Parental Visit

Mom in Italia, 6/18/10.

I've been remiss about posting photos from our last two weekends (garden photos are easy to pop up here). So, here are a few from the weekend when my mom visited. We took another venture on a scrapbook bus trip hosted by Right at Home (in North Attleboro, MA), and spent the day riding around in neighboring states on scrapbook missions. I'm not sure where exactly we went (Mass., maybe CT?), damn did we cover a lot of ground. The time with mom was great, as it always is.
Chris & I drug mom all over the place - to some of our favorite spots and even to a new one. She cheered on Chris at his softball game (below) and watched movies with us late into the night. As far as visitors go, Mom is incredibly easy and I love that she can chill out in our Providence-pad.

6/19/10.

6/19/10.

A Non-valentine's day Card

2/7/10.

A friend of mine recommended watching "How to Draw a Bunny" -- a movie about the artist Ray Johnson, who mailed much of his artwork. We Netflixed it, (I enjoyed it) and the next day the movie gave me the idea to make a collage card on an unused white envelope. Instead of writing a note inside a card, I wrote it on a paper tag and put it inside the envelope. Then I made another slightly larger envelope (out of a paper bag).

2/7/10.

Valentine's Day Card

Throughout my crafty space I have kitchy little labels and cards that have landed in my possession, from various sources. IndieFixx sent me a bunch of creatively designed business cards and tiny sample prints from some of the many artists they support. Others have come in promotional bags from Craftland in Providence. I've held on to most of those little bits & have started using them to make cards.

2/6/10.

This card I made out of white vellum and simply attached a promo print/card made by Kiss the Frog (now called 7 Keys Design). Her whimsical prints/designs can be found here. I added a little texture by sewing into the paper. Envelope (below): Handmade envelopes are easy peasy to make, once you get the hang of it (and a get a really good glue stick - like this one). I almost always use brown paper grocery bags. Some day soon I'll layout a tutorial, but there's no one-way or right-way to make them.And I just got word that Danielle and her friend are coming to town this weekend! I haven't seen her since last Feb...and I'm so glad she's coming!

Last Batch

Last Batch of homemade holiday cards...sent out in early Jan.1/4/10.

And Two

cards made 12/21/09.

Two more handmade cards -- the first came from holiday envelope kit that I made at RAH last year, and the second is partially-recycled from a card received last year ('08). I've been holding on to holiday cards that might have the potential to be chopped up and recycled...

Homemade Yarn Tree Card

Yarn Tree Card 12/13/09.

I think I saw this in a holiday magazine last year. Wavy yarn gives the tree a bit of texture, but you could use just about anything. I sewed through the green cardstock, but you could glue each piece of yarn down, horizontally as well. Only made one of these, since they take a while.

Messy back, but this gets glued down onto the card.

Holiday Cards for 2009

Handmade Holiday Cards, 12/13/09.

Finally! A relaxing weekend with plenty of down time, little to no stress, and a chance for Chris and I to waste away the day watching movies. Since I can't sit still watching t.v. for very long, I dragged my box of scrapbooking paper downstairs and made cards all day. I doubt I'll be able to get many more done...there are still the envelopes to make (if I can find enough paper grocery bags), but I enjoyed every bit of this.How To: This was very easy to pull together. With a Google image search, I found a clip art image (here) of a deer/fawn, printed/cut it out, and used it as a pattern to trace onto various patterned papers. Mount the cut-out deer onto another rectangle and mount on paper that has been folded into a card. Done and done.

I heart wood-grain.

14 and counting...

3 Down...50 to go? Homemade Holiday Cards

A short holiday playlist. And a few handmade cards.

The stocking came from a gift tag on a present last year.
Gotta love hambly.
My favorite so far. 50 to go.

Paper flowers & pages

Taken 11/22/09.

Easy-to-make paper flowers from last week's scrapbook weekend with mom. Make a bunch and create a wreath. Instructions are at miss fancy pants.Started a 'my first garden' book on the weekend with my mom. Beginning pages above.

Overly dramatic snowman photos

Home sick from work today. Ribs, knees, even my armpits ache...unless I sit perfectly still. This past weekend my mom flew out and we spent 3 days at a scrapbooking weekend getaway (run by Right at Home). We kicked ass being crafty and made snow people out of glass jars. cute! I worked on a mini-book of my garden & mom worked on Halloween photos. More photos to come.

We made 3, this is my favorite. Taken 11/24/09.

Snow people made by others in the class. Taken 11/21/09.

Craft day with Mom

Mom & I had a few craft days while she and my dad were visiting, including an evening event at Right at Home and a trip to Bella Art. I didn't accomplish much--only a photo cube (above) and a scrapbook page. Crafts with mom rocks. It's always a great way for us to catch up.

Holly, who we met at RAH.

Scrapbook page on the top played songs on my ipod (their artists). I'm such a pop music junkie.

That damn recipe book

Finally, that damn recipe book is finished. Some time back in Inwood (nyc), we started cooking and I started saving the recipes we used. This? The ultimate collection.

• The book is a 3-ring binder filled with page-protectors and includes dishes we've prepared (from recipe).
  
• Each has a date, some have the 'guest-in-town' mentioned, and most include notes or suggestions for next time.
  
• A few months ago I took apart the book from its chronological order, and re-grouped the recipes by main ingredients or order in a meal (e.g., appetizers, soups).

For the groupings of recipes, I had to turn to friends in Omaha for advice. Much debate was had. In the end, wontons went with pasta dishes, 'vegetables' received their own section, I resisted ethic food groupings, and all dishes involving beans were absorbed by the other categories. That last decision was for Ashley, who freaked out over the identity of beans. Did you know that beans are botanically considered a fruit but culinar-ily viewed as a legume? He lost sleep over this conundrum.

Happy Day

A scrapbook page from last month (photo date: 10/3/08)...it's 1-page/month these days.
I guess I should add that whenever I include Chris on a scrapbook page, I can't help but say cheesy things. In what feels like another life, he and I charged a weekend in Paris to our credit cards. We couldn't justify doing that today, but there isn't a need to go to Paris, either. Eight years later, I still can't believe that I'm fortunate enough to have found someone that makes me so happy. He's the most crazy and wonderfully supportive person I've ever met. ...I know, cheesy cheesy.

Admitting Defeat

There's no way that I'll be able to make *all* of our cards this year. I'm thinking I'll be happy if I'm able to finish & mail out at least half of them. But if I see another paper triangle....

More cards finished (12/16/08).

End of December Update: Every single card that we sent out this year was handmade. Clearly, I have obsessive tendencies.

Holiday Card Set

A quick post before heading off to nyc for Thanksgiving... This is a just-finished Holiday 4-card Set, made with book pages. I used more Basic Grey paper, pages from an old psychology text book, buttons, old alphabet stamps, and random foam snowflakes. Cards are each 5x7 on cardstock. (my favorite = the tree card). At this rate, I may end up making all of my holiday cards from scratch this year...though it means I'll have to make envelopes as well. ugh.
...have a great Thanksgiving!

Christmas Tree Centerpiece

First Christmas craft for 2008. yeaaa! Calm down, you say? It's not even Thanksgiving? Please. Thou shant deprive me of these little pleasures. And without further ado, I bring you a seasonal centerpiece, from a project outline on SIS. Step by steps follow:
1. Cut two xmas trees out of foam board (be sure that they're symmetrical). Cut one of the trees in half vertically (exacto knife, all the way). Now you have three separate pieces.2. Paper both sides of the three pieces. I used paper by Basic Grey, a Hambly overlay of chandeliers (over l. blue cardstock), and fabric paper (the polka dots).
3. Glue the two half-trees to either side of the full tree. Be sure that they're centered and perpendicular to the full tree. I used pins to secure the half-trees at both the top and bottom (until dry).
4. Glittification: Then run glue along the outer, exposed edges and cover with glitter. I used a silvery blue glitter, and yes, if you're anything like me, it will end up everywhere.
5. Add a foam snowflake for a topper (or whatever you have).C'est fini. The tree stands about 11" tall. I tried decorating it with garland (ribbon) and mini-ornaments, but it looked tacky. So, I left it as is.

Fall Acrylic Mini-book

Today this mini-book arrived at its recipient's home, so I though I'd post it right away. This was a great new project. Normally mini-books are full of photos of people, but I wanted this book to be full of beautiful colors and photos of nature -- for inspiration, instead of to document an event. I didn't take the photos, but I played in Photoshop (tweaking the lighting, or cropping them). Isn't Vermont gorgeous?!

Materials you'll need to put this together:
1. Acrylic pages, heavy cardstock, or chipboard pages (below) of varying shapes (with varied edges). I used a heavy clear acrylic for the front, back, & a middle page. Very sturdy. You can order these particular acrylic pages here.2. You'll need to cover the pages with paper (either cut the paper to size after tracing the chipboard page, or adhere, and then trim with an exacto knife - I did both). Of course, keep in mind which photos you'll use for each page - so that the papers compliment the photos.
3. To bind the pages, use a binding machine, or punch holes & clip with metal rings or ribbon. Below, you'll see my Cropadile, which will punch through anything (even the heavy acrylic covers). Staples carries binder rings, but you can track down smaller sizes at scrapbook stores.
4. I also added glitter to the edges of a thick page, where the chipboard showed between the papered sides. Paint works, as well.
5. Final details -- I used Thickers (love 'em!) for the title/cover letters and Hambly Screenprints rub-on owl & birds. The paper in this book is mostly Basic Grey, Hambly, and my favorite Sasafrass paper (orange birds). The edges of some paper, I inked. And I printed out quotes on Basic Grey paper, cut them out & used a glue-stick to adhere.

Here are the inside pages of the mini-book (I love this first gorgeous tree):
These are two of my favorite pages: