Home Sweet Home

Hi Everyone!

I have decided that one of the things I like most about papercrafting is that it gives me the opportunity to "play" and create and be productive at the same time.  I have a friend who bakes chocolate chip cookies when she needs a break.  She doesn't eat them.  She bakes them and gives them away.  I'll bet her neighbors love her! 

Another friend meditates.  My daughter walks and goes to the gym.  One of my sisters does yoga and many of my friends papercraft.  From time to time Toni will call me to say, "It's been a rough week.  I need a card night."  My friend Susan needed to reconfigure her workspace and said if she got it all done by the beginning of September she'd reward herself with a trip to Massachusetts on Columbus Day weekend so that we can spend the entire weekend papercrafting together.  Happily she achieved her goal.  Susan is the owner and artist of Shapes, ETC. and I know she will teach me all sorts of new tricks. 

I've told many of my friends that I feel as if I am taking a really fun graduate class as I teach myself and try out papercrafting ideas and techniques.  I've learned that if I "mess up" sometimes I do the project a different way and sometimes I just take a deep breath, toss the card in the recycle bin, and start all over again.

I sit at this table and have fun.  A lot of fun.  From time to time someone asks me to create a theme of cards that I haven't done previously and I love to rise to the challenge.  A few weeks ago my sister Jeanne asked me to make a "new home" card for her to give to a friend.  I thought that "new home" cards would be a great theme to add to my collection.  I decided to have some fun and play around with the "home" theme.  I ordered a set of clear stamps from PaperTrey Ink called, "Boards & Beams."  They arrived in the mail the other day.  If you check them out you'll see that there are all sorts of great "home" messages included in the set.  

I decided that in addition to giving her friend a "new home" card, Jeanne would probably love to give her friend a set of "home themed" cards as a housewarming gift.

Today I received a "spooky house" die from Sizzix in the mail.  This die is on clearance in the Sizzix outlet.  I ordered it to use for Halloween cards, but today I decided to turn it into a Halloween/new home card.  I used part of a piece of dcwv's spider web paper for the house.  I had picked up a package of Creatology felt ghost and boo stickers at Michaels and knew they'd work perfectly for my card.  I used a Quickie Glue pen from Sakura of America to outline the spider web and then sprinkled some fine white glitter on the glue.  "There's no place like home" was stamped with a clear stamp from the
Boards & Beams stamps.  The finished size of this card is 4.5" across and 6.25" down.

I still have lots of birdhouses from dcwv's Songbird 12" x 12" paper stack and thought it would be fun to include them on some "home" cards.  Today's card is a Congratulations one, but I will use some of the birdhouses and some of the other stamps for additional cards.  The background paper is from K & Company's Citronella collection.  The message was stamped with a stamp from the Boards & Beams set. This card opens from the top and measures 4" across and 5.5" down.

So that's it for today!  I hope that these cards inspire you to create some Halloween or new home cards of your own.  Enjoy your day!
Carol