My take on Tim Holtz Frame

I just bought Tim Holtz's book A Compendium of Curiosities and I can't recommend it enough if you like to get your hands dirty and try new things.  It's full of easy to follow step by steps and inspiration.  I loved his frame so much I decided to make my own.  Some of the tiles are stamped, some are paper scraps, and some are old family photos pulled from slides my husband's grandparents took on their travels.  I used a cool technique that simulates the look of old water damaged photos.  It took a while but I love the results.

Creative cafe at MLPA this week

Playing with Pink Paislee Artisan elements this week!  They had a "gooey" feel that was unexpected and pretty cool.  They remind me of Crayola Dough, but they're stretchy and tough.  I was intimidated by them at first, especially since they were provided by the store and I was afraid to screw them up, but I threw everything I had at them, and most of it stuck. . .

Acrylic Paint, Versa (Chalk-type) ink pads and Staz On and Misting seem to work the best.  I had a tough time getting the lighter mists to show, but Maya Mist works really well, and I suspect Smooch which is also darker would work well, too.  Copic markers and other multi-surface markers reportedly work well, though I didn't get a chance to try it yet.  I will definitely be trying it out in the Cafe this weekend.

Spring is here and the Lighting is Good!

The light was awesome on the porch a couple nights ago, so I grabbed the rest of my stuff and took some photos of the new projects I'm excited about.  Hope you enjoy. . .

more. . .

Wanted a place to keep my cards and I found this super cool box at AC Moore with an insert for stamps and things.  Paper's mostly Jillibean and October Afternoon.  Then of course I wanted to fill it up with even more cards, so check out the scraplifts from a recent issue of Scrapbook Trends Cards magazine:

I've also been working on getting more adept at using my Cricut.  Here are some birthday cards featuring my favorite new "gatorade" colored paper. . .

This week's creative cafe at MLPA

Here's a sneak peek at the page I designed for this week's Creative Cafe at Memory Lane.  The paper comes from Jillibean Soup's Chicken Noodle and the background paper is Bo Bunny.  Letter stamps are by Fiskars.  My favorite is Martha Stewart's punch around the page "doily" punch.  Journaling tag and buttons are from Creative Cafe.  Hope it gives you some cheerful inspiration!