Favorite Moments of 2012

I created a photo montage of some of the best moments of 2012 (inspired this post by the talented Elise Blaha).  2012 wasn't a productive year in terms of creating paper projects to showcase, but it was filled with lots of wonderful family moments that I'd love to share:

 

 Downtown Abbey (aka Highclere Castle) in July

My goofy family pretending to be Downtown Abbey servants.

 I'm lucky enough to work with my best friend, Rebecca.

 

 My niece and brother.

 

A Smorgastarta made by sister-in-law Helene's dad for her birthday - so yummy!

My beautiful nephew!

 

 

Cousins playing!

 

 

 

 

Wishing you and your families a very happy new year!

Ali

Washi Tape Card & Tips

I've been having more fun with the washi tape that arrived from Freckled Fawn a few weeks ago.  I made a birthday card for one of my daughter's friends.  I was inspired by one made by Nicole Heady.

 

And with the scraps that were left over, I created some little gift tags.

 

Couple of quick washi tips:

 

 1. Prevent the tape from lifting up by rubbing firmly with a bone folder to secure it to the card stock.

2. Prevent your scissors becoming sticky by using teflon coated non-stock scissors to cut your tape.

Merry Christmas

For those of you celebrating Christmas today, I hope you have a lovely day surrounded by family and friends. 

This year I wrapped my gifts in brown paper (including Trader Joe's paper grocery bags) with red seam binding and greens from the garden.  Here's one of them:

I hope Santa was good to you this year.  I received a new macro lens for my camera - I can't wait to use it. 

Merry Christmas!

Ali

One More Holiday Card

I've made very few holiday cards this year, but here's one that I created for my best friend.  The base is a Fabriano watercolor card (my favorite).  I colored the Stampin' Up! image with a blender pen and water-based inks with a little sponging around the edge to mirror the vintage feel of the stamp.

I kept the rest of the details simple because the image is quite busy - a couple of gold brads and a folded edge with pierced holes.

I'm entering it into this week's CAS challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

Wishing you and your family a very happy holidays!

Ali

This week....

I've been having fun with Instagram this week:

Andy and I took a road trip to the Paper Source - always a fun time!  I'm so glad there isn't one near my house because I'd be bankrupt.  I found lots of really cute gifts for my daughter and one or two for myself!  And we had lunch at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Alta Strata.  Here's a shot of the Paper Source store front - they always have such nice displays.

 

I did a little more holiday decorating around the house:

I know the woods near my house pretty well, so I was excited to discover a  new trail this week.  It's quite a steep climb but at the top you're treated to nice view of the river - frozen at this time of year.

And I finished up the last of the holiday orders for my store.  Check out this cute one:

Thanks for stopping by!

Ali

5 Tips For Making Cards with Kids

This past weekend I worked with the youth group at my church to make holiday cards for elderly and sick members of the congregation.  I wasn't sure how many of them had used rubber stamps before, especially the teen boys, so I made a few simple cards to give them some ideas.  And came up with these few simple tips and ideas.

 

1. Discuss Why

We started out discussing the value of sending a card instead of an email or text.  And then brainstorming what they might write inside. This definitely helped focus them and they had some wonderful ideas.
  
2. Limit Supplies

I have a whole studio full of supplies that I could have brought with me, but I kept it simple so as not to overwhelm them with choices.  I gave them several stamp sets and punches to choose from plus a limited palette of markers and ink pads, a few sheets of patterned papers and card stock.

3. Keep Clean Up in Mind

• I had lots of baby wipes on hand to clean the stamps and fingers.
• I provided rhinestones and glitter pens to add sparkle, I decided against loose glitter for obvious reasons.  Buttons and ribbon also add interest without the mess!
• I put little trash cans right in the middle of the table to make clean up easy.

 4. Image Choice

This might be obvious, but the stamps that appeal to kids are:

• Easy to color, like this retired Stampin' Up! set call Frosty.  
• Bold shapes, like the star above, that are easy to stamp and cut out.
• Cute images, like the reindeer below.
• They also had a lot of fun with different shaped punches.

5. Display Proudly

I set up a little gallery area for the kids to display their finished work and so I could take pictures.  They did such an awesome job and I wanted them to be proud of their work.

I had such a fun morning working with these thoughtful, young people.  It was 2 days after the horror in Newtown, CT and it was good to focus on something so positive in the shadow of such sadness.  The same group of kids are making snowflakes this Sunday to decorate the new school for the Sandy Hook Elementary School children in January.  I'm so proud of them!

Ali

Swedish Holiday Card

For a bunch of reasons, I haven't stamped a card for ages and ages.  But this weekend I made holiday cards with the kids from church, so I got out all my stuff.  And I mean all my stuff - the place was a disaster!

While everything was out on my work table, I created this card for my sister-in-law's parents, who live in Sweden.  The text at the bottom is Swedish and I purchased the stamp a couple of years ago from a craft store in Stockholm.

I'm entering the card into this week's Play Date Cafe color challenge.

Have an awesome week as you prepare for Christmas!

Ali

Holiday Journal

Here's a peek at this year's holiday journal.  It's a super simple binder ring construction that measures 6" x 9".  The covers are book board covered with patterned paper and the inside pages are a mixture of patterned paper, tags, envelopes and plain pages.

The opening page contains one of my favorite quotes by Rainer Maria Rilke.

I included some pockets to store my journaling tags and other odds and ends.

 

 

I also included several tags for fun!

  

And an envelope or two decorated with some vintage sheet music.

 

It was a lot of fun to make, now it's going to be fun filling it up with 2012 Christmas memories.

Thanks for stopping by today - stay in touch by becoming a follower of this blog or following my Facebook page.

Ali

Linking to:
Happy Hour Link Party
DIY Project Parade 
Creative Mondays Blog Hop

Instagram Holiday Tree

We put our little Christmas tree up this weekend.  And I played with Instagram on my early Christmas present to myself a new iphone.

Happy holidays!

Washi Tape Tags - 4 Quick Steps

 

I was so happy to receive my first order of Washi tape from Freckled Fawn this week - you should check out their selection, it's awesome!  The first project I created was some tags for a cookie swap this weekend.  Here's how I made 'em:

1. Lay 3 strips of washi tape horizontally on a piece of thick paper or card stock.  If your punch is large, you might need 4 strips.

2. Punch out shapes with a handheld punch.

 

3. Stamp greeting on reverse of tag.

4. Punch or pierce a small hole in top and attach to package with crochet thread.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Don't forget to check out the sale items in my store - ribbon and vintage page kits!

Linking to the following parties:

Happy Hour at Crafty Happy Scrappy
Fridays Unfolded at Stuff & Nonsense
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence

Ready to Ship Art Journals in Store

The majority of the items I sell in my store are custom made travel journals, but this week I did add some ready-to-ship journals.  Their covers feature an Italian paper with a vintage bird design and the inside contains blank watercolor pages for sketching, painting or collage.

 

There are just three available right now - get them while they last!