Simple Boy Card

My boys are slowly training me on what works on cards for boys and what doesn't. Apparently the darling "monstahs" out there are too baby-ish and adding ribbon and buttons is universally girly. The most scathing rebuke I've ever received on a boy card was, " this doesn't look like you made it for him, you made it for you." Ouch!

So when making a coupon for Trenton's birthday for a driving themed present I tried something new. I went very, very simple with cool metal mesh and only one embellishment. I let the hand-drawn steering wheel do the heavy-lifting for design and then just left it plain. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I wanted to stitch down the mesh, add some details - embellish!

But this card got a whole chorus of "cool" and "wow" and "I really like that" - which is the point. After all, I made the card for him, not for me.

Oldest Trick In The Book

Summer is a season where kids can vacillate between too busy and bored. This can be tough on us moms. I bet everyone knows this trick already but I thought I'd post it as a reminder.

Move the toys. Cycle through them, mix things up. When things stay in one place too long our eye can skip over them as old news - I know mine sure can when it comes to paper and kits. So move things around. Think of how inspired you are when you re-organize your craft space and then give your kids that same feeling.

We have a buffet in our front room that has a few plants on top of it. I moved the plants to the great room and replaced them with this:


Am I going to win any interior decorating awards? No. have my kids given me several hours of peace save for the squeals of delight at rediscovering old favorites? Yes.

And it didn't cost a cent. In this economy, enjoying what you have is the best way to make it through.

He's Thirteen!

Good heaven! I have a teenager. Fortunately, I think he's planning on reading his way through the rough bits. We'll see about that.
Not to be a walking cliche, but I'm really too young to have a teenager.


We spent his birthday at the waterpark. My littler guys:


Here is another LO I did for Scrapbook Sussies. I got to employ one of my favorite techniques of cutting around the edge of a large pattern and tucking my photos underneath. It really helps the pics not sit on top of the page looking out of place or plunked down. I think integration is the toughest part when working with a large design.


This page was originally conceived as half of an "angel or devil" two-page spread. You can see the pics from the other half here.

The Barstool From Another Planet

I've been reading a lot of books by Kathy Cano-Murillo aka: Crafty Chica the last few weeks and it has inspired me to make our house a little more us and a little less builder/spec house.

Starting with our barstools seemed like as good a place as any as a barstool is a small project that injects a shot of color into the room.

Here's the first one I have finished:


Top:


I sealed the whole stool with glitter varnish but am having a bear of a time getting it to show in the pictures. Here's glimpse:



Amy of Gauche Alchemy awesomeness, wrote a very sweet blog post about my last project. You can see it here. Thanks, Amy.

Assembled Art Piece

Happy 4th of July Weekend to those of you who celebrate :-)

I wanted to share with you a fun project I've been working on this week. It wasn't intentionally a Bombshell Stamps project - but I can't resist using them whenever I'm playing. They're so cool!

I used my awesome Color Kits from Gauche Alchemy. A project like this is so much easier when someone gathers all the pieces for you - it left me free to do creating, not shopping/scrounging.

frame. This one called to me as I liked the three recessed cut outs. Paint to front and sides your main color with acrylic paint.

Paint inside the frame holes with your complimentary color and sprinkle clear glitter over the wet paint. Move the glitter around until all sides are sparkly.

Once you've got that done, start gluing on doo-dads and making little scenes in each space.

I recommend sticking to a color scheme so it doesn't get too crazy but crazy can also be awesome. In this case, I used red as my main color, turquoise as my accent color and black and white.

Here are some close-ups:

Top:


Middle:

Bottom:

Materials Used:
Wood Frame: JoAnn
Paint: Folk Art
Glitter: Hero Arts
Stamps: Love and Luck, Retro Cowgirls, Man's Ruin, Bombshell Angel, Butterfly Queen, Sacred Heart
Doo-dads and Whats-its : Color Kits from Gauche Alchemy
Adhesive: Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue, Glossy Accents

Good Thursday

For a lot of you this is the end of the work week and the start of Fourth of July Weekend. Hope you are planning something special. We don't really celebrate Fourth of July. It's an adopted holiday we often forget - which seems impossible when there is a fireworks stall on every corner. We usually do some major home maintenance on holiday weekends as we're crowd-phobic so I'm thinking about painting the living room. We shall see.

Thanks for the kind words yesterday, therapy went great and I feel beat-up today but in a good way.

Here is another LO I did for Scrapbook Sussies:



Did you see I bumped Trenton's silhouette in the top shot? I haven't done that since the '90s. LOL.



This paper was a challenge for me as I don't usually use product that, in my DH's words (not mine) is so gimmicky and specific. But I really like how it turned out and it was a great paper to reinforce the theme of his new found interest in astronomy.

The very talented Ann from Creative Antics is celebrating her one year blogiversary with a gigantic RAK. You should scamper over and check it out. Click here.

Speaking of one year blog birthdays, my one year just passed, unnoticed and unheralded. I've posted 276 updates this year - that's not so bad for a person who wasn't sure about blogging.

Scrapbook Sussies (and more)

Lara asked me to be the July guest designer for Scrapbook Sussies!

I was so honored and completely blown away by the request. Sussies is a really, really cool kit. It is LOADED with embellishments and features two different fairly-large-on-their-own paper lines. I couldn't believe all the rub-ons, thickers and goodies in my bag. WOW.

I got to work with the new Crate Orbit collection and Prima's Mommy and Me. Both lines are a lot of fun!

Here's another LO I made with my very STUFFED kit:


Details:



Last week my Oodles of Doodles assignment was to incorporate hand stitching into a page. I've been grabbing a needle and thread for practically every page. It adds a bit of "flat texture" that makes me happy.

Scrapbook News:

The Scrap-room announced that they are having a design team search. You can read the info here.

Also, Bombshell Stamps is looking for a handful of new designers. You can read about the call here. I know a lot of you gals are amazing card makers and I encourage you to try out for the team.

Personal:

My health is still crummy but we've started having hot weather so hopefully the plants will all die soon. Isn't that a terrible attitude? When you have a bone disease that is triggered by immune response and also have bad allergies; plants become the enemy. I'm back to physical therapy tonight and I'm looking forward to making progress there.

My dear friend Jason had his book published. He is one of the writers for Damn Interesting started by his brother, Alan. The book is called Alien Hand Syndrome and it features material both from the website and never seen before articles. I've read most of the book and it is weird, wonderful and well-written. Check it out.

And finally, HAPPY CANADA DAY, everyone. Do something Canadian today to celebrate - be polite, say your sorry if needed and drink some beer :-)