Thursday, March 31, 2011

Happy Birthday Tony!

Hello all!!
I'm sorry it's been a little while since I've been here. Unfortunetly birthdays mean I get busy and blogs get slightly ignored. :( It's been a great few days though. Monday was my wonderful husband Tony's birthday, and we celebrated saturday night, and again on Monday. We have one more celebration on Thursday. Today I speant time working on Tony's birthday present. I really wanted to do something special for him. On top of all the wonderful things he does for me, he has a tendency to just pick up little things for me here and there just because he knew I wanted them. So for his birthday I decided to put together a book of pictures of things I thought he'd like, and throughout the year I will give him presents a little at a time (32 in total). I focused on some of the geekier stuff that he likes. Here are some pictures of the book I put together!
I had so much fun putting this together, and Tony was really excited by it. Card is coming on another post, as it was also part of a 365 challenge, which will also be back and up running soon!!
Have a great day, and keep crafting!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Crafter of the Month - Mommy Makes

It's back!! This months etsy crafter is Katie from Mommy Makes.
Katie is a stay at home mom (like me!) in Kansas who takes some amazing photos! She really started working with photographs in college, but it fell by the way side after graduation. (I did the same thing with many of my passions.) After she became a mom she picked up her camera again, and I for one am so glad she did.
Today I wanted focus on the craft pictures shes taken, but I really suggest you all take a look at her shop. She has some amazing landscape photos, and still life photos.
All of these would be wonderful craft room decorations. This first one is for my fellow paper crafters.
This shot is so cool! I love how the pencils stand out against the white, and I especially love the light blue pencil standing strait up. Beautifully done. This next one I love even more though.
The close up is so amazing. I especially love that the pencils are off-center. These colors would be so inspiring in a light craft room. I can just see myself staring at while trying to figure out what color paper to use...
Next up- are some for our artist friends.
I love that the paintbrushes all have different colors too. It's a great mix of color and shapes.
Of course with paint brushes you need... paint!!
The sunlit window goes beautifully with the water colors. Again, I love that it's perfectly off center, and the colors are amazing! Katie stated she wanted the viewer to feel "calm and happiness." Goal accomplished!
Here is yet another beautiful picture of water colors.
I love closeups. I think this would go wonderfully as a pair with the previous one. Katie mentioned this reminds her of spring, and I agree. The colors make me think of painting Easter Eggs.
Next: Pastels!
The focus on this is so cool. Again, the colors are so bright, and goes beautifully with the white.
Switching our focus now to all our crafty friends who sew!
My friend is a quilter, and I could totally see this rainbow going above her sewing machine. It continues the theme so far of bright colors on a white backdrop, and would make any room feel so bright! But wait, there's more...
My sister is a seamstress, with a flair for vintage, and cool color combos. (Say that three times fast.) This next picture made me think of her instantly.
I love how the pins form a pattern on the dress form, and the color of the pin cushion is fantastic! The pink, grey and turquoise thred underneath are the perfect compliment. This would be perfect in any seamstress' studio. It also comes in black and white. Intrestingly, my focus shifts to the tape measure in the black and white photo. Also, check out the reflection in the glass table. So cool! Katie said she used some of her mother's supplies from the 70's and 80's. I truly love it.
I am so impressed by these photographs. I plan on purchasing most of them for my craft room as soon as we get it set up.
Before I sign off for today, I want to stress that there are a TON of amazing photographs on this site. I highly suggest you check out the rest of them. Here is one that I really liked (I couldn't pick a favorite.)

Absolutly gorgeous. To buy any of these beautiful works of art, just click on the picture, and it should take you to her site. (if it doesn't please let me know.)

Prints are available in multiple sizes if you request it. She is very accomadating. You also have the choice of matte or glossy finishes. Another thing that I love!!

She also has a blog : KatieLloydPhotography.blogspot.com. It will be added to my blog list as soon as I put one up. :) There is also a twitter and facebook account listed on her profile.

Until then...

Have a great day, and keep crafting!

Note (4/7/11): Soon all prints will be be printed in lustre unless glossy is requested.

ABCDEFGHI..MNO?

The challenge is MNO today. I swear I didn't skip a challenge. It was Pam at 365 I swear! I really liked this challenge though. Here is the link! http://bit.ly/e9RUA5 M - Markers N- Numbers O- Orange Yesterdays shopping trip was very fruitful. I hit both Joanns and Michaels and speant... well, more than I should of. But I got a lot of paper and stickers and cards for future projects, including stuff for the projects that I missed. I made a couple last night, but I'm saving the posts for the weekend, hoping I'll have more time to type then. I also started on my card for today last night. Turns out they post it at midnight, and since I was up, I got a head start. I finished the rest this afternoon though. Here it is! More Butterflies as promised. :) The green paper is scraps that I had in stock. The sticker border is by and the stamp is by Inkadinkado. (That name cracks me up.) I colored in the stamp in the middle, with my markers. It took much longer than I expected, and it's so rewarding when it comes out this nice. The letters I cut out with my cricut which, thankfully, is working again! Yay!!!

Cat Corner "Must...Get...Mouse..." -Felix

Have a great day, and keep crafting!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Happy 23!!!!

This is card 23 of the 365 card challenge! Here is the link!
The challenge was g, h, and i of the alphabet:
G- grossgrain
H-heart
I-ink
Here is what I came up with!
I think I went a little crazy with the ink.. but other than that, I like this card. The paper is from a 4.5x6.5 pad called Latte Matstack by DCWV. There are some really neat patterns in there. I'll be using it a lot. The stamps are called All You Need is Love by Inkadinkado. The stickers (yet another part of my V-day gift from Tony) are by Me and My Big Ideas. I'm heading out to the craft stores now. Have a great day all, and keep crafting!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Day 22 - D-E-F of Cards!

Todays challenge was another alphabet one using the letters d,e, and f.
D- distressed
E- envelope
F- fringe
Here is the link:
I hadn't done anything distressed yet, so this was a whole new technique. It turned out to be really easy, and it looks so cool! I'm sure you will be seing more of this in the future!
This is also the begining of several butterfly cards. A friend of mine loves butterflies, and her birthday is coming up, so I will be experimenting with them to get ready!
Cat Corner

Monday, March 21, 2011

Day 21-Laugh

Today's Card challenge was an abc challenge. The instructions were to use the three elements starting with the first three letters of the alphabet: A-Alphabet stickers or stamps B-Blue C-Circles Here is the link http://365cards.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-21-abcs-of-crafting-abc.html I had never seen a challenge like this. It was so goofy. I managed to get all three elements into the card. I may try to make a live and a love card as well. They would be a great combo set! Have a great day and keep crafting!

Day 20 - Joy of Travel

Sundays are sketch days! I have now officially completed one week of cards! This is the sketch that was the challenge.
I had a some great travel paper packed away that I decided to use. The joy sticker is by K&Company.

Have a great day, and keep crafting!