Sort of Late

I have been very bad about posting to this blog. I have another blog that is related to digital cutters and have been spending some time doing some instructional videos for it and just generally going through life dinking around on the computer and making cards and doing some quilting.

Thought I would share this scrapbook page I made a few months ago for the class my sister and I met up for and took in Kansas City from Tim Holtz. Actually we took two classes. People were asked to bring a scrapbook page that was about them and where they were from. Not being a scrapbooker, this was sort of a challenge but I finally got into it. It shows some of my journey from California to Arkansas and a few tidbits about my life in general. I even put in a picture of Roy Orbison because when I first moved here I used to play California Blues and cry a few tears...it was my "go to" song for a year or so.

The "story" pretty much ignores the first 30 years of my life but it does have a Society of Decorative Painters logo and a tiny picture of the first book I published alone. There is a picture of a quilt I designed for an adult home wall, the ATT (All Things Tim) logo, a picture of the door sign I made for the Tim cruise...pictures of a map of where we live, the post office and pictures of my husband with his birds. I did think it was "sort of" me for the last 35 or so years.

Fun with Cards

I saw some cute things to make something spring off of a card and spent some time trying to make it a little easier and this is what I came up with. This is my very first video so it isn't that great but it does show you how to make a spring to put on your cards.

Putting A Husband to Work

Yes, I got Jack to make me another thing to use in my crafting endeavors. I know there are new single tape dispensers for tissue tape that were just introduced at the latest Craft and Hobby Association show...but I didn't want a jumble of tape in a box. I did a few sketches of what I had in mind and after a couple of weeks of trial and error, my husband came up with the perfect tape dispenser for my tissue tape. I am going to be adding some Washi tape to it and I have ordered a second one from the woodshop. Usually my husband makes things from oak (free since he can chop down the trees and use his portable sawmill and then stack the wood to dry) but I wanted this one lighter so it was made from store bought pine. I love it! Along the back edge a hacksaw blade is attached so the teeth of it just barely poke up and it makes it easy to tear the tape off.

Something to Post Finally

I saw the greatest box made by a lady named France Papillon (http://papillon-sur-la-branche.blogspot.com/) and she said she would eventually have a tutorial you could purchase...but I just couldn't wait. I grabbed some mat board and started whacking it up and it really wasn't that hard to make a box. My box, at least I think, is a bit bigger than hers,  but I certainly used her box for inspiration.  Mine was put together with tissue tape (Tim Holtz product). I ended up covering it all with various papers and put a coat of Claudine Hellmuth's Multi-Medium Matte Gel over it. I managed to scrounge up plenty of stuff to stamp on it, glue on it and just generally clutter it up big time. The hinges are new ones from Home Depot and I just sanded them and antiqued them with alcohol inks and Copic markers and did the same to some brads to attach them. I really like the way it turned out and I'm anxious to make some more containers. The front of the box is themed as "time for art" and on the top I used a bingo token with my birth year (too small for you to see clearly...ha ha) and my initials. It was fun finding things that I thought would work for the design. I have no plan for what to put in it; I'm just going to sit it where I can see it.

Front of Box

Back

End of Box

Finally Posting

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time but I took a brief vacation and visited two hospitals and was not up to doing much. I am pretty much back to normal (whatever that is). I haven't done much new to show but I did make this Christmas card for my sister. I got my inspiration from one of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. I can't remember which day this was and I didn't have all the products he used. Making the card brought back a lot of memories. The tissue tape I used on the bird (under the red alcohol ink and Rock Candy Distress Stickles), was some I bought when I was on the cruise with Tim Holtz. I got the little drummer boy when we visited a fabulous shop outside of Boston called Almost Everything. The gold medallion came from a trimming shop in New York City. The banner idea was from a tag we did in one of the classes on the cruise and the moss and lace are left from a long ago project when I was doing decorative painting books and used the moss and the lace in a photo shoot.

This is, I think, the third year that there have been the 12 Days of Christmas tags. Every year I look at the samples, watch the tutorials and read all about it. Then I obsessively try to make sure I own everything I need to make the tags. So far in two years I've finished one tag...but I have a lot of stuff and I COULD make more!

I Really Did Take Classes

Yes, it was just not a cruise where we shopped and ate our way around for ten days. Here is a picture that proves that my sister and I were sitting in the front row in one of the classes. Thanks to Joy Arevalo for the photo. We had such a great time and Tim is a fabulous teacher and Joy is one of his crew that helps in class (and takes great pictures).

We did shop some and we ate a LOT. I had lobster three times. Wow, and today I had peanut butter toast for lunch.

A Cricut Halloween

Just thought I'd show a picture of this cute Halloween treat box. I got the pattern from myscrapchick.com. Cut with my Cricut and added a tiny bit of shading (not enough I realized when I got it together) -- but thought it was pretty cute. Think I will add a stamp or something to the front of the box because it looks sort of plain.