August 6, 2014

I'm Back!

I've moved!
I've married!
I've changed my name!
So much has changed in my little world but I'm happy to say that I'm back in to paper and back into life!

What a crazy 24 months it's been! I won't go into all the details but let's just say my life is TOTALLY different than it was two years ago and in such a great, great way. I'm married now to a really wonderful guy who showers me with undevoted love and is a lot of fun to share life with.
Valentine's Day 2014
We just happened to match that night!
Everybody say "awwwweee" with me.

And I've gained three daughters in the deal. With having just one son before I met my hubby, life was about Legos, bike crashes (the peddal variety - he's only just barely 7), Star Wars weapons and stinky dirty socks. Now I get to learn about cool hair braids, share my earrings and have some interested baking partners, not to mention their interest in paper and crafting!

Me and the lovely little ladies.

The biggest news from all of the changes is probably that my last name is no longer Kean. Because of this better-than-I-could-ask-for change, I've had to rework my papercrafting blog brand, my blog name, email and a host of other related things.

With that, I'd like to invite you to start following me on my new blog at www.dreaminpaper.wordpress.com.

There's sure to be a lot of newly inspired projects. I'd love to have you join me! Come along!
Posted by Holly Barrett at 7:09 PM 0 comments

October 8, 2012

I'm here!

No really, I am.

Things have been B-U-S-Y as you may have already guessed.

I'm so sorry to say that I am no longer working with the OCC team. It's still a great group of ladies doing some really awesome stuff in paper so I hope you'll still participate and have fun there. It just became too much for me to juggle single-momhood and a full time job while papercrafting for the OCC, blog and post every week.

Well, and there's been another thing taking my time too. And that leads me to something I'd like to share with you.

Its been more than a year in the making and I'm excited to be selling my papercrafting goodies at the Spanaway Lake High School Holiday Craft Fair coming up, November 3-4. If you are in the South Puget Sound, its one of the best craft fairs around. The show boasts all handmade items, lots to pick from and it's always hopin' with holiday excitement. I love to kick off the holidays by shopping but this year, I'll be on the other side of the table!

Here's a sneak peak at a few things I've been working on.

First up, a fairly large pillow box which has been decorated with one of my favorite holiday icons - HOLLY!
This one could probably fit a scarf, some large-ish jewelry or certainly a gift card. I love the lacy red accent on the outside edges.

And isn't that holly just sweet?

I'm in love with these little tiny "to" tags. I'm putting them on everything it seems.

Here's another pillow box, this time one that's a little smaller.

And a cute little sparkly snowflake finishes it off.

Here's another fun item I've been making in large quantities - a paper purse that holds a gift card.

See? Sweet too, huh?

There's that little snowflake again. Dainty, white and glittery. I love it!

If any of these have your attention, I'll be posting more of my featured items in a few days so check back. 

And if you are looking for something fun to do with your girlfriends, sister or mom, stop in at the SLHS craft fair and get your holiday season started! Stop in to say hi!

Holly

Posted by Holly Barrett at 8:54 PM 1 comments

August 11, 2012

OCC: Denim Day

Hi all and happy Saturday to you!

This week at Our Creative Corner, Paula is hosting again and this time she's challenging us with denim!
I chose to try creating a faux denim stamping technique. And for the most part, I think it works. I really liked it when it was wet but when it dried, it was a little more filled in than I wanted. But I think all in all, with the way I used it, you get the picture.


After I had created my denim treatment and let it dry for a day, I cut a pocket from one of my pieces.

I had a flourish stamp that I used as the pocket detail. Its been embossed with white embossing powder. I also happened to have a stitch stamp that worked wonderfully for the pocket stitching. I just stamped it in white over the "denim" stamping.


A few different types of twine, a few buttons and a little tag, and I have a gift and a card all combined in one.

So use those old jeans you've been meaning to throw out, maybe the kids have a pair that's seen better days or try your own faux technique and play along with us this week. Just make sure to include three twines or ribbons and three buttons or brads to make sure you meet the challenge requirements. Take a look at what the other OCC designers have stitched together this week:


Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie
Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch
Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne
Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts
Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts
Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts
Lori Rider The Diva Stamper
Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon
Lisa Minckler You Made Me Ink
Kim Price Inkcognito
Paula McClane Scrap Addict's Attic
Liliana Inguanti Stampin' From Home

Happy stamping, stitching and creating!
Holly
Posted by Holly Barrett at 10:05 AM 3 comments
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August 4, 2012

OCC: Bling Bling

Holy cow, its August! 

Today I'm looking forward to some fun in the sun because it is supposed to be a beautiful weekend here in the Pacific Northwest.

Considering that it is still summer, the kids haven't started school and the pumpkins are still just buds you're probably not thinking Christmas. But I am! I love Christmas and I am always up for some holiday projects.

This week's challenge from one of our new OCC designers, Paula, is asking for a little bling this week. As a part of the challenge, we're including a natural element. Enter this beautiful pyramid box with a glittered snowflake embellishment and mini circular tag.


I cut the two pieces of the snowflake from a Spellbinders die and inked the edges a little with some Tim Holtz Walnut Stain ink and then set them aside to dry a little.

Then I covered the snowflakes with a thin coat of glue, spreading it relatively thin with my finger. Then I threw the glued up pieces in a small Ziplock container filled with glitter. I like to keep my glitter in this little container and then toss my pieces around in it to coat them - it contains the mess a bit. Sometimes I just bury the glue side down and leave them in there to dry. This keeps the most glitter on the piece as possible. 

After about a day, I adhered the glittered pieces together with a small foam adhesive, looped some string through and added the small tag. The pyramid box came from a kit by K & Company called Christmas Cheer. I just assembled it according to the directions.

I love wrapping gifts like this. So unique, so unexpected, so simple. And glitter on a snowflake is just so...Christmas.

So have some fun with us this week. Combine a little bling and a little nature and see where it takes you! Get some inspiration from our OCC designers:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie
Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch
Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne
Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts
Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts
Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts
Lori Rider The Diva Stamper
Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon
Lisa Minckler You Made Me Ink
Kim Price Inkcognito
Paula McClane Scrap Addict's Attic
Liliana Inguanti Stampin' From Home

Looking forward to what you cook up this week!
Holly
Posted by Holly Barrett at 3:00 AM 2 comments
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July 28, 2012

OCC: Color Challenge

Happy Saturday to you all!

Quick post this week. Our challenge is hosted by Lori Rider this week and its a color challenge! 


Here's the inspiration for this wild set of colors from Lori's post on the OCC blog:


I wish I could have squeezed more lime into my design but the paper I had didn't have any pink in it so I had to find a way to pull in the pink.


So if you have a wild hair, join us this week and design a papercraft that includes all five colors. To get inspired and motivated, take a look at the other OCC team projects:


Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie
Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne

Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts
Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts
Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts
Lori Rider The Diva Stamper
Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon

and while you're out and about, say hello to our new team members:
Lisa Minckler You Made Me Ink
Kim Price Inkcognito
Paula McClane Scrap Addict's Attic
Liliana Inguanti Stampin' From Home


As you may have noticed, four of our OCC designers are moving onto other papercrafting pursuits and leaving our team. Thanks, ladies for your contributions and I wish you all the best in the months and years to come!


I'm excited to see what your color challenge creations look like!
Holly
Posted by Holly Barrett at 4:12 PM 3 comments
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July 21, 2012

OCC: Card Makeover!



Hi Friends!

In my job as a marketing manager, one of the things I do very often is challenge the graphic designers who work on my team to improve their skills. Most of the time, their growing relies on trying something new. But sometimes it comes in reworking something done previously using new techniques, freshly re-honed skills and a wider scope of inspiration. And that's what I like about the Our Creative Corner challenges as well. Sometimes we just need to start with something we did in an earlier time and see how we might improve on it.


This week at Our Creative Corner, we're doing just that. Our host, Lori Rider, was inspired by TV makeovers and has adapted the makeover concept for this week's challenge. As she puts it, "When I look back on those cards I made when I first started stamping, I cringe... what was I thinking?" 


My hobby only started a few years ago, so I have a lot of material to draw on! First, here's the "new" card - the one I've created for this challenge:



and here's the card I made in September of 2011 (insert "yikes" here):

I took the layout, rotated it 90° and kept the light blue/pink color scheme.



I distressed all the paper pieces, adhered the ribbon and bow and then added a few BoBunny chipboard butterflies with some glitter and WOW what an improvement. Don't you think?


I hope you're inspired enough to get working on a project and submit it to this week's challenge. Take a look at what the other OCC designers have put together for us this week:



Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie
Vicki Burdick It's a Stamp Thing
Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anita Houston The Artful Maven Haven
Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne
Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts
Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts
Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts
Tui Nathan Stampin Time
Lori Rider The Diva Stamper
Kristin Tierney Lilly Beth Boutique
Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon


To play along with this challenge, you'll have to do a little bit o' homework. Hunt through your photos and find one of those old cringe-worthy cards – but then choose one or two things about it that you do like and use those elements on a new card. Think of it as CASEing yourself. Maybe you keep the layout, the colors, a technique you used... anything is fair game. You have to show us the old card so we can see how far you’ve come!

A Reminder About Posting:
We ask that you read the challenge requirements carefully and not submit work that does not fit our challenge.  Any submissions that do not follow the challenge requirements will be removed.  
We do require that your project be a new project and not back-linked to a project made before this challenge started. Please be sure you link back to the OCC blog post in order to be eligible for our Top Talent award.  This challenge closes at 11:59 p.m.Eastern Time on July 27th.

I can't wait to see what you chose and how much better you were able to pull it off!
Holly

Posted by Holly Barrett at 3:36 PM 3 comments
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July 14, 2012

OCC: Blue, Red and Pink


Hi Paper Crafting Friends!

Lots of fun stuff happening at Our Creative Corner. First let me say welcome to a few new team members who will be starting their place on the team in a few weeks:

Lisa Minckler - You Made Me Ink
Kim Price - Inkcognito
Paula McClane - Scrap Addict's Attic
Liliana Inguanti - Stampin' From Home

I can't wait to see what they add to our challenges each week!

Now onto this week's challenge. Today, Sharon is throwing a color challenge your way with Navy Blue, Red and one additional color of your choice (not including neutrals). To give a little inspiration, take a look a this: 


And for a little more inspiration, a quote:
"I'd rather be doing nothing with you than something with anyone else."

This week I'm showcasing a project with blue, pink and red. 

I cut strips in 1" pieces and adhered them to a thin piece of paper at an angle. Then I trimmed them to 4.5" x 4.5" to fit on my 5" x 5" white card base.


Then I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white card stock, trimmed one corner with the little banner angles and adhered it to the card with some foam adhesive dots. Truth be told, I did have a little floofy ribbon embellishment to add but it looked a little out of place so I decided to leave it off. 

I hope you're inspired enough to get working on a project and submit it to this week's challenge. Take a look at what the other OCC designers have put together for us this week:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie
Vicki Burdick It's a Stamp Thing
Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch
Anita Houston The Artful Maven Haven
Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne
Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts
Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts
Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts
Tui Nathan Stampin Time
Lori Rider The Diva Stamper
Kristin Tierney Lilly Beth Boutique
Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon


A Reminder About Posting:
We ask that you read the challenge requirements carefully and not submit work that does not fit our challenge.  Any submissions that do not follow the challenge requirements will be removed.  
We do require that your project be a new project and not back-linked to a project made before this challenge started. Please be sure you link back to the OCC blog post in order to be eligible for our Top Talent award.  This challenge closes at 11:59 p.m.Eastern Time on July 20th.

And for this challenge, please make sure to post in your blog which color you chose to add to the challenge.

I can't wait to see your talent!
Holly
Posted by Holly Barrett at 12:53 PM 1 comments
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