tiny trinket box

one of the things i love best about making things with the pixie dust kits each month is the opportunity to play around with new and interesting products. for example: march's FLORIBUNDA kit contains an entire package of amazingly glamorous tim holtz baubles:

the great thing is that whereas sometimes in my "personal" crafting life i can feel a bit intimidated by something completely different...for some reason as soon as i put on my "pixie cap" i become an intrepid inventor trying to think of THE COOLEST thing to do with each item! :) i actually came up with what i think are a few good ideas for the baubles, but this one is my favorite:

yep, it's one of those .59 cent papier mache boxes from michael's, reincarnated as an authentic french eighteenth century pearl-footed trinket box. ok, well, maybe not quite...but c'mon... it's pretty cute, right?! want to know how i got the "feet" on there? well, it's on the pixie dust paperie blog today...you can cruise over there and read about it if you wanna! ;)

*my fellow pixies (kirsty, jessy, zielonooka, kandis, keri lee, and this month's very special guest miss cheryl!) have thought of some really great "bauble" ideas as well, which is why it's not a bad idea to check out the pixie blog regularly. i have to say that even though i visit every single day, i've NEVER come away without learning something. how cool is *that*??! ♥♥♥

JB11: cool yule!

this week's JINGLE BELLES prompt is the suggestion of miss leslie aka the crooked stamper. it's a non-traditional color palette that i like A LOT...so much so, that i think you'll be seeing these colors again in both holiday and non-holiday contexts!



she saw this amazing room re-do (which kinda makes me drool, actually!) at the lettered cottage and thought, "let's make xmas cards!" so we did. you can see leslie's and stef's cards at JINGLE BELLES...it is worth the trip to do so, i assure you! you can see my card here, right under the fabulous sketch i used; a sketch which i would like to *CREDIT* of course, but sadly, being an idiot, i didn't bookmark whence it came, and the source info is not on the sketch or in the .png file name (it's just called "february challenge sketch") so if you recognize it, give me a shout, ok?



please excuse the oddly angled photo below, but after spending more time trying to capture this image without glare, reflections, or those big UFO-lookin' balls of light than i originally spent making my card...i gave it up as a bad job and settled for "wonky but accurate". i assure you that in person, it's quite a cool card, and you're all invited round to see it, ok?! :)

(patterned paper: the paper co, basic grey, pink paislee, webster's pages, hambly; kraft cardstock: hobby lobby (thanks, stef!); transparency: hambly; tag: my mind's eye; bling: oriental trading co; glitter letters: making memories; tree die: sizzix; edge punches: ek success, recollections, martha stewart; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

this concludes my card description for today, i hope you enjoyed it and that you'll be inspired to head on over to JINGLE BELLES and link up your own kraft, white and pale blue xmas masterpiece between now and next wednesday (3-16)!!! ♥

new york day!

wouldja believe: it's actually even bigger than it looks from outside!

yes, those are three of the happiest words in the laurniverse! i love spending a day in the city, it doesn't even matter all that much what i'm doing, although in this case i was with my lovely (non-blogging) friends janet and liz* and we went to possibly my favorite place in the world: the metropolitan museum of art; so pretty much a "five star" lauren day, all round!

cherry blossoms so pretty even my cellphone pic cannot ruin them!

at the museum, in addition to quite a bit of aimless rambling, we saw the cezanne's card players, which not only featured five or six full-sized paintings, but also several dozen additional studies & sketches and commentary on both the subject of such scenes rendered by earlier flemish & dutch painters, and also the men who served as models for cezanne's works, who were mostly workers on his family estate.

not friends of cezanne...just me having fun with another phone snap

we had lunch in the trustee's dining room...always a SERIOUS treat, particularly when ended with one of their tiny and perfect molten valrhona chocolate cakes! (which i was far too greedy to even THINK of photographing, sorry!!!)

i finally learned to pronounce "avalokitesvara"! (ah-vah-lo-KESH-ver-ah ...am i right, liz??!)

then we took in treasures from the forbidden city where despite many grander works ...not to mention the marvel that was the architecture and landscaping of the qianlong emperor's private retreat... THIS bit of paper and metal and gilding and ink was my favorite item (apologies for the quality--it was dark & behind glass):

anyone else seeing asian-themed shadowboxes in my papercrafty future?!

on the drive up to the met, we detoured around to park avenue to take in a 10-block temporary installation of public art by sculptor will ryman:

the "BEST" of my will ryman roses pictures

these giant fanciful roses dot the center island of park avenue between 57th and 67th streets from now through may...

my favorite of the will ryman roses pictures

...a fact of which none of the three new jersians in our car would have been aware, had not a rather nice iowan sent me this article!!! :)

can someone sculpt a can of eco-safe bug spray QUICKLY please?!

in addition to the spectacle of the ENORMOUS and totally charming flowers themselves, a closer look reveals that they have details like thorns...and even dashing co-stars like beetles and butterflies of commensurate size!

speaking of size...i have a bit of a bombshell to report:

i hope this doesn't affect tourism! :)

it seems the empire state building is quiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite a bit smaller than city authorities would lead us to believe, as proven by this photo i snapped on the way home. it's still quite cool looking though, don't you think?! :)

♥♥♥♥♥

*hi guys! thanks for a great day...when do you wanna go back?! :)

hey look: it's *WONDER* card!

do you *WONDER* what i mean? well, i made a card using city crafter challenge blog's SPRING FLING color challenge hosted by the lovely and amazing cheryl nelson:



and i used pencil lines sketch #227:


and i came up with a card that looks a bit like (ok, EXACTLY like) this:

(patterned paper: pink paislee, basic grey; canvas sticker: crafty secrets; chipboard word & flowers: k&co; tulle flower: prima; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape & doublestick tape; gluedots, sewing machine)

and now you'll have seen that "wonder" comes from the cool chipboard word (which leslie gave me, ta v much!); but i bet you'll *WONDER* how it happened that *I* could use a scheme of pink, blue, green and cream and the PINK would be the least-used color??! yeah, me too! :) all i can say is that between the pretty canvas sticker and the chip word...and somehow blue and cream took center stage, leaving green and pink as accent colors. go figure. i like it though, not least because it does look and feel quite spring-like to me...something i am DEFINITELY ready for the weather here in the northeastern US to emulate! mayyyyyyyyyyyybe this will help??! ♥♥♥

JB10: home for the holidays

this week's christmas card prompt was sent in by one of our favorite lovely fellow JINGLE BELLES...miss rose of rose's happy place! she was inspired by the song, "(there's no place like) home for the holidays" and had the brilliant idea that we should make cards that capture whatever that song might mean to each of us, whether it be memories, traditions, or even a particular LANDSCAPE! how cool is that?!

my card is both literal--in that there's actually a picture of a HOME on it--and metaphorical, since it captures one of my favorite childhood memories, the annual christmas eve reading by my dad of clement c. moore's holiday poem, "the night before christmas". it may sound goofy, but i THINK it's the one thing my family did every single year without fail, and i'm pretty sure we did it right up until the year i moved away from home! the tradition continues, too, in the next generation; as my brother and sister both read it each year with their own children now! ♥

(vintage book illustrations; patterned paper: basic grey (with the words to "night before xmas" printed in "diploma" font); cardstock: core'dinations; stickers: making memories & recollections; bling & pearls: kaiser, recollections, k&co; glitter glue: stickles; inks: colorbox; adhesives: 3m foam tape, tombow monorunner, sewing machine)

these days, at booksales, i am always on the lookout for cool copies of the poem; the nice ones i collect as books (i probably have 7 or 8 different editions); the damaged ones i use in my cards and collages. this particular illustration was the frontispiece from a very beautiful and sadly completely ruined edition. i've used most of the other undamaged illustrations from that copy, but this one i'd been saving it for just the right thing, and finally (thanks to rose!) i knew this was it!

the only problem is: since it uses vintage bits, i could obviously only make ONE of these cards...and i have TWO siblings with whom i share this memory. it may very well take me the rest of the year to decide who gets it! just as well we've started early at JINGLE BELLES, eh?! :)

pearly king and queen in the limelight

i know that every time i post a limelight card i say that it's my favorite of mandy's sketches, but honestly, it is true every time. especially NOW!!!


a *ROUND* card with layers of flowers and butterflies on it and a space for some glorious ribbon?! seriously. what's NOT to love. especially since this week the product focus is on PEARLS...which i never, ever, object to using!

of course you don't have to put flowers and butterflies there...you can put stars and robots...or hearts and cupcakes...or perhaps even birds and roses? :) but i love the way mandy's sketches are sort of complete mini-works of art in themselves!

(patterned paper: autumn leaves, doodlebug, pink paislee; clipart birds: anahata katkin, papaya!; pearl flourish: prima; crinkly seam binding: pixie dust paperie; tag: k&co; circle sticker: creative imaginations; heart & word stickers: echo park; edge punch: recollections; adhesives: xyron, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape; other: hindi newspaper; fancy pants chipboard frame used as a template; decorative scissors)

this card has many of my "old favorites" on it: glossy clipart birds, hindi newspaper, a pearl flourish, the super-addictive crinkled seam binding that comes in every pixie dust paperie kit, and i've used my favorite funky chipboard frame as a template to cut a couple of layers of patterned paper on which to rest my circular design.


and now, since i know you cannot wait to make YOUR version of this awesome sketch, here are the details you need to know:


**Use the sketch provided and try to incorporate some PEARLS!
**Key word for SCS upload is LLPC068.
**Post a comment with a link to your card on Mandy's blog by Sunday, March 6th, at midnight.
**A lovely PRIZE is awarded randomly to one participant, and will be announce on Monday!

home tweet home

is it really *MARCH*? i can't believe we've zoomed through one sixth of 2011 already! of course, the beginning of the new month not only means we're that much closer to ♥SPRING♥ (hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but also that we've got some amazing designer preview projects to show off before the gorgeous march pixie dust paperie kit goes on sale march 5th! we've even got a fabulous guest designer this month: the lovely cheryl nelson has worked her magic on our goodies and the combination is well worth the trip over to the pixie blog, i assure you!

but if you go today--and i hope you will--you'll see how i had the best possible crafty time turning a sweet little $1 wooden birdhouse from michaels into THIS lovely bit of decor:


with the exception of the tiny white flowers and the adorable mushroom bird (more excellent craft store bargains) everything i used to make this: from the gorgeous mix of papers... (american crafts, webster's pages & pink paislee, to name a few!) to the fabulous pearl bauble... to the super-useful memory pin that holds the sign comes from this month's gorgeous, elegant and delightfully spring-like FLORIBUNDA kit, which goes on sale this saturday! there are more pics, and a bit of construction detail on the pixie blog! ♥