H{ippity} Hop

I broke out my Tim Holtz die and embossing folder for this card. The fabric sheets from Love My Tapes die cut so well with my Big Shot. The sentiment is from Ippity's Regal Greetings set. I decided on a whim to use the "Missing You" sentiment and didn't realize until it was all put together that the word GONE stood out so clearly in the text on the bird's body. No, I did not plan that~sometimes things just work out right!

Visit the Ippity blog for a full list of participants today or click here to visit JenMarie, I'm sure she has an awesome project to share with you today!

SUPPLIES:

Stamps~Ippity Regal Greetings

Ink~Ranger Distress Ink, Unity Hybrid

Paper~PTI Kraft

Other~Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Tim Holtz Sizzix Die & Embossing Folder, Recollections Pearls

Memorable Seasons Sketch Challenge

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to get back into scrapbooking and what better way than to participate in some challenges?!
I used to be an active member of the Memorable Seasons message board and always enjoyed their challenges and everyone is so nice there. So I decided to jump back in to some of their challenges to get my scrapping mojo going!
I'm not normally very theme-y in my scrapbooking, but my son loves a lot of the theme papers and gets very excited to see completed layouts starring HIM! So, here is my layout using their January Sketch Challenge.

and here is the sketch:

Thanks for looking!
xx,

Handmade By Luke

My son loves to do projects and make cards and scrapbook with me. The other day he announced "Mommy, I want to make a card all by myself". So he did and here are the results! (I helped him with the cloud, but he did everything else himself. He even used my Fiskars trimmer to cut the card base with a tiny bit of assistance from me on the measurements.)

And here's the proud little artist holding his paintbrush (wearing his signature wife-beater tank top! He hates wearing anything with sleeves around the house! LOL)

What do you think...

about my blog makeover? It's still in the works since I am very technically UN-savvy! You wouldn't believe how long it took me to make these small changes! I TRIED AND TRIED to follow the tutorial on Shabby Blogs to add a photo to your header using foto flexer. I really think there were issues with the website though because I tried two different computers and kept coming up with different errors, I'm happy to say I didn't throw my computer though (I wanted to a few times!)  So I settled for text only rather than the picture of my sweet Luke that I had in mind.
With that said, I have been working on this for almost 7 hours now, ignored everything else on my to do list (as well as my family) and it's the wee hours of the morning now, so I am off to pack for tomorrow's crop and go to sleep!
Nighty night :)

Friends With Flair

Short and sweet today! This card fits in week 4 of the Ippity Twist Challenge (IHHTC1) to use brads. Next stop on the hop is Anne, or if you didn't start at the beginning visit the Unity blog a little later today for the full list of participants.

Have a great weekend!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps~Ippity Life's Little Moments
Paper~Memory Box, Amuse
Ink~Unity Hybrid, Ranger Distress Ink
Other~Recollections Pearls, MFT Border Die, Recollections Brads, Love My Tapes Fabric Sheets

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

Papertrey Ink is hosting a blog hop and a challenge today to "use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that might be collecting a little dust!"  Well, I love Papertrey, but am a new customer, I have several packs of their cardstock (which I *LOVE*) and I just purchased my first die from them the other day, the BIG FUN cupcake! But, I only have one stamp set so far, Just the Ticket. I bought this set in August and just FINALLY inked it up the other day after purchasing the cupcake die. I shared the card with the cupcake the other day on my blog, but I love it so much I am going to post it again, along with this red, white and blue card I just made with the same set. Thanks for visiting, hope you are enjoying the hop!

SUPPLIES:

Stamps~Papertrey Ink Just the Ticket

Paper~SU White

Ink~Colorbox and Memento

Other~Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Nestabilities Stars, MFT Border Die, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Border

SUPPLIES:

Stamps~Papertrey Ink
Paper~PTI Vintage Cream, Making Memories DP
Ink~Ranger Distress Ink, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet
Other~Papertrey Ink Cupcake Die, Diamond Dust Glitter, Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Crepe Paper, Offray ribbon Flowers, Memory Box Pearls, Sizzix Embossing Folder, Websters Pages Sparkler, Fiskars Scalloped Edge Scissor, SU Circle Punches 1" and 3/4"

A Little Peek Into Where I Create........

****WARNING-PHOTO HEAVY *LONG-WINDED* POST!****

So, I've mentioned a few times that I am really "trying" to get my loft organized and cleaned out so I can be more effective with my time and creativity. My crafting studio is the loft in the 3rd floor of our townhouse. We don't have a garage or a basement, so since we've had our son, this has also been our "catchall" room and has quickly turned into a disaster!
I have so many beautiful crafting supplies and it was really getting me down that I am not able to use these things to their full advantage and also worried that they are going to get ruined from being stored improperly.
So for the past few weeks I've been on a mission to get it under control. Life gets in the way, so many times I can only spend a few minutes at a time, but chipping away at it slowly has proven to work! I am "almost" there and I couldn't be happier! I still have a lot to go through and a few changes I want to make with my storage options, but that will all come in time.
For now I am going to share just a few pictures of the things that are "presentable" for public viewing!

I have two of these vintage printer trays that I picked up, one at an antique store and one at a country festival, each for $15.00 (I had my eye on one at an antique consignment shop for $45.00, I'm glad I held out and found these!) They hold a "small" amount of my wood mounted stamps, others I have stored in my Expedit cubes (need to streamline this in the future!)
I haven't been able to settle on a storage option for my Nestabilities. Since I only have a small collection, I decided to go with the magnet strips on my Expedit shelf. These Nesties are addictive so I'm sure I will need a new method SOON! or I can put more strips on the other side of the shelves.

This bookshelf holds all of my 12x12 paper pads, some scrapbooks and photos.

This Making Memories Embellishment Center holds a lot of my embossing powders, paints, glue, glimmer mists and other random stuff. I just started velcro-ing some of my stickles upside down at the bottom but I ran out of velcro and am also running out of space. I still have a lot more stickles, maybe I will do a second row behind these. To the right is a shelf that I found at an antique shop for $10, which holds most of my Sizzix dies (except for alphas).
Below the shelf are my JetMax cubes, I love these, I have 5 of them but would love to expand. I just need to figure out where to put them! If I decide to build up I have to move the Embellishment Center (my room has been a hodge podge as you can see and it's not very well thought out, like most things in my life! I guess that's why my nickname "Wing" fits me so well~since I am always "winging it"!!!)
Right now I have my Cricut, my Big Shot, Zutter, a container full of flowers, and my Copic bucket and Distress Inks on top.This is subject to change! I want to have my Cricut set up with room to work around it, I know it will get more use that way.

This is my 25 cube Ikea Expedit shelf that is across from the MM Embellie Center. I wanted this so bad FOREVER. But now I have mixed feelings about it. It takes up almost a whole wall and now I am lacking in work surfaces. I kind of wish I had a long counter across this wall with wall shelves all above it. I'm contemplating getting the desk that attaches to it for $50.00, but I'm nervous that it will limit me since it attaches to the shelf and I won't be able to move it around much. Still thinking about it?!?!

As you can see, my storage is not pretty, nothing matches, but it's what I have! I would love a beautiful perfect studio, but I am not an organized person by nature and I tend not to think things through well and buy impulsively. I'm trying to work on that! The picture envelopes in the middle on the right side are just being held there while I organize. Every time I came across random photos, I just stuck them there until I find a home for them! Remember this is still all a work in progress!

Here is the 7-drawer Sterilite container that holds all my punches. I definitely want to change this. The bottom two drawers are so hard to open because of the weight above them. I am contemplating the Ikea Bygel Rails, but again, I am still thinking on this. I would love to have them out where I can see them. BUT, my husband wants to rearrange and make room for a futon or pull out chair in here for when my sister comes to stay,so I think it might be best to keep them tucked away. If my son and nephew come up here to play, and they are on display, I could see them becoming toys!

I am SO excited and proud of my ribbon storage!! Heehee! I found this idea online at the Little Blue House Blog. Ribbon was one of my BIGGEST problems! I couldn't stop buying it for a long time and I had 2 cubes in my Expedit OVERFLOWING with ribbon as well as 2 shopping bags full of it. A lot of it was unraveling and tangled and I was so overwhelmed by it! I sat and cut the little chipboard pieces and wrapped it around while watching tv with my husband and son over about 2 weeks time. I still have a lot more to do but I can't believe I fit over 100 spools of ribbon in each box! Talk about saving space! I still have to finish rolling it so I will probably wind up with two more boxes and I want to go back and organize by color, but this is SUCH a relief to me :) SO happy!

 These are my Jet Max cubes and an Iris container where I've organized the majority of my 12x12 paper by Manufacturer. The Iris container has a lot of scraps and one is filled with Christmas stuff for my December Daily that I've started but not completed for the last 3 years! Mostly due to the mess in here! Next year, WATCH OUT! To the left is the lower half of the bookshelf and that holds the overflow of  paper that didn't fit in the cubes. I also have two cubes of patterned paper to go through and sort on my Expedit~yep, a work in progress, I say!
It's hard to see in this picture but I have each shelf labeled with the Manufacturer name but haven't labeled the ones that are in Cropper Hoppers yet.

Well, thanks for joining me in my tour today! Hopefully I will have more to share soon as I make progress! I have gotten so much inspiration from the Stampin Space gallery at SCS as well as the Scraproom Gallery at Scrapbook.com. I am constantly stalking them, so thanks for all of the ideas to all of you sharing out there!
I am off to work on my layout for a class I am teaching at this Saturday's crop in Cape May!
Have a Happy Tuesday :)
xx, Nora Anne

p.s. Looking for a challenge?! Visit the new Paper Wings blog for a challenge and a prize! You have until this Friday at midnight to enter! Check it out HERE!

Cherish Your Dreams

Welcome to H{ippity} Hop! I've been having lots of fun with the fabric tapes from Love My Tapes this week! They asked me to make some samples for their booth at CHA and I was happy to do so! On this card I used one of their polka-dotted fabric tapes to create a flower, finished off with a Webster's Pages sparkler.
The stamps are from Ippity's Cherish Your Dreams from the most recent release.
Click here for the next stop on the hop or visit the Ippity blog for the full list!
Have a great week!

xx, Nora Anne

SUPPLIES:

Stamps~Ippity Cherish Your Dreams

Paper~Basic Grey Curio, PTI Kraft

Ink~Unity Hybrid, Ranger Distress Inks Black Soot and Tea Dye

Other~Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Websters Pages Sparkler, EK Success Border Punch

A Shabby Challenge

One of the things I love about art is the fact that you can do WHATEVER you want, there are no RULES! Sometimes I am in the mood to create Clean and Simple cards, sometimes artsy, sometimes shabby. I don't find myself to have a particular style, but I do LOVE the look of shabby chic. I've been following the Shabby Tea Room blog for some time now, though I've onl.y participated in their challenge once. But this year I've vowed to participate in more challenges rather than just "lurking"!

So without further ado, here is my card for this week's challenge over at the Shabby Tea Room. ... the challenge-to create a card or project using WHITE AND/OR CREAM PLUS ONLY ONE ADDITIONAL COLOR! 

Thank your for stopping by today!
xx, Nora Anne

SUPPLIES:
Stamps~Papertrey Ink
Paper~PTI Vintage Cream, Making Memories DP
Ink~Ranger Distress Ink, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet
Other~Papertrey Ink Cupcake Die, Diamond Dust Glitter, Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Crepe Paper, Offray ribbon Flowers, Memory Box Pearls, Sizzix Embossing Folder, Websters Pages Sparkler, Fiskars Scalloped Edge Scissor, SU Circle Punches 1" and 3/4"

No Stamps

Two weeks ago I got an email from the folks at Love My Tapes asking me to make samples for their booth at CHA. So after the box FULL of goodies arrived at my door step, I made a ton of cards using their fabric tapes, fabric sheets and some sticker sheets.
I was stumped with the stickers, but was able to come up with "something" and was actually quite happy with the results. I thought I'd share those two cards today, hence my title, "No Stamps" as the images are cut out from their sticker sheets with no stamping.

My first card was inspired by a card on the cover of Papercrafts Magazine's latest issue. When I was trying to decide how to use this chair image, it popped into my head, so I cased that card idea. Although I am constantly online bloghopping and perusing Splitcoaststampers and Scrapbook.com, to me there is nothing like sitting down and paging through a magazine to be inspired!
SUPPLIES: 
Paper: Stampin Up, PTI, DCWV
Other: Love My Tapes Fabric Sticker Sheet, ScorPal, Fiskars Border Punch

SUPPLIES:
Paper: A Muse Gingham
Other: Love My Tapes Fabric Sticker Sheet, Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Nestabilities, Prima Flower, Making Memories Brad


I have a lot of cards to share using their fabric tapes, so stay tuned!!!
Happy Sunday :) Nora Anne

Friends with Flair, All Things Unity, Ippity Challenge

Yup, a lot going on here today!

I made these two mini cards 3"x3" with Ippity sentiment stamps from Music of My Heart and Moonbeam & Heart Strings. These cards fit in with the Hippity Hop Twist Challenge IHHTC1 (color challenge~red, white, and blue) as well as the All Things Unity challenge ATU22 mini cards. The stars and hearts were made by lining a sheet of cardstock with Love My Tapes fabric tape, then cutting the shapes out with the smallest Nestability. So many fun ways to use this fabric tape!

For this next card, I used the rollerskate image and sentiment from Unity's Kit of the Month from May 2010. LOVE LOVE LOVE this image, I've been dying to use this one and just FINALLY got around to it and I am enjoying the final result! This was actually a sketch from a recent Papercrafts Magazine, but I apologize, I can't recall which one.

Thanks for coming by today! Make sure you visit the Unity blog later this morning for the full list of Hoppers today! or visit the very talented Joslyn, she's the next stop on the hop!

Have a great weekend! Nora Anne

Supplies:

Stamps~For You from Ippity Moonbeam & Heartstrings, Music Background from Ippity Music of My Heart

Ink~Unity Hybrid

Paper~American Crafts Cardstock, PTI Kraft

Other~Martha Stewart Bakers Twine, Love My Tapes Gingham & Striped Fabric Tape, Nestabilities

Stamps~Thanks from Ippity Music of My HeartInk~Unity Hybrid
Paper~American Crafts Cardstock, PTI Kraft
Other~Martha Stewart Bakers Twine, Love My Tapes Gingham Fabric Tape, Nestabilities

Stamps~Unity Kit of the Month

Ink~Unity Hybrid, Ranger Tea Dye Distress Ink
Paper~AMuse Cardstock, Basic Grey DP, PTI Kraft
Other~K&Co Flower, Nestabilities, Spica Pen, Copic, Buttons, Embroidery Floss

H{ippity} Hop and Hip Hop Sketch

***Scroll DOWN a bit for my Waltzingmouse Blog Waltz Post! or click HERE! Thank you :)***

Hi! Sorry for the awful photo today, my camera is temporarily MIA and so I had to use a cheapie point and shoot. I made this card for the Hip Hop Sketch Challenge this week~HHSC40. Thanks for stopping by today!
Visit the ippity blog for the full list of participants or click here to visit Christy!
Have a great week!
xx, Nora Anne

Supplies:
Stamps~Ippity How You Doin'?
Ink~Unity Hybrid, Ranger Distress ink Tea Dye
Paper~AMuse, Basic Grey Hopscotch
Other~Love My Tapes Fabric Tape Sheet, MS Border Punch, Nestabilities, Rhinestones

Waltzingmouse Blog Waltz

Hi! Welcome to the Waltzingmouse January Blog Waltz! I'm excited to participate for the first time! But please excuse the awful photo, I left my camera at my cousin's house so I had to rely on a cheap old point and shoot.

Thanks so much for stopping by~enjoy the rest of the waltz today!

Supplies:
Stamps~Waltzingmouse Seasons of Love-Tags
Paper~Pink Paislee Sweetness, AMuse cardstock
Ink~Colorbox
Other~Spellbinders Nestabilities, Jenni Bowlin Button, Martha Stewart Baker's Twine, SU Glitter, Fiskars Decorative Edge Scissor, Love My Tapes Fabric Tape, Lace Trim from my stash

Friends With Flair Meets Hippity Hop Twist Challenge

I made this card using the sketch from the new Hippity Hop Twist Challenge (IHHTC1). Although it's an Ippity challenge, I only used the one small stamp from Ippity, the sentiment from How You Doin'?
The other stamps are one of the fabulous new co-brands, Bella Blvd. Bella Doilies. And don't forget Unity is still offering FREE SHIPPING!
If you're not a kit club member, you don't know what you're missing, check out the deets HERE!
Next stop on the hop today is Martha, and I'm sure she has something fantastic in store for you.

Oh, and did you see that itty bitty's are now available for purchase on the Unity website?!?! Loving this!

Supplies:
Stamps~Unity Stamp Co. Bella Doilies, Ippity How You Doin'?
Paper~PTI Kraft, Bo Bunny DP
Ink~Colorbox Chestnut
Other~Ribbon from my stash, EK Success border punch, Prima Bling,

H{ippity} Hop and Hip Hop Sketch #39

The card I made to share today is based off of the Hip Hop sketch # 39. The stamp set I used was:

I just love this set and I got the idea of using the button in the middle of the heart from Lynn. Her projects are always so inspiring!

Thanks for stopping by today! Visit the Ippity blog to see a full list of participants! The next stop on the hop is: Christy!

Supplies:

Stamps-Ippity Here and Now

Paper-PTI Kraft, Memory Box DP

Ink-Ranger Embossing Ink, Colorbox Chestnut, Red Chalk Ink

Other-Embroidery Floss, WRMK Stitch Tool, Marvy Punches, Fiskars Punch, Red Embossing Powder

I Know, I Know...

I disappear off the face of the earth, then I come back with yet ANOTHER tag! Sorry, I can't help myself, I am a tiny bit addicted! AND, they are also VERY quick which is good for me right now since I am conducting a MAJOR overhaul of my loft "aka" my crafting space. It has been such a disaster that my husband is ready to call "Hoarders" on me, so being the new year and all, I decided to finally stop making excuses and do something about it. Therefore, I haven't had much time to create! The good news is, once it's done, I will have more space, more time and will be able to find things, so my projects will be BETTER! haha! I will no longer have to "make do" and will be able to use the stash that I've been forever collecting and hoarding!

Anyway, here is the tag I made tonight to share for today's H{ippity} Hop..oh how I've missed you, my

H{ippity} Hop!!!

Supplies:

Stamp~Ippity Sing a New Song

DP~Bo Bunny

Cardstock~Papertrey Kraft

Dots Cardstock~Unknown

Ink ~Ranger Distress Ink, Victorian Velvet & Worn Lipstick, Colorbox Chestnut

Other~Copic Marker, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Basic Grey Button, Martha Stewart Baker's Twine

And just for fun, a picture of my car (what you can see of it) after the December 26th blizzard commenced. Normally I would embrace this kind of day as a crafting marathon, however, my sister and her family were snowed in with us, so instead we spent some quality time together, eating, drinking, and laughing! A good time was had by all!  

Next stop on the hop is the OH SO TALENTED Lynn with an adorable Valentine gift bag, or if you didn't come from the beginning, check out the Ippity blog for a full list of hop participants!

xx, nora anne