Feeling Punchy!

Challenge #2 this month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge is to use your punches on a project. I have plenty of punches, but don't use them as often as I'd like. This was the perfect opportunity!

I decided to use my Martha Stewart Butterfly punch on an ATC I made for another challenge. Jess posted a challenge at "Absolutely Alter It" to make an ATC and to purposefully use "Product Vomit" on the ATC. This is not hard to do, since the cards are only 2 1/2 X 3 1/2. I tried to squeeze as much stuff on there as I could while still attempting to make it look attractive.

I've just return from "The Sanitarium"

No, it's not what you think! Although I may be nuts, I haven't been institutionalized lately! My hubby and I just celebrated out 19th anniversary. After much planning and scheming, we were able to arrange child care for all four kids, with their friend's families. We decided to stay local, and visit a B & B in San Luis Obispo called The Sanitarium. I was intrigued by the photos of the Victorian home painted floor to ceiling in white, and which has some "medicinal" decor! We spent a very rainy weekend, relaxing at the inn, enjoying all the artwork, and going out only to eat and do a bit of shopping. St. Patrick's Day was pouring rain, and the drunks were busy at the bars by lunch time.

The people who run the Sanitarium are working artists, and the place is filled with their paintings. The inn had very strong coffee, the sheets smelled like lavender, and it appealed to our "artistic temperments". I would love to go there again!

Here are a few photos of our stay. I'm trying to imitate Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, who frequently takes photos of paintings that inspire her.

Our room: I liked this typewiter series:I love this mermaid.This Dali portrait was right outside our room. We found it charming!

March, 2012 Counterfeit Kit

This month's inspiration at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog was a sweet little kit by Birds of a Feather. Compared to some of the other kits we've seen, it was relatively small in size. I liked that, but did end up adding a few more items than were featured in the kit. Many of the items were by My Mind's Eye, because I have an obsession with their newest lines!

I must admit that I cheated by adding a few of the same pieces that were included in the inspiration kit! I did make a few substitutions, although I tried to stay with the same color scheme.

Here are my paper choices:

My Mind's Eye "Be Amazing" (Geo Star, Honey Blue, Kraft Unique), MME "On The Bright Side" (Yellow Chevron, Blue Wood, Stitched), Shaped Paper Studio Calico.

My embellishments:

MME "Follow your heart" Chipboard Elements, Jillibean Soup white corrugated alphas, Studio Calico die cut alphas (yellow wood grain), SC die cut journaling stickers, MME Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks wood die-cut & pearl shapes, "Lucky" title and journaling cards, Pebbles cloud felt stickers, Prima flower bunch, and various ribbons.

Here are some cards I made recently. I think I was fixated on using those ribbon flowers individually!

I made this card using Websters Winter Fairy Tale papers from the January Paper Lovelies kit.


I used Prima Madeline paper for this card:

My Mind's Eye CHA winner and a page!

Last month was CHA 2012, where all the new product lines are released. Two Peas had some awesome videos of the new lines, and if you left a comment on the video, you were entered into a drawing to win a a prize of items from that video. I was thrilled to find out I won the My Mind's Eye prize package! I was sent all the items from the Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks collection, as shown here. The papers are lovely and feminine, with a unique color combination.

I've made a vow to myself to schedule some time each week to craft. This weekend, I managed to get some scrapping done, and here is the page I completed, using a sketch from my friend Laura-Lee's cool new kit club blog Boys Rule Scrapbook Kits. Obviously, this page is not boyish, but I loved the sketch, and thought it would work well with these papers.



This photo was take by someone from our church, at Aline's confirmation retreat last year. I just love the photo, and waited for it to be given to me after being posted to the church bulletin board for awhile. I managed to scan a copy to my computer, but scrapped this copy with the staple holes and all! It feels good to be scrapping again!