A Place For Postcards

It's been a while since I've posted, but with my pregnancy keeping me busy and now we are buying a house too - things have been just a bit crazy!  Today I have a really cool project to share with you using my favorite paper line - Graphic 45.  This is a step by step so be prepared for lots of pictures!

I collect postcards from everywhere we go and my husband always brings me postcards back when he goes on a work trip, but I had no good place to store these.  Well, when I was cruising the local thrift store I spotted this worn out recipe box and I thought it would work perfectly as a postcard box!  So here's what I did:

First step was to pick out all the supplies I wanted to use.  Granted, not all of them got used, but at least I had them close at hand.  I went with the Steampunk Debutante line for this project, I just love the images!
 

Here's the recipe box before I started working on it.  It had some loose hinges so I tightened those down.  I didn't worry about prepping it in anyway except for wiping it down with a damp cloth.

First step - paint!  I used some brown Acrylic paint from Dick Blick.  I love this stuff.  It goes on smoothly and doesn't take a ton of time to dry.  I put on two coats for full coverage.

 After two coats of paint, this is what I had.  Looking good so far!

Then it was time to start adding all the paper accents.  I cut up what I wanted and attached everything with Glossy Accents, my glue of choice. 

Another view from the top of the box.  Looking pretty good so far.

Before I attached any 3D embellishments, this box needed to be mod podged. I used the brush strokes variety because that's what I had on hand and I kind like the way it looks dried.

I added some little plastic bumpers to the inside of the box.  The lid isn't quite level and this helped even things out.

The final step was to go back and glue on all my little 3D accent pieces and voila!  Finished box!

 Here's a view from the back of the box.

 A side view.

 A view from the top.

And here it is with the postcards tucked inside.   I absolutely love it.  It's such a fun place to store my postcards and pull out to show friends.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my project!  Hopefully once we get into the new house, I can try to post more actively.  Keep scrappin' ladies and have a great day!

We're Expecting!

So I have been away for a few months.  But I have a really good reason!  Not long after my last post, I found out that I'm pregnant!  We are expecting our first child on Nov. 10, 2012.  I've been so busy (and so sick) that I haven't been able to craft or post anything.  Luckily I am feeling a ton better now at 17 weeks.  I'm hoping to be able to start posting some projects.  And I'll even post some photos of the pregnancy journal/smash book I'm working on!

4 Months Pregnant!  Woo Hoo!

This week I will be posting a new project I created using one of my favs - Graphic 45.  You don't want to miss it!  I will also be trying to post more regularly, but I'm sure all you mommies know that I might not always be able to! I will do my best!  As always, Happy Scrappin' Ladies!

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

So my Husband and Father-In-Law both LOVE spicy foods.  They're always sharing recipes and things they have found that are super spicy.  So my Husband had a package of hot sauces and spicy mustard he wanted to send to his Dad and of course, I thought it needed a card!

This amazing paper is by We-R-Memory Keepers, the line is called Fiesta.  I've had this since Cinco de Mayo last year and I've been waiting to use it!  The red in the border and on the peppers is flocked, so that adds a ton of character to the card.  I used pop dots on the little chihuahua and I added some little copper gems to the background paper.  

This turned out super fun!  Now, I don't think I would be trying any of the spicy things sent with the card, but I'm sure that my Father-In-Law enjoyed them!

That's it for me today.  I am looking forward to working on some card challenges this weekend.  What are you working on? Any special projects?  I hope everyone has an awesome crafty weekend!

Happy New Year - I know, I am really really late!

So I have been away for quite some time.  So last year, when I disappeared, my dream came true and I finally got a job working from home.  And let me tell you, I could not be happier about it!  But I had some trouble finding time for crafting and that was mostly because I need to turn my craft work space into my office space.  Who else works from home? Have you found a balance between your work and your crafting and blogging?  That's my goal for this year.

So as a welcome back, I'm going to share a card that I made to welcome a baby into the world! One of my bosses was blessed with a beautiful baby boy in January.  This is the card that I made for him and his wife.

The base of the card is craft paper and then I used some colorful scraps and a few pieces of ribbon behind the white cardstock.  I stamped the Welcome message onto some bazzil cardstock, which have I mentioned I love bazzil cardstock?  It has totally spoiled me, I can never go back to cheap cardstock.  And then the highlight of the card is those cute little animals!  They are Ki Puffies which I found at Michael's.  They have several different packs of these and they are all adorable.

The inside of the card is stamped with a Tim Holtz stamp which reads "it's the little things that make life big".  And I have to stay, I just recently purchased several Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous sets and they are great!  They stamp beautifully and I love all the quotes.

 In fact, here's a picture of my recent purchase of stamps:

The four sets of stamp I got are great.  And the little zippered mouth creature is a gift card holder by Basic Grey!  I think he costs like three bucks, so I couldn't pass it up.

So that's it for today.  It feels good to be back!  I hope to talk to you all soon and until next time - Happy Scrapin!

A sympathy card

The card I made today was a sympathy card for my In-Laws, they lost their sweet dog Dusty last week. Any pet parent can tell you how difficult it is to lose your pet, even when you know it's coming.  So I wanted to make them a card to let them know I'm thinking about them and that they will always have the memories of that sweet little girl.

For this card I used the colors from the challenge over at the CR84FN Color Challenge.

This was a CAS card to put together.  The heart stamp set is from Close to My Heart, it's called Hope and it's the set they sold after the earthquake in Japan to help with relief efforts.  

For the inside I used Photoshop and my laser printer.  The flowers are a Photoshop brush. That quote I have always felt explains it all.  I know that is how I feel about my pup.

This is Halloween

Is everyone getting in the Halloween spirit?  I am! I'm getting the decorations up and I've got a bunch of candy for the Treat-or-treaters.  So for today's post I wanted to participate in CAS-ual Friday's challenge this week which is to create a CAS Halloween project with absolutely no orange! So here is what I came up with:

I took some creme cardstock and used distress ink on it for that dirty look. The letters I cut out with my Silhouette.  I cut out the blood drips freehand and then used glossy accents over them to really give it a wet blood look.  The next picture I took at an angle so you could get a better view of the effect.

 So after I finished the card, I figured my nails needed to be done in the spirit of Halloween too!

That's it for today! Have fun with all those Halloween projects!

A Steampunk Card

Okay, so this card is supposed to be for CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week.  The challenge was to make a project with a ribbon tab or loop.  This card ended up more shabby chic than clean and simple, but I went where the mojo took me!  So I hope you guys still enjoy it!  Here it is:

So since this was a ribbon challenge, I started with this beautiful shear teal ribbon from May Arts.  And looking at that I thought it went perfectly with Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante line. I took a piece of gray Bazzil embossed cardstock and I sanded it down a bit then went to work on the edges with my distressing tool. I added a gray felt flower from Prima and a little metal key from 7gypsies. It's not my typical CAS design, but I really love it.

I also added a matching piece of teal cardstock inside the card and I had picked up this cool stamp of a penny-farthing (yep, that's what those bikes are called) at Michael's in the dollar bin! Don't you just love it when you find a deal like that?


That's it for me today.  I've also been putting things in my Smash book for a while and I know I haven't done an update on that, so I'll try to put that into a post this week. Until then, Happy Scrappin'!