{ next up...Taylor's sketch }

I loved Taylors sketch the moment I saw it and was able to incorporate a couple of favorites into this card...One of them being a new favorite that arrived in the mail today....PTI woodgrains and one of my all time favorite stamps the flower from CTMH's Tickled Pink.


I layered the textured stock onto the cream base, them trimmed 6 stamped squres that were slightly larger than 1.5" x 1.5". The flower is mounted ontop of the card front and then I put an adhesive rhinestone in the center of the flower.I also stamped a vertical woodgrain on the inside layer. I will stamp a sentiment in the matching tulip color on the inside when it comes time to use the card.

Card Recipe::
Stamps- woodgrain- PTI, tickled pink- CTMH
ink- tulip and breeze- CTMH
paper- cream-CTMH, textured breeze- Hobby Lobby
other- me & my Big Ideas adhesie rhinestones

{ round 2: clean & simple }

Imagine my delight when I went to my mailbox today and found a package from Papertrey Ink!!
Since I knew I'd be going back for more regarding this sketch....I decided to break out my two new stamps sets and try again.


Pretty simple really, one stamped image of the woodgrain stamp. Next I ran a circle nestie through the cuttlebug and embossed that layer. Finally, I stamped the violet image and gently trimmed and mounted onto the purple layer. I added pearls to the center of the flower.

I was totally amazed at the quality of the stamps. This flower set is beautifully detailed and I had a perfectly, stamped image the first time around!! Can't wait to play some more today.

The sun is in and out today here in MN...We had an AWESOME T-Storm early this morning. Perfect for sleeping. It's a good day to putz around the house and get some stamping done!!

Card Recipe:
stamps- woodgrain, year of flowers: violet- PTI
ink- spring iris, bamboo- CTMH
other- cuttlebug, nestabilities, adhesive pearls- Recollections

{ clean & simple to kick off the weekend }

When I saw this layout I knew I'd be playing along...


...and when I finished with this card I have a couple of other ideas running through my head so I think I'm going to go back to the drawing table and try some more.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Happy Birthday, Intrinsic Backgrounds- CTMH, Jazmyne Clearly Stamps- Bo Bunny
ink- cranberry, black- CTMH
paper- breeze texture- Hobby Lobby, black and cream- CTMH
other- cuttlebug, nestabilities, black Kaiserscrap adhesive rhinestones

the sweetest thing sketch 65

Karen had a beautiful sketch that I thought called for a combination of some beautiful papers that I've been using for several crafting projects. I had some scraps laying around so I quickly and decisively created this card. Trust me, that quickly and decisively is RARELY the case for me when I make a card. HA!

I love the look of the distressed paper and this is probably my favorite Happy Birthday stamp. I love this font!

Card Recipe:
paper- the paper salon- Hobby Lobby, cream- CTMH
ink- cranberry- CTMH
other- buttons- CTMH

{ another one layer card }

The second in the one layer card challenge came to me a little easier. I created a mask with my circle nestabilitie by trimming a card front out of vellum and then placing my circle on that vellum and making a hole.
Then I taped it down to the front of the card and stamped so that the only place the image would show up is in the negative part. Easy to make and I'll save my vellum mask for a future project!!

{ one layer card }

Wow! I don't know the last time I made a one layer card. It was more challenging then I would have thought it to be. Kristina put a challenge out to make a one layer card and I took the challenge. I might play some more this week with it because it has me thinking in a one layer frame of mind now.

Here's my card. Not only is it only one layer, but it also does not have a sentiment on the outside of the card. That is for the inside.

I used one of my all time favorite stamps that's gathered a bit of dust lately.
card recipe:
stamps- rustic flowers- CTMH
ink- sorbet and breeze- CTMH

{ color chef challenge #48 }

I had some fun playing with grey yesterday and wanted to incorporate it into this weeks color challenge. I am so excited to see what you all come up with:

Orange Grey Turquoise White

Card Recipe:
stamps- for every occasion, posy- CTMH
ink- breeze, sorbet, grey wool
paper- breeze texture- Hobby Lobby, sorbet, grey wool- CTMH
other- apron lace border punch, foam mounting tape

In case you hadn't noticed, or if you have any questions, I added a link at the top of the blog that includes Color Chef Challenge information.

I hope you'll play along this week. I love seeing what you create!

{ color chef challenge #47 winner }

Jodi's absolutely adorable card was randomly drawn to win Color Chef Challenge #47. Thanks to everybody who played along!




Jodi- here is your badge!!

Stacey's Curtain Call

Stacey has a great color challenge going, with a prize to boot! Here's the combo:

I had so much fun with this, I came up with two cards. This particular color combo screams fashion to me, not exactly nature, but nature is what came out of my time at the stamp table...

First, don't you love this little bird??

Second, here is a time consuming card (cutting of all the flowers) but I am pleased with how it turned out.

To create the grassy hill, I trimmed my paper to 4 1/4" and about 3 inches. Then I cut a rounded shape. There is a grass stamp in this set that I stamped along the rounded edge and then carefully trimmed out. The tree is actually embossed in silver detail embossing powder and qualifies for the darker grey called for in this color combo.

Hope you're having a great weekend! It's beautiful, spring weather here in MN.

Card Recipe:
stamps- For The Birds- Fiskars, Grown with Love- CTMH
ink- grey wool, honey- CTMH, versamark
paper- white daisy, grey wool- CTMH
other- silver detail embossing powder, foam mounting tape

In case you hadn't noticed

If you are like me, you get tons of inspiration all over blog land and keep photos, recipes, etc. in some sort of file. I love when I stumble on a blog that allows me to save a blog post to my delicious account. I have the best recipes and decorating ideas, card tutorials, etc. stored on that account.

I decided to add the share feature, which can be found at the bottom of each blog post so that if I've inspired you in some way that you too can save for future reference. I hope you find it useful!

And if you are interested in adding this same, useful feature to your blog, you can do so here.

It Just Makes Cents: Paper Storage

In this post I talked about an interest I have in taking inexpensive thrift store/ garage sale pieces and making them over into something useful and stylish....Here is a paper crafting edition of It Just Makes Cents.

Paper storage is something that I'm pretty sure every crafter struggles with. I've recently found a system that works pretty well- plain old manilla office folders. The only problem is I didn't exactly know where to stuff them.

I'm sure like most paper crafters, we all have our brands of cardstock that we prefer. Mine is Close To My Heart and the paper arrives in pallets of colors. There are 60 colors. That presents a big need for some organization!!

Here is the situation:
My pictures are pretty low- quality but see how I have paper trays off to the left? These contain my staple papers: kraft, black, white, cream and any other "special" papers that I keep separate for whatever reason. Then see how I have my manilla office folders crammed against the paper trays? It works OK, but I felt like the tray was taking up a lot of unnecessary room so I had to find a solution.



I was at my new favorite local thrift store and found this file storage unit for $0.50. It's not an awful color but since I have a new addiction to spray paint, this was to be my next victim!


So with a little spray paint, it went from drab to fab!! Another poor shot below but I'm showing it "in use". All of my folders fit perfectly into this holder. There are 14 folders in this now.

And I combined my staple papers as mentioned above into these as well, devoting a folder to each color. Then, I took old CTMH catalogs and cut out the pallette dots showing which color is in each folder.

Here is a side shot.

I think this system is going to work for awhile. This file system helps keep all my scraps organized as well because I throw them in the front of the appropriate folder.

This only covers my cardstock. NOT any of my scrapbook paper. I will save that for another post because I've got tons of it and it's not in any sort of presentation-state right now.

Hope this helps a fellow paper crafter with paper organization!!

ftl86

I couldn't resist playing with this layout.

I used some papers that were leftover from another project. I love the combo of black and turquoise, this time I paired them with cream to tie in with the pattern paper.
Really simple. Ran 3 different circle sizes through the cuttlebug and used my 1 1/2" punch and 1" punch. Popped a couple of the circles and that was it!



Card Recipe:
stamps- for every occasion-CTMH
paper- turquoise and patterned paper- Hobby Lobby, cream and black- CTMH
ink- black- CTMH
other- cuttlebug, nestabilities

it's springtime!

I had to whip up a little (and by little I mean 4x4) card tonight with my new stamp set. I've loved this set from the moment I set my eyes on it. I decided to use my color challenge for the card and thought it paired nicely with the floraly image on the rain boots and umbrella. I don't have rain boots or an umbrella but this is a pair I would love to have!

Card Recipe:
stamps- springtime- CTMH
ink- hollyhock, black- CTMH
paper- white daisy texture- CTMH
other- foam dots

Color Chef Challenge #47

This is an oldie but goodie.... Pink Black and White
I used the sketch over at Get Sketchy for this weeks card Wondering how I got the white to be SO white on the card above??? It's beautiful patterned paper by GCD studios! I love it and the reverse side is turquoise. I used it on a couple other projects that I'll show you later in the week. Other than the timely job of creating the black circles and scallop circles in the cuttlebug with my nestabilities, the card came together very easily. I added adhesive rhinestones to the center of each circle. No stamping on this card at all!!


Card Recipe:
paper- hollyhock, black and white daisy- CTMH, DP- GCD studios
other- cuttlebug, scallop nestabilities, circle nestabilities, adhesive rhinestones

In case you hadn't noticed, or if you have any questions, I added a link at the top of the blog that includes Color Chef Challenge information.

I hope you'll play along this week. I love seeing what you create!

color chef challenge #46 winner

Random.org drew BEV's card!!!


Bev- here is your badge for your blog if you would like to post it!Thanks again to everybody who played!!

wishing you well

Here's a card that I made over the weekend using this weeks Color Chef Challenge. Didn't get a chance to be in the stamp room this past week thanks to some kind of a stomach bug.

I made the background with my favie boutique borders stamp. It's not my best background job, but I decided to just go with it....Then, I stamped the flourish and mounted it on to the grey card stock. I wrapped some twine around the grey paper layer.

The Wishing You Well sentiment was added after I stamped the sentiment right onto the cardstock but it didn't quite do it for me so I decided to incorporate the ocean colored stock to match the flourish.

Card Recipe:

stamps- boutique borders, say it with style- CTMH, big sassy icons- Me & My Big Ideas
paper- white daisy, ocean, grey wool- CTMH
ink- honey, ocean, black- CTMH
other- foam mounting tape, cuttlebug, circle nestabilities, black twine- Archivers

It Just Makes Cents Makeover Debut

More about what I did to this a little later....


For some time now, I've been perusing amazingly awesome decorating blogs. By decorating, I mean taking something old or existing and making it new and YOURS. As if I didn't spend enough time using Google Reader for all my paper crafting blogs, now I've got a whole new addiction- thrifty home decorating....The THRIFTY part being right up my alley. Not to mention, how many times I've come home from the store with something, or even left it at the store because I liked it but it just wasn't EXACTLY what I wanted. Well, that stops here!!!
We've been in our house for 6 years now and we are struggling to find decorations for our walls that we could feel good about putting up. Mostly, it's committing to them from a MOOLA standpoint. Decorating is EXPENSIVE and if you don't really love it, it seems like a big waste, since home decorating tends to be trend-driven.
So........ with a canI'm getting so much inspiration from lurking on these blogs and my I'm Gonna Try That Folder is overfloweth!!

These blogs have opened my eyes to things I see around me and allow me to see them with a fresh coat of spray paint, or some fabric, or.....you probably get my drift. And with link parties titled I Made it Without My Husband....well that's even something my husband can get behind since he's busy with my other honey do list for the outside:)
I might try another blog just for these types of post, but for now I'm posting right here.

Here's my first It Just Makes Cents Makeover!

Here's another picture of the before. I stumbled on this at a great thrift store in my town.... I saw it and liked the style of it but wasn't crazy about the color....
So with a little black spray paint, some river rock from Hobby Lobby and a jar candle for now until I find just the "right" candle, this is the AFTER.


I was surprised by a couple of things:

• this was completely effortless! I got lucky with my first project because this piece had a nice smooth surface for easy paint coverage
• spray paint has come a long way since I've used it last. AH-MAZING!!
• Cost: Wooden Tray: $1 and River Rock $2.79 for a Total of $3.79
  

It turned out cute enough for me that I'm going back for more. Can't wait to find the next piece that Just Makes Cents to Makeover!!

I'm linking this project to two totally-plethora of ideas-blogs: Shanty2Chic: I Made it Without My Husband and Funky Junk Interiors. Get comfy if you visit either of those sites- you'll be there for awhile!!

color chef 45 winner of DeNami $50 Gift Certificate

Gwen's beautiful layout was randomly chosen to win the $50 gift certificate to DeNami Design!!!


Gwen- here is the badge for your blog! Please email me at theratcliffs@charter.net with your mailing address and I'll get that right out to you!!

color chef challenge #46

Happy Monday! The colors for this week are:

BLACK DARK GREY TURQUOISE YELLOW and WHITE if you need it!!

I was strolling through Kohl's last week and came across the most striking dress with those very colors and I knew that would be my next challenge!!

I hope you'll play along...it was fun to combine a couple of hot colors into one combination.

My card was very simple so I'll get right to the ingredients.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Boutonniere- American Crafts
ink- black, grey wool, ocean, honey- CTMH
paper- black, grey wool, white daisy- CTMH
other- apron lace border punch- EK Success Punch, foam tape

In case you hadn't noticed, or if you have any questions, I added a link at the top of the blog that includes the rules of the color chef challenge for you to refer to.

I hope you'll play along this week. I love seeing what you create!

sweet sunday sketch 53

Karen's sketch allowed me to use my new fave stamp {Hero Arts Clings Silhouette Flower} in a slightly different way. First, I cut my circle using my circle nestabilitie in my cuttlebug. Then, I stamped the image on the circle....
I mounted it, along with the best wishes sentiment from my other fave stamp set. Although it slightly varies from the sketch, I decided there should be a butterfly floating on the card as well and I decided to tip the edges of the butterfly in the cranberry ink that was used on the Best Wishes layer.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Darcey Collection- Anna Griffin, silhouette flower- Hero Arts Clings
ink- cranberry, ocean, honey
other- cuttlebug, foam tape, nestabilities