I'm Back! ...and let's see if I can stay. I'd like to try and keep this up in 2013 as kind of an online journal and less like a crafty instruction blog. I'm going to stop here, temporarily as the picture I wanted to upload is still on the CAMERA. Be back soon. Written to no one in particular.

Pink Mini Albums for a Cure

Laura Denison from The Paper Trail has organized her second annual Pink Mini Album Auction to benefit the Susan G. Komen foundation. I've decided that I needed to get my butt into gear and help. The bonus is that I get to create as well.

My mini album is neither pink nor actually a complete creation of mine. A couple of weeks ago, I just got back from a boy scout trip to New Mexico and had no brain cells left for any kind of originality. I sent a quick email to Laura asking if I could create one of her patterns for the auction and she replied, no problem. So, I set to work on the album below.



Okay, no, that does not look like an album. It's not, it is a small replica of a suitcase that I created from one of Laura's patterns, Vintage Suitcase, to hold the actual album (Although, Laura's pattern does show how to make the suitcase into an album). I made the album inside seperate from the actual suitcase. Here are some more photos:











The inside pocket of the suitcase isn't quite what I envisioned, but I'm thinking the person who wins it can change it to their liking. If they wish. If you are interested in bidding on this album, or seeing what else is available, visit Pink Mini's 2011 blog this next week. Please look over the mini albums, I know a lot of work went into all of them, and make a bid. If you don't win, think of contributing something to the Susan G. Komen foundation. It is a worthwhile cause.

Mini Notebooks

I have been fortunate to have had time lately to be creative and make many things. Unfortunately, I haven't made the time to post any of them. Here is a recent creation:



It looks like a deck of cards, but it is really a mini notebook.



I modified a technique I learned from Tascha here. Instead of wrapping the outside pieces of illustration board (mine is just leftover cardboard) I pasted the playing card directly to the board. The board was the same height as the playing card but was about a 1/4 inch (about 0.6 cm) wider and painted with cream acrylic paint. The playing card, obviously, will not cover the entire cardboard - leave this space to the left of the front cover and to the right on the back cover. The spine paper should be cut wide enough to cover this space (my spine paper was 5.5 inches x 1.25 inches). The inside cover paper was exactly the same size as both pieces of cardboard plus a little extra for length (you can cut off any extra later with a craft knife). The inside papers were slightly smaller than the dimensions of the book cover - just center these papers when attaching to the inside cover sheet. If you are not sure of what I am saying, watch Tascha's video and then come back and read again - I think it will be much clearer.

Even if you are not sure of what to do after watching the video and reading my ramblings - go ahead and try it. Here was my first attempt at the modified mini notebook:



Not exactly what I wanted but I was trying to learn and it helped me modify the second one even better. I actually don't like the color of the spine paper on either notebook so I plan to make a few more with some other colors. I think it's a pretty neat little notebook.

ATC Swaps

Why I am doing this at midnight when I should be asleep? I have no real good answer for that.
Anyway, I recently stumbled across a blog in cyberspace that offered an international ATC (artist trading card) for anyone who wanted to join. Well, international really appealed to me and I love creating this with paper (if you hadn't guessed already). I'm just going to add the photos now and come back to edit and add more later. Here are the ATC's I received. Aren't they great?!




Here is some of the ATC's I sent:

Embellishments (or I Need Felt!!)

Today's Papertrey challenge was to make your own floral embellishments. Well, my first mistake is looking at what others are doing. Now, I need felt. There are many, many cute and gorgeous things being done with felt embellishments. Yes, I NEED some felt.

Unfortunately, for today's challenge I had no felt. So, I tried the usual Papertrey suspects, the stamp set In Bloom and Copic markers. But I felt that has been done plenty of times before, so I turned to tissue paper flowers (yes, I know - it has also been done many times before - you won't find anything terribly original in this post). So, instead of spritzing them with a glitter spray I painted them with Twinkling H2O's. I thought this gave them a very deep saturated color with some glitz. I was going to top them with buttons but thought they needed something a bit more, so I added some sparkle from Darice (the 1.99 package from Michaels). Voila' tissue paper flower embellishments.



I didn't have my first choice of colors for the card so I worked with what I had. I also attached a pull drawer box to the back of the card to hold extra embellishments to give the recipient some for their own projects. Oh, and by the way I used my circle scallop Spellbinders to cut out the tissue paper flowers. I find that so much easier than the punch. And if you fold the tissue paper several times over, you get many flowers punched all at one time.



So, in short here is the card recipe:

Stamps: Vintage Labels from Papertrey
Ink: Dark Chocolate from Papertrey
Paper: Dark Chocolate & White cardstock from Papertrey
Ribbon: New Leaf Satin by Papertrey, Chocolate Chip taffeta from Stampin Up
Other: Labels 1 die & Flourish Impressabilities from Spellbinder, blue rhinestones from my own stash, handmade embellishments - recipe below.

Flower embellishments:

Tissue paper cut with Spellbinders scalloped circles (the 2 smallest sizes - 2 pieces of each size).
Scalloped circles were then painted with Majestic Blue Twinkling H2O. Tape 2 larger circles to 2 smaller circles, and add a gem to the middle.
Crinkle tissue paper around gem and slowly unwrap flower.
Voila'!

Origami

Its a long shot but I had to try. When I saw that Nichole from Papertrey Ink was having a contest with origami - I had to participate. Origami is a passion of mine. My project for this contest is an origami box. Of all the origami projects and creations out there, boxes are my favorite. This particular box is from a favorite book of mine, Joyful Origami by Tomoko Fuse. The box is called Flowery Pinwheel Octagon box.

Here is a look from the top.



On another note, wasn't K.D. Lang amazing at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics?

"Paint" By Number Challenge

Here is another Papertrey Ink Challenge (I'm outdoing myself :)

The color palette was based on the first letter of your online user name. Since I go by Kimberly Ann my color palette was as follows:



I didn't quite have all the colors in the Papertrey cardstock so my supplies were as follows:

Cardstock:
White, Ripe Avocado, Raspberry Fizz by Papertrey
Pumpkin Pie & Really Rust by Stampin Up

Stamps:
Turning a New Leaf by Papertrey, Sentiment from Fall Elegance by Papertrey

Ink:
Versamark, Dark Chocolate by Papertrey

Other:
White satin ribbon from Michaels, White Perfect Pearls from Ranger, Scallop border punch from Stampin Up, Clock and circle clip from my own stash.