Kerry’s Paper Crafts

so I thought I’d at least update you on what we’ve been so busy with (well, part of it at least!)

We own an old farm house. It’s a wonderful New England 100+ year old house - with all the character & charm of an old home (and all the problems, too!). We finally were able to have it painted this summer & we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.It used to be white (more like a chipped, cracked dirty version of white). We decided to go with a Colonial Blue color, with white trim & black accents. We are VERY happy with how it turned out.

Here are some pictures of the house, freshly painted & landscaped. (We do 99% of things at our house by ourselves - landscaping included. It was nice to have some help w/ the painting - as it was a pretty big undertaking).

And here are my new rocking  chairs. OH, my chairs. I’ve wanted these since the day we moved in. This porch just BEGS to have white rocking chairs sitting out there. I love how the fresh paint makes them pop. And I LOVE rocking in them. And yes, we love that big porch!

A view from the street:

In addition to the house painting & landscaping, we’ve got quite the kitchen renovation going on. I promise to put pics of that up as well when it’s complete. Cabinets are in & I *almost* have a sink back again. Oh, I cannot wait.

Stay tuned & thanks for stopping in!

Other, Photography

Hi all - so a few had asked about seeing more of the pics I am taking lately. I have decided it’s easier for me to do a Photography Blog to keep this one just focused (mostly) on paper crafting. (and my cat that I love so much, hehe)

Anyway, here is the link if you’re interested. I try to post recent pics of things I shoot. It will most like evolve into a personal blog as most of my shots are of events & things in my life.

Hopefully it’s not too boring

Photography

I’ve been into sewing lately. I get  a case of crafting A.D.D. every now & then and I need something to distract me. This month it’s sewing. It all started because I was getting tired of the way things looked under the tables in my craft room:

Those drawers up there are where I store all of my cardstock scraps. I LOVE this system. It’s a great way to utilize the space under the table (which is otherwise wasted). I can easily pull these drawers out when I need to get to scraps (they come completely out of the unit which I really like). I sort mine by color. The only problem is that it looks messy (along w/ the other crapola I shove under there). I decided I wanted a way to cover it up so when I’m not accessing my scraps it looks more attractive.

Also, we have this trainwreck which was in desperate need of something to hide it (or blow it up entirely):

God, I hate wires. I’m a gadget girl but I hate wires. Unfortunately the fact that I have so many gadgets creates quite the the predicament for me when I want things to look tidy. I decided to solve both of the above problems with fabric panels & some tension rods:

All of my scraps are still nice & accessible when I need them. I just push away the fabric panel & open the drawers that I need. I bought the tension rods at Target for a few bucks each & they work GREAT. Such a cheap & easy solution.

I found the fabric on sale at Joann’s - I like the simplicity of the colors but the pattern adds some character. I think what we mostly need to emphasize here people is that I CAN SEW SQUARES!! I CAN SEW IN A SEMI-STRAIGHT LINE!!!

It’s the little things I tell ya.

Anyway - next on my list is creating something to wrap around this table here to cover up this bad boy. (No, not the giant fat cat - look past until you see the bleeding eyesore of wires & dust bunnies.)

Typical Max. Always in my shot. And while we are on the subject, can we discuss what is wrong with this picture below?? I mean really, how am I to learn how to sew with this giant furball always getting in my way?

Hmmph. I suppose I will allow him to stay. After all, I did grab the camera & take photo upon photo of him lying there instead of shooing him off. And then I patted him on the head.

I promise to share this sewing project that Max is lying on once it’s complete. It’s super fun & easy to do.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer weather. It’s been great so far up here in MA.

Organization, Sewing, the cat.

Hi there - again, I apologize for the sparse posting lately. We are still in the middle of major house renovations & trying to make our way through it, argh. I’ve got some great photos of the house being painted on the outside - it’s amazing how awesome it looks. Hopefully they will be 100% done this week & I will post the pics here.

Since I’ve been such a bad blogger, I wanted to make it up to you guys with a TON of fun cards - and the best part is that these are for a WONDERFUL cause. I’ve been meaning to contribute to this cause for a while now - but when I was surfing Jennifer McGuire’s blog the other night, I saw that she had posted these digital images available for FREE download. They were created specifically for the Cards for Kids drive by Kristina. She is AMAZING!!

I printed out a bunch of each of these images - they are super fun & are sure to make someone smile. I went a little crazy - here is just a sampling of what I’ve been doing with these images:

This image is my favorite. That sun is just so bright & cheery. I stamped those clouds with a Hero Arts background stamp - it’s absolutely one of my fave stamps. It came out awesome on this teal cardstock.

Another Hero Arts background stamp used on this card - this time it was a Woodgrain.

I added some stickles to this ice cream cone to make it look even more yummy. I tried  not to embellish too much on these cards as I don’t want them to be too bulky to mail.

Cute little caterpillar. I added googlie-eyes to anything that looked like it needed it. Kids love googlie eyes, right?

This one worked out perfectly because I had a bunch of that Spongebob smiley-face paper lying around. Love it.

I am hoping to find some stickers to throw inside these cards & then I’m going to send them off. In case you’re wondering - I just used my regular HP Inkjet Color printer & printed all of these images on white & vanilla cardstock. Super simple.

I strongly encourage you guys to check out these images & see what you can make with them! Anyone can put them together - it makes a great project to do with children on a rainy day. It’s also a great way to use up some scraps of paper or ribbon that you have. And - not that you needed more reasons to love this card drive - but there are some seriously awesome prizes you can win. The more cards you send, the better your chances.

Jennifer is amazing & I admire her for putting together such a wonderful effort for these kids & their families.

Cards

sorry guys. Things have just been somewhat hectic in life. We are doing lots of projects at home & truth is I just have not had much crafting mojo.

I made a card the other day though so I wanted to share. Nothing special, just playing with some October Afternoon designer paper. I used some plain chipboard letters from Heidi Swapp & covered them in orange paint using a Ranger Ink Dabber. (love the bright orange color). I wanted to give the letters more pop so I used some Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on them. They almost turned out looking like Thickers, huh?

I added some buttons & a crocheted flower - all of which I had in my stash & I cannot tell you where on earth they are from!

Cards

I’ve been having lots of fun with my Photography. I got a new lens (50mm f/1.4) & I’m totally loving it. It’s fun to practice with a lens that is so fast & is great in low light. I have to share a photo of my best test subject, Max:

Isn’t he such a pretty boy? He loves me & is totally OK with my camera obsession. (at least I think he is. I tell myself he is.) I love how his whiskers are HUGE. When he was a kitten, they were pretty much the same size. It was hilarious because he had this little head with GINORMOUS whiskers. He’s definitely grown into them - but they are still pretty big & I love ‘em. Gives him so much personality.

We’re making progress on our kitchen renovation project. I think we might be hanging cabinets *soon*. I was able to sneak up to my craft room for just a bit this weekend in between painting. I was very much into butterflies for some reason, so here are some cards. I am loving the October Afternoon paper. It’s just so yummy.

In fact, I love that darn patterned paper so much that I had to punch as many butterflies as I could out of it. I used a Martha Stewart punch for these:

Then I decided I’d like to see how stamping on the paper would look. So I used my new fave Hero stamp & cut out some more butterflies from OA paper:

Super simple cards, but so much fun to make…!

I hope to be back soon with pictures of a newly renovated kitchen…with a SINK. A SINK!! (What I would not give to have my sink back. Oy.)

Cards, Photography

hi guys - sorry this last one is a few hours late. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day here in MA, I spent it painting some furniture & working more on the kitchen. (Yep, we’re still re-doing it. Ugh. Can’t wait for it to be over with. I will post pics when it’s done for sure)

Anyway, here is the last masculine card for the week. Although I’m sure I will be making more of an effort to make cards geared towards Men & Boys. They are challenging & I like that.

Cards

I’m back with another earthy-toned masculine card. This goes to show you just how much use you can get out of one paper collection. Still using the Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy collection. This time, I paired it up with some Stampin Up Dusty Durango cardstock. I stamped the CS with a woodgrain background stamp from Hero Arts to give it some texture. Love the tone on tone look.

That felt-like ribbon is from the Mr. Campy ribbon pack. The buttons were just some that I had lying around that I think matched quite well. The sentiment is a stamp from PaperTrey Ink.

The overall layout & design of this card wasn’t a CASE - but I definitely pulled some inspiration from Kristina Werner. I can’t tell you exactly which card(s) of her inspired me for this one - most likely it was a few. But I wanted to make sure I give credit where it’s due. So thanks to Kristina for always having awesome ideas!

Cards

Today you’re in luck because I’m givin’ ya 2 cards for the price of one

These are cards are all about Robots! They are perfect to give to a  Boy on his Birthday, or any other special day for that matter.

The paper for this card was something I grabbed at Michael’s months ago. I’ve been there recently & I’ve still seen it on the shelves. I am not 100% sure of the brand, but it’s super fun & perfect for a Boy.

This next card uses some fun Hero Arts stamps. I love coloring this guy in with my Copics. The base of the card is Kraft Cardstock, stamped with a cloud background stamp. I used some Robotos designer paper & some Stampin Up Ribbon to finish off the card.

Not sure if you can tell, but the robot is popped off the card. I stamped him once on the card, and then once on another piece of cardstock. I colored & cut him out, placed him on top of the stamped robot. It makes it pop nicely.

Cards

Today’s card can be for a boy or a man - depending on WHO it is…! (Pun intended. HA. I’m so corny)

I used some more Mr. Campy designer paper from Cosmo Cricket. The cardstock are some In-Colors from Stampin Up, as well as the ribbon. I love how the background stamp (Hero Arts) turned out again that color brown. It’s really a nice color. The owl stamp is also from Hero - I used my Copics to color the little guy in. Sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Oh and that fabulous border punch is called “Apron Lace” and it’s by Fiskars. Love it.

Cards