Kerry’s Paper Crafts

just a quick card that I made quite a while ago but never shared. Lots of Hero Arts goodness on this card. Stamps are all Hero, designer paper is October Afternoon, punch is from Fiskars & I believe all the CS is from Stampin Up!

I have not done ANY crafting at all this summer! It’s so sad, gah! I am hoping to get back into the mood soon - but it’s been a hot summer so we’ve been trying to enjoy it. (well, that & renovate lots of things in our house!) I have a kitchen back again! YAYY! A sink, a dishwasher, all of it! It’s glorious. We are putting the finishing touches on but then it will be complete. Wait until you see the before & after pics. It’s like a totally different house!

If you haven’t checked it out lately, I’ve been updating my Photography Blog quite a bit. I’m enjoying taking all these great summer photos.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cards

I was finally able to snag one of the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die at my local AC Moore last week. LOVE this die & it’s so versatile. You can use these florals on most anything.

I decided to use a bit of October Afternoon paper to create this flower. The layers of this card are a Stampin Up Real Red base, with PTI Kraft Cardstock. I embossed-resist the background a bit with a few Hero Arts stamps. I used some Distress Ink to grunge up the edges a bit on all of the pieces.

This button was a clear button; I punched a circle from some more OA paper and glued it to the back of the button w/ Glossy Accents (AKA Crystal Effects from SU). I love doing that - it gives you an instant designer button!

Cards

Just an FYI to some of you - the Blog might be up & down sometime within the next few days. I’m changing over to a new hosting provider who I am sure will prove to be MUCH better than my current one! I’ve had some intermittent issues lately w/ the comments not loading, blog being slow, etc. So I am hoping this clears things up! Thanks for being so patient w/ me!

Not sure if I have shared these here yet - but I made even more of the post-it holders w/ matching pens. Love these things. So easy to make.

Perfect for Teachers…

I think these will be a major item at Fall Craft Fairs this year.

Can you believe it’s July? I need to start crackin’ on FALL items soon! ACKKK!! We are *almost* done the kitchen…well, I almost have a sink back - they are installing granite counters next week. After that it’s the finishing touches. But the important thing is that I WILL HAVE A SINK & A DISHWASHER SOON!! I might die of excitement people.

Anyway, more to come soon. Meanwhile, I’m trying to avoid melting. It’s been quite the toasty week here in MA. Stay cool everyone!

Altered Stuff, Craft Fair

Last year I got my Masters Degree from Bentley University. I was SO psyched to be done with school. Although the program only took me a few years to complete, I felt like I had been going to school for my entire life. (which I pretty much had been doing!)

I was so relieved & grateful when I was through. The best caption I could think of for this page was “FINALLY”. (I then vowed never to go to school again ) even the Photography class I took a few weeks ago made me twitch a bit. Just being back on a campus made me want to run screaming for the hills. The good news was that the class was totally about leisure this time!

I need to add some journaling & this page will be complete.

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy Collection (Designer Paper). SU! Kraft 12×12 cardstock, scalloped border punch. American Crafts Thickers, Misc. tags & embellishments

Scrapbooking

so I thought I’d at least update you on what we’ve been so busy with (well, part of it at least!)

We own an old farm house. It’s a wonderful New England 100+ year old house - with all the character & charm of an old home (and all the problems, too!). We finally were able to have it painted this summer & we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.It used to be white (more like a chipped, cracked dirty version of white). We decided to go with a Colonial Blue color, with white trim & black accents. We are VERY happy with how it turned out.

Here are some pictures of the house, freshly painted & landscaped. (We do 99% of things at our house by ourselves - landscaping included. It was nice to have some help w/ the painting - as it was a pretty big undertaking).

And here are my new rocking  chairs. OH, my chairs. I’ve wanted these since the day we moved in. This porch just BEGS to have white rocking chairs sitting out there. I love how the fresh paint makes them pop. And I LOVE rocking in them. And yes, we love that big porch!

A view from the street:

In addition to the house painting & landscaping, we’ve got quite the kitchen renovation going on. I promise to put pics of that up as well when it’s complete. Cabinets are in & I *almost* have a sink back again. Oh, I cannot wait.

Stay tuned & thanks for stopping in!

Other, Photography

Hi all - so a few had asked about seeing more of the pics I am taking lately. I have decided it’s easier for me to do a Photography Blog to keep this one just focused (mostly) on paper crafting. (and my cat that I love so much, hehe)

Anyway, here is the link if you’re interested. I try to post recent pics of things I shoot. It will most like evolve into a personal blog as most of my shots are of events & things in my life.

Hopefully it’s not too boring

Photography

I’ve been into sewing lately. I get  a case of crafting A.D.D. every now & then and I need something to distract me. This month it’s sewing. It all started because I was getting tired of the way things looked under the tables in my craft room:

Those drawers up there are where I store all of my cardstock scraps. I LOVE this system. It’s a great way to utilize the space under the table (which is otherwise wasted). I can easily pull these drawers out when I need to get to scraps (they come completely out of the unit which I really like). I sort mine by color. The only problem is that it looks messy (along w/ the other crapola I shove under there). I decided I wanted a way to cover it up so when I’m not accessing my scraps it looks more attractive.

Also, we have this trainwreck which was in desperate need of something to hide it (or blow it up entirely):

God, I hate wires. I’m a gadget girl but I hate wires. Unfortunately the fact that I have so many gadgets creates quite the the predicament for me when I want things to look tidy. I decided to solve both of the above problems with fabric panels & some tension rods:

All of my scraps are still nice & accessible when I need them. I just push away the fabric panel & open the drawers that I need. I bought the tension rods at Target for a few bucks each & they work GREAT. Such a cheap & easy solution.

I found the fabric on sale at Joann’s - I like the simplicity of the colors but the pattern adds some character. I think what we mostly need to emphasize here people is that I CAN SEW SQUARES!! I CAN SEW IN A SEMI-STRAIGHT LINE!!!

It’s the little things I tell ya.

Anyway - next on my list is creating something to wrap around this table here to cover up this bad boy. (No, not the giant fat cat - look past until you see the bleeding eyesore of wires & dust bunnies.)

Typical Max. Always in my shot. And while we are on the subject, can we discuss what is wrong with this picture below?? I mean really, how am I to learn how to sew with this giant furball always getting in my way?

Hmmph. I suppose I will allow him to stay. After all, I did grab the camera & take photo upon photo of him lying there instead of shooing him off. And then I patted him on the head.

I promise to share this sewing project that Max is lying on once it’s complete. It’s super fun & easy to do.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer weather. It’s been great so far up here in MA.

Organization, Sewing, the cat.

Hi there - again, I apologize for the sparse posting lately. We are still in the middle of major house renovations & trying to make our way through it, argh. I’ve got some great photos of the house being painted on the outside - it’s amazing how awesome it looks. Hopefully they will be 100% done this week & I will post the pics here.

Since I’ve been such a bad blogger, I wanted to make it up to you guys with a TON of fun cards - and the best part is that these are for a WONDERFUL cause. I’ve been meaning to contribute to this cause for a while now - but when I was surfing Jennifer McGuire’s blog the other night, I saw that she had posted these digital images available for FREE download. They were created specifically for the Cards for Kids drive by Kristina. She is AMAZING!!

I printed out a bunch of each of these images - they are super fun & are sure to make someone smile. I went a little crazy - here is just a sampling of what I’ve been doing with these images:

This image is my favorite. That sun is just so bright & cheery. I stamped those clouds with a Hero Arts background stamp - it’s absolutely one of my fave stamps. It came out awesome on this teal cardstock.

Another Hero Arts background stamp used on this card - this time it was a Woodgrain.

I added some stickles to this ice cream cone to make it look even more yummy. I tried  not to embellish too much on these cards as I don’t want them to be too bulky to mail.

Cute little caterpillar. I added googlie-eyes to anything that looked like it needed it. Kids love googlie eyes, right?

This one worked out perfectly because I had a bunch of that Spongebob smiley-face paper lying around. Love it.

I am hoping to find some stickers to throw inside these cards & then I’m going to send them off. In case you’re wondering - I just used my regular HP Inkjet Color printer & printed all of these images on white & vanilla cardstock. Super simple.

I strongly encourage you guys to check out these images & see what you can make with them! Anyone can put them together - it makes a great project to do with children on a rainy day. It’s also a great way to use up some scraps of paper or ribbon that you have. And - not that you needed more reasons to love this card drive - but there are some seriously awesome prizes you can win. The more cards you send, the better your chances.

Jennifer is amazing & I admire her for putting together such a wonderful effort for these kids & their families.

Cards

sorry guys. Things have just been somewhat hectic in life. We are doing lots of projects at home & truth is I just have not had much crafting mojo.

I made a card the other day though so I wanted to share. Nothing special, just playing with some October Afternoon designer paper. I used some plain chipboard letters from Heidi Swapp & covered them in orange paint using a Ranger Ink Dabber. (love the bright orange color). I wanted to give the letters more pop so I used some Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on them. They almost turned out looking like Thickers, huh?

I added some buttons & a crocheted flower - all of which I had in my stash & I cannot tell you where on earth they are from!

Cards

I’ve been having lots of fun with my Photography. I got a new lens (50mm f/1.4) & I’m totally loving it. It’s fun to practice with a lens that is so fast & is great in low light. I have to share a photo of my best test subject, Max:

Isn’t he such a pretty boy? He loves me & is totally OK with my camera obsession. (at least I think he is. I tell myself he is.) I love how his whiskers are HUGE. When he was a kitten, they were pretty much the same size. It was hilarious because he had this little head with GINORMOUS whiskers. He’s definitely grown into them - but they are still pretty big & I love ‘em. Gives him so much personality.

We’re making progress on our kitchen renovation project. I think we might be hanging cabinets *soon*. I was able to sneak up to my craft room for just a bit this weekend in between painting. I was very much into butterflies for some reason, so here are some cards. I am loving the October Afternoon paper. It’s just so yummy.

In fact, I love that darn patterned paper so much that I had to punch as many butterflies as I could out of it. I used a Martha Stewart punch for these:

Then I decided I’d like to see how stamping on the paper would look. So I used my new fave Hero stamp & cut out some more butterflies from OA paper:

Super simple cards, but so much fun to make…!

I hope to be back soon with pictures of a newly renovated kitchen…with a SINK. A SINK!! (What I would not give to have my sink back. Oy.)

Cards, Photography