Drawing up cats!!

Today I would like to share my chidlren's drawings with you. I bought a card game from Rich Davis called Pick and Draw. The game is a tool to teach children how to use simple shapes to draw cartoon like faces. So after 30 minutes of our first game session, I went on to Rich Davis website and we watched his videos together. I figured it out that the game card can also be used to draw other cartoon like creatures. The kids got excited and they decided to try drawing cats from one of his videos. Here is the result:

DD4

DS6

DD8

Aren't these fun??

How do you encourage your children's creativity?? Even if you are not artistic, there is so much FREE stuff on the web that you should try your hand at it. Please share in the comments. :)

Blessings,
Tereza

Thrifty Thursday: The Day time stood Still

I decided in the beginning of this year not to buy any more papers and embellishments until I downsize my studio. I had way too many papers from old collections that I love and just couldn't part with them. So I am using them. It has been a breath of fresh air to find new ways to use them. I have been incorporating them to more artistic and free style scrapbooking and it has been so much fun.

Here is a layout I just finished last week.

All the papers used are old... maybe 5 to 6 years old. Some are from Walmart and some from a QVC kit I purchased. could you tell??

I drew some flowers on a brick colored paper and then cut it out. I then stamped some white prima flowers I had on hand and added some orange brads for color. There!! My own customized flowers. I talked about how to customize your letters HERE or how to distress brads and eyelets HERE. 

Some plain old white acrylic paint brushed on the background and then sprinkled on it made for a sure artistic and shabby look. 

So here is my Thrifty Thursday tip: use your old papers to their advantage. For example, if the paper is vintagy and has vintage image on them, cut them out and use them as embellishments. If the papers are colorful use strips or small pieces of it to bring color to your layout. Are the papers too busy?? cut them into strips and make flowers out of them or punch out circles and create your own background.




There is so much out there and I just can't afford it all. So I am revamping my old papers. How about you? What do you do with old collections?

For more Thirfty Thursdays come HERE.


Be blessed,

Tereza

Operation Write Home Blog Hop

Hi everyone,

Today I am blog hopping with the awesome card makers that send their handmade cards to Operation Write Home. If you haven't come from the blog hop you might want to start HERE.

I have lots to share so make sure you go all the way to the end of this post. BLOG CANDY is at the end of the post.

I want to share with you a bit how I create my cards. Yesterday, it went like this....

I was reading the Country Living magazine of this month and saw the  photo of a hallway with a staircase and a dresser that had flowers for knobs. (picture on the right) The wall color was a beautiful guava rose and there were white flowers and black and white and stripes... I had to put the magazine down and run to my craft table and make a card. The inspiration juice was dripping off me as I found the guava cardstock and cut it into 3 cards and then found my white flowers. Then I quickly searched for something to make the yellow centers... Ah-ha!! 3D yellow paint. The scraps of striped black and white papers were easy to use - they were just laying around on my messy table. So here is the result of such great inspiration...

Have we inspired you enough to make a few cards and send them on to our Heroes?? I hope so. :) The next deadlines are:
March 18th for Easter cards
March 31st for Mother's Day cards

If you need some more encouragement be sure to check out my videos and some tutorials on my YOuTube channel. :)  Also check out OperationWRiteHome Ustream videos...they are so much fun and you get to meet Sandy the lady who began all this!!!!

Make sure you hop over to Misty to see what Springy creation she has come up with. :)









And above the BLOG CANDY... Every comment will be entered to win, if you follow me you get an EXTRA chance to win, and if you sign up for my newsletter you get ANOTHER chance... so there is up to 3 chances to win this awesome vintage kit... Melissa Frances papers, handmade embellishments, Prima roses, a Sarah Kay stamp, ribbons, laces, wrinkled baby pink seam binding, manila tags, raw chipboards, doiliesand even some Papertreyink cardstock for you to get started making cards. The winner will be announced on March 12. So you have a whole week to come back here and enter for more than one chance to win.

I have used these gorgeous papers to create my last vintage chipboard album. Go check it out!!!

Have fun this weekend blog hopping and be blessed,
Tereza

Thrifty Thursday: customizing your letters!

Thrifty Thursday was born to boost my creativity using what I had in hand. Like most crafters I have way too many supplies that I don't really put to good use. So instead of purchasing a new tool or an embellishment I am using what I have at home. So share your insights.... here is my tip for this week.

Last week I created a layout for my DD3 on a whim. As I was laying out the papers, flowers and photos I realized that the chipboard letters I had were not going to work. So I customized them.

I used white chipboard letters and with a black pen I doodled on them. Then I used the markers I had on hand, nothing fancy or expensive like Copics (hey, if you got them, use them!) and colored my doodles.

Then to make it look funkier and thrown together, I used an old book as the background for more letters. I used a permanent markers and drew my own letters, cut then out and adhered to the layout.

I don't usually make resolutions in the beginning of the year, but in an informal way, I have decided not purchase any more papers or embellishments until I cut my supplies in half. I have found that this decision has forced me to become more creative and I have found new uses for old supplies.

How do you use your old supplies? Do you have a favorite supply that you haven't used in a while? Did you like this week's tip? For more check out all Thrifty Thursday's posts here.

Be blessed,

Tereza

Thrifty Thursday: how to function with a fussy baby!

Baby is teething. We had a fussy night and I never got to the computer to publish my Thrifty Thursday post.

So I am sharing with you a post I did a while back about how to re-purpose your old stamps. If you haven't seen the post yet, then this is your change to and also to subscribe to my blog or follow me to keep up with Thrifty Thursday where I share techniques to re-vamp your art using what you already have at home. No new purchases necessary!!!

If you have already seen the post, I say go check it out again anyway, it might get you out of a rut, if you are stuck for creativity. Or it might remind you of some great stamps you have stocked away that you haven't used in a while. So here it is:

NEW STAMPS USING YOUR OLD STAMPS

 ok, back to taking care of baby. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza

Thrifty Thursday: making it shabby with acrylic paint!

This is our first Thrifty Thursday. The idea is to share with you a technique that does NOT require new scrapbook supplies or tools, but can be done using what most of us already have at home.

Today I want to share with you how to make something look old, vintage, shabby or distressed looking. A while back I finished a custom order for 2 vintage scrapbook albums for 2 brothers. Here is a sneak peak of the first album. I wanted to achieve a fun, distressed, old look without making the albums feminine at all. So I decided to use paint - white acrylic paint. I found it is the best way to make something look shabby.

Now you don't need any special tools to apply your paint and any acrylic paint will do. But because acrylic paint is rather thick it can be very tricky to use it on rubber or acrylic stamps. They tend to get all sticky and you can't see much of the detail of the stamps, unless it is a big one or a foam stamp but that's another post.

I used two simple tools for my technique. I used water bottle caps and medicine measuring cups to make the white circles on my latest album. I also used my finger to dab the white paint around the edges of my album. I tried using a make up sponge but I liked the result of using my fingers better. I was going for a messy, smeared look.



First squeeze some paint on a paper plate and spread it flat like you would icing on a cake, then use the cap and cup to start stamping. Don't worry about perfect prints, you are going for shabby, not perfect prints. You will have some circles thicker, with missing pieces to the circle, others lighter. the paint dries really quickly too.

 

The first photo on this post is an example of the result of this technique. You can see the complete result on Carson's album HERE and Camden's album HERE.

You can use other tools with this same technique. Try using bubble wraps, the end of pencils, a sponge, a paper crinkled into a ball or anything else you can think of and already have at home.

On the card below I smeared the edges with white paint.



Here is an example using green paint and bubble wrap.



How do you use acrylic paint? Would love to hear about your results and your discoveries.

I wish you a Happy New Year!!! Until next Thursday, stay thrifty and crafty. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza

Awhile back...

>



Hi everyone,

I had a rough night. My parents are arriving this coming weekend and I got a cold. I am all stuffed up and stayed up all night with my baby girl. This morning I took communion and I feel better already. Praise the Lord Jesus!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few flowers I made awhile back. Last year when I was very pregnant and had to wear the same uniform over and over again (if you have ever been pregnant you know what I am talking about) I got some inspiration from Julie's shop and her gorgeous flowers and decided to make one to embellish my denim jacket (part of my pregnancy uniform).



Doesn't that look better? I got inspired and created some other flowers using stamps and some Prima flowers. You can check out this VIDEO to see how I made them.



Here are some samples of Julie's flowers. They are so very exquisite and will add to any outfit I bet. Be sure to check them out. I am sure you will find a favorite one. :)




I will be doing a Give away soon at my OTHER BLOG so be sure to follow me there so you know when it happens.

ok, now I got to get back to bed. Have a nice week and thanks for stopping by,

Tereza

Hybrid 8x8 scrapbook pages.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day. I am still in Thanksgiving mode. I am so blessed. God has been so good to us. :)

Awhile back I shared how I fell head over heels in love with digital scrapbooking. Because I love all the 3D embellishments, and layering, inking and distressing in the traditional scrapbooking, hybrid is a natural thing to me. Are you asking what is hybrid? ok, real quick. Hybrid is a mix of digital and traditional scrapbooking. You might use a digital image or graphics and then use it in traditional scrapbooking (gluing, cutting, inking, distressing with your hands scrapbooking).

anyway... the layouts above were created using graphics from kaymillerdesigns.com. I thought it would be fun to offer some of my customer 8x8 hybrid pages. I have build them to be a 3D scrapbook page using kay miller graphics. Take a look and see how easy scrapbooking can be.





These can be easily customized too. Email me if I got you thinking of all the possibilities!! LOL

I am working on 2 custom made albums and will be posting pictures this coming week. In the meantime, you can find some of my newly listed items in my Etsy shop.

Enjoy your family! :)

Tereza

Sneak Peek Mother's Day Album

Remember I said I was working with a new material? It's not chipboard, it's not acrylic.

Well this is a sneak peek of one of the first albums I am working on... this is not the final result...this is just the first layer...more to come. :)

Tereza

Custom Made Fall Premade Layout

I just received some AWESOME albums in the mail. They are not acrylic, they are chipboard. I won't tell you yet what they are YET, but I am soooo excited about working with them. I have a fantastic custom order to make some Word Albums for a Bride and these albums are perfect for that. So do come back to see what I come up with. :)

In the meantime, I just wanted to quickly share a custom layout I finished last night.



No you are not seeing double, or better triplets!! LOL This is the THIRD time I make this layout. If you would like to see the other 2 before this one as well as some of the techniques I used please got to MY OTHER BLOG.

LEt me go play with my new albums now. :)

Have a great week. :)

Tereza

Spring Cleaning in full swing

Spring Cleaning is in full swing...I have about 18 cards now in my shop on Sale. I added a brand new card today. YOu can see it HERE.


Click HERE to purchase it and check out THE THRIFTY SCRAPPER (my other blog) to find out how I made it.

I am super busy...I have a ton of Custom orders to finish... I just returned from the beach and we had a great time but I am glad to be home.

If you are looking at my blog and you just love what you see and want to purchase something special for you or a loved one, please use the link on the right column to email me. I love Custom orders. :)

Have a beautiful day!! :) To the sweet person that leaves me a comment FIRST I will send you a treat from MyTreasuredCreations. It cannot be anonymous and I should be able to email you from the link that you provide. :) thanks for looking!

Tereza

The Thrifty Scrapper: how to make your own liquid pearls.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to quickly let you know that I have shared in MY OTHER BLOG how to improvise and make your own Liquid Pearls.

Would love to hear your comments. :)

Tereza

Custom Made WEDDING premade layout!

I just finished my first Custom made Wedding premade pages. I thought the process of bringing it together was pretty interesting. It took me about 4 hours of work divided in 2 days.

I spent about an hour or so deciding on what background papers and colors I was going to use. Once I decided on that. I worked on the first layer of embellishments: stamping with acrylic paint and stitching. Below you will see the first page. This is a double page spread.



Then I had to decide on the embellishments. The colors of the wedding were David Bridal's pool color, silver and white. SO I used different shades of blue and the black to make the other colors stand out.

Years ago when I did drama I learned that using triangles make for a more interesting picture. So I usually try the same approach on my layouts. If you look closely you will see that many of my embellishments will form a triangle. Sometimes I do that without even thinking of it. I realized when I finished that all the elements: stamping, flowers, bows form triangles. Here is the complete layout!



The layout does not come with mats. I did that on purpose so that the customer has the liberty to choose the size and direction of the photos. I did place some mats on the first page just to show what size of photos would be perfect here and how they would look. the mats are 4x6". There is room enough on the second page to hold a 5x7" picture or a slightly cropped 8x10".

After I placed the flowers, I began working on the title placement. I began the layout knowing the title. As I worked to fill the empty spaces I thought of placing the numbers on top of hearts and the ruffles were then the natural way to finish them off. When I begin working on layout I DO NOT have all the elements I am going to use. They come about as I create the layout. I keep on adding until I feel the layout is done.

Here are some close ups.






I made this layout without the actual wedding photos and I am so looking forward to see it with the photos!

When I was done, I noticed that on the first page there are 2 flowers placed apart and there is the number 2 of the title. Then on the second page the word "become" and the number 1 and I have 2 flowers of different sizes placed TOGETHER at the top. I thought the symbolism was perfect and it came to be completely unexpected and unplanned. I saw it AFTER the layout was DONE. Isn't that cool!??!! Here is the complete layout again for you to see what I am talking about. Click on the photo to enlarge and see the details.




Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed me sharing my creative process. What is yours?

PS. If you would like custom work please contact me through the email me link!

Have a beautiful week,

Tereza

Blog Candy Alert: Chipboard Puzzle Pieces!!!

Hi everyone,

I don't know if you have noticed but I have a NEW BLOG!! Yes!!! and to celebrate I am hosting a BLOG CANDY over there!! So if you have been looking for these cool chipboard puzzle pieces and just can't find them in bigger sizes than 6x6" go check this Blog candy!!

Have a beautiful day and thanks for stopping by!!

Tereza

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

ok..here is the Diva layout!!




I am going to start listing again on Ebay after the first of January. so be sure to sign up for my newsletter or follow the blog to know when I list my Premade pages on Ebay.

After Christmas I want to share photos of a special place...so please be sure to be back on the weekend after Christmas. :)

As for the layout, I used a transparency that I made myself with StazOn ink and Fancy Pants stamps. I finally got a hold of a couple 12x12 Fancy Pants Stamps for a great price on Ebay... what is that saying that goes "Great things come to those that wait"?

Last year at this time, each of those 12x12 acrylic sets were going for over $38.00. I got each for $14.00 shipping included.

So next time you want something you might want to search Ebay. Also it's always good to wait a while before you get a brand new released gadget or item. If you are not the first one to buy, you end up paying a better price and finding out all the glitches and problems with it without having to go through the hassle.

So Great things DO come to those that wait. Now, if you are impatient, then go ahead and do all the testing for me.!! HA!! anyway, LOL

Merry Christmas!!

Of course, I am NOT getting anything for Christmas. I will wait until Spring time. :)

Tereza

Working with Chipboard Albums

Recently I had many people browsing my blog after doing a search for chipboard albums. Some of the searches were for how to finish the albums, how to cover them, or just a plain search for the famous Bo Bunny Word albums. So I decided to do a little tutorial on these.

Below you will see photos of some of the albums I have made in the past. On the right side and on the bottom of my blog you will find links or slides to see all the photos of these albums. So I will just post a few to introduce you to what I will be talking about.





I have made these albums covering them with paper and painting them with acrylic paint.

When covering with paper I found that the best way was to lay your page down on the paper, lining the edges of the album with the edges of the paper. Once you have an idea where you will place the page, then quickly brush a layer of modge podge on the album page and then on the paper. To help you better cover the paper area, you can trace the letter when you lay the page down on the paper. Once page and paper are covered with the glue, you lay the chipboard page down and press firmly, making sure that the whole area is glued down.

Now you take a craft knife and carefully trim the excess of the paper. If you lined the straight edges of the chipboard and the paper you should have very little to cut off. With a little practice using the craft knife is a breeze. :) Make sure you have the side of the knife against the chipboard as you slowly pull the knife towards yourself and cut. Do it slowly. Make sure you have a self healing mat under the chipboard and paper so you don't damage the surface you are working on.

I find that this is easier than tracing each letter (chipboard page) out and then trying to glue it on the board. You can certainly use other adhesive instead of modge podge. To finish the album I will sand the edges (use a nail filer) and ink. You can also paint the edges if you like. Just dab a make up sponge on some acrylic paint and slowly and carefully smear the edges of all the chipboards.

The second way I have created these albums is painting them with acrylic paint. oh, this is so much fun. :) Both times I used black paint and used a light coat on each side of each chipboard. The paint dries quickly so by the time you finish the last one, all the other pages should be dry. When the paint is wet the chipboard will warp a bit, but don't panic. As the paint dries the chipboard becomes flat again.

I usually let them dry a whole night before I start adhering papers and embellishments down.





I hope that helped. Feel free to email me with questions and I would love to hear comments. :)

Have a blessed week. :)

tereza

My Creative Corner Blog Candy

ok, now look what I found....My Creative Corner is giving away an awesome Blog Candy and today is the last day to enter....so go see it HERE.

Have a blessed weekend,

Tereza

How do you scrapbook?

How do you scrapbook? Do you use sketches? How do you begin?

For me to create a layout I have to begin from scratch. I usually have a paper, or an embellishment, a photo that I want to use and then I create the layout. I like to look at sketches and other layouts for ideas but I rarely follow a sketch. Actually I get pretty aggravated trying to copy a sketch. I think that is one of the reasons that I haven't participated in any Card challenges yet. :)

So anyway, this past week I put together 2 layouts. The first one is called "Babies are such a nice way to start people". The trigger for this layout was the stamped Sarah Kay image that I water colored. I just fell in love with that little girl. She was my starting point. From there, I decided I wanted to make a layout for babies, maybe sleepy babies, or a baby in pjs. So next I picked the quote and then the vintage K&C0. papers. I played with the mats for hours. Yes, I actually put all the main components of a page on top of it and move them around until I find the "perfect" look.

I cut the flower and the heart by hand. I doodled the border of both mats and added the rub ons. I love the look of stitching, so I added that, as well as the tearing and distressing.

I also hand cut the half scalloped circle under the mats from my own template. When I began assembling the flower I was looking for something different to use as the center. So I picked some of the little balls that made up the trimmings I used on the mats, and circled them with some of the raffia I was using. I realized it looked like a chickadee's nest. Now, how unexpected was that!!! Without premeditation I got a bird's nest on my layout. And I thought: how perfect!! :)





The second one is called Home Goodness. I think it would be perfect for cooking with the children or family dinners, even Thanksgiving!

this one began with leftover papers from the Family Album I made last month. The black paper with the flowers were cut out from a 12x12 page and I saved it to use on a layout. So again, this piece was the starting point for this page. I felt the whole layout needed to be balanced, so I added another black "piece" to the other side of the layout. I then added die cut stickers to balance the colors and create a title.

I incorporated the stitching to the mats this time, instead of the background of the layout. I used the papers left from the Family Album to create the mats and added journaling tags and other embellishments. I really like how this layout turned out.






I would love to hear your comments and how you scrapbook. :)

Don't forget to go vote. Tomorrow is a big day here in the USA!!!

Tereza