Almost Back

By the time that you read this I will have completed a one week stay in Los Angeles and will be returning back from Tokyo. It will have been a whirlwind of travel and while blogging has been on the wane, crafting hasn't been. I am still trying to catch up on some of the monthly projects and prepare for the Iron Craft Challenge that is due after my return.

Best Wishes and thanks for reading.

This Week

This week is going to be a little bit slower than usual. I am still working on projects for the week and nope to have a new box structure to share. I am also struggling with ideas for my next Iron Craft Challenge.

More importantly, I have launched my new blog called Bento Love 2015. This new blog will illustrate my obsession with the Japanese boxed lunch called Bento. On that blog, I will be sharing my attempts to make bento every work day.

Please follow along when you get the chance.

This Week

This week is the reveal for the second Iron Craft Challenge. I haven't decided which project to share and I need to complete one of the two projects that I am considering.

Also this week, I will sharing the last of the Insert boxes from Bullets Over Broadway. I am designing some other boxes to share including a tissue box holder, a shoe box, and a box to hold the 365 Decorated Envelopes from last year.

See you during the week--dr(Russ)

This Week

This year, I want to introduce a new feature for the each week. Hopefully each Sunday, I will share with you the upcoming projects/posts that you might be able to expect in the following days.

This week will be the first Iron Craft Challenge for 2015. The theme of the challenge was Fourth Year Anniversary gifts--either traditional or modern. Traditional gifts are fruit or flowers. Modern gifts are appliances. Being a man, I chose appliances. Tuesday will be the reveal date.

I was so happy with the way that the project turned out that I will be sharing the tutorial on Wednesday and/or Thursday.

On Friday, I will be sharing my weekly challenge--Project Number 3--another pretty little box.

Finally, this week, I will share one of my monthly projects with you--another doodle project.

Next week, I will share with you my other monthly project but I can't tell you what it is until my Iron Craft Reveal.

In summary, this year I have decided to do the following projects:

• Iron Craft Challenge every two weeks.
• Weekly Craft challenge (excluding the Iron Craft Challenges)
• One monthly challenge (revealed later this week)
• A second monthly challenge (revealed next week)
• Several seasonal/holiday projects as available.

Thanks for following along--(dr)Russ

Coming This Week

Papel Picado

This week, I begin a new adventure on the blog and hope that you will follow along. Since I have some extra time on my hands, I decided to dedicate the month of October to Halloween. I plan on doing a 31 Days of Halloween feature on the blog. This feature will start on Tuesday, October 1 and will continue until October 31--Halloween.

This feature will be comprised of 31 ideas for Halloween that will include decorations, costume ideas, book reviews, crafts and art work for this year. The projects will demonstrate all levels of difficulty (easy to difficult) and time commitment (very fast to long term).  On Monday, I will share with you the final variation of the Happy Birthday Daisy card. One of the projects that I am working on for Halloween is the above Papel Picado panel; Papel Picaco is the traditional craft of papercutting in Mexico and is often used to celebrate the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Coming This Week

Carlton Card #1

This coming week we will have another variation of the Daisy Happy Birthday card. My Iron Craft Challenge will be due on Tuesday--I have so many ideas from which to choose. I will continue my discussion of glitter and will offer a comparison between several different types of glitter on the market.

Carlton Card #2

I also wanted to share with you some inspiration for the Halloween season and some likely projects. The images included here were greeting cards from Carlton Cards that were found at Target. After seeing these cards, I have decided to make some similar designs on my own.

Carlton Card #3

Coming This Week

When time allows, I will try and visit with you over the weekend to preview the coming week so you can plan your daily lives around my future postings. This is the first in the series and we will see how well it works.

For the weekly card, I will share with you the latest Birthday Card that I gave a great friend this past weekend. This was the prototype and I have already designed two separate variations that I will share with you in future weeks.

Another post will deal with the lessons I learned using glitter.

The final posting in Envelope Challenge (Envelope #5) will complete the series and I will share all of the envelopes side by side so you can compare them and see my doodle trends.

I will also share with you some of my inspiration for the upcoming Halloween season. It's not too early to start thinking about Halloween, is it?

Finally, I will have another book review for you.

I hope to see you this week--Russ