Let's Talk Turkey

This is a card that I designed for a new design team that I am on. 

Be sure to check out A Crafting Start and see all the talented designers.

This card was designed using a Digital Stamp for the focal image.  This is myfirst time I have worked with a Digital Stamp.  I have to say it was very fun to work.  I added Stickles (per Todd's suggestion)  to dress up the image.  I love the way that it turned out.  Let me know what you think.  Until next time.

Heartfelt Creations Design Team Member!!

Congratulations to Lisa for being selected as a Design Team member for Heartfelt Creations!!  This has been a major goal that she has wanted to achieve.  Over the next many months, you can look forward to seeing many more creative projects done by Lisa for Heartfelt Creations.

Don't forget...any Ohioans out there, as Heartfelt Creations comes to the stamping and scrapbooking shows, look for her there...she'll be helping out at the booth!    Posted by Todd (who is also at the shows).

Honorable Mentions

These are a few designs that were recently made for possible submissions for Sparkle N Sprinkle Design Team call.  I was only able to submit 3 designs.  I had a few other designs that I did not submit but I wanted post them on our blog. 

 

I love the look of this embossing powder.  It is called Sparkle Embossing Powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  Thanks for looking.

Sparkle N Sprinkle Submissions

Good Evening everyone!  We have more new creations to share with you.  These were designed for Sparkle and Sprinkle Design Team call.  It was so much fun working on these designs.  I love any opportunity to work with glitter and embossing powders. 

You add a Sparkle to my Life.

Detail view of glitter.

This card features a very simple color combination.  I love the clean look of the black and white.  It allows the stamped image to really be the focal of the card.  The addition of the red adds a nice "pop" to the design.  The stamp image is from Heartfelt Creations.  The image is stamped on Be Creative Tape sheets.  Before I stamped the image on the tape sheets I added Sparkling Snow Glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  The image was then stamped directly on top of the glitter.  I used Memento Ink to stamp the image.  I love the look you get with the glittered background.

Autumn Reflections

This card was designed with a tree stamp from Northwoods Rubber Stamps.  The image was stamped with a Versamark Ink Pad and gold embossing powder.    Look how the embossing powder brings out all the detail of the stamped image.

Forever Treasures

This card was created using the Stampin' Up stamp, Hello Doily.  I stamped the image with a Versamark stamp pad and used White Detail embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  I used the Memento ink pad in Summer Sky and a sponge and went over the image to bring out the detail.   This process is called Emboss Resist.  I love the way this card turned out.  Thanks for stopping by.  Let us know what you think.  Until next time......

Really Reasonable Ribbon Submissions

Good Evening everybody.  We wanted to share with you a few of Lisa's newest creations for submission for a design team call for Really Reasonable Ribbon.  Please take a look and let us know what you think.

New Life

This card was designed with pastel pencils and Gamsol.  I love the soft look of the stamped image. 

Season of Thanks

The card features a stamp from Northwoods Rubber Stamps.  It was colored with a selection of Copic markers.  I love fall colors. 

Precious Beginnings

This card features a stamped image from Heartfelt Creations.    The card features a criss-cross ribbon design with little bows at the intersection points.

Thanks again for stopping by.  Check back soon for updates.

Design Team Submission for Heartfelt Creations

Here is the first submission for Heartfelt Creations Design Team Call.

A detail view of the stamped image.

My second submission for Heartfelt Creations Design Team Call.

A view of the card and a matching bookmark.

My third submission for Heartfelt Creations Design Team Call.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail view of one of the note cards in the gift set.

Welcome to our New Craft Studio

Welcome to our brand new Craft Studio.  It has been a work in progress since June.  It really was worth the wait.  This is the view from the family room entrance.  It is a very bright room with much better lighting than we are used to.  There is so much storage.  Everything has a place.  It makes it much easier to be able to come in and work on new projects. 

This is a view of our storage for our punches.  Everything is at our fingertips.  And the best part is that there is still room for many more.

This is a view of our work stations.  The area above is for our wood mount stamp storage.  Chris (Todd's brother) built it out of acrylic which makes it great so we are able to find things very easy. 

It is great to have all our stamps out and be able to see what we have without digging things to find what we are looking for. 

 





A closer look at the wood mount stamp storage.  Again there is still room to add more.  (Don't let Todd know I said that.)

 This is Todd's newest build a rack for storage of ink pads.  He is getting really good with his tools and wood.





This is storage for all our non-mounted stamps.  Everything is organized and labeled in cd cases. 

 This area is for ribbon storage (another rack built by Todd) and our Cricut and sewing machine and desk left to me by my mother-in-law.

We even have a sink in the studio for cleaning our stamps after we use them. 











A display area to show off our newest creations.

 This is the newest and last piece added to the studio.  It is storage for all our paper.  I am not sure if you can tell from this picture but this piece is massive and will hold a lot of paper at various sizes.  There is storage below for plastic shoe boxes that holds our extra products such as glue, cutting blades, and etc.  Both ends have bins so that as paper is cut we have places to throw scraps to be sorted later.  We even have storage for handmade papers underneath.  I also love that it has the matching counter top so it also gives an extra work surface.  We have our cutter and scoring boards up there.

So that is the tour of our new space.  We are so glad to finally be able to share with everyone.   Watch to see our future posts to see what comes from this creative space.

How it Started

 So this is what our basement looked like in our new house.  Actually my brother in law started framing my craft room before we actually moved in.  We had to a lot of work when we went to empty it out.  My mother in law loved to keep things.  She always thought she would need something so did not let a lot of things go out of fear she would need it later.  We had a massive (actually massive does not begin to describe) garage sale. 


The barrel in this picture held part of my mother in law's pine cone collection.  She brought it and the pine cones from New York almost 50 years ago. 

 This shows the electrical work for my outlets .  I think we ended up with over 30 outlets in our studio.  It will be nice not to have to unplug something to plug in something else.










Look for tomorrow's post with pictures of the after......It is a huge difference.

Update

We wanted to thank everyone that stops by blog and try to explain a little bit about why we have not  posted on a regular basis.  It seems like this summer was a blur for our family.  It actually has really been since April.  Todd's mom had been ill since Spring of 2010.  Although at first it was the little changes we would notice.  She lived 2 hours away, so each time we would visit we noticed a slow change in her physically.  We had a wonderful family trip with her, my brother in law, and Todd's niece, Todd, me and our daughter.  We spent Christmas in Florida and actually went to Disney Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day.  We were gone for almost two weeks.  It was fantastic.  My mother in law was really pushing to have this trip take place and we are so glad that we were able to make it happen.

I will fast forward to the end of February.  My mother in law and brother in law came to our house to attend our daughter's dance performance.  My mother in law was doing a little worse.  She was having more problems catching her breath and her cough had worsened.  About two weeks later she was put on 24 hours a day oxygen.  At first it did seem to provide her a little comfort.  It unfortunately did not last long.  By April she would not be able to do much of anything.  Even sitting on the couch resting she would not be able to catch her breathe.  We would notice her struggling to be able to talk on the phone with us.  It was very difficult to watch a women who was so active , struggle with doing the minimum daily tasks.  We began to travel back and forth to visit as much as possible and be able to help with what we were able to do.  She had a biopsy mid April to try to get a final diagnose for her illness.  A week later she went to the hospital with congestive heart failure.  That was on a Wednesday.  That Friday, she got the diagnose.  We were told that she had Pulmonary Fibrosis.   Basically it is a hardening of the lungs.  Neither Todd or me had any idea what would lie ahead until we got back home that evening and we were able to research.  We quickly realized that the diagnose was not good.  Not only did she have a disease that had no cure and only a few options for treatment to help deal with the symptoms, but she was also diagnosed in the very, very late stages.  We spent the next week and half spending what I think might be the best quality time I have ever really got to spend with someone.  We had many visitors and family members come from all over to spend time with "Mom".  We (Todd, me, Marissa and my brother-in-law, Chris) were able to tell her everything we wanted her to know.  It was so wonderful to see how loved she was.  And even better she was awake and able to visit with everyone.    So, 11 days after she received her diagnose she woke up briefly that Monday morning, said a few words, and in a matter of a few minutes, she was gone.
Shortly after my mother in law passed away, we made the decision to sell our home and move up to her house.  So we did a little work to our house and got it up on the market at the middle of June.  We would travel back and forth working to clean out my mother in law's house and getting it ready to move in to.  We sold our house in 25 days, packed up, and moved 2 hours away.



Here we are at the end of September, Marissa is settled into a new school and new dance studio.  Everything is unpacked and almost put away.  We have made some changes to our new house.  The biggest change would be the finishing of our basement.  What once was a large area for storage of "junk" has now become our craft studio and a family rec room.  I can actually say that all the work is done in the craft studio.  Finally.....I am so happy to be able to be creative again.  It is a bright colorful room, full of wonderful custom made storage for all our supplies.  Thanks to my wonderful husband, Todd and his brother Chris.  We have to craft studio I have always dreamed of.  Pictures will be posted this weekend.

 The rec room is almost done just a few finishing touches and it will be complete.  Unfortunately they (mainly Chris) has removed our flooring off the basement stairs and now the walls from the stairwell.  I guess we will be continuing to live in a construction zone for a while.  Well at least I have a place to go now.

So I hope that helps to explain why we have been a little quiet for a few months.  Hopefully our life will return to normal now....or at least our new normal...whatever that is.  Thanks for your patience and understanding and we look forward to sharing with you our new creations.