New Happenings

hello friends!

well i've been a busy girl lately! my mr. and i got married on may 21st, 2011. we had a lovely, small wedding with our closest family and friends. it was a wonderful, sunny day. we are also expecting an adorable baby boy in october! i'm so excited to be a new wife and mommy!

on the crafty side of things, i just wanted to pop in quickly and share that i am changing my blog home to verymerrystudio.blogspot.com i am in the process of changing over my etsy shop as well because i'd like to have cohesion in my etsy shop name/blog. i have been working on a new design for my logo and blog graphics. i think they're pretty cute of course! :)

thanks for understanding and i hope you'll join me over at my new blog!

xxo andie...

Tag with a Frame

for today's papertrey ink challenge, nichole asked us to create a tag using a frame. i used pti's fillable frames #1, which is the only of that set that i've purchased so far, although they are all great and i'd love to get them all! heather is coming out with a round circle set now too, the first of which will be available this month! it's really cute! the best part is that the tag set is only $5, and the coordinating die cut is $8, so you can have a little set for only $12 which is a steal. :)

not a whole lot to say with this little tag, except that it took me forever to create! haha, why are the smaller projects the harder to do? or is it just me? it could be because the first tag i die cut, stamped and embossed with white powder, then stamped 2 different sentiments on it, and decided i didnt like it. so i had to start all over. haha. oh well.

it's friday! eeek! xoxo andie librandi...

enjoy the ride

today's pti challenge is to incorporate buttons into your project...i feel certain that we will be seeing a lot of their "everyday button bits" stamps coming alive again in everyone's posts today. it's such a lovely stamp set, and one of the very first that i purchased from papertrey ink.

quite some time ago, i had created a card, also with the same bicycle image, but i was not happy with the layout i came up with, and just had the card tucked away into a box...so i peeled everything off, and recycled the stamped woodgrain kraft card, the peach buttons and the twine...everything else was newly stamed and cut and added...i like it much better this time around! sometimes that works out for the best! something that was ehhh...just ok, turned into something that i'm very happy with :)

hope you enjoy.

xoxo andie librandi...

pti color challenge

papertrey ink has another challenge today, celebrating their 4th anniversary. all you have to do is create a card using one of the featured color combinations and post to your blog, then register your link. there is another fabulous prize up for grabs of course! and you can enter up to 10 times today, ifyou have the time to create a card for each color combo...wish i didn't have a job so i could do just that...but i do, so only could squeeze in one card
.

i used this combo: hibiscus burst, sweet blush, ripe avacado and spring moss - this was the color set that melissa phillips presented. all of the combos are fantastic though. don't worry, if you don't have pti paper, you can use whatever you have that fits the colors closest, which is what i always do. i would love to own all of their fabulous paper, but alas, i'm on a tight budget most of the time! so just make do with what you have! all of the stamps on this card are papertrey ink.

it's very cold here...i'm about to go bundle up! xoxo andie librandi...

Papertrey Festivites!

hey y'all!

my favorite stamp company, papertrey ink, is celebrating their 4th anniversary starting today...hop on over to nichole's blog to check out an awesome blog post. each of the dt members is sharing her favorite pti project from 2010. they are all such great projects, great ladies, great supplies to work with! love each and every one of them! great inspiration.

there is a prize package up for grabs that is absolutely fantastic...i am seriously keeping my fingers crossed for this one...i would just keel over if i win! eeeekk! :)

this is my favorite card from 2010 featuring pti stamps. the woodgrain was a release from dawn mcvey and the sentiment i believe was from a set nichole designed...it featured a vw bug.

but seriously, go check out that blog! xoxo andie librandi...

Disappeared off the Face of the Earth

i know it seems like i did just that! so sorry! my mr. decided to start his own business earlier this year...he's a mechanic. i am proud of him, but it's been hard starting up. he's got a decent customer base, but it does not always pay the bills. it's sporadic. it's stressful. so. i decided to get a 2nd job to help us get by. i seriously need to get my credit cards paid off & my car...once that is done, it will be a little easier. i have been making and selling crafts at two new shops in louisville and new albany...so when i've had the time, i make stuff to them, but working 7 days a week doesn't leave much time for my personal scrapbooking and crafting. but my hope is to work this in after the new year...i haven't even started making my handmade christmas cards yet this year...sad to say but they might be getting wal-marties. lol.

please don't give up on me. i'll be back after the new year, if not sooner!

4lb 11oz

michael loves to fish. last summer we bought a bass boat and he spends lots of time out on the lake. i go with him too, but his dream is to be a pro bass master. :0) i hope someday this happens!

this page has some great felt thickers from american crafts and cute little yellow alphabets by basicgrey. that little squirrel stamp in the corner is from a hero arts set and most of the paper is either making memories and my mind's eye. love all of their papers. i've noticed a fad with drawing pen lines so i incorporated that too. hope you enjoy!

xoxo andie...

meet pepper

meet pepper, one of my sweet little kittens! the mr and i love this one the best...because she matches our dog...black & white. she is sooo adorable, although the other 2 are as well. i will share pics of whitey and bunny when i get a good pic. :) they are outside cats, although i think pepper deserves to roam the house.

i'll be back in the morning to share a scrapbook page i just finished up this evening.

xoxo andie...

sweet 16

hello! no card to share today but i do have a scrapbook page that i made a while back.

these pictures were all taken on my sister, billie's, sweet 16! she is so beautiful. my family got together for cake and ice cream and i got to be there because i was home visiting for a few days! so i was super excited about that. my mom and i made the cake...and the experience was hilarious because the party was *kinda last minute. as in, we ran to the grocery to buy the supplies, ran home and mixed up the ingredients, and baked them. then we drove to the little town where my brother lives because he wanted us to go to this pizza place he loves by his house. so we went and did that while the cakes were cooling. then we rushed back home because everyone was suppose to be arriving within a half hour. haha! so it was a crazy few hours, but so much fun.

thank you

happy friday, ya'll!

i'm busy painting the trim on the bathroom window but while it's drying, i wanted to share this card i made for embellishmagazine.com's color challenge with butterflies.

now i love my martha stewart butterfly punch, but this time i chose to use a much larger butterfly for my focal point. this is a butterfly that i drew in adobe illustrator some time ago when i wanted a big butterfly but did not have a die-cut for one...so i created my own little template. i do that a lot...trying to save money and since i am a graphic designer... :0)

so anyhow,this was an easy card...just traced the butterflies and cut them out, cutting inside the lines on the polka-dotted paper so it would be slightly smaller. i found some great big sparkly glitter at wal-mart a couple weeks ago, so i added that onto the wings for a little glitz! the scalloped edge behind the kraft card is actually fiscars treading water punch (i think it's called that) but i just hid the portion with the little dots. love how it turned out!

hope you all have a fantasic weekend. i will be doing more painting and organizing the loft and getting things ready for a yard sale in a couple of weeks hopefully! ooooh and playing with my new baby kitties!

xoxo andie...

a thank you card

hello!

kristina werner has posted a new color inspiration ...it's been awhile since she's had one, so i know lots of us papercrafters are excited! and we got to vote on the color scheme. it was very clever how she set it up. so that's why it's called the "readers choice" color combo.

i do not have any supplies that are light gray...but this ink that i used to stamp the sentiment dries as a nice gray color, so that works for me! i redid the middle of the card a couple of times because i stitched the ribbon loop to the side and the first time it was totally askew and the 2nd time i just didnt like it because it made my sentiment look off-center. haha! so the third time was a charm with no sewing! do you ever have problems like that...or is it just me?

the pink paper in the background was stamped with papertrey ink's background basics: woodgrain stamp set and then i sanded down the entire thing with sandpaper and inked the edges with their tea touch ink in chamomile.

xoxo andie...

you've been so kind

happy monday.

last night i put together a cute card for the embellish magazine.com color challenge with dimension. there's not a lot to say, it was a pretty quick and easy card. it is the second idea though, as the first one wasn't doing it for me as i was piecing it together. on this card, the whole green middle section is raised from the rest of the card with 3d foam & my stiching is getting better! and straighter! wooot woooot! hah!

features the following: cardstock: dcwv, the paper company. patterned paper: my mind's eye. stamp: papertrey ink. butterfly punch: martha stewart crafts. ribbon: offray. other: 3d foam and thread.

xoxo andie...

Color Cue {3}

thought i would participate in this color challenge i found. wplus9 is hosting this color cue using the following colors:

and there is still plenty of time for you to enter, as the deadline is May 7th. i used my fabulous new "enjoy the ride" stamp set from papertrey ink. i just love that little vdubb.

xoxo andie...

let your light shine

just a quick photo of a custom order i did this week for someone on etsy. i think it turned out great...i need one for my home! it's an 8x10...really cute! (you can click on the picture for a larger view).

xoxo andie...

the christmas donkey

so if you know me, you know i love donkeys. everytime the mr and i drive past a farm with a donkey, i about die. i want one so badly. but michael says that they need to live in pairs and need to have that companionship in order to be happy. that's ok with me though...2 donkeys are better than one! i would just love to have one white with brown polka dots and one gray one.

so...imagine my delight when my little sister was cast as the donkey in the church christmas play a few years back. (geesh! doesn't time fly!) anyhow, she was the cuuuuuutest thing. i thought they would just have a paper/plastic donkey face on a stick that she would hold in front of her face, but oh no no. they went all out and she had the sweetest costume ever! this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of her.

don't you just love that crepe paper that i ran through the sewing machine. i'm getting better at straight lines...yeah! i think it only cost like a dollar or so at dollar general...i will have to get more colors because i really like the look it created!

also, the banner stamp is from Dear Lizzy. it's the first time i've used it and i just adore it! i created this layout based on the "sunday sketch" from studio calico. i just love their monthly kits...or should i say i love to look at their monthly kits.i do not actually subscribe to their montly kits...i need to get a couple credit cards paid off before i indulge in another expense. hehe....maybe next year studio calico!

xoxo andie...

happy easter

isn't this bunny the sweetest?

check out new dt layouts here: butterfly-crafts.blogpsot.com

last night i bought a new printer! eeek. so excited.

but now, the mr and i are off to go fishing!

happy easter!

xoxo andie...

sweet cupcakes

morning!

sorry for my absense lately. i've been busy the past couple of weeks going through container after container of junk! i have basically every notebook from every grade of school from every subject plus a folder full of papers from each class too. it's pretty ridiculous why i saved all of that stuff. guess i thought i would make a super ginormous scrapbook with that stuff? yeah......right. so i've been filling trash bags and only saving out a couple of things here and there. and i have quite the collection of yard sale items going on too. lots and lots of clothes! eeeek! except the last time i had a yard sale a total of about 6 people came and mostly they were wondering if i had any tools to sell (because mr michael has a huge garage and those men wanted to get ahold of some good stuff and weren't interested in my gap and banana republic collection). hehe! i'll have to advertise in the newspaper this time.

anyhow. here are a couple of cards i've made recently, featuring stamps from papertreyink. one was for my friend sara's birthday and the other for my boss.

xoxo andie...

Photo Booth Fun

I was going through some of my picture boxes (you know, when i actually had film developed) and i came across this half strip of photo booth pics. at the time, michael and i had cut them in half and he took 2 and i took 2. unfortunately, he lost his...he somehow had it stuck up in his car, and it slid down behind the headliner and since he no longer owns that vw...

anyhow! this was on a trip to indiana beach for my mom's company party when we were in high school. so cute! i was grouchy later on that day i remember, so i'm glad we got these silly photos in early!

the offwhite felt heart is my own handmade embellie and the corrugated butterfly was punched from a starbucks coffee cozy. mmmhhh starbucks. havent had that in forever!

have a fabulous weekend. xoxo andie...

My Brother

hello all...

you must check out the layouts that were posted for the 1st butterfly crafts design team challenge. everyone's looked great! it was exciting to see what everyone came up with. mine is ok, but i was unhappy with the placement of the "friends" letters at the top. i didnt like that they overlapped the label...but i'll give it to those thickers...they stick good! haha! i didnt even press them down whatsoever and when i wanted to move them they were actually ripping the paper underneath...so, so much for that idea. does that every happen to any of you? you plan something out and then want to change it but it's too late so you just have to live with it?

anyhow. on sunday i created this layout. this picture was taken a few years back...it's one of my favorites of my brother, spenser, and i. i was home for college and we decided to go to the truck stop really late to have coffee and talk. he is so cool. but alas, our beloved truck stop in my hometown is no more...that is sooo sad. it was a staple of our high-school lives. (p.s. sorry for the glare in the full layout shot...i was having a hard time this morning with the lighting.)

and speaking of my brother, he somehow got involved with ultimate fighting and had his first fight this past saturday. i was scared for him, being as though he is my one and only baby brother. but thankfully, he made it out alive.

xoxo andie...

sneak peek

hello.

just wanted to post a little sneak peek of my 1st dt challenge layout for butterfly crafts. i have lots to do but it's so cold i dont feel like moving. i think i will finish up a layout i worked on yesterday...just have to glue it all down...that won't be to strenuous...hehe.

xoxo andie...