Mojo Monday Challenge

I am newly motivated to make some cards. Maybe it is because I got to spend the day with a bunch of other creative ladies this weekend. Maybe it's because it is one of those wonderful overcast days and staying inside and warm and crafting seems right.

I stumbled across a site with some amazing cards and she had a challenge sketch so this was my inspiration. Visit her site here.

I realize this is the sketch to last Monday, however, I did this Sunday afternoon and am just posting it on Monday. I also realize this is not the best picture. Trust me, it's the best of the bunch. The stamp in the middle is of some acorns and leaves. The ribbon is cream raffia.
Here are some pictures of the weekend workshop. The creative ladies? Trish, Sylvia, Chris, Lynn, Sherri, LeAnne & Jaime. I guess there were around 50 ladies there all together. However my estimating skills stink so there might have been anywhere between 10 and 5000. It was just nice to do some crafts that did not require pipe cleaners for any part of it.

I do not have a picture of Lynn and Sherri. Everyone's loss, they are joy just to see their smiles.

Here are some of the projects we did:

This is a box to hold our cards. We decorated the front and made 6 tabbed inserts for dividing the cards by occasion.

This was just a pretty card. We got to play with the Big Shot this weekend also.

Here is a really unique and beautiful Christmas card. It is Garden Green and Elegant Eggplant.

Here is a little box that holds a test tube that was filled with teddy grahams. I ate some.

This was a fun slider card. I really like the colors together and all the sparkly glitter.

When we paused for lunch, we got our plastic ware and crackers in this cute little gift bag.

While this looks like just a really catchy card, it actually holds 3 pictures inside as a mini picture gift album.

And the last project was this little bookmark. It was a quick and simple gift idea.

Copycat

I saw this card earlier today and just loved it.

This is my new journal (have I mentioned my obsession for paper and journals?)

So great pattern + cute journal =

Burning the Midnight Oil

This is my card for the Color Inspiration Challenge. Sorry the photo isn't better...new camera...and I have no idea what I'm doing or how to use the software. The base is old olive, the face is not quite navy. I kissed the so saffron with swirls of blissful blue then stamped it on the glossy paper.

Here is one of the cards we made in our stamp club this month. The words are embossed with Gold Glory and the scallop punch is pretty in pink.

This is a card I put together tonight to complete 3 seperate challenges, so I combined them all into one card. They were for techinque, colors and the layout per SCS. I plan to use this as a Father's Day card from his little girl. The colors are Chocolate chip, sage and vanilla. The little girls dress and hat are piece work cut out of sage and pasted ontop of the orignal stamped image then I colored with marker the picture.

Need a name

A friend and I are joining efforts to start selling some of our cards. I love making them, it is good therapy for my soul. Yesterday, late afternoon, when I had answered my 1000th question of the day, over things like "is the brown recluse or the black widow more poisonius?" "Can you take us in an airplane someday?" "Why do they call it an aquarium?" "What are we having for snack time?" I could feel my blood pressure rising and told the kids that momma needed a time out for 10 minutes. I set the timer, assigned Makensie to play with baby and I headed to my bedroom to crash on the bed thinking I wanted to just cry, sleep or scream and didn't care which. But when I got there I saw the Country Living magazine laying there and rather than seeing a wonderfully decorated dining room, I felt like John, from the movie A Beautiful Mind, all the colors were jumping off the page begging me to pay attention to them. So I grabbed the magazine and my pad of ideas and 10 minutes later emerge refreshed and with a list of 10 new color schemes to incorporate into my cards. I love color. I love the crafting. I love paper. I love giving a beautiful card that I made and designed myself. Gives me a little "yeah me!" moment.

So, the plan is to sell individual cards as well as sets and put together some gift baskets and always include a matching card with any gift we sell. That way it's like a bed in the bag...everything included for the perfectly matched gift. One thing that we are working on that I'm really excited about is a recipe card box. Decorated, handstamped lined and decorated dividers and then matching designed recipe (blank) cards, and a matching card. We also plan to include in our services: announcements, stationary and coasters. We would additionally like to do parties for the young girls (tweens maybe?). To be the entertainment of sorts. Come in for a birthday party, help the girls decorate personal journals and a notebook or some birthday cards for their friends, or if they are doing a little spa party, make labels for their sugar scrubs or such. This is a hard age, they are not little kids any more so the clown or blow up jumpers are out, yet not quite old enough to be on their own for entertainment.

So Leanne is the organized one and business planner and marketeer, and I guess I'm just along for the ride and to put some cards together. She thinks she isn't as creative...but she is. So we need to come up with a name for our little endeavor. My wonderful husband suggested "Cards by Tards", which while I did think he was funny...not so much helpful. Any suggestions? Send me your ideas and if we go with your name I'll send you a set of 4, beautiful all occasion handmade cards with envelopes.

Let me know if you would like some cards made up for your next birthday party, wedding or a shower...if we can help you with party favors, invitations, gifts... I'll post some pictures later, now that I have a big girl camera.