collectionary update

Next week at this time we will be far, far away - probably the farthest we've ever been. The collectionary pages are getting ready to be filled with new sights, sounds and smells!

The background is made from a Panera Bread bag, once again... I just love this texture, nice, thick craft paper with interesting patterns, which require adding lined paper. These pages also allow me to use up some items from the tiny scrap box.

Got a cool new stamp recently - an antique teapot. Gotta love the dollar bins at Michael's.

The image on the left is a little scrap of Nativity-themed Christmas paper; the buildings totally fit into the upcoming visit to Turkey and Israel, at least I imagine so.

These pages are based on a big brown envelope which used to contain a magazine I subscribe to. Nice stamps, all the way from Polska!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday but her card is probably still traveling... nevertheless, here it is- the outside...

... and the inside:

Recently all cards, even those born in big families, get decorated insides - as an exemplary specimen of a packrat, I always hold on to the tiniest scraps, and using them in this way helps diminish the stash at least a little bit.

Before dyes and bleaches were invented...

... there were a lot of "natural" materials, in all shades of brown, beige and off-white. Here is a little album entitled "Life is a journey", where I tried to use these colors and also do some recycling:

The four pages were made from toilet paper rolls (I've been thinking about this technique for years!), covered with brown paper, and then embellished with various scraps, including burlap, handmade paper and manila folders (which I tend to call vanilla folders); add some stamping (map stamps acquired in Poland last year), some fibers and a button... and here is my little Journey Album!

Card factory in blues and purples

I've been asked to create a few cards in blues and purples, so now the craft table is covered with scraps in this color range. Luckily, it's not just scraps - a few cards have emerged as well:

I've used some store-bought paper flowers (yay for $5 in free crafts at Michael's last Saturday), a dismantled fabric flowers, lace, ribbons and also pink cupcakes which have been sitting on my desk for months and somehow never made it into any finished projects.

The next order/challenge is birthday cards in summer colors - green, yellow and orange, and "please use some of the daisy designs". I think it may mean another quick trip to Michael's, since I saw yellow and green flowers there last time, and how can one resist the dollar bins?

I also have a travel journal page to make, and maybe I should start thinking about Easter cards? Hmmm... Not to mention the unfinished French proverbs piece.

Got up early, cleaned up (somewhat) the craft table and sewed together a couple of flowers for the upcoming cards.

Then I went to work... and it was such a great surprise to find a craft book on my desk! They were throwing away old samples from various printers and someone thoughtful saved this one for me. So many good things happening to me recently!

Here are a few ideas from the book - I'm wondering if I could try them with some other fabrics, not necessarily wool?

card factory

Worked hard yesterday, did a lot of cutting and gluing, so my my chrysanthemum (et al.) set is complete:

I also made a thank-you bookmark for the Lady who ordered the cards:

And then, while digging in the closet for something entirely different, I found a set of scrapbooking papers. Serendipity! Totally forgot that I had them (and, akhem, they were not really stored where they should be...)

craft-table-scape

The work on the French proverb piece has temporarily been suspended since I have received an order for a set of "chrysanthemum" cards, based on the dimensional embellishments from K&Company, my favorite manufacturer eveeeer!

Here is one card already assembled...

...and this is what the dining room table looks like currently: