Crafting for a Cause

Hi Everyone:

      Ever  been asked to donate an album, or a box of cards as a donation for a raffle, auction or fund raiser.   I have and it's usually not a problem.  But, what do you do when you're asked to donate and find out that the event is in 5 days.  Do you spend the next 4 days pulling your hair out to create that album or 2 dozen cards or do you say, sorry, I'm unable to donate this time ?

    I was asked about donating an album for a Cancer Auction for the daughter of a neighbor girl, that I used to babysit. (Can't believe I'm old enough for her to have a 19 year old daughter).  I really wanted to participate, but knew with work, I wouldn't get an album done in time.   My sister-in-law suggested a gift certificate for an album of choice, which is a great idea and could be done easily, but I really wanted something physical that they could take home and not have to wait for. 

    In the middle of the night, I got this brilliant idea to create a Crafters Basket,  As all Crafters know, we have a stash.  Not a little stash, but a great big stash that we never, ever admit to.  We're paper hoarders, embellishment hoarders. Maybe it's stamp and buttons, ribbons and bling or pens and inks. So, I raided my stash.  Yep, the one I never admit to having, even when no one can get in the room besides me.    There were lots of  new supplies hidden in the room.  Some from crops, craft expos, classes, etc. and a few that I had won from my favorite craft companies as well as items I had bought such as the LaConner High School Laser die cuts from a LSS and my adhesives.


 So, after going through all my drawers, boxes, bins, and stacks, I was able to put together a wonderful basket of Crafting Supplies good for any Crafter as an auction item and donate it for the  auction in place of a Scrapbooking Album.   My sister-in-law, Debbie Denton, took this picture of the basket, Thursday, when I delivered it.
     
      But, there was a side benefit from raiding my stash. Not only  was I able to donate to a great cause, I was also able to clean out my stash and  create room  for the 2014 Releases that are coming out now!  Well at least some of the releases................

      I also have to thank Sara Tipps who I met through work. She heard what I was doing, and gave me the fabulous hand-crafted twig basket that is now filled with all these crafting goodies.

     The basket is filled with supplies from some of my favorite companies such as Xyron, Petaloo, Amercian Craft, Basic Grey, Heidi Swapp,  Die Cut with a View, Cosmo Cricket, Maya Road,  May Arts, Allison Kent,  Paper Studio, Quickutz dies, Colorbok, Sweet Stamp Shop, die cuts  made with my favorite Spellbinder Dies as well as other fun items.

    This basket will be one of many great items available at the auction/spaghetti dinner for Ashlyn Reinstra this Friday in La Conner. Ashlyn is currently at the UW hospital battling 2 different kinds of leukemia. The event will be at the La Conner Middle School from 5 to 8 p.m., January 31, 2014.  Other items included are a Seahawk Basket, A coffee Basket from North Cove Coffee,   Seahawk booties and matching hat for a baby and many more items.

      So if you are in Skagit County or close by and want to help a young lady in her battle to fight leukemia, stop by, get a bite to eat and  place a bid on an auction item.

So, till we craft again.................... after Super Bowl Sunday!    GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!


Aunt Dee
 

Christmas Trays

Merry Christmas everyone!

Are you ready for the holidays to come?  I'm not. Let's see. The tree isn't decorated, I'm still wrapping presents and stocking stuffers, the living room isn't cleaned, yet and I'm still addressing the Christmas Cards I made, but haven't sent. Oh well - now they are New Years Cards.  On the plus side,  the chowder is made, the bread is rising as we visit and I actually only have the ornaments I give my nieces and nephews every year left to wrap.  This is so strange for me, as I'm usually all done, just enjoying the holidays. I usually have everything made or bought by the end of September, the stockings and most gifts wrapped by Thanksgiving week and only  a few things to do.   Not this year.

However, I made several gifts this year and one of my favorites are my Christmas Printer Trays for the holidays. So fun to be able to change the pictures each year.  Here's my favorite 7 Gypsy Shadow Box Tray made with scraps from the DCWV Winter Paper  2 years ago. I donated this one for a raffle and it was very popular! 

The poinsettias  and large snow-flakes are made with Spellbinder dies and I used  my ink pad to add the lines.  The dangling snowflakes are from an old wreath. The sled and ornaments are from a pack  at Michaels. And Santa was given to me by a friend  from her stash.

This 2nd  Tray  is made with scraps from Authentic, Theresa Collins, MME and Little Yellow  Bicycle.  Also a sled and button cookies from Michaels and the snow is from Flower soft. Stickers from my stash from years ago and the Santa is an old Christmas Card  that I had in my craft room.

Creating these was very easy. Just cut your paper to fit the openings (measurements on back of box) and add embellishments to suit.  

As both of these were for other people, I haven't  added pictures to the 5 X 7 and 4 X 6 openings. 

Can you imagine  how much fun it will be to update your pictures  each year for friends and family to see when they visit.  I'm kinda hooked on using these trays.

Well, back to wrapping gifts. I have less than 48 hours before company comes.  No problem. I'll make it.  I just won't let anyone into the Craft Room, so they won't see everything stacked up there.  I can always clean it after Christmas.

Till we craft again!

 Aunt Dee


Products used:  Spellbinder Dies, Authentic, DCWV, LYB, MME, Michaels Arts & Crafts-buttons, ornaments, snowflakes and sled, Xyron 510, Glossy Accents, Flower Soft, Quick Quotes Powder Puff Chalk Inks, miscellaneous ribbons from my stash
 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

WOW!!!!

     Can you believe we're at the end of  October?  I sure can't and as busy as I've been, I sure have not accomplished much this month.

     Let's see. What's gone on this month? Rain to start the month, a few sunny days and fog, fog, fog and more fog with only a few partially sunny days.  And in between all that, repairing my fence that came down during the windstorm at the end of September, card making, making and freezing pumpkin puree from these great sweet pink pumpkins for soup, custards and pies, card making and creating Halloween Décor.

      This was such a fun project that I ended up making several of these hangings for all the great nieces and nephews homes and I included last year's pictures in them.    I was lucky enough to have this fun 7Gypsies Artist Printers Tray (part of a  prize box from Xyron's 50K fan celebration earlier this summer) in my stash.  So I raided my stash for DCWV Halloween Bewitched paper stack, embellishments, flowers and left over pieces of jewelry and put this tray together.  My inspiration came from DCWV September 19th Spookytime blog where they had   a shadow box tray decorated using the Spookytime stack.

     So much fun and easy to make with my Xyron 2.5 sticker maker, DCWV Bewitched Stack, Petaloo flowers, ghosts and cat as well as some die cuts, and old jewelry.

   Here's a close up of the tray.                                                                

      Can't wait to try this for Thanksgiving and Christmas trays as well.  Then each year, I'll can  add current pictures to keep the board updated.

    Happy Halloween!!!   Till we craft again.

                              Aunt Dee





Supplies used:  Xyron 2.5 sticker maker, 7gyspies artist paint tray, DCWV Bewitched stack, Petaloo Dazzlers, Petaloo Flowers, Spellbinder Gear dies, Tim Holtz metal gear embellishments, Glossy Accents,

Halloween Fun!

     What an unusual October we have had in the Pacific Northwest this year. We started with rain and then the fog came.   It gets sunny during the afternoon and then the fog comes back. Now, we can't get rid of it.    Most days, it's been foggy all day with a few days getting sun by the late afternoon.

     However all the fog  and damp air has given  me a great excuse to stay in the house  and craft instead of working in the yard.

     My friend Joyce and I have been busy making Halloween Cards and trying to use up all that paper we bought last year.   So here's a sample of some of our cards.  

 This card is so fun with the little monster stamped across the card  and colored in different colors. The stamp is from Sweet Stamp Shop's   "Out in Space"  Set.  The paper is from Jillibean Soup from a few years ago.  Love how this card is so fun and I decorated then envelope with matching little monsters.


   
 As I didn't have a lot of the DCWV green & black polka dotted paper left over from the Bewitched collection, I decided to stretch it out by using it with some other papers from that collection and I weaved plaid backgrounds for several cards.  Again the little monsters are made from the Out  In Space Set from Sweet Stamp Shop.  However their antennas and feet are the left over pieces from a punch a friend had.


 
My last two cards are made with Sweet Stamp Shop's Haunted House set  and Clear Snap's Color Box Frost White Archival Pigment Chalk Ink.   I wanted this card to have a soft chalkboard look so that it wouldn't scare a two-year old.  She's going to love this card with it's haunted house and picket fence.


      






Along with the cards, I've been buy decorating their  envelopes for  mailing to my favorite little monsters.





Until we craft again!

Aunt Dee

POSTAL FUN............

 

      I can't believe I'm going to say this, but, I'm actually excited to write this blog. This is one of my most favorite things to do when I mail cards, letters and packages. 

 

 

      Don't you just love to receive cards and letters in the mail. It is SO EXCITING to receive a card that someone felt was just right  for you………….. Besides, the USPS needs our business.

      After reading my card making blog, my niece called me up saying  “Aunt Dee, the cards were great, but you have to blog about the envelopes, too. And the last envelope you sent was so disappointing ............ it was just a PLAIN addressed envelope.   Half the fun of getting your card is the envelope.”  

      Every month I mail a card to family members (nieces and nephews, young cousins)  Some months it's a holiday, birthday or anniversary card and other months just a fun card . They love getting mail, especially the 5 & 6  & 9  year olds.

   
     Anyway, I needed to make a card for my 2 yr old niece who's birthday is coming up soon and her mother told me that  the “Mouse” was her favorite carton. So, of course, I had to make a card of her favorite cartoon character. That was easy part, but I still had to address her envelope. So I turned the O in her name into a mouse. 

    It came out so cute. Every little girl (or boy)  will love getting that envelope in the mail. In fact, when it's the parents birthday, and a decorated envelope arrives, the 6 year old is sure it's for her because "Aunt Dee" makes her envelopes special. She was  so disappointed, because her dad and sister got the cards, not her. She'll just have to wait for  her “Back to School” card .
 

      Now, how did I learn to decorate envelopes?  Well, I'll tell you. A while back I took this fun class at my LSS Stampadoodle, taught by my favorite calligrapher, instructor and friend, Christy Schroeder, of Pilgrims Quill Studio.  She taught us how to decorate envelopes for any occasion and the envelope will go through the mail without being returned.

    Christy's class is full of fun lettering techniques, ideas, colors, designs and her encouragement to use your imagination in making your envelopes just as much fun as the cards and letters that go in them. You'll be amazed at how easy this is and how much fun you will have.  It’s addicting.

   

   In fact, it's so much fun, it is easy to get carried away. After taking the class I made Halloween cards with decorated envelopes for everybody in the family as well as my classmates in my Calligraphy Class I was taking.  I think every relation in the US & Canada got a Christmas Card  with the fancy envelope that year. My postage bill was huge. But boy, did I have fun.  What's more, once you create a master design you can reuse that design as many times as you want or you can  freehand the envelopes as needed.

     Here are some fun envelopes that I created for upcoming birthdays, holidays and more. 

 




     
 Stampadoodle is offering this class as well as others this fall. So take a moment and check out their fall class schedule.  They have some fabulously fun classes scheduled as well as lunchtime  demos,  along with the best instructors. 

You know you want to try it, so go for it!   It'll be fun!

Happy Crafting till next time!

Aunt Dee

 

 

Enhancing Your Layout!

Hi!

      Welcome back!  Today I've been putting into practice some of the techniques I've learned from various classes I've taken.   Making a layout is simple, but have you ever completed a layout and think something is missing when you were done.  I've done it several times lately.  The pages look OK but not GREAT.

      I love this picture taken by my niece Shae of her son and his cousins.  I wanted to showcase the fun the cousins were enjoying while playing with each other.
 

     So today, I decided to approach my layout a bit differently and instead of doing a quick layout and  attaching the photos, I laid it all out (like I usually do) and  took a picture of it.  After looking at it on the camera screen. I found it looked so boring that I knew I had to add some more dimension to the layout.

     Starting  again with the blank Kraft paper, I found red and green mists that complimented the colors in my layout and sprinkled  drops of the two mist colors over the paper.  Then using my circle stamps and stamped the paper  above and below where the photo would be. 

 
    The I added back my original layout and some enamel dots and created this fun layout of the nieces and nephews  playing together for the first time.

 What a difference adding the sprinkling of color, stamps and glittery enamel dots made to the layout. So much more dimension and depth. 

    My only problem now is that I need to do two more layouts using this wonderful photo. One for each of their albums and I usually don't like duplicating layouts, but I think this time I'll change the papers and do something similar for each of their individual albums.  The pages won't be identical, but they will be similar. 

Until we craft again.........

Aunt Dee

  Products:  Core'dinations Kraft paper,  Ditto red & green mist, Simple Stories, Gel-a-tins Circle Stamps, My Minds Eye enamel dots.   

"Use What You Have Challenge"

Hi there,

     You'd think by now I would be comfortable writing  this blog, but I'm still working out of my comfort zone. It is getting a bit easier, but I'm still learning and it still takes hours (or at least it feels like that) to compose each blog.

     So, for  today's blog I decided to try something else out of my comfort zone & take the Sweet Stamp Shop's "Use What You Have Challenge".    I pulled out some papers I 've had for over a year and other supplies as you an see in the picture.   After pulling out the supplies, I grabbed my folder of pictures and found this adorable picture of my nieces having their first ice cream soda. 

     From these supplies, I created my layout. I have to admit it took a bit of time with fussy cutting and numerous arrangements of the layout, before I came up with this fun layout.

First, I misted my Kraft paper with  Vanilla Mist and let it dry.  I then fussy cut the soda glasses from my paper, and using scraps from the same  paper I used to mat the photo, I cut several strips of paper, rounded the ends, used my white gel pen and added dimension at the top and stripes to make them look like straws and added them to the layout.  To achieve the foaming  soda effect, I then added some faded stamped clouds over the top of the picture and straws and added Snow Flower Soft to the clouds to give them a soda effect.  I used the Snow on the Soda Glasses to make them look full, foaming and running over.  I then added the Journaling beneath the picture about their very first Ice Cream Soda. 

This was a fun challenge and a great way to use up old papers that I wasn't sure how to use.  So, now I  think I'll go one step further and actually enter the layout in Sweet Stamp Shop's "Use What You have Challenge".

Of course, now I have to figure out how to link to their blog and back to this one.  So.............

I'll let you know next time if I "did it right" and got my entry in on time.

Happy Crafting till next time!


Aunt Dee

Products used:  Nikki Silvis You are my favorite collection, Colorbox Vanilla Misting, Core Kraft Paper, White Gel Pen, Flower Soft "Snow" and adhesive, unknown scrap paper for matting, Reflection letter stickers, Lawn Fawn Blue Skies Cloud Stamp, Xyron Mega Runner