The Cat's Pajamas meets Kim Hughes

I love this font that The Cat's Pajamas uses for several of their sentiments.  It is just really fun and seems to go with everything.

This slice of cake is from a Kim Hughes set.  I stamped it on some pink paper and than ran it through my Xyron. I added some ultra fine micro beads.  This is a great size because it doesn't distort the image much and adds a sugary sheen.  :)  Perfect for a slice of cake!

Visit A Muse!

Love this little soft serve cone from A Muse!  Yum!  The sentiment is from the clear cupcake set from A Muse too.  The card base is also from A Muse but it is turned inside out- a trick I learned from Her Royal Rubberness, Julie Ebersole.  :)

I plan to head over to A Muse next Wednesday to get some of the new Spring stamps!  Especially the Peep and the Carrot car.  ;)

Do you make Easter cards?  When I get my Peep, I'll show you what I have in mind.  :)

Bald is beautiful... I hope!

A dear friend of mine started chemo today.  She was the first person to really welcome our family here and made me feel excited to be in our ward at church.  When she found out that she has cancer, she was worried about losing her hair.  So last night we had a head shaving.  She shaved her head.  I shaved my head and so did another friend in church.  We did it to support her and show her love.  

I am so glad I did it.  I love my friend and pray that she gets well and this time will be quick for her.

Shaving my head has given me an unexpected perspective...  I never realized how much I let what I look like (or thought I looked like) affect my day to day life.  I thought I had good self esteem.  But I didn't.  If I didn't do my hair before going out, I felt frumpy.  I don't even like styling my hair and yet I continued to get hair cuts that I had to style to look "good".  Why?Shaving my head as gotten rid of all of that.  I have nothing to hide behind now and it feels so great.  What a difference.  :)  I just feel like smiling all day.  People have said how nice I look, how my eyes stand out now.  All compliments I wanted to hear but I things I didn't believe.

So glad it's done!

Goo goo for U

I will be in need of a baby card next week.  :)

I love Kim Hughes.  She is such a nice person and designs awesome stamps!

Green Grass stamps

I love Green Grass stamps.  It looks like they are closing up shop though.  :(

If you have ever wanted any of their stamps, head over there now.  All the stamps are 50-60% off.

I'll try to post some pics of cards I've made using their stamps later in the week.

In better news, I just added some cards to my Etsy store (stamp4hobby).  :)  I've had it open forever and just got around to adding to it.  I have a goal to add something new to it everyday to keep it fresh.  I worked my rear off last night making cards so that I can stick to that promise.

Freakie Peakie (my sister) also set me up with making some cards for the vet she works for.  They wanted some cards to send out to people who's animals pass away.  I am hoping to sell some cards and offer to make scrapbooks for pets through the store too.

Anyway, that's what's up with me this Tuesday.  What are you up to?

ps-  Did anyone catch the new Heros last night?  OH!  Looks like a good season!

paint chip book

A while back, I told you about a paint chip album I was working on.  I finished it but spaced showing you the final project.

Here's how it turned out and a brief tutorial if you want to make your own.

 

You will need to start off with a subject in mind and a collection of paint chips.  The paint chips are the pages of your album and can be any size, color or shape.  I found a nice collection of chips called "waterscape" and grabbed one of each color.

I laid out the pages in and then measured the width and length so I would know how big to make my cover.  For the cover, all you need is some chipboard.  I got mine at the art store for 50 cents for a 8 1/2x11 piece.  I covered my cut chipboard with background and texture paper from Close To My Heart.  I think this paper is from the Aspen collection.  You can see the rest of the paper on my website www.shirk.myctmh.com <--- shameless plug for my store ;)

I went over to Akli beach one afternoon and just shot pics of things I found and saw there.  I love going to this beach which is why I picked it for my subject.

Each photo was cropped and then mounted on the paint chip.  I tried to coordinate the color on the paint chip to highlight something in the picture.  

If you cut 3/8" pieces of paper, the strips will fit into a label maker.  Just punch the words and when they come out of the label maker, you can sand them and get these awesome labels.  Cool, huh?  A white or black core card stock works best to do this.  
I embellished a  few of the pages for fun.  Some have ribbon and others (like the sea glass pic) just have the subject punched out and made 3D.  You can see an example of a couple of pages below.

I have a Rubi Coil and can bind my own books.  You can always get yours bound at a copy store or do it yourself with ribbon, rings, binding tape, anything you want.  :)

These are very fun to make.  It is also a very inexpensive way to create an album for an event.

Please email me or post a link here if you create your own album.  I would love to see it!