Look what followed me home!

This lovely, beautiful piece of crafty joy has been on my wishlist for awhile now. And when Hubby suggested that I go pick something out for myself for my birthday, I knew exactly what would be coming home with me! Now, I just need to some pretty little bits to run through her!

So, I bought her for what she can DO, right?! But, once I took her out of her packaging, I started looking at her and saw the two little bits o' bling on her front.....I got excited. And then when I noticed the larger piece on her handle, I had to share.....but, I didn't neccessarily share my joy with the right person.... Hubby was in the room with me, the kidlets were already in bed (I should have waited until I could show my wee daughter, who gets uber excited at all things pink and sparkly!), and so I bubbled on about how cool my lovely new tool is and look!, there's bling on her!! His response? To smack himself on the forehead and reply, "TOOLS are Not Supposed to have bling on them!!!" I just laughed and continued on with my own personal Happy Dance! :>

But, wait! There's more! In my birthday trip to the Walt Disney Family Museum post, I mentioned that my friend Jenn is creatively talented too (she sews, quilts, & does needle work) and that she sent me home with one of her creations.

I'd been eyeing one of her utility/shopping bags for awhile now. I have about a dozen (mostly from Trader Joe's) already. But, none are as fabulously chic, practical, and as super strong as hers are. I paid her (another) compliment on it and next thing I knew, she had taken it off the hook with her other (also fabulously chic) bags and handed it to me! She's creatively talented and plenty generous...thank you, Jenn!


The uber cool fabric she got at SCRAP, in San Francisco. I cannot wait to go with her sometime soon! What is also really cool is that the straps she's sewn onto the bag, go all the way around the bag, from the top, stitched down the sides, under the bottom of the bag, and back up again, making it extremely sturdy and able to hold a lot. And because the straps are long enough, its really easy to carry, even when loaded because it can just be slung onto your shoulder (instead of pinching your fingers to a bright pink, like many of my reusable grocery bags do).


I broke this gorgeous bag in with a trip to JoAnns with Jenn. And since I was with my great friend who sews, my bag was filled with my purchases, which were all fabric and a few patterns. I have a wonderful sewing machine, but other than some very square items with nothing more that a straight stitch involved, I haven't used it a lot. I really want to correct that and learn to sew.............MUCH better and more than I do now. But, in the meantime, the fabrics I picked up all have papercraft projects calling out to me! Maybe I'll have to use one of them for the current Everything But The Kitchen Sink challenge, calling for.....fabric! :>

Today is the last day to enter my Birthday Blog Giveaway for a Papertrey Ink gift certificate! Just as a reminder, here are the deets:

"Since the whole month of February is a celebratory month for me, I am leaving the giveaway open for the whole month for you. Every comment made on my posts in February, starting with this one, will give you an entry in the drawing for the PTI $25 gift certificate. If you like my blog, I would love for you to follow me, but it is not a requirement. And if you blog about the giveaway, you will get an additional three entries (either leave me the link in your comment or you can email me). "

I hope you all are having a fantastic weekend! The sun is back out here and Hubby is going to BBQ tonight! One kidlet is in 'imagination land' doing a Space Police mission' (aka playing with Legos) and the other is wearing her apron & chef's hat and whipping up a delish (pretend) pineapple, onion, peach, and cauliflower soup. What's shaped up this weekend for you?

Detailed Fun with Just Us Girls & EBTKS

Come & Color, I did....but not with markers, pens, or pencils. But, I did have so much FUN with these colors for the Just Us Girls 21st challenge! I mean there were little giggles, lots of smiles, and oodles of delight as I played!

And all that delight is most definitely in the details! But, before I tell you about those details, let me share where the rest of the card came from.........the current sketch challenge from Everything But The Kitchen Sink! I have wanted to play along with the EBTKS crew from the beginning...thank goodness I finally did! :>

Okay, okay, back to some of those details! I cut some lovely K & Company printed paper into four squares, used some temporary adhesive to adhere them all butted up against each other (as in one big square) and then using coral and raspberry ink, I inked up some fun stripes. If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now (or again) that I feel just like a kid when I get all inky....instant happy pill!


Next, I spread out those four squares, adhered them to a piece of raspberry cardstock, pierced around the edges, using the Tim Holtz Clear Design Ruler (I LOVE this tool!), and hand stitched with vanilla embroidery thread. Matting the whole thing onto a chocolate card base, I turned to the rest of those fun details.

That fab scalloped square chipboard frame took a quick bath in some ivory paint and then went for a good soak in some of Tim Holtz's Distress Rock Candy crackle paint. I stamped that wonderful sentiment (that oh so fits my love of the little things in life!) in brown StazOn onto vanilla cardstock, cut it out with a circle Coluzzle (still do not understand why it was discontinued!) and it too went for a soak in Rock Candy. And when they started cracking like mad, can you see why giggles were escaping me?! When they were all dry (the cardstock curled, but I simply bent it back and smoothed it out), I rubbed some coral ink onto it and rubbed off the excess.....its a very subtle effect, but it does add to it. I also did the same dry rubbed ink on the sweet vanilla wood button.

The last bit of details rest in the fibers. I layered the stitched raspberry ribbon on top of chocolate ribbon...I just like the subtle extra bit of chocolate in the middle of the card. Now the stitching on that raspberry ribbon is white and that just didn't work. So, I took a Q-Tip, dabbed it in some Distress ink and ran it over the stitches. Again, very subtle, but it took the edge off of the white stitching and made it applicable to the color challenge, which calls for vanilla, not white! I tied the whole bow together with some brown embroidery floss and that sweet vanilla wood button!

Big Thank Yous to both the JUGS & EBTKS teams for creating their fabulous & fun challenge sites! So glad I crafted some time to play!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! I'm off to celebrate some of the cherrished details in my own life.....in fact, one is smiling at me right now, while nibbling on her carrot! :>

And don't forget my Blog Birthday Giveaway is still going on!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Dark Chocolate & Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink; Purely Pomegranate - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: K & Company

Ink: Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate - Stampin' Up!; Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink; Timber Brown - StazOn by Tsukineko; Old Paper Distress Ink - Tim Holtz for Ranger
Stamps: Life Bundle - Kolette Hall
Chipboard: Scalloped square frame - Stampin' Up!; circles/Chips (2 circles under the sentiment) - Bazzill
Paint: Ivory - Delta; Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint - Tim Holtz for Ranger
Ribbon & Fibers: Purely Pomegranate Saddle Stitched, Chocolate Chip grosgrain - Stampin' Up!; Chocolate embroidery thread - Making Memories; Vanilla embroidery floss - DMC
Button: sweet flower wooden button - La*di*dah for Ki Memories

{Part Two} Fantastic Friends make me Smile!

You're back.....Yay!!! :>

Now, what were those other plans that I had for last Saturday?? What would I give up a creative day with friends for?? Well, more friends, of course!!! And specifically, my Four Musketeers! Okay, okay, so there were only three of the four of us (plus one husband)......one of us lives on the other side of the country right now (we miss you Jilly and we took you with us in spirit!!).

My Hubby kindly offered to play with our kidlets and sent me packing to go play with friends! So, I followed the yellow brick road (er, um, multiple highways?!) and headed back to the land of my teen years and to my best friend's home. From there, we, Jenn, Monique, Matt (Monique's hubby), and I zipped off to San Francisco. Well, sort of zipped since it was Chinese New Year and there was a wee bit of traffic at the Bay Bridge toll plaza! That's okay.....I was with great friends!

Guess where they were taking me??? To the new Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio (San Francisco)!! Us Four Musketeers have a long history of Disneyland trips. Jill even got the four of us one of the bricks in the ground between Disneyland and California Adventures back in 2001. And yes, we're known to take pictures with each visit of our beloved Brick!

Oh I'm having a flashback now!!! Here comes some Brick love a la 2003!! (I had forgotten how long your hair was back then, Jenn!) There's our Jill! :>

Wow! Time is flashing by, zipping to 2005! I was preggo with my Princess and we decided to do a foot shot that year........with each of our feet pointing towards our names, of course! We're cheesey, I know. But, traditions with friends is a fantastic thing. :>

And back to last Saturday, 2010!!

The museum (which really is a museum and not a Disney attraction, though with a distinct Disney flavor) was really delightful and educational. We all agreed we could go through it again to read through everything more thoroughly. There is so much information about Walt's family to read and an incredible number of drawings, cartoon cells, telegrams, hand written letters, memorabilia, video footage, and even Walt's old train that he had going around his house to read, see, and take in!

Another big surprise.....parking was free!!! Affordable parking in San Francisco is a really big deal and free is pretty much unheard of! The Presidio is beautiful and we saw one of the most striking views of the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge from inside the museum. I highly recommend crafting your time to visit the museum the next time you are in this great city!

A kind stranger offered to take our pic before we left............me, Jenn, Monique, and Monique's husband, Matt. Monique is the crafty little sprite who introduced me to scrapbooking back in 2000! Thanks Nique!

And as a proper scrapbooker's husband, Matt took a pic of the three out of four Four Musketeers!! A little side note here.......I just love having another scrapbooker in our group! These fab friends are usually at our kidlets' birthdays and when they are, I have a perfect assortment of photos to come back to and scrap!!! And even better, her hubby always jumps in with the camera to help make sure we have those checklist photos that you need at all events from weddings to birthdays to vacations to day trips!! Thanks Matt!

Now, Jenn is creative as well.................but, I have more to share about her craft in another post (because this one is long enough, right?!) when I show you a little something that followed me to my home from hers!

Did you make it to the end????? I know, this was a long one (aren't you glad I broke that post up into two?! :>)....but, I had so much to share about such wonderful friends!! If you're here, still reading, give yourself a pat on the back, an extra cuppa, and a thank you & smile from me!

Don't forget to check out my Birthday Blog Giveaway HERE and comment......comments on all posts from February 6th, through the end of February earn you an entry into the giveaway for a Papertrey Ink gift certificate!!

Fantastic Friends make me Smile! {Part One}

Anything that makes me smile is a great thing and I've shared a few times those little things that make me smile, but one of the big things that give me a Chesire cat like grin are fantastic friends! And fun with those fantastic friends, is even better!

Delighted and lucky I have been to get to celebrate my birthday this year with so many wonderful friends!! (Hmmm...I sounded like Yoda there...oh well, I'm gonna run with it!)

When Claire called to invite me to come scrap in her new, fun, creative & scrappy studio with friends on Saturday (last Saturday), I was bummed to have to tell her that I already had plans. (You can read all about Claire-land and the fun the gals had over at Mamacow Creations!) And then I was absolutely delighted when she arranged for us to have lunch with some more friends and celebrate my birthday!!

We......Dana (of Paper Daydream), Claire, Elise (of Mamacow Creations), my Princess, and I met up at LSS Helene's Custom Framing & Scrapbooking to do a little shopping. And happily, there were lots of hugs and smiles, chatty time, and of course, crafty delights to check out. :> I left with a couple of embossing folders, while my daughter was intent on the pretty Prima flowers, I convinced her that I had some, er, um....okay, okay!.....so I've got a whole paper & silk flower garden for her to choose from at home!!

Then these fab ladies took my daughter & I to lunch and treated me to more scrampy goodies! Ahhhhh scrampy friends know the way to a scrampy gal's heart!! Stamps, papers, chipboard, mini albums, accents, an uber cute template, crafty goodies for my kidlets, smiles, chatter, wit, hugs, and laughter, oh my!! Truly a fabulous afternoon with friends that left me grinning and mighty happy!!

Now, what were those other plans that I had for last Saturday?? What would I give up a creative day with friends for??

Please come back to find out!! I had it all written up as one post, but it quickly developed into a novel and I didn't want to tire your eyes (or heaven forbid, bore you!) and decided to split it into two posts! So, please do come back as there is more fun to share.....AND.....the more posts I share with you, the more chances you have to read, comment, and earn more entries in my Blog Birthday Giveaway for a Papertrey Ink gift certificate!!

INSPIRED: artist Charles Clary

Edited to add: The artist that I took inspiration from, Charles Clary, left a comment here with his BLOG....please do check it I out, I know I will! :>

Have you seen the February issue of WIRED magazine? The bit I am specifically asking those of you who love papercrafting, art, beauty, and the truly inspired is the article on paper artist, Charles Clary. There are a series of pictures of his work there. He hand cuts his paper and layers them perfectly for free form, amoeba-like shapes. My jaw just dropped when Hubby pointed the article out to me. After looking for more of his inspirational work online, I found his resume at The Rymer Gallery and a collection of photos of even more of his amazing art!

Charles Clary definitely inspired me! I used Kazan's Sketch 46 from 2 Sketches 4 You, flipped it vertically and started playing. And oh how much fun I had playing!

I started by stamping the nested outline heart stamp from Papertrey Ink's Heart Prints.....it looked like the layered papers from Charles Clary's pieces to me.....only in a single stamp! I liked how airy his pieces feel, so I stamped on transparency with Staz On and colored the images in with Bic Mark Its. I played with those, Sharpies, and the handful of Prismacolor markers I have and they all will work well.

I used some Glossy Accents under the center hearts to adhere the transparency to the card base. Using the coordinating heart punch, I punched out three, adhered them together, and glued the hand cut out heart on top, and then freehand cut (that was a challenge for me!) two more layers for a bigger heart. I punched out several more hearts, adhered them together and used them to lift up the nested heart center piece (foam tape or pop dots would work the same, but since the transparency is reflective, I didn't want it white....yes, you could just color it, but I had the heart punch handy). Wanting the largest heart to stand out a bit more, before I glued the whole smackaroo onto the card, I ran a black marker around the edge. Not sure that I like that, but it does help to define it more.

Pink Elephant's challenge this week is to use ribbon.......that should make room for lots of us to play!

Are you inspired by Charles Clary's art?? I would love to know what you think. And if you are so inspired to create something yourself, leave me a link so that I can come see!! :>

Don't forget about my Blog Anniversary Giveaway and to comment! You can read about it HERE and find out how you can get in on it!


Supplies:
Cardstock: Marigold Morning - Stampin' Up!
Ink: Black - Staz On
Stamps: Heart Prints - Papertrey Ink
Punch: Heart by EK Success (purchased at PTI), Corner Rounder - Marvy UCHIDA
Markers: Bic Mark It
Ribbon: Stash (bought it awhile back....think I got it in Michael's dollar bin)
Transparency: Office Depot

First Blog Birthday for Me, Giveaway for You!

Toes are a tappin'. A smile is on my face. And I'm getting on my Happy Dance! Its not pretty, let me tell you....coordination is most definitely not my strong suit. But, I sure can tap those toes and smile, bright and big and like that Chesire cat!

One year ago, I finally left the mere ideas and thoughts of maybe someday possibly blogging and actually started one. I wasn't sure that I would have enough time. And then Papertrey Ink was celebrating their second anniversary and I wanted to play along. It gave me the final push to stop thinking about it and actually do it. And I needed a name for this adventure. I quickly realized that what I would be doing is crafting my time, and Time Crafted was born.

While I thought blogging could be fun, I never realized just how rewarding of an experience it would be! I love reading each comment made and I treasure the connections that I make with such wonderfully creative, witty, and fun people all over the world! Thank YOU for visiting and being such a joy in my life!!

February is quite a fun and celebratory month for me. I was engaged in February eleven years ago, my birthday is in a handful of days, there are several family and friends' birthdays this month, Valentine's Day, and now a blog birthday too! Since blogging has been a present all wrapped up in paint, paper, ribbons, bows, bling, and creativity for me, I thought it's time for a present from me to you! And since it was Papertrey Ink's anniversary celebrations last year that gave me the final push to jump into this blogging adventure a year ago, I thought it would be appropriate to include them in my own anniversary celebration this year.

Who wants to help me celebrate my First Blog Birthday and win a $25 gift certificate to Papertrey Ink??

So, here are the deets........ Since the whole month of February is a celebratory month for me, I am leaving the giveaway open for the whole month for you. Every comment made on my posts in February, starting with this one, will give you an entry in the drawing for the PTI $25 gift certificate. If you like my blog, I would love for you to follow me, but it is not a requirement. And if you blog about the giveaway, you will get an additional three entries (either leave me the link in your comment or you can email me).

I'm looking forward to another fun year of blogging, creative play, meeting new people, and continued visits with so many of you! Thank you again for visiting me and sharing in this fun adventure!!

Source:
Spell with flickr

Who can {Resist} some Valentine love?!

Nichole Heady has issued another challenge this Day 5 of Papertrey Ink's anniversary festivities and I got on it. We've been asked to create using the emboss resist technique (Nichole has a video on her challenge post with a demo of this technique).

When I first started stamping over fifteen years ago, I used to emboss anything I could get my hands on. I worked in a rubber stamping store and always came home covered in ink, glitter, and embossing powder (I never said my creative process was neat!). And like many things that are played with over and over, embossing was put on the back burner for awhile and only fairly recently have I started playing with it again. This is one time I'm glad I can be a pack rat as I saved all my old embossing powders and have only bought one set of colored embossing powder in over a decade (I had a ton of stuff from when I started stamping.....just had to love a 50% employee discount, right?!).

For the background, I dug deep into that stash of stamps from the nineties and pulled out an old All Night Media sweetheart set......conversation heart stamps...too cute! It always feels so good to pull from supplies I've had stashed away. There are nine stamps in this set and I chose four to randomly stamp. This set has come in handy over the years as my son has used them a couple of times, back in his preschool days, for handmade Valentine's. I especially remember him using the heart that says, "COOL" quite often!

So, this is another flat card, but its not for the easy mailing, reasonable postage pile. I left the ribbon and bling off of it and stuck to the brown and red color scheme to keep it more masculine......because its for my Hubby! I've tucked it away and this time around, I am going to remember to not dump my camera's pics onto the family computer!! lol

Are your Valentine's made? I haven't decided if we're going handmade or the pre-printed uber cool character ones this year for my son's classmates yet. I suspect, like last year, that it will be the latter! Hope your week has been a good one and that you have a fun and peaceful weekend ahead of you!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Kraft & Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Sweetheart conversation hearts - All Night Media; love - Vap! Scraps (it was a dollar stamp from JoAnns, I think)
Ink: Creamy Caramel & Real Red - Stampin' Up!; Versamark
Other: clear embossing powder - stash

Happy Birthday PTI {Card Two}

Holey Camole Macarole! Leave it to PTI's Nichole to help me along with a FIRST! Two posts in one night....that is a first for me! :> So, there's one more card below for this same challenge. And again, I had the same plan of attack........attack??!!.....more like fun loving, child-like playtime!

Like the previous post, I colored this fun and whimsical image from Becky Oehlers with simple Sharpies and my lovely and favorite Spica glitter pens. Like I said, it felt like that free loving and fun of a child's arts & crafts time and for that, after coloring, I found myself smiling.

And again, another flat card to add to the easy mailing, uber reasonable postage stash! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink; White - Georgia Pacific
Image: Becky Oehlers for Papertrey Ink
Pens: Sharpies; Spica glitter pens - Copic

Happy Birthday {Papertrey Ink}!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their third birthday and we get the presents!! How cool is that?! Nichole Heady introduced the designers for PTI for 2010 and each of them designed an image for us to download.....Free! And it gets even better......you can link up a card (or seven!) with the birthday images the designers have given us and be entered for a drawing for a hot giveaway of seven PTI stamp sets! Its like a papercrafters stamping heaven with inspiration and oodles of goodies every day...definitely worth checking out (IF you are not already addicted, like so many of us are and ran there when the festivities started yesterday!).

I used the image from Beth Silaika of Freckled and Fun for a quick CAS birthday card. A little color from my trusty Sharpies, lots of sparkle from my favorite Spica glitter pens (the entire WISH is glitterfied....you may have to click on the photo to see the sparkle), and whole lotta Raspberry Fizz love make up this card. My favorite part about this card is that it is flat! Its nice to have some cards that easily go in the mail without tag board to pad it, packing tape to keep any bling from punching through, OR any increase in postage! I love my ribbon, bows, and multi dimensional bling, but I also really love having options. :>

Supplies:
Image: Beth Silaika for Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz & Plum Pudding - Papertrey Ink; White - Georgia Pacific
DP: Bitty Dot Basics - Papertrey Ink
Pens: Sharpies; Spica glitter pens - Copic