Merry Christmas

Tinsel Hanging on the Christmas Tree

We got a great new embellishment in at Scrapbook Barn, It's a tinted tape by Vintage Street Market. The tinted tape is a easy way to add a fun layer to you scrapbook layout, card or ATC. 

I designed a layout using the "linen" look tape. It has the appearance of an age Scotch tape that you may find in a vintage family photo album:

 I used a few retro looking patterned papers and a 1950's Christmas photo edged with the tinted tape.

 The text border was made by pressing the linen tinted tape onto vintage book paper, and gently peeling it back up, lifting the book paper onto the tape.

Check out all the tinsel hanging on the tree...do they even make that anymore?

Christmas Tags, Tim Holtz and Toy Envy

Tim Holtz  started his 12 tags of Christmas this week. He is creating and sharing some

wonderful treasures over at his blog. 

While Tim is just getting started on his tags, I have been teaching my tags the last few weeks at

Scrapbook Barn.  Tim will be making 12 tags (hence the name "12 tags of Christmas") 

I designed and have been teaching 3 tags. 

Tim has always been an over achiever...but I do envy all those wonderful 

toys he has to create with.

These tags are fun to design, they can be used to decorate a tree or a grape vine wreath,

tie them onto a ribbon to create a banner, add one to a package or a gift bag, trade in a “tag swap”, 

mail a tag instead of  a Christmas Card 

or you can design these tags for yourself... just collect and enjoy them.

I will be teaching 2 more  tag classes at Scrapbook Barn, 

December 5th, 5-6:30 pm and December 6th, 1:30-3 pm. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Hand Dyed

I have been playing with color washes, dyes and ink...

and what a great time I have been having creating "HAND DYED" Crinkle Seam Binding...

Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and a  vintage  Rose

As you can see from the photo I was even able to teach them how to line up all in a row...

I placed these  colorful bundles in the Boutique at Scrapbook Barn, and they sold out fast...I "cooked" up another batch and the last time I looked there were only a few left.

It's time to make more...my nail tech is going to love me!

Happy Halloween

Holiday Spirit

It's almost Halloween...ghost and goblins and things that go bump in the night, candy over load, trick or treaters and the really scary part there are 54 days between Halloween and Christmas...and they threw Thanksgiving in the middle! Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year!

And speaking of Christmas...I designed this Christmas album using Kaiser Craft's Beyond the pages Georgina wooden album...

Great patterned paper and yards of festive ribbon...

Lace and distress ink...

Rhinestones...

and Stickles.

 Kinda gets you in to the holiday spirit doesn't it?

Yes this fun album is for sale at my Etsy store.

Decorating for the Holiday

I just checked the date of the last time I blogged...it's been way too long! I wonder what I have been doing? Oh RIGHT...prepping for classes. I have found a whole new respect for teachers.

 Have you gotten your Halloween decorations up yet?  "THEY"  ( yes, that THEY) say that  Halloween is the second most decorated holiday in the country. Decorating creates the mood for the holiday...lets face it, we will come up with any excuse to break out the glue and  scissors and create something festive.

In honor of the holiday I've designed some "spooky"  Halloween tags:

Gotta love all the  different colors of Tim Holtz distress ink...they are so much fun to create with.

Birthday Tags

Instead of sending a card for a Birthday Greeting how about a Birthday TAG! Or if you choose to stick with tradition, you can tie a Birthday TAG onto the gift. Yes I've been playing with TAGS again...this time for Birthdays

I found the black and white photograph at an antique store of a 1950's Birthday party with kids holding balloons. With a bit of photo editing I added an "old photo" frame. The manila shipping tag was covered with colorful birthday balloon tissue paper...I embellished it with a big glitter balloon and a few gold stars.

 This "Birthday Fairy" image is one that Suzee Que shared on a Flickr group I belong to...thanks Suzee Que! The blue Fairy Wings are for sale at my Etsy store. 

 A designer from Switzerland (I think it was Switzerland...I can't remember how I found it!) had a tag on her blog using this great technique of applying  a bit of glue to one side of the tag and laying a page from an old book on top of the glue, when the glue dries you mist it with water and remove the old page. I embellished the tag with die cut flowers, a reduced image of a vintage birthday post cart and a lot of distress ink.

I've been creating!

I have been hiding out in my "wizard's room" playing with distress ink, vintage images and glue. 

It's the time of year that I have family and friends birthdays, one after another for the next 3 1/2 months. Once I get the creativity going I don't dare stop for fear of loosing the "mojo".

When it comes to cards for "guys" I get a total design block...for some reason it's just harder to come up with ideas for the men in my life. 

I was pretty happy with the San Francisco card for my DS, could I get that lucky again for my DB?

YUP...I pulled together some "ice cream" ephemera to go along with this old photo of my uncle,as a young boy, licking  ice cream off a dasher that had just come out of a hand crank ice cream freezer. The wording in red reads "RESERVED for personal use only".

San Francisco, Birthday Cards and incense...

"I've been high...I've been low...I've been yes and I've been oh hell no...I've been rock 'n' roll and disco...Won't you save me San Francisco?"

Yes I'm singing it out loud...you might want to put your hands over your ears. 

I love this song by Train...beside being such a fun song, it' reminds me of what a fantastic place San Francisco is to visit. 

I have been trying to come up with an idea for a birthday card for my DS...who lives in SF, and here is where all these rambling thoughts come together...

 A vintage San Francisco image birthday card.

The image was printed on a transparency and burned around  the edges with incense. I layered patterned paper, printed transparency, tissue tape, distress ink, some cool braid.

So San Francisco did save me...because as we all know it's tough to come up with  guy cards. 

Baby Tags

I've been playing with TAGS again...this time it's all about the BABY.

 This cute baby boy image is from a vintage woman's magazine cover. Bits of lace, blue checked patterned paper, some Stickles (blinging up the bath water), distress ink and a blue butterfly charm

For a baby girl it's all about the PINK ... vintage baby girl card image, ribbon, Stickles, pink patterned paper, a doilie, distress ink and a pink ribbon flower.

I put the cap on the Stickles for this antique looking tag... vintage baby photo and buggy ad, ecru lace, distress ink, tissue tape, and 3 three old buttons from a button box.

Grand Opening!

It's time to make if official...

For the last 2 months I have been working on creating a Etsy store ( I know... you were wondering where I had been.)

I have the shop stocked with cards, mini albums, fairy wings, shadow box and other fancy stuff.

One of the items is a Santa Claus album...

 you did know that it's 131 days until Christmas didn't you?

Click on the Etsy shop button to see some more treasures.

Happiness is an empty cardboard box

Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty...

 Kitty Kitty Kitty Cat...

Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Cat...

Kitty Kitty Kitty...Has anybody seen my Cat?

In my spare time...

Last Christmas season I gave my darling daughter a banner I had made for a design team project...you remember the one. I designed it using the
Cavallini & Co. vintage postcard wrap.

She liked it so much she still has it up. In June I decided it was time to make her a new banner she could keep up all year. My plan was to do this in my spare time...which I don't have.

DD has black and white accents in her home, I started collecting black and white patterned paper, embellishments and a bit of bling.
Sweet Wendy over at Leaky Shed Studio had given me some of their chip board die cut banner letters to spell out: H O M E. The letters have holes at the top to run a ribbon through to created the banner. I covered the letters with the black and white patterned paper, leaving the holes covered. I placed them on chip board die cut pennant shapes that I had my DD cover in the back and white patterned paper ( The only was to get this done was to make it a team effort). I had great plans to layer each pennant and letter  with tons of embellishments... in my spare time.

In the end I kept the embellishments simple...doilies, silk flowers, ribbon, gems and Stickles. 

I don't plan on going in to the banner making business, but it was fun to  work on a different kind of project with and for my DD.

Sprinkles, Facebook and Salty Sweet

I have been hearing about Sprinkles cupcakes for a few years. Our local Sprinkles is about 30 minutes away in the posh part of Scottsdale...not my usual stomping grounds.

But last week I had my first...and my second! 

My daughter, my grand kids and I were driving on the 101 north.  I was driving, the g-kids were in the back and my daughter was on her phone checking Facebook. She made the announcement that if we went  to Sprinkles and said the secret word..."Salty Sweet" we could get a free cupcake. I was curious why the word was Salty Sweet...because that was the kind of free cupcake they were giving way. Okay how close were we to Sprinkles? The next exit...it was meant to be...today would be the day for my very first Sprinkles cupcake...but Salty Sweet just didn't sound too great, I was going to have a Red Velvet even if I had to pay for it.  We got off the freeway exit, a few turns later we were in front of Sprinkles. We walked in and waited our turn... eying the display case for the kind of cupcake we were going to order...along with our free ones. When it was our turn we all whispered "Salty Sweet", he smiled and thanked us for whispering...they had just finished  frosting the cupcakes. He boxed up the ones we ordered and in a separate box placed our free "Salty Sweet".  We thanked him, and got back out on the road. 

When we got home we did a taste test...the Red Velvet was great, but the Salty Sweet was wonderful...the Salty Sweet was CARMEL!

It's nice to know I can still be pleasantly surprised

Say something nice...

My mom recently turned 80...she would be okay with me telling you her age. For her birthday she sent  out a letter reminding all of her kids, grand kids and great grand kids that she was turning 80. She told us we didn't need to throw her a party, but she did ask all of us to make her a homemade birthday card...the kind we use to make in kindergarten...folded piece of paper, crayons, stick figures, she wanted us to write something nice about her, something we would tell someone about her or something we had done with her...we were not to obsess about the card.

Of course we all obsessed about making the card, some of us got done early, some of us are still working on the cards. That's okay, mom likes to celebrate her birthday all month long. 

She has been enjoying all the cards made by her kids, grand kids and great grand kids. Some extend family and friends had heard about the letter and wanted to get in on the fun too.

Why am I telling you all this? One of my siblings asked me if I was going to blog the card I made for mom...I hadn't plan on it...but then again "things" to blog are few and far between. I usually make her a red, white and blue patriotic looking card for her birthday  ( see the 4th of July post), but this year I designed a card "that says something nice...something I would tell someone about her."

 The front of the card reads: "I color outside the lines...with my left hand". The inside reads "Thank you Mom for teaching me everything I know about being creative" ( And yes...that's me sitting in the chair" ) 

 Happy 80th Birthday!

Happy 4th of July