Mojo booster

 Need a card makin' Mojo Boost?
Here is a database of a bunch of card sketches.
As for me... I gotta quit gawkin' and start buildin'.
I've got a wedding album to build and a card box to fill.

WMD - Dude! Where's My Desk?

 No, I don't live on the East Coast and this is not the result of a natural disaster; FEMA is not on it's way for cleanup. This is my workspace while I'm making cards from scraps. What you see here is the box of small bits I'm using for small bits cards. The boxes of large plain and patterned scraps are on the floor below and the drawers of card sized, and nearly confetti sized, scraps are on the other size of the room with the ribbon. Sometimes I have to create ways to force myself out of my chair so my legs don't shrivel up and fall off. The notepad between the donuts and the Pepsi (Breakfast of Champions!) has sketches of the cards I hope to make today.

Below is the latest contribution from the Perfect Pages Kit remnants. These are the remains of the All Occasion kit. The pinwheel sketch and instructions are on the OWH site and the smile card sketch is this week's I Spy Sketch.

ISSC#42

Another card from my scrap drawer, inspired by this week's sketch at  iSpy Sketches. It's a simple sketch that works.

The stamp is from the CTMH Friendship Word Puzzle set. A nice alternative to "Love".

I made the bow on my hand made Bow Easy Style bow maker. The Bow Easy is the greatest invention ever for those of us who are bow challenged. I left the tails long and wrapped them around the element. It lays as flat as a plain knot but gives a little "dressier" look to the simple card. I love that I have a choice of nice bows or cutesie knots. Maybe if I'm a good girl I can talk Santa into bringing me a real Bow Easy for Christmas.

WMD - Let's go fly a Kite

More cards from scraps! Hooray! The sketch for these fun Kites once again comes from the OWH Using Scrap Tutorial.

All you need to make a kite is: dark cardstock at least 4.5x6.5 (I ran out of black scraps and started using pages from a Matstack. It was a perfect fit, no margin for error.) and two coordinating scraps about 1 3/4x4. If they are a little wider they can be a little shorter, and if they are a little narrower you can make your kites a bit smaller. I made one change in the assembly: I glued the top corner then cut it off and brought the scrap down to the bottom corner. That probably won't make any sense until you watch Sandy's video and make your own kite. The kite tut is at the very end of the very informative and inspiring scrap wrangling video.

Life is too short to craft with ugly paper

The tutorial for these cool Starburst cards is on the OWH website. Fun, easy and nice to have something different. And as a special bonus the Starburst card is the I Spy Sketch this week. I'm going to post mine for reals this time.

As I was fussing with the remnants of the "Love" Perfect Pages kit I remembered struggling to find a way to make it make me happy when I used it on calendars. All I have left is the solid pink and tan paper that don't match any of the embellishments, which is why I didn't use them in the first place. But I wanted to try the Starburst so I saw this as an opportunity for experimental crafting; if I failed I wasn't out much. As I was finishing up these cards the voice of reason came to me and said, "Let's go watch Vampire Diaries." That Girl Child knows just what to say to lead me astray. So I tossed the ugly paper and most of the embellishments that came with it. I'll do more starburst cards another time with paper I love.

Inspiration

I managed to get 9 cards from the remains of the Colorbok Perfect pages kit, Inspiration. (One got lost in the bits pile and I didn't find it until after the photo was taken. Sorry, no make-up day for blog pix.) I don't use much purple but it is the Hub's favorite color and I liked the combo with the green.

These three sketches, Pinwheel, Smalls and Gift boxes, were from Sandy's OWH scrap wrangling tutorial aptly named: Using Scraps. Sandy has great ideas, complete with suggested measurements, about keeping card making bits from taking over your world. GO! Watch! DO!
 
Next kit remains to tackle: LOVE...just in time for Valentines Day. Don't forget the All Things Spring box ships in six weeks.

Bits only a crazy person would keep

You know I occasionally refer to my scraproom as a landfill because it is stuffed full of "stuff", much of it inaccessible because of the sheer quantity. I really am trying to gain control of it a bite at a time. Last week I was working on the never ending project of getting scraps under control. I found a drawer in one of my towers labeled: "Bits only a crazy person would keep." That about sums up my hoarding issues.

I find myself on the lookout for sketches for cards that use small scraps of paper. I hate throwing them out but I also don't want them hanging around. Here is a nice sketch from Valerie Salmon. It was chosen as the sketch for the DCWV design challenge for November 2, 2012. Go check out the samples, grab some of your own scraps and get 'er done!

Reverse Nestablilites

Have you met Gina K. at GinaK Designs/ StampTV? No? Well now's your chance. As I've cruised YouTube, astonished at the amazing things people do with paper, Gina's videos keep popping up. She makes beautiful cards and makes it look so easy. For example, in  this video she demonstrates a technique she calls Reverse Nestabilities. Turns out I don't own any Nestabilities, but I do own Make-the-Cut. So I just used similar shapes to create a cut file for the same effect.

The card on the left is the Reverse Nestabilities technique. If you look closely you can see that the whole card front is popped up so only the bottom layer of the butterfly and the sentiment are actually on the card. Pretty cool. The card on the right uses the leftover cutouts. Easy, clever and I got 8 cards from 3 sheets of paper, butterflies included.

Credit where credit is due: Paper and Ribbon is American Crafts. Stamps are Fiskars. Butterfly svg is SVGcuts.com from the Cheryl's cute bugs collection.

Lucky to Know You

This is the I Spy Sketch this week. It's simple but they have done some lovely things with it. Check it out HERE .Then grab a bundle of scraps and make a card. Easy! It's a nice sketch to show off your cute paper and a fun element.

I think Leprechauns should have as much gold as possible so I heat embossed the clover for good measure. I'm loving this ribbon for OWH cards. I got it at JoAnn's. It's metallic so it sparkles, but it doesn't flake because it's not glitter. Love it.

Card game #3 - Tutorials worth reading

This tutorial  on the Greeting Farm is a great one for photographing cards. Lesson one is Learn Your Camera. I've tried to read my camera's manual several times but got bogged down in the techno babble. Jen has broken down the things you need to know so you are not trying to remember EVERYTHING.

Now, if I were a camera manual where would I be?...

And Here is another fabulous tutorial on how to use up an entire 6x6 paper pad to make cards. It's pretty cool and the theory can be adapted for any set of papers you are working with. I don't know where the original post is but it's reposted on OWH. The basic idea is that you find a sketch you like and make as many cards as you want. Then you find a sketch that uses the size of scraps you have left over and make as many of those cards as you can stand. Repeat until everything is used up (or you can't stand to look at the same papers ever again.) The sketches on OWH have dimensions so you can choose your sketch according to what you have. I think it's brilliant. Thanks Kristy.

So here is the card game: grab a couple of coordinating scraps, find a sketch that requires pieces that size and try Kristy's use it 'til its gone principle. You don't even have to use a sketch if you don't want. Just use up a bundle of scraps.

I'll post what I come up with...as soon as I can find my desk. (It's currently buried in a CTMH workshop I haven't finished.)

Card game 2.1

How did card game #2 go? Did you get all scraps into useful little cardmaking bundles? No? me neither. But I got some of them, mostly plain cardstock. I kept getting sidetracked by making cards out of the scraps I was supposed to be bundling. I suppose that's really the goal anyway so it's ok.

Card game #2.1 goes like this: Go through your little bundles of patterned paper. Find your most wintery paper (not Christmas) and make a card. You can add whatever plain cardstock or embellishments you want. The only rule is to make a winter card from your scraps. Pretty easy rules.

When I did it I found I only had ONE scrap of winter paper. It was a BoBunny paper from 2007 called Jack Frost crystals. Super perdy. I combined it with some purpley plain because I didn't want my cards to be just blue; I wanted to use some pinky metal dots I had that coordinated with the purpley. Anyway, turns out I didn't use the dots at all because it made the cards too busy. Best laid plans and all that.  :-P

The vertical card on the right was created from this sketch   http://ispysketches.blogspot.ca/2012/09/issc32-with-marie-alice.html  posted on I Spy Sketches 7 Sept 2012. 

WMD - Where's my desk?

You probably thought I forgot about Where's My Desk Wednesday. Nope. My computer was just ill yesterday. But I turned it over to the loving care of Dr. Hub and he fixed it. Well, he put it in a splint for now and ordered a new power cord. Thanks Dr. Hub! You truly are the amazing Mr. Fixer Man!

So here is my desk. I'm trying out a "sketch" found on Pinterest originally published by Jill Rancourt in 2011 at TheScrapoholic.blogspot.com. Which blog is, btw, chock FULL of sketches, svgs and other fun stuff. I'll be adding her to my web hangout list. Jill calls these "5pc emboss cards". Two sheets of solid colored cardstock and an embossing folder makes 6 cards, three of each style, with almost no waste. Easy, fun and 6 more cards to add to my OWH box. I'll be making these again and again.

I love the paper lace on the blue cards. I've had this piece in my box of orphaned embellishments for a while. I didn't want to use it because it is all I had and it was so pretty. Imagine my delight while rummaging stamps to discover I actually own this set! It is called Lovely Lace from CTMH.