Stamped plate

Well I'm planning for a Close to my Heart Club gathering at my house.  We are doing our projects a month in advance, so the crafters have a chance to give them out.  This month the projects are Halloween based.  I decided to decorate a little and I wanted to make mini pumpkin cupcakes and I wanted to get a cupcake stand, but ended up with a plate stand from Target then got white plates from the Dollar store.  Then with some purple and green stazon ink and the flourish stamp from the Close to My Heart Stamp set "Pair a Pharse" I stamped around the edges.  I'm not a perfectionist so I tried to space everything out as evenly as possible without measuring in some spots the images overlap and with glass it is hard to get a nice smooth image because between the glass surface, the stamp itself and angle your working on you get images that look a little too mushed and images where everything slides.  But the great thing is that in the end it is handmade and honestly no one will notice but you.  lol.  Why use aryclic stamps for projects like these, because you CAN go back and line the image back up if you don't stamp it evenly the first time.  Even the most experienced stamper has projects where that stamp something and part of image doesn't stamp quite right.  I do it all the time, on your usual cardstock project like cards its easy to correct.  You can put a piece foam like Close to my Heart provides in all of their stamp sets and slip it under your paper and try again.  Projects like my plates you don't really have that option so you have to line your image back up and push a little harder.  Another tip when working with Stazon ink that I have found it takes a little time to dry so if you keep a damp paper towel handy when working on glass projects when you make a mistake that you don't like and you want to start over with you just wipe it off quickly.  Another thing and this works when your using sharpie too.  All you need is a little rain-x to wipe Stazon ink or Sharpie off plastic or glass. I like to label all my craft tools so when I go to a crop and let someone borrow something it will come back.  And once in a while I like to be a little bit of a perfectionist so I sometimes will get a new tool and decide I want all the writing on my tools to match, so if I have say my name in blue on one item and pink on another it SOMETIMES bothers me, so I take out the rain-x and wipe all my tools down and relabel them.  This doesn't happen too often but when it does, it does I can't fight it haha. Pin It Now!

August's Tag

Well while I'm signed in I might as well as my August tag.  I found some where on the wonderful internet that Clown week or Clown day is in August and I bought the beautiful Le Cirque paper pack to do some layout about my Great Grandfather and decided to use it for my August Tag.  The other reason I did the Clowns and circus theme is because I hate to do what everyone else would do.  I like to go with the unexpected unless the expected is what inspires me. Like you'll see with next months tag.  And I really love how this tag came out and hope you enjoy it too.  I had to steal the picture from my friend Tabitha because I forgot to take a picture.  Only 4 more tags to go and I already have September and October done....But guess what I did...forgot to take picture so you will have to wait till Tabitha posts them for me in the group.  Oh well. Pin It Now!

Wow its been WAY too long!

Well this summer I was just creatively drained I guess.  Not much crafting for myself happened.  I took on a new role at my summer job that I thought was going to be easy, but proved to be a challenge.  I was the Arts and Crafts director for 3-5th graders which with my background should have been easy as pie.  I found and had great ideas but on a smaller scale.  Like I said it was a real challenge, but now with fall coming in fast.  I have the hopes of being able to craft and have some me time again in between my sub jobs and on the weekends.  I finally decided to wander into my craft room the other day and dust off my cricut and gyspy and some pictures and here is what I came up with.  Not too bad for not scrapbooking for probably about 3-6 months.  Nothing too fancy but I think it does the picture justice.  So the next adventure I have planned is a Close to my Heart Club with my bestie and some friends.  The first meeting is a couple weeks and there is a lot to do.  We are going to do one of my favorite themes Halloween (I can't believe its just around the corner).  I'm impatiently waiting for my order to get here with all my new goodies.  I'm hoping my cricut cartridge will be here.  Art Philosophy is such an amazing cartridge with 700 images which includes 3-D rosettes, two fonts, plenty of giftboxes and shapes to pair with your stamps.  I can't wait to play I will have new projects to post soon.  Probably Monday night or Tuesday.  I hope that you all enjoyed your summer and got through Irene okay.  See you soon!

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I swear I've been crafting

Graduation card from my stash of supplies (made 2)

Lucky Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Lucky Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Lucky Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Lucky Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Lucky Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Mayberry Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Mayberry Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Mayberry Workshop Kit (made 4 of each)

Bliss Workshop Kit (made 2 of each)

Bliss Workshop Kit (made 2 of each)

Bliss Workshop Kit (made 2 of each)

I guess I have been neglecting my blog.  I'm making up for it.  I made 34 cards over the course of 3 days.  Most of them were made from 3 Close to my heart workshop kits which I must say that they are amazing.  You receive an exclusive stamp set plus tons of paper, some sort of embellishment and directions on how to make 3 different designs of cards.  In the instructions it teaches you to make 2 of each design, I made 4 of each design and still had tons of paper left over. Pin It Now!

Remembering my fur friends

I started this post forever ago.  I was looking through the list and noticed this untitled, unpublished post over it lead to me looking to see what it was.  My fur friends I have lost.  I miss them everyday and I was finding myself crying at the thought of them, but lately it is less.  I still miss them terribly, but I realize that I need to live with my fur babies of the present and think of them fondly.  My dear Bandit, Sara, Stormy (not pictured) and Buster.  Though they are missed deeply I must move on.  I love you my beautiful babies, but I know your in a better place!!  

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Father's Day cards

Sunday I had the house to myself and I used my time kinda wisely (of course I could have been cleaning, but that's no fun).  So my bestie wanted me to join her a stamp camp that a friend runs and its always been kinda far from me and during the winter driving at night in the dark really wasn't an option.  So now that its lighter longer I was thinking I might just try to make the trek (of course all depends on how I'm feeling and if I'm working a lot this week or not).   I decided that just in case I would make cards to swap so I sat down pulled out some close to my heart paper an inkadinkadoo stamp ("Happy Father's Day") and my gypsy and get to work.  I started with Close to my Heart's Passages workshop kit (which there was like nothing left.  I promise that's a first for me).  I dove into what was left which was the paper with all the emphera looking stuff on it (postcards, journal pages) stripe, barn red cardstock and brown bag cardstock.  I add some bazzill Dark brown cardstock for the matting and the diecut image.  I basically went into this project mimicking my mother's day cards.  Hey stick to what you like.  I do like what came out and making 12 cards takes some time.  I even stamped the envelope to kind of match.

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Some Altered art

House Shaped ATC Swap

Owl Twinces

STU Alphabet Swap

Okay so I'm not done blogging today and no I didn't create all of these today.  I have been a bad blogger.  I have been very busy with work this past week (YIPPIEEE!!!) and creating and blogging for that fact were not as important, so I'm playing ketup so that my friends who read my blog can see the art that I have been creating when I can.  I labeled the pictures so you know the theme.  They were all lots of fun and I really like how they came out!  

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