Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I neglected to post the winner of my SOS #52 BINGO giveaway! Well, this was easy since I only had ONE COMMENT from a challenge participant.  I don't even need to make up a non-scientific and totally unfair method of selection -- the answer will be the same!

So Dr J, come on down!!! Please send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get your embossing folders out to you.

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Sketchy Thanks (sorta)

When I spied this CPS sketch:

 I had an idea. This effort would be another example of a morphed idea, and the card taking on a life of its own. Here's my card, then I'll explain:

You can sorta see the tiny part of my card that was inspired by the sketch. I forgot how small the SU Lattice die is, so all I had was a card part; nothing big enough to cover the whole card. I was sad.

My Authentique 6x6 pad was still out, so I used it to build the rest of the card around the part on the blue strip. And those lovely embellishments? I had to piece the black circle, and the embellishments cover the seams. :) I also think I glued my tweezers together trying to rescue the pearl from the center of the smaller of the two flowers. It was drowning in Glossy Accents. In the end, I just added another pearl on top of it. And I need to check on those tweezers.

The "thanks" was in my UFO pile, and I layered it onto a piece of black so you can seeee it.

Now that I look at this card, it's tres busy. Tres tres. I need to learn when to just stop. Maybe putting that blue strip on a card all by itself would have been a better plan. Or just the lattice by itself. Oh, well. In the end, I used up a bunch of remnants of black and pieces of my Authentique papers and that "thanks" UFO, so there's that. Not a total loss. Maybe someone's favorite colors are blue and black. You just never know. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Poppy Sympathy

Way back when I was taking the A Cut Above class* from Online Card Classes (Day 2, to be exact!), we learned about window cards, and several of the samples used elements that spanned the windows, which I decided was very cool.

So when Jennifer McGuire enabled me to need the Memory Box Prim Poppy die, I knew exactly what I'd do with it. Today I finally got to that project. Here's what I made:

My still-out pack of textured 2008 In Color card stock was the victim here. I die-cut the poppy out of Wild Wasabi, then cut the flowers out of Groovy Guava and trimmed them to layer over the green. Next, I cut the opening in the top layer with one of my petite oval nesties, then cut the frame out of Basic Gray. I prayed and prayed I'd kept a pack of the Afternoon Tea papers, and I did! Whoot! I cut a rectangle from one of the pieces and stuck it behind the window. I was going to stick it to the base to leave a real "window", but I wanted to stick down the droopy flower and didn't want to mess with a layer of acetate. Lazy.

A sentiment, some pearls, and done!  I kinda like it. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

*Haven't taken the A Cut Above class yet? I HIGHLY recommend it! And, Julie Ebersole is giving away a seat in the class! All you need to do is go to her post and leave a comment by Thursday evening. Check her post for details.

SOS #53 - Flowers

Welcome to challenge 53 over at Shopping Our Stash. This week we ask you to use flowers on your card! That's right! You can use anything floral-related -- flowers, roses, sunflowers, gardens, vases, potted flowers, etc. You can use paper with flowers in the design or use flowers as embellishments. Hey, take this opportunity to use up some scrap paper and make your own flowers! LOTS of options here, kids!

Here's my card:

 This card is NOT what I set out to make. Nope. However, as I pondered my options, I spied that punched flower in my UFO pile, and a card was born. Here it is again at a slight angle so you can see the white-on-white embossed background on the panel:

This card is all remnants and UFOs, except for the base. I'm quite pleased with it, actually. :)

I'm sure I have another flower card in me, so I may be back later this week with another sample for you.

Now it's YOUR turn. Go into your stash and find some unloved flowers of some kind. They can be paper flowers, stickers, floral patterned papers, flowers made from scraps, whatever! Then make a card and come back to Shopping Our Stash to link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gingham Baby Cards

Ah, the power of the Interwebz. One of my tweeps and bloggy friends, Donna, posted this card for the Moxie Fab Gingham Challenge, and I said, "Wha?". I ran to look at the Moxie Fab post. Who remembers something aaaaaalllll the way back to early May? But the great thing is we have until June 4th to post a card, so I got to work!

I knew immediately what I'd use, too! I knew I had some A*Muse gingham papers in The Heaplet, but I wasn't sure which color(s). I found both light blue and light pink, so baby cards it was!

Here's what I made, then I'll explain:

I punched openings in the white layer with my SU Heart to Heart punch, then layered that over the gingham. I used two gingham hearts (punched from some smaller pieces of the same gingham papers) on the card front, and added some Studio Calico wood veneer hearts. I covered the wood hearts with Inkssentials Enamel Accents* to make them white and shiny. In hindsight, I might use white paint next time. We'll see what I think once it dries ... maybe tomorrow.

The sentiment is from A*Muse, and I just love it! I think the last time I used it was on a card with an elaborate Corset. HAHA! Yeah, this is a little different and perhaps more appropriate.

So I've pretty much disappeared those two papers from The Heaplet. Baby steps, people. Baby steps. (no pun intended)

Thanks for stopping by!

* When I first applied the enamel accents, it came out clear. I shook it a little and it came out white, so I mixed some into the clear stuff that was already on the wood hearts, which made them a little streaky. Just a word of caution in case your bottles of enamel accents have been sitting on the shelf as long as mine have. :(

PDCC133 Keep Calm

I finally got a clue for the Play Date Cafe challenge:

I broke out my new SU Carry On hostess set (only $10 with Hostess Bucks starting June 1st!) and made this:

The dark blue is the new SU Midnight Muse -- it is a very yummy, deep blue. And the new felt firm foam ink pads are awesome! I used Real Red and Pool Party for the other colors.

I need to get a clue more often. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenge Challenged

Making a card can be a long and winding road. Well, at least in my world it usually is. Once in a while I get an idea and execute it very close to what I saw in my head, but most of the time there is major morphing and distraction. Major.

For example, I had printed off this Play Date Cafe challenge:

thinking "manly", "patriotic", and perfect for this Memorial Day weekend.

First out of the gate was an attempt to use some "close, but not really" colors of new washi tape. I've actually played with this one for several days, and this is what finally came out:

Well, the rust one is sorta red, and the blue is blue, but the tan ... isn't. I've had those three strips of tape on that layer for days ... DAYS. I finally broke down and made that flower today. I covered 2x2 squares of vellum with the tapes and die-cut them. Not bad. Kinda muted.

Then I saw this card and immediately NEEDED those triangle dies. Isn't that card awesome? I found the dies and decided they were too spendy for how often I'd use them, so I tried to make my own triangles. I tried the Silhouette. Fail. Next I tried to cut my own. I pulled out my textured 2008 In Color card stock and started measuring and hacking. Looking at the pile of paper shards, I thought I could see the justification of the spendy part. Also, those papers aren't the right colors, anyway. But I was so invested in this project, I just couldn't stop, though perhaps I should have. This is what finally came out:

I think my favorite part of this card is (are?) the four black pearls between the triangles, which were white pearls I colored with my Touch Twin black marker. My second favorite part of this is it's off my work table. I killed a lot of card stock for this one.

I still don't have a card for the PDCC challenge. I may give up and move on. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

Memorial Day Mojo

When I saw today's Mojo Monday sketch:

it spoke to me. I took the square one and rotated it 90 degrees (and you thought you'd never use your High School Algebra ...):

The sketch screamed Memorial Day to me, so I made this:

The papers in the Authentique Celebrate Collection are prefect for a patriotic card! I used my Kim Hughes Eagle and Freedom stamps I got when Kim was with Cornish Heritage Farms. I love these stamps and don't use them nearly enough! At one point, probably about this time last year, they were lost somewhere in The Captain's Quarters. I'm so glad I found them!

The banner on the left was made with my MFT banner dies, and the brad that I've had forEVER is actually glued on. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

So sometime today, maybe between bites of burgers and sips of beer, please take a moment to remember why today is a Federal holiday, and think of those who have given their lives for our great country.

Okay, I'm off my soap box and going back to stamp some more!

Thanks for stopping by!

Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger: Man-tastic!

The current Tuesday Trigger Challenge at Moxie Fab World caught my eye:

I love the colors! Definitely "manly" colors, but I didn't make a manly card. Instead, I pulled out my Paper Smooches Reflections set and used one of the leaf stamps to make flowers:

I'm also unable to shoot this totally in focus. Sorry.

I stamped the leaves in Ranger Distress Barn Door, Faded Jeans and Broken China. For each color, I stamped it once, then turned the stamp 90 degrees and stamped it again to make a flower. Just so you know I *am* capable of getting something mostly in focus, here are the flowers:

I added tiny buttons to the flowers' centers, then stamped Happy Birthday (SU Curly Cute) in Ranger Distress Gathered Twigs. Once I had the idea, this came together pretty quickly. :)

More stamping in on my horizon today, so I'll be back later.

Thanks for stopping by!

WMSC99 - Wedding

I think we've established I am incapable of photographing a white card, so I've just made another white card. When I saw this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch, I had an idea. Their challenges ask us to use a Waltzingmouse image, and where I don't have a lot, I do have a set I bought a while ago and have yet to use. Until now.

Here's the sketch:

I had the idea to use a heart for the circle element, and I'd break out my Waltzingmouse You're Lovely set to initiate the dress. It looks like a prom dress, but I always imagined it as a wedding dress. Here's my card, then I'll explain:

Again with the vellum, I know. I stamped a Hero Arts lace stamp on the vellum and embossed it with white EP. Then I turned it over, stamped the dress, heat-embossed THAT with white EP, then cut it out.

The heart is from the SU Filled With Love set, stamped in Baja Breeze. I colored the one heart with my Poppy Parade marker. Sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Word Up set, also stamped in Baja Breeze. All of that Baja Breeze bizness was because that's the color SU ribbon I used. Matchy-matchy! :) And yes, I know it's crooked. I see that now. Sigh.

Here is a closer shot of the dress:

At the bottom you can kinda see where it's embossed on both sides. Most of those pearls on the dress hide the mini glue dots I remembered to use so the dress stays in place. ;/

I hope to tackle some challenges in between the loads of laundry the rest of the weekend, so I'll be back to share when I have something that doesn't land in the trash! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

ColourQ Birthday

I've been playing with the current ColourQ Challenge all evening, and I FINALLY got something that didn't end up in the trash. Thank goodness for recycling.

Here's their color prompt:

And my card:

(Oooh, that's a bit out of focus. Tired eyes syndrome. Sorry.)

I used an image from the Paper Smooches Potpourri set, stamped it in black on a remnant of textured white*, and again on each of four scraps of patterned paper. I cut out the colored pieces, glued them down, stamped a sentiment (from SU Curly Cute), and stuck that onto a Pool Party base. Done.

This was waaaaay easier than the first two I tried. Some of those parts-is-parts may actually be salvageable and live on to grow up to become part of another card. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

* For one very brief moment, I actually considered stamping the image again, once on either side of the first one, to get a row across. Then I remembered who I was, and laughed out loud. Did you hear me? Man, I crack myself up.

Washi Frame

Still with the Washi thing. This card was inspired by one of my tweeps who used Washi tape as a frame for her scrapbook photos. It was so cool, I thought I'd try it on a card.

Now, where to begin ... I settled on not one, but TWO uninked Hero Arts stamps so I can shamelessly enter the Dust 'Em Off challenge over at A Blog Named Hero for a third time. Then I opted for a skinny tape to use as the frame. This is what came out:

The first thing I did was frame the center rectangle by masking it off with Post-It Notes, and I made it just a touch bigger than the stamp:

That made it easier to center the stamp later, and the post-its also covered the card front so I could stamp a background stamp over the opening. Well, I put the card stock on top of the bg stamp, but ... whatever. You know what I mean.

Here's the framed part:

First, I stamped the Hero Arts Fly Away Newsprint background in SU Going Grey, then I removed the post-it-notes and was left with the small rectangle for a pale background for the birds. I stamped the birds (Hero Arts Two Birds) onto the rectangle, then again onto white and cut them out so I could stick them back over the stamped images to get white birds. It was easy to put the skinny Washi tape around the rectangle as a frame, and I didn't even need to get the ends even!

I colored the two little hearts between the birds with my R59 Copic marker. Then I stamped the word 'always' from my Paper Smooches Word Salad set below the frame, and stamped the heart from Paper Smooches Falling For You set below that. Actually, I stamped the heart twice, overlapping them a bit, then colored them with the same R59 Copic marker. I was going to add Glossy Accents to the hearts, but decided against it.

So there's a quick frame from Washi tape. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go link this up at the Dust 'Em Off challenge. Thank you, A Blog Named Hero, for inspiring me to take these stamps out of their packages and USE them! :)

And thank YOU for stopping by!

SOS Challenge 52 - Week 2

Welcome to week two of our special two-week BINGO challenge over at Shopping Our Stash!  Here's that handsome BINGO card again:

Last week I used the elements in the B column. This week I used the top row across (Yellow, Bling, Buttons, Patterned Paper and Embossing) to made this card:

LOTS of stash here. I die-cut lots of yellow patterned paper to make the flower; I used an ancient yellow rub-on as leaves for the flower; I dry-embossed a border around the card; I tied a button to the pink ribbon; and I scattered bling everywhere.

If I was less of a slug, I'd go back and swap out one of the pieces of bling for a pearl, and I'd also have one of the diagonals: Yellow, Pearls, Ribbon and Pink. See how EASY this could be? Have you played yet? Why not? And if you have, why not play again? Just think of all that stash you could use!!!!

And remember, some of us are giving away some of our loot, so when you link up your card over at the original post at Shopping Our Stash, make sure to come back to the individual DT blogs to enter! My post from last week is here, where you'll need to link for a chance to win my schtuff.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bookmark Card

When I first saw the latest sketch over at Twisted Cards:

I knew what I'd do, and I only hoped I'd get to it before time ran out. :) I DID!  Lookie:

 I saw the bookmark opportunity, and the horizontal elements were the perfect holder!  The yellow paper I used for the background and the strip of green were remnants from another card that failed me. The bookmark is from the same pack of papers: Basic Grey Indie Bloom.

As an added bonus, I broke open my pack of Recollections tulle flowers and used two of them. I colored the center pearls with my R05 Copic marker. They needed to be red.

Here's what the card looks like with the bookmark removed:

It stands alone! The flourish is an (until now) uninked Hero Arts stamp -- Fabulous Flourish. This qualifies this card as a last-minute entry to the Dust 'Em Off challenge over at A Blog Named Hero.

Oh, the bookmark is a PTI die.

So how fun is this for the recipient? A card, a bookmark, AND a reminder on the bookmark that the sender adores you. I think that's pretty perfect. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

DIY Washi Tape

I may or may not have bought more Washi tape online. I'm not sure what part of "obsessed" hasn't been clear. So when I saw this tutorial by JulieHRR over at Ellen Hutson's site, I knew I had to try it!

I don't have any of the fancy tissue sheets she used, but I do have scads of tissue paper, so I gave it a shot. Here's what I just made:

It bled a little, but not much:

I probably didn't let the green ink dry before I added the black over it. Heck, I spent at least 10 minutes on this! ;/ I may have to try the "good" stuff. It sure will be fun playing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Updated Zipper Card

The other day I posted a Zipper card I'd made, and it still needed a sentiment, like "wishing you a ..." on the pull strip. I wanted to show you what I just did (I might be a little excited about it ...):

I think it turned out great! And it's not even what I'd originally intended to do. Such is a stamper's world ... sometimes things just take on a life of their own.

I started by cutting the 'wishing you a ..." sentiment out of black, using my Silhouette Cameo:

(That's the monoalphabet font.) I included a cut rectangle around the sentiment, as recommended by Kristina Werner, because it gives you an easy way to line the sentiment back up once you've applied your adhesive to the individual letters.

As I started to punch out the letters and realized how tiny they were, this started to sound like work. Then I realized the negative image could be used as a stencil! No adhesive, no lining up! I retrieved the centers of the O and the A and this is what came out:

I used some Eclipse tape to hold the stencil in place, and used my 2-way glue stick to temporarily hold the centers of the letters in place. Then I held down the bottom of the stencil (too lazy to get another piece of tape) and used a dauber to apply Ranger Archival black ink. DONE!  I love the look, and these letters won't come off! Aaaaand, the stencil is reusable, at least for a little while.

I might be on to something here ...

Thanks for stopping by!

The Stork

While blurfing the other day, I ran across this post at the Less Is More challenge blog. The theme was baby cards, and ... meh. But someone had asked me about baby cards, so I obliged. Check out the second card in that post -- I CASEd it:

 As usual, I changed it up a bit. I used a different embossing folder for the white panel, I used patterned paper as the layer for the oval, and I stamped a sentiment.

The cool part of making this was not only breaking out my QuicKutz dies, but figuring out how to add the score lines above and below the embossed panel. Turned out it was easy. The card base is white, so I held it up to the light and put a light pencil mark on the inside of the card to note the edges of the panel. I then scored lines next to those marks and erased the pencil marks.

I also made two other colors while I was at it:

I kinda like them, even if they ARE baby cards. :)  All papers, except for the card bases, were from The Heaplet.

I hope to tackle a few more challenges today, so I'll be back later to share.

Thanks for stopping by!

I Almost Met The Bloggess

I don't know if you follow Jenny Lawson's blog, but I think she is hysterical. She is also known as The Bloggess. She does toss around some colorful language, and even though it generally makes me cringe, in her contexts it seems to work.

I also bought her book “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)”, and oh my gosh, I laughed through the whole thing. It also explains a lot.

Well, she's on a book tour, and when she mentioned she'd be in MD, I thought I might go see her if it wasn't too far. Today I read that she was going to be HERE, in my little town! I mentioned in this morning's blog that she was scheduled to be at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, so I wandered over to our City Hall to check it out. I found she wasn't scheduled to speak until 4:40, so dejected, I came home, but I did go back later. Note: this is unheard of in my world. Once I'm home, I stay. So yeah, this was a big deal.

I headed back around 2:30, figuring there'd be lines and crowds and ... we all know how much I detest both, so by being early, I snagged a seat and stayed put. I was in the H. L. Mencken Non-Fiction Pavilion, and I listened to the two people scheduled before The Bloggess. Whoa, I need to get out more.

The first speaker on my watch was Sara Taber, author of “Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter”. It's about growing up as the daughter of a CIA operative and living all over the world. Her book was part of her effort to deal with her feeling of not belonging anywhere, and her relationship with her father. Sounds awesome!

Next up was Steve Coll, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, whose latest book, “Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power” investigates the notoriously secretive ExxonMobil Corporation, revealing the true extent of its power. It was a fascinating talk. I'm not usually interested in reading serious stuff like this, but oh, wow, is he a captivating speaker. Read his bio -- he's amazing.

Finally, as the seats filled up and the place was Standing Room Only, I spotted a police escort and Jenny Lawson arrived to a standing ovation. (Sorry about the pics, I zoomed in on my phone.) Here she's being introduced.

When she started talking, we all laughed. OMG, is she funny!

She talks just like she writes. She read us her disclaimer about offending us after she'd probably already offended some of the people in the crowd. But then again, we know her, and we fully expected to be offended. It's WHY WE WERE THERE.

She read some passages from her book ...

so funny. The chapter she chose to read us was her near-overdose on Ex-Lax.

Yes, intestinal distress can be hysterical. See Mr Policeman? They were everywhere.

After the reading, as all the other writers had done, she took questions from the audience. That part was just as good as the prepared part of her show. So fun, so real, so down-to-earth. She is one sweet lady.

Afterwards, we all headed to the tent where she'd be signing her books. It was a looooong, line. In fact, people were in line while she was still speaking, so we were waaaaay back. Boo. We chatted with each other about where we were from, our favorite taxidermied critter, our favorite line in the book, and we people-watched. There were some, er, strange sightings. Like ... what's up with this?

The short shorts, the patterned stockings, the shaved head, the blue hair. NOT attractive. Or maybe that was the intent. I don't get out much.

I toughed it out until I was out of water and about half the line was gone:

The line doubled back on itself, so this is about half of the remaining half. Like I said: long line. But it was a pretty day!

Actually, it was too hot for me, so I bailed. I decided I didn't need a signature, so I went home and showered off the hot. Although, she did bring Copernicus with her (A hug is a strangle you haven't finished yet), so I missed that photo op, too. I'm okay with that! Really! I saw her, live and in person, so I can check that off my bucket list.

In closing, I bring you a big dog:

because I was bored standing there and he was so handsome.

I think if I were to spend all day at this book festival, I'd spend a lot of money. I mean, I only listened to two speakers besides The Bloggess (whose book I already have), and I want to read both of the other people's books. Can you imagine if I heard all twelve non-fiction speakers? What about the other eight pavilions that also had speakers all day long? Yikes. I may have a weakness for books. It may rival my weakness for pretty paper and Washi tape. Even so, I think I'll go again next year. I like to live dangerously.

And if Jenny Lawson, aka: The Bloggess is ever scheduled to be anywhere near you, GO. You must GO SEE HER. You won't be sorry.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blue & Green Sympathy

I'm not sure this is a "traditional" sympathy card, but I did use a whole bunch of stash to make it. :) 

Even the card base for this one was already cut and waiting for me. :)

In addition to the matchy-matchy SU does so well, I find they also do blendy-blendy, too. For example, there are three different greens here (not counting the butterfly) and they work together:

Well, *I* think they do. The card base is Certainly Celery, the green in the paper is Wild Wasabi, and the twill ribbon is Pear Pizzazz. I didn't go to art school, so if this is a known phenomenon, then I don't know about it. I'm just happy it works!

The butterfly was from my UFO pile:

I have a stack of them I heat-embossed on vellum while I was visiting Libby, and now I've finally used one! Thanks, Libby!

I started with this sketch from Unscripted Sketches:

I didn't add the three elements across, so I'm pretty sure I've disqualified myself, but it was still a great sketch for using up all those papers! And now I have one more sympathy card, too.

In other news, guess what season it is:

Farmer's Market! I'm not selling my cards there this year, but I'm still shopping for fresh local produce. Nom nom nom.

I think I'll try to go back to the Gaithersburg Book Festival in a little bit. I stopped by earlier to see when The Bloggess will be speaking, and it's around 4:30. I hope to see her!

Thanks for stopping by!