A second post, the baby must be sleeping Actrully I made this bitrhday card for the current challenge at caardvarks.blogspot.com and I wanted to post it seperate. For this months challenge Caarvark’s sponsor My Favorite Things is celebrating their birthday. So, you have to make a birthday card. Like always I used all scraps and some of those random embellishments I keep finding.  I really like how this card turned out and hope you like it too. Have a great day!

Well, I am officially half way to my goal with an extra to spare. Though my scrap box isn’t getting any smaller, it is getting harder to find color combinations that work. I have been trying to come up with new ways to alter paper that is not quite what I am looking for.

Also, since I got a new desk and have been reorganizing my room, I have been finding a lot of random left over embellishments. Each time I come across an embellishment that is a left over or is a random piece I have been putting it in its own box. Yes, I said it I have started another box. So, now I have a box of scrap paper and a box of left over embellishments. In this box I have things like brads, scraps of ribbon, tags and flower.

For this batch of cards I have a  thank you cards and then some Father’s Day cards that I made. Since I have gotten my new desk I feel like the creative juice have been flowing. I have been making cards and working on Ari’s baby book. For now I have the pictures of the cards and soon I will put up pictures of my desk. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Total Card count 51!

Lately life has been very busy with the new addition to our house. Little Ariana is now almost three months old and keeps me on my toes. She does have down time and I try use those moments to clean, cook and if there is enough time work on my scrap box.  Which is still out of control, but is still good for making cards. Even though I have not been able to make that many I have managed to turn a few scraps into some great cards I’m sure anyone would enjoy.

While trying to make these few cards I deiceded that my craft room was just to much of a disaster in itself. How could one truly tap into their most creative thoughts in such a mess? So, I decided that I needed to get a new desk and reorganize my room. So far it coming along nicely, a little slow but we are making progress. I like the idea of having everything out where I can see it, plus I can have my Cricut out and it doesn’t take up the whole desk. When I get things just right I will post pictures. For now here are some picture of the few card I have been able to squeeze in, bringing my total count of cards made out of scraps up to 41. Almost half way there!

Well I am still working on my scrap box and I have managed to get 15 more cards done. All of which I used as thanks you cards.  Hope every one is having a great February! More cards to come soon, I am still working towards my goal of 100 cards.

Total Card Count: 36

Happy New Year and I hope this year is bringing everyone good luck and happiness. It has been a while since my last post but that does not mean I have not been up to my usual shenanigans.  Lately, I have been working on my scrap pile once again. I tackled it last year during a weeklong caardvarks contest; I used only scraps to make all my cards. Well, I have done a lot of layouts and invitations lately and my scrap pile has yet again gotten out of control. One of my goals I have been working on is to become a true master of the scraps and make all my cards from scraps. It has been very hard and trying sometimes, especially if I want a particular color and I know I have a full sheet of it in my drawer. I have not given in to temptation but I have found a few strategies to help the process.

When I sit down to make some cards I will first pull out all the biggest pieces and see if I can make the card base out of them. Once I have a few cards folded, I will then pull out pieces that are about 3×3 or bigger and cut out a hand full of different shapes using my sizzixs or cricut. I found this very help full for example, the other day I cut out a small pile of flowers in whatever scraps I had. Not only can I use them on my cards but I also have them on hand for other projects. I like this idea of just taking scraps and cutting out shapes so much that I started a small box of die cuts. If I am not in the mood to make a card I will go threw my scrap box and cut out die cuts for my box. Once I have a small pile of cards and die cuts I will then collect scraps of what ever else I have in my room such as ribbon and miscellaneous embellishments, like rhinestones that you only have one left of a particular color.  When I have all my scrap, leftovers and random embellishments collected I lay them all out on my table and start arranging elements together that coordinate or match, then from there I start making cards.

I have found this process to very effective and I have come up with some great cards. In a little less than week, I made 21 cards.  When I first made them I left off any sayings so I could then add a stamp or sticker to match the occasion I need a card for. You just don’t want to make a million birthday cards and need a get well card. I am very glad I did this because I have been needing many thank you cards lately with the anticipated arrival of a new baby soon.

Little by little my scrap pile is getting smaller and smaller. My advice would be to save all your scraps that are about 2×2 inches or bigger, start a box and throw in paper, ribbon, borders and that last colored rhinestone that just wont fit on your lay out. Then every once in a while sit down with that box sort it and see how many cards you can get out of it. My goal for my out of control box is 100 cards and I am almost 1/4 of the way there.

So, I think I am going to make it, day 4 and my scrap pile is getting smaller each day. After yesterdays fiasco I deiced to dump out my scraps and sort them a bit. This way I was able to see exactly what I had and how much there really was. I piled coordinating patterns and colors with each other. In this battle of Kap vs scrap, I think my strategy will help me win this war in the end.

Plus, I was able to find some paper at the bottom of the pile that I forgot I had.  I just love this snowflake paper and after some digging around. I also found I had some matching accessories left as well.  I love how this card turned out and it is part wishful thinking as well. It is fall and I am tired of this California heat.So, if your suffering from hot weather as well I hope my card bring you a winters chill.

So far it is going good, I have been able to do 2 out 2 sketches.  I am going to try my best and do all seven challenges so I can be eligible for the grand prize. I am still sticking to using scraps of paper for all my cards and it fills nice to watch my scrap pile go down.  To find out more about carrdvarks and thier contest you can vist them at http://caardvarks.blogspot.com.

So this week caardvarks.blogspot.com is having a sketchfest, where they will post a card sketch for you to do each day. They are going to have daily winners and then a grand prize winner at the end for who ever can do all seven sketches.  I made this card for day one, I am going to try and do all 7 but I am not sure if I will be able too.  For each card I can make this week, I am going to try and use all scraps. Yes, my paper scraps are out of control and I thought this contest would be a good motivator to use my let overs.  I hope you like my card and may your week be filled with happiness.

Ok I know I have been a slacker and I am so many posts behind but, today I have a lot for you. This week I entered the 1st Annual Ultimate Card Showdown at 2sketches4you.blogspot.com. It is this great contest where you are given a card sketch and you have to make the best card that you can using that sketch.

 You can enter as many cards as you like for the first week and at the end of the week they are going to chose a top 30 to make a card for week 2, then make a top 20 from the 30 so on and so forth till there is one ultimate winner who will receive over $500 in goodies. I love this site and they always have great card sketches, so I entered the contest and I was so inspired by the sketch that I made 4 cards for the contest. I hope you like them and have a great day.

P.S Click on the pictures to view in a larger format. 

Hello my friends and Happy Easter! Today I bring you another one of creations, to help with my idea i use sketch #23 from www.2sketches4you.blogspot.com and caardvarks.blogspot.com card challenge theme of fantasy. 

I have been trying to get a good collection of various cards themes together and one card I haven’t made for this collections is a “Get Well” card. I thought is would be cute to have a sick dragon on my card. After searching all the clip art my computer has to offer I decided to ask my husband for help. He is a graphic designer and is really good at drawing cartoon type stuff. So,he drew the dragon for me and then scanned into the computer, colored it, readjusted the size and then printed him off for me.

Then for the final touches I once again used scraps of paper, let me tell you about my scraps. They are out of control. I usually through all my scraps that I feel are still usable into a drawer. My drawer is full and I can barley close it, so I am making an effort to use up my scraps. I hope you like my card and have a wonderful weekend.