whatever is in your heart

Today is the last day of the CHA On-line Crop over on Fiskateers.  While some lucky ducks are at CHA in California basking in the sun and warmth in between make-and-takes, those of us who are "left-behind" are trying to be creative.    I've been doing some "happy dances" while I've been ooohing and aaaahing over the new paper designs, embellishments, and tools that are being highlighted at CHA, so my Challenge (#14) is "Playing Your Song"--use a song title or lyrics in your creation.   Fiskateer PattyB and I have been talking 80's  music lately...I'm waiting to see her Depeche Mode creation, but in the meantime...here is mine.  Can you guess the song/artist?

This is  my Valentine's Card for my hubby...I feel pretty confident that he won't see it here on my blog before he gets it.

Creations for this challenge need to be in before 11:59pm CST ton ight (Tuesday).  Let me see what you are dancing to over on Fiskateers!

~Kelly

Whatever holds...

I LOVE apples.  Not in the Gwyneth Paltrow-I'm going to name my child "Apple" kind of way, but I do LOVE apples.  I have an apple color scheme (lime green, yellow, red) going on in my kitchen, and I just wanted to show you what's taking up a little bit of space on my counter right now.

I painted my kitchen door (that leads to the garage) with a large chalkboard paint rectangle and hung a frame around it. The rest of the door still needs some lovin', so I'm not ready to show you a picture of it yet. We've been writing notes to each other, "don't forgets", grocery lists, and schedules on the chalkboard and I LOVE it. SO, we needed a "something" to hold our chalk and eraser nearby. Enter, the crafty neighbor (that's me).

This shiny silver container used to hold cashews.

I used a Fiskars notebook border punch, a Martha Stewart apple punch, and some alphabet stickers to create the wrapper.

I ran the wrapper through my Xyron machine to laminate it and then hot glued it onto the can.  Perfect holder for an eraser and chalk.  Maybe I'll make one for Gwyneth and her Apple too!

~Kelly

Whatever blooms

Nothing is blooming around here right now. 
Six inches of snow blanket the ground.
We are a long way from spring.  So, I've decided I need to create my own.
This is a very simple (and addicting way) to make some beautiful flowers that you can add to your home, sweaters, scarves, and even cards and pages.

Start with a piece of felt 3 1/2" x 12 " long.  Fold it in half the long way (so it is now 1 3/4" x12"), and hot glue where the two edges meet.

 Then, snip from the folded edge about every 1/2". 

Take one end and start rolling, it helps to add a drop of hot glue every once in awhile to help hold it together.

Boom--you have a bloom!
                                  
Once you've done this a few times, you can really start to play around with how big a piece of felt you use and how far apart or how close you snip--it totally changes the outcome.

You can group some blooms to add to a sweater or scarf.

You can use your bloom on a gift tag
(this one is going on a bottle of wine).

Or, you can create a paper tag to use for a gift card envelope (cleverly recycled flattened toilet paper roll).

Now, I want you to be the florist!  In each issue of Scrapstreet (the FREE online e-magazine, did I mention it is FREE?), my feature article Graffiti, looks at popular art for inspiration.  For the April issue, I'm looking for ONE BIG FLOWER.  Can you guess which famous artist I'll be highlighting?

So, show me your creation with ONE BIG FLOWER!  You can doodle, stamp, cut, fold, paint, or surprise me with your bloom on your card, scrapbook page, or project, but only use ONE flower.  Send your creations to submissions@scrapstreet.com by February 18th.


Check out the other submission calls too... http://scrapstreet.com/ss12/janu12/calls.htm
Turn your mind towards spring!

Whatever is counted...

Twelve...
Twelve photos on the 12th of each month of 2012. 
I can do this.
I've decided to do these in photo collages that I can print out and make a nice (easy) photobook later.
Capturing life one day each month.
I sure hope we do something exciting on the 12th of each month!

sweet clementines on the kitchen table~morning coffee and VeloNews~our first snow of the season~Swimmy the wonder-fish~boys in the bathroom~ready for school~prizes from Fiskateers (thanks Rebecca)~cleaning up Christmas (Tim's Tags)~never-ending dirty dishes~snow shoe on the sod farm~getting ready for trimesters~someday we'll be able to trust him out of his crate when we are gone

If you want to play along, there is more info over at www.ellapublishing.com, click on "take twelve".

whatever is a gift

What is one to give the 18 month old little girl who has everything?  Answer--scrapbook pages!  When my niece was born, I gave my sister-in-law a scrapbook full of pages just waiting for her to plop some pictures in.  I guess I spoiled her, as she was so disappointed when my niece's 1st birthday rolled around and I didn't give her more pages.  So, this was a perfect gift for Christmas.  In fact, my sister-in-law said this was the best present ever!  I think she may have been exaggerating a little.

However, I found myself with very little time in the weeks before Christmas to create all of the pages I wanted to.  After all, I have my priorities---Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of Christmas must come first!  So, I decided to design one page, create a sketch from it, and then base all of the other pages off that first one.  I actually made 2 sketches and did 12 pages off of each, but I am going to save the other twelve to share with you on a rainy day (or a inspiration-less day, whichever comes first).

I made the pages very simple to save me time and to make it easier for my sister-in-law to use lots of photos. 

Here are a few of my favorites...

one for winter

one for Valentine's Day

one for her birthday

one for a picture with Daddy

one with a patriotic theme

one for summer-

the title says "It's so HOT it will melt your popsicle"...

so I added a popsicle journaling spot

and one for Christmas

It really didn't take much time at all...just a few rerun episodes of Grey's Anatomy and I was done!

So, scrapbooks and scrapbook pages make a FANTASTIC  present.  Just be warned, if you give a scrapbook or scrapbook pages as a gift...they may want more!

whatever is frosty

Looks like this is all the frost I'm going to see around here this week!  It's hard to believe that it's the first week in January and I haven't had to wear boots yet!

This tag, with its Fiskars grass border punch masquerading as an icicle punch, was in the December issue of GingerScrapsStreet.

whatever you need to be inspired

can be found at Scrapstreet! http://scrapstreet.com/magazine/magazinehome.htm

The January issue is FULL of fabulous ideas!  Take a peek at my article, Graffiti, (starting on page 8) where I asked for submissions inspired by the splatter of artist, Jackson Pollock.  From subtle to drippy, the creations are awesome!  I also have a white layout on page 18 and a tiny winter thank you card on page 12.  Scrapstreet is keeping me busy!

Whatever...my one little word

I didn't do so well with my "loving" word last year.  The perfectionist in me wants me to keep the word until I get it right, but instead I've let a new word find me.  I'm going with "whatever".  And while at first glance, it may seem like sort of a "blah", negative word (like, "what do you want for dinner--whatever").   It came to me in a Christmas card I received with this bible quote:

Whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable;
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy---think about such things.
(Philippians 4:8) 

So, my word is "whatever".
I will take "whatever" wherever it will lead me.

Today, it has lead me to show you "whatever is sparkly".  These are my ATCs (artist trading cards) for the Disney swap over at Fiskateers.  And, if any of my swap partners are seeing this, they are getting a sneak peak before I pop these into the mail this week. 

I LOVE the movie "Finding Nemo" and I loved making these sparkly, dimensional cards.  I used glittery paper, my Copic markers (to color some free Nemo clip art I found on the internet), ribbon scraps, a Fiskars leafy border punch, and do you see those bubbles?  They are hot glue (actually, cooled hot glue). 

Creating in this small size may feel limiting to some, but to me, I'm thinking how much stuff can I get on a card that is 2 1/2" by 3 1/2"?  Answer...a lot!  And, it still fits in its card sleeve!

Best wishes for you, your one little word, your resolutions, and a wonderful 2012!

~Kelly