Monday, June 20, 2016

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you had a great Father's day weekend.

I'm sharing a very simple card today:


It has been quite a while since I last shared any of my work.  I have been making cards and layouts, but I refrain from looking at the screen during weekends.  My dry eyes have not been better, but at this point surgery is not recommended.  So I should continue to rest more and spend as little time on the screen as possible.

My mom asked me for birthday cards and when I make them, I keep in mind that her friends are older, so the cards should be more lady-like than cutesy.  There are many sketches online but I can't afford looking for one I'd like to try because of my dry eyes.  I went to my trusty Wishes, a How-to Program for card-making and picked this sketch.  Absolutely easy peasy.  I have actually made two cards with this sketch, one with the elegant Florence paper, and one with the colorful Magical paper.  They are both great but I do like this one better!  A great sketch does help a lot!

This card is entering the following challenges:
1.  Seize the birhday - Birthday



2.  Crafty Girls Creations - Anything Goes
3.  Crafting with an Attitude - Anything Goes
4.  Mortgan's Art World - Happy Birthday
5.  Dragonfly Dreams - Say it with Flowers

A quick reminder that Flash Sale is going on in full force.  Check out the great deals here!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Monday, June 13, 2016

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!  More craft-related things to share today!




1.  Close to My Heart Flash Sale - It is closing in just a few hours.  Hurry!  These great deals go up on Friday at 3pm (MT) and end on Monday at 3pm (MT).  Snatch them quickly!  I really like the Picture My Life Bundles here and here.  Now that I'm tempted to get the embellishments here too!  I love these embellishments because they are generic enough to put on all types of project.  I like versatile products!

2.  The Long Way Home is this month's stamp of the month.

Stamps

This set is perfect for your summer trips/camping.



3.  #AlltheAlbums campaign is extended through July 31!  You now have more time to save 25% on your purchase on any My Legacy Album.  I like D-ring albums more than post-bound albums, for the convenience of course!  My favorite is the My Legacy Black D-ring album   and I also like the Slate Circles D-ring album.


Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, June 10, 2016

Update

I'm still diligently applying warm compress on my eyes to minimize the discomfort.  I feel the pain every time I blink.  :(  If in a week it still does not get better I'll go to see an ophthalmologist and decide whether I'll undergo another surgery.

While I'm looking forward to weekend where I can reduce time to spend on the screen, I want to share a few things with you.

1.  Check out the Flash Sale at Close to My Heart that starts at 3pm MT every Friday in the month of June. These awesome deals do not last long.  They will be removed at 3pm MT the following monday.  If you see something you like, snap it immediately!  My favorite are the picture my life kits here and here.  I have been asked what I like to do with those PML cards while I do not do much pocket scrapbooking.  I like to use them on my layouts and cards!  I like to use them for journaling!

2.  Check out the ideas of how to use the Flash Sale items on the Close to My Heart blog.  This week, the artists at Close to My Heart corporate shared some ideas to use the Display Tray.  Great artwork and inspiration source!

3.  Being an organization addict, I am always looking for *better* ways to organize.  I recommend these videos by Tiffany on Totally Tiffany.  I have seen her products but have never used or even purchased them.  Yet I have learned several tricks on organizing different things.  One thing I've tried and really like is the paper organization.  I used to throw all scraps in a bin and the pile never gets used.  Now I'm putting them in rainbow order as suggested and it's so much easier to find the right color of scraps and it makes me happy that the scraps are actually being used!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Monday, June 6, 2016

Magical

My dry eye symptoms persist so I have to refrain from using the computer.  Argh!

But because I have to do warm compress constantly over the weekend, I stayed in most of the time.  That means quite a bit of crafting done.  I was still working on the birthday cards my mom "ordered".  Then I also did some organization.  Funny I was giving many items "one last chance" before I send them to donation.  But after I have played with it, I had a change of heart.  Do I really want to toss it?  I asked myself.  Then I put that item back in my usual organization rather than the box which will go to donation.  I learned this weekend that I need to stay strong.  Once I have decided to part with it, I should never look back.  Why did I go back to that donation box??

As I was making cards for my mom, I had a little detour and made a quick and easy layout, using the new Magical paper from Close to My Heart.

I have been asked many times how I adopt or adapt a paper pack that seems to have a strong theme for my own use.  I don't think I have a knack for it but I can definitely share what i do.

I almost always start a layout with my pictures.  This way, I can ensure that I'm focusing on my pictures.  Then I choose my papers.  That's right, I choose the papers that fit my pictures.  At this point you may be wondering why I chose the Disney-themed paper for my pictures.

For the pictures above, for instance, I notice that my nephew J was in a baby blue bib and I was wearing dark colors.  The background of the picture is my brother's house and it was bright and white because it was in the morning.  It also showed a bit of his fancy kitchen.

In the selection process, I knew I wanted to have some blue in the background.  Blue was actually my "must have" because I wanted baby J to be the focus.  I knew that Magical has some blue so I took a look at it.  There is a sheet of blue patterned paper, which is actually the back of the black paper I used above, showcasing a repeating pattern of tickets.  I wanted to use that as a mat for my photos, but the patterns are quite too big to be shown as a border so that idea was aborted.

There is a white patterned paper with very small gray triangles repeating throughout the sheet.  That is a perfect paper for photo mats - it has subtle patterns that bring interest but not too distracting; AND the patterns are small enough to be recognized.  I brought that paper close to my photos and bingo!

Now that I've decided on the mats, I would love to use colors and patterns that show a contrast.  The black patterned paper with camera motives was perfect.  It's black background against the white-matted photos.  That's the biggest contrast I can get in the world, right?

The next decision I made was to bring in blue to the page.  At this point, I only have black and white!  So I used a sheet of blue cardstock as the base of the page.  I wanted to use the "Love this" 6*4 card as my title, so I naturally used two strips of red patterned paper to envelope the black background.

Throughout the whole process, I didn't do anything to "De-Disney" the paper.  I focused on the pictures and find the right paper with the right pattern and colors to serve the purpose I wanted.  And I must say, although the colors of Magical may suggest a lot of Disney, the patterns like ticket motif, cameras, triangles are very neutral.  They are not Disney-bound.  Some crafty friends turn away from Magical because they say they didn't have any Disney photos.  But who says Magical is only good for a Disney trip?

So that's my paper selection process.  I always focus on my pictures and try to use the papers that share common elements with my pictures.  Did I mention that the sketch comes from Reflections, a great How-to book for scrapbooking?  It helped a lot during the process!  I knew from the beginning how many sheets I needed so I wouldn't have to search for more than necessary.  :)

When we adopt the paper for our own use, we are making it more versatile and maximizing it.  How nice!

Thanks for stopping by!