Video: Styrofoam Frosting

Learn how to make this great, economical "frosting" for your cards and paper crafting projects!  Let me know if you have any questions!  Thanks to Holly Young for this wonderful idea!  You can visit her blog here!

Paper Piecing - Lark Inspiration

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Make It Up As You Go Along

I made spinach lasagna for dinner last night.  It's not like me to go "off recipe," but I thought a little spinach might be nice...and maybe some extra cheese...ooh, and throw some additional sauce on top just for the heck of it!  I was very pleased when it came out of the oven and turned out great!  Sometimes we need to make it up as we go along.  Sometimes we will love the result, sometimes we won't, but at least we'll have fun doing it!

Today's inspiration came from this tea towel from Lark.  I paper pieced the tree and then used white embossing powder for the leaves, stars and the grass.  Those adorable owls are from the Love Bandits set - I colored the stamp with a ballet blue marker so that I could hand draw the eyes so they could be looking at each other :)  I hope you like it!

Eyelet Paper Lace

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Sometimes What You Don't Want, Is Exactly What You Need!

I woke up to snow this morning.  I was comfy in the house and was having those cranky "I don't want to go outside and walk the dog in the cold" kind of thoughts.  So I dawdled as much as possible until I finally put on my boots, hat, coat, gloves, ski pants...all the appropriate layers, and out we went.  As the walk went on, I began to feel calm, peaceful...dare I say, "joyous?!"  This walk was just what I needed to start my day off on the right foot (no pun intended) :)  Sometimes what you don't want, is exactly what you need!

Today's limited supply challenge on SCS was to use ribbon and borders.  I broke out the eyelet border punch and punched a piece of very vanilla card stock and then ran that through the crimper about 1 million times...okay, maybe not a million, but a bunch :)  I used a piece of cottage wall designer paper and then cut a small slit on the spine of the card so that I could thread through my satin ribbon.  I hope you like it!

stamps:  Sincere Salutations
card stock:  Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Cottage Wall designer series paper
ink:  rich razzleberry
accessories:  eyelet border punch, crimper, very vanilla satin 5/8" ribbon

Clean and Simple Congratulations

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Things Happen In Their Own Time

In my post on Tuesday I mentioned that I had a heavy heart.  One of the reasons was a high school friend was losing his father yesterday (although I still believe that you can't really lose someone once you have found them - they will always be in your heart).  His family had made the difficult decision to remove their dad from his ventilator.  The amazing thing, however, is that their dad decided not to wait for them!  They had scheduled the removal of the ventilator at 1:30 p.m., but at 10 a.m. they received a call that their dad wasn't waiting for them.  The family arrived at the hospital between 10:30 and 10:50 and at 10:55 a.m. my friend's father passed.  Things happen in their own time - and sometimes it is quite clear the blessing that brings.

Today's card came together super fast!  The challenge on SCS was to use the color orange.  I used this design for a birthday card and thought it would make a cute congrats card too!  I stamped the dotted background in half-strength pumpkin pie.  The greeting was stamped in full strength pumpkin pie and then I stamped it a second time with ballet blue so that I could cut out the star and pop it up on dimensionals.  Hope you like it!

stamps:  Dot, Dot, Dot; Four Square
card stock:  Whisper White, Apricot Appeal, Ballet Blue
ink:  pumpkin pie, ballet blue
accessories:  1 1/4" square punch, dimensionals

Sneak Peek - Elements Of Style

Tonight's Lesson From The Craft Room:  There Will Be Peace

My heart is heavy this evening.  Tomorrow my brother will say goodbye to his first fur friend, Murphy.  I know it will be a difficult day and a difficult journey from sadness to peace.  A high school friend will also be at a hospital as his father is taken off of a ventilator - I cannot imagine the difficulty the day will bring.  And yet, in all of this, I know that peace will come.  It may be days, weeks, or years, but at some point I am confident there will be peace.

Tonight's card was made for the sketch challenge on SCS and I've included a sneak peek set, Elements of Style, that was given to us at Leadership this year.  It will come out in the May mini catalog!  I felt the sentiment fit perfectly into my life right now.  I stamped one of the background images on the largest layer of very vanilla card stock.  A few of the other images in the set found their way onto the smaller very vanilla panels.  I ran the smaller black panel through the Big Shot with the Finnial Press embossing folder.  I hope you like it and I hope you are at peace.

Paper Pieced Birthday Card

I am playing around in the craft room today - making my final card preparations for this week's stamp-a-stack.  This is a paper-pieced card that will be including in the stamp-a-stack.  So simple and fun to make!  The frosting is my new secret :)  I'll have to make a video to show you how it's done!

Bitty Birthday and Faux Designer Paper

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  It's OK To Not Know

Lately I've been contemplating some of the "big" questions - Why am I here?  What is my purpose?  I keep thinking that a lightening bolt will strike and I'll have all the answers.  As I walked Buddy this morning, my head spinning with the question of why I am here, I realized that it's okay to not have all the answers.  What's important is that I keep asking the question and that I keep searching for the purpose I am here to fulfill.  I hope your journey is going well!

I was very excited by today's color challenge on SCS - pale plum, perfect plum, soft suede and neutrals of your choice - what a great mix of colors that I would never, in a million years, have put together!  I created some "faux" designer paper by stamping the itty bitty background and then the circle on some whisper white card stock.  The cake was stamped on whisper white with black staz-on and then colored in with markers.  I added a bit of glitz on the frosting and also tiny dots of glitz on the "faux" paper.  I hope you like it!

stamps:  Bitty Birthday, Circle Circus, Short & Sweet, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
card stock:  Whisper White, Soft Suede, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum
ink:  black staz-on, perfect plum, pale plum, soft suede, yoyo yellow
accessories:  tag punch, large tag punch, dazzling diamonds, white organza ribbon, scallop border punch

Two-Step Bird Punch Birthday Card

Today's card is a copy I made of a swap I received from Kay Smith at Leadership (Thanks Kay!!!).  I thought this card was just gorgeous and I know my Stamp-A-Stack participants are going to love it!  I just changed a few tiny things (changed the greeting and subtracted a large oval punch).  I hope you like it as much as I do!

Beyond Description!

Tonight's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Some Things Are Beyond Description!

I know you won't believe me, but this card started out with the thought of spring for this week's Clean and Simple challenge on SCS and a blank very vanilla piece of card stock!  Then I added some score lines and a mask over the center of the card and picked up a flower from the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set.  I stamped the flower in pastel colors - blue, pink, yellow...really, I mean it!  If you look closely enough you may actually be able to detect those flowers :)  And then my body seemed to take over and all heck broke loose in the craft room!  There were sponges, ink pads and stamp sets flying!  I crossed color family boundaries and went through at least 5 stamp sets...so much for clean and simple!  But I figure the design itself is clean and simple - only stamps, paper and ink...is that okay? :)  Some things are just beyond description - I really wish I could tell you how this card came about...all I know is that I went a little nuts and somehow this popped out!  I hope you like it :)

Chickadee Two-Step Bird Punch

I fell in love with this little chickadee that Ann Fitzgerald created with the two-step bird punch!  She even has directions for how to make it on her blog here!  Thanks Ann!  I followed Ann's instructions and added some scoring and a greeting to the very vanilla card.  Hope you like it!

Clean and Simple Masculine Birthday

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Find Your Bliss!

It snowed last night.  Buddy was sooooo excited to go outside!  We went for a beautiful, peaceful walk and then stopped in the park and sat in the snow and watched the neighborhood children sled down the hill.  Well, Buddy watched the children and I watched Buddy.  I could tell this was his perfect place - a beautiful dog lying in the snow watching the distance.  He found his bliss.  I find my bliss when I am in the craft room creating - it's that perfect place - a perfect sense of "rightness."  What's your bliss?  If you're not sure, keep searching - you will definitely know when you find it!

Today's card came together very quickly - it actually came into my mind when I woke up this morning.  I stamped the dot, dot, dot stamp as a background in chocolate chip (I stamped off the chocolate chip once on a piece of scrap paper before stamping onto the card).  The Four Square birthday greeting is also stamped in chocolate chip.  I punched it out with a 1 1/4" square punch and adhered it to a 2"x2" square of chocolate chip card stock.  I popped up the greeting/chocolate chip squares on dimensionals and adhered it to the card.  So simple, yet it packs a graphic punch!  I hope you like it!

stamps:  Four Square, Dot, Dot, Dot
card stock:  Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
ink:  chocolate chip
accessories:  1 1/4" square punch, dimensionals