Creating

 I'm back. But where has the time gone? Where has the creativity gone? I don't know about you, but I used to have endless creative ideas. But then life takes over and when you finally have a minute, you're creatively done. Nothing. Toast. 

It used to bother me until I realized, that's life. There's an ebb and flow to everything. It's been a year or more since I have had the energy to create. And that's ok. I re-joined my favorite craft site, SplitCoastStampers, and I'm using their weekly challenges to inspire some new ideas in me.

This week's CAS (Clean And Simple) challenge is : Recycle. You can recycle anything to use on your card.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a store that was closing and found a badly damaged hymnal with many loose pages. This was the perfect way to reuse them in a way that they would be appreciated again.

So, I created the following card from the challenge.

I stamped out my image and colored it in with Copics, fussy cutting it out.
I cut down my music sheet to what size I needed. Then, I matted it against some Chiffon Bazzil Cardstock, that I matted over some Kraft cardstock, making them the base of my card.

I Cut out a frame, using Avery Elle's Pierced Birthday Frame die, and put PopDots under the frame to pop it up a hair off the card, for some small form of depth. After that, I glued my chipboard down, and placed the colored in image of the Cross on top of it, and added a few pearls for some interest.

I'm not certain if I can actually call it a CAS card anymore, but I love how it turned out!!

So, if you're ever finding yourself stuck in a crafting rut, or feeling uninspired, don't let it get to you. Eventually, it'll come to you! Until then, don't be too hard on yourself, it's all just the ebb and flow of life :)

Timeless Tuesday Challenge

It's Tuesday!! It's time for a Timeless Tuesday Challenge and this week Maki is challenging us to create an Easter Card or Project! 
I haven't used my Flourishes "He Is Risen" set, and here is my chance! But I wanted to use it creatively and this is what I came up with.

My card is a little Spellbinder heavy, but if you have these dies, but they create such a beautiful card! I started out with Flourishes "Classic White" cardstock and used Spellbinders Classic Squares to create a frame by using the larger two dies, placing them on my cutting pad, evenly spacing the smaller one inside the largest square and cutting it out. I adhered the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis diecut, to the square frame, then placed a Spellbinders Labels #18 on top of it, popped up on popdots. Then I used two of Spellbinders Fancy Tags #3 dies with a couple of Spellbinders Cross Collection diecuts on top. I added my sentiment from Flourishes "He Is Risen" on top of a Spellbinders Scalloped Oval and Small Oval, finishing it all off with pearls.

I love how the card turned out so much that I am sure this will be the design for our Christmas cards, this year. Now I just need to make 19 more :)

My Happy Post!!

 

This past weekend I was a part of a 5 family Garage Sale, selling things we no longer needed to free up some space in our house and raise some serious scrapping money ;)  While the 5 of us women got to talking and sorting through each others items, it was apparent that everyone would be going home with as much stuff as we/they had brought, to sell - LOL. I was lucky, and  made a couple serious scores. I picked up a brand spanking new Pampered Chef Mandolin, Pampered Chef Deep Dish Lasagna Pan, Pampered Chef Cheese (hand crank) Grater, and Pampered Chef Cookie Press, all for a total of - 4 of my handmade cards out of pocket!!!! YEAY!! If that's not a bargain, then I'm crazy ;)


On top of all that, I received the Entire Flourishes February Release sets that I won a couple of weeks ago, in the mailbox. I have been anxiously waiting for those sets like crazy! So after I received them, I wondered how many Flourishes stamps I own. So I counted them out and I have: 56!!! I love them all, and I have a hard time choosing which stamps to use every time I go to stamp something out :)
Here are the beautiful stamps I won, aren't they gorgeous?

So of course, I had to try out one of the new Flourishes sets, and I choose to use the "Calla Lilies".

I decided to go very simple and with a small contrast to make the image pop. I love how it turned out, although when I look at it at times, I can't help but think it still needs something, although I don't know what. I used my favorite medium, my trusty Tombow watercolor color markers. Then I added some Sakura glitter jelly roll pen over some spots to highlight it a little bit. Although I don't think you can see it in the picture, it really adds to the image in a way I can't explain.

That was my fun and exciting weekend. And despite my best efforts I only made $20 in scrappy spending money :) ....would anyone like a slice of homemade lasagna with a side of freshly grated cheese and a pressed Christmas cookie for dessert? LOL ;)