Card & Tag Thursday!!!

Tag!  You're it!

Cheesy, I know.  ;)

Are you ready for some tags?  I admit, I love to make tags.  They are miniature works of art, and so fun to play and experiment with.

So, let's get started.

I pulled out my Crate Paper DIY shop 6"x6" paper pad and Tim Holtz sewing room die for this tag.  I started with a piece of corrugated cardboard--an old box top I think--and peeled some of the paper off the front to reveal the corrugate.  I hit that with some Distress Paint in Antique Linen and Fired Brick.  I added some torn paper, the dies I cut and embellished, and some bits and pieces cut and punched from the papers. Stamp is from Tim Holtz. 

This "Sweet" tag also started with a piece of corrugated cardboard from the same box top, although I've pretty well covered it up.  I die cut flowers from my 6"x6" Basic Grey Mint Julep pad, inked and layered them to create flowers and added bottle caps(BG) and brads (MME) to their centers.  The sweet tag is from Carta Bella's So Noted pack.  I cut it down a bit and hit the letters with some Glossy Accents that somehow cracked a bit.  I liked it.  :)

Great tags, huh?  But I know what you're thinking.  What do I do with those tags?  Store them?  Hang them on a clothesline to display?  What?  

Use them, of course!

Here is a layout I designed AFTER I made the tags, using the "Sweet" tag from above.  I pulled out the Mint Julep paper pack and went to town.  Tags make a great page element.   

I added the tag, just as I made it onto this layout.  I used a Martha Stewart circle punch to create the doily edge, Studio Calico wood veneer flowers, colored the centers with a Copic marker and saw the "make today" border strip sitting in the top of my scrap pile so I cut it apart and used it as a journaling feature.  The little tag is from Fancy Pants Memories Captured.  

How sweet is that?  Since the tag was already made, it took me very little time to create this layout.  I often spend hours on a layout, trying different papers, different placement possibilities.  This one came together in well under an hour.  I had made the tag and photographed it, not until a week later did I think, "Hey, I should use this on a layout!"  I think the most time consuming part of the whole page was inking everything.  But I have a very difficult time not inking.  Ask the TeamWorks girls who went to retreat.  They'll confirm that.  lol  

So, let's get to gettin' (sorry, lol Clean House reruns on while creating this post) and make some tags, and then USE them to highlight layouts and other projects.

                                                              

                                                           Jenn

Challenge Wednesday

     The June challenge votes are in! And the winner is...Karen Seifert. Karen also happens to be our Guest Designer this month. So make sure to stop by the blog on Tuesdays and see what else Karen has been up to. 

     All of the Memory Works consultants who played along with the challenge on the studio in June did a fantastic job. Hope to see them and lots of others on the Memory Works studio for Megan Peacock's fantastic July Challenge Forum. 

The Team Works gals loved how Karen used some Simple Stories Vintage Bliss polka dot card stock as a mat and a Simple Stories Unity Stamp as a focal point. They also loved how Karen branched out from her usual card making to embrace this challenge to try something new.

Now it's time to go fishing in your stash for some paper, stickers, and buttons or flair and post your project for a chance to win a prize from Home Office.

We love to welcome new consultants to the Studio so be sure to join up if you aren't already a member!

Guest Designer Tuesday - Karen Siefert

Hi! It's Tuesday and you know what that means? Guest Designer Tuesday! Today I am reintroducing you to Karen Siefert. Karen was a guest designer in 2012 and shared so many great projects that I decided to invite her back! 

 In case you don't remember Karen is quite the cardmaker! She has a card and a couple of tags to share with us today.....

Live Laugh Play card 

Recipe:

Simple Stories I Heart Summer  Flash Cards #SS3210

Simple Stories 6x6 paper pad - color Vibe #SS2824

Brown Twine #WR041

flowers and leaf punched from SS color vibe paper #SS2824

brown cardstock

Tags 

Recipe:

Simple Stories I Heart Summer  Flash Cards #SS3210

Simple Stories I Heart Summer 6x6 paper pad #SS3201

Brown Twine #WR041

white carstock, button, and ribbon from my stash

Karen will be back next week with more inspiration, don't forget to stop by!

Express Kit Monday

Enjoy,

Creative Friday

 

Happy Friday! Since it is my first Creative Friday post, I should introduce myself.

I am Amanda Bratu and this is my  first year as a member of the TeamWorks team.

It has been such an exciting opportunity to serve alongside such talented women and I am constantly in awe of the creative talent in this bunch!

I have been a MW consultant since February 2011 and have been scrapbooking since the birth of my oldest son in 1997. I live in Mississippi with the love of my life, Eric, two sons, Caleb and Daniel,

and two fur babies, Max and Eva.

When I am not taking care of my  family, working or scrapbooking I enjoy walking in the woods, taking photographs, shopping and trying out recipes from Pinterest.

I also have a confession to make: I love to make a mess!

I can't seem to help myself when it comes to being creative, I have to be messy.  I love being organized and my home and creative space are usually very clean, neat, orderly, and pretty, I like pretty things to look at!  But when I start working on a project it can get chaotic!

Here is a quick pic of my workspace/desk and it's messy secret!

I found this quote on Pinterest - and thought it was perfect!

Here is a July 4th project I really like. The mason jars are so trendy right now!

To make these jars I cut a Bo Bunny Doily in half and glued the ends to the jar, then wrapped the doily with twine and tied it in the back. I cut the stars out with my Cricut using dark blue card stock and a red gingham piece from "100 Days of Summer" from Simple Stories.  I also used the leftover pieces from an old "American Made" Accessory Sheet from My Mind's Eye for the other embellishments. And finished it all off by filling the jars with tons of sparklers!

 

Up close of the "Hero" Jar

Yes, that's me and my Sweetie & we made a heart with the sparklers!

I'll be back again next Friday with a few more projects I've been working on. 

Cards & Tags Thursday

Happy 4th of July!!!!  

Now, if I was any kind of organized scrapper and card maker I'd be posting cards full of red, white and blue and Americana goodness.  Well, that's not what's going on in my life right now.  Not that I'm disorganized, just that I'm knee-deep in baby shower preparations, and birthday season.  We just celebrated my son's 30th the other day.  In fact, we celebrate 3 kids birthdays, my husband's birthday and one granddaughter's birthday from June 15th-July 18th.  If you extend that time frame a couple weeks each way, we have what we call birthday season, adding in my other granddaughter, two nieces, two nephews, my mother-in-law, a couple of brothers-in-law and a cousin.  Whew!  So birthday cards are what I'm currently making.

These cute pocket cards have a tag with a greeting in one side and space for a universal gift card (in our family known as cash) or traditional gift card in the other side.  Perfect for nieces and nephews who grow so rapidly I can't keep up with their latest faves.

MamaRazzi 2 here, from the 6"x6" paper pad.  Really, double-sided papers would work best, but I love these colors so I wanted to work with them.  Happy Birthday is stamped over and over, without re-inking to create a darker and lighter image.  The gift was stamped on more paper and cut out, the tab top punched from another sheet of that mini-pad.  

The back of the insert is the perfect place to write your own greeting.

Simple Stories Vintage Bliss is up next.  Surprise!  It's blue and green again!  lol  Did I mention I like blue and green?  I had made the flower on the outside from some solid card stock awhile ago, playing with a new Spellbinder's die and loved it here with a brad center.  Rather than a ribbon topper this time I went for another brad.

Simple insert this time.  The backside, ready for some do-re-mi.  

I'm also planning a shower for a scrappy friend I met several years ago when she attended a class I taught.  We hit it off and over the years have scrapped together once a month.  She is expecting her first baby in September and I am helping to plan her shower.  I thought it would be nice to have thank-you notes all ready at the shower for guests to address.  All she has to do is write a thank-you and pop them in the mail.  I'll have postage stamps available as well.  We're also making a surprise album for her.  But that's a whole other post. 

Back to Simple Stories Vintage Bliss.  This has to be one of my all-time favorites--at least this season.  I love the teals, pinks, greens, yellows and grays in these papers.  Once again I grabbed the 6"x6" pad.  I love that the patterns are proportionate to the size of the paper.  I cut 3/4" strips and then cut them in half.  I ripped the ends (while my granddaughter was getting her hair braided and we watched "Back to the Future"), punched circles and ducks from scraps and stamped "thanks" on white paper.

I picked up a pack of 25 white cards with envelopes from my local Mike's and used them as bases.  I was aiming for something that looked like washi-tape strips.  Thanks to the ease of the assembly line style prep I was able to bang these out pretty quickly.  Which is good because I have a ton of other shower details to handle, like food, decorating, a gift...

                                                                 

                                                           Jenn

Challenge Me Wednesday

Hi-it's Meg here with a fun July challenge for you.
It's summer time so the livin' and craftin' should be easy- I want you to whip up a project (card, layout, tag, whatever) including three supplies.
Head to your crafty lair and go fishin' for
paper ( please feel free to ink, die cut, emboss, distress to your hearts content- we encourage creativity around here!)
stickers
button ( or flair)

Yep- that's it! Easy peasey eh?

I was inspired by  my Simple Stories I Heart Summer collection- it had the papers and stickers all in it and I added a piece of coordinating flair.
Here is  the card that I came up ...

So get crafting-I can't wait to see what you come up with!