Monday, January 28, 2013

Paper Studio Tour Jan 2013

Finally - I cleaned up my space as clean as it gets.  I took a very short video to show off my new room and new storage.  The original idea was to paint the room all neutral (grey) and spike it with teal/turquoise and vibrant purple accents.  Well, the colour spikes didn't really happen.  The room never turns out as I picture it.  I always retain function over aesthetics, which means some of my dream room stays in my head.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm happy with the space!  The Drona fabric boxes in my Expedit hide my unfinished project bits nicely.  The only things missing now are some wall shelves.  I plan to get one of those customizable closet shelf systems.  I haven't decided how to configure it and which wall to use yet.

All my stamps are stuffed in one box but it is busting full now.  I need to figure out how I will house the expanding collection.  Also, my light box is nestled on the shelf in the closet now.  I didn't include its ugliness in the video but, for those who might be wondering where I take my pictures, that's the home I found for it.

WARNING: there is some motion blur in the video.  I tried to move slowly, but it is my brand new camera and it is far more sensitive than my old one, it seems!

Click the link to jump over to my Paper Studio Room Tour Video on Vimeo.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Black and White Bridal Shower Card

It's past time to get back to crafting!  I have been absorbed in the world of Game of Thrones (the books).  Season 1 of the subsequent show has been devoured too and Season 2 isn't out yet on DVD and Season 3 is coming back in March!

That means, it's time get myself off the sofa and back in the craft room!  There was an engagement over the holidays: my sister's step-brother-in-law.  The happy couple have been big figures in my nephew's lives and I am very happy for the two of them.  They are young but realistic for their ages.

The bride-to-be asked my sister to help her with some engagement party invitations.  My sister asked me if I could show the bride-to-be some techniques from my inventory of cards to help her decide on a style and a colour scheme.

I have said before and I repeat: necessity is the greatest innovator (and motivator!).  To demonstrate different techniques or elements, I plucked some cards with glitter, and an embossed card, and one with a repeating motif.

Then I set to work to make this new card.  I made this one black and white, since the bride has not decided on an accent colour yet and may consider classic black.  I used a Stampin' Up! background stamp and a new dress form stamp I got at the One of a Kind Show in Toronto from The Old Island Stamp Company.  I fell in love with the image as soon as I saw it, even though I saw limited use for it.  I had to have it, nonetheless.

For this card, the goal was to show something with distressed edges.  I distressed and inked both the feather paper background and the stamped script background.  The music paper was torn to continue the distressed look, but I did not ink it.  I stamped the dress with versamark and then used black embossing powder.  Something about "wedding" calls for raised ink to me!

My sister has made a couple of rose invitations to show the bride as well.  Roses were the closest thing to a wedding stamp she had on hand.  Even my stamp here is only the bride - there's no groom for this engagement party invitation!  (Well, mine is just to show the distressing technique anyway.  It's not meant to be an engagement invitation.)

It was fun to play in my craft room.  It will be more fun when my sister comes over and the ideas get flowing!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Backyard Birdies

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's holidays have passed well.  I took time off work and worked only a little: an hour here or there in the days before Christmas and only one afternoon after Christmas.  My husband and I have been huddled together lamenting the return to work tomorrow!

One of my Christmas goodies was a new camera.  My husband has purchased my last three cameras as gifts for me.  It is usually a simple point'n'shoot, easy to transport camera.  However, on the rare occasion that we go on trips, the zoom on those little cameras is sadly lacking.  So, this year he got one with a real zoom: 30x versus the 16x I've had in the past.  I must admit, this camera has more functions than I will ever care to learn.  When we go on trips, he usually takes the pictures anyway, because my hands are not steady enough and even worse with zoom.

Nonetheless, I have played with it a little bit.  Here are the birds in my backyard on December 29, 2012.  The first one is taken at about half the maximum zoom.  Here, with no cropping or colour correction is a small group of cardinals:

Here, colour corrected on the computer:

Here, in the same tree (after much fluttering and shifting of the birds), at full zoom, colour corrected but otherwise uncropped:

In a tree beside this one:
And a blue jay.

I was thinking one of the cardinals more closely cropped might make a nice card.  (It will probably remain only a thought though!)

By the way, my husband also helped me re-arrange my craft room (again).  The last local scrapbook store went out of business and I nabbed a slat wall with paper holders.  He mounted it for me, even though I ran over his injured toe with a box trying to clear space in the closet for it and I also dropped the level on his head.  He looooooves me a whole lot is all I can say!

While it is rearranged, it falls to me to reorganize it.  Soooo.... pictures later.  I need to get at it before the end of January when my first class of the year happens, but I am just too swept up in a good book just now.

Hope everyone's holidays were happy and safe!