As a child, I can remember digging for buried treasure.

Oftentimes, I didn’t find anything special, but sometimes I stumbled upon interesting things. Like the old schoolhouse type bell I discovered while digging at home. Or how about that old skeleton key, that I still have in my jewelry box.

One memory forever that’s burned into my mind happened when I was about five years old. I remember digging for treasure, in my grandmother’s front yard. I cannot remember where my brother was, but I do remember one of my cousins joining me in my adventure. One of the treasures we discovered was beads.

Even at a young age, I’ve always been fascinated with beads. That particular bead resembled a pearl. As I gazed at it in my palm, my cousin and I tried to decide what I should do with this treasure. He might have suggested that I put it in my ear so I could have earrings. I might have obliged him (after some slight coaxing). Even then, I remember wondering how would I get an earring rom sticking the ‘pearl’ in my ear, but curiosity got the best of me and I obliged.

Admittedly that wasn’t the brightest move I’d made, especially when I finished with a raging earache shortly afterwards. My parents weren’t too pleased that I had to make an unexpected trip to the hospital, and I learned and important lesson. Trust your instincts.

The past few weeks, I’ve been wrestling with card ideas. In the back of my mind, I knew I should toss my bead making skills into the mix, but I balked. That is until yesterday…

Last evening, while my daughter was creating a “one of a kind paper doll” I turned my attention to my wigjig and started creating simple designs for cards, and various other items — that most likely will end up on some piece of jewelry.

The hours flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to put my daughter to bed. We both were satisfied with our evening, she got a chance to work on her drawings and I thoroughly enjoyed working with beads. The main thing is  we spent our evening together, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

This morning, while driving my daughter to school, I told her I’d be stopping by the store to purchase items for paper crafts. I wanted to accomplish this yesterday, but I didn’t have enough time. She was excited, and happily ran into school with a big smile on her face.

Target was my first stop (since Michael’s cardstock paper tends to be pricey). I found Astrobright card stock (65lb – 50 sheets) for, $4.34.  I bought four  packs.

I love Michaels. I made sure it was my last stop. This gave me a chance to browse and drool over all the crafting possibilities. As I mentioned in my Cuttlebug post, Micheal’s is having a sale on many of their items. The only thing, in this crafting storage container (storage container was on sale too) that wasn’t on sale was the Recollections clear stamps. However, I had a 40% off coupon so I didn’t pay full price.

In total, I spent under $54 at Micheals. Which is great, since I can easily leave the store a few hundred dollars poorer. 🙂 I’m hoping that the items purchased will keep my daughter and I busy for some time. One can dream, right?

I’m running out of storage space, so I’ll need to purchase more shelves to hold all my crafts (beadwork, sewing, and now card making items).

Two talented card makers

I’m including a few creative crafters that have given me some ideas…

Jennifer Bliss is an extremely talented lady that I’ve known for at least four years. You can check out her card making site, A Blissful Place. Jennifer posts cards several times weekly. I’m sure you’ll find something that you like. She recently posted a tea dyeing tutorial for card making, so check it out!

This past weekend, I stumbled across Amy Rysavy’s site. My goodness she’s a talented card maker. Recently, I’ve been on a Halloween kick. She had plenty of Halloween themed cards that kept me occupied. I’m really enjoying her videos too. My favorite card, from her Halloween card series, is the mummy. Isn’t it adorable?

In my previous post, I mentioned that I’d purchased the Cuttlebug.

I have a lot of ideas bouncing about in my head, but with only two emboss folders, and four (Star) die casts. My creativity was limited. As I looked through my supplies, I realized that I need to purchase more paper. I’m still new to card making. I mainly got into it for my daughter. She loves creating with paper. I figured doing Cuttle projects together, will be another way I can bond with her.  Regarding card making… I didn’t purchase too many extras. However, since we’re enjoying this activity, I’ll replenish my paper stock this week.

This owl (along with the embossed background) was included with the Cuttlebug.  The star die casts was given to me by a friend. Although I didn’t have the paper I wanted (limited supply of color) it was fun playing embossing the paper, and adding it to my design. The silver stars were made with aluminum full. I cut a large piece of aluminum foil, and wrapped it several times to add thickness.

When I rolled the foil through the Cuttlebug the cutting process ‘sealed’ the edges. I’m going to redo the eyes. I have a few ideas that I’d like to try with them, it’ll be interesting to see how they turn out.

The words, Owl’s it going, will  be added to this card.

Today’s my birthday, since I don’t get into birthdays today was a calm affair.

My daughter and I did go to a guinea pic ‘pignic’ that was hosted by a guinea pig shelter at a local park. Guess what? I purchased three dollars worth of raffle tickets, and I was the lucky winner! I let my daughter choose the prize.

It gets better, my daughters sweet little piglets won the cutest couple award. They received an award and got their pictures taken! They’re pictures (which I believe includes my daughter) will be proudly displayed on the shelters Facebook page.

Before we went to the piglet event I purchased the Cuttlebug V2 Die Cutter and Embosser. Micheal’s has them on sale this week (along with a whole host of other items that will make the typical crafter squee with joy). After the event, I made my first card design with the Cuttlebug, and will try to post a picture tomorrow. My daughter has been having fun with the Cuttlebug too.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun experimenting with a few dies that I have. (I’ll purchase more this week.) I used various material for embossing.

I can’t wait to post my first ‘Cuttlebug creation’. It’ll be nice to look back months later to see how much I’ve improved. I do think this design will be special, since it’s the first I’ve made with my new crafting gadget. I had fun playing with different embosses, layering, and I even included a common household item that I incorporated into the design.

I’m still a ‘newb’ when it comes to card making. I’m not a fan of frilly or overly girly cards, although I love seeing the ones others make. However for myself, it’s not something I think I’ll do to much.