Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - pages 9 and 10

Hi there!

While we're on a roll, I thought we'd do another Look in the Book today.

I'm on pages 9 and 10 - they're both flowery, so I thought I'd talk about them together.

Very simple card, hey?

Who said punch art (or any art) needs to be complicated? Not me!

And look, there's no comma in the middle of the yellow circle, which means this card was made quite a long time ago. If you look at some of the flowers on page 9, you'll see what I mean by the comma. It's a comma, otherwise known as a reflection mark. A bit of pen detail goes a long way and really finishes off the flower.

I'd like to grab my virtual pen and put a comma in that middle above. If only I could...well, I could if I used Photoshop, but I don't. No comma for me.

No reflection mark? What's with all the non-ness of the reflection marks?

Once again, virtualness would come in here and I'd add that mark on there.

But still, a simple card, yes?

And little. It's just a gift tag about 7 cm square.

I had a lot of fun making all those layered flowers in the books. If you're looking at page 9, you'll see all the flowers. If you're not, you'll have to take my word for it :o)

Basically, I have a lot of different layered flowers on there. They're all flower punch pieces that have been layered on top of each other to create different looks. The finished flowers are arranged in a grid pattern on the page, so they're easy to look at. I also listed the punches in order from the base up, so you can make the same ones too if you like.

It's pretty fun to go to town with the punching by pulling out all your flower punches and punching them in a variety of colours. Then - the fun part - sitting down and layering them to make lots of different, funky flowers. We're not talking real flowers here, we're talking 'artistic liberties' flowers, okay?

Try it, it's lots of fun! Even my dad thinks so.

This card's from page 10. Actually the card isn't, but the concept of the daisy circles is.

There are three daisy circles on the page, a red, green and blue. On the card above, I extended the line and added two more. It's a simple look and you could stamp the greeting instead if you wanted to.

This guy's from page 10 too.

In the book he's dangling flowers, but obviously above, it's hearts. Still cute. Would've been good for Valentine's Day just gone. Oh, and look, the hearts have commas/reflection marks. See how they finish them off?

I included lots of flower pages in the book because most of us like flowers, right? And there are so many different types.

Guess which flower is the most popular?

Yep, that daisy (in the medium size). I think it's because it's a nice shape, but also because most people have a regular hole punch at home that could be used for the middle. Job done. A winner, for sure.

And the kids on the scrapbook page on page 10? That's Luke, my nephew, and Sarah, my niece. I won't tell you how old they are now because that would make me feel old. They've grown, let's leave it at that, shall we?

And just in case you're wondering why my dad thinks making layered flowers is fun, here's the little story I put in that little column on page 10.

"Dad was watching me create flowers. I asked him if he wanted to make some, but he declined. Guess who was busy making flowers later? Here's a few he made!" and the few are shown below.

To add more to the story - Dad's a pretty detailed person and he was watching me make the flowers like he was interested, but not interested, you know? I left the room to do something and came back and here he was putting them together. I chuckled and we made flowers together. I didn't tell him I was going to put his in my book, so when he saw them in there he got a bit of a surprise. Actually, no one in the family saw any of it until it was all done. I put little things through it as little surprises for them. That was fun.

Mum also had a pretty tricky idea too, but you'll have to read the book to find out what it was! Just a note, it was pretty tricky then, actually it's still pretty tricky now. Good on you, Mum.

(I can see her going to get her copy of the book to check out what her pretty tricky idea was! ha ha)

Well, that's it for pages 9 and 10. Must sit down and make me some layered flowers! What about you?

Have a great day,

:o)

New classes scheduled

Hey there and hello!

Just a quick post today to let you know that I've scheduled some extra classes for a couple that have booked out.

Embossing folders - 27 March is booked. New date: 10 April.

And Fun to Make Flowers Follow-Up - 17 April is booked. New date: 24 April.

Hope to see you there!

Remember, if you can't make it you can always buy a kit. Details of classes and kits on side bar.

Thanks to everyone for coming to class and showing your enthusiasm by booking so early. I love teaching and love that you enjoy my classes!

And how about this guy? What a funny boy.

If you'd like to learn how to make him, check out Angie's video here. I've posted this guy before, but not on this card.

He was kicking around the in the cupboard by himself and I decided he needed to be used on something.

And that something is a smallish card (not as high as a regular one, but just as long) and the other something is October Afternoon paper.

Their stuff is something alright.

Enjoy your day!

:o)

Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - page 7/8 additions too

Well, howdy everyone!

We haven't looked in the book in a while, have we? You must've thought I'd forgotten...

(I had a little, but ebb and flow, ebb and flow)

So, where were we?

Ah, the big bee in a boat (Jan 20ish). An unseen sight, for sure. Unless you're looking in Punch Art Fun, of course.

You don't necessarily need to have your book open today because I'm posting some extra, never-before-seen (sounds like a television commercial) cards that you've, well...never seen before.

Remember these?

You've seen these four before...

You've seen that one above a few times! It's a goodie and I like the blog to be colourful - that's my justification for using it multiple times...

Yep, you've seen this.

Cute.

Check out the goggles.

And this.

You've seen this.

Bears swimming underwater like they can hold their breath for hours. They've been holding their breath for 9 years now, so they're doing well.

And this.

You've seen this.

What you haven't seen is some scuba diving gear on them.

I haven't seen that either. I don't think any of us will. Only in our mind's eye will we see that.

(Poor girlie in pink. I think she's sunk to the bottom. It's okay, darling, you're only made of paper, so you don't need air, okay?)

Right, below are the cards you haven't seen.

Let's scroll down, shall we?

What a way to spend an afternoon.

Lucky duck.

Watch out for drop bears! Oh, don't worry. They only come out at night...

Hello, flowers!

I think I pulled out every flower punch known to man at the time and went to town.

And don't ask me how I made the garden fork. I'm not being mean, I just can't remember!

Can't tell you how I made the hat either. Once again, no mean-ness, it's no memory.

So fun. Not the no memory, but the cards.

Looking at these makes me want to sit down and make something. Maybe not the actual card above (whoa, would take too much time to do that at the moment), but, you know, make something. Something fun.

Love all the food on this one.

Some of the food is shown from the side, some from the top. Hey, you do it how you can. I am, on this card, taking "artistic liberties", which means "you get my drift" and my drift is...there's food on that there blanket.

The other thing I love is the frog peeking out from the rock. Hey, froggie. Be careful, there's a big lizard coming up behind you.

(Have you seen Miss Potter? Gorgeous movie. She talks to her characters too)

And here we are in the forest, or at the park, or at the park on the edge of the forest.

After bringing every sports ball to the park, the Bears decided to play footy. And the tiny, weeny baby bear is looking on waiting for the day when he too can join in the family game.

So, what'd you think?

(and I'm talking about the cards, not my commentary, okay? I know my commentary is silly)

I made the four beach cards (years ago) and decided I wanted to make four land cards to go with them (land cards? Doesn't sound like a good name, now does it? Land cards. What else you I call them? Grass cards? Park cards? Sounds like a car park. Okay, land cards it is for want...much want...of a better word)

So, I made these four cards featuring green...(don't like the land cards name, so I'm refusing to use it).

Enough of names, let's talk punches!

I'd like to draw your attention to the level of the grass. Note how it starts at about a quarter of the height, then half, then three-quarters, then full?

Similar to the beach and the water, see? Halfish, quarter, three-quarters, full.

The height of the grass (or water) was the foundation on which I built the cards - and it helped decide the theme for each card.

Which do you like the best?

My favourites are the beach one with the girlie under the umbrella, the garden and the picnic ones. So cute!

And you know what? I don't know if I could even make these cards now...make them, yes (could I? Glory be, not sure if my fine motor skills are up to it).

What I'm trying to say is...I don't know if I could come up with these now...not sure. Things change, I've changed - it's okay.

I can love them though and I love them a lot.

I remember making them and the fun I had and how many times I smiled and how just so fun it was. I said fun twice, but it was.

That's why I called the book Punch Art Fun.

Fun it was, and fun it still is!

If they were so fun, why aren't they in the book you say? There just wasn't room. I decided to leave them out because I had the four beach cards. I don't regret the decision, but I'd put them in if I was making that decision now. They were so much work, they deserve to be in the book. Oh, well. Glad you're getting to see them now.

Have a great day!

Debra :o)

PS. I just found two spelling mistakes - I had site instead of sight. And googles instead of goggles. It's a computer world!

More cutie patootie...

Hey there,

Thought I'd share some more cutie cards with you today - and at a reasonable time too!

When making baby cards, it's really appropriate, or easy, or just best (I think) to keep things simple.

Oh, cute (wonder how many times I'll say cute this post).

It's amazing what you can do with a bear punch...

Yep, this little girlie was a bear originally. Just chop the ears off (it's hard the first time, but then you move on) the bear and you've got a girl, or a boy.

So cuuuute.

And if you punch the bear in orange and chop again, you've got a gingerbread man.

And in keeping with things staying simple, I resisted the urge to do anything else to the little cards (they're only little). The only other thing I'd add would be faux stitching with a tracing tool around the edge.

Hey, cuties.

Love making these little babies because they've got so much personality. And whoever said that circles are boring, is wrong, wrong, wrong. Circles are the star here with hearts and flowers to help them out.

Simple shapes = great stuff.

This technique is called box trimming. You make your bits, glue them overlapping the edge of the square and then trim the excess. So easy and fun to do - and you can do it with anything...animals, flowers, fish...whatever.

Oh, CUTE!

Once again, circles and hearts. Gotta love 'em.

Gotta chop 'em too!

Note the use of the corner chomper in the corners again (which is where you would use a corner chomper, Debra!).

Sorry, can't comment on this one...

I'm on the floor and someone needs to come and wipe me up with a spatula.

Can you tell I love punches?

And on that theme...

Here are some videos of Martha Stewart's booth at CHA - there's three.

This one's about punches.

This one's about tools.

This one's about her glitter.

And EK Success.

This one's about their new borders - 78 new ones! Far out.

This one's about their new corner punches that can be used in three ways.

I'm here with a spatula if you need me!

Cup of tea

Hey there blogging friends,

Wow, I'm late tonight, aren't I? Usually post way before this.

I've just done a toad run (gotta check there's none outside - they're poisonous to dogs) and before that I watched My Kitchen Rules. I couldn't imagine eating dessert at midnight either. And I love Queenslanders! The people, and the houses, that is. Did you see that verandah? Oh, fab.

And it's Monday night. Monday night is supposed to be craft night. I'm obviously not crafting, am I?

Not going so well with the crafting on Monday nights so far. Oh, well. At least I'm talking about it - it's a start. :o)

Do you have a crafting routine? I'd be interested to know. As with most things these days, I imagine most people would have to be quite intentional about it.

Thought I'd show these stamped cards using this set of stamps from Basic Grey. It's from their Nook and Pantry collection.

I'm not a stamper, but I've been stamping a bit lately. I tend to add it to what I already do (add a greeting or a background), but these cards are completely stamped and stamped only. Wow, another milestone.

I'm not completely sure what the blue ink is? It's more of a greeny blue, rather than a blue blue. I know the reds, pinks and purples are from this set from Colorbox called Tulip Field. Scroll down and you'll see it.

You'll see all the others too, what a great site.

Buying your inks in sets like the Colorbox ones is good I've found because the colours work nicely together and store easily too.

And to finish each card I did two things.

One: I put glue in the cups and sprinkled some glitter on. You could use Stickles as an alternative.

Two: I used my favourite purple Corner Chomper from We R Memory Keepers to chomp the corners. They're still rounded, but they're just that little bit different. Really like that corner. And of course the chomper lets you do it on all four sides.

Three: (I'm adding this third one) I smiled and left them on my desk for a while so I could look at them. Who knew that pinks, purples, reds and a blue would look good together? Not me.

And a couple of links you might enjoy - new stuff, of course!

New Cuttlebug stuff - this will take you to a video.

The Cuttlebug range now includes 13" plates, some new Cut and emboss folders, Emboss plus (not sure if I'm getting all the names right) and some quilling borders. Make sure you stick around to see those, I'm not into quilling, but you could so put those flowers on a card, or on a box. Nice.

Did I also mention the new Cuttlebug folders? Can't remember. There's a dominoes one, clock one and a letter one. And more too.

New Sizzix stuff - video too.

It's all about die-cutting. Tim Holtz is coming out with a new die cutting machine (button operated) and some new steel rule dies to match.

If you could make up your own dies, what designs would you come up with?
Edited to add: I just found this. Tim Holtz has designed some embossing folders too. Once again, if you could come up with your own embossing folder designs, what would you do?

And here's another book binding tool from We R Memory Keepers. It's called the Cinch and makes making books a cinch. I love that you can pull the buttons in and out to punch/not punch the holes. Good idea.

And you've got to look at this - so cute. The Scor-Pal people are bringing out a Scor-Buddy. Great for card makers!

Lastly for today, Provo has brought out a Cricut Cake. It's a die cutting machine made purely for the kitchen, so you can cut fondant - you know, the stuff that you put on your cakes? What will they think of next?

It's now 11:14pm (I've had a few distractions since I started writing this). It's still Monday night and I'm going to do some crafting!

Bye now!

Cutie patootie...

It's Friday, freaky Friday? No, just Friday.

Have a bunch of cards to show you today - well, it's a bunch of the same one.

We have a new little nephew in the family and Mum and I broke out the craft stuff and made some thank you cards at my sister-in-law's request.

Mum arrived and three hours later we decided we should actually start doing something. You know what it's like when girlies get together - yakkity yakkity yak!

We made 30 cards in the end. Some were big (regular size) and some were small (10 x 10 fronts).

We couldn't decide on the card size and it was Mum who came up with the idea of the two sizes, so there was a choice. You know, a lengthy note, or a quick one. A good idea, I thought.

Ah, cute. Oh, so cute.

These were fun to make. Mum and I had a production line going - she embossed (Sizzix folder), I did the faces. She punched, I cut the card bases. Not in that order, but you get the picture.

We pumped them out in about 3 hours at the most and we pumped the music to get us going too!

Stamped inside as well.

This counts as my first official foray into stamping inside a card! Wow. A milestone.

Lucky I bought the blue ink the week before, hey? And I didn't even buy it for this. I just bought it because I needed a blue. It turned out to be just the right colour. Oh, nice one! Don't you love it when it all comes together?

And this is unfortunately not a good photo because I snapped it at my desk without much in the way of decent light - just wanted a record of the card I made for my brother and his family (and the new baby).

It's all October Afternoon - Ducks in a Row, Farm Fresh and probably some Report Card thrown in there too. I think that Happy label is from Cherry Hill! Anyway, you get my point about mixing and matching the lines, right?

Well, that's it for this week. See you next week!

:o)

PS. The duck card is A5. Big ones are good. This one was hand-delivered, so no postage to consider.

PPS. All the baby cards were chomped on all four corners with the Corner Chomper from We R Memory Keepers. That's the beauty of that tool, you can do all the corners, not just the individual ones. The rounded corners gave them the finishing touch. Mum and I both gave the nod to that one.

PPPS. I was going to round the two bottom corners of the duck card, but forgot. Rats.

PPPPS. The bill for the 30 cards was $1000, payable in dinners and family get-togethers over the next 50 years.

More new stuff...

Hey there and happy Thursday to you!

Remember these cards I posted months ago using Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird and Girl Friday lines?

Well, they've done it again and bought out some great new stuff for us to play with, so I thought I'd share some links with you.


(Still love that toaster card - so fun)

Firstly, here's a video of their booth at CHA.

Or if you want a quick look at all of the papers - check here (Jan 14).

Material Girl is based around sewing, notions, cottons, tape measures and patterns. A fun home-spun line and as Wendy Smedley said, "Right on trend."

Garden Variety is very springy and bright. Love the blue cow and the chickens with long legs. They look like mine! My punch art chickens, not my legs :o)

Joy Ride is more muted - it's about the vacation or the stay-cation as Lindsay says (guy in video). Loving the coloured ledger papers they do!

And click here to see a photo of their new buttons (Jan 19) - very pretty and practical because who doesn't need a button or two to go with the paper?

And while we're talking paper - check out Basic Grey's new Basics line (this link is a video - she starts talking about it at 1:06). So great. Why hasn't anyone done this before? Cosmo Cricket should with their ledgers. And include a music background too!

Click here to see all of Basic Grey's new stuff (link to website). The one I'm talking about above is called Basics and is a mix of ledgers, dots, grids etc that can be used for anything. Really, it's just fab and has created so much buzz.

Now hopefully someone will do a coloured line of cool background basics too. If so, you'll have to pick me up off the floor with a spatula.

:o)

And two more things you might be interested in today. Glimmer Mist has got some new fun misty things - Glimmer Glam, Glimmer Glaze and a Chalkboard spray (I think!).

Check here Heidi Swapp's in this video.

And here. It's a video too with another lady.

Enjoy!

Class kits!

Hey there!

Sorry to keep using the same photos over again, but I don't like posts without pics.

I've put this one in (it's from my Christmas 2009 Class) for visual reference and a bit of colour!

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Okay, the kits. I mentioned yesterday that I'm now offering kits for the classes I teach at Photo Continental.

This has come about because some ladies can't come to class for various reasons, but would still like to participate somehow.

Is that you?

Well, you no longer have to be "punch art-less" - how exciting! You can be "punch art-more", or "punch art-full", or just happy....let's go with happy. I'm not sure Mr Oxford would like me making up those weird words.

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How do the kits work?

Glad you asked.

Here's how:

* You'll email me to book a kit of an upcoming class - "Debra, I would like to book a kit for your Easter Cards class on March 20."

* "Sure!" and I'll email you with my bank details.

* You'll pay by bank transfer into my account.

* You'll send me a quick email to say you've paid for the kit. Please include your full name and address details in this email.

* I'll record your booking in my diary and punch out for you when I punch out for the class (usually the week the class is on).

* I'll send the kit to you after I've taught the class. This'll give me time to add to the kit, or adjust it, depending on how it all went in class.

* I'll also send you an email with photos of the finished cards for you to refer to when you're putting your kit together (example of photo above).

Sound okay?

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Other things to note:

- I'll need your booking for the class by the "week of" the class. The classes are held on Saturdays, so I'll need your booking by the Monday of that week. The class timetable is on the side bar of the blog, so just have a look there for dates etc.

- Sometimes I punch early in the week, sometimes I punch late. If you're not sure, just email and I'll include you in the class if I can, okay?

- I will not make up kits that haven't been paid for.

- If you receive your kit and have any questions about how to put it together, just email me and I'll be happy to help you.

- Your kit may, or may not, come with written instructions. I'll cross this bridge as I come to it as the level of instruction varies with the classes.

- Sometimes a class is cancelled, which is why I don't punch until the week of. If this happens for a class you've booked, I'll refund your money, or send you a kit of a future class. Your choice!

- At this stage I can't prepare one kit for a specific class - they need to be punched as a part of the larger class.

- I can do 3 or more kits of different classes, that's fine.

- If you'd like to buy multiple kits of the same class for you and your friends to put together, that I can do too. Gosh, I'd do that myself :o)

- If you're not sure, ask! It's fine, I won't bite.

- Your kit will contain the bits and pieces to make the cards etc for the class only. You will need to use your own consumables such as pens, glue, tape and glitter glue. Okay?

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And lastly, the cost:

# The cost of the kit is $29, which includes postage.

# For that you will receive the bits to make (usually) 6 things - mostly cards, sometimes tags or a box or similar. If something is quite involved, there will be 5 things. My Fun and Simple class has at least 9 things!

# Just to clarify, yes, you're paying full price for the class. You're paying for the kit bits, but also for the time it takes to put it together including taking photos etc. Believe it or not, it takes more work to put a whole kit together than it does to punch it out for a class. You wouldn't think so, hey? It's simply because I usually have to do some extra steps, so you can put it together the same way we have in class. I can't assume you have that Cuttlebug folder, or that Martha punch etc, so I'm happy to do those things for you, but they take extra time. Make sense?

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Okay - I think that's about it!

Please feel free to email if you have any questions.

Hope to see you in "class" soon!

Debra :o)

PS. Due to the fact that this is a new service I'm offering, I would appreciate your understanding as I work through any issues. I always try to foresee how things will work, but it's not always possible to predict (and thwart) everything. I will do my utmost to help you and get a "piece of happy" into your hands, be sure of that!

Kits and bits...

Hey, how are you on this not-so-fine-but-I'm-glad-about-it Tuesday?

Yep, it's raining. And it stormed last night. And it stormed earlier today, which makes it significantly cooler right now.

Still stuffy, still muggy, but cooler. Phew.

So while I've been watching this...

(we've had so little over it over the last 6/7 years I find myself at the window watching it come down. Nothing like the rain and a good old storm)

...he's been doing this.

He doesn't normally come in during the day, but rainy days are an exception. Might have to take him for a walk in the rain later...needs to have some playtime somehow!

Edited to add: We took him for a walk in the rain like I said. He loved sliding around in the mud and even went for a swim in the pond with the ducks! I had my hand on my throat there for a bit, but we won't talk about that...

Here's a cute card for you.

I made this years ago with my sister-in-law under the tarp while we were camping. I know, punch art and camping and "can't you leave it at home, Debra" but we were in the middle of a paddock for four days and we needed something to do.

Yes, literally in the middle of a paddock which meant no toilet (we dug our own and put a tarp around it) and no shower.

Like, no shower.

There wasn't a shower.

We did not shower for four days.

(I can hear the gasps!)

Anyway, we did craft under the tarp and challenged ourselves to make a card using two punches only - the duck and the candy. Why we chose those two, I'll never know. Not like you can do much with a duck really.

Great weather for ducks today, so I decided to share the card!

And on that note...remember how I said yesterday that Monday night's the night for crafting? Too hot last night, so I was gone. Next Monday night's the night!

Kits, kits, kits!!!

I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'm now offering kits of the classes that I'm teaching at Photo Continental.

Have you ever wanted to come to a class, but couldn't because of work or family commitments?

Have you called to book, but found the class was full?

Now what you can do is buy the kit!

All you need to do is email me (address on side bar) to book a kit, pay by bank transfer and I'll punch out the kit for you when I punch for the class.

I'll do another post to explain it a bit further, but for now, just know I offer kits!

I'm teaching my Fun and Simple class this weekend and it's full. If you'd like to purchase a kit of the class, just email me. I'll be punching on Thursday!

This is a good class to start with if you're new to punch art because the cards are simple and easy to put together. And there's at least 9 cards in the class - yes, 9! Because they are simple and easy I was able to include 9.

Did I tell you there was 9?

Email me if you'd like a kit!

And lastly for today - October Afternoon. Oh, I looove their stuff! I made the cards above from the Farm Fresh collection they released last year. So fun.

(PS. The cards are A5 - liking the big ones right now)

Here's a couple of links to see their newest things from CHA last month.

Video of their booth at CHA.

New Fly a Kite line. You'll see pics of papers better here.

New Thrift Shop line. Same here too - pics of paper here.

What do you think? On your must-have list?

They're doing a mid-release too, which is good to know (they did Farm Fresh and Report Card last year with Very Merry around Christmas).

The other thing I like about their stuff is that you can mix and match their lines. Niiice.

Enjoy!

Bits and pieces!

Hello!

My, it be warm today! Phew!

Definitely in the middle of summer over here. A storm's predicted sometime in the next day or so, I think, so hopefully it'll come to cool us off. That'd be nice.

I've been re-organising the cupboard in my room again.

It's a revolving door cupboard. So much goes in and out of it all the time...I need to store so much stuff! Boxes, stationery, samples - lots of bits and pieces.

Had a good look at it and got rid of (ie. moved to another room) stuff I need to keep, but that I don't use. Be gone, I say! And it is. Thank goodness.

Took the photo above after I'd cleaned out most of the top shelf. You'll be happy to know that it's much more organised now. I'm sure that just made your day! ha ha.

While I had the camera out, I took a photo of these Sullivans punches on my desk.

Bought any of them?

They're very cool, work b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l-l-y and they're smooth, smooth, smooth to punch. Love 'em!

I bought the big daisy because it goes with the Carl ones I have. Hello? It's a given.

And I use the scallop rectangle as the address label on all the envelopes I make. It's a great size for writing an address and the post people are happy because they can actually read the address on the colourful, patterned envelopes I make. Nice.

I've showed you this scrapbook page before.

I put this page together last July I think it was. I did about 14 pages then and didn't journal on them at the time because we were all yapping and I couldn't concentrate on the writing and I had the intention of doing it later. Remember that?

Big mistake...

Well, I'm happy to report that I've officially written the journalling on all those pages. Yay! (Only took me 6 months to get around to it)

And the next time I scrap with company, you'll find me sitting at the table with cotton wool in my ears for the couple of mins it takes to do the journalling on each page because I'm not going to leave it again...

I've showed this photo before too. It's of my December Daily (Christmas) book.

I've not touched this project.

Actually, I have.

I've made the pile neater, that's all I've done.

I think I'll re-name it December Yearly...

In order to combat untied bows (you know, incomplete projects) I'm going to set aside a night a week to work on them.

Monday night's the night!

It's still warm. I started writing this about 20 mins ago, and it's still warm.

And there's no sign of rain. It's looking a bit sultry in the south, so there's still hope.

Oh yeah, Monday night might be the night for crafting, but it's gotta to be a certain temperature in here for comfortable crafting. If the paper sticks to my arms, I'm gone!

Okay, must go, time for lunch and to see if there's any shade to wash the dog in :o)

The last of the Love cards...

...for you today.

These cards were made with the Heart Attack line from We R Memory Keepers. I liked the rabbit and wanted to make one of my own for one of the cards. Really liked the argyle pattern too.

I bought just three pieces of paper from the line, I think. Honey Bunny (rabbit on it), Crush (argyle) and Valentine (writing).

Do you do that? Just buy a couple of sheets from one line? Or do you buy the whole thing?

On this first set I cut the rabbit out of the paper and used it as the embellishment. The rest is a strip of writing cut from one sheet with the argyle in the background.

The argyle gives the card a bit more of a manly feel, which is necessary since the whole thing is red and pink. Okay, so it's not really manly, but Valentine's Day isn't really a manly holiday, is it? :o) Hmmm, no.

The squiggly border in the background is a border die from Sizzix. Two squiggles come on the border - smaller one here and bigger one on the last card below.

(Above I've linked you to the Decorative Strips page on the Sizzix site - I couldn't find the die I used on there. Maybe you will!)

Set number two with a smaller rabbit this time. He was cut from the 6 x 6 section on the back of the argyle sheet. The above link will show you what the papers look like if you haven't gone there already.

Ah, and the Marvy scallop and square combination is back in play. Welcome back, fellas. Oh, that's right, you never left. Well, thanks for sticking around. You've been great.

Okay, so that's my way of saying...just do what you like and like what you do! I like scallop squares at the moment, so I'm going with it.

The whole set called for a bit more punch, so I made the envelope in red for a bit of impact in the letterbox.

This one's my favourite because it's got punch art on it and because I love the argyle envelope.

Yep, cute. Like this one.

Hey, you know yesterday how I was talking about just being who you are and crafting to suit you rather than a kit or other people or whatever?

Well, I actually didn't talk about you crafting to suit others, but I will briefly now.

Of course you craft for yourself, don't you? You don't worry about what people think about your crafting, do you? You don't try to keep up with the Jones' because you feel the pressure to be great and perfect at it all, do you?

You don't worry about it at all? Oh, good, that's the way it should be.

Case and point.

I was a bit of a craft snob when I first started and would only use certain colours and never cheap cardstock or anything because it wasn't sophisticated, you know? Oh no, I wouldn't use sky blue, only navy for me, or some such rubbish. It really was quite ridiculous, but I remember being quite intentional about it at the time.

Anyway, over the next few years I discovered brighter colours and that I liked cute.

Cute chooks.

Cute cows.

Cute bears.

You know, cute.

Well, cute's not sophisticated, is it? I wanted to be sophisticated, because that was where it was at.

That's where I thought it was at. For me. But it wasn't. For me.

Years later, I had a revelation that I loved cute and that it was okay and I should embrace it. It made me smile, remember? That was the purpose of it from the beginning, remember?

Now I embrace the cute I like, the colours I like and love, love, love it.

Cute's not sophisticated, but who cares? Sophisticated is not me. Cute is. I love it and that's that.

Really, it's quite freeing...

Ah, cute.

Cuter!

Have a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!

:o)