Fold It, Pop It, Flip It, Zip It

I recently took an interactive card class taught by Julie Ebersole.  It was fantastic.  She is an incredible teacher and I learned so many great techniques that I had always thought would be much too time consuming. 

Here are some of the cards I created:

The umbrella lifts to reveal a message ("Feel Better")

A shadow box card.  This lays flat to mail but pops up to reveal multi-dimensional embellishments.

This is a buckle card.  The middle element flip around to reveal a sentiment or image on the back.  I've listed this one here in the shop.

A zipper card.  When the tab to the right is pulled a hidden message is revealed ("You're one of a kind!")

I also learned how to make scratch-off (you know...with the grey stuff that you rub off with a penny), honeycomb pop-up, spinner, marquee, and view master cards (and a couple more).  Lots of fun and talk about papery potential?  Get outta here!

If you enjoy making cards I highly recommend Julie Ebersole as a teacher.  Good stuff.

I Love a Good Book

I am so ready for some long, lazy summer days.  I love to sit on my backyard deck soaking up some rays with a good book to keep me company.  Sometimes I get book recommendations from friends or it might be something I grab off the display that the librarian has kindly put out at our local library. 

I have a feeling this summer I'm going to get even more reading in.  My daughter has decided to play club soccer again which means three times a week trips to practices that are too far away to come home between drop-off and pick-up. 

In honor of my projected summer book-reading extravaganza I'm making some Summer Reading Journals.  I hate it when I vaguely remember a book I've read but don't remember enough of it to know if it's recommendable (is that a word?).  I'm going to make some for my kiddos too...they don't know that yet.  :)

Not wanting to keep this excellent idea (if I do say so myself) all to my lonesome I'm also adding some to the shop.  So far I've added these two:

At 4.25' x 5.5" these little gems fit nicely in a purse or beach bag.  You can find them here in the shop.

Okay, Seattle weather gods.  Please cooperate by giving me a nice, sunny summer!

Crayons in a hot Car

I hear the audible groans but it's not what you think.  I grew up in Southern California.  On more than one occasion I recall getting into the hot car with the eau du Crayola permeating the air because I'd left my box of crayons sitting on the seat (sorry, Mom!).  This was the flashback I kept having while working on this project. 

My kids were never big on crayons so I have loads and loads of them stashed away.  In my blog wanderings I stumbled upon a woman who did some fun crayon art with her kids and that led me to this.  This is an exercise in Melted Crayon Pointillism.

I was thinking I'd make something to put in the shop but instead made something to put on my office wall.

 

It took longer than I expected but I have to say, there is just something about the smell of crayons that brings back such happy childhood memories.  (That and the fact that I bought a new box of Glitter crayons for this too.  Love a box of new crayons with their pointy little tops!).

I used adhesive-backed 4" x 4" canvases for the base.  I think I'll plop them in a frame and stick them on the wall.  Loving the bright cheery colors on these. 

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Beautiful Sunny Days!

... make me a Happy Camper! 

We are finally getting a little sunshine again after several days of cloudy, rainy weather.  To top it off, today is the beginning of a 4-day weekend for my kiddos.  All is well with my world and that will have to make for a quick post so I can go out and play in the sunshine.

I found this card in my Etsy stash the other day.  I never got around to listing it - oops.

I had made it as a mock-up for a customer who was having a dinosaur-themed party for her little girl.  She ended up switching themes and so this little guy was relegated to the card box.  I love the lumpy, bumpy texture on his head and googly eyes always make for a fun addition.  I could leave off the outside teeth to make him more snake-like for a birthday card saying something along the lines of

"Have a S-s-s-s-SUPER Birthday!"

So if you know any herpetologist- and/or paleontologist-minded peeps consider this as a birthday card! See it in my Etsy shop here.

Cheers!

Play Date Cafe - Splash of Yellow

It's been a while since I've played along with any card challenges.  I just couldn't resist when I saw this one from Play Date Cafe though.  Lovin' the grey and black with a splash of yellow  of the inspiration photo. 

It also helped that the umbrella stamp and die set just showed up in my mailbox a couple of days ago.  :)

Here's my card:

I made it for my sister and brother-in-law who have been so supportive of my family the past few years as we've dealt with life's ups and downs.  They are awesome and we're so fortunate to have them in our lives.

Here's the scoop on the card...
I die-cut the umbrella base from an old page protector.  I had those old transparent umbrellas in mind.  The clouds were stamped with background stamps and then I cut around the cloud image.  The raindrops have little bits of sparkly clear Stickles on them to be shimmery and shiny like rain.

Thanks for peekin'.  :) Julie

Yo Gabba Gabba - 1, Julie - 0

I love my customers.  They come up with the greatest ideas for my paper bag puppet cards and really get my creative mojo going by asking me to create custom items for them. 

In the past couple of months I've had several people ask me if I make Yo Gabba Gabba invitations.  What?!   You haven't heard of Brobee, Foofa, Toodee, Muno or Plex?  How about DJ Lance Rock?  My littlest one just entered double digits so I hadn't either, but these happy little dancing beasties are all the rage with the preschool crowd these days. 

So I spent the other day designing, cutting and pasting and came up with these little wonders.

Kinda cute, aren't they?  I was so pleased with the way they turned out and added them to my Etsy shop right away eagerly awaiting some feedback. 

But alas, (queue the creepy music) before you could say "Tiny Ugly Germs" (villains in Gabba Gabba Land)

an attorney for GabbaCaDabra came raining down on my parade uttering big words like "Copyright Infringement" and "Deactivation" and "Exclusive Property".

Oh.  (Unhappy face)  Yeah,  I did make them look like the characters.  But ...
there are lots of other Yo Gabba Gabba items on Etsy...digital ones and mass-produced ones not hand-crafted piece by itty-bitty piece with tender loving care like mine.

 I don't think that argument will pull any weight with her though.  I guess what Mom said is true.  "If all of your friends were jumping off a cliff..."

Darn.

R2D2, Where are you?

"Excuse me sir, but that R2-D2 is in prime condition, a real bargain" - C3PO to Luke

You betcha.  A customer asked me if I could make one of my paper bag puppet cards into Yoda, R2D2 or Luke Skywalker.  Always one to take on a challenge I heartily replied, "No problem!  Of course I can!"  To me there is something very endearing about good ol' Yoda so I tried him first.  No go.  Those ears of his just don't work on this kind of card.  I thought about Luke, but trying to make him look like Luke, and not just some guy, would be tricky.  R2D2 it is.  Lots of little bits and pieces on this guy and fiddly little gluing but here's what I came up with:

She loves him!  Yay!  I keep hearing little "bleep-bleep-bleep" noises in my head while working on these.  :)

If You Give a Kid a Camera...

...you will get some very interesting pictures indeed. At least if that kid is 9 and using a disposable camera.  Pictures like this self-portrait of his incredibly sunburned little face.

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Day yesterday I set my Etsy hat aside and picked up a dust-covered envelope full of pictures of my kiddos.  I happily scrapped away and added some long-awaited layouts to our albums.  When I reached over to grab pictures of my youngest's overnight trip to camp last year I leafed through them but couldn't quite find any that struck my fancy; mostly because they were pictures like these:

I decided the best tactic here was to create a little mini book for him using ALL of his wonderful pictures.  I left some space on each page for him to record what in the world he was thinking his precious camp memories.

He got a big smile on his face when I showed it to him.  Mission accomplished.

Face Painting and Cards

Yes, an odd mix to be sure.  I teach at a preschool and we're having an end-of-year BBQ/auction/carnival in a couple of weeks.  I volunteered to do some face painting.  What was I thinking?  I don't do face painting!  But they were going to skip it if nobody offered and you just know the kidlets love to have their cherubic little  faces painted.  So today I plan on sitting down with some watercolors and working out some REALLY SIMPLE designs that my little kiddos will like.  I'm thinking stars, butterflies, flowers, snakes, lizards/dinosaurs, lightning bolts.  If anybody out there has other ideas take pity on me and please SHARE YOUR IDEAS.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart (hey, hearts!  I could do those too!).

As for cards, I recently went through my stash and realized I have a bunch that I've never photographed and added to the shop.  So that's what I've been doing the last few days.  Some I've posted about before but here are a few new ones that I've added:

While I've listed these separately they can be purchased via this great deal which applies a 15% discount when 4 cards are purchased.

I love this card.  The guy was hand-stamped 4 times on different papers and then I cut out pieces, colored them and layered them for a cool, dimensional look.  I made the background by inking up some bubble wrap (love that technique).  The text star is from a book I saved from the recycle bin.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.  YOU make ME smile.  May your skies be sunny and your cares be few.