Sunday Haul #1

Warning: This post is incredibly long and picture heavy. I may have a bit of a crafting supply addiction...Every Sunday I will be highlighting the crafting products that I bought/received from the previous week. This first haul encompasses the craft purchases from the month of April and the first part of May.

Obligatory Michael's visit. I run in to get snail, and look at all the stuff I bought! (Not shown: Door prizes for my crafting open house a few weeks back). I grabbed a cute desktop organizer that fits some of my PL cards, snail, pack of Amy Tangerine designed cardstock (really good weight), and the Inspirational PL Theme Pack.

I also received two RAKs in the mail. I'm especially loving the alphabet stickers. Can never have too many of those.

I received my PL Rain partial that I ordered from the FB group. So pretty! Finally I have some cards with purple in them. And I finally picked up a partial Midnight kit.

This past month I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator. That also means that I had to order my starter kit. $125 worth of product for $99! I got my total down to having $0.25 left. I'd say that I spent my money wisely.

Island Indigo Ink Pad -- How do I not own this ink pad yet? I have the marker and adore the color.
Glue dots -- I use these a ton.
Glue sticks -- Bought for classes and workshops.
Embossing Buddy -- I have no idea where mine disappeared to...
Polka Dot 8" x 8" Album -- Thinking about making this my Daily December album for this coming year.
Green Dot 6" x 6" Album -- Not sure what to do with this one yet, but it was on clearance for a great price.

Letters to Santa DSP -- Clearance and retired, but such a cute pattern that I couldn't resist.
Epic Day This and That Stickers -- To go with the journal. I already own the washi tape.
Blender Pens -- Been wanting these for awhile. Figured I should finally buy them.
Basic Black Ink Pad -- My black ink pad is one of the old designs. I know they've reformulated the ink, so I thought it was time for a new one.
2013-2015 In Color DSP -- I really need to highlight these gorgeous colors more.

I also put in my April club order to snap up some retiring items. All the items from my April club order are retiring and all but the markers are now completely gone.

2012-2014 In Color 12x12 Cardstock
2012-2014 In Color 8.5x11 Cardstock
2012-2014 In Color Markers
Primrose Petals Reinker
Gumball Green Reinker
Summer Starfruit Reinker
Midnight Muse Reinker

I made another $150 order to get my 30% off in the first 45 days.

Birthday Cake Stamp (Retired)
Rich Razzleberry Ink
Calypso Coral Ink
Mosaic Madness Stamps
Mosaic Punch
Dimensionals
Daydream Medallions Stamps
Subtles 8.5x11 Cardstock (2 packs)
Project Life Card Collection -- not pictured
Project Life Accessory Pack -- not pictured
Project Life Stamps (both sets) -- not pictured

i stopped in at Big Lots randomly one day and snapped up some glue runner and paper packs. My total for three paper packs and glue runner was $10. Very cheap!

I took advantage of the tail end of SU's free shipping event to place my May club order early.

2013-2015 In Color Core'dinations 12x12 cardstock
Retro Fresh This and That Stickers
Basic Pearls
Chalk Marker
Silver Glimmer Paper

I won a RAK of 5th and Frolic cards from one of my FB groups. They finally came in the mail this weekend.

And I took advantage of RUKrisitin's Mother's Day Sale to snap up this box of goodness:

Getting to Know You...

Did anyone else sing that title of this blog post? I know I do everytime I read it. The King and I isn't even one of my favorite musicals. Rent, Wicked, Phantom, Joseph, and Aida are my favorite musicals. And that's the first little random fact about me that I'm sharing today...

Name: Tobe Frances
Current Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Birthday: March 5th
Single or Taken: Taken
Piercings or Tattoos: 4 Tattoos (ankh, triple Goddess, Pisces sign, the twins' initials), I'm working on on for Arthur
Right Handed or Left Handed: Left handed
Fave Color: Purple
Fave Holiday: Christmas, I love the entire Christmas season
Fave Pizza Toppings: Black olives and mushrooms
Fictional Crush: Captain Wentworth from Jane Austen's Persuasion
Fave Article of Clothing: Olive green cargo capris... so comfy!
Fave Song to Rock Out When Driving: Anything by The Offspring
Last Concert Attended: The Killers, M83, Grouplove, Tegan and Sara
Last Book Purchased: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Dream Job: Teaching, without all the politics
Guilty Pleasure TV Show: Reign, I know so ridiculous, but I love it
Fave Store to Shop: Target, I'm there at least once a week
Biggest Pet Peeve: People interrupting me
Last Impulse Buy: Matching striped tank top and shorts for Arthur
Name Five Things Nearest to You: Pop can, cell phone, lotion, baby bottle, pen
Fave Food: Chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate all the way
Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi
Singing in the Shower: Love it!
Chore You Hate: Cleaning the bathrooms
Morning or Night Person: Night person, but find myself always awake in the wee mornings because of the baby
Ninjas or Pirates: Pirates

Tea Themed Thinking of You Cards

Another case of me trying to use my retired SU DSP in some fun and easy way. While the pictures makes it look like I just made three cards, I actually made twelve cards (three of each color). I used two entire sheets of DSP and about a 1/3 of four other sheets. I added these twelve cards to my other OSW sets even though it isn't actually a OSW. They are still cute and easy cards.

Supplies:

Stamps: Random thinking of you stamp
Cardstock: Tea for Two DSP (retired); Pretty in Pink (retired
Accessories: Silver jewels

Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad

$5.95

Calypso Coral 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock

$6.95

So Saffron 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

$6.95

Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Project Life 2014 W15-16

Week 15 This week was huge! We flew back from Indiana and had our mom's group's Easter social. We had so many great pictures that I had to include an insert page (design H).

In terms of my design, I went simple yet colorful. I pulled out a ton of spring themed cards from the Seasons Mini Kit to accent our colorful pictures. I grabbed the kit on clearance thinking I would like a few cards. I found that I love the entire kit. A great investment. The embellishments stayed on the cards. I didn't want to alter the pictures. My favorite added feature is the plane and heart stamp on the first page. I've used that stamp at least 5 times already and love love love it! Overall, this spread is a great example of my style: clean and simple.

Supplies:

PL Seasons Mini Kit
PL Days of the Week stickers
SU Travel Themed Stamp Set (retired)
Stickabilitiies alphas
Recollections stamp set
My Mind's Eye die cuts
Michael's camera stamp
WRMK Dreamy Kit

Week 16

Week 16 is all about Arthur turning 6 months old and fun Easter pics. We didn't do much, but I still managed to get some pics from our week.

I went with a yellow, blue, and gray color scheme for the week. Seafoam was the first kit I purchased and yet it gets pushed to the side in favor of others. I need to remind myself to use it more often. I do like the simple geometric card design. I accented the pictures with a few stickers. Another clean and simple layout.

Supplies:

PL Seafoam Kit
PL Days of the Week Stickers
Studio Calico Alphas
Basic Grey Enamel dots
Heidi Swapp stickers
PL Baby Neutral Kit
Recollections I Love You stickers

New Discoveries #1: Take Ten Kits

A new weekly feature on The Craft Sea. I would love to share my new crafting discoveries with you. These may be specific products, websites, techniques, or general crafting ideas. Today on New Discoveries, I would love to highlight a relatively new monthly project life style subscription kit. Colie Kumar from Card Stock Option has created a great, cheap ($10!) monthly kit. I signed up for the first kit in March, but I was regulated to the wait list. Thankfully, I made it onto the actual list for April and now for May. So far, I've received two kits and I am in love with them. They are fun, coordinated, and actually useful. The kits are designed, but they haven't moved in to the super-trendy category like Studio Calico's kits (have not been a fan lately, and super expensive in comparison). The quality of the products is great. The cards are one-sided, but of great cardstock weight. I love the option of rounding the corners yourself or leaving them squared. I prefer rounded corners, but I know many don't. Overall, this is a great little addition to my crafting stash.

April's Kit:

Stamp set -- Three border stamps. Colie offered an add-on stamp that featured words that fit into the border stamps. I didn't buy it, but it was pretty cute.
Silver thickers -- Always love some alphabet stickers
Embellishments -- Chipboard geo tags, one piece of button flair, two manilla tags, sample of washi tape. She offered more matching washi tape as an add-on.
11 3 x 4 Cards
3 4 x 6 Cards

May's Kit:

Stamp Set -- Cute little clouds, rain, etc. I really enjoy this stamp set and can't wait to use it.
Green alphas -- Always a welcome addition
Embellishments -- Clouds and sun wood veneers, button flair, enamel dots (always use these!), and transparent leaves.
11 3 x 4 cards (embossed!)
3 4 x 6 cards

High points:

$10 monthly cost plus shipping: Colie keeps shipping around $2-3 per month. So your total cost can be as low as $12.
Add-ons are offered: If you want to buy some great coordinating products, she offers some great add-ons. The best thing about the add-ons is that you should be able to actual get them if you log onto the Facebook page the first day of the month. I haven't bought anything, but I have been very tempted...
Opt out option: If you aren't a huge fan of the kit, you can opt-out for the month with no penalty. All you have to do is cancel the invoice. You still keep your place on the list for the next month.

If you want your own Take Ten Kit, sign up here.

Gingham Garden Spring Cards

A few of my crafting friends and I went in together on a SU DSP share. We each bought three packs of DSP and then split the packs evenly. In total each of use got a 6x12 sheet of each design from 12, yes 12!, DSP packs. Well all the paper is really gorgeous and fun, it is all retiring at the end of May. This means that I want to try and use of this retiring paper to make room for the new designs. During my crafting open house at the end of April, I spent some time using the rest of the Gingham Garden DSP. I made 8 total cards from the rest of the paper.

Card #1

The first card used some die cut flowers that another crafting had leftover from her card. I cut a few more flowers and added a cute Mother's Day banner. Love the bright colors on this one.

Cards #2-5

In the end, I have just a few card layering sheets and a few a larger pieces left. I used a tried and true card design and just cut three banners per card. Add a sentiment and I have a complete card. I love the pattern play on these cards, especially the pink one (second picture, right side).

Cards #6-7

These cards came from my desire to use my Floral Frames die cuts. I can't believe I bought them weeks ago, but have never really used them. I grabbed a few of the patterns and just started cutting. The only frame I didn't use was the biggest one (too big to fit on a standard card). I love how they tuned out. They look even better in person due to the 3D nature of the cards.

Card #8

The last card is a replica of a card we made at April stamp club. While, i don't usually go super girly, I love the patterns and colors of the sample card much that I had to make another one.

When all was said and done, I have completely used up all the Gingham Garden DSP. Now I have room to buy a new pack in June.

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Midnight Muse Classic Stampin' Pad

$5.95

Brights Designer Series Paper Stack

$21.95

Wild Wasabi 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

$6.95

Melon Mambo 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Floral Frames Framelits Dies

$26.95

Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper

$10.95

Island Indigo 8-1/2 X 11 Card Stock

$6.95

Daffodil Delight 8-1/2X11 Card Stock

Big Shot Die-Cut Machine

$99.95

Paper-Piercing Tool

$3.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Welcome to The Craft Sea

Welcome everyone to The Craft Sea! I've been wading through the craft sea for a few years now (since ~2006) and would love to share my adventures with you. I am a scrapbooker both traditional and Project Life style, card maker, and random crafter. I stick mostly to paper crafts, but that doesn't mean that I won't ever try something different. I lean towards simple and clean designs in all my crafts. I've been expanding my repertoire of techniques and favorite designs these past few months and hope to share some with you. And as of this year, I have become a Stampin' Up Demonstrator. Hopefully this new venture will allow me to share my love of crafting with even more people.

On the personal side, I am a SAHM of three boys (twins March 2003, singleton October 2013). I love reading, crafting (of course), and playing with my kids. I am a lifelong learner who hopes to go back to school for a new degree in the near future. I was previously a high school social studies teacher (focus on U.S. History) and then a project manager for an educational technology company. We moved from Indiana by way of Nebraska to sunny northern California (San Fran Bay Area) in 2012 and couldn't be happier. My life here has been a big change. Being without family and friends, I had to find a whole new social group. Thankfully, I've met some great crafting ladies and a mom's group through Meetup. Definitely check out Meetup; it's a great way to meet new people with shared interests. I also write a more general life blog at Wading Through the Ocean of Life. There I share kid updates, book reviews, music, movies, fashion, and random thoughts. Come check me out!

Programming Notes: My goal is to have a post a day. Lofty, but still attainable. To help myself out, I have created a weekly schedule of features. Here's the types of posts you can expect to see each day of the week:

Monday -- Highlighted craft (greeting card, traditional scrapbook layout, journal, etc)
Tuesday -- Alternating Essential Products / Basic Technique
Wednesday -- Stampin' Up News
Thursday -- New Discoveries (new fave products, sites, ideas, techniques, etc)
Friday -- Project Life (weekly spread, new products, helpful hints, etc)
Saturday -- Highlighted craft (greeting card, traditional scrapbook layout, journal, etc)
Sunday -- Sunday Haul (post about my weekly crafting purchases)

tobe.buffenbarger@gmail.com

Archives: Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 13 and 14

Originally published on April 12th, 2014Week 13

Family Album: Weeks 13 and 14 were all about documenting our trip back to Indiana. I loved adding the little embellishment tags and sparkly stars here and there throughout the spread. I didn't want to clutter the photos too much, but felt they needed a little something.

As to the pictures themselves, I love adding in more pictures of Arthur with other people. I got some great shots of him with my sister, father, mom, grandpa, and grandma. So cute!

Supplies:

SU Sent with Love DSP and embellishments
Studio Calico alphabet stickers
Random travel themed stamps

Week 14

Family Album: The second week of our trip back to Indiana. This time I used some of my new Heidi Swapp stamps ("hello" and "together") and some great alphabets to label some pictures. I also caught some great pictures of Arthur with his Grandma and Papa, Uncle, brothers, and new baby friends.

Supplies:

WRMK Albums Made Easy Dreamy cards
Enamel dots
Heidi Swapp stamps
Studio Calico alphabets
Heidi Swapp stickers

Archives: Crafts of the Weeks

Originally Published on April 19, 2014 This past week I've been working on two crafting projects. Here's a look at them.

Valentine's Day/Love and Mother's Day OSW sets:

I grabbed this sketch from InkyPinkies and went to town cutting two 12x12 DSP sheets. Once I got them cut, I started pairing pieces to card bases. Unfortunately, I realized that the pieces cut would not make 12 complete cards. I would have to add other DSP pieces or something else. Obviously if you look at her examples, she used other paper pieces to complete the cards. Oh well. I just combined the paper to make 8 cards for each set. Then, I cut some more DSP from full sheets to add layers and embellishments to make 12 cards for each set. After making one complete set, I talked to my mom who requested I send a batch of Mother's Day cards for the shop. So I actually made two Love sets and two Mother's Day sets. Crazy crazy... but they do look great.

Valentine's Day/Love Set:

Stamps: Retired SU stamp (sentiment), Perfect Pennants (heart)
Inks: Primrose Petals, Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Smoky Slate, Twitterpated DSP
Accessories: Heart washi tape
Tools: Swiss Dot Embossing Folder, 1 1/4" circle punch, Petite Petals punch

Mother's Day Set:

Stamps: Random Mother's Day stamp
Inks: Riding Hood Red, Island Indigo, Basic Gray
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Smoky Slate, Twitterpated DSP
Tools: Embossing Folder

Archives: Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 11 and 12

Originally published on March 29th, 2014

Week 11

Family Album: This week I chose to go back to using one of my "older" kits -- WRMK Tangerine. My idea is to rotate my various kits to get a different color/design scheme each week. I like the little pops of design with the Tangerine kit. I added some cute labeling tags to help highlight a few of the pictures.

As to the pictures and events, this week is very Arthur heavy. Oh wait... It's always Arthur heavy. Anyway, I chose to include some adorable candid shots and eating shots. I love the face he makes while eating. It always looks like he hates it, but he eats everything. The right hand page has a few random shots and his 5 month pictures. I always have to include the stats insert. My favorite shot of the week is the one where he's crawling towards me (left side, bottom left picture).

Supplies:

WRMK Tangerine
Labels from Studio Calico kit
Random stamps
PL Neutral Baby (monthly stat insert)

Arthur's Album: This week I added in some of the new cards from the Baby for Him kit. I love the cool blues and greens of this spread. The left side is a wrap-up of our week. The right side is all about his 5 month pictures and milestones.

Supplies:

PL Neutral Baby Kit
PL Baby Boy Kit
Random stamps
Labels from Studio Calico Kit
Recollections stickers

Week 12

Family Album: I changed up my kits yet again and went with some of the random cards from my Studio Calico kits (Sept. and Oct. 2013). I kept the cards a cool blue and gray with pops of pink. I especially love my pink enamel dots and my new camera stamp (thank you Michael's $2 bin).

The pictures from this week came from two big events. The left side highlights our morning at Washington Park. Arthur had a great time crawling around. And I had a great time taking some pics and reading in the sunshine. The right side highlights Arthur's first official playdate. I grabbed a few cute pics and stole a few from the other moms. My favorite is the pic of Arthur and his friend Luke and their dueling grump faces (right side, top left).

Supplies:

Studio Calico Kits -- Sept and Oct 2013
Michael's stamps
Basic Grey enamel dots
Random stamps and alphabet stickers

Arthur's Album: Arthur's spread focused on lots of pictures. I decided to use the back side of the inserts from the previous week. Those were reddish so I picked two more reddish inserts for the right side. I've realized that most of Arthur's spreads are light on embellishments and heavy on pictures. And I'm okay with that!

Supplies:

PL Baby Boy Kit
Random stamps