Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Celebrate good times...come on

I'm trying out my first submission to a card challenge, it is with C.A.S.-ual Fridays which has recurring challenges, I'm assuming on Fridays! Hee hee. (C.A.S. stands for Clean And Simple Designs) Anyway, I found some really inspiring card crafters via their site, and I decided to take the plunge and make one too. This week's challenge was to combine 3 elements of your choice from a tic tac toe board to create a card. Here's mine, I combined gems, punches, and flowers.

The gems were from paperstudio, as was the cardstock. The punch was a Martha Stewart flower punch, and I had some ribbon that coordinated nicely with my 'celebrate' acrylic stamp, inked up with my colorbox red ink.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

day @ the beach

As promised previously.... :)
 

CALYPSO ST BARTH beaded dress
$365 - calypsostbarth.com

Antik Batik dressy sandals
$225 - calypsostbarth.com

MICHAEL Michael Kors crocodile handbag
175 GBP - net-a-porter.com

H M metal jewelry
1.99 GBP - hm.com

Laurent Gandini butterfly earrings
$1,680 - net-a-porter.com

J Crew wool shawl
$60 - net-a-porter.com

the smoking glue gun

I awoke to find a message from the craft mafia urging me in no uncertain terms to update my blog. Well, it certainly worked to clear my blogger's-block. I'm just glad they didn't resort to mutilate my glue gun to get the message across a la "The Godfather" and the horse's head. (though I've never seen the movie, I still understand the message!!)

So here goes...the following combine some of my favorite things, a couple of which are graphic design, and themes/mood boards.

I have found there are some things on the internet that people just don't tell you about, you have to find out for yourself. Pinterest and Polyvore are just 2 such things. In the (my) world of craft, these have blown me away. But I'm going to share...

Pinterest lets you 'pin' photos of things that you like or find interesting somehow.

Polyvore is an amped up Pinterest where you can create mood boards with the entire internet (or anything you upload) at your disposal.

I've done this mood board type crafting before with scissors, paper, and glue, and let me just say that Polyvore is AMAZING. I always felt limited by the magazines I had on hand, and then not being able to keep track of what it was I had cut out for future reference. Sure, Polyvore is geared as a shopping site, but it is soooo much more. My secret ambition to be a graphic designer can practically come true. You must try it, but be aware, you will become addicted, just as I have, and you will be a polyvore adorer too. Read on to see my attempt at a polyvore 'set' page.

Party like a soon-to-be-6-year-old

So, just when I thought the uber crafting was done for the month, I got a phone call to serve as the crafty ringer for my dear niece's 6th bday party. While they live far far away in a secluded isle of Man(hattan), the crafty goods are goin on here in Houston, so I sprang into action.

The theme: a cooking party so we knew it had to be cute and yummy, all at the same time. My sister, (mother of bd grl...MoBDG) has the food part taken care of, thank goodness, since that isn't my bag. So it was up to me to come up with something to jazz up the chef's hats, aprons, and goody bags in time for the big day. The birthday girl also has ideas of her own, 'just suggestions' which are always welcome b/c she's a burgeoning crafter in her own right too! But I digress. She suggested we use white, red, and aqua for our color scheme. We were all over that.

And if you don't already know, my crafting passion often intersects with with my eco-obsessions, so I try to reuse whenever possible. So, it was kismet that the bridal shower from april also used RED! I made some yoyo-type flowers from left over (red/white) ribbon which will be pinned on the chef hats, and I sent those along with the ribbon so my sister can attach it to the aprons too, somehow. And, my nieces also came up with the genius idea to write "Chef ___ " on each one. So, I bought some iron-on transfer paper for that. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will work. :)