Craft Room with a View

Hello crafting buddies! I have a LO to share with you today. I have to admit that I have been making just cards for so long that I am rusty at layouts.

I have been watching Kathryn Krieger from Life on the Scrap Beach on Ustream (Kathryn Scraps) and YouTube (Kathryn Krieger). She is very talented and I have been learning some cool techniques. I really enjoy the Ustream broadcasts because it is live and you can chat with other crafters. It lets me feel like I can still participate in an activity even though I am homebound. Be sure and check out her blog and channels. You won't be disappointed.

Kathryn recently did a great video on YouTube on how to make a sunburst layout. You can check it out here. She challenged us to make a project based on her design. Well, it took me all week since I am rusty and things just kept interrupting me, but here is my shot at it.

I know, I added sooo much stuff that it is hard to see the sunburst design. LOL It is there though, I promise. :)

The pattern paper came from a 6 by 6 pack of Pink Paislee paper called She Art.


In her video, Kathryn uses circle embellishments to break up all the liner patterns going on. I used flowers instead because, well, handmade flowers are what I do. :) I also rounded the corners of the photos and added a doily with one round photo.

You can see the I-Top brad covered with paper and some paper strips I cut into banners.

I have mentioned before that my new craft room has great windows along the back wall. My sweet hubby bought me some feeders and plants to attract birds and squirrels. It is so fun to watch them. I get to see several different animals but this fox squirrel and this male cardinal are the most frequent visitors. The female cardinal is never far away but she is harder to photograph because she blends in so well.

I wanted to use some glittered Thickers for the title but I did not have all the letters I needed. I opted to cut the words out using my cutter and glittering them with Stickels.

I had so much going on in this page that my journaling was distracting. I decided to tuck it under one of the photos on a little tag.

Well, my squirrel buddy is back so I will end this post and watch him. :)
THANKS for sticking with me for this long post and please go check out Kathryn's blog and channels.

Have a great weekend!

Wildlife Silhouettes for Dad

June is always a busy month for me card-wise. Besides graduations and weddings, my DH's birthday is in June, followed by Father's Day, and then our wedding anniversary. So I make 3 cards to give my DH in the space of 3 weeks! You can imagine how difficult it is to think of 3 different masculine designs.


Here is what I came up with for his birthday...

Yep, you caught me. Now you see the real reason I made all the animal silhouettes that I featured as decorative covers for the pocket watch. 

(I will be showing more on the pocket watches later this week.)

On the front you can see some of the deer.

I cut them in Core-dinations card stock and tore and sanded the edges.

The bear would not fit on the front, bu I just could not leave him out so he is on the back...

  I would love to tell you the "eye" was intentional, but to be honest, it just happened when I sanded the edges. LOL


I have shown side step cards before. I was using measurements that I found online, but it always bothered me that the side areas did not line up better. I decided to play around with the measurements so that the side panels stair stepped up. Here is what I came up with...

Now I made this up so if you see different directions for a side step card using paper that is

8 1/2 by 11, you will know why mine may be different.

Here is the link to download the instructions and the cut files for the decorative panels. 

Revised Side Step Card

If anyone would like PDF templates, just leave a comment.

I will be adding these instructions to the "step card" tab under my blog header.

The animal silhouettes will be available in my Etsy shop.