Thursday, January 20, 2011

Tea with Alice Stamp Set & Creative Scraps

And she does it AGAIN! Just when I thought the last Alice in Wonderland set couldn't get any cuter, Sandy Redburn from Crafty Secrets rocks my world with MORE cool images like the mad hatter, a sweet little mouse, Alice, and blank teacups that can be stamped on patterned paper for fun shabby teacups!


This set is called Tea with Alice, and I'm absolutely MAD for it! There are also new creative scraps with tons of Alice images for you to use in scrapbook pages, layouts and cards!



Sandy will be releasing more sets this week on the Crafty Secrets blog HERE...make sure to stop by and check out all the new goodies!


Lisa

















Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Crafty Secrets New Release Sets

YAY! I can finally show you the new stamp sets I've been playing with for the past few weeks! I've been SO excited for this release! Sandy at Crafty Secrets just posted photos of 3 of her new stamp sets this week for CHA.






I have had the pleasure of playing with this new Wizard of OZ set for a few weeks now, and as I was coloring one image, card ideas just kept popping into my brain, so I KEPT MAKING THEM!! There are SO many ways to use the images in these sets!! I am always in AWE of the cool images Sandy finds... are you LOVING these as much as I do???!

Here are some of the samples that I made with the new sets. I'm a day behind the Crafty Secrets blog, so if you want more new releases & samples, check it out HERE. She has a new Alice in Wonderland set too, that I'll post tomorrow! Short but sweet tonite. Lots to upload! L.




This set is called "Wonderful Pig"...what a happy image!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Scoot over here

Still "Rockin it Unity-Style" in St Paul! This time with a sweet little glittered scooter. Diggin my Martha Stewart lace punch, too! :)











The little 3-d felt hearts were from a kids package of valentine decor from Michaels. Makes it less putzy when they are pre-made, and the whole package was only $2.99! Enjoy your weekend, ladies!

L.





Thursday, January 13, 2011

Vintage Valentines


Hi again! I thought that today I'd post some more vintage valentine inspiration for you. Yesterday's valentines were more from the 50's era..these are definitely VICTORIAN and putzy!

I scored these last summer during a junking adventure. I love the multiple layers on them, and how lacy they are.


Enjoy!

L.

















Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Life is Sweeter.


Hi girlies! Life is crazy here in snowy MN...I'm a travel agent, so I'm fielding calls left and right for people whose flights have been cancelled from the snow! I just heard that out of the 48 continental US states, 47 have snow...the only exception is FLORIDA! Girls, let's all head to FLORIDA!

The good thing that happens when the weather is cold and snowy, is that I hit my stamp room after work and lose myself in creating cards. Last week I was busy creating valentines. Here is another Unity valentine, made with Unity's "Rockin It, Unity Style" stamp set. This fun little gumball machine is easy to color, and I can crank out about a million of these, easily.

I promised to show you some of my vintage valentine collection...I love how simple and sweet they all are!




Hope you are as inspired as I am by them!














Sunday, January 9, 2011

Papa Z's Birthday.


Wooooo HOOOO! On a roll with the blog posts! 2 in a row! I should get a silver star for that! My Dad (affectionately known as Papa Z) had a birthday last week, which we will be celebrating today. My Dad is KING OF SHORTCUTS. If there is a shortcut way to get there, he will find it. Sometimes the shortcuts involve dirt roads that dirty your car, complicated routes through foreign neighborhoods, or cutting through farm fields (kidding). But if there's a shorter way to get home, it's all worth it. SNICKER! I pulled out my Crafty Secrets Car Classics set to pull out a fun speedster car to make a birthday card with.


The base of my card is made with a vintage map that I scored at a sale for .75 cents. I pulled out the Wisconsin map and used my hometown section so that it reflects the actual area that Dad does all his "SHORTCUTS".


I also pulled out some vintage metal buttons, and found some really worn ones! The one on the top almost reminds me of some kind of wrench. I want to do a vintage button 101 class for you soon; I have lots of stuff up my sleeve but need to get organized!

I also framed the sentiment with some Crafty Secrets chipboard frames, covered in glitter. A tip for you when glittering; I colored the white chipboard with grey copic marker before I glittered, so that you don't see any white base peeking through the glitter. Gives it a more even effect. Also, I mod podge my glitter on, so the glitter sticks better & more evenly. Happy Sunday, all! L.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

You rock my world.

Morning girlies! Well, we made it through the first week of the year, and so far I'm optimistic that this year will go better than last! I've been working on Valentines again, and had ordered a kit of the month from Unity called "Rockin it, Unity Style". This kit is packed with fun images that are simple to color and have great sentiments! I'm always drawn to stamp companies that coordinate their images with great sentiments. I used some fun, bright papers from My Minds' Eye and Bo Bunny that have primarily red colors in them, and turned this little jukebox into a valentine card!


I glittered the jukebox up with some fun "punk" purple glitter from Our Craft Lounge. I'm sort of on a glitter kick this month with all my cards, so you'll be seeing sparkles on everything right now!


I've been trying to organize my stamps by putting them into jewel cd cases; I bought a whole box of empty cd cases in bulk from Uline. (Thanks for the tip, Carol!) Because this Unity kit had so many images, I had to use 4 cd boxes for this set~ so I figured out that you can use a big ribbon, threaded through the top case, to gather the boxes together.


Baby steps into the organization! My Mom found this great cd holder at a garage sale for a buck. It has handles on the top and bottom, so if I need to move this, I just tip it sideways and carry it as is! HANDLES! YAY! Yikes, I just noticed my ribbon holder needs some love. BIG SIGH~!

Happy weekend, everyone!

L.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Valentine Greetings

Hi guys! I really am still here, even though I haven't been posting! Trust me, when I start getting the posting going again, you're going to be SO sick of me! I've been stamping up a storm and just finally got everything photographed, so I can start putting blog posts up. I finished a bunch of design work last weekend for Crafty Secrets, and started making my Valentine cards so that I'm done in time to mail them out!





I hit the after xmas clearance sales at Michaels last week and ended up getting this cute set by Inkadinkado, called Animal Hearts. All of these valentines were done with the set; there are SO many cute images to play with in here!


I started by choosing some Anna Griffin bright paisley paper, and then paired it up with some fun My Minds Eye pink polka dots. After I had chosen my paper, I pulled the colors from the papers into my images, to make sure they coordinate perfectly.

The fun thing that runs throughout my Valentines this year, are these candy-coated little "Luv Ya" hearts, that I embossed with Versamark and red embossing powder. I love the shiny texture that it gives to the cards. I also went crazy with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Trim punch that I splurged on for 50 percent off. I love that it looks just like vintage lace, but is FLAT and doesn't give bulk to the cards!

I'm always inspired by vintage valentines, and usually when I pull out my collection, it gets my mojo going. I'll be posting some of my vintage valentines thoughout this month, so you can see what inspires me.
Here are some closeups of my valentines if you want a better look. It's not too early to start spreading some love!

Talk to you soon!

L.





Saturday, January 1, 2011

Berry sweet Thank-You Cards

Happy new year, everyone! I have to say I'm glad 2010 is over, and I'm MORE THAN READY to start a fresh year. I have lofty goals this year, but the main one I want to remember every day is to keep my BALANCE in all things. I've promised myself that this year I will not take too much on, I will have a positive attitude, be thankful for everything I have, and try to live SIMPLY. Unfortunately, this will be a challenge for me, as I LOVE old stuff and I LOVE craft supplies. So maybe I need to add ORGANIZING to my list, too! One of my goals before the new year was to get thank-you cards out right away, for all of the xmas gifts I received. I met some friends at Archivers and made about 20 of these mousey thank-you's last week. Now I need to actually SEND them! I've also been working on Crafty Secrets new release projects this week, so when I get the go-ahead, I'll be posting lots of new stuff for you to check out. Hope you had a happy New Year's Eve, and I hope all your 2011 goals are within reach! L.