One of my new Christmas cards has been a great success--I sold 9 the first day I had them.  They have over 30 parts!  But they are fun to do during a craftshow or sometime when I have time to work that does not require too much thought.  Here are 2 versions of it.:

The most difficult part is the lights--getting them to look tangled but recognizable.

I just uploaded a few journals to my shops on etsy, ebay, and artfire.  Here are some of them:

 

I make lots of themed journals or guestbooks for special occasions, special events, retirements, graduations, showers, etc.  They are especially nice for guests to give good wishes to the honoree.  You can see more journals and cards at CardsByCarlos at Etsy.com, Ebay.com or ArtFire.com.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CardsByCarlos or http://stores.ebay.com/cardsbycarlos or http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/CardsByCarlos

I just completed greeting cards in a new design area for me:  Southwestern Influences.  Here are some examples of my new line.

You can see these cards and a hundred of my other cards on line at CardsByCarlos on EBay, Etsy, or Artfire.com

Here are a few more pictures from our Hawaii trip.

Scrapbooking with Recipes - Free Background Papers

I have been wandering about in the internet and have found some delightful sites to help with my quest of a family recipe book using scrapbooking materials and techniques. The following site has dozens of downloadable scrapbook papers free for your use. If you really like them and use a lot of them, you can make a contribution to them on their site.

I have pretty much decided to use an 8.5 x 11" format so we can all download it and put it in plastic sleeves in 3-ring binders. So these pages will be the perfect size for this format.

http://www.scrapbookscrapbook.com/recipe-scrapbook-free-sample.html

I just got back from a 2 week vacation to Hawaii.  I am really excited about the great pictures I was able to take.  I know they will look great in scrapbooks and on some newly designed greeting cards.  Here are a few of them:

I have just finished my 3rd altered art book.  It is on gardening and garden fairies.  It is for sale.

I thoroughly enjoy making art books.  My first 2 sold immediately for $50 each, so I am hoping this one sells too.  I want to make more of them.  Its a great substitute for scrapbooking when you run out of pictures to scrap.  Here are some of the pages:

 The left page is an example of a picture to color with colored pencils or markers.

The above pages are pockets for personal keepsakes.

 The above pages are an example of journaling pages.

This art book has over 100 pages with a mix of pictures, coloring pages, and journaling pages.  Many inspirational and humerous quotes are sprinkled throughout the book.

Paper Engineering

I have started to do some paper engineering for some of my cards.  Mostly pop-ups, special folds, and special cuts.  It is great fun.  Here are a few of my first attempts: