Stashing Inspiration

Before Pinterest came along, I had my own way of collecting images that inspired me.  I would pick up a large scrapbook with plain paper pages at a garage sale to use.  Now I hit the local craft store and pick up an inexpensive sketch pad.  I picked this one up at A.C.Moore for $5.00.  Of course I need to scrap out the front cover.  I fill the books with clippings from magazines for house decorating ideas, organization inspiration, recipes, you name it.  Of course you can also print out your Pinterest snapshots.  I save all of my magazines for these projects.  And a little secret...I actually get my magazine subscriptions free from saving my Coke points.

Here is my latest old school Pinterest book, now ready to be stuffed full of new ideas and inspiration.  I pulled out an eksuccess binding punch that I hadn't used yet. I love how it plays into the whole 'office supply' theme.

 
I also dug through my old supplies and used Crate Paper Stickers, a Basic Grey office tab, Recollections Paper Cut outs and Washi Tape.

I wanted to stick with fun summer colors like pink, lime green, orange, & yellow with some black accents.    

For inside of the book I make some quick and simple page markers. I used large black and white paper clips and tied ribbon around the tops.  This isn't your typical scrapbook project, but I will keep these books with my others.  In several years it will be fun to look back on what styles and ideas inspired me.

I'm submitting this for the following challenge:
Use It Tuesday -- Diecuts, Punches and Cutouts!! (my most hoarded item on this project is card stock)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Mermaids & Fairies

What girl doesn't love anything with Fairies and Mermaids?  Living in sunny Florida, I was inspired to try my hand at some fun mermaid cards.  I searched for a while to see if I might find some mermaid goodies from any of my favorite scrap sites... but alas, no luck.  I spotted an article online about piecing paper and thought I would give it a try.  I started with mermaids and ended up doing fairies as well.  Here are a few of my favorites.  

This little beauty is all blinged out with Making Memories Gem Embellishments,

I pieced together two hand drawn body section, the upper body and the tail.  It took me a few tries to get the sizes correct.  I'm no artist, so I'm sure anyone could do this! I drew a little face on her and popped some tiny gems in her eyes to really help her iris's stand out.  

I was pretty stumped on what to do with hair, so I went to my local craft store, Michael's and ACMoore to look around and see if I could get inspiration.  I was cruising down the isles and a package of moss caught my eye.  I thought, why not?  There are actually variety packs of moss that you can find easily in the stores that I've been using for all of these cards.  As you can see below, it makes for super fun and funky (and CHUNKY) hair.  I love some texture and depth on my cards, and the moss worked like a dream.  I used white craft glue to adhere it around her little head and popped a K&Company flower in her hair for a little moxie.  

Here I decided to try a 4th of July Mermaid.  She's a little curvy, but I think that's cute.  The beauty of piecing your own paper is you can make the body shape anything you like.  I love curves.  My son thinks these Mermaids are borderline "hoochie".  I think they're quirky, which suits my personality just fine.  I will say I did a google search on mermaid art to get some ideas on different ways to draw the tail.  It was a big help.  

After having a blast with making cards, I had the bright idea of making Mermaids in a shadow box.  I went to my local Michaels and bought a value pack of shadow box frames for 50% off.  www.Michaels.com  seems to always have a 50% coupon available to print out.  Handy!  The box frames were a hit and I actually started selling these at a little store in Matlacha on Pine Island.  Its a really cute area with fun art shops.  I highly recommend it if you come visit this area!  

And here is my funky fairy.  I was again stumped on how to manage the wings.  As usual, I went down to Michael's with an iced coffee in hand and started to scout for ideas.  I was looking through the dollar bins and spotted a large butterfly clip.  I loved the gray color, texture, and shine on the butterfly.  I will be honest and say I felt bad about ripping the wings off the little guy.  I know that's silly, but true!  Instead of drawing and cutting a tail for the bottom half of her body, I simply cut a long dress.  I used two small pieces of glitter ribbon for her waist.  

The moss hair has got to be my favorite thing about these cards.  I'm pretty sure I had some days in the 80's with my hair just as big.  

Hope you enjoyed my little fairytale cards.  Thanks for dropping by!  

~K