Blizzard paper - another sample of WIP

A girlfriend at work (thank you, Anita!) has given me a few sheets of marble paper - kind of whitish-grey. My first thought was: this is a blizzard, perfect for something snowy, possibly an exploding box!

So - I got out pinturas acrilicas and started with stamping large snowflakes, in white pearlescent paint mixed with glitter paint. Nice! Then I stamped smaller, more detailed snowflakes in silvery ink and put silver glitter dots in the centers.

Here is the sheet...

...and here is a close-up to show the details of this experiment:

I'm planning another layer - either white or translucent heat-embossed snowflakes, but I have to wait till the existing treatments dry; otherwise, the embossing powder will stick to everything.

It turned out that I had a surplus of the paint mixture, so I used it up on the brown bags which also go to the craft show as packaging for my paper goodies:

On a different front - the exploding boxes are getting the more detailed decorations. I think this is my favorite part of the process:

chase bank cooperating with panera bread

Chase Bank used a leafy picture in one of their documents, which I was unable to throw away... (This happens way too often!) Panera Bread, in turn, has those awesome bags made of thick brown paper, really nice to the touch, with subtle pattern imprinted on the front and back.

And here is how they melanged with a few pieces from the scrap box and a quote found in the trusty Quote Garden:

Also on my desk - work in progress on a bunch of post-it-notes, which will be wrapped into purses made from recycled Christmas cards:

And as for the larger sticky notes mentioned in the previous post - they've gained a bunch of siblings, represented here by four members:

preparations for Saturday continue

Strawberries are done...

... and so are the elephants:

Christmas trees are almost ready...

...and charming Christmas paper is waiting in line:

As a crafty warm-up, I stamped some bags for potential customers last night - used big foam stamps acquired at a Second Chance Store a while ago, because one day they would of course find their use, and they did!

So many ideas are churning, but one must be reasonable and also do what NEEDS to be done. Oh well.

from the crafting table

After the summer break and taking care of a visitor (my brother-in-law spent a month with us) I'm finally spending more time with my crafting materials.
I have started Christmas experiments - as usual, I am drawn to the snowy colors, blue, white and silver. First of all, I put together an origami flower, which may be suitable for the cards that will be handed in. I can't imagine mailing them :)

Then I wanted to try a flatter idea - wintry photos, possibly black and white, with these fabric-and-bead flowers, plus some extra stuff. I'm hunting for a punch that would produce little branches, like this one. I may combine them with the distressed-looking corrugated cardboard.

Last but not least - the big project in progress is the paperbag album hosting the memories from our recent trip to Washington, Oregon and California. It is my first encounter with the brown bags and I absolutely love how you can stuff the pockets with all the extra receipts, postcards and what not - I always run out of space in regular albums!