Moving to a New Site

If you've been following my blog recently, I mentioned that I am now a product designer for Sizzix, the paper crafting company. It is really the perfect job for me because I'm a designer AND a paper crafter which makes me my own target audience.

We are now getting very close to the big Craft and Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim, California next month so I've been extremely busy doing both the catalog and packaging for Tim Holtz plus my own product designs. Our social media person mentioned that it would be good if I had a blog. Oh, wait! I have one!!! But I wanted one that was more about my crafting, where I could offer sneak peeks at my new designs and share different ideas on how to use my designs.

So off I went and built a new website dedicated to {mostly} crafting but I am, and always will be, a thrifter so you may find upcycled thrifted pieces in some projects.

Since my product hasn't officially launched yet, I cannot share the designs on my new site at this time. So I have been reposting some projects from this original site but adding more instructions or updating the project itself when possible.

I have also been busy creating new projects that I can share so please click over to my new website; LyndaCreates.com and Follow me there. Soon you will see lots of new projects plus you can join me in my new adventure as a Sizzix Product Designer.

Thanks and I hope to hear from you at LyndaCreates.com!

The Lost Halloween Post

I decorated for Halloween. I spent time creating a fun banner and then totally forgot to post. Or maybe it just got lost in my head somewhere. I didn't want it to be lost forever so here it is.

I created this using Tim Holtz's three mask dies and the Banner #2 die set by Sizzix. 

I made three each of the Vampire, Monster and Zombie using different color combinations. This was an easy project once I had an "assembly line" of masks going. The hardest part was selecting the colors.

Here are some closer views.

I have so much fun doing projects so I will try and share them more often. The holidays are coming up and I have so many projects I want to create. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Scrapbook Expo Debut

As a "crafty" consumer, I have been to many Scrapbook Expo events over the years. Up to this point my favorite experience was in San Diego many years ago with a great group of scrapping friends. But this recent event in Ontario, California has to be THE BEST because I was finally introduced as a "Designer for Sizzix".

Okay, so maybe no one actually caught the intro but I heard it and it was thrilling. I was there to observe Jen Long demonstrate her Sizzix product at the It's Cheaper Than Therapy booth. This was my introduction to the fine art of demonstrating our product to the public. It was exciting because I love the product and I love the people who love the product. I AM one of those people who uses and loves our product and my enthusiasm is authentic.

You can see my enthusiasm while waiting to get into the Expo.

I had to take a selfie from the show. I was too excited and forgot to ask someone to take a picture of me helping with the demo.

The It's Cheaper Than Therapy booth had a wall of Sizzix product. I created much of the packaging prior to becoming a product designer so I was excited to see that.

Stephanie Barnard from The Stamps of Life had a booth at the show. She is such an inspiration to me. Her enthusiasm is contagious.

And because I am an avid crafter, I could not resist shopping. I know I said that I wouldn't buy more paper but I've been scrapbooking quite a bit so I allowed myself a bit of a splurge at a discounted price. Here is my Haul.

It was an amazing day. I can't wait until I can share some of my own product designs with everyone. All I can say is that I am busy designing everyday and it is so much fun!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Craft Room Studio Reveal

It is finally time to reveal my studio space. The room is small but it is the perfect size for me since I have a little bit of a lot of Stuff. The room is just off of my kitchen with French doors that lead out to the garden. My computer is off to the left. On the opposite wall are my 49 Junk Drawers which you can see a little part of here and here.

The image above is the right side of the room. The chair is a $5 thrifted treasure. The tilt bins along the walls were from a scrapbooking store that was closing many years ago. These hold ribbons and dimensional embellishments. There are 170 tilt bins.

This photo shows how small my space really is. Luckily, almost* everything fit. On the left of the desk is a vintage biscuit tin that hold my Grunge Paper and Grunge Board, larger stencils and thicker chipboard pieces. On the walls above my desk are my Elfa shelves from the Container Store. I installed these myself before I met Dear Handyman. They haven't fallen down yet! I realize that I have three types of projects that I usually work on; Scrapbooking, Upcycling and Altered Art. The bins on these shelves are labeled with these categories. I usually work with the French doors open so the bins keep out the dust.

The thing that finally made everything come together was when I moved my vintage cart into the room as a mobile work surface. On top is my paper cutter. My thin dies are organized on the middle shelf. My Sizzix, Fabi die cutter and autographed Vagabond are on the bottom shelf. FYI: I love the colors of the Fabi machine... aqua and soft grey, sweet! And it works exactly like a Big Shot or BIGkick machine but prettier.

Big News Plus My Studio Remodel

I have been missing from my blog for a while now. I apologize but some wonderful, big things are happening in my career and life.

Besides continuing as the Senior Graphic Designer and Brand Packaging Specialist at Sizzix / Ellison, I have been promoted to Senior Product Designer as well. What this means is that I will now design my own line of dies and stamps. I am so excited! I have crafted my entire life so this makes me feel so complete.

But what this also means is that I am busier than ever at work. I am still creating all of Tim Holtz's packaging plus his catalog for the upcoming Summer trade show. I am so thankful that the company and Tim wanted me to continue working on his lines.

Designing my own product also means that I want to stay very close to the crafting industry trends and eventually share my vision of how my designs can be used. This gave me the incentive to reorganize my tiny studio at home. To begin, I have been spending a lot of time pouring over images of craft studios.

Here is a sneak peek of the first stage of my studio remodel:

Happy Mother's Day

What an awesome Mother's Day!!! I am so thankful for all of the blessings in my life.

My day started off with a card from my son along with two Mr. Goodbars {my favorite candy}.

Dear Handyman threw together a breakfast of sausages, bell peppers, hash browns, English baked beans and scrambled eggs. Perfection without the restaurant crowds.

We worked a little on our new {to us} RV. We named this RV, Lucy after Lucille Ball in the movie, The Long, Long Trailer. I will add photos of Lucy another time.

Mid-day we went to a Japanese bakery that had the best cream puff pastry with fresh strawberries.

The bakery is called Cream Pan in Tustin, CA. In the time it took me to take this photo, Dear Handyman ate two of the pastries. They aren't very big but they are delicious!

I wanted to go to the scrapbooking store but they were closed today. I will treat myself next weekend.

Then we went to Fashion Island in Newport Beach, CA. The weather was warm and it was a beautiful day to walk around the stores.

It is always fun to people-watch especially at Fashion Island. I love the koi pond and watching the little children fascinated with the koi fish.

This shopping center is so high-end that I can't afford to buy anything except in the book store. I treated myself to the current issue of Where Women Create, Business. There is an wonderful article about my friend, Eileen Hull and her Paper Trails adventure. I also bought a book about modern calligraphy. I want to improve my calligraphy skills.

Finally, dinner was cooked by Dear Handyman. It was a feast of shrimp cocktail and crab legs. We devoured a pound of shrimp and a pound each of crab legs. I feasted like a queen!

What a perfect day! I couldn't ask for a more relaxing day. I truly am blessed and so thankful for my life.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the strong and brave mothers out there. Hope your life is blessed today and every day.

Painted Gold-Trimmed Easter Eggs

Easter is just around the corner and I finally had a chance to design some Easter Eggs. I wanted to use some paper maché eggs that I had thrifted and to try using a rather unusual collage material.

I began with some lovely French images from the Graphics Fairy. Now here is the unusual collage part, I had some {unused} toilet seat covers that were not properly die cut so as to make them impractical for their intended purpose. These were to be discarded from the office so I saved a couple of sheets to experiment with. I trimmed a seat cover into an 8" x 10 1/2" sheet and taped the corners to a standard piece of printer paper. I ran this through my inkjet printer to transfer the French graphics onto the very lightweight tissue surface.

I tore small sections of the tissue and used Mod Podge to create a collage on the eggs. I had to be careful because the tissue tends to disintegrate with moisture.

After the eggs were dry, I applied a light coat of Distress Paint.

To add some interest to the painted surface, I doodled on each egg using gold Sizzix InkSheets. I also added some gold ribbon, washi tape, lace and vintage buttons to finish off each egg.

This was the first time that I used the InkSheets and I could see some fun possibilities. I also learned that it is possible to print on very thin tissue. If you try using either technique, please add a comment and let me know what you think. Hope everyone had a fun weekend.

Happy Serendipity Thrifting Day!

I had a planned vacation day off from work last Friday and was fortunate to find an estate sale listing vintage buttons. It was truly a stroke of serendipity and it even got better!

While searching for the buttons I came across the most awesome stash of more Pyrex bowls. Not just any Pyrex bowls but a Green Dot Pyrex bowl, two yellow Rainbow Stripe bowls and one blue Rainbow Stripe bowl. You might remember my estate sale horror story of another buyer grabbing two Pyrex Dot bowls from me last year. The bowl that the seller took away from me was a Green Dot Pyrex bowl just like this one.

Wasn't it just last week that I said that I needed to stop buying so much Pyrex? This was an example of true serendipity though. Another buyer was standing near these and just walked away uninterested so I casually swooped in and happily bought them.

Tim Holtz and Pyrex in One Week!

This has been an awesome week which included a mini-workshop with Tim Holtz. He had us playing with all of his different surface materials to see how they perform. My absolute favorite was the Shiny Foil Transfer Sheets, the Distress Specialty Stamping Paper and Clearly for Art {moldable plastic film}.

He explained the surfaces and then let us play. We weren't supposed to create a final project but I ended up composing this quick piece using the Sizzix Layered Bee die and Texture Fade. Behind the large bee is a stamped butterfly using the gold transfer foil. The horizontal band is a piece of thin wood. The center of the background is embossed vellum. All of this is mounted on corrugated paper.

But wait! There's more fun to this week!

Valentine's Day - Thrifting Style

It has been a busy week here. We decided to have a low-key Valentine's Day although my Dear Handyman does tend to spoil me all year long.

The weekend before Valentine's Day he took me to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. It was awesome and the weather was perfect.

We only walked about a third of the flea market before we were too exhausted to keep going. Since we live relatively close to the Rose Bowl we can always come back the following month for more discoveries.

I am trying to only purchase the things that I want for my personal collection. I was thrilled to find another vintage glove mold. It is the one laying down in front. It was just slightly too tall for the shelf. I need to adjust the shelves but for right now it will lay flat.

My Art, Sort of in a Magazine

If you're a follower of my blog you may remember a gift that I made for my Wonder Woman friend. You can see the post here. This is what I made for her birthday last year. The name plate is made out of Scrabble tiles and an old ruler and the Wonder Woman figurine is hand-painted on wood.

Well, my dear friend Jen is featured in the Feb/Mar/Apr 2015 issue of Where Women Create and my little name plate and Wonder Woman are in one of the photos.

Jen is such a talented artist. I'm so proud of her. It was amazing to see her featured in my favorite magazine. And it was exciting to see my art appear there as well.

Southern California Thrifting

We woke on Saturday to the most beautiful weather. The warm winds that we call the Santa Ana's, were blowing and the day seemed full of possibilities. We needed to get out of the house and enjoy this beautiful day. Our destination ended up being South along the California Coast then inland towards Fallbrook and Valley Center.

The Pacific Ocean was so lovely in the distance.

Foxy iPhone Tote

Since I was attending the Craft and Hobby Association trade show, I needed a simple way to carry my iPhone so that it didn't get lost with the bags of giveaways that one tends to gather at these shows.

I decided that I needed a simple pouch that I could clip to my ID lanyard. To keep it simple, I made it out of thrifted felt and my Fox die.

The dark pink pouch is a piece of felt cut to 4" x 12". The scalloped, light pink edge was die cut using the Scallops On the Edge die.

CHA Winter 2015 - Craft Geek Confessions

I hope I never lose the excitement of attending the Craft and Hobby Association trade show. It is only open to the craft trade and I am the biggest craft gawker so attending the show is like being a kid in a candy store.

If you follow my blog then you will know that I am a Tim Holtz fan girl. Adore the man! I watch his demos and learn so much. I work with him and learn even more. He is amazing.

Sizzix and Tim Holtz CHA Sneak Peek!

Wow! I can finally share a little of what I've been working on for the past few months. Check out Tim Holtz's sneak peek for his Sizzix Alterations Winter 2015 line.

I created all of his Sizzix packaging shown as well as his catalog {cover only shown}. It is so exciting to see everything come together on his site.

My favorite die is the Thinlits Mixed Media set. The package image is the tone-on-tone one with a beehive pattern on the right corner. It includes four dies that cut these great shapes out of a background. Awesome! Must have!

And wait until you see what he does with all of those word dies. Seriously, I must have those as well.

CHA starts this week in Anaheim, CA and I have my pass! I will post photos from the show. I am such a craft geek! I'm just waiting to defy gravity.

Living With Less in 2015!

2015 started off with great intentions. My 2015 goal is to Live With Less beginning right now.

Well, that was my intention on December 31st around 8 p.m. I started cleaning one part of my Studio. I was quite happy with the results.