Saturday, February 28, 2015

OWH Sketch #249

I was supposed to be in Indiana today, crafting with a friend, but when I saw the forecast for several inches of snow Saturday night, and more snow all day Sunday, and even into Monday, I cried foul and decided not to go. Now don't get me wrong, I love snow, and I don't even mind driving in it. What I mind is all those OTHER people who are clueless and cause accidents. Plus, the interstate I'd have to take is generally all over the news when it snows, with semis sliding off the road and reports of muti-vehicle accidents. I opted to stay home.

I was hoping my pal would share some of her mojo with me, but alas, I'm on my own. So I did what I usually do: went through my list of challenges for some inspiration.

Here's the new OWH sketch challenge:


This is a little busier than I'd like, so instead of using individual pieces for the left-hand sketch elements, I just used a single strip of paper.

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


I might be a little proud that I used mostly remnants for this card. I have a too-large pile of UGH card parts -- not really UFOs, just failed card parts, to the right of my work area on my desk. I had a few strips of green paper from a failed holiday card I attempted back in October (that's right), a piece of white card stock with quilting on it left over from an earlier card, and some SU Basic Gray card stock left from the card I made for Tuesday's new SOS challenge.

All I did was trim things up and follow the sketch. I felt the sketch needed a horizontal element, so that's where I put my sentiment.

Pretty easy! And now all that stuff is off my desk! Whoot.

I think I'll take advantage of this momentum and go try to make a few more cards before I nap this afternoon. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: Mystery patterned paper, SU Basic Gray card stock, and the following:



CSSC #1 - WINNERS!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all who played my first sketch challenge! The number of entries blew me away, and I am humbled by your support. xoxo

I loved all of the entries, but I don't have enough duplicate inks to go around, so whittle it down, I must.

The first ever WINNER of the Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge is ...

KT Fit Kitty, with this card:


There's just something about those tigers that pulled at my heart strings. What can I say?

And our two runners-up are:



I loved the masked cloud background panel as well as the patterned paper dinosaur slopping over it.




I love the texture and the tone-on-tone stripes of this one.

Congratulations, ladies! Feel free to grab your badge from the CSSC Rules & Badges page, and display it proudly on your blog. You've earned it!

And KT, please email me (link on the right) to select your ink colors!

Normally you'd have a few days off to clean your desk, or eat bon-bons, but nooooooo, I chose to start my challenge in February, so I'll be back tomorrow (the 1st!) with a new sketch.

Thanks, again, for your support! xo

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Just Playing

I have one last group of cards I made last weekend during my play date.  Here's one of them, then I'll explain:


While wandering around my pal's craft space, I spied a Maya Road (I think) stamp set of a bunch of eye charts. This is the birthday one. I stamped them all on white and cut them out, then stared at them for a while.

My pal mentioned when she used the set many moons ago she CASEd someone's idea to run some washi tape across the front of the card, then anchor it with the eye chart. If it's good enough to CASE once, it's good enough to CASE twice, so I did!

I had a stack of unopened gold & black washi tape, so I opened it and used it. I left the arrow piece alone, but trimmed down the other two patterns.

I did the same thing with the other eye charts:


Kinda fun! There was also a Love eye chart, but I wanted to do that one in red, then I got lazy and just stopped where I was.

I'm all done sharing my crafty play date cards. Hopefully I'll find some mojo and have something else to share later this week. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

SOS #190: Out of the Jar

Happy Tuesday! It's time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash. This week's theme is Out of the Jar, and we'd like you to use something that came out of a jar (embossing powder, gold flakes, flower soft, glitter, perfect pearls, etc. -- OR -- use a jar image -- OR -- make something using a jar (decorate a jar)! So many options.

I chose to use some ancient embossing powder: Stampendous Aged Aqua Embossing Enamel. I bought it because I saw someone use it and it was so pretty. Here's the card I made, then I'll explain:


As is my way, I backed into this card. I started with a stamp from the Reverse Confetti So Stripey set and I stamped it in Versamark several times along the edge of a piece of white card stock. Each time I stamped it, I added the embossing powder so I could see the previous lines. Once I had them all stamped, I embossed them.

Then things got a little crazy. I'd been playing with some foil paper over the weekend, and largely failing, so I re-watched Jennifer McGuire's video on foiling and realized my mistake (I didn't burnish enough), so I needed to include foiling here. Why, I have no idea.

I used two different methods of applying the foil: Sookwang/Be Creative tape and Stick It sheets. Both worked equally well. The tape is the horizontal stripe across the embossed stripes, and the Stick It sheet was used for the back oval die-cut.

Here's a close-up of the embossed stripes:


I like this powder because it gives such a random color on the embossed area. So cool.

The cat is totally a stash item. I got it in a sale bin at Recollections, back when Michael's still had separate Recollections stores. *moment of silence* I stamped it with black ink and colored the eyes and nose with Sharpies. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches Feline Friends, and it was chosen for its size. I told you I back into these things.

I followed the sketch from The Friday Mash-up!:


I didn't like the small panel by itself on a white card base, and I couldn't figure out what color to use, so instead I embossed another white panel with a Tim Holtz embossing folder. It helped to cut the white.

The other part of the Friday Mash-up challenge was Flight. There were a couple of spots on the foiled oval that were not so pretty, so I die-cut some black butterflies and strategically placed them to hide the icky spots.

So much for my jar project. I think you should play along! For some ideas, why not stop by Shopping Our Stash to check out what the other gals have made?

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: SU Basic Black card stock, Sharpies, Cat by Rubber Soul, and the following: