Pattern Play Days 2 & 3

Tomorrow afternoon, my brother-in-law arrives.  Brad is the remodeling hero of our home, having fixed almost all of the ugly things--from gutting the kitchen to painting the hallways.  The best part about Brad (besides his chatty nature and love of all lemon baked goods), is that he has done all of this for us despite living at the other end of the country.  Once a year, he leaves his wife and crosses the country to help us with a project. 

This year, the project is painting my studio!!  I am really excited to banish the dark brown walls (and brown ceiling and dark brick...).  But what was I thinking?!?!  For those who have done it, you know how hard it is to move out of your studio!!!  Throw onto that the fact that I am in the midst of major inspiration thanks to Pattern Play, and I am pretty much screwed.  I have to be out by tomorrow afternoon, and this is what my studio looks like...

Yes, what you see on that table are supplies from me just making stuff all evening instead of packing (yikes!)!  Did I mention that I am volunteering at my children's school all morning tomorrow?  Who needs sleep??

So back to Pattern Play....

I am loving this class, but I have to tell you that Day 2 really kicked my butt!!  I spent about two hours trying to do the resist technique, and I just couldn't get it to work.  And then I tried to piece my stamps on patterned paper, and I picked the wrong stamp.  So after 10 minutes of icky fussy cutting, it looked terrible!!  I finally threw in the Martha Stewart scissors and called it a night.

I went back at it last night, and I felt much better about myself with this card and the Day 3 lesson of breaking up hard-to-use patterns.  :-)  It's certainly not perfect, but I was able to use this fantastic Anna Griffin paper that has been staring at me for almost a year now.  I think I might have liked the sentiment better in black, but I was just done with it after the third label. 

 

The big pattern is Anna Griffin (6x6 botanicals that they used to sell on HSN, but I don't think you can get it anymore), and the tag was die cut from Glitz.   The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp (March card kit) and the ink is my favorite brown, which is an Anna Griffin pigment ink. 

So I finally got to finish watching Day 3 today, and I was pleased to piece, stamp on patterned paper (yeah from Day 2!) and use a small amount of patterned paper, which was the inspiration.  The idea of white space (literally) is hard for me-- I love color, color and more color.  But I am SO happy with this that I am going to have to rethink my use of white....

The patterned paper here is from Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic.  The butterfly stamp and ink are Close To My Heart.  The sentiment stamp is Hero Arts.  The enamel dots are from My Minds Eye for Studio Calico.

I would like to try the vellum technique from Day 3's class, but it will probably have to wait until after my studio is done in a week and a half or so.

So if I don't get back to this blog, Happy Easter, if you are celebrating!   (Or Happy Passover or Happy Spring!)  Talk to you next week...

Pattern Play Day 1 Continued...

 

I loved yesterday so much that I haven't even moved on to today's lessons yet!!  I wanted to try another of the techniques described in the class.  This essentially is a paper piecing project with concentric hexagons.  I liked popping the layers up, but I wasn't really excited about the idea of my card being almost an inch thick, and the foam adhesive I grabbed was pretty thick.  (I fully admit the element of laziness in first trying this method before going to search for thinner pop dots!!)  Anyway, I just really liked the way it turned out, so I just popped up every other layer.

To get the layers lined up, I adhered the outer layer to my card base and then placed (but did not adhere) the outermost hexagon ring.  I adhered down the next one in and peeled off the one I had placed.  Then I popped up the remaining two layers and added a banner.  The muted palate made me think of a wedding, so I made them wedding cards. 

The supplies I used as as follows:  The dies are Spellbinders, the paper is Authentique (Fresh), the sentiment stamp is Simon Says Stamp, and the ink is Close To My Heart.

Hope you enjoy!!

Pattern Paper Play Day 1

 

Okay, so I know how odd it is for me to blog two days in a row, but I just started an online class that is SO MUCH FUN!!!  Online Card Classes is more fantastic than I could have imagined! We are learning about how to use patterned paper better, and, for those of you who know me, I LOVE patterned paper (huge collection), but I also like pretty simple designs.  So here is the card I made today:

The patterned paper all came from the same Basic Grey set.  The stamps are a fantastic Stamp of the Month set from last year from Close To My Heart.  I think it still needs a fiber, but I ran out of time and now have to run to my son's baseball game before I get a Mommy F!!

Loving the class and loving how easily this card came together!!  Have a great day! 

Studio Calico January Card Kit

I showed you February and forgot about the January kit!  This kit was a stretch for me, as the supplies were a ways out of my comfort zone.  But how fun was it to try something new and make beautiful things nonetheless!!  Have a fantastic week!

Tuesday Morning Crafts Class....

For those who might not know, I teach arts and crafts to young children in an after school enrichment program.  I began to teach an adult class in my home back in October, my Tuesday Morning Crafts Class. 

We always have muffins and coffee and fruit.  As you can imagine, it started as a social way to share some of my crafty fun with friends.   I found, though, that it also helped me create consistency in my crafting to have to prepare a project each week. 

So here are some of the cards we did for Valentine's Day!  Had I not been teaching, I probably would have missed the opportunity to celebrate love in this way!!  So thank you to the great women who keep me excited to try new things and spend fun mornings with them!

Hope you enjoyed a fantastic holiday with someone special (or at least ate chocolate and watched a good chick flick!)!!

Simon Says Stamp February Kit

Okay, as promised, I wanted to share just a couple of pictures from the February Simon Says Stamp  Card Kit!  I was so excited about this beautiful Glitz paper that I ordered more and more of it, even though Valentine's Day has passed... Of course, being an incredibly lucky woman who is married to an amazing man, love is something I am blessed to have around me constantly, regardless of the holiday.  :-)  As far as I am concerned, love is always in season!!