Two Sheep Greetings

HEY! Hi there!

2011-07-15T11:14:00.019-04:00

Wow, I've really been neglecting the old blog haven't I? Sorry folks. It seems that when I havetime to make cards these days, I want to enjoy the process of making cards. I just don't have the enthusiasm for photographing and blogging TOO.

But, this past weekend I went on a wild tear and did some major reorganizing of my craft room, thanks to the inspiration from my friend Mary.

It started out looking like this. I made sure to

take photos when it was good and messy!!!

To the left here you can see a close up of my old

ribbon storage method. I loved this - 7 years ago. Now its just a mess and in all of the other before photos, you can see how the ribbon is always

hanging down onto other stuff, including my work table. Just not working for me.

Also on the left you can see my scrap storage, just literally bursting at the seams. Again I loved

this when I first made it, and now its just not working for me. The box is two of PTI's "From the Desk Of" templates without the center inserts.

Next up you can see my paper storage - left to right:

Black magazine holders hold idea folders, PTI paper stacks and watercolor papers. The two larger black magazine holders hold 12x12 paper. To the right, three clear magazine holders hold PTI cardstock. Not much about this has changed, but I did tidy it up :-) Just to the right of the

magazine files are my CD rack for PTI sets, and to the right of that is my inkpad storage, made out of balsa wood (which was cut with scissors and an xacto knife and glued with Aileene's craft glue) following, loosely, this pattern.

Here you can see just a small part of my wood mount stamp storage. This used to live on mywork table, but I was forever knocking them off the little stand (a spice rack stand from Target). So then I moved it over to the top of my Expedit shelf, which is my sewing station, and guess what happened every time I tried to sew something?

Sooooo... I made some changes. Want to see?!! :-)

I bought an old printers drawer from a flea market for $5. Yes, I said five bucks! G added some picture framing hardware and mounted this to the wall for me. Its just inside the door, on a blank space of wall that needed 'something', and it is both out of the way AND easily visible from my chair. It also holds a lot more wood-mount stamps - nearly all I own except for 3-4 Stampin Up sets that live in their storage boxes in a drawer. (I didn't want to split those setsup). You can see the slots are fairly small, so my background stamps just live on top. Also, see that art up there? I took Christy Tomlinson's She Art workshop, after seeing Nicole's GORGEOUS work, and this is the only one I actually finished! I don't love it, but its growing on me! Also, that green wall paint? Seven years ago it

was a bright pea/kiwi green, but I get so

much sun in this room, it faded to a more muted sagey kind of color - weird.

Below is my work table - the cleanest its EVER been since G built it for me when we moved in. The top is his work; the legs are sawhorse style from IKEA. Notice the cleaned up paper area?And, the ribbons, ink pad and PTI CD cases are all gone? More room for my laptop to live while I'm working, and much tidier. Yes, those are two Ott lights. I cant work at night without them,since the room has no overhead lights and the other lamps are terrible. Also see the big square on the table surface that is darker than everything else? That is where my big self-healing cutting mat lives. He was drip drying in the shower after a

good scrub down when I took this photo ;-)

OK, so now you see a great shot of the place where the ribbon dowel rods USED to live! SO much tidier! And I moved the CD rack of PTI stamps and the ink pad storage over onto this little (ugly!) green dresser that lives next to the old microwave cart that lives to the left of my table. See the basket in the top shelf of the white cabinet? All of my small jars of buttons live in there! And, that green box on the microwave cart shelf? I used that for all of my lesser usedribbon spools. (I put about 1/3 of my ribbon in here, another 1/3 went to the yard sale box, and the final 1/3 is coming up in a photo below!)

Alright last but not least! Back in college, I was a poor art major. I bought this plastic cart to keep all of my supplies in my dorm room. Its been with me ever since! It fits perfectly under my table. The top two drawers store pens, post its, small embellishments like brads, etc. Its especially handy for those kinds of pens that don't like to be stored vertically. But its the bottom two deeper drawers that are most amazing!

Every time I buy a PTI set, like many PTI fans, I save the clear acetate box that the sets come in. Some are about an inch thick, while others are about 1/2 inch. Well, I found a use for them! I took every one I had and cut off the top flaps. I think I had about 20 total. They stand up PERFECTLY in the larger bottom drawers of this little plastic cart. So I put 10 or so in each drawer. In the bottom drawer is all of my PTI and frequently used ribbon. I cut pieces of mat board down to 3" x 6" and wrapped each ribbon around a piece of mat board. I secured the end with a paper clip, but I'm going to try rubber bands if the clips leave a mark. I can fit 4 standing wrapped mat board pieces in one of the larger PTI boxes and 2 in the smaller PTI boxes. The photo doesn't do it justice, but I am pretty darn proud of myself and this idea!

So the ribbons are in the bottom drawer. In the 3rd drawer down, I made the same 'pockets' from PTI boxes, this time sorting my cardstock and patterned paper scraps! I have one for patterned paper, one for white/cream, one for black/brown, one for other neutrals (mostly kraft), one for pink/red orange, one for yellow/green, and one for blue/purple. Already I find myself reaching for scraps instead of cutting into another full sheet, because its so much easier to find what I need!

Behind the ribbon and scrap paper pockets you can see I stashed some embellishments and things that needed a home close to my table, but didn't need to live ON it :-)

So, if you're still here, thank you :-) I hope this little tour inspires someone. If you have questions or would like to see more detailed pictures, just let me know!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 12

2010-12-12T18:27:00.004-05:00

Here are a few variations on a theme that I did this year - probably about a dozen in total. They were a great way to use up some scraps!

The cards are small 3x5 cards, which I've really been into this year. The circles are popped up on dimensional adhesive (I get mine from Jody), and the frames are hand drawn. (I made these cards before I got the new PTI 'Framed' set. But let me share - Claire's frame set is very similar in size to PTI's and I like her sentiments more. Plus, the opening in her frames is a little larger, leaving more room to use OTHER sentiments as well!)

Nothing else fancy in these cards. Tonight I'm making this for dinner and hopefully writing out my last batch of cards so I can post them tomorrow. Happy Sunday!

Countown to Christmas - Day 11

2010-12-11T07:47:00.001-05:00

So yesterday I mentioned that PTI get-together in Ohio. I made a couple of THIS design that day too. Stamping Idol (yes, she really is an IDOL!), carpool buddy and my new friend Belinda also brought along her Waltzingmouse stamps for us to play with. I combined the text background and sentiment from WM with some more of those punched-and-stamped snowflakes from PTI.

I just received the latest Papercrafts magazine in the mail and learned that I may be ahead of the curve! According to one of the features in this month's issue, grey is the new black, especially when combined with a pop of another accent color. Listen, this was an happy accident - I have never been trendy in my life! :-)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 10

2010-12-10T17:43:00.005-05:00

Back in October I had a chance to get together with a bunch of ladies from the PTI forum at the Archivers in Fairlawn, Ohio. We had SOO much fun, its a miracle we got any stamping done at all! But my new friend Pat brought her PTI Snowfall, Additions, and corresponding punches for me to play with and I made a couple of this particular design. Its one of my favorites of this year, I just love everything about it - the color combo, the gems on the punched-and-stamped snowflake, the bit of twine, EVERYTHING! And of course, I love snowflake images so it was fun to play with some new snowflakes, too!

I thought it would be fun to share our group photo too! We had so much fun, we have decided to get together regularly - I was so bummed that I couldn't make the December gathering, but I am totally looking forward to February already!

Back row left to right:
Me, Pat, Kirsty, Lindsay, Rebecca's mom

Front row left to right:
Rebecca, Stephanie, Belinda

Countdown to Christmas - My Anniversary

2010-12-08T14:08:00.002-05:00

Our family has a lot going on in December - lots of birthdays on top of the holidays. Then 9 years ago, G and I went and got married in December and so we have one more thing to celebrate this month.

I created this little 'love' card in honor of our 9th wedding anniversary today, using PTI's On My Couch, Couch Additions and I think the dog and lamp (made into a ceiling light!) are from Chairished. The red-orange cardstock is from Paper Source, though it is very similar to PTI's Terra Cotta.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 6

2010-12-06T14:38:00.002-05:00

OK so technically I skipped day 5. And I PROMISE to stop with the stripes soon - it just happened that I used them a lot this year, apparently!

Just a quickie today. Sorry for the dark photo but I think everything is self explanatory. Several PTI sets, inks, dies and papers here!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 4

2010-12-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

For the past couple of years my boss has been trying to do a staff holiday dinner at her house. And every year - its snowed and no one has made it! This year we're on, come hell or high water :-)

So I picked up a bottle of wine I know she and her husband will like, and made this little 4x4 card to go with it. I just got PTI's First Fruits and Warm Hospitality recently, and this is the first card I've made with it. I really like this set - its fun and so many possibilities! I just need to get my head around some colors for it other than brown and green :-)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 3

2010-12-03T10:42:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorites of the year. I borrowed a few ideas from different cards I've seen published lately, and combined them to make it my own. Again with the PTI distressed stripes, and of course my FAVORITE set ever - Snowflake Serenade.

Hmm. Not much else to tell, so we'll keep it short and sweet today.

Three in a row - its a Christmas miracle :-)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 2

2010-12-02T11:34:00.000-05:00

How about a little holiday packaging today! I used this template from SCS, but modified the size a bit to make it more like a tote bag. This is a perfect size to hold a small note set, or - as I'm planning to do - two boxes of Starbucks VIA coffee!

This is, I believe, American Crafts paper from a couple of years ago. I recently purged a ton of my patterned paper since I use it so rarely, but I did hang on to most of my holiday papers.

The ribbon is a stitched felt from Michaels. No clue what brand it is but I'll tell you - like most felt, it is tough to get it to stay stuck down!

Tomorrow?

Countdown to Christmas!

2010-12-01T11:29:00.003-05:00

The past two years, I've intended to do a '25 days of Christmas' thing here on the blog, where I post a new holiday card every day in December. But both times, its completely fallen apart before Christmas!!!

So this year we're just going to call it the Countdown. And hopefully I'll get something posted every day, but if not, don't shoot me :-)

First up is a little card that looks more simple than it is. I stamped the background using PTI's distressed stripes, then filled in the gaps with a brown Copic multiliner and a white gel pen. The white block is stamped with the Season's Greetings frame from PTI's Peaceful Poinsettia and the stars are from Believe. I like the idea, but the distressed stripes are a little hard to line up - I wish they were each a little bit longer.

OK friends, hoping to see you tomorrow!

Grateful

2010-11-25T12:38:00.002-05:00

This year has been full of the unexpected - the good AND the not-so-good. But all in all, I can truly say I am content and grateful. I have a wonderful family, great friends, all of the fur kids are still here (for now), a beautiful comfortable home, and so much more.

I can't help think about the times in my life when I wasn't so blessed. And that reminds me of all the people in this world who are currently struggling - financially strapped, away from their families, living in harms way.

And so today, along with most Americans, I am counting my blessings. That includes those of you who read this little blog, and I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.

Random Updates

2010-10-06T13:37:00.002-04:00

Hi Friends!

Do I still have friends on here? I know I've been lax in posting lately. Not for lack of creating though - I've got a HUGE pile of cards all made and ready to be photographed, just haven't had the time and/or energy to get them onto the blog.

So, I thought I at least owed you a bit of an update:

1) We've been having our new deck installed for over two months now. Its still not done. I could kill the contractor, but he's a friend of my dad's and actually a nice guy so...

2) I've gotten to spend time this summer with some family and friends I only see once every couple of years. Its been really nice. Reminds me to value the ones who are still here, since we've had SO much loss in the past few years.

3) I am getting ready for a craft show on November 13 called "Unique Boutique" at the Edgeworth Club in Sewickley, PA from 10 am - 4 pm. Table rental fees and raffles benefit Heritage Valley Sewickley Hospital. I try to do one show a year, and I was actually invited to participate in this one so I'm very excited.

4) I've been having some not-life-threatening health issues and have been poked and prodded more than I care to recount. I'm fine, but its just one more thing that eats into my schedule.

5) I've been reading. A TON. And just for fun. Read a book about knitters, among other things. So I've decided I want to learn to knit and start private lessons on Friday!

6) Some online friends are organizing a card-making get together this weekend and I'm going. So excited to meet Dana, carpool up with Belinda, and meet new people! I have a mild case of social anxiety so I'm nervous, but I think the excitement is going to FAR outweigh the anxiety!

7) Luka passed his one year anniversary since his cancer diagnosis, and is still doing very well. Sherman is going deaf and blind too, but I will be absolutely devestated when they're gone. I treasure every day with them.

8) My inlaws are coming in for Thanksgiving. My cousin A and Baby T may not come, so I'm looking forward to this holiday even less than usual.

9) I'm feeling very frustrated at one job, and slightly frustrated at the other. I'm feeling axiety - like to make a decision and move forward somehow, but I don't know how or why.

10) Its fall. YEY! I love fall. I bought new jeans, sweaters and went to the orchard. I'm planning to make soup and pumpkin pie and bread. I'll also turn 35 in a couple of weeks. Somehow I'm way less OK with this than I was with 30. But I still love fall. And socks :-)

What about you? If you're reading this, chances are I follow your blog or facebook too, but what is new with you?

Thank You Nichole

2010-08-30T19:27:00.004-04:00

The ladies over at the PTI forum organized a special Blog Hop tonight to thank Nichole Heady, the creative force behind Papertrey Ink, for all of her hard work, inspiration, and dedication.

This card isn't exactly a thank you card, but hear me out. Because of you Nichole, and PTI's products, my creativity has taken off in directions I never imagined. Because of you Nichole, and the products she designs for PTI, cardmaking is 'always on my mind' ;-) When I'm in the shower, stuck in traffic, or having a bad day at my day job - the act of CREATING is what fills my mind. Its what makes me smile. Its what gives me joy and releases stress.

Nichole, thank you for giving me - and so many others - all that and more! **hugs**

Go-To Sketch

2010-08-22T14:12:00.003-04:00

Over at the PTI Forum, there has been some discussion of our go-to sketches. What is that one layout we seem to go back to time and again. For me, it is a variation on this style. (What, you are surprised that I even 'designed' my sketch??)

Looking over my blog, I can see several recent posts that all use some modification of this sketch, and I know I have more unphotographed cards using this sketch, too.

Here I moved the images down onto the ribbon
Here I flipped it upside down and made the flowers less linear.
This one was pretty straightforward.
Same thing, only wider.
Here, with a wide border.
(You get the idea!)

What is your go-to sketch?

Variation on a cupcake theme

2010-08-13T15:02:00.004-04:00

Recently my friend Jennifer asked me if I could do a couple of invites for her daughter's cupcake themed fifth birthday. Had I done anything like that before? So I showed her this and this, and she essentially asked for the first one.

Now, you know I don't like to do *exactly* the same thing, and since the first one was for a joint boy & girl party, I knew I could make Jennifer's more straight girly.

So, this is what I came up with! Now, the first time I did them (for Kim's kids), I stamped, embossed and cut all of those little cupcakes out by hand and, sorry Jennifer, SWORE I was never doing *that* again! So I decided to color the cupcakes and add a glossy dimension to the top. I have to say, I'm hard pressed to pick which one I like better! Jennifer and her daughter (and even husband) all seemed to really like them, so in the end that is all I need to hear.

*PS: Photo and staging credit goes to Jennifer. I forgot to snap some shots before I gave them to her, of course. Someday, when I'm retired and can do this 'card thing' for a living, I'm TOTALLY hiring her to be my photographer.

*PSS: I want to show you the cute coordinating inside, but I'm running to another appointment and don't have a minute to blur out her personal details. Will try to post that later.

P.D.Q.

2010-08-06T11:44:00.005-04:00

Two-for-one today folks! Sometimes I only have five minutes to stick my head into the craft room and make something. Often I come home from work, throw dinner in the oven, run upstairs to put on comfy clothes, and find I can sneak into the craft room for juuuussst a minute or five :-)

These are two cards from my recent PDQ adventures. The first one is just going into my stash, using up scraps that happened to be siting on my desk. It is literally so simple, I'm not sure I like it!

The second card uses one of PTI's new fillable frames die and stamp set combos. I was going for masculine, so I stuck with twine instead of ribbon. I used a page from an old (Sherlock Holmes!) paperback book between the kraft and blue layers. Again, maybe TOO simple? Is there such a thing? In this case, I think so!

Masculine Moon

2010-07-23T21:53:00.002-04:00

Another Amuse card for you today. Was trying for masculine - not sure if I accomplished it or not. What I DID accomplish is another crooked sentiment. Grr. I've been doing this a lot lately and its driving me crazy. Actually thinking about unmounting my woodmount sentiments since that seems to be about half of the problem...

Colored this with Copics. Did I mention that I got into a Copic Certification Class for September here in Pittsburgh? I'm SOOO excited. I love taking classes, and this is a chance to learn how to use a tool I know very little about.

For the Bat Mitzvah Girl, No. 1

2010-07-22T08:54:00.003-04:00

We have not one but TWO Bat Mitzvah girls in our extended circle this year, so I got to make them both cards. I'm posting this one today for our September Bat Mitzvah. Soon I'll also share the June card.

I based this layout off of another card I saw by Maile Belles. She used different colors, and houses instead of a Torah, but the concept is the same.

I've been trying to do more decorating of the INSIDE of cards, and this one turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I'm especially loving how I lined the back of the tab that extends out - but only the back of the tab not the whole layer - with the rasberry fizz cardstock.

I'm posting this quickly because Merry over at the PTI forum was looking for some Rosh Hashanah card ideas. Merry - I think with some minor edits (color palette for one!) you could easily mass produce this card. Leave the buttons 'naked', don't stamp the inside, or stamp the inside but don't mat the white layer, etc. For reference, this is a 4.25" square card, and the white layer on the front is 5.5" wide - making the card fit in a standard A2 envelope.

To mass produce the card bases:

cut 8.5 x 11 CS down to 8.5 x 8.5"
score at 4.25" all the way across
lastly, rotate 90 degrees and cut at 4.25" mark
finished product - two 4.25" square cards, scored for folding and a little piece of leftover CS

Their loss, your gain!

2010-07-21T13:19:00.004-04:00

I submitted about a dozen cards to CARDS magazine last month. The deadline has come and gone, and I haven't heard from them, so I can assume they were not picked up. Oh well. Their loss is your gain - I was waiting to hear if they would be published in the magazine before I published them here!

I made this card with two AMUSE stamps that I picked up used online. I love their images and don't know why I don't use them more often!

The background is a large wood mounted polka dot background that I bought long before PTI came out with theirs.... I like it because, on a small card like this, I can get the whole background stamped at once, instead of trying to line up the strips. The stitched border is just hand drawn, and I'm using a LOT of embroidery floss in lieu of ribbon these days. I thought this might go in my OWH box, but I realize they prefer A2 envelopes. So I might put this one in my not-so-secret stash of cards to give Big G someday :-)

Love Birds

2010-07-05T19:30:00.007-04:00

I discovered a relative I never knew - on FACEBOOK. We're close in age but a generation apart - meaning her great grandfather and my grandfather were brothers. She's from my mom's side of the family, and I have almost no relationship with any of them, so its been kind of cool connecting with her!

She has a friend who is getting married and having a very handmade wedding. She asked if I could make a shower card for her friend, using the colors fuschia, brown and mustard yellow. It was a combo I'd never used, but I think this card turned out just beautifully. Its a 5x7" sized card - larger than I normally make, and will have a custom poem inside. I used several stamp sets from PTI, and my new felt from Felt on the Fly.

I also spent a lot of time cleaning out and reorganizing my studio. It was a wreck and I am about 75% finished with that project. I bought an old printers type drawer and once G gets it hung up on the wall for me, I will use it to display my wood mounted stamps.

Otherwise, it was a nice quiet and relaxing weekend. I'm up to the 7th or 8th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I am a series book reader, and this one has me particularly sucked in!

PTI June Blog Hop!

2010-06-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

This month's challenge is all about color. I love color! The combo used in this card is one of my all time favorites: Kraft, Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, Cream

This card was my favorite from last season, and one I will definitely be reproducing! It is cute and sweet at 3.5 x 5" - a size I've been using more and more lately.

I added some PTI rhinestones, DMC floss and a dotted scallop border punch. I don't know if you can see in the photo, but I also distressed the top of the spring moss panel, then mounted the whole card front on a cream base.

Off to the blog hop now - can't wait to see everyone else's color combos!

Up & Away

2010-06-24T17:30:00.000-04:00

Its not often that I *have* to buy a stamp set as soon as its released, but that is exactly how I felt when I saw Up & Away from PTI. The clouds, hot air balloons, kites and sentiments had me at 'hello' :-)

This card is actually made with clouds that were mistakes! I accidentally got some ink on them, (they were supposed to be white) so I colored them blue with Copics. Then they looked kind of weird so before adhereing to the card, I covered them with Stickles. Might have been better with real regular glitter, but you know I think that stuff is the product of hell, so there you go.

Not sure what to do with this one - what kind of occasion would this be good for? Also, is it masculine?

... I swear!

2010-06-09T12:41:00.004-04:00

OK, this is the last of the trees for a while, I promise! I really enjoyed combining some of my PTI stamps with this set, and I'm thinking this will be a great sketch to use for a simple notecard set for the fall craft show season!

Short and sweet today, but I hope you enjoy!

More trees

2010-06-05T11:26:00.004-04:00

Wow I just love this little set! Easy to stamp, easy to cut out - so many possibilities!

The color is a bit off in this photo but you get the idea. Another one of my 3.5 x 5" cards - I'm really into that size these days. I need to get back to regular A2 since that is what Operation Write Home prefers, and it looks like they'll be getting a big box or two from me as soon as I organize everything to suit their needs.

Its a quiet day here - the first weekend in many that I don't have us scheduled to the hilt. Had Friday night date night (dinner and a movie and the bookstore) and let me say I don't necessarily recommend Prince of Persia! Thankfully, there was a big storm and the movie cut out half way through (they turned it back on) so we got a pair of free passes for our trouble. I'm planning to drag Big G to see the A-Team with me next weekend - he keeps making fun of me but I really want to see it. The NYTimes said Killers was terrible, so I may have to wait for that one on DVD/OnDemand.

I also picked up some summer reading - the first Sookie Stackhouse book (yes, I'm behind the times and haven't read this series yet) and the latest in Laurie King's Mary Russell series, which I didn't even know was out! Looking forward to Janet Evanovach's "16" in a few weeks too.

Well, I'm off to house cleaning. Oh I know you can't stand the excitement that is my life :-)

Like buttah...

2010-06-03T20:02:00.004-04:00

The felt I ordered showed up on Tuesday, lightning fast by the way. I finally had a chance to play with it and put together a little grocery list notebook for myself. I really had fun making the flower, and the felt just cuts like buttah with quickutz and spellbinders dies. It even cuts beautifully with scissors. The brown felt I used was from PTI, and I would say the quality of the two is very very similar.

I was so excited, I didn't think much about the design. If I could redo this, I think I'd stamp some sort of pattern on the green panel, maybe stitch a border around it and/or the brown felt strip, and maybe handstitch veining on the leaves. But this is just for me, so if its not super perfect, I'm OK with it :-)

Speaking of making it for me - I *rarely* make things specifically for me. If I need to give a card to someone, or a gift, I make it for me to give to them but rarely do I make something to use myself. Is this just me? Do you make things for yourself too or do you give away (or sell) everything?