Playing with paper

I have been a scrapbooker most of my life. My entire high school life is documented with faded photos and bad handwriting in journaling spots. Later, during my husband's and my years of dating and engagement, I created a scrapbook just for our special moments. But over the last year, I have been way too busy to do any sort of scrapbooking or card making.

I was inspired when I found PaperQuick on etsy. Her various die cuts got paper back in the front of my mind - especially after my envelope of pretty paper things arrived :)

In the last two weeks, I've made a few cards and many sets of gift tagss. I'd forgotten how much fun this is!

The Letter S... Etsy Product Review #11

Recently I ordered some letter "S"s so that I could make some workout journals. I got them from Tweet Memories on etsy and am impressed with the price and quality.My neighbor is the one who actually found Tweet Memories and has ordered 3 banners this year for various parties. I saw a puppy banner, a cupcake banner and the twilight banner... and was impressed, so figured she was the right one to help me make my journals.

The price was great and shipping very reasonable. Tweet Memories papercrafts are put together great - all items are punched/cut perfectly with no flaws that I can find. Everything is glued perfectly center and there is no extra glue or bubbles in the paper from too watery a glue. All papercrafts should be such high quality!


I haven't had time to even look at my journals yet, but when I do, I'll make sure to post follow-up pictures.

This week's favorite... Christmas Cards

I was in the mood to find a Christmas Fairy ornament on etsy, but just wasn't finding my style this morning. But not to be disappointed, I did find this really neat set of Christmas Fairy Cards by Studio Flower Power on etsy. Studio Flower Power uses real pressed flowers in each and every one of their cards and not prints. It is making me rethink my Christmas Card plan for this year. I've been buying one from different sellers at each of the craft shows I attend in order to get the total that I will need.

A Sunflower Sunset... Etsy Product Review #10

Do you ever have a favorite that makes you keep going back again and again? Well, that is what this shop is doing to me :) Here's my latest purchase - a print of an original surreal painting mounted on a card. Shipping, as normal, was extra fast (I've ordered her items at the same time as 5 other sellers... one seller's item has arrived 1 day later, and rest are always 3 or more days behind Aunt Jane.) My beautiful card arrived in another handmade envelope (blue-grey this time instead of green) and makes me wish I had the time to start making my own special envelopes. The print is high quality and mounted on a card stock card that is thicker than most of the cards I order making it just right!

Do you like whimsical artwork in both 2-D and 3-D? then I am sure you will want to check out Aunt Jane!

This week's favorite... love washed ashore

Such a cute idea! - It's what I was thinking when I first came across this card while browsing through etsy.Simply an example of one of the many thoughtful prints available at Flash Forward Photography.

The Basil Fairy... Etsy Product Review #8

I've talked about the shop Aunt Jane Can in an earlier blog post. Now, I liked the shop so much, I had to buy this Basil Fairy Notecard. The Basil Fairy Card arrived in my mail box just a couple of days after I ordered it. Aunt Jane makes her own envelopes to mail her cards which is charming and probably a tip for how she keeps her shipping costs very low. The handmade envelope looked like construction paper (green to match the card) on the outside and was lined in white paper.

The electronic picture of this card does not do the beauty of this card any justice, but this is what I will have to live with as I have already posted the card to my grandmother (who in reality is a fairy grandmother).

Don't forget to check out Aunt Jane's alter ego, Blue Jane on her blog.

Bright Fire Notecard... Etsy Product Review #7

Looking at a neat treasury a bit ago, I ran across this firey peacock print on a notecard from ARTSHARYNE. I love the combination of brilliant colors and vibrancy of the illustration. I received the card from Australia in less than a week and it came in a resealable plastic liner and cardboard lined the envelope. Overall, I believe this is the most professional looking package I have received from any online order.

Sad to say though, the card is no longer in my possession as I have already written on it and posted it in the mail to an aunt who also appreciates artwork and loves animals.

If you like this illustration, check out her blog.

I hate glue!

So yesterday I was trying to work on a large amount of notecards. My wonderful paper cutter, new punches, and scissors were all up to snuff...

However, the glue had it out for me!I cannot tell you how many photos I ruined and how much cardstock I had to throw in my scrap pile before I ended up with this little set of 3 complete cards...

So now, using every stick, bottle and tube of glue I own (except the hot glue gun and bottle of gorilla glue), I am going back to good old fashioned elmer's glue. It seems to never go bad and always works on my corners...

Sometimes I wonder why the simplest thing from when I was a kid always takes me the longest to discover again as an adult?

9 Posies down...

Only 291 to go... So here is my first try at branching out from only square paper items and I've managed to use 9 of my posies. And if I think of it harder, I believe this is the first time I have made gift tags that are not Christmas-themed - wow, I'm making progress of breaking out of that mold...

Looking at the tags more, I think I need to find something to be the stamen for the flowers, but I have time to figure that out (since there are no birthdays or other events coming up for me to wrap gifts for a couple of months).

Too many posies!

I've been thinking of buying a corner punch for some time, but haven't just because they are kind of pricey and I don't make all that many cards... besides, until now, I have insisted on all of my cards having square corners with patterns of squares and rectangles on the front. While buying a rounded corner punch, I found this punch on sale, so bought it, too.
So, after sitting for hours in my craft room, I have approximately 300 pale and dark pink posies. Sure, that was a little bit overboard and I didn't really need to mow my knee-high grass or weed the gardens or clean the house...Now, what to do with my too many posies while still avoiding all chores?

Beauty in a Kleenex box

Have you ever stopped and looked around your house to see what kind of stuff you just have that could be great with your crafts? This week I noticed my empty kleenex box... as I was cutting it apart to grab the "Box Tops for Education" piece, I started really looking at the design.

Now I have a stash of pieces to use as a base for tags or backgrounds for embelishments on cards or scrapbooks - and it didn't cost me anything but about 20 minutes of my time.

Have you found anything recently and were surprised by what you had?