Sunday, January 31, 2010

February 2010 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

The first month of 2010 has FLOWN by!  Time for the February Stamp of the Month Blog Hop.  If you just arrived from Lori's blog, you are on the right path.  This month there are over 70 Close To My Heart consultants participating in our blog hop.  We are featuring the February 2010 Stamp of the Month Piece of Cake, a set of 10 stamps.  This set consists of adorable cakes on platters along with some sentiments that will work great for cards and other projects.  And with so many participants, there are bound to be lots of adorable projects that you ( and I!!!!) will want to do for ourselves.

My project is a rather simple (but useful) one.  I've been reading a lot lately, both pleasure reading and professional reading.  On more than one occasion my bookmark has slipped out of my book, causing me to have a spend a few minutes searching for my place.  So I decided to make a magnetic book mark.  The first step was to cut a piece of cardstock slightly more than twice my desired finished size.  I then scored it across the middle (just like you would score to fold a card).  I then took the folded cardstock and cut it using a Nestabilities die (make sure that you place it in the die so that the fold doesn't get cut by the die).


I put the two magnetic disks together, and adhered to the back of one side of the cardstock (what would be the inside of the "card").  Then I closed the card to adhere the second disk to other side, which helped to make sure that the disks were properly lined up.

 
The cake image was stamped twice, once on white, and once on patterned paper.  Both images were cut out, the patterned paper was adhered over the white paper, and I colored in parts of the image.  The paper-pieced image was then adhered to the "front" of the bookmark, and I ran the whole thing (in the open position) through my Xyron with dual-sided lamination cartridge to laminate the bookmark (this will not only help it to last longer than bare cardstock, but will also ensure that your magnetic disks don't come unattached).  Trim away the excess lamination, and your bookmark is ready for lots of use.  I have found that if you intend to laminate something with a fold, it seems to work better to create the fold before you laminate the item.

 

Papers: CTMH Garden Green cardstock, CTMH That's Amore
Inks: CTMH
Chocolate, CTMH markers Garden Green and Tulip
Tools and Techniques: Paper piecing, Nestabilities Labels Eight, Cuttlebug, Xyron lamination, Basic Grey magnetic disks
Stamp Set: Piece of Cake


I have to say, I find it highly amusing that I am using this really *cute* bookmark in a book about a Parachute Infantry Regiment company in World War II.

Remember, Piece of Cake is only available February 1-28, 2010.  Contact your Close To My Heart consultant, or click here, to order one for yourself.

Now hop on over to Laura's blog to see what she has created!

If you find any broken links along the way, Helen has the complete list on her blog.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Card for multiple challenges

It had been a while since I had been able to scrap, so today when I sat down to scrap I went challenge hunting.  This card was made following the sketch at Friday Sketchers, Challenge 2 at Raise the Bar (use something that was given to you), Cute Card Thursday Challenge 96 (use a fairy image), Papertake Weekly Challenge (predominately pink card), Doodle Palace Challenge (pink and bling), and A Spoonful of Sugar challenge (lots of layering).  The Tinkerbella image was given to me, and the rest is pretty self-explanatory.




Papers: CTMH Blush and Sweet Leaf cardstock, MM patterned paper
Inks: CTMH
Sweet Leaf, CTMH markers in Blush, Buttercup and Sweet Leaf, Copic marker
Embellishments:  Prima Flowers, CTMH Rhinestone Flowers, CTMH Bitty Sparkles, MM buttons, Prisma glitter
Tools and Techniques: Nestabilities Classic Petite Rectangles, 3-D Mounting Foam, Sponging, Watercolor
Stamp Sets: TinkerBella

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mojo Valentine

Today was only the second day this year that I've been able to scrap.  I actually made three scrapbook pages, two cards and one altered item (that's a lot for me).  One of the cards I made was a Valentine for my husband, which I made following Mojo Monday week 122 sketch.




Papers: CTMH Amethyst and Breeze cardstock, MM patterned papers, unknown textured cardstock
Inks: CTMH
Amethyst and Breeze
Embellishments:  CTMH White Daisy grosgrain ribbon
Tools and Techniques: Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Ovals, 3-D Mounting Foam, direct-to-paper ink distressing
Stamp Sets: Heartthrob

Friday, January 1, 2010

Scrapping Goals for 2010

My scrapping totals for 2009 were 88 pages, 116 cards and 22 altered items.  My scrapping goals for 2010 are 100 pages and 200 cards.  I won't bother setting an altered item goal, I'll just do those as needed or wanted.  I think (because of my move to Okinawa) I will end up taking a break from scrapping in the late spring/early summer.  But I intend to resume as soon as possible.  I am also thinking that once in Okinawa I would like to set up a monthly (or twice-monthly) cardmaking group, and also maybe a scrap group (although, I'm sure B and I will get lots of scrapping-and wine drinking-done).  I think I may also look into making items to sell at the craft fairs in Oki.  Maybe I'll be able to break even with my scrapping expenditures.  Okay, probably not even close, but a girl can dream.  I also want to post artwork to my blog at least twice a week.  Finish my Okinawa 2006/2007 scrapbook (which is already over one volume).  Get my son's school scrapbooking caught up.  I did have all of my Christmas cards for 2009 complete by December 1st (getting them in the mail was a different story), and I want to do that again this year.  Use my Silhouette (and my other tools, for that matter) more often.  USE my stash instead of increasing its size.  What are your scrapping goals for 2010?