CASEd Trellis Card

The other day I saw this card on the Simon Says Stamp blog, and I knew I needed to CASE it. This is totally not my style, but I have the punch she used, and I needed to try it, just once.

Please keep in mind this is my first try, and it's a bit rough:

Okay, a lot rough, but I still tried! What I found interesting in her video is she completely ignores the measuring instructions that come with these punches (maybe more with the Punch Around The Page sets) and she does her own thing. I love a rebel, and someone who takes the time to figure this stuff out for the rest of us!

Me, being me, I ignored her advice to not cut the loops. Okay, I followed her advice about the loops to know which way to trim the diagonal, but I also trimmed the punched pieces, because I needed them to be smaller. Square is bad enough, but BIG square wasn't going to happen in my world.

I also had a rough time lining up the diagonals, so the worst of the lot got put on the top right and was disguised with a handmade rolled flower. It's all about the embellishments. :)

It's a lot straighter in real life than it looks in this photo. Or maybe not.  I may try this again one day, but for now I think it's out of my system.

In other news, I realized yesterday that Monday is a holiday in the USofA. With the 3-day weekend, I plan to disappear a few of my 6x6 paper packs based on the idea in this post on the Operation Write Home blog. I'm getting ready to send off some of my holiday cards, and what better way to fill up the box than with a pile of other cards? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Retail Therapy

I may or may not have indulged in a bit of crafty retail therapy this past weekend, and I felt it necessary to use some of it, if only to justify its purchase. I made two cards that show off some of my, um ... acquisitions, and I'll show you the first one tonight.

This one uses some new paper (yes, I was weak):

This was cut from a parent sheet that jumped into my basket. I know, I know, I've sworn off paper, especially parent sheets, but this one spoke to me. It is ab.so.lute.ly luscious. In addition to the fabby texture, it has a sheen to it:

You can sorta see the sheen above the tree. Definitely a fondle factor purchase.

The tree was cut with the Memory Box Arbescello Tree die, and I used the metal shim plate to get it to cut like buttah. I find I need to do that with the more detailed dies. The sentiment was stamped with Ranger Distress Gathered Twigs ink and clear-embossed. I love that the Distress inks stay wet long enough to emboss. :) 

I actually started this card last night, but got stuck. At that point it just had the tree and the sentiment. It needed ... something, but I wasn't sure what. Tonight I added a brown twine bow to the trunk:

... but it was still ... yawn. Then I got a clue and added the blue heart to the tree. I die-cut it from a "clean-up" tag -- a Ranger manila tag I keep out on my desk to pick up excess ink from my craft sheet. See? I took the Tim Holtz online class and I even listened! So here's the die cut:

I needed a teeny tiny heart, and now I have many. :)

In other news, I've signed up for the next Online Card Class called Kick Start. In my opinion, these classes are a bargain based on the material you get and the stuff you learn. I cannot wait! How many of you have already signed up? Can we do our homework together? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS # 66 - My Favorite Things

Happy Tuesday! It's time for another Shopping Our Stash challenge. This week we ask you to make a card using your Favorite Things. By that we mean: use what you loooooove to use, the stuff you'd put on every card if you could. It could be brads, pretty paper, ribbon, a certain shape, stickers, rub-ons ... anything you love to put on a card. C'mon, how much easier could this be?!

This one kinda stumped some of the DT, because HOW COULD WE CHOOSE?!?! heh heh Not so long ago my answer would have been RIBBON, and maybe you've noticed that lately I haven't been using much ribbon (I know!), but what I have been using is (are) washi tape and dies. A lot. So I chose those as my favorite things du jour and made this:

First: the washi tape. I used a green and white diagonal striped piece, but it was too narrow to span the die opening, so I put it on sideways, like this:

It was all hidden by the upper die-cut panel, so I only needed to make sure to keep it away from the edge. I love the non-exact science of it. :) You can see I even overlapped the bottom two pieces, since I was too lazy to trim it, and also, washi tape is very forgiving, and overlapping it is cool. Can you see why I love it so?

I die-cut the Memory Box Hexagon Border on another piece of card stock and popped it up on dimensional adhesive. I was following the Hero Arts August sketches (bottom right sketch):

So I've used washi tape and a die. And buttons. And green.  So now it's YOUR turn! Make a pile of all your favorite things to use on a card, use some or all of them to make a card, then come on over to Shopping Our Stash to link up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lucky Stars

During my retail therapy session yesterday, I snagged the Hero Arts Operation Write Home stamp set, and last night I made this card:

The colors I used are SU's Not Quite Navy and Real Red. I fussy-cut the hearts and stars, and it took every fiber of my being to not glitter up the stars inside the red heart. I adore the fonts in that sentiment - it totally rocks! You'll be seeing more of this set here in the months to come - it has so many possibilities.

In other news, Lisa is packing her bags; tomorrow she leaves for home and I have to go back to work. :( Sad faces all around. I thank my lucky stars she could come visit! This has been one fantastic tweet-up, and I hope we get to do it again very soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Playin'

While Lisa's been here, we've had some quality stampy time, which has been a blast. One night we played with washi tape (duh) but not just any washi tape. I chose to use a piece that was very cool when I bought it but once I got it in my paws, I couldn't figure out how to use it. I made this:

Yes, I know, it's (gah) pink, but it was part of a pile of Melon Mambo card stock I have left over from my SU monthly classes, and now the pile is one piece shorter. Also, the pink kinda went with the washi, or so Lisa said. I tried to resist, but she is pretty persuasive. I added a lot of black to make up for it.

I started out by putting two rows of the washi on a piece of SU Brushed Silver card stock (it was out, so I used it). The embossed sentiment was a practice one Lisa made, so I used it. I put two strips of black washi under the sentiment for contrast.

The paper clip was Lisa's idea, too. We tried a bazillion ways to get the vellum layer to lay flat, but it refused, so we let it flop around, and the paper clip holds it flat in one spot. 

Lisa is only here for one more day (waaaaaaahhhhh), and today we're going to meet up with RuffHaven and go eat Maryland Crab Cakes. YUM!

In other news, our fearless leader over at Shopping Our Stash has started up another challenge blog: Anything But A Card. The first challenge will be September 2nd, but she's got a blog candy offer going on here. Go check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Black & White & Green

When I saw the current challenge at The Play Date Cafe, it spoke to me. Black, White and a splash of green:

I pulled out my pack of KaiserCraft Chapter One papers, because they are blue and green and black and white and would give us sooooo many possibilities. This is what came out:

 I immediately knew I wanted to use this pretty paper. It's mostly black & white, with a subtle gradient green pattern in the background. I used all white and black elements - ribbon, sentiment, layers, etc., but when we rummaged through my every color pearls basket and discovered a pack of gorgeous KaiserCraft pearls, I went with black & white & green.

One other cool thing about this piece of paper: all the black on it is shiny:

Okay, here it's glaring, too, but that glare is reflecting off the shiny black flowers.

In other news, my sweetie-head pal, Lisa is visiting, and she played the same challenge! We had crafting in stereo! She even used one of my UFOs, so she totally gets bonus points for that. You should go over to her post and leave her some love.

Thanks for stopping by!

Holiday BINGO!

The current challenge at Jingle Belles Rock (I almost typed Jungle, again) is Holiday BINGO:

I was going to take a different route, but when I saw the perfect piece of paper in my MME Signature Christmas pack, the card pretty much made itself. Lookie:

Uh-huh, that's what I'm talkin' about! Santa - HELLO! I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder on the right side of the paper, added a piece of SU lace, went crazy and added a button made from a piece of the MME paper, and called it done. Okay, I added a layer of not-quite-the-right-color blue-green, but in real life they are not so disparate, I promise you.

Thus, I completed the left vertical row of Santa, Lace, and embosssing, and one more card is done towards this year's "will she or won't she?" holiday card extravaganza. I vote for "HAHAHAHAHA, no", but it's not December 24th yet, so there's ple-e-e-e-nty of time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Washi, Washi, Washi

You have to read that title a la "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" from The Brady Bunch, because that's how I say it in my brain.

So my pal Lisa is here, and we are eating and crafting and not sleeping enough, and eating some more, then yesterday we went to IKEA. I'm always fascinated by the storage options, and when we were in the kitchen section, we spied an expandable pot lid organizer --Rationell Variera -- that I decided would be perfect to organize my washi tape collection.

Here's what it looks like in its mostly-intended-for position:

And here's what it looks like in its "other options" position:

I have a small space in my craft room on the wall between two closets, and I decided that's where I'd hang these (I got two). Here's what my new washi tape storage system looks like:

Yeah. Ahem.

Here's the blues and greens:

Yeah.

It's a great organizing system, and I really like it.

Also, I'm not going to buy any more washi tape for a very, very long time.

A Fuzzy Blue Kitteh

Today is a special birthday! It is! Today my bloggy and tweepy pal Lydia, aka: UnderstandBlue, is one year older and better! I used that excuse to make her a card using a stamp she designed herself, modeled after one of her kitties: Maddie.

Here's the card, then I'll explain:

First, I have to tell you whoever called it Fun Flock was a liar. Or maybe I don't use it enough to get good at it, which is a distinct possibility. ANYway, I was going to ink up the Maddie* stamp in the colors of her two kittehs, but instead I decided to make it blue, in honor of her special day, and because I kinda doubt anyone else got her a blue kitteh. And if they did, I'm okay with it!

The kitteh is a bit demonic, and that was not intentional. I colored her eyes with a green glitter pen before I flocked her (yes, all stamping terms sound dirty), and I colored the little heart with a red glitter pen, too, but post-flocking, well, see for yourself:

Her flocking got in her eyes. :(

Every time I use the Maddie stamp I cut her out and leave the tail all curly like that. Hopefully Lydia will be so wowed by the fuzzy blue kitteh that she'll overlook the demonic thing.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Lydia! May you have many mooooooooore!

Thanks for stopping by!

*You can purchase your own sassy Maddie stamp here.

WooHooo!

In just a few hours, one of my bestest tweeps will be IN THE HOUSE, so this morning I needed to clean the house and push aside some of the craft room overflow. So the first thing I did when I got out of bed, after catching up on my email, doing some work on my Google Reader backlog, and tweeting a bit, I made a card.  This card:

Several factors pushed me into The Captain's Quarters, aside from the creative avoidance forces from all the impending cleaning. Most importantly this card totally inspired me, and it only caught my eye because I have a piece of A*Muse wood-grain card stock in The Heaplet, and I have yet to figure out what to do with it, given that putting it away was not an option.

Please excuse all the incorrect word tenses in that last sentence.

Since even the card base came from The Heaplet, this card is 100% remnants, and yes, I am very proud.

Here's the owl, up close and personal:

I keep forgetting I even have this punch. I love that the heart can be used as a nose. :) I colored his feet with a brown marker, and the leaf/branch was punched from the bird ... punch.

I added a cranberry circle under the cream layer, because it looked like it needed something. Speaking of which, check out the washi tape I snuck in under the sentiment:

It must be a cranberry kind of day. :)

In other news, I did finally clean. Well, I cleaned everything that's going to get cleaned, and now I need a nap. Maybe I'll go stamp some more and work on this new stack of sketches I've printed off. I'm telling you, a crafter's work is never done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, Crab

I am a bad friend. I am one of those people who has a bazillion cards laying around, but I need to make a special card for someone I know, so ... I run out of time, and it rarely happens. Eventually I forget they even have birthdays, and the guilt goes away. A little.

But one of my special bloggy pals, Libby, has a birthday TODAY, and I, well, I do what I usually do, and I forgot. But it's her lucky day, because I'm officially on vacation until Tuesday, so I made her a card tonight. Since I'm posting it on her birthday, I'm not late, right? 

I thought so. 

So here it is:

Isn't he a cutie pie? I love my Paper Smooches stamps. The background was made with a Hero Arts chevron stamp colored in various Distress inks.

Here is the detail of the crab:

I colored his claws with a glitter pen, then covered them with Glossy Accents. Stickles wouldn't dry until tomorrow, and I have that whole instant gratification thing going on here.

I know we've discussed this before, but most crabs aren't red unless they are cooked, and this guy is smiling, so I'm pretty sure he lives.  There is one kind of crab that is red while alive, so I declare this guy to be that variety. I think it's a red crab (imagine that).

So Happy Birthday, Libby! And may you have MANY MANY MORE!

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS #65 - SKETCH

Happy Tuesday! It's time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash. This week is a sketch challenge, but we're not dictating which sketch you should use. That means you can use any sketch you want as long as you can link to it. It can be a current sketch for a challenge blog, or an old one you haven't gotten to yet (*ahem*), or a favorite go-to sketch. There are a TON of sketch challenge blogs out there. If your Reader isn't filled with them like mine is, head over to Allison's blog and look for the Sketch Challenge linky she posts on Sundays. Another great source is Feline Playful, or Operation Write Home, and let's not forget Splitcoast has a sketch every Wednesday. LOTS TO CHOOSE FROM!

I chose an expired (of course) sketch from Sketches In Thyme:

Yeah, it's square, and it's a scrapbook layout, so I adapted it to the smaller area of an A2 card and made this:

I was totally influenced by the red, orange and yellow elements of the sketch, and knew I wanted to break out my washi tape. I was momentarily stumped when thinking about what color to use under the sentiment, but that blue (perhaps it's Bermuda Bay) was out on top of The Heaplet, as was the other piece I used as a base layer, and now it's not.

The strategically placed pearls were intended to hide a mystery black dot on the white piece, but I either took a worse-than-normal photo, or I missed. :(

So now it's YOUR turn! Go forth and find a sketch to use, make a card, then come back to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made. Please remember to include the link to your sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrappy Masculine Birthday

Happy Monday, everyone! I thought I'd start off the week by sharing a masculine card I made last night:

I'm quite proud of this for several reasons. First, that piece of dotted paper has been hanging around in my pile of undone sketches for a while, and I decided it needed to disappear. That piece of paper started this card.

Under that piece of paper was this sketch from The Friday Mash-Up:

I liked it because it reminds me of a typical "Leslie" card of days gone by, and also because I could use that piece of paper as the background. Done.

Next, I went in search of remnants to match the paper. This paper was released with the first SU In Color batch back in 2007. Luckily, as a hoarder, and because I loved all the colors that year, I have all of it: card stock, ribbon, ink .. uh-huh. Everything you see here is a remnant - no virgin card stock was sacrificed to make this card, which makes it all the sweeter.

I embossed the white layer to make it less boring ... er, to give it some interest:

Then, even though I said the other day that you don't need to cut a whole matching ribbon-ended layer for your sentiment, I needed to this time, because I used different whites for the elements and they didn't match. But when I use the same white for both pieces, I'm totally going to use the "spot of color" and not mess with fussy-cutting those ends.

Also, check out that handsome star thing I used instead of the flower (masculine = no flowers). It was made using these:

... which I picked up in a moment of retail therapy. They are a little bigger than I thought they'd be, and I almost didn't use the larger "tag" layer, but the card needed some More Mustard, and it was done. In the detail shot above, you can see the tiny dimensional adhesive I used under the opening in the tag to hold it up. Since it's also sticky, I stuck a pearl to it and didn't bother negotiating with a brad. If I'd been thinking clearly, I'd have used a real brad before I stuck down the layers to the card front. Instead, I was forced to come up with Plan B, and I think it looks better this way, anyway. Pffth, like I had a choice.

I'm headed out to work today, but it's a short work week for me, after which I'll either be crafty or tipsy (not sure which ... maybe both!) with my pal Lisa, and it sure will be fun either way!

Thanks for stopping by!

I Used To Care

For my next trick, I pulled out this week's SCS Sketch:

and, using my still-out Cosmo Cricket Clementine papers, I made this:

As an added bonus, the two rectangle pieces were already cut, with rounded corners and everything; I just trimmed them. Sweet.

Here's the irreverent MFT sentiment from Twisted Foursome, up close and personal:

heh heh

Okay, maybe I should leave the house today and buy food and paper towels. If I'm out of paper towels, I can't clean. Wait, never mind.

Thanks for stopping by!

Amazing Chick

Isn't it funny how things go in cycles? For the longest time, women detested being referred to as a "chick", and I still don't like it much, but it seems to be back in vogue, at least in the stampy world. I only bring that up because of the sentiment I used on this card:

This card TOTALLY came into being because of the thin strips of Cosmo Cricket Clementine remnants that were out on top of this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

I needed something to put into a square for that square white sketch element, and I went in search of a stamp set. I bought the MFT Contempo Cage Stamps & Die combination set many moons ago, and it must have been in a weak moment. I don't like caged birds, but I like birds in general, and these came with a die, so maybe that was it. ANYway, you can see what I did here:

I stamped that image I'm calling "wrought iron" and made it into a sortof branch. His wobbly legs are hand-drawn. (Aren't those papers yummy?) And I've opened and used yet another stamp set. Go, me.

Hey, thanks for stopping by!

Inspired By My Peeps

Anyone who tells you blogging and Twitter are free is a liar. Well, technically they are free services, but no one warns you about the enabling.

Case in point: My pal Libby posted this card, and I was enabled to need the HA city scape stamp. Next, my pal Mary Dawn posted this card and I felt the need to CASE it. At first, I was just going to make my own sunburst with paper (enabled to buy via blurfing), although I could have use either my HA sunburst stamp (enabled to buy via blurfing) or the A*Muse sunburst stamp (enabled to buy via blurfing), but while flipping through my still-out Basic Grey What's Up papers (enabled to buy via blurfing), I found a sunburst printed page! I do believe angels sang.

So I made this:

Sentiment by Lawn Fawn, plane die by MFT, twine by Divine Twine.

(I might be a little giddy, even.) The buildings were stamped on remnants of the grid pattern paper in the What's Up papers, just for a little more interest, and now they are gone.

I feel more stamping is needed today, so if the loads of laundry and other cleaning frenzies allow (did I tell you my pal Lisa is coming to visit meeeeee next week?!?!), I'll be back.

Thanks for stopping by!

Feel Better Soon

The current Unscripted Sketches challenge gave us a twist this week. We could just do the sketch:

or go for the gusto and use the suggested colors:

I decided to go for both. :)

First, I flipped the sketch 180 degrees:

then I made this:

I declared the Basic Grey What's Up papers to be (sorta) three of the four colors, and I layered the papers with SU Soft Suede for the brown. This was made from remnants which I keep in the front of the 6x6 paper pad so I remember what pack they came from ;/ and the base is SU Naturals White.

I think the most difficult part of this card was getting the brads to straddle the twine and still fit back through the single hole underneath. However, they may also be some of my oldest brads, and I used four of them, so that kinda balances out the sweat factor, don't you think?:)

Thanks for stopping by!

Even More Washi Tape

For my third of three posts*, here's the third card I made today:

If this looks familiar, it's because I based it on this iSpy sketch that I used here:

I flipped it and skipped the bow. I chose this sketch because I needed to open and use this most recent washi tape acquisition:

I covered pieces of remnant white card stock with each of the tapes and stuck 'em down! At this rate, I might actually use up some of these tapes before I die. Hey, could happen.

Alrighty, then. I think I'll go like up some of these cards, then contemplate dinner. Thanks for stopping by!

* I like to have separate posts for each card so it's easier to link them up to the challenge blogs. It gets confusing to the challenge blog owner when they have to read past two other cards to find the one that's for their challenge. Plus, this way I look like I've been really, really busy today instead of just creating pretty trash.

Scrappy Sketch

I love it when a piece of paper gets partly used up! As I stared at the pile of challenges I chose for this weekend, and recalled the pretty trash I spent the day creating, I went back to what I usually do and selected a piece of paper from The Heaplet and let that drive my decisions.

Here's the card that came out:

I used a piece of SU DSP - both sides of the paper, so I used even more of it, though sadly some still remains. I followed this sketch from iSpy Sketches:

I decided all the layers needed some definition, so I layered them all on SU Always Artichoke.

The branch is from one of my new Poppystamps dies, and to be really bold and "out there", I opened and used some purple (Hydrangea, I think) Liquid Pearls in the upper left of the off-white rectangle, and now that I've used it I can put it away. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

I think the next time I use the leaf die I'll also use the solid one. That way I can have two-toned leaves. Hmmm ...

Okay, I have one more card to post. Thanks for stopping by!

You're A Hoot

I've been working on challenges today, and most of my attempts are in the trash. However, a few did make it out of The Captain's Quarters, and here's one of them:

The white piece with the owl was salvaged from a card that ended up in the trash. The card was hideous, but it wasn't the owl's fault. He's a cutie from a Cornish Heritage Farms (CHF) Kim Hughes set called Pretty Birds.

All the circles piled up there are based on this sketch from Clean & Simple:

... but I used that white square for the sentiment. Hey, it's off my desk! :)

I chose the Basic Grey Hopscotch papers because of their colors, which sorta kinda go with the current Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger:

Well, they are in the spirit of these colors. :)

Oh, and about that line across the top of the yellow layer? It comes that way. I just wasn't paying attention then I chose to cut the paper in that direction. ;/

Okay, two more challenges to post. Thanks for stopping by!