Monogrammed!

One of my greatest supporters and dear friend asked me to whip up a set of monogrammed notecards for a gift for her neighbor. The recipient likes blues so I used this new sparkly, embossed paper from Heidi Grace that I got at EP and paired it with my favorite SU! color...Bashful Blue. I used SU! Very Vanilla as my compliment color. I used my Cricut to cut the monogram 'K' as well as the circle. (i can now cut circles in 1/4" increments from 1/4" all the way up to 9"...so awesome!!) I ran my SU! BB ink pad roughly around the circle and the 'k' to give it more dimension. I initially used some greeny/blue Stickles as a dot inside the 'k' but it was taking too long to dry so I removed it and just doodled on the 'k' with my new, clear Sakura gel pen.

I delivered them to my friend yesterday and she LOVED them!!

I hope that everyone is having a very creative day!!

Happy Birthday!

It just so happens that tomorrow (Wednesday) is both my friend Alison and my friend Christina's birthdays!!

I'm posting lots of skewed views of the card because I know that Al reads faithfully and I don't want her to see the entire card full view until we go out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate. I used SU! Pretty In Pink and River Rock cardstock. DP is from EP from Basic Grey (surprise, surprise! - it's a "go to" for me) as well as some new Heidi Grace DP. I used my Cricut to cut out the paisley shapes and then I doodled on them with my new clear Sakura pen. I LOVE how they came out...and honestly...SO fast!! The thing that so far I love most about my Cricut is that it makes SUCH an impact on my work with minimal fuss. It's just fabulous.

Alison and I met a long, long, long time ago when I used to work outside of the house. I can't really describe our connection. We come from polar opposite upbringings yet we are one brain connected. It's uncanny how we think alike and how we believe a lot of the same things. I love her more and more every single day. She's an Auntie to my children...I was one of the MOH's in her wedding...I see her just about weekly and talk almost daily. She's sensitive, caring, sweet, loving and a great friend/sister. I wouldn't know what I'd do without her. Oh and I also love her darling hubby as well ;)

Christina and I met in baby yoga when our first babies were only 4ish months old. We are opposites in personalities (she's Type A and I'm just the opposite) but we get along so well and I love her more than I think she knows. She's smart, funny, creative and a great Mumma. Life has brought us lots of scheduling challenges lately so I, unfortunately, don't get to see her as much as we used to or as much as we'd like but we're working on it!! Her girls are gorgeous and so fun and my kids love playing with them. I also love her darling hubby =).

So happy birthday to 2 of my wonderful girlfriends who make me a better woman and Mother every single day because they are in my life.

Goin' To The Movies!

A customer of mine asked me to design birthday party invitations, favors and thank you notes for her daughter's upcoming 10th birthday. They are going to the movies with a bunch of her girlfriends. I used this punch to come up with the borders on the sides to resemble a film strip.

I made 2 samples for her to review. One simple and one a bit more fluffy. I used my Cricut to cut out the star shapes. (that thing ROCKS!) I cut 20 stars in a matter of about 45 seconds. Amazing. And it's so much easier for my hands than using a tough punch on heavy, silver cardstock!! The birthday girls favorite color is hot pink so on the more simple of the two I used SU! pixie pink, whisper white and basic black. On the other sample, I used SU! pretty in pink with the same complimentary colors along with some pink, leopard paper from Me&My Big Ideas.

We'll see which one she likes best!! I'll then get to designing the favors and thank you notes.

I hope that everyone is having a very creative beginning of the week!

Cricut? Where have you BEEN all of my crafting life???

All I have to say is WOW. Seriously...WOW. I don't even know WHY (besides the cost) I haven't ever seriously considered purchasing this thing until now. It made the job of cutting intricate shapes in all kinds of sizes a total breeze. My poor, poor punches are going to collect lots of dust now that I have this handy, all purpose cutting buddy! (I sound like an infomercial...I know) But it is really awesome.

I'm hosting a baby shower for my darling friend Jen today. She's due ANY MINUTE now and this is a rescheduled date from what should have been 3 weeks ago but we were all sick so we had to postpone.

But - in addition to making her baby announcements (so exciting!!) I made her this card to go along with the gift that I bought for her.

The outer petal envelope is pre-cut and purchased from The Paper Source. The other papers are SU! and Martha Stewart (ladybug). Everything besides the petal envelope (chocolate brown) was cut with my new Cricut Expression. The thing is just AMAZING. I told it what shapes I wanted and in what size and hit CUT! And VOILA! Just like that. It was TOTALLY worth the investment...10 times over! I added another layer of SU! River Rock anchored with a mini-brad in the top left corner so I'd have a space to write a message to my friend. As you can see it swivels out to the side to reveal the baby's monogram. Once I'd chosen my papers this card took me about 10 minutes to create. Seriously...10 minutes.

WOW.

Run...don't walk to your nearest ACM and pick up the Cricut Expression Bundle (comes with 4 cartridges and inks) for 368.99. (check their web site - it's listed there)

I hope that everyone is having a creative weekend!!

Cricut!!!

So...I got this...I must admit...I'm a little intimidated by it. But it's AWESOME!!!! I fiddled a little with it last night but forced myself to get to bed at a respectable hour because I'm still working on getting back to being healthy. But...I am so excited to play today!!! It came with 4 cartridges plus ink. I bought one extra cartridge plus the tool kit and some extra mats. But...my question to you is...does anyone have any words of wisdom for this die cutting bohemith? Any good tricks? Anything to watch out for? If not...I'll do my best to post my findings on the ease and convenience.

I hope that everyone has a very creative weekend!!!




ps - if anyone's interested...I got it at AC Moore...the price they have listed on line is $368.99. It's an amazing deal!

Colleen!

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to introduce you to my friend Colleen! She's been working very hard at redesigning her blog lately so I just wanted everyone to check it out!!

I have 8 projects in the works right now so I will be posting lots of fun stuff soon!!

I hope that everyone is having a very creative Wednesday! We're off to check out a new art store in town this afternoon when my kiddies wake from their naps. I can't wait!!

We've Moved!

My darling friend Melissa recently moved to a new home and asked me to create her Moving Announcements for her!!

I was BEYOND thrilled! Earthy and nature inspired were my cues. I wanted something that could be put up on the fridge or put into an address book and look beautiful when on display. But I also wanted to create something for her and her husband to reflect upon and have as a keepsake after the dust settles (so to speak) from this big family move.

I love the idea of a pull tag. I did something like it for my holiday cards and I've used the design before...it's just so versatile and interesting!

I went with the following:

SU! cardstock in Chocolate Chip, Ballet Blue, Very Vanilla.

Designer paper is My Mind's Eye from their Bohemia line purchased from Michael's.

I created a tag that I printed out their new information on (left blank here for privacy purposes) and I printed their information in a corresponding olive green color to match the rest of the layout.

I used my MARVY tag punch to create another layer of dimension with the NEW HOME stamp on the front. I colored in the topiaries by the door using my blue and green Sakura stardust pen and I added a bit of hemp twine in the notch at the top.

I added the tiny Making Memories brads in the corner of the pocket and folded over the double sided designer paper to enhance the look of the pocket in the hopes of making it more realistic.

I stamped the leaf images (3 different stamps all from The Paper Source) in SU! Chocolate Brown classic ink. I used my corner ticket punch because in my original sample the layers lacked 'oomph' so once I punched the corners it really came to life.

Lastly, I added some SU! (retired) Chocolate grosgrain ribbon as the pull for the tag with their information.

I am thrilled that Melissa had me do these for her and I'm so happy that she (and her fabulous hubby;) liked them so much!! I'm so thankful to have such wonderful friends and customers.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MOVE MELISSA!!!

All the best!!!

Signature Vote!

Just want to test out this cool new signature!!! And I'm looking for votes here!!! Chime in and let me know which one you like the best!! I just can't decide!

signature number 1:



signature number 2:




signature number 3:




signature number 4:



vote vote vote and help me decide!!

Thanks and I hope that everyone is having a very creative day!

One More Thing...

Since they are a gift...here's how I wrapped them up for her:

But since they look SO beautiful all nestled so nicely in there...I am considering using this technique (thanks Renee!! ;) as my standard packaging for the future.

I've designed these monogrammed cards for a customer to give to her teenage niece for an added Bat Mitzvah gift. She loves light blue so I went with that theme here using Bashful Blue and this GORGEOUS DP and pulling from it the lavender as an accent. The layout is inspired from a card that I did at my friend Sarah's monthly card club a few sessions back.



The recipient of these cards loves squirrels so I hunted and hunted and found this ADORABLE one from Amuse. I called them up and placed my order! The order was for 20 cards so I pulled some of my favorite ribbons that coordinated and used 3 different styles to make the cards unique within themselves. I stamped the squirrel on the front left lower corner of the envelope and colored in his tail with my blue Sakura stardust pen.

I love how these all turned out and I hope she does, too!!


I hope that everyone is having a very creative Tuesday!

(and for anyone whose following along...yes...we're STILL sick...just me now though...so we're almost mended)

For Those Of You Who Don't Know...

I started in this blogging world when my daughter was 8 months old...on another blog...in what seems like another lifetime!

I've been craving getting back to that blog to just write. Paper Canteen affords me a place to display my work, get ideas from others and just generally communicate and network within the 'paper-crafting' world. And I LOVE it. But even though my artsy pursuits are completely intertwined with my daily life I feel that sometimes in Bloggerland they just get too muddled. So I'm going to start writing in my other blog sometimes as well so I just wanted to introduce you to it!!

I'll be putting a permanent link to it on the sidebar here somewhere so it'll be easy to find.

I hope you enjoy!! I don't have time right now to update but I've got lots of old stories there if you're interested!!

Le Domestic Diva In Training

I'm Here...I Swear!!

Goodness...It's been a hard winter. And I know, I know...boo hoo me. But hey..c'mon. It's my oldest child's first year in preschool and we're just being inundated with illnesses. I won't bore you with the details but now my darling husband and daughter both have raging head colds. Nothing *too* serious but very annoying. *sigh*

Will we ever be healthy?

I do have something fun and beautiful to post but I want to make sure that my creation is seen by my customer first! They're on their way to her now. So once I know she's seen them, then I'll post.

Aside from that I'm cleaning my studio - dusting everything off and hoping to get working again tonight...or at least make it clean enough to start working tomorrow.

But in our hunker down state I have been VERY busy keeping my kids crafting. They LOVE painting, using glitter, markers, etc.

So - I do have these to share:



I hope that everyone is having a more creative winter than I am!!!

;)

Soon enough...soon enough (that's my mantra these days...)