Using Brads For Scrap Your Crap!

The Summer is flying by and already it's time for another challenge from Scrap Your Crap!

This month we are using brads and/or eyelets- and I chose brads :-)

Here is the card I made, and I found the rhinestone brads to be the perfect finishing touch:

The two patterned papers I used are some of my very favorite prints I think Stampin' Up! has ever made. They are both from the (retired) Parisian Breeze Specialty collection. Matched with SU! Chocolate Chip and PTI white card stock, it's really a gorgeous combination. Both patterned papers are textured, and I also used an embossing plate for my top white layer. With the beautiful combination of colors, patterns and textures, I am really pleased with how this card came out. 

So now it's your turn! Head on over to the Scrap Your Crap blog and check out all the other cards and scrapbook pages our design team has made to inspire you, and then create something of your own! And please be sure to share it with us! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I know I have not been posting much as the Summer is keeping me super busy with school out for all these fabulous, fun weeks! But before long, school will be back in session and you'll be seeing a LOT more of me here! And really soon I will be sharing more about all that I have planned for my crafting future.... I have a lot I have been working on and am getting ready to share all the details with you very soon. I am so excited and can hardly tell you all about it :-)

Until then, I wish you a wonderful remainder of the Summer with many blessings!

~Sarah

Items used to make this card include:

Stampin' Up! Parisian Breeze Specialty papers

Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake card stock

PTI white card stock

Stampin' Up!/Sizzix Texturz embossing plate

Cheery Lyn Design dies: Fanciful Flourish and Exotic Butterfly small #2

Spellbinders Nestabilities Fleur De Lis rectangles die

Stampin' Up! tiny tag punch

Stampin' Up! hand held hole punch

Beige lace and thread

Handmade stick pin

Rhinestone brads from the Stampin' Up! Pretties kit

Stampin' Up dimensionals

Summer Antique Finds

I know many of you are either getting ready to send your kids- or even yourself- back to school, and are about to get started with "Fall". I actually have about one more month before school starts here. So, I am still feeling as if I am pretty much in the middle of vacation. I will admit that my "normal everyday routine" has pretty much stopped. Vacation mode is in full swing; I try to just concentrate on having as much fun as I can with my family while we have time. We'll all be back to the grind soon enough ;-)

With that being said, vacation does not mean I take a break from my love of antiques hunting! My husband and I still continue to do that pretty much every chance we get. Sometimes I will go off either on my own or with my oldest daughter if it happens to be a day she is off from work. And this Summer has actually proven to be a very good one for me, "hunt wise"! Let me show you just a few things I recently acquired when Mike and I were out and about:

Isn't this cool? Okay- I admit, I don't know much about real country living, so other than knowing that this used to be on a farm, I can't tell you anything about it, lol. Nonetheless, I was crazy about this old rustic can as soon as I saw it and just had to splurge on it. I don't even know if the price was fair, but given the prices on everything else where I found it, I think I must have done well. And if not, so what. I was happy to pay what I did for it and I am loving how it looks by my front door ;-) 

So... if you happen to know what this was once used for I'd love it if you can leave a comment here to tell me!! :-)

Next we come to this really special find....

I have wanted a nice old wagon wheel for many years! As a matter of fact, when we were teenagers (many, many years ago!) one of my dearest cousins and I used to dream about owning an old barn some day. We also decided that inside we'd hang old wagon wheels that we would make into chandeliers. Well, although that dream of mine did not come to fruition (well, not yet anyway), at least I now have an old wagon wheel! 
It's bigger than it looks in the picture, and I'm so happy with the way it looks here where Mike set it up against our fence in the front yard among the tall flowers. Doesn't it look great?


And next is another very fun "find"~

Pretty, huh? Obviously it has been restored, but it was restored very well. It's such a lovely old trunk, and looks really great in my upstairs hallway. 

Can you believe that we purchased all three of these wonderful items from a garage sale?! Well, the man who was selling them was downsizing. His wife had passed away and he just had way too many things. He even let me go into his house just to see his late wife's cookbook collection. There were hundreds and hundreds of wonderful books and he was hoping to sell all of them to one person. Needless to say I passed on them, but I did see that he had a lot of other items he needed to sell as well. The trunk I bought was one of three beauties- all of which had me tempted. Seriously, if I had the room for them, I'd have bought them all! But of the three I chose this one due to the pretty shape and color of the wood. It is definitely more unusual than most old trunks I tend to see for sale. 
I also bought some other fun things from him- all smaller items. I'll try to get some pictures of those to share at some point, too. 

Finally, I would like to share with you one last item for today. This was found in an antiques store in Old Orange, CA by my husband when we were there on a hunt a last month. I can not believe I missed it, and am so very glad he saw it and showed it to me! Let me tell you about my "connection" to this awesome piece:

Okay, so it's a milk crate from a dairy, right? So what could be so special about that? Well, this dairy was in Connecticut- about as far away from here as you can get without leaving the Country. It made it all the way to California. Just like me; I came all the way from Connecticut too. And THIS very same dairy was the one where I used to get ice cream cones EVERY Summer of my childhood!!! Seriously- what are the odds of finding something like this? I don't remember exactly when, but I believe they went out of business when I was in my late teens or maybe early 20's. But from the time I was a very small child until then I would have ice ream many days and nights every Summer from Maple Shade. I have so many awesome memories of that place. And I just can not tell you how cool it is to have this. And now I am on a mission: To find some milk bottles from there! I actually did find one on eBay. But, it was a really large one and would not fit in the crate due to the metal dividers. But I am hopeful that at some point I will be able to locate at least one. 

OKay... there you have it for now. I know a lot of you are like me and love antiques and the fun of the hunt. These are just some of the many cool and interesting things my husband and I have found this Summer; there lots more to share so I'll try to post more pics soon. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back later today with my next project for the Scrap Your Crap blog so please check back real soon! 

I'm hoping you'll leave a comment, as I always love hearing from you :-)

Wishing you many blessings as always~
Sarah

Floss Or Twine

It's time again for another challenge from Scrap Your Crap!

  Challenge # 67: Floss or twine.

I decided to use baker's twine. I'll have to admit that although I own a bit of the stuff, I very rarely use it. One reason I LOVE designing for SYC: it gets me USING much of my "stagnant" stash! :-)

Anyway, I had a little bit of brain freeze on this. Yep- at times I too suffer from a lack of mojo in card making ;-) But thankfully, I am blessed by a very dear- and super creative- friend Maureen, who inspired me to make my card this time! 

As you can see, this is a bit more on The "whimsical" side than I typically create. That's thanks to Maureen! She had made a darling card which really inspired me to make this one; and where she put baker's twine in buttons like this.

I thought they would look really cute on a birthday card. Since I had a stamp set of cute, whimsical images which includes a stack of presents, I had the idea of "wrapping" some twine around those as well. So, I stamped the image and cut it out. Then I stamped it again 3 times- each time on a different piece of patterned paper. I cut them out and paper-pieced them onto the original stamped image and tied the pink and white twine around them. Then I pop-dotted them onto the scalloped circle layer. Aren't they cute? 

For the buttons, I used different colors of twine: brown and white in two of the buttons, and green and white in the other. 

And there you have it: baker's twine! :-)

So head on over to Scrap Your Crap and see all the fabulous designs by the team. They have really come up with some awesome cards and scrapbook pages for this challenge!! 

Then, share YOUR creation using baker's twine or floss with us!

As always, I thank you for stopping by today. And as you know, I still LOVE reading your comments. I hope you'll leave one for me :-) 

I'll be back soon with more fun stuff from my "antique adventure hunts" to share with you. Until then, I wish you blessings as always!

Sarah

Items used to make this card include:

SU! Happy Moments stamp set

SU! Picture This stamp set 

SU! So Saffron and Pink Pirouette textured c/s; 

SU! Cajun Craze; Groovy Guava; and Certainly Celery c/s

PTI white c/s
Patterned papers from Authentique 6x6 bundle Collection: Delightful

Martha Stewart brown&white baker's twine; pink&white baker's twine (unknown brand)

SU! buttons: Designer Brights Collection
Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl embossing folder
Scallop circle punch
Black Archival Ink

Summer Treasure Hunts... And Some News!

Wow.... I hardly know where to begin! It's been a while since I last posted, as I've been so busy doing the things I have been excited to tell you about! I have tons of pictures to go along with some of the "news" I had mentioned in my last post. 

First of all, I'll start with my "announcement". Well, believe it or not, I love to make things other than just cards ;-) There are so many things that I have in my brain that I really want to create and get working on. And for some time now, I have had many friends and people I have met tell me over and over that I should sell my hand made things. But I always felt funny about it. I didn't feel right taking money from my friends, but so many of them really pushed me saying that they really want to buy them and yet they couldn't just take them. So I have decided to take the plunge and start selling! 

Well, you know how it goes.... one thing leads to another and once the brainstorming began, it became more than just selling cards to friends! My plan is to make lots of different things and to start an Etsy shop as well as sell at various boutiques and craft fairs.

I have been busy boing not so fun "business stuff" going places like City Hall and registering my business name, getting my seller's permit, obtaining a tax I.D., etc., etc. 

But some things I needed to get done were really fun. Such as.....

The fact that I will need inventory! And that means lots of supplies for creating things. That's where some of the best fun comes in! I plan to continue to create mostly a style with a "vintage flair" so to speak, and many of the things I will make will have some antique or vintage item incorporated into it.  

And as you probably know if you are a follower of mine I LOVE antiques hunting! So this part of my "work" is really a blast for me. Originally from New England, it wasn't hard to find places to go rummaging through old things to buy when living there. But since moving to Southern California, it's been a little more challenging. But thats not to say I have not found some great places to go looking. And here is one of my husband and my favorite areas. It's a town known as "Olde Orange". It's got a great old town feel to it- and absolutely filled with many places to buy antiques. 

As I headed over to one of my favorite stores, I saw this car coming down the road

I wanted to chase it down the street and jump right in, but I just didn't have the nerve. So I turned and walked into this awesome store- fully in the mood for a "vintage" experience ;-)

Check out some of the dealer's displays:

I love how light and bright this area is with the delicate pink and white and all the wicker.
There's just something about old children's clothes, baby items, pretty dishes and the other things here that I absolutely can't get enough of.

Seriously- my dream is to own my own antiques store some day!!!

Bird cages and old kitchen wares are so popular now.

And old photographs. But I find it so sad that there are so many that have no names or information on them. Yet the mystery about who those people were and what their lives were all about is certainly intriguing.

So much of this was considered "junk" not long ago. Ahhhh..... if we'd only saved more of it lol! ;-)

Okay, so although I didn't happen to buy anything there for crafting, I did come home with an awesome old milk crate! My husband actually spotted it first. And believe it or not, it was from the very same dairy where as a child I would get ice cream cones in the Summer back in Connecticut! Imagine- an old wooden box from a small family owned dairy on the North East Coast ending up here in Southern California- and Mike finding it for me all these years later! I just had to have it! I can not tell you how many memories I have of my Mom taking all us kids in her station wagon there- me and my brothers and sister, lots of friends and cousins- out for a Summer treat; usually dessert on a hot July evening.
Now I am on a quest to find some old milk bottles to go in it. But I am determined to find them from that particular dairy. It may take a while, but I am hoping some Ebay seller will come through for me at some point ;-)

Okay.... now on to my next jaunt: and this is where I really scored on some awesome things for my crafting endeavors ;-)

My daughter Katie and I got up super early on a Sunday morning to go to a wonderful flea market/ antiques fair. It happens once a month and is held out by the fields of Irvine CA by where the old El Toro Marine bases once were.

It started out cool, with a good amount of marine layer, just right for walking around and checking out all the fun things the dealers had to offer.

But it was a good thing Katie and I wore hats, because that layer didn't last too long and before we knew it the Southern California sun was shining hot!!!

Not that I need another chandelier, but I did spot a PINK one that I was super tempted to buy for my youngest daughter's bedroom. However, we had recently had a ceiling fan installed in there, so the only place it could go would be her closet. I decided to pass.

Katie had a little trip down Memory Lane, finding one of her favorite childhood toys.

She also found something one of her brothers once played with. Certainly not "antiques", but I guess even the early Ninja Turtles are now considered "vintage/ collectible".

Although I was finding (and buying) things left and right, we were having a hard time finding something for Katie. She is a photographer, and had a few things in mind she hoped to get for photo shoot props. There were a few that would have worked wonderfully, but the prices on them were just too high. Finally.... we came across this great frame! And the seller let us have it for just $5.00! SCORE!

And see that little white wooden child's toy hutch behind Katie? We we just loved it and thought it would be a darling way to display some hand made things at a craft fair. Sold! And the sweet lady let us use her dolly to get it to the car (It was a bit heavier than I had thought it would be).

We decided to take a little break from the hunt and walk over the the Farmer's Market they also have going on each month right next to tall the antiques.

There's nothing like fresh California fruit...

.... especially strawberries!

 There was so much to chose from: lots of beautiful organically grown produce

And for some people an adventurous balloon ride!

No way Katie.... you can continue to ask me until the cows come home, but I will NOT be getting myself into that thing!!!


I had sooooo much fun! And in the end, I went home with LOTS of treasures:

The cute white hutch, a darling magazine rack, small shutters I can clip some cards onto, a tall narrow shelp that my PTI stamp sets fit perfectly in, a cute desk organizer for letters, another desk organizer I plan to display cards in and an old sewing machine cabinet drawer. I have seen a lot of these painted and "repurposed" but I think I will keep this one as it is. Maybe I'll use it to pit tiny notecards in when I sell them at a craft fair or boutique.

And here are the "little treasures" I acquired- all ready to be incorporated into my creations:

Antique buttons and small prisms- so pretty! Oh- and I found something I'd been looking for for a while: over on the far right is a lovely old glass door knob. Perfect for my craft room door!

Lace and trims! And lots of them :-)

And not that I "needed" this, but I just thought it was so sweet. I found this little old hand stitched sampler which a lady had put into one of her old painted and distressed picture frames and I just loved it. However, it was the end of the day and I had run out of money. But my dear husband joined us after he got out of church and purchased it for me :-) Isn't it darling?

And at one point when buying several things from one dealer, I picked up this big jar of buttons. There are tons in there- mostly commons, but some good "special" ones too- and LOTS of buttons on cards. She sold the whole thing to me for just $5.00! Haha, I said it would be worth $5 just for the fun of sifting through them all.... and it was true :-)

More prisms, too.

And finally, lots of lovely old bottles! I can hardly wait to pretty these up!

So there you have it: an update on what I have been thinking, doing and planning.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I have been up to. I have lots more to share with you in the coming weeks. More pics and stories of my Summer treasure hunting, as well as details to come about my Etsy shop, which I will be opening soon.

I'll also be back in a few days with my latest card creation.

I'd love it if you'd take a moment to leave me a comment. I always so enjoy hearing from you!

Wishing you many blessings and lots of Summer fun!
~Sarah

Scrap Your Crap: Embossed Birthday Card

Okay.... I know, I know! I am sooo over due in posting. I am sorry it may seem as if I have abandoned my blog, but really I have not. I have been SO busy making and creating- as well as working on some very exciting plans and new things that I can hardly wait to share with you. It will all be coming soon, I promise!

Today I have a card to share with you. It was created for the Scrap Your Crap challenge blog.   This month we are doing embossing- wet and/ or dry. I had so much fun making this card!

I often forget how great embossing can be. When you do gold or silver wet embossing, it can really add a nice bit of elegance to your project.

I loved adding the pearls around the oval- especially combined with the dry embossed swiss dots.

This bird continues to be among my very favorites. It just works so well on so many things ;-)

And of course I had to add flowers to this one! Again... some of my very faves were used. I love the glitter and the bits of netting on these.

I have to say, I was really happy how this card came out. I love the colors and the femininity of it. 

I hope I have inspired you to get out your heat gun and/ or your embossing folders to add some embossing to your next paper project. For more inspiration, head on over to SYC and check out all the other DT members wonderful embossed projects. Then, make one of your own and share it with us!!

I'll be back soon with lots more to share with you. I have tons of photos of what I have been up to lately. I just know that all of you vintage/ antiques lovers are going to enjoy them :-) So stay tuned and in the mean time, I wish you many blessings as always!

Sarah

Items to make this card include:

SU! Textured Garden Green c/s

SU! Groovy Guava c/s- edges distressed

SU! Really Rust c/s

Patterned paper from Prima 6x6 Romantique paper stack

SU! Naturals Ivory c/s

Spellbinder's Floral Oval die

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder

SU! Really Rust ink

SU!Cajun Craze ink

SU! Label punch

Versamark

SU! Gold embossing powder

Want 2 Scrap champagne baby bling pearls

K&Company adhesive Wedding pearl (for bird's eye)

Prima Gillian Cider flowers

Cheery Lynn olive branch dies

Martha Stewart leaves punch

Martha Stewart butterfly punch

Bow East tool

SU! 7/8" ivory organdy ribbon

SU! bird punch

SU! Punch Potpourri stamp set

Where Does The Time Go?

I know my husband will be asking that question as he celebrates another birthday this week. Today I have his card to share with you. But now I am asking myself where the time goes as I am thinking about the fact that it's time for me to share my last card with you before our ABC Toys & Crafts DT Summer break! Seriously.... where does the time go???

I know this kind of looks like a kid's card, lol, but I just couldn't wait for a child's birthday to use this adorable stamp ;-) It's from the Inkadinkado set Kid Quotes "Friendly Advice" which has some of the cutest sentiments- all quotes kids have actually said. This one was from Shane O'Donnell, age 4. The kids' names are also on the stamps, but I chose to leave it off this time as it fit better on the Spellbinder's classic and scalloped oval dies that I used.  Some of the other adorable quotes are : "You make me smile all over my face" -Ian Hobson, age 5 and "All you need in life is a friend who has chocolate" -Sophie Diehl, age 11 and how about this one: "Getting married means sharing your toys" -child at wedding. How cute is that?!

Anyway, I think my husband will get a kick out of the card. I made sure to use his favorite color, blue. The paper is from the Authentique 6x6 bundle collection "Genuine". The background pattern looks like denim; it's really cool. I embossed it using the Cuttlebug Perfectly Paisley embossing folder and sponged some navy blue ink over it. The balloons are punched out using more paper from the same paper stack. I just added some twine to them and found an old button from my stash.

I hope you have been enjoying the cards I have made for the ABC DT blog. It been so much fun designing for them I know I will miss it over the Summer. But, as we all know, come Fall we'll once again be asking "Where did the time go?"!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are having a wonderful day! :-)
~Sarah

Items used to make this card include:
Stampin' Up! Night of Navy card stock
PTI white card stock
Patterned paper: Authentique 6x6 "Genuine" paper stack
SU! Night of Navy classic ink
Cuttlebug Perfectly Paisley A2 embossing folder
Spellbinders Nestabilities dies: classic ovals and scalloped ovals
Martha Stewart balloon punch
Inkadinkado Kid Quotes Friendly Advice clear stamp set
Navy/white twine
Vintage button

Best Friends

I am often reminded of just how blessed I am to have so many wonderful friends in my life. But there are friends, and then there are those really, really good friends that are among our best friends! Today I have a card to share with you that I made for ABC Toys & Crafts, that is perfect to send to one of those special people.

I love the patterned paper I used. It's from the Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage Pastel collection. It is absolutely my favorite paper right now. This paper pad has really become my "go-to" paper; I just can't seem to stop using it, lol. To add a little more interest, I embossed it with the 5x7 Cuttlebug Kassie's Brocade embossing folder. I love that this folder is a 5x7 size! And even though I turned it sideways, the pattern worked fine anyway. The design is super pretty- it's a great embossing folder!

The cute sentiment is from the Hero Arts "Good Friends" clear stamp set. I used one of the awesome tag dies from Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two die set to stamp it on. With pearls, and a few vintage buttons I got from my stash, and some vintage lace trim, my card was soon finished and ready to send to a special friend. 

You've got a couple more days to catch the Hero arts and Spellbinders sale at ABC Toys & Crafts; it ends May 19th. So hurry on over to the store and stock up! And don't forget about our fun graduation and wedding challenge going on over at the challenge blog, too!

Wishing you blessings as always~

Sarah

Items to make this card include:

PTI white card stock

Stampin' Up! Brocade Blue and Pink Pirouette card stock

Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage collection patterned paper

Cuttlebug 5x7 Kassie's Brocade embossing folder

Hero Arts Good Friends stamp set

Stampin' Up! Rose Red ink

Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two die 

Want 2 Scrap fancy tags two pearls

Vintage buttons

Vintage lace trim