Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is Wednesday, but tonight we celebrated Chinese New Year with a family dinner (my husband side).  One of the traditions of Chinese New Year is to pass out red envelopes to the unmarried children, to wish them good luck in the new year.  The envelopes are usually filled with some crisp new bills.  This is the first year I said to myself, "I should probably make these envelopes", since I have an entire room of crafts supplies.

I used one of the mini envelope templates from JudiKins.

Red is a symbol of good luck - so I used red card stock.

This happens to be the year of the rabbit, so I searched for rabbit images on the internet and cut them out and glued them on the envelops.  These are the ones I passed out at dinner tonight.

Now, that's much better than buying them.

Small Vintage Girl Cards

Michael's provided another great deal.  For just $1 you can have a pack of 8 gift cards/envelopes in a shabby chic motif, I couldn't wait to embellish them.

The cards provide a great background.  The images of the girls come from this web site that provides free images. http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/.  Add some fun embellishements and ta-da, you've got cute little cards to give away.

My Little Number Girl

I love my new stamps from Paperbag Studios (http://www.paperbagstudios.com/). I purchased the Chere, 995 and the Looking rubber stamps. I couldn't wait to try them out.  Here's some quick tags I made with them.

With some of my finds from the Addison sale this weekend (vintage tags), my washi stripe tape, a bit of cheese cloth, and a girl stamp from Catherine Moore's Inner Child collection, I created this little number girl paper doll.  I trimmed the tag to be a little dress, sewed some cheese cloth to the bottom, put a little washi tape on her leg and bodice, and added a tiny tag to her head - that was stamped with the Chere stamp.

I put her in my kraft journal - good background for her. She measures about 5" tall and 2" wide. I'd love an outfit just like hers.

Exciting News!

I'm published in two more Stampington magazines, to be released Feb. 1st!  I have two aprons in apronology and a couple purses in Greencraft.  Here's a preview.

Ingrid & I are sharing this article on "Shabby Chic" aprons

I made this apron from a child's dress I bought at a consignment store

I made this apron from some vintage sheets, muslin, lace & flowers

I made this ruffle purse from the Sunday comics

I made this small purse from the crossword page

I hope this inspires you to create something and submit your work too.

Addison End Paper Sale Today

I love when the Addison's have their special sales.  It's fun to go through the bins looking for little treasures.

And what a nice surprise running into Lisa Super there too!  Best of all, she let me have this thimble cup - so adorable, I love it!  Next door to Addison End Papers is Mixed Pickles and Total Estate Liquidation.  Three stores in a row full of vintage items - oh joy.  Of course, I was able to find something at each one.  Here's everything I got.

Playing with Tissue Tape & Friday Artful Play

I've been exploring more with my Japanese washi tape, it's been so much fun to use.  I took some of my glassine bags and stamped them and added my washi tape.  A quick fun project.

Not related to tape, but I also sewed up these little paper bag pockets with lace and fabric.  An idea I got from Roben-Marie Smith.  Just little gifts for the girls coming over today: my sisters Lana & Maryl and my art sister CGS.

After eating and shopping we headed to Lana's house to look around at her latest findings and also to do some creating.

Maryl's Creations - Nice work!

My Tags (with Washi tape)

Lana's Project - peek a boo

CGS's Project - Lovely!

Love My New Washi Tape Organizer

I love decorative tape.  Long ago, I collected a bunch of 7 Gypsies Graffer tape.  Now, I've been into this Japanese Washi tape.  It's paper thin and fun to use.  This etsy vendor sells lots of washi tape: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettyTape?ga_search_query=washi%2Btape&ga_search_type=handmade. Tim Holtz & 7 Gypsies is also selling this paper tape.  I used to just store them in a box, but that was no fun.  As the saying goes, "Out of sight, out of mind".  So when I found this ribbon organizer from Oriental Trading Co., I thought this would be perfect to organize all the tapes I've collected.  My favorite part is that it's a lazy susan.
Here's how mine looks all loaded up. 

Unfortunately, it's not big enough, so I'm going to have my husband add 3 more polls.  There's plenty of room for it, so why not.
Here's where you can buy your tape organizer too.
http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/search/processRequest.do?Ntt=ribbon+organizer&requestURI=searchMain&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&N=0

You Got A Minute?

Well, you probably need about 15 minutes, but I have a couple of quick projects to share...check um out.

Connie Stuart turned me onto these $2 journals at Michael's. The pages of these journals are the kraft paper that I adore. I was excited to get them. The cover was decorated already with a cute image, but I decided to embellish them further.  I added a new face on the girl, some collage elements and transparency. See my before and after.  It's a great deal for $2.

Left: original - Right: mine

The other day, I was looking through the latest issue of Cloth, Paper & Scissors and found this great idea - an altered bill fold.  They used a plain manila folder and folded it. They embellished it with paper and sewing.  I couldn’t wait to try this!.  I had discovered some "kraft" folders at my craft depot – so this was going to be perfect project.  I’m going to make one for each month and store my receipts in there.

Step 1. Fold in each side in half, lengthwise.

Step 2. Fold up the bottom 3".

Step3. Cover with paper and sew down edges to form pockets. Use strong tape (e.g. 7 Gypsies gaffer tape) to hold binding.

Hope you give them a try.

Alice In Wonderland Play Date

Today, we celebrated my sister, Frances, bday by having an Alice In Wonderland play date. We wanted to make the kit from Lisa Guerin. It was a great day of crafting & eating .

Maryl's Finished Project

My Mini Diorama

My Alice Tags

Pat's Finished Project

Our Alice Projects All Together

Thanks for hosting the playdate at your house Frances - it was lots of fun! 

p.s. Diana, we have a kit saved for you.

Alice In Wonderland Warm Up

Tomorrow, we (sisters & Ruby) are having an Alice In Wonderland playdate.  I decided to warm up today by making a couple of quick tags.  Hopefully, I can help people get inspired.  The last time we had a class with Lisa Guerin, we didn't have time to work on her Alice kit (diorama), so we decided to make the project tomorrow.   I'll be sure to show pictures of our finished projects.

2011 Journal - Kraft Paper

This past holiday season, I found this great journal at Borders. It's made by Paperchase and it's entirely brown paper - otherwise known as "kraft" paper. The size is 6" x 8.25" and has an black elastic closure. 

Last year when Lisa Guerin was here, she showed us her personal journal and I was so inspired by it that I couldn't wait to start one myself. So, when I found this kraft paper journal, I knew this was the one for me. I'm not going to try and write in it everyday. I'm going to use it for my little projects and just miscellaneous stuff here and there. I took a few projects I did at a previous play date and glued them here.

 Then I added these pages tonight.

Now, back to kraft paper.  I've been searching for heavy weight kraft paper.  Low and behold, I went to craft depot today and found this.  This should be enough to last me awhile.

And then earlier in the month I found this on-line. My Mind's Eye Kraft paper pack - oh boy, this should be fun to use!

Also, this week I found a web site called Kraft Kottage, specializing in Kraft paper - yeah!  I think I'll be buying the kraft tags - love them.

Published In Art Journaling Winter 2011 Issue

I received my Art Journaling issue from Stampington. I submitted a journal I made from a Mary Ann Moss on-line class (Remains of the Day) and it got published in this issue.

This is another one of my journals that got published in the same magazine - the one on the right side. The cover was made from cardboard. I pieced some scrap paper for the background and then created a little girl for the center.

It's fun to see your work published.  What a nice start to the new year!