Thinking of you card

I have been scraplifting on Pinterest, and I love it.  It allows me to be creative, and there is nothing wrong with it, and long as you do not duplicate the exact card.

From my pinterest board-Card Ideas

From my phone.

The original, which is very beautiful in it own right, is white and pink, with patterned paper and solid paper for the flags, and is has a boarder punch for the ribbon part.  The flags are a lot smaller, and the sentiment is stamped or letter-pressed with two little hearts.  





                           My version of the card had the same type of background, except I did not place heart or anything where the ribbon should go, and I had an actual ribbon placed lower than on the original.  I also have scallop corners, which is new to me, because I just purchased the corner chomper on Friday for another project I plan on creating.  I also noticed that the original have clean lines, where I distressed my edges.   My sentiment was printed on cardstock from my printer, instead of stamped or letter-pressed.



Overall, I love how it turned out, and I was not looking back to check to see how close to the original I can get.  I was basically relying on my memory of the card, and I must say that I hit it pretty darn close to it.  I may add the two die cuts later, as soon as I know what I want to put on in the hearts' place.   One thing to note:  you may have recognized the the flag papers:  the first paper is a leftover scrap piece from one of the journals I did last week, the light pink is leftover from a project I did last year.  I cannot remember which one.  The hope paper is a leftover from the first mini book I did for a Horizon of Hope auction I did.  I raised $0 for it, but I still felt good, because I gave it to the speaker of the day.  She is a breast cancer survivor.  The last piece is leftover from a layout I did last year.   the background paper is leftover from another one of the journals I made last week.   In other words, I used my scraps.  

My challenge from you is to use what you have, and have fun with it.   Scraplift something, but make sure you give credit to whoever you scraplift it from.  

God Bless you.

Journals

I received an order from someone to make cover journals.  She saw one of my journals on my Etsy page, and requested 4 of them.   she told me the reason for the journals, which I will not say unless she gives me permission, but I was very happy the client asked, because I feel the same way about the cause.

All of the journals are made the same way:  Take a composition book ( I get the ones at the dollar store), and you can cover both the front and back covers.   I also covered the inside covers, and added a pocket on the front inside cover.

 Rose cover front outside and inside cover

covered in K and Co's Jubilee Teals and Butterflies (inside and outside covers)

cover in unknown vintage looking paper, with a woodie in the corner (Kaiser Arts)







 I hope you have enjoyed seeing these journals, and I hope that my client loves the journals.

God Bless You.

Happy Father's Day

Fathers are just as wonderful people.  Some may not see them as that.  My relationship with my father is as wonderful as I sometimes make it out to be.  I always thought of my father as this person, who was a flight person in the US Air Forces.  He did serve in Vietnam, often flew to Japan, and got me a total of 4 pachinko machines in my lifetime.  Like most men, my father was never an affectionate man.  Today, even now, he isn't, but he has soften up quite a bit.  He loves his family and last year celebrated with my mom 50 years of marriage.   He joked at the celebration to my mom, "yes, you are starting to grow on me". All me, my brother and sister could do is smile and roll our eyes.     I love you, Dad, dry humor and all.

So, I was thinking about a Father's day card that wasn't too fussy, not mushy, but all masculine.  I did not want to make you typical card, where you have some guy fishing, some golf stick, or even business-type.    This to me says exotic, but very masculine, and here are the supplies you will need to achieve this card:

Ingredients:

1 card blank (measures 4" x 6")
1 mat (measuring slightly smaller than the card blank, leaving an 1/8"-1/4"border)
1 piece of pattern paper 1 (measuring   3.5" x 3 3/8")  I used a scrap piece from DCWV's Immortal Stack)
1 piece of pattern paper 2 (measuring 2" x 3 3/8")  I used a scrap piece from DCWV's Mariposa Stack)
1 Tim Holtz Fragment
1 scrap piece of pattern paper 1 (to fit behind the fragment)
1 piece of washi tape
1 Happy Father's Day sentiment (either printed out by computer, or store bought-I printed mine using MS. Publisher software)

I encourage you to submit a card if you have one on Card a day Blog.  Once you done that, you may win a prize.

Have fun, and talk to you later.

Tip Thursday: Planning 2013

Hello and welcome to Tip Thursday.  

2012 is about half through its cycle of events.  Now is the time to start organizing for 2013.   I know, it is not even July yet, and I am talking about 2013.  Hear me out for the moment, because it is never too early to start planning for the new year.   Think about these questions for a moment.   If you are a scrapbooker, how many projects have you worked on this year?  What are your goals?   It does not matter if the project is ongoing or not.  

I have planned that I was going to set my goals to work on as many cards as I can.  For mini books, 10 (4 are already done).  Scrapbook pages are about 50 pages (I am not doing so well on those goals).  Finally, Journals, 10 (4 are in the works).   If I go over the amount, great, if not, still great.  Never set yourself so high on a goal, until you are disappointed.  If you fall off a horse, don't get back up, and try again, or do you go home limping.  Never give up.  So you planned on 50 cards for the month of December, and got only 25 done, that is still an achievement.  Deliver the ones you have done, and apologize for the rest.  Life happens and we are all human. The point I am making is you have the cards planned to be made, and you are not doing them at the last minute.  If you want to know how to do it, you will need the following:

Ingredients:

1 2013 calendar-to look at holidays, birthdays, and events
Notebook paper or your word processing software if you are going to type it out.

Screen shot of Outlook Calendar

• First clear a time to do this task.  Ask the hubby to occupy the kids.  Ask the Hubby (or whoever you assigned kiddie duty) 2 hours max.  (Any longer, and someone may have to send in the troops to find you)
• Decide your goal.  Examples are "I am going to make 1000 cards in 2013", "I am going to complete my child's scrapbook in 2013" or "I am going to learn how to make a mini book by June 2013."
• Decide how t
•   hat goal will be achieved.   Are there classes in your area on mini books?  How about setting up time, where you can be along in your thoughts to get creative.
• Decide your budget.  Sometimes is the matter of how much money you have and how much of that money can be designated towards your hobby.
• Once that is decided, get out your 2013 calendar, and decide what holidays you want to cover if you are making cards, when are you making gifts for special occasions, or if you are organizing your space when to get started.  If you are using a program like Microsoft Outlook or ICalendar, duplicate where you are setting up your time and sync with your phone, or paper planner.   I would even place all paper crafting event in another color.  (example:  June 19: make a card for Jane's birthday which is  June 27-mail tomorrow)
• Once you have planned and placed all your events, and made your goals, take out a sheet of paper or open up your word processing software, and type up your schedule, and make a copy for you to see it.   I will be sure it will help you remember, and seeing your calendar will you make time for your crafts.

Screen shot of word document

Always remember, life happens, and for the things you can control, allow yourself time by making things before the due date.  you do not need to tie a string around your finger (who does now anyway when you have smart phones to be your finger.)  For the things you cannot control, like illnesses, do not worry, and move on.  Jane would probably would like a phone call anyway.  At least you were thinking about her.  Tomorrow I will have a card I made for the Card a day Blog, so come to see it.   Here is a hint... Father's day is around the corner.  What are you doing for the man in your life?    Take care, and God Bless You.

Tip Thursday: Journaling

I am trying to do different aspects of this blog to change things up every once in a while, especially when it is related to my work.  So today is Tip Thursday day.   I am making this quick and easy.

Journaling on Layouts...

I am a big fan of journaling.  To me, journaling is the heart of everything you do on paper.  Whether it is the writing of a young girl telling her diary on how angry she is at a situation that happened to her, or a little journaling block of a mom describe to a future grown boy what he did when he was 2 years old in a scrapbook layout. Journaling help sets the tone for the reader to see what you see at the time.   Consider this example.  This picture is from a recent tour I went on at the Longaberger Home Office.  I could say something in my layout like:

So we all sitting around the table, and one thing came to all of our minds:


"So, who brought the salsa and chips?"





I made it funny and cute.  I could explained that this was part of the tour, or I could have gone the funny, comedian route.  I took the funny route.   I can also explain another picture this way:

"I cannot believe how big you have grown.  It seems like yesterday you were just born, and I was introduced as your Aunt Patti."







This is a picture of my youngest nephew, and I just did a 1st person's point of view.  I could have done this in 2nd person's point of view, but since I was not there at the time the picture was taken, which was at his other grandmother's house, I put it in 1st person.  I also changed up the font a bit.   One word on fonts.  It is nice when you can put journaling in script form when you type on the computer.  Make sure that the font is readable for all.  As we age, it gets harder to read letters where the spacing is too close to make out the word.  So consider who will be viewing this for both the present and the future.   Also make the size big enough for all, but not too big, until it is considered too big for the amount of space you have to type in.

A word about online diaries, blogs and the social media...

I have an online diary that is actually offline.  In fact, I have several and I do not allow anyone to view it, unless they are standing behind me.   The only that I may allow the public to view parts of is my Tripping on Disney fun personal diary.  I have a blog with the same name, and giving people an insight of what I am doing to prepare for my family's trip next year may help someone, and not embarrass me.  Some people feel that they need to tell everyone on Facebook and all the rest what they are doing, where they are going, and who are they are with.  Social media sites like Foursquare even encourages you to use GPS to locate you.   That is fine too, but be forewarned that it might bite you back as well.  What if you are looking for a new job or trying to join a new organization?  Even though it is against the law for companies to discriminate against a person trying to hire, companies have found a way around it.  So be careful what you say, because this is a form of journaling as well.  This is my tip to you.   Make texting and online journaling your friend, not your enemy.  Be well, and stay safe.   God bless you.

My last Mini book-Tag Book

I am having a happy day.  I just looked at my Facebook page, MDN Creates, and I have 14 people like it this week.  Thank you, Thank you.  This is a start.   Well, this is my last book for a while, and my most troublesome.  The reason, I have never made a tag book before.  I have made a mini book with tags in it, but not at total tag book.   I hope Sandra likes it.  Here we go...

First off, I want to apologize for the pictures looking blurry.  I guess my phone decided to make it a laughable day yesterday (or I do not know clean a camera lens).  The paper like is from DCWV (who else?) This time it is the Performance paper stack.  I was not sure about this stack at first, until I did this first tag.  Then I thought, " I could make this work"  If I could not do it, I was just going to make cards out of it, that all.  the clear letters spell out,  "Music", and all of the tags were edged with Tim Holtz distressed ink, Rusty Hinge. (yes the same one I used on the Mariposa book)

Just so you know, there are 10 tags, 20 pages, and bonded with the Cinch binding tool.  All of the mats came from the Naturals 6x6 paper stack.  All about the same, except a few touches here and there.  Nothing fancy, except what DCWV did for the paper.  Each tag does have gold organza ribbon on it.  This particular page has three flat-back pearls on it.  I got them at Joanne's (although I have found someone who sells them in their shop on Etsy).  

This page is one of two I have a Prima flower on it.  I know, it looks a little big, but I like them big, and it does not overwhelm the page.  This particular flower tells the user what color page is coming up.  it is simple, yet stately.

No, I did not goof up in the binding of the book to put a matted page for the cover.  I thought about it long and hard. ( there is a violin page that looks like the piano cover page in the middle).  I wanted to be unusual here, and have the last page (and cover ) be ether a journaling spot or a photo opportunity for Sandra in place whatever she feels like here, instead of calling it a cover.  So it is a completed book.



I have more (yes I did manage to finally make a mockery out of my phone and email account, and downloaded all of the tag photos to my hard drive. Revenge is sweet in this case (giggle) )
I hope you enjoyed this book.  I may show some more of this tag book in future posts.  Have a great afternoon, and God Bless You.

The Second Mini book

Hello-

I am going to make this short and sweet, just like the book I am going to show you.  This one is for Ragina.  I am sleepy, so here we go. (Note:  Even though I selected all of them, my phone only sends what is big enough to fit in the file.)

The materials used were Chipboard, white paper bags (sewn with three holes) Sorry I did not do it, but I know of a person who does it and sells them on Ebay and Etsy.  I will have to try it, because I do have a sewing machine.) The entire book was decorated with DCWV Mariposa line.  It seems lately I have gravitated towards DCWV.   I guess I am making up for loss time with this brand.  I am normally not a coral girl, but I wanted to try something new and different, and I am starting to like coral.  I will tell you one thing:  Nothing will ever take me away from my pink.  I am a pink girl to the day I die, LOL.  After all, it does go with my skin color.  I bond the album with three notebook rings.

This tag you see above, I distressed with Tim Holtz's distress ink Rusty Hinge, and what you see here is part of paper (I have three more tags like this.  I added the ribbon

I fussy cut out the birdcage, and placed it on pop dots.   The tag you see in the background, I used a regular bought tag, glimmer misted it in three different colors and used a tag that came as part of whole 12 x12 paper page.  What you do not see is another tag under it, and I used a brad to hold it together.  my partner can use it to hold a small wallet-size picture or journal with it.   You can also see the three rings.

 This is the tag up close.

And this is the tag underneath the first one.  The whole page that I used on all the tags has a lot of bling to it.  You cannot tell by the picture.

This is a frame from something I received a long time ago, but I was not able to place it anywhere until now.  Again the tip is to use leftovers or things you cannot use yourself.

With this page, I decided to do a little Cricuting (if there is such a term) This means I pulled out one of my Cricut machines and Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More Cartridge for this one.   I made a library pocket, and the little owl came from the sticker pack from the dollar bin at Joanne's.  decorated it with pearls from Recollections.  I got it when I was frantically seeking the Natural 8 x8 paper (ending up with the 12x12).  I added it at the last minute.

   This is the back cover (the front did not make the cut (my phone's fault).  I distressed the muslin (from the same piece as the one in the other mini book)






Well that is it.  I hope enjoyed seeing my album.  I am getting sleepy, so I will show you the last one later.  Good Night.  Until tomorrow.

The first Mini book...done

I am finished with my first mini book. If you can recall a few posts back, I stated that I was in a swap, and I had to finish 3 books. They are a 4x4 book (not so 4x4, more of a 6x6), a pocket mini, and a tag book. Well, here is the pocket mini. I hope my partner PJ will like it. So let me show you around, OK?
I have to love the cover.  It is similar to the last cover I made in October, except, I have muslin under the burlap.   The whole book was made with the DCWV line, Natural, and this is the first time I have made a book with a whole paper line.  I need to to that all the time.  It saves money, and the headache of matching.  This is my personal opinion on the matter.  Anyway, back to the cover.   I used the Tim Holtz ribbon collection and added some Recollections peals in the middle of the roses, which are on top of some stretchy lace.  I left the cover blank for the user to put whatever she wanted on the cover (if it was a non-scrapbooker I would, and still should of had a book plate on the cover.  The front and back covers are mad out of chipboard.  the base of the mini book is a paper bag book.  I attached the front of paper bag to the cover, and likewise with the back cover in the same style similar to the person on Follow the Paper Trail.

Next page: (Ok, I realize that I cannot show you everything about this album, because in the process of sending , or I did not take a picture of some of my pages, a few pictures got eaten up in cyberspace.)

 This is page 5 (sideways to show the quote):  There is a pocket here (I took the tag out (one of the photos that are missing and out there is Cyberspace), and here you can see the stretchy ribbon from Tim Holtz, which is under the rose ribbon on the front cover.  This is also a photo spot for my partner.  The quote says "He who has hope, has everything." Tip:  If you do not have a sentiment stamp like this, you can always Google search it. (or whichever search engine site you use).

This is another photo mat, and this time, I used the rose by itself with white pearls from Martha Stewart crafts.

This is one of 5 tags I made.  The way I made it was to cut one of the 12 x12 sheets down to 6 x9, cut in half again.  I placed double-sided tape (scor tape)placed on one side.  Next, I took a piece of the same paper to make a top tab, and placed it on top of the double sided tape, the placed the other piece on top of the tab, even the tag out, and then rounded the corners. 



These were some of the highlights of the album.  Sorry I did not show you more like last time.  I am almost finished with the mini 4x4 (excuse me, mini 6x6) and I will get some good pictures from that one.  See you in a few.

1/8 inch round eyeletspurple by MDNCreates on Etsy

1/8 inch round eyeletspurple by MDNCreates on Etsy:

'via Blog this'

I previously listed some orange eyelets for sale.  If orange is not not your thing, these are purple.    

1/8 inch round eyelets by MDNCreates on Etsy-for sale

1/8 inch round eyelets by MDNCreates on Etsy:

'via Blog this'

I am purging some stuff...scrapbooking stuff.   I am getting rid of items I no longer use.  They are cluttering my town home, so as that song from NSync from a few year's ago says in their song, bye, bye, bye.   I may be saving some for a giveaway or two.   a future idea is to sell kits and supplies, but I will have to think about that a little more.   I refuse to give Ebay my money, because they are only $1.50 for 20.   More to come...