a lot.

I was busy making some of the color challenges today...see below...

Color Inspiration #48

This is a card I made for Kristina Werner's color inspiration challenge. The colors for this week are chocolate chip, kiwi kiss, baja breeze and whisper white. This card was inspired by Beate, I just love her designs. I found the blue fabric from the local fabric store. (Thank you Loretta...it was fun!) I'm not much of a quilter, but when I look at fabric I get all inspired.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 3

Here's for another color challenge from Dawn. She's amazing!



This was another card inspired by Beate. Sometimes we just need a little inspiration, huh? *raising hand* I'm really enjoying this new stamp set by Stampin' Up! called Great Friend (I think that's the name). The butterfly is so beautiful!

Scrapbook Alchemy

Jessica Sprague's new class, called Scrapbook Alchemy started up on March 30th. This is a self-pace class, so you can take it anytime, at your own pace. I was really interested in learning more about hybrid scrapbooking, so I thought this was perfect.


She is offering a really good deal. You can't beat half-off and having a lab partner at the same time! My friend Carrie and I took the class 'together' (thank you Instant Messenger) and it was so fun! We both learned a lot of new ways to move around in Photoshop. Jessica Sprague is an amazing teacher and she's so thorough.

This is the completed hybrid page. I loved taking the digital elements and combining it with traditional. I got out the paint, glitter, buttons, and had a good ole time. It felt really good to be using some of my traditional supplies.

I can't wait until next class!

Friday Cards

I woke up this morning with this idea. The idea was putting the buttons on the flower part. I think it's so fun when I see the idea in my mind and then just make it. That doesn't always happen, but I sure do appreciate it when it does!

This card was inspired by this card. I really like this new set by Stampin' Up! called Forest Friends. I made it for someone who has a birthday this month who loves bunnies. *smile* I added the clouds for a fun effect.

Bike

I'm so excited, so I just have to share. My dad is building me a bike...a custom-made bike!! Whoohoo!! And it's going to be ORANGE! Oh yeah! I believe he's already built 9 bikes and his goal is to build 50 bikes. I think it's awesome! He's been showing me the process of the bike-building with pictures. He's working fast! I used to bike a lot when I was younger, so I would really like to get back into it. If you are interested in seeing more pics, you can view them here.

Imimake

There's "imitate", but then there's "imimake". You know, imimake. Imi-make. It's my own little word I made up today when I was telling my friend Carrie that I was going to make a card...imimake. Anyway...



I was inspired by Ashley to create this card. Her design is much better and she didn't stamp her word crooked like I did. Oops! And thanks to my friendly scanner the white balance is all set.

Yarn

Today I got a package from Knit Picks and I can't wait to make some socks with this beautiful, soft yarn. It's SO soft! I'm almost done with the first sleeve for the sweater I am making, but I was almost out of yarn, so I ordered more and got some of this yummy yarn, too.

No Pictures

Have you ever wished you had pictures of something that happened, but you don't have them? I totally regret not taking as many pictures as I wish I would have when I was visiting family and friends in Michigan last month. For a few weeks I have been thinking about creating a page without pictures, but only of words in place of all of the pictures that I wished I would have taken. It makes me feel better about it. Ha! Scrapbooking isn't just about pictures, but about thoughts and feelings.



This page was created using some fun digital products from House of 3. I found out about these products today from Rhonna's site. They are only available for free today, on April Fool's Day.