My Junque Journal

After years of thinking about it, I finally started a junque journal... and I made it myself! I got lucky and got the Cinch Bindery Tool really cheap. And by cheap I mean, 70% off what they are going for on the market now. I believe We R Memory Keepers just launched the Cinch 2 and that's why the regular Cinch went down in price ridiculously in some stores online. 

What inspired me to start a junque journal is the K&Company SMASH BOOK! I have watched the Smash video over and over it is not even funny. The Smash book actually reminds me of something I used to do in high school only I let other people write or share their art in it. I went through a ton of composition notebooks! My friends and I had a great time passing it around leaving messages to each other on there, we put post cards, receipts, book pages, book marks we have totally re-purposed and altered. The Smash Book is so similar to that except with cooler, heavier weight paper in it. : ) I have purchased the little bits and things that go with it, but haven't bought the book itself because I intend to stick to my crafty DIY skills and use the enormous amount of scrapbook paper I have acquired in who knows how long. It makes my husband happy when he sees me cutting through those things and making stuff out of them.

This book cost me close to nothing to make. The only purchase I made was the o-wires, which cost $2.50 at Archivers, everything else I already had in my stash. The covers are recycled. They came from the chipboard backing of paper stacks. I have a ton of them and I keep them all to make into templates when I make cakes, but this time I cut them to make into my book covers. I put envelopes in them, made pockets, and cut cardstock and paper in 8.5" in x 5.5".

I haven't done much or gone crazy or anything to it. But will put a post on here when I do. : )

Have a great weekend everyone!

I have linked this post up in Cheryl's I'm Lovin' It Fridays Post!

Happy Father's Day

It feels like forever since my last post. So I made sure I put something on here for Father's Day. It's not just Dads we are celebrating on Sunday [with my family here], we are also celebrating my Dad-in-Law's and the Hubs' birthday. : ) For five years now, every year in June for Father's Day, I make something for my four favorite men to celebrate them. This year, I went almost all handmade and homemade.

Swivel Tractor Card for Uncle Charlie

Typewriter card for Grandpa R and Grandpa Bruce

Shirt Card for my Dad-in-Law

I also made snickerdoodles for Charlie. He LOVES them! While I was at it, I went ahead and made an extra batch for Grandpa R. :) With a little bit of baker's twine, a button, a stamp, and some scrap paper, and a ton of love in the snickerdoodles, plastic containers are suddenly worth gifting. <3 

Have a wonderful wonderful Father's Day all! :)

Things Have Just Gotten Even Better

Hey friends! I am still on a home reno coma... and I don't believe I will get out of this state until the new floors are installed in my living room. We are thinking about stepping it up and ripping the carpet out of the dining room too, so we will see. 

This has been such a great week. John has finally gotten out of the rut that he was in career-wise and found a new home for his overflowing energy and passion for music and the arts. The current job just isn't doing it for him anymore, and the fact that a lot of small schools have been going through very rough financial times was a great motivation. He felt like he had to move on and get an even better program... And he did! He got two out of the three places he sent an app to, which makes me ever so proud of him. He had to turn one offer down. This is a good problem to have in times where jobs are becoming so scarce. : ) So I have been having a very excited, hyper hubby all week. He is very very excited. And when he is happy, I am happy. 

I have been endlessly painting all week... and figuring out which of the stuff I want to keep and which ones go. Seems like since we have been doing our updates, the look of each room changes and some of the stuff that used to be there don't work like it used to. As I was realizing this, I was also trying to look for a way to think of ways to make up for the stuff I am possibly going to be eliminating in the room. However, I am loving the minimized look!!! So we may stick with that for a while. 

At around 3 PM today, I decided to take a break after I ran out of paint. Sat and watched TV for a while, and got to work in my craft room. Here are the finished products:

I love tone on tone cards. They are simple but very pleasing to the eyes! And of course I love this green cardstock from Paper Trey Ink. I forget the name of it... But I think this is my favorite among the greens that Paper Trey Ink have. I used a Basic Grey stamp set to stamp the background. I didn't have the matching ink, so I used Versamark Ink.

The patterned paper I used on this card didn't match the kraft cardstock I used [from Paper Trey Ink also]. But there is nothing impossible when you have distress inks on hand! I simply distressed the edges of the patterned paper and the cardstock too, and voila! They match! :)

Everyone have a wonderful rest of the week!!! 

Yay Mom!!!

I thought it was crazy that soon as I finished making Mother's Day cards, my Mom leaves me three really sweet wall posts on facebook!!! This is exciting because my Mom doesn't ever get on the internet. She is a great pastry chef and baker but she is not tech savvy at all. So the only times I would see her online is when my sister is around to show her what to do. That's why this girl here is sooo elated! She was posting messages on my facebook wall using an iPad and on her own. I can tell she was posting the messages by herself because she wrote three wall posts instead of writing them all in one message and the message was written like she was texting on her cellphone! :) Not too shabby. Yay MOM!

Here's the two cards I made. I have a lot of patterned paper, but none of them jumped out at me so I decided to make my own. I used a Basic Grey stamp set for the background with Ranger Distress Inks and Color Box chalk inks.

Supplies:

Paper Trey Ink Vintage Cream cardstock

Basic Grey Stamps (for pattern on background)

Ranger Distress Inks

Color Box chalk inks

Technique Tuesday Simply You stamp set (sentiment)

Cosmo Cricket Chipboard Letters

Pearls

Liquid Pearls

Staz On Jet Black Ink

I still have no idea what to get my Mom and my Mom-in-law for Mother's Day. Maybe John has ideas... Wish me luck! :)

Waterfall Thank You Card

Hi all! :) Hope everyone has a great weekend. This week has gone by so fast, but I got a lot done and I didn't realize this until this morning when I looked at my weekly organizer. I am actually almost caught up. Now, I just need to get to the 'spring cleaning' that I have been telling myself to do early this year. 

This week has been a crafty kind of week. I have finished an 8x8 mini that a very good friend of John and myself requested for me to make to give to her daughter. I made yoyo flowers and a whole other ton of embellishments. A couple of cards from stamp sets that have been hidden away and forgotten for lack of storage. And I made a card today out of a set I purchased from svgcuts a while back! :)

Other than the book, I also had a few personal digi pages done this week. I will post them later on in the weekend. But today, I will be sharing with you a card I put together this morning. If you don't already know I am a geek and a software and font junkie. So for almost a year now, I have been making my own SVGs with Inkscape and I have been frequenting SVGcuts.com for stuff I don't want to waste my time making. I have known about waterfall cards forever but I've never made one. So this morning, through the help of SVGcuts.com I finally made one!

So you pull the bottom tab and all the layers unravel. Cool huh? :)

Here's the bottom tab pulled out. I stamped the sentiment on the tab too.

I love 3-Dimensional cards... Although I don't recommend them for mailing 

because they are bulky.

Note: The set actually has all the card elements in it, including the card base.

But I decided to use my own A2 card base. I used K&Company's Life Journey Collection

and the mat is from a kit I got from Quick Quotes a long time  ago, Brown Sugar Collection. 

Have a fun weekend everyone!

Halloween Card - The Cuttlebug Spot

Hi all! Here's my post for the Cuttlebug Spot. I have been battling sinus headaches on and off all week... Today is the very first day that I have actually felt like my old self. :) 

This is an A2 card. I used kraft cardstock for the card base. I used the skeleton scroll embossing folder and embossed a 5.25 in by 4 in vintage cream cardstock from Paper Trey Ink. I used distress inks to create this halloween-ish effect for the background. I cut the tree from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. The moon is from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge out of a bright yellow cardstock, I used the same distress inks to give it some color. 

It's your turn! Play along with us at The Cuttlebug Spot. See you there!