Sunday Scrappin’ #49

I feel like Sunday Scrappin‘ needs a theme song, don’t you? Come join us in this weekly blog meme for papercrafters where we post our TA-DAs, TO-DOs and participate in optional challenges!

TA-DAs for this week:

• Three halloween cards (my first!)
• contact papered the drawers at my new house, LOL
• An encouragement card (see below)
• A “Thank You” card that I can’t show yet.

This card also fulfills last week’s challenge to use something clear (or clearish).  I know the picture isn’t great (sorry).  This is one of my favorite quotes which I have used for a different card, and I had this leftover piece of vellum with the quote on it (the margins weren’t large enough for the other card, so I stashed it in my stash).  Well, I pulled it out for this challenge, cut the cardstock to size, added some Martha Stewart paper, tacked the vellum on with four eyelets (Paper Source), and added a Victorian kitty sticker (Punch Studio) because the recipient likes cats. I also used a Hero Arts “designed by” stamp on the back (not shown). The vellum has rose petals and pieces of grass in it.

TO-DOs

• birthday card for my MIL
• birthday card for my godson/nephew

NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE: “something fuzzy. It could be a fuzzy embellishment… a layout with photos of your favorite fuzzy sweater… anything you can connect to the word fuzzy. Have fun with it!”

THANKS FOR LOOKING AND COMMENTING!

Goodbyes and Open Doors

Two recent projects.

First, is my postcard for this week’s challenge over at Sunday Postcard Art. The theme is “doors.”

This is an interactive postcard . Since once the door is opened it isn’t meant to be closed, I didn’t remove the ribbon completely in order to photograph the version with the door open. Sorry.

door postcard (closed)

door postcard (open)

MATERIALS: scalloped cardstock (Target kit) on Strathmore watercolor postcard; 5th Avenue shimmer stickers (Making Memories); acrylic/clear stamps–Swirls V: I by Rhonna Farrer (Autumn Leaves); paper by Anna Griffin (AG933); flower cut from an old notecard I received (Pepperpot by Gift Wrap Co.); Ranger Clear E.P. on Black Pigment ink (ColorBox); metallic red curling ribbon; black eyelets (for latch).

Now, while I have been working mostly with scrapbooking and cardmaking, I do like to do other types of projects. I altered this plain wood picture frame for some friends who are moving away. The picture is a well-loved photo of the four of us together.

altered picture frame

I painted it with DreamCoat acrylic paint, used an Amy Butler designer mat (K&Co) K, some ribbon from my stash, some wooden tulips I picked up years ago, and a Sharpie!

Creative Therapy: Catalyst #14

The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

I’m a newcomer to the Creative Therapy blog, but decided that this was the week I’d try one of their catalysts. This week’s catalyst (#14):

What’s the one lesson you’d want to teach your children? (If you don’t have them, what would you want to teach them if you had them?)

I don’t have children (yet), but I’ve learned a lot of lessons in my life thus far (some of them the hard way) that I will want to share with them. But this one I picked up recently from Randy Pausch, who if you don’t know, is the awe-inspiring professor at Carnegie Mellon who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and gave an amazing talk called The Last Lecture (available at website linked above). I chose the quote from that talk. I also think that the goal isn’t always getting through (or over) the brick wall, but letting it stop you long enough that you have to look at things another way. You can learn a lot from staring at that wall–even if you ultimately decide it is not worth the journey to the other side.

I like the postcard size, so I chose to do a simple mixed media piece. I wanted to keep it fairly bare bones to reflect the simple wisdom of the quote and to really make the brick wall the focus (how many times does one do that!?). I think it looks a lot better in realview, but you get the general idea:

MATERIALS: Strathmore “Imperial Watercolor” blank postcard (trimmed); “Blue Swirl” paper from Sonburn Inc. (#05440), micropigment ink .25mm black and .30mm green (Sakura Pigma Micron); Stabilo “Aquatico” aquarelle pencils (colors 325 and 675 blended).

Encouragement

I hung up the phone feeling helpless and angry. My friend, through many tears, explained that she felt worthless because her committee had kicked her out of the PhD program. I know that I have to give her some time to just be angry and hurt, but I was very concerned when I heard this. NO ONE should be able to kick her out of her sense of self-worth. I immediately scheduled a coffee date for today, and then I got to scrapping and came up with the card below. I’m really really pleased with it and I dare say I think the inspiration helped! It took me longer to select the right quote than it did for me to figure out the layout.

The quote reads: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

As usual, my photograph does not do it justice, but you get the idea. And that right edge really is straight–that’s some digital distortion.

MATERIALS: patterned paper and silver paper from Paper Source Thank You Card Kit, “natural” card stock (Paper Source) and a vellum with rose petals and grasses( unfortunately I can’t credit the source).

I hope she’ll put it up somewhere she can see it and remind herself.