The Blog has gotten a makeover!

So what do you think? My blog has FINALLY gotten a much needed makeover! And I LOVE it! Heather over at Blessed Little Nest did a FANTASTIC job on the design! And now i have my very own cute little button! Feel free to grab one for your blog!


<<a href="http://www.burstsofcreativity.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/hamiltonfive/burstsofcreativitybutton.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

Back to Nature Tag

I love October Afternoon - they are one my favorite paper companies. So whenever they have a new paper line I HAVE to have it! Like immediately! Even when it's outdoor/camping themed paper - and I do NOT camp! I had to find a use for this cute new paper and stickers so of course why not make a tag! My favorite part is the crumpled brown paper bag I used to cover the tag:

Be Mine Frame

I found this frame the other day at a craft store while looking for a new project for the blog. I liked the detail and the fact that it was 3x2 (almost ATC size - and actually the frame lied it was more like 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 so even closer!). I thought this was the perfect project - I could rotate the ATCs in the frame depending on what was going on during the year. So first up is a Valentine's Day design:

Organizational Tip to Inspire Creativity

A couple of months ago I bought some old muffin tins at an antique store planning on using them for storage of some sort (though honestly I was more likely going to store them in a pile with all the other stuff I collect from antique stores and thrift shops!). They sat there until last week when while cleaning up my studio I got this great idea to use those muffin tins to collect items of similar colors to create sort of an inspiration "board"/palette thing (I'm not sure what to even call it) Sort of a jumping off point for a project. I figure if I can organize the items into c

Simple Heart Stamp Tutorial

I made this simple tag using the distress tag technique from last week (found here) using inks in red and pink shades. I then made a simple stamp using a pencil eraser to be able to repeatedly stamp a small heart on the tag. Here is a quick tutorial:

My work space is....

A HUGE mess! Surprisingly I had been keeping it relatively clean but that seems to have all gone out the window:

Working in the Art Journal

I spent some time this morning playing around in my art journal:

Happy Birthday

I spent the weekend down in North Carolina with my family celebrating my nephew's birthday (he turns one today!) Isn't he a cutie?!?!

Hello There!

Here is what I did with the tag from yesterday's tutorial:

Distressed Tag Tutorial

Today I am going to share with you a tutorial for making the distressed tags I used in my Autumn layout from yesterday's post. Supplies: I used distress ink in the colors of vintage photo, tea dye, and walnut. You can do this technique using any combo of distress ink - I chose browns because I wanted a vintage distressed tag. You will also need a mini mister (or spray bottle of some sort) and a nonstick craft mat (like the one I am using from Ranger). And finally you will need a tag!

Autumn Layout

I will be posting a tutorial tomorrow for making the tags at the top of the layout so be sure to check back then!

If this is your first time to my blog - Welcome! I would love for you to become a follower of my blog or my facebook page!(see link on right side of my blog!)

This post is linked at Tidy Mom and here:

Art Journaling

Sometimes I like to just sit down and be messy for the sake of being messy - open up the art journal and start glimmer misting or inking or painting but not worrying about the final product. Art journals are a great way to just try out new ideas - maybe you will happen upon a great new color combo, or come up with a great scrapbook idea or embellishment, learn a new technique, maybe you will get the creative juices flowing so you can tackle a bigger project or maybe you will just simply learn something you don't like. I love playing around with my supplies like that - without the pressure of making something "good". So yesterday I spent some time working in a new little art journal:

Butterfly Tag

I still haven't finished my 2011 goal tags (remember my post a couple days ago?) I really intend to I just keep getting distracted. I wonder what that says for my actually keeping my resolutions? Not looking too good huh? I decided to mess around and make a different totally unrelated tag instead. Actually I got this idea for adding photos to tag - sort of a tag/scrapbook thing - not really sure where I was going with it but I had this wedding photo so added that to the tag. I'm thinking I need to play around with the idea of an inky tag mini album thing. I'll work on that - lol as soon as I finish all the other projects I'm working on!

Waiting for Santa Layout

I'm back in Richmond and ready to start blogging again! I wanted to share with you a layout I made when I was down in NC visiting my family. It's a simple Christmas layout - the picture is of my adorable little nephew - it was his first Christmas so it was special being able to spend it with him.

Distressed Tag

So I'm driving back to Richmond today after spending two weeks with my parents in NC. It was nice to spend time with my parents, sister and the cutest nephew in the entire world! I'm also excited to get back to Virginia and see my husband (he only stayed the first week) and my friends. Today I have a quick tag to show you. I made this last week when I was trying to teach my cousin (who works at Michaels in NJ)how to use distress ink and crackle paint. I like how it turned out: If this is your first time to my blog - Welcome! I would love for you to become a follower of my blog or my facebook page!(see link on right side of my blog!)

This post is linked here:

Quick Tag - New K & Co

So I think I have like 10 half finished projects going right now - and what I do instead of finish one of them? I start a new one! Today my mom and I were running around town looking for things to scrap with (we hit every thrift store we could find!) and then just for the heck of it we stopped at Michaels (might as well right?). And have you seen the new K&Co? It's fabulous! I'll admit I'm a bit of a paper snob - I love my designer paper and I rarely buy paper at Michaels anymore but this stuff was really cute - reminds me of 7 gypsies conservatory. So I made this quick tag:

2011 Personal Goals and a Tutorial

I hate resolutions. To me resolutions are this idea that my life isn't good enough and I need to somehow change it and I really don't feel that way. But on the other hand it's always good to have goals right? Nothing wrong with those? I don't know but I was checking Elise Blaha's blog the other day (ok I might read it every day) - and I came across this post - and I immediately thought - goals on tags! I love tags!

Working on a few things...

I'm working on a few things that I can't show you just yet....

but stay tuned - I'll be back tomorrow with something I promise!! (It won't be the something in the photo - that's just to tease you!)

If this is your first time to my blog - Welcome! I would love for you to become a follower of my blog or my facebook page!(see link on right side of my blog!) And if you haven't already make sure you check out last Friday's Top 10 of 2010 post!

And it seems I've decided to start using the twitter account I set up like a year ago so if you have twitter and you want to follow me that would be fantastic. You can find me on twitter here. And if you send me a message I will follow you back!