Been crafting like crazy!

So yesterday and today I worked on birthday cards for by brother and one of my friends, I'll post pics by Sunday since I don't want them to see them before I give them to them.  Anyway, I was having a low creativity day, but once I got into it, I think I did alright.  Here's some of the others that I've made!

This is the card that I was going to give to Lindsey, but I made one I like better.  I have an embossed doily with a plum painted background spritzed with a glimmer spray.  There's a smaller glittered doily on top and the banner on the front says "Have your cake and eat it too!"  I thought this was a super cute sentiment for her birthday.

This card can be used for several different occasions: Birthday, baby shower, congratulations, etc.  I used a crinkled paper ribbon that I distressed the raised parts and added a distressed flower from several layers of flowers in different papers and colors.  The center is a rhinestone and the sentiment finishes it off.  I also rounded the corners and distressed the edges of the card as well.

I went simple with this with a dark brick red base and a whimsical snowman backed with an olive green.  The Brrrr sentiment fits the snowman well.

Supplies:

Have your cake: (paper) Recollections, Canson; (stamps) Stampin Up, Papertray Ink; (ink) versamark, TH Distress; (die) Papertray Ink; (misc) Ranger embossing powder, Martha Stewart glitter, Perfect Pearls mist, popdots, clear rhinestones.

Cheers: (paper) Recollections, unknown-flowers; (ink) TH Distress; (dies) Cricut; (misc) clear rhinestones, Paper Source paper ribbon.

Brrrr: (paper) Bazzill; (dies) Cricut

Whoo Hoo!! Etsy shop up and runnin!

I have officially posted a couple cards on my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/kreativestudios.  As of now, I do not have it set up for making donations and according to Etsy rules, I can't promote contributions until I speak with the organizations that I want to donate to.  Hopefully you will see that feature sometime soon!

Please take some time to check out the shop and let me know if you have any custom orders, I can whip up some samples for you and we can go from there!  If you have any tips for making my shop better, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

In the meantime, here's a couple more cards that will also be going on Etsy, but it's kind of a time consuming task so I'll try to do a few a day.

This simple card just has some blocky areas with a cute polka-dotted butterfly, some baker's twine and a cute multi-purpose sentiment.  I know a little girl right now that would recognize it because I gave it to her for her birthday.  I like it so much I made some more!

There has to be something said for simplicity, because this card just has some bird stamps and the one that is different trails from the words that announce the unique bird.  It's a little hard to see, but the background looks kind of speckled in the pic, it's actually glimmer spray all over the entire front.  Pretty subtle, but finishes it nicely.

Had to add a Chistmas card...This one has some lime-y green glittered epoxy-like circles that form a wreath with a large burgandy bow.  The sentiment is inked with a great bright turquoise to accent the red and lime. 

Supplies:

Smile Card: (paper) Recollections, Papertray Ink; (stamp) Papertray Ink; (ink) TH Distress; (die) Martha Stewart; (misc) baker's twine, clear rhinestones, scoretape

Bird Card: (paper) Recollections; (ink) TH Distress, Studio G; (stamp) Papertray Ink; (die) Papertray Ink; (misc) Perfect Pearls mist, popdots

Wreath Card: (paper) Recollections; (ink) TH Distress; (punch) Marvy Uchida; (glitter) Martha Stewart; (ribbon) Celebrate It; (misc) Georgia and Chopin Script fonts, Glossy Accents, popdots

More cards and some business ideas!

Okay, here's a couple cards that I made, hopefully you enjoy them...

I thought I'd make a birthday card for a little change in pace.  After all, it's not only Christmas in December, I should know (mine's a week before Christmas-it's aweful)

I used the same script background that I use as my go-to, a couple butterfly dies and some creative inking to give this card a little different look.

This Christmas card was very time consuming.  The stamping and die cutting were the easy parts, it was the coloring in that did it for me.  I think it's incredibly cute, but I think I may have to pass on this one for my own cards to send out.

I LOVE this one, if it wasn't so bulky, I'd be sending this one out to everyone!  The clear card base with the white script background does it for me every time.  I got inspiration from Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas but turned my tag into a card.  I will be posting this on his blog images and see what happens.  I may have to think of a less bulky way to do this because I'm in love with it!

Supplies:

Butterfly Birthday Card: (paper) recollections, unknown, colorbok; (ink) TH Distress, versamark, versafine; (stamps) Stampin Up, Papertray Ink; (dies) Stampin Up; (misc) Spare Parts brad, Swarvski gems, embroidery floss, embossing powder.

Train Christmas Card: (paper) Recollections; (stamp) Papertray Ink, Inkadinkado; (ink) Versafine; (misc) PrismaColor Markers, popdots, clear rhinestones.

Joy Card; (paper) Papertray Ink, Recollections; (stamp) Stampin Up; (ink) Staz-On; (misc) Storybook Font, Martha Stewart glitter, Offray grosgrain ribbon and pompom trim

So, the business idea that I wanted to mention...I don't have anything posted on my etsy shop just yet, but when I do, I want to donate a percentage or a certain $ amount of each of my sales to either wegiveadamn.org or to thetrevorproject.org. Maybe both!

Both organizations were created to raise awareness for the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) community.  The Trevor Project aims to end suicide in LGBTQ youth and We Give a Damn aims for equality in the LGBTQ community.

Now, I myself am not LGBTQ, but I am a supporter since my younger brother came "out" a few years ago.  When he did, I fully supported him and we are closer now than we ever were. After hearing about all of the recent suicides in young LBGTQ individuals as a result of merciless bullying,  I asked him if he had ever gone through that in school as I had not discussed with him those issues.  He told me that he was bullied pretty badly and that's why he got in so much trouble when he was younger.  This revelation hurt because it became very clear to me that, if his head was not in the right place, that could have been him.  Even as I'm writing this, I'm getting teary because other families aren't so lucky.  I don't know what I would do if my brother wasn't here, my family wouldn't be nearly the same.  I don't know if I was just naive or if it really wasn't that big of a deal when I was in school, but I really don't remember anything happening when I was in high school and what is going on now.  I feel that these issues need to be presented to more schools and there need to be stricter punishments for the individuals who bully and harrass young people just trying to become their own person. 

I want to make my contribution any way that I can, but I'm not sure how to go about it.  Do I set my sales up so that the $ automatically goes to those organizations, or do I send them a cut once a month or so.  I just really don't know what to do.  



Let's try this again!

To make a long story short...I have had no time to work on my cards, much less this blog since I started it.  I recently got fired from my crappy job (details to be discussed later, maybe) that I had been at for 2 years.  With this job, I worked EVERY Saturday, worked till 7pm every night but Wednesdays, and a couple Sundays per month (all unless I asked off).  With a schedule like that, there was NO time for creativity and when there was time for it, I was so exhausted that I had none.  So, this firing is kind of a blessing in disguise because I can now work on my cards and crafts and get them selling!  This is a revelation that took all of one day to get to...I have time!! Something I haven't had in a while.  I have spent the last couple days getting some cards and other crafty things ready so I have some things to post on here.  So, without further ado...

This little beauty is a little book that I altered so I could insert little thumbnail pics of all of my card designs and write down all of the materials used so I can easily recreate the same thing if more than one person is interested.  I also have highlighted the items that are unknown so I can alert prospective buyers if an item used may not be available.  This is just my little organizational tool to hopefully help my business along!

I love this litte gem with the white embossing powder on the dark navy paper and the subtle background gives the whole card a little more interest.  With the wording, I had to use word because I couldn't find a stamp set on hand with a sentiment that would match the whimsical snowman.  The strips of glitter and the crystal rhinestones are a couple finishing touches that the card needed!

On this card, I started with an acetate base stamped with a french script background stamp, added the red base with the embossed Christmas tree.  I added several brads to the tree to give it a little pop.  The red base is backed with a shimmery light gold paper behind the acetate to give some more dimension and so more of the script can show through. 

I do have several other cards, but I think I'll space them out just in case I have too much stuff to do one day and can't make anything and also because if I put all of the cards I've made in the past few days, you'll all get bored with me really quickly! 

I hope this turns out to be everything I want it to be!

Supplies:

Materials book: $1 notebook from Michaels; (paper) 29th Street Market, Canson, Recollections; (stamps) Stampin Up; (ink) Tim Holtz Distress; (dies) Stampin Up, Papertray Ink; (misc) Offray ribbon, Glossy Accents, Scoretape

Snowman Card: (paper) Recollections; (stamps) Stampin Up, Inkadinkadoo; (ink) TH Distress, Versamark; (die) Nestabilities; (font) Georgia, Chopin Script; (misc) Ranger embossing powder, prismaglitter, Scoretape, clear rhinestones, popdots

Tree Card: (paper) Papertray Ink, Bazzill, Worldwin Petallics, Colorbok; (stamps) Stampin Up; (ink) TH Distress, Staz-On; (misc) Spare Parts brads, Sizzix embossing folder, popdots, Scoretape