Warms My Heart

One of my biggest challenges when it comes to scrapping is cleaning up the scraps. I love cutting into new papers, but when it comes to working with the left-overs I'm often stumped! So when I see a card or an idea for using up scraps, I more than likely will try it! :)

This is just such a card -- made entirely of scraps!

I'm so loving this -- I think it's the colours. :) This is definitely a card sketch that I'm keeping around to use in the future! :) TFL

challenges: Crafty Sentiments Challenge: Use Your Scraps
Craftalicious Challenge: Thanks

Shades of Blue

Do you have a favourite colour when crafting??? Honestly I love purple...but if you'd look through my scrapbooks you would never know it! LOL Instead the blues will pop out! I'm always short on shades of blue papers. :)

Which gets me to my latest creation -- my latest Shades of Blue page.

I've been wanting to create a layout with photos from this family vacation way back in 2000 for like forever! I've had them all lined up in a photo album...but it's not the same as a scrapbook layout. But sometimes I just can't make myself cut up photos!!! LOL Or maybe it just takes some time for the idea to grow...

But I finally decided to go for it! In fact, the first photo I cut up, I went like really fancy! :) The photo was taken looking through a railing...giving it a unique shape...which I figured would look interesting, especially when outlined by borders. I used my Fiskar "In Stitches" border punch to outline the photo as well...and just loved the look! From that moment on, cutting the rest of the photos I wanted to use in the layout was easy! :) No, I don't have 4x6 photos anymore, but the layout looks great! :)

I added some big "family" rubons I've had in my stash just waiting for this layout. Don't rubons rock!!! I love them -- especially when they're like phrases and stuff! It's so awesome to simply rub on the message/quote rather than writing or printing it out.

So there you have it -- TFL :)

A Blessing For You

It's been such a busy/crazy two weeks for me...and the work just isn't slowing down. Which means the time I have to craft most certainly is! :( But I'm still managing to get a few minutes in my scrap room from time to time. :)

I was determined to get my "card lifting" project finished before tomorrow...and yes, after about two hours I came up with something I could live with. Honestly sometimes a card that seems to have such an easy layout turns into such a challenge to lift!!! I had the basic idea of what I was trying to create from the beginning, but when I sat down to actually DO IT, it was frustrating!

I cut out all the layers, and then fell blank!!! I went on the computer to try to come up with a verse or image to put into the center of my frame, when I came across some word art I was working on last week. I love this particular verse -- it's just perfect for any occasion! I added the butterfly image...and coloured it all green to match with my purple/green card. But when I added it to the card, I sat there thinking, "This card is soooooooooooo flat! It's sooooooooo boring!!!"

I looked around my scrap table...and saw some pre-made daisy flowers. I added one to the corner just to see what it would look like...and loved it! :) I also used up some bling from my stash for the flower "leaves" and added some greeen peals to make the corners just a little more interesting! :)

It's definitely not the fanciest card I've ever made, but it's growing on me. :) All it takes is some imagination...and you never know where you'll end up! :)

challenges:
I Did It Creations -- Keep it Simple
The 3 Muses -- The Printed Word
Secret Crafter -- Anything Goes

Stairs Card

I tend to stick to the basic fold-once type of card, although I have tried a few fancy fold cards in the past. My favourite is the triange-tri-fold card...i've made so many of those -- they're so cute and perfect for little note cards. :)

I was met with a challenge last Monday when the card to lift in the fiskateer gallery happened to be a split-step-card. Talk about being lost!!! I googled it (love that feature!!! LOL) and came up with instructions for how to do the folding and the measurements. I set out to follow the steps -- and ended up with a 6-plus inch card!!!!!!!! NOT a good thing!!! I didn't even try to embellish the card, 'cause I knew it would be a hopeless cause!!! I ended up giving up all together!!!


I knew I had to create some type of card for the challenge though, so today I attempted the split-step-card again. I sat down and tried coming up with my own measurements -- making the card about 4 inches square. I think the purple paper I started working with helped too, 'cause I loved the paper, so I WANTED the card to turn out! LOL

I added layers to the card, and then embellished it with flowers from my stash.

I didn't really like the card's lop-sided look. I wanted to make it look like a square card look. I came up with an idea of adding a little tag to the top "stair". I also thought it would be great if the message you write in the card isn't on display. With my tag idea, you can still display the card, but you have to take the tag off to read the message. :)

When it's fully assembled, it looks like this. :) I love how it turned out! This may be the start of something...

challenges: Heat Embossed the sentiment -- http://prairiefairydesigns.com/challenge/2010/09/week-35-embossing/ 

Other Card Form -- http://everybody-art-challenge.blogspot.com/2010/09/challenge-108.html 

My tag can move -- http://quixoticpaperie.blogspot.com/2010/09/quixotic-challenge-40-move-it-move-it.html  

http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/2010/09/fun-with-folds.html 

anything but square or rectangle -- http://creativeinspirationschallenge.blogspot.com/2010/09/challenge-42.html

Clever Cat

My cat Pumpkin had a litter of kittens about two months ago. We weren't home the night they were born -- only realizing the next morning that she was no longer pregnant. And she was wandering around the house...totally NOT worried about kittens!!! Let's just say, I was going crazy!!! I searched for hours...turned the house upside down -- top to bottom -- searched outside as well, but couldn't find a sign of them!!! Finally after about 3 hours of searching, my youngest sister finally found them -- in a barrel of wool!!!!!!!!!

I snapped a few photos thinking they were perfect scrapbooking material. And of course the photo's been lying on my pile 'cause I had no idea of a layout!

Then last week, as I was browsing through the fiskateer gallery, I saw a layout that had journaling written on lined black paper. I loved the look! And I remembered that I had a whole notebook of similar looking paper lying around (and since you can only use a silver gel pen to write it in, it's pretty useless) That is, until I decided to try incorporating it into a layout or two myself. :)

 Or course, I had to use my new fiskar 'in stitches' punch as well -- i love that look!!! Added some Material Girl papers as well...and finally topped the page off with lots of rub-ons. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would -- pretty cool, if I do say so myself! :) LOL

Can you believe there are actually 6 kittens in the photo -- they're so camouflaged you can hardly see!!! TFL

Success!!!

Wow!!! Wasn't the blog hop fun??? I just want to give a great big "THANK YOU!" to all of you who participated in the hop. You made the time and effort we put into it well worth the effort! And I would do another hop with all of you anytime!!! :) Thanks for all the comments as well -- you made my day!!! And totally inspired me in my craftiness!!! Thanks you guys! :)

Also, welcome to all my new followers!

Orange Blog Hop

Hi there! I'm so glad you decided to join us on our first-ever Fiskateer blog hop!!! Get ready to see a lot of orange!!! :)

If you have come from Jen's blog, then you are in the right place. If you stumbled across our Fiskateer blog hop, go to http://fiskateers.com/blog to start the hop from the beginning.

If you get lost along the way, here's a complete list of everyone in the hop: (there are 44 of us!!!!!!)

Fiskateer Blog
Debby Lewis #2852
Kelly Skystar #6446
Colleen Flathers #2970
Donna # 6036
Genevieve Rodriguez #839
Gretchen #51
Tifany Degough #5942
Peg Rounds #3675
Angela Daniels #009
Robin Stewart #6505
Sudie Alexander #97
Jennie Kaderabek #414
Jen Macnick #3213
Divinity #6688  (me)
Lyn Dwyer #1110
Kelly Jo Massicotte #936
Debbie Buckland #352
Connie M #627
Johanna Peterson #2812
Groovy Deb #2644
Shannon White #6394
Julie Overby #725
Mary Gibson #1121
Judy #5798
Rachel H #667
Tami Byer #804
Kate Blue #4529
Regena #6124
Katherine Schmitt #6847
Amy Sotolongo #2568
Lisa Simpson #5095
Betsy Burnett #2572
Marianne #6701
CraftySuz #6135
Jennifer Priest #2074
Lisa Falduto #1983
Keely Yowler #6398
Laura Bray #1150
Jan J/Far North #7263
Patti Behan #3651
Stayce Dewid #2985
doverdi #1329

WHEW!!! That's a lot of fiskateers!!!! :)

As you might have noticed, everyone is into orange today! It is after all the official colour of the fiskateer world...and we're all into sharing our passion for crafting...so we thought, "Why not combine the two!"

I made this card for the occasion. Orange is usually not one of my stronger colours to work with -- I always find it a challenge to come up with something (I like) when orange is involved. But this card came together nicely! And the more I look at it, the more I like it! :)

Since this is a fiskateer blog hop, I tried using as many fiskar items on my card as possible. I started off with using a new (for me) fiskar border punch along the sides...

Then I dry embossed a little with the fiskar shape boss...

 And finally I punched two daisies with my large fiskar daisy punch, and stacked them up to give a little 3D effect. :)

So there you have the breakdown of my card. :) I love working with fiskar products -- they're awesome!

If you'd like to learn more about us (fiskateers), visit the main website -- http://www.fiskateers.com/. We are a community of crafters, and we love to have other crafters join in the fun! Share you passion for crafting...or get inspired by other crafters. Fiskateers is the one stop to it all!! :)

Now head on over to Lyn's blog to see what she came up with! Thanks for stopping by...have a fiska-fabulous day!!!!!!!! And happy hoppin'.

~Divinity (fiskateer #6688)

Working with Combos

You know sometimes when you know two colours look great together, but when you try creating something you begin to doubt? LOL That was me working with this layout. One of my biggest problems when I scrap is colour combinations. Do they work??? does it look good??? should I change it up???

I've made a lot of cards with brown and pink, and they always look good. I love working with that combination -- so I tried taking it to my layouts. I wasn't impressed with my paper choice here in the beginning -- even tried changing the brown paper for some other shade of pink, but then decided that that would defeat the purpose! So I went back it what I had originally planned on using. It wasn't until I added the deep brown ribbon that I saw how good it all looked...but now I'm hooked! I have a pile of similar ribbon from our sewing stash all ready to be added to my future layouts! I love this look!!! :)

I also used my new fiskar border punch. :) It's called "in stitches" and I thought it would fit very good with the pink paper. (the punched border is around the photo mattting). I'm gonna have fun with that one for sure! :) TFL

Material Girl

I've joined a card lifting group on Fiskateers. Once a week, we get a card to lift. It's interesting -- the two cards that have been chosen to lift are definitely not my type. So although it's fun, it's also making me go out of my comfort zone, as far as card making goes, and try new things. But that's kind of why I joined the group in the first place -- you get inspiration and you try to use your imagination and creativity as much as possible, so your card doesn't look like an exact replicate of the card we are lifting.

So anyway, here's one I made today. It's pretty simple (but then so was the card we lifted! LOL) but it actually did take me quite a long time to come up with anything! In fact, I had to try a second time, 'cause I wasn't impressed with my first version I came up with.

What do you think???

I've entered this card into a challenge at Cute Card Thursday. They're looking for Material added to a card -- I think the lace here counts! :) I won this lace at Reasonable Ribbon Ramblings awhile back, and have been trying to come up with ideas of how to use it on a card or layout. This is the first card where adding this lacey ribbon has worked! :)
also added it to the Paper Play Challenge -- In Stitches
TFL

Creative Edges

A friend of mine recently lost her brother in a tragic accident. I've been trying to come up with a card idea to make a sympathy card, but everytime I sit down at my craft table I'm stumped!!! I tried a few different ideas -- tried working with some "thinking of you" card ideas I've created in the past, but they never seemed good enough. Then I saw a few cards in the fiskateer gallery with some amazing sympathy messages on the front, and I was inspired to try out that idea.

Here's what I finally came up with:

I've worked with fiskars fancy edged scissors and used them on my cards in the past, but recently I moved on to other techniques. It was fun to come back to this look -- I love it -- and no matter how many or how few layers you add to the card, it always looks good!!! :)

Once I got started, I couldn't stop!!!! Here's another one I did with the same idea:

TFL :)

Craft Your Days Away -- With Wing
A Pocket Full of Posies -- Winged Things