Saturday's Bounty

In the spirit of using up my stash, I took a few odd size/shaped envelopes with me to the scrapbook store on Saturday. I have several different sizes of square envelopes, and even though they are more expensive to mail, I still like them a lot. So, the first two cards here are to fit both size and color of envelopes. I also just happened to have two tag-board frames with matching embellishment tags to go with them. I am sure I must have been inspired for some great project when I found them on the clearance table, but I sure don't know what it was now... so I had to come up with some new inspiration!
After inking the butterfly cut out, I bent it slightly in the middle, then taped both sides to the frame to lift it up off the card just a bit. The tag reads: "Memories are the key not to the past but to the future." Might be a nice condolence card?
The recurring blue and orange theme of the frame and tags used up the last of a sheet of clearance paper: it looked like they were made for each other! I love it when things come together like that!
The top card was somewhat of an experiment with a friend's border punch. I may have to invest in a couple of those with different designs, as I have found myself drawn to them lately. On that same card is an orange felt flower whose petal had been snipped off in the production process. The flaw is hidden beneath the tag. The bottom card took a bit of engineering to cut the window which reveals the blue die-cut swirl paper under the tag. The biggest challenge on this card, however, was getting that slippery satin ribbon to stay "nailed down" on the tag!
The top card has a transparency atop a light blue paper which is all attached with flower shaped brads to the main card. The flowers on the side were already glittery. The bottom card also has one flower from that glittery set between the pink silk and red velvet flowers. They are attached with a rhinestone brad.
This picture didn't turn out well for some reason--sorry about that. The top card is using scraps from a journal I covered recently. The text is actually a clear sticker that I put on blue paper, then matted with brown shimmery paper. This is elevated with foam tape over the ruffled brown ribbon trim. The bottom card is one of my favorites from the day, but that little pleated flower is not likely to be repeated on cards in the future--what a pain! The little tile in the middle of the flower says "you" to complete the phrase "Crazy 'bout YOU"
Can you tell I love using flowers on cards? I borrowed some flower punches to put under the buttons on the card to the right. Flowers on the left are silk, paper and velvet with a glittered brad in the center.

A Day of Card Making

Nestled in among a huge pile of my supplies and tools, I whiled away eight hours at the scrapbook store working to build my stock up so I could get some cards out for sale. The cards are all made from scraps--leftover pieces from other projects. I am pretty sure I could make a thousand cards without ever cutting into another whole piece of paper, but that doesn't sound very fun! :)
The frame (card on right), border and flower die cuts (card on left) were on a sheet of punch outs. Some part of me will always love those as they remind me of the paper dolls I used to get as a child. I am a little more careful with the die cuts than I was with the paper dolls, however. :)
These little collector card embellishments came in a little box with several different phrases. I went through the box, pulled out all the ones I thought I could make a card out of, and selected papers and other embellishments that would match. The next six cards are also using embellishments from that little box... The card on the top features a frame die cut that I had several of from when I worked at the scrapbook store. Some customer had torn the corners on the whole stack of them and put them back on the shelf. They were unsellable, so the owner said I could have them. The pile I started out with is slowly being used up--I think I still have 3 left.


I found some Martha Stewart embellishments (card on left) at Big Lots for $1.00 making them reasonably priced for my purposes. It would be hard to justify using a $4.00 embellishment on a $5.00 card... The card on the right features a sticker by 7 Gypsies and some dew drops embellishments. The brad in the center of the flower was leftover from an album class I took about 4 years ago!
These two cards use some butterfly die cut paper--the only "new" sheet of paper I cut into all day. There are several rows of the little glittery things on the sheet, and I have inked them to make them different colors. I justified the purchase by the number of uses I would find for so many embellishments! More dew drops add a bit of extra dimension. They are raised off the card with foam adhesive squares.
These last two cards were inspired by the embellishments. I found the old present 3D stickers and decided to coordinate with some purple papers--then found the word stickers to make it a multi-purpose card. The bird card is probably my least favorite of the bunch, but I think it is because I use so little solid colored card stock any more that it seems boring to me. :) The little brads in the centers of the flowers have a grid design on them, and both the brads and the leaves are items that have been hanging around in my supplies for several years.

Journals 4

I spent the day Thursday working on covering the last of the composition books I had in my stash. I haven't started embellishing them yet, which leaves a lot of options open for what the end result will look like, but here are photos of the first stages...
Scenic Route and WeRMemory Keepers papers. The pieces sticking out of the journals are held back to be used for the title boxes or other embellishment.
Some Basic Gray papers, old and new.
I don't remember what brand the papers are on the left--I just recently purchased them, but the ones on the right are old K & Co. papers from a tablet I bought ages ago!
Some old Fancy Pants and I think Creative Imaginations papers. I have been following my plan of using up old stuff!

Clip board

A couple of years ago, I made these for my etsy shop, only instead of the alcohol ink on the back, I added rub-on embellishments. The rub-ons were somewhat fickle, and the magnetic strips I had before were somewhat inferior. This time, I think I have a better glue for the magnets, and I really like the versatility of the inks. It is hard to see in the photo, but I also added some little plastic flowers below the ribbons, with rhinestone centers. It has a very "springy" feel!

This was my first experiment, but I have 24 other clipboards to decorate. Want to buy one? $9.95 + shipping, and if you order soon, you can choose your color scheme! email me at millermanordesigns (at) gmail

Journals for Ornery

I made some journals for my husband yesterday. I really like the one with the clocks on it--he did too, in fact! :) Today I was experimenting with some alcohol inks on clear small clipboards. Hope to have some finished to post in a day or two!

Oh, Yes I've Been Busy...

It has been a busy week for Miller Manor Designs!! I went to Jenks, OK on a whim earlier in the week and found a rack to display my cards. I inquired about booth rental at the flea-market type facility, but there is a very long waiting list, and I would need to have quite a lot of stock to make it worth my while. As I was leaving, I noticed across the street there was a florist that had a sign out front indicating they took consignments. So, I went in there and inquired. The next day, I took 15 cards to see if they might sell.

These were some of the cards I took.

Then, I got busy and finished off the special orders for journals. The first five are for one order, and the last one was a special order from a friend.




All the journals above are for a church, so that is why the titles are relating to heart and journey...
This journal was FUN to make! It has a library card pocket inside the front cover, and the little girl it was made for is a girly-girl, and sure to take great pleasure in this Valentine's Day gift from her parents.

And speaking of Valentine's Day, I couldn't wait to give Ornery his card, and here are photos of my masterpiece. It was hours in the making...
"Our time is measured by defining moments. A true story.
The green text box is mounted on a spring, so it jiggles really easily whenever the card is bumped. It was great fun! The printed page on the right side is from an old Gideon's Bible that I acquired on its way to the trash. The page I chose contains the passage from I Corinthians 13 about love. I highlighted it with pale yellow chalk. Each of the little additions to the page has some sort of significance to Ornery and me.
I recycled an old Target gift card to represent the red leather purse Ornery spent WAY too much money to buy me for Christmas in 2008. I had been wanting a red purse for so long...
This was the back cover. I had to use some ingenuity to get all the pages bound without the whole card bulging open on one end. I used 7 Gypsies book binding tape on the outside to cover the white card stock spine that is glued between the pages. I had lots of fun making it, and I think he enjoyed getting it too. :)

All this work has me thinking about a real shop--I think I'd call it Tracy's Den of Uniquities. I am thinking about some new card lines--the "clothes-line" with not-so-black-tie suits and dress cards, the "shoe-shelf" (shoebox is already taken) with some real leather shoe cards, and a few other kitschy lines. My imagination has been in overdrive ever since my first meeting with my new accountability partner. She has been a great driving force already!

New Projects

I have actually been able to work a bit on my paper crafts this week...
Monday, I put together the basic covers of these two journals, and using the scraps that needed to be cleared off the table before I could work on the journals, the note card pictured as well.
These are cards I made yesterday after I finished Ornery's Valentine's Day card. I only used scraps from the scrap bin...
Wednesday morning, I had a bit of time before an appointment but not a lot of creative juice flowing. So I covered two more journals, then made some note cards with the scraps.
With orders out for six journals right now, I figured I needed to get started on them, and I just can't seem to quit making these fun little blank cards. I would just LOVE to get one in the mail from a friend, wouldn't you??