My Craft Room ~ Part 1

Hello crafting buddies! I'm here to share some pictures of my craft space, prompted by Gloria Stengal from Craft Hoarders Anonymous. She shared a storage tip that really works for her and challenged her readers to share pictures of their space, so here I am! It's a little picture heavy, so this is part 1. I'll have to divide them up into different posts as I took lots and lots of pictures! I hope you'll stick with me... and don't forget, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them to get a better view.

This is what you see when you come in the door. The large cabinet to the left is one that my hubby got for free! Well, actually he got two of them. One is in my basement and holds lots of small antiques that I sell. He was working on a church project where the church was being torn down to build elderly housing. All he had to do was remove the cabinets before demolition day and we got two awesome storage pieces!

Here's what's inside:

As you can see, I like to use old wooden boxes and jars, well anything old, to store my supplies in. I think they all have a story to tell and make my crafting space feel warm and cozy, just like the rest of my home. Stay tuned tomorrow for more pictures of my craft room. Thanks so much for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit

Birthday Wishes

Good Monday morning paper crafting friends! I'm here to post this card I made for the Fusion Card Challenge. I chose to use both their color and sketch challenge and came up with this card:

I used a page from an old book and papers from This & That line from Echo Park. The ticket is cut and stamped using Big Ticket Basics from PTI and the sentiment is from MFT. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

LOVE ~ Always Playing with Paper Challenge #3

Good Monday morning friends! I'm here to post this card I made for the Always Playing with Paper sketch challenge. I'm also posting it to the Color Throwdown color challenge. Here's the sketch from Always Playing with Paper:

And here's the colors from Color throwdown:

Here's my card:

Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

God Is Our Strength

Hello paper crafting friends~ I'm here with another card that I made for the Sweet 'N Sassy challenge.

I used the Praise The Lord stamp set from Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps. I just adore their bird images and have a few of them. I'm still working on my coloring technique with copics though! The sentiment is a PTI set called Beautiful Blessings. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

The Lord's Help

Hello paper peeps~ I'm here to post this card to the Sweet 'N Sassy challenge to use an oval.

I used a Spellbinders fancy oval and added a smaller Nestabilities oval on top, which I distressed while it was still in the die to give it a white border, using Tim Holts Walnut Distress Ink. The Mason Jar was cut using PTI Friendship Jar. After giving the jar a couple coats of distress ink, I stamped a script image from Heidi Swapp and then added the flowers from Nature Silhouettes from SNSS. I heat embossed the bottom flowers with white embossing powder. I tied a jute string bow around the jar for added texture. The sentiment, stamped on vellum is from the Be Encourage set from SNSS which I accidentaly heat embossed using navy blue (I thought it was black and then when I took the cover off, it spilled all over the place so there was no turning back!). The background paper is some I had in my stash. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Sugared Easter Egg Card

Hello paper loving friends~ I'm here with another card today to enter into the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge using sparkle, glitz or glam!

I cut my card base using a Spellbinders fancy oval and cut the white oval with a smaller oval in the center to create the window of the sugared egg. I added Martha Stewart glitter to the white oval to give it the "sugared" look. I adhered some clear acetate over the window and put a bunny die cut, stamped with chocolate brown ink on the inside of the card so he peeked out the window. Two little Easter Eggs peek out from under the sentiment banner at the top and some leaves and flowers adorn the bottom left of the egg to give it added interest.
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

DIY Cover Plate

Hello friends~ Here's a card I made for the PTI Make it Monday Challenge to make a cover plate using a die / dies and the Blog Hop "High Gloss".

I used my new set Embellished Elegance. There's so much to enjoy with that set but I focused on the little tulip style flower and die cut. I stamped the images alternately in Berry Sorbet and Lemon Tart. I messed up royally on the heat embossed sentiment at the bottom. The first stamp didn't cover well when I poured the embossing powder on and embossed it so I tried stamping it again, and got it mis~aligned. Aaargh! I'm still entering it into the challenge though. Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Sparkling Birthday!

Just quickly adding this card I made for the PTI Blog Hop. I always get my cards made either a little too late for the hop or I have them made and forget to link my projects. Today I'm going to get it right! YIPEE!

I went with a clean and simple look for this one because I wanted the focus on the pretty glitter and flower from the Rosie Posey set. To get the strips of glitter, I used 1/2" and 1/4" high tack tape and sprinkled it with Martha Stewart glitter. Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Garden Variety

Hello fellow paper crafters~ I'm here today to post a set of cards that I made as a thank you gift for one of my friends. She is an avid gardener and also makes cards herself so I made the cards with blank space for her to stamp her own sentiments. I'm also entering these cards into the Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge, Welcome Spring!

For each card, I used free printable vintage seed catalog images and coordinating ribbons.

I also made coordinating homemade envelopes for each card using printed scrapbook paper. I made a card box to keep them in, using the Stampin' Up! envelope punch board.

Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Feeling Lucky!

Hello friends~ I'm not Irish but I couldn't resist the Fusion Card Challenge this week paired up with an adorable image from Crafty Secrets.

After framing the CS image using a spellbinders fancy frame die cut, I added some pretty prima flowers finished off with bead centers. I added some sparkly stickles to her head band and bow. To balance the weight, I added my embossed sentiment from Simon Says, to the bottom right portion of the card. I love the monochromatic look to this adorable card! Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Cherish ~ Clean and Simple

Good morning fellow paper lovers~ I'm here to post a card to the Just Rite clean and simple challenge.

As you can see, I scored overlapping lines to create the frame for my focal point. I used Botanical Medallions & Banners to create this card. After I stamped the "Cherish" sentiment, I added the flourish to make it look like a continuation of the sentiment and tucked the iris' into them omitting the bow. Colored with my copics, I'm still trying to figure out how to blend the colors so I don't get the harsh color lines. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I added some clear glaze droplets to the tips of the flower petals and leaves to make it look like morning dew. I finished it off with a few little iridescent gems.

Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Vintage Birds on a Wire Card Set

Hello crafting friends~ I'm back to post a set of cards that I made using the most brilliant printable images from The Cameo Shoppe. I am thrilled with the color intensity of the printed images and the images themselves are truly darling!! If you're looking for great printables at a reasonable price, please check out Cristina's shop. Now onto the cards!

Both the background paper and images are all from The Cameo Shoppe all I added was some machine stitching, ribbon and embellishments. These will make a great gift set to give to someone after I make up some homemade envelopes.

Since they have a vintage feel to them, I'm also entering them into the Craft Hoarders Anonymous challenge. Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Vintage Button Easter Card

Good morning paper loving friends~ I'm here to enter another card into the Fusion card challenge and at The Shabby Tea Room. I made this adorable Easter card and realized it meets all the criteria for both of their challenges so I thought I'd make a second entry. I hope that's not against the rules. If it is, I'm sure someone will let me know and I ask you to forgive me in advance.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Easter Blessings ~ Cat's Meow
Inks: Yo-Yo Yellow & Basic Black ~ Stampin Up!
Cardstock: All scraps from my stash and the button card was a free printable found online
Other Supplies: Vintage buttons, ribbon & gems
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Bees are Buzzing

Hello card making friends~ I just thought I'd share a cute little card I made for a friend. She's a bee keeper and gave me the wonderful gift of a bee-utiful jar of fresh squeezed honey. Haha! Don't worry no bees were harmed (nor was she)! Ok, enough of my sad sense of humor. Here's the card I made her to offer my thanks.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Happy Hexagons ~ PTI & Pretty Poppies ~ MFT
Die Cuts: Hexagon Cover Plate ~ PTI, Pretty Poppies Die Cuts ~ MFT & Bees ~ Quickutz
Inks: Harvest Gold & Black ~ PTI
Other Supplies:Ribbon
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Hello Friend

Good morning blogging friends~ I'm here with a card I made that will meet the Craft Hoarder Anonymous challenge as well as the challenge at The Shabby Tea Room. The CHA challenge was a "Vintage / Retro" challenge and The Shabby Tea Room is a challenge to use baby blue, a bird and spring flowers. I think this card meets both criteria but I'll let you be the judge.

Stamps: Delightful Doilies & The Sweet Life ~ PTI
Blissful Butterflies ~ MFT
Inks: Spring Rain, Blueberry Sky, Enchanted Evening, Limeade Ice & Simply Chartreuse ~ PTI
Die Cuts: Delightful Doilies & The Sweet Life ~ PTI
Flying Bird ~ Quickutz
The Sentiment Label is an old pre-cut die cut from my stash
Cardstock ~ Spring Rain ~ PTI
Birdcage w/ banner card front from unknown found in my stash
Extras ~ Gems
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

One Layer Card for a Friend

I made this card for the Make it Monday challenge over at Nichole's blog for one layer cards.

Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit