Post Christmas Crafting

Not all my cards and gifts made it into the mail in time for Christmas delivery this year... (and last year and.. shhh you get the idea.)  I had a few card stragglers and then the "What do I get my nephews?"   So, I procrastinated and tarried.  Then the solution was dropped in my lap.  Problem solved.

But I wanted to do something fun too... then I remembered a sweet little mini-tag/envelope album class I took in October at Cat's Creations taught by friend Sandy Trefger.  But I wanted something a tad bigger than the coin envelopes we used... so I Google templates and found a coin envelope template and re-sized it to my liking. Then I got to work!

The coin envelopes create these adorable little pockets in which to tuck little things.  I used some 7Gypsies tabs..after I altered them of course.  On the first one, I created another little pocket!!

This will flip open and I'll put my sentiment/note there. 

 

These mini albums are so much fun, so many opportunities to use the fabulous little scraps and left over kit pieces.  Don't be worried about having too much dimension, unless you're mailing them as cards...not me.. padded envelopes will be their means of packaging!

 This is the back of the mini-album... it's not quite done yet..more building and adding to go.  But I should finish it... I still have a few more mini's to create!  I'm so grateful my family knows I'm a "flake" or consistently late.  Believe it not it's on my list of things to improve on for 2014.  Wish me luck!  :D

Roam

 This week over at CSI I played along as a "civilian", didn't have my layout done in time!!  Eek!  But I enjoyed the extra time to tweek and get things just so!  So let's jump into this shall we?
My evidence includes:
Circles:  Circles in the clocks, the clock paper, the polka dots and with in the metal embellishments
Clocks:  My Teresa Collins papers, the use of my Tim Holtz clock die, my metal clock embellishments and a RAK of a Dusty Attic clock
Leaves:  Die cuts onto corrugated paper, laser cut wood, remnant of DA flourish/leaves and some Technique Tuesday rubber stamping
Tone on Tone patterns:  A very loose interpretation.  The TC clock paper was grey on grey.  Then I got a wild hair up, well.  I took my manilla tag and began building with my inks, mists and distress paints the colors in the reveal.  Layering and building.  Stamping and creating resists with embossing powders.  I couldn't leave well enough alone, I had to do my clock dies and even the DA chipboard after giving a base coat of white acrylic.  I love how the "Evidence" inspired my creativity.
Trees:  I used my TH die again using the tree branches as embellies.
Upside Down:  I placed my DA chipboard clock upside down.

 My journaling is inspired by "Document an outing":

Girlfriends with Camera

Lost on Texas Backroads

Summer 2009

Paradise Cemetery, early morn'.

Cameras, batteries, cold drinks loaded up.

A map just incase, and a full tank of gas

A day snapping pictures

quiet conversations

turning u-turns and

random discoveries

Reads the tag under the photo.

We photograph a lot of cemetaries... Why?

Our subjects don't move around!

There's a somber quiet that fills the air.

Each stone holds a story

history

and even art

It's the light,

the contrast

and even a small hope

we "catch" something

ODD.

 My tag is inspired by Tim Holtz and recent demo's with metallic Distress Paints and Stains.  I also incorporated a resist trick taught by Nanci out at Cat's Creations.

I almost forgot, I'm submitting this over on Cat's BLOG to participate in her WOW Wednesday.  This is a fun way to share your creations with others, and be inspired by others creations.  When you play along, leave comments on each blog and back on Cat's blog, you're entered to win some BLOG CANDY.  Free stuff man!  So hop over and play along. You still have time!  :D

Hope you enjoyed!  Thanks for stopping by! :D

NSD Retreat Recap....

The first week of May I had the good fortune to run away from home.  I went away on a scrapbook retreat hosted by Cat's Creations (read all about what's newsy on her blog!)  I haven't been on a retreat for ages so this was WONDERFUL. 
What does one do at a retreat?  CREATE. CREATE. LEARN, PLAY, LAUGH, EAT and occasionally SLEEP.  Cat offers all of this and more.   National Scrapbook Day at Cat's takes FOUR days to celebrate.  We had a mass of classes to chose from, along with inclusive classes only available to the retreaters.  (But we'll get to those in a bit.)
I worked on some layouts for my kids scrapbooks.  Catching up on the school portraits for each year thing.  The above is Erin in the seventh grade.  I used some Heidi Swapp, Pink Paislee, my fabulous Tim Holtz stamps and a variety of tissue and washi tapes. I also played with goodies from a RAK I received a while back.

This page was created with papers from Graphic 45  (LOVE THESE)  I also dug out some Teresa Collins.  Erin is an eighth grader and they're referred to as "Crazy Eights"  So, I'm building everything around 8.  Now that I'm home, I'll bust out some metal embellishements and dig out my large chipboard pieces.

This last layout is built on Elephant Dung... WHAAAT?   It's a Cat's Retreat thing.. gotta go to find out!  This is actually Authentique mixed with some old MME and washi tapes.  The laser cut bicycle is my FAVORITE and I bought it at Cat's.   Ray has a new toy and he's constantly coming up with wonderful chipboard embellishments for us!  :D  This is Taylor at his spring concert.  Taylor is a freshman and a member of the Weatherford Community College Choir.. (it was a great concert!!)

Now these pages are still under construction, I have titles, journaling and embellies to add. I have three projects to share later.  I took three classes while on retreat, two taught by Mr. Pickle himself and one by Cat (her's is my favorite)

If you're able to attend any of Cat's retreats.. I strong recommend it (she has THREE a year), if you can't make a retreat, check her blog or website because she ALWAYS has something going on for you to learn or buy.  Card classes, mini-scrapbooks, tags... you name it.  You'll be hanging with some awesome women, learning fun techniques and creating/preserving your photo's. 

You Make Me....

It's reveal time over at CSI this week.  Debbi has come up with a beautiful fresh case file for us!! Are you ready for some fabulousness?  Here we go then!

 

I used the following evidence:

Bicycle - A wonderful metal bicycle element I found in clearance at Michaels

Circles - my photos are cut into circles

Birds:  I used a Hero Art stamp and stamped my bird in Scarlet onto vellum.  I also used some bird washi tape

Music Notes:  I used papers by Teresa Collins "Vintage Finds"

Twine:  I wrapped my journal tags with twine

Vellum:  I stamped "Happy" onto vellum for my title

 

My testimony, I took the ques for "Song Title/Lyrics" for inspiration.   "You've Made Me So Very Happy" by Blood, Sweat & Tears.. and tweek it a bit "You Make me.."   And from there built my journaling around it and these photo's of my youngest daughter.

Sarah is just so content to pick dandelions and blow, completely unaware I was there taking pictures. 
My papers include Authentique, Teresa Collins, MME.  Stamps are by Hero Arts and Stampabilities.

Sisters

It's reveal time again!!  And I'm tickled that I'm on time for the first time in AGES!  This month has been FULL of funky out of the box case-file color challenges!  Part of me has been thrilled with the challenge and the other part is just plain relieved and ready for a new month full of fabulous colors and evidence to test my skill set!  So, head over to CSI for all the details on how to play along and to view the reveal UP CLOSE!

So this week we had Mr T and ET inspiring us... (I know crazy!) and if you're scratching your head.. GO OVER TO CSI and check it out!

My evidence includes:
FLOWERS:  I used up old Prima stash, and Petaloo stash after recoloring them with my Distress Stains and some Tattered Angels mists.
HOUSES:  I had this fabby chippy with some "city houses" and was excited to use it!  I coated it with Silver Distress Paint and then went back with silver distress stain, Ripe Persimmon DS and Weathered Wood DS.. hopefully the close ups will show the subtle color changes.
NUMBER ACCENTS:  My number washi tape
METAL:  Sisters in metal letters, some TH mini staples and the metallic finish on the chippie
LEDGER PAPER:  "Now and Later" by Teresa Collins
JEWELS:  Prima flourishes and some fancy Crystals

My testimony is based on "unlikely friendship"
These are pictures of my daughters from Easter 2008.  They rarely cooperate with posing together these days.. they rarely cooperate together period..

"Sometimes you two are pals, sometimes you two fight, sometime you're the unlikeliness of allies but no matter what, you two are sisters.  Sisters, young or old, till the end"

For this layout I used a fabulous sketch by Susan Stringfellow from her blog "Sketch Savvy" .  This is sketch #95 with a few tweaks of my own!  (Remember when you use a sketch, remember to share and give credit to the creator, playing nice is nice!)

Hope you enjoyed!  Have a great weekend everyone!

It's so cute and SPARKLEY!

We're in full production mode... Christmas tunes are on, pieces lined up for assembly and I decide to put STICKLES on all of my little Tilda's.  I know, stupid crazy, they're pretty.    I caught my DH telling his mother that I'm working on Christmas cards (ha! she hasn't sent her's out either!!) and that everyone should receive theirs by Presidents Day.. I resent that.  New Year's tops...
I don't care, I sitting down and writing a nice card to those on my list.  Life is short and I'm gonna take time to do it right.  So if you haven't yet received your card, here's a good idea of what it will look like.  And tho' you may not get all the details here..  I'll give you the jist of what it reads..

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year

May your family be together

May your family be safe

May your year be filled with blessings

and your life with joy

May you have what you need

May you share what you don't

With Love from our home to yours

The Wharton Family

For Valerie

This is just for Valerie... she called me a tease!  I guess I sorta am, but life got all kinds of crazy complicated within the last couple of days.  Even the best laid plans can blow up before your very eyes...

Here's Miss Tilda, or one of many Miss Tilda's that are colored and fussy cut, along with my ovals and scalloped ovals..I bet you're wondering what papers I'm using.  I have a sweet little 6x6 pad of Authentique "Peaceful" that I picked up over at Cat's.   I loved it so much I also picked up the 12x12 papers... you also might be seeing a peek of Pink Paislee's  London Market line... I know, not typically Christmas but I was using up scraps from the bucket and after some distressing and misting.. I think they'll suite just fine.
So I'm thinking... tonight if all fares well.  The kids cooperate and the planets align just right, I'll start assembling some cards.  I feel a need to mass produce a whole mess of tiny jeweler tags with my TH Tiny Tag die and stamp some lovely sentiments like "Wish", "Believe", and such and I'm also hankering from some holly leaves... 
So here you are Valerie.. stay tuned.  More will come, I promise!  XOXOXO