The Crooked Stamper

Carving Homework #4

2012-01-27T19:51:00.000-05:00

[If you're looking for the Hambo Blog Hop, click here. Don't forget to comment on the blogs for a chance to win!]

I watched the Stamp Carving class #4 last night, and we made a chevron set. Here's mine:

I'm once again embracing the rustic thing I have going on here. I carved all of these in about an hour, so they aren't close to the level of what some of the other students have submitted, but I'm okay with that. I'm not going for perfection - I'm learning and playing and having some fun!

During the lesson, she showed us how to cut the sections at different angles, but I wanted to make them all the same so I had the option of nesting them. I even made several of them the same size to I could just alter the design and mix and match.

Here's the first card I made using them:

That green banner one on the left is just poorly stamped. You'll see on the next card that edge really is there ... We were supposed to do different designs, and I just knew I wanted to make one checkered - that would be the mis-stamped green banner on the left. You can see there are three smaller pieces - all the same size, and the two larger ones are the same size. The blue one with the curvy lines was made using a circle Nestie as a template for the lines. I was a little tired of all the straight-ish lines on the other pieces.

I made this next card to use the other two stamps I carved:

Here I've used the same checkered banner plus one I gave a checkered border and left solid in the center. The chevron on either side of the sentiment was made with my last piece. There, now you've seen them all.

Or have you? heh heh

One of the stamps Julie made during class was a partial flower, and I just had to try it! Here is the stamp:

And here is what you can do with it (in theory):

I need to work on the size ... or the math ... or something. If you line up the edges, there is space for 4 1/2 images. Not right. But IN THEORY ... it's just something with which to play.

I'm pretty excited with what we've done in just two short weeks! Three more to go!

In other news, I have a masso stack of challenges on deck for the weekend, so stay tuned! I'll be back!

Thanks for stopping by!

Green Eggs and ... Hambo!

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to "Green Eggs and ......Hambo" sponsored by Hambo Stamps! Today Hambo customers and the Bacon Bits Design Team are bringing you fun creations based on book titles! It could be our favorite book, or just one that was fun to design.

If you've arrived here from Sherry's blog you are in the right place! If not, you might want to start back at the beginning at the Hambo blog to make sure you are eligible for the hopper prize! Yes, YOU can win a prize!!!

A prize will be awarded to one participant whose book-themed creation tickles the Bacon Bits’ fancy in a hammin’ jammin’ way! Another prize will be awarded randomly to a hopper (that's YOU!) who comments on all the blogs along the way. The winners will be announced on the Hoedown blog, as well as on the Hambo company blog, Talk to the Ham, on Wednesday, February 1.

For my card I decided to use the book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. Why did I decide on this book? Partly because it's a great read, and partly because I have the King digi that was perfect! My apologies to any historians out there who will tell me this is the wrong attire for the period, but, as my bloggy pal Lydia would say, "It's ART!" So here's my card:

The DSP is from SU's Mocha Morning Specialty Papers pack that was languishing on The Heaplet. I've used glitter pens, a black glaze pen, Copics, bling, blue flock, white Liquid Applique, a Nestie to cut it out, and my Dymo labeler for the sentiment. Phew!

Now dance on over to Judy's blog for another great book!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hop List

Talk to the Ham

Leslie (You are here)

Libby

Hero Arts CASE

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

When I saw this card on the Hero Arts blog, I just KNEW I wanted to CASE it. so the other night I made this:

(The card base is actually vanilla - it was photographed on a Kraft background.) Since I didn't go back and look at the bookmarked card before I made mine, I'm just saying I was inspired by it. I remembered I wanted to do the Kraft envelope with the hearts.

The Poppy layer was an afterthought. I wanted to leave it out, but I think it looks fine. The hearts were punched with the SU Heart to Heart punch and the Small Heart punch. The envelope was punched with the Petal Card Double punch. The sentiment was stamped in Pure Poppy on a scrap of textured vanilla card stock, and I added the Linen Thread instead of twine to balance out the Kraft envelope. Whoa - a 100% SU card. Whoot! :)

The next day ... (name that song) ... I got my light tent. I also added a heart to the envelope. Here are the "with" and "without" photos:

In the light tent (filtered light):

I think it looks dark, but the detail is quite clear.

Now with just the lights and the card on white card stock (no tent):

Blech - washed out and ... blechy. I need to play with the camera settings some more. One of these days, when you least expect it ... (name that TV show) ... I'll have a decent photo for you. In the mean time, I thank you for hangin' in there!

Thanks for stopping by!

WOTT & WOYWW - 01/24/2012

2012-01-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, kids, it's time for another reveal of the state of my crafty desk. It's not pretty, but I'm always willing to take one for the team.

Here she is (taken Tuesday night):

Compared to other posts I've done, there really is a HUGE crafty space there. Let's do those numbers!

(From left to right)
1. Some panels I've embossed using a new set of embossing folders. I embossed 4, 3 are left.
2. Ribbon. Yes, it's still out. I used a piece on Monday's card.
3. A spool of unopened ribbon that I can't bear to part with. I just KNOW I'll use it. Also, a few paper flowers that I KNOW I'll find the right card to use them on. Also some wire I'm playing with.
4. The bandanna is still out. Don't even ask me how many months it's been there. It's a great home for miscellaneous brads and bling I find.
5. A Post-it-note holder I made a while ago. It just sits there, mocking me. I have no idea what to do with it.
6. A balloon punch I used on #10.
7. Ink, adhesives, etc. This stuff lives here.
8. Blue flock. I used it on a card I'll post on Friday.
9. An almost-empty spool of PTI twine. Once it's gone I'll break out my 200 yards of twine I bought to use once the PTI stuff was gone. A well-stocked pantry is very important.
10. A card I made that I can't decide if I hate or not, so you haven't seen it yet.
11. A piece of a kit I bought ... ooooh ... when did Rubber Chicken close? 5 years ago? Anyway, it's a double tri-fold thingie, and I haven't used it yet. It's there to remind me it's there.
12. A card part that I also think I detest. I'm too stubborn to toss it and move on.
13. A whole package of quilling papers. I'm playing. Some of my handiwork is on #12.
14. My quilling tool and a glue pen. And other stuff, I'm sure.
15. Parts left of this card when I realized all of the pieces wouldn't fit.
16. Parts from a second one of these that hasn't been made yet. And may never be.

Well, I hope I've made you feel better about YOUR workspace. I know some of you look upon this desk in horror, but I find it quite inspiring. I am never at a loss of something on which to work, which is how I like it. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: I'm linking this to WOTT and WOYWW.

Carving Class #3 Homework

2012-01-24T20:48:00.002-05:00

In the first lesson this week for my stamp carving class, we learned how to make a chevron stamp. Here's mine:

The rubber is pink. It's inked with a permanent ink (I used blue StazOn) so we can test stamp it, then go back and clean it up. The ink helps to reveal the parts that need to be fixed. It's pretty neat!

Tonight I made my homework card:

(Yes, it's still washed out. No, my light tent hasn't arrived. Yes, I am still sorry.) I stamped the chevron with Ranger Distress Antique Linen onto SU River Rock card stock. Taking a cue from my Clean & Simple class, I just left it tone-on-tone, layered it on a River Rock base, and added a sentiment. This is another one of my new irreverent sentiments from Too Much Fun stamps. I think this stamp company and I are going to become very good friends. :)

Okay, I'm off to upload this to my class gallery so the teacher can yell at me some more*. I think I've pretty much nailed this whole "rustic" thing. :D

Thanks for stopping by!

*Teacher isn't really yelling at me. She SAYS she embraces my rustic approach. :)

SOS Challenge 36 - Blue

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Winter blues and we ask you to shop your stash and pull out items that are blue. You can have other colors, just be sure to use any shade of BLUE as the primary focus.

I went into my remnant box and pulled out a bunch of blue card stock to make this:

I was inspired by a card I saw while blurfing (can't find it now) for the layout. I cut 5 strips of different blues 1" each and lined them up. Then I punched 1" circles out of the same colors and lined them up below. At the last minute I decided I needed to stamp on the strips so they weren't so boring. The stamp is from a Hero Arts set sent to me by Stef of IngeniousInkling and JingleBelles fame. (Thanks, Stef!)

Then while I was typing this post I got the notion I should add bling, so I ended up with this:

I like it better now. :)

Now it's your turn! Go into your stash and pull out a bunch of BLUE stuff, make something with it, then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Simon Says Sketch

2012-01-23T19:52:00.000-05:00

Tonight I played in The Captain's Quarters and made a card based on the current Simon Says Stamp challenge, which is this sketch:

I was a little bit out of control. I started with a new 2-pack of embossing folders (by Lifestyle Crafts) I picked up at the LSS yesterday and then I started adding pieces, and more pieces, until this happened:

Totally not me, but isn't that embossing folder fabulous?!!? (Sorry about the glare - my photo tent arrives tomorrow.) I tried inking it up first, but it was too much with all the other schtuff on there, so I went with plain.

The paper flowers and (gah) pink bling are from the Blossom Builders Printed Kit in the SU Occasions mini (p 18). The brads and skinny ribbon are from one of the SAB selections that you can start earning TOMORROW! The piece of vellum is from my stash, and the doily was cut with an MFT die out of ... you guessed it: the SU Everyday Enchantment SAB papers. The sketch had an image there, but I didn't want to cover up that pretty paper. Please notice I curled the top corners of the vellum and also the flower petals. Thank you.

Finally, the sentiment is from Paper Smooches, and is stamped in SU Peach Parfait on a scrap of textured card stock.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to watch my next stamp carving class. I think we'll be making something larger than 1" square. Whoot! I'll be sure to show you how that goes. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I Am Doomed

2012-01-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought it was safe to go back to the LSS ...

You see, I only go there once every few months. Then they have time to order and receive everything I NEED, and I reduce the number of opportunities I have to wander around and buy other stuff I DON'T need. So after I went last weekend to pick up some stuff, I got two - TWO - calls this past week. A 6x6 pad of paper I asked for had arrived, and then, my ALL THE NEW COLORS OF COPICS arrived. So I just had to go again this weekend. I HAD TO.

Having just been there a week ago, I decided to go to the counter, pick up my stuff, pay for it, then run right back out the door, not looking left or right. While paying, I muttered something about how I was safe anyway, since I was just there last weekend, to which she replied (in a very enabling way, I might add), "Oh, no, we had our open house last week, so we've got all sorts of new stuff." Crap.

One of the new companies they carry is Too Much Fun. (toomuchfunrubberstamps.com). There were shelves of irreverence, so what was I to do? I got them all! BWAHAHAHAHA! Okay, one I had in my hand and put back was a stamp to make a fold-over T-shirt. It was $24, and I figured I could do something on the Silhouette instead and not pay that much for one stamp I might only use once or twice. See, I have my moments of clarity. But I did buy a ton of other stamps, so there's that.

ANYWAY, here's a card I just made using one of the stamps:

(Okay, my pictures are getting worse. I promise to buy a light box this week.) All papers are from the Memory Box "valise" 6x6 pack, and I loooove that they are all Kraft-backed. The sketch is from Clean & Simple Stamping FTL174:

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to mentally prepare myself for tomorrow being Mo ... Mon ... Mond ... I can't say it. Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by!

Okay, Okay, One More

2012-01-22T11:40:00.001-05:00

I'm still futzing with the Case Study challenge. I like the two cards I made earlier, but I wanted to try larger squares. I then realized all of them wouldn't fit on the card front, so this is what I ended up with:

I think of the three, I like this one the best.

Okay, then. I'm going to run to the LSS and pick up some stuff they have on hold for me. They are soooo enabling.

Thanks for stopping by!

CASE Study

2012-01-22T11:16:00.001-05:00

Another lazy day here at the Crooked homestead. As I attempted to catch up on my Google Reader backlog, I spied this week's Case Study challenge to use this card as our inspiration:

Since I'm still deeply in love with the SU SAB papers (that you can start earning on Tuesday!) I saw this as a way to use all the yummy papers and still have enough left for the rest of my life. Here's my card:

I even broke out my now-opened Paper Smooches sentiment set - the one that's been overlooked and unloved for way too long.

Then I made another one, just to try the pieces turned differently:

I think I like the second one better. I'd like it even better with the Miss You sentiment. :)

This is a great design to use up small pieces of patterned papers, and I just KNOW all you stampers and scrappers have a few of those, right? :D

In other news, please mark your calendars for the next VSN over on Splitcoast because I get to hostess one of the challenges! WHOOT! The VSN Mini will be Friday, February 10th, and the Main VSN will be Friday, March 9th and Saturday, March 10th!! I'm so excited! :):):)

Thanks for stopping by!

I Made More Stamps! (Lesson 2)

2012-01-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to watching Lesson 2 from my stamp carving class! These are the stamps I just made:

Everywhere you see black specs not on the main stripes is a boo-boo. :( I didn't clean them up well enough. We made two stamps because they nest/intertwine. In theory, we were supposed to cut out alternating stripes so that when we stamp them in 2 different colors, they look like they were meant to go together. Mine? Not so much.

Here's the card I made using them (we are supposed to make tags, but pffth - I am such a rebel.):

Like I said: IN THEORY these are supposed to fit nicely together. ;/

Here is a close-up so you can see all my boo-boos:

Yep, another "rustic" version of the assignment. I'll not be surprised if the teacher keeps me after class next time to have a few words with me.

Oh, and this card is, again, all remnants. I am so very proud. :D

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: The card uses the sketch from Skipping Stones Designs.

Alcohol vs Milk

2012-01-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I love Twitter. I get my news there, usually before it hits the news sites. I follow people in different walks of life, so I learn stuff I normally wouldn't even think to look up or discuss. Then there's the people who say the darnedest things. Like today, one of my tweeps, @keeponrunning, who is a ... runner, who I met through someone else that I met through someone else, said something that needed to be put on a card. He said he saw this and it made him laugh: "Alcohol doesn't solve any problems; then again, neither does milk." So. true.

So tonight I grabbed one of my stack o'sketches for the week - this one from Freshly Made Sketches:

... and I grabbed some paper from a pack of retired SU DSP that was stored at my feet (you just never know when you'll need it!) and I made this:

Yeah, it's a little plain, but I love that button! Probably a good thing since I got so many of them. ;/

Here's that sentiment up close:

I printed it on a remnant. Yes, I'm very proud.

Okay, this scratches my crafty itch for the evening. Thanks for stopping by!

I Made A Stamp!

2012-01-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

I'm taking an online "how to carve stamps" class:

and tonight I had my first pass at my homework. The first lesson was how to use the tools without drawing blood, and the first project was to carve a heart. Now you might wonder why a heart? Because it has both inside and outside points and curves, that's why! :)

Here is my first stamp:

It's not great ... too many rough edges. I like to think of it as "rustic". Yeah, that's working for me. ;/ I'll try again later in the week.

I did make a card using it though:

All from stuff on top of my desk. :D

And now that it's 8:45, I think I'll have some crackers and call it dinner. :) Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #35 - Across The Border

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

It's time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash! This week we have Across The Border, where we ask you to use any border punch or create your own border out of what you have on hand. Now how easy is that?!

I chose to use one of my MS border punches and made this card:

This is not the card I started to make. Nope. I have had a rough night. I started with a green border already punched - from my UFO drawer. I ran a scra ... remnant of ribbon through it, cut the pretty paper, then applied adhesive to the wrong side of the patterned paper. Did you know ATG adhesive is darn near permanent? I managed to peel it part-way off, then everything tore and I tossed it into the trash. Gone.

Let's just say: by the time I was done, I had used that whole piece of 12x12 paper. Not the best way to shop one's stash, eh? Sigh.

Everything here is from the stash - paper was cut into already, and now it's gone. The black pieces are actually the reverse of the paper. The green used to punch the new border was a remnant. The white was from a remnant. I also discovered I had no black buttons, so I made one from ... a remnant.

In case this sketch looks familiar, it's from Create With Connie and Mary from a week or so ago:

... and now it's out of my pile of sketches I probably won't get to. :)

Now it's your turn! Pull out some neglected (or favorite) border punches, or if you don't have any border punches you can make a border out of stuff you DO have, make a card with it, then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mojo 224 - HB

2012-01-16T21:04:00.000-05:00

I only printed off ONE challenge today, and it was because it spoke to me. May I present this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

I had this idea I'd break open my cheapo pack of paper doilies I picked up at Mike's a while ago, but once I got home, I found they were too big. So I grabbed one of my hoarded MS doily tags, some papers and ribbon from my Webster's Pages Groupon haul, and I made this:

Thank you, Lisa, for telling me to change the setting on my camera already! :) xoxo

The doily was WHITE, so I sponged it with Distress Antique Linen. Yes, I said "sponged". That's probably illegal in at least 14 states, but I did it anyway. The right-hand pointy element is poking out from under the doily, and I almost obliterated it when I felt the NEED to add that button. I know, I know - it's not on the sketch, but whatevah. I like it, so it stays.

The horizontal piece of lace is from my SU stash. Love that stuff!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wrestle Google Reader into submission before bed. So many blogs ... so little time.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little Re-Org

2012-01-15T19:40:00.000-05:00

I had planned to maybe work on organizing some stuff in The Captain's Quarters, but when I lost my DSL this morning and was DISCONNECTED from the Interwebz, I got serious about things In There.

Like most crafters, I have a lot of ... crafting supplies. Non-crafters are constantly amazed at the crap we collect, but hey, we NEED it, don't we?!?!?

I'm not totally insane, so I knew I'd have to tackle things in pieces. Last night I was talking with my tweeps about a Clip-It-Up to organize my collection of clear stamps. I know they are pricey, so I looked at alternatives, including making my own. There are some pretty clever home-made versions out there!

My clear stamp storage box was overflowing:

Something HAD to be done! So I triaged. I dumped out that box, sorted things by company, created a WTH pile and a MEH pile, then put everything else back in the same box, and I had this:

MUCH better. AND, I no longer need a spinning rack organizer thingie to hold them. Sweet.

Next up: My A Muse 4x4 paper collection and my A Muse and PTI stamps. I never look at any of that stuff. Both boxes were overflowing. I took out all sorts of "Pretty Little Papers" - these things:

and yes, I think I have one of every pattern and color. They are now in the Not Keeping pile. I was ready to put all of the 4x4 packs into the Not Keeping pile, too, when I decided they were perfectly good papers, and could be cut and used as 4x4 layers. We'll see how that goes.

After I was done with those two boxes, I moved on to my Every Color Divine Twine collection. Here's the Before:

Yes, I can see it, but I KNOW I have it, and I decided to put it in a box:

It's too tall for the lid, but I'm okay with that! This is where it lives now:

(Yeah, it's fuzzy, but it's kinda dark in there and there's no closet light.) It sits nicely on top of my box of remaining PTI ribbons. And now I have a big empty where the twine used to live:

I can see SURFACE! This is where I would have put my clear stamp spinner storage thing if I still needed one, which I do not! I'm sure I'll rearrange something else over here eventually.

But wait - there's more! Back in the olden days, I used to buy Every Color Brad and Eyelet from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts because they matched the SU colors and I could buy them in bulk. When I got my library wooden card catalog, I filled one of the drawers with all the tiny bags of brads and eyelets. I took a Before photo of it, but it's way to blurry to show you. I will, however, show you the After:

I love it! Those are stacks of clear containers that screw together. They are sold in a stack of 6 with one lid for the top container, but you can add as many or as few of the screw-on sections as you want. This was perfect for the OCD portion of my brain, as it let me put all like colors together without being limited to 6. This is what the stacks look like:

Nice, eh? Next, I knew my Nestie storage needed attention, too, plus my MFT and other dies lived in another box, and it was time for them all to live together. I got a wooden box for them to replace the cardboard IKEA box, and transferred everything over:

Here's the difference in size:

I had so much more room! So I grabbed my other box of dies and they now all live in this one box. I have the sections by shape: Circle, Rectangle, Border, etc., so it was pretty easy. I now have a new section at the front of the box for "Shapes" which is really "everything else". It still needs some work, so I'll show you that when I feel it's more blog-worthy.

Let's see, I think that's it on the organization front. I was so happy I got ANYTHING done, I pulled out one of my Clear & Simple dies to play with. It's a big one - almost a full card front, so I wasn't sure if it would work or not. I cut him out of felt and made this:

Isn't he CUTE? I might have to break down and put him on a square card, but still ... I'm going to have fun playing! The main die can also be made into an owl, which I'll try next.

Not bad for a Sunday, not bad at all. I think I still have some stampin' energy left. I might go read my irreverent stamps to see if I get any ideas.

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays - Scallops

2012-01-14T16:19:00.000-05:00

Another from my pile of challenges is this week's CAS-ual Fridays - Scallops! Let's just say I backed into this one. I was playing and futzing and hacking paper into smaller and smaller pieces, and this card is what came out:

I started by cutting the THANKS from a piece of ... you guessed it: the upcoming SU SAB papers. Why does it take me an hour to cut paper into smaller and smaller pieces and end up with something completely NOT what I set out to make?

I call this CAS only because it's not a fussy card. Just because a card is CAS, don't think it doesn't take just as long - or longer - to make. Just sayin'.

In the end, I backed into another entry for two challenges. The scallops are for the aforementioned CAS-ual Fridays scallop challenge, and once again I have dots and stripes, so I'll enter this over at the Simon Says Stamp blog, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles 12:02 - A Sketch

2012-01-14T16:05:00.002-05:00

Moving on through my piles of sketches and challenges, I picked up this sketch for the current Jingle Belles Rock challenge - Sketching Through the Snow:

Remember back a few weeks ago when I said I might try tags this year instead of cards? Well, I tried. Lookie:

I'm not feeling the love.

Here's the detail of the snowflakes, perhaps the only part of this tag I do like:

Meh. Good thing we have 2 weeks, because I certainly plan a do-over.

However, this tag DOES have both dots and stripes, so technically I can enter it in the Simon Says Stamp challenge. I think I will! :)

Info: All papers are from the upcoming SU SAB paper pack, except the glitter paper, which is from my Mike's stash. Tag base is from the remnant box. Ribbon is SU Ruffled Ribbon in Calypso Coral.

Now that it's 4 pm, maybe I'll shower and start my day. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Sketch Challenge

2012-01-14T13:59:00.000-05:00

As I sifted through my stack o'scketches, I ran across this one from Unscripted Sketches:

I thought it was only a week old since I have sketch #140 in the pile, too, but noooooo, it's from Dec 31st. Sketch #141 was posted today. Sigh. But it's still a sketch, and I still did it.

I decided to use that pack of still-out Memory Box "valise" papers, and I made two cards, but with different "somethings" added. First I made this one:

I took the photo at an angle so it wasn't so "flat". Even that poofy flower looked flat. Pffth. All those papers are from the same paper pack, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches. I'm going to have to break into my latest Paper Smooches sentiment set, and soon, because this HB stamp is just about worn out!

About that flower ... I die-cut about 8 layers from a heavy-weight black paper napkin, scrunched them up, secured them with a brad, and scrunched them up again. It was only later I realized the dark paper strip is darkdarkdark brown, and not black. ;/

Then I made this version:

Same card, but this time I used my Maddie stamp, drawn by Lydia, of UnderstandBlue. (She has the link to her stamp in her side bar.) Each time I use Maddie and cut her out, I leave the tail all curly and not stuck down. Also, I inked the stamp in Early Espresso, so it's closer to the color of the horizontal paper strip.

I think I'll have something to eat (for sustenance... stamping is HARD WORK, people!), then go in and stamp some more.

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS Thank You (ugh)

2012-01-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

I was trying to save time and space by putting two cards in that last post of mine. But apparently you can't use the InLinkz thing to post cards more than once per link site, so I'm just posting one of the cards separately (and again) so I can link it up to my class gallery.

From my previous post:

This card uses a different sketch:

CAS Thank You

2012-01-14T12:18:00.000-05:00

Here's two more cards I made for my Clean & Simple card-making class. This first one follows the same sketch as my last post, only I used patterned paper instead of buttons:

I also added the outer border, where on my last card I left the Kraft card base nekkid.

Here's a close up so you can see the texture on that piece of off-white paper:

Okay, in truth, I only posted that because it's the most in-focus shot of the bunch. :) The papers are from the upcoming SU SAB paper pack, and I am deeply in like with them. You need to place an SU order between Jan 24th and Mar 31st and earn some for yourself. You'll thank me for it.

Here's the second card, and it uses a different sketch:

The flower was left over from another card, and the strips of paper are from a newly-opened pack of Memory Box "valise" papers that I've had for some time. Now that I've fondled them, they won't be put away for a while, so you'll be seeing more of them around here.

Since both of these cards use patterned papers and are Thank You cards, I'm entering them in the Friday Mash-Up challenge to (1) make a Thank You project, (2) use patterned paper on a project, or (3) mash it up and do both! I did both! Whoot! (go, me)

I'm still in my jammies and it's noon. That means I've missed out on doing 2 things I'd had planned to get done today. Oh, well. I suppose I could stamp some more. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS Buttons

2012-01-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

I mentioned earlier that I'm taking the Clean & Simple card-making online class. Well, as you probably guessed, I read/watch the classes at night, and save up all my ideas for the weekend. So today I took out some sketches, along with my never-ending stack of challenges I won't get to, and made this:

I used the buttons so I could enter the Catered Crop challenge to use BUTTONS! I know, there is a ton of white space here, and yes, it makes me twitch. But I'm taking this class so I can get over my fear of white space, so there you go.

I've made a couple of other CAS cards, too, but I'll post them separately so the challenge peeps don't have to read through everything. I can be verbose at times. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Cats & Owners

2012-01-14T09:48:00.000-05:00

I had the distinct pleasure of being owned by a cat for over 11 years, and I must say, they are wonderful creatures. I was fortunate enough to adopt a kitteh that was a lap cat, and we got along splendidly. She was a free-feeder, which worked out great for me with my crazy schedule, plus she never woke me up to be fed. That was definitely a bonus!

But how many times have you heard a strange kitteh story and your only response could be, "Well, she's a CAT!" Yeah, the who-owns-who debate leans strongly in the direction of the felines, for sure.

So today I went into The Captain's Quarters, intent on making a card for this week's Catered Crop challenge to use BUTTONS on our cards. I also wanted to make a card or two for the Clean & Simple online class I'm taking. Instead, I made a cat card:

Okay, I made two since I couldn't decide on a base color:

I had an "Oh, shiny" moment when I stepped into The Captain's Quarters and spied my new Clear & Simple goodies. I was enabled to purchase them by reading a blog post that led me here: Little Critter Collection. So to make up for this moment of weakness, I tackled two different challenges than the one(s) I'd intended to do. I used the current sketch from Clean & Simple:

and I included the pleated ribbon (from the SU Occasions Mini - yes, I got them all) for the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge to use pleats or ruffles.

Now back to my card(s):

I used the kitteh stamp and die from my purchase, though I did use a hobby knife to cut out the space between the body and tail. The image is stamped onto an SU DSP remnant. The sentiment is from C is for Cat. And I put a piece of Very Vanilla seam binding under the Baja Breeze pleated ribbon for contrast. His nose is colored with a Copic marker. In hindsight, I think a think felt heart would be a fabulous nose. :) Next time.

The cat was fat enough to skew the sketch, so I hope I'm not disqualified. :(

One note about the stamps and dies: I used the die to cut one of them and I hand-cut the other one, not because I was running a controlled test, which in my world would have made perfect sense, but because I stamped the image before I die-cut it and hand-cutting it was easier than lining up the die. It was way easier to die-cut the shape first and then stamp on it. So if I've managed to enable you to NEED these stamps and dies, please know that the images are large enough to hand-cut so you don't also NEED the dies. You're welcome.

Now I need to go do that button challenge. And go to the Post Office. And shower. Not necessarily in that order.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Sketch + A Silhouette

2012-01-13T21:45:00.001-05:00

Happy Weekend, everyone! Whoot! I loooove Friday evenings. The weekend stretches out ahead of you and the possibilities are endless. As most of you know, I've gotten into the habit of printing off a bazillion sketches and challenges each week, and I sometimes even DO a few of them. I hope to get very stampy this weekend and work through my pile of ideas.

For starters, I went into The Captain's Quarters with the intention of doing this week's City Crafter Challenge of Back To Black, which is to use a black silhouette somewhere on your project. It HAS to be black. I was going to cut out something black using my lonely Silhouette Cameo, but then I stopped, because I have the remains of a package of black rub-ons I opened for a card I made last weekend, and it would be way better to use those than to cut into virgin card stock, am I right?!

A sketch ... I needed a sketch to get me started, so I pulled out this week's Skipping Stones Design's sketch:

(Did you see I WON last week's sketch challenge?!?! I DID! Still pinching myself! :D) Ahem.

So here's my card for the aforementioned challenge combo:

I'm quite proud of the stash I used here. First, I opened and used some of my hoardlet of the upcoming SU SAB papers. I love them. I opened and used a new stamp from Kaiser Kraft - it's like a lace border, and I stamped it in Versamark on that piece of pink-ish paper and heat-embossed it with Winter White EP. (That's my horizontal sketch element.) Next, I opened and used my MFT Cameo die and cut it twice out of heavy-weight vellum. (Everything else I tried there, and I tried mightily, let me tell you, covered up too much of the lace, so vellum it was.) Oh, and that cameo frame is the center panel of the sketch. The bird is my silhouette element for the City Crafters challenge. The four big pearls are from my old SU Pretties kit, and they hide some of the adhesive I used on the vellum. Vellum and I are not friends.

I was going to put small pearls around the rest of the cameo frame to hide the rest of the adhesive, but I thought it might be too much. Instead of the sentiment for the SSD sketch I used an ancient rub-on from a pack I recently discovered while moving things around. ("cleaning" is such a strong word)

Then the right side looked nekkid, so I used some strips of pearls and created a flourish of sorts to fill it in.

Let's just say I've taken a few liberties with the sketch, mkay?

I shall dive into my remaining pile o'sketches with gusto on the morrow. Tonight I need sleep.

Thanks for stopping by!

So Artful Challenge - Jan 13th

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

**GAH! I wasn't supposed to post this until Saturday, so pretend you don't see it yet. ;/ **

Time for another So Artful Challenge! This week we have the following two images to inspire us:

Optionally, we could use the colors turquoise, red, yellow or blues. I had that painted door stuck in my head, and I made this:

And once again, I need to explain. When I was a kid, my Mom used to do faux antique painting on our furniture. That's where you paint the base color you want, then go over it with a brush and a dark paint like brown or black, and it gets all streak-y-like and looks old. In theory. So that's what I wanted to do here. Didn't happen.

I started with a piece of retired SU Sage Shadow (the reason I even heard of SU lo these many years ago) and I painted about half of it with distress crackle paint that didn't crackle. Once that dried, I went over it with my dauber bottle of brown paint to dirty it up a bit. I cut part of it for my bottom layer and part of it with a scallop oval. I cut the oval into fourths, colored the edges with a Memento marker, and stuck them down with spaces between them to mimic the panels in the door photo. (Are you tired yet? I am ...)

Here's a closer-up view of the paints:

The gold-ish stuff is the uncrackled crackle paint and the streaky stuff is the brown. I kinda like how this turned out.

I used some brown Pearl Pen to make the dots between the oval parts, but most of them got covered up with the floofy flower I made out of tissue paper. I edged it with the brown paint to make it not so white:

Lastly, the sentiment. I printed L O V E on Naturals White, cut out the letters, spritzed them with gold smooch, edged the letters with the brown paint, and stuck them down. Done.

I stuck the whole thing on a Bazzil brown card base, and I actually cut out a piece of Vanilla scra ... er, remnant for the inside so someone can write in it without magic ink.

One more time, because this card took a year or two off my life:

But seriously, I never would have tried that paint stuff without the photo of that door, so this was a good exercise for me, right? RIGHT?!?!?

Okay, now it's your turn. Go check out the So Artful blog - the photos, the other DT samples, and then come play!

Thanks for stopping by!

New Rubbah

2012-01-12T20:57:00.000-05:00

At long last, I have my order from the Occasions mini, and tonight I introduced one of the sets to ink. Lookie:

Yeah, that photo is totally sideways .. and crooked. Sigh. HOWEVER, it was an easy-peasy card to make! I inked the image from the Sweet Cake set in Poppy Parade ink, stamped it on Whisper White card stock and cut it out (yes, I did). I used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the sentiment. The DSP is from Domestic Goddess from the big catalog, and I cut it out with one of our new Framelits dies from the Labels Collection. These dies have their cutting edge right up against the inside edge of the opening, so what you see is what you get!

A piece of Poppy Parade twill ribbon, some Dazzling Details around the icing swirls, and I declared her finished! This would be a great quick & easy card to make if you need one in a Card Emergency - just change up the colors to suit your intended recipient.

I think I'll go back and play some more. :) Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #34 - Shiny or DillyBeans

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Challenge #34 at Shopping Our Stash! This week our prompt is All that Glitters, Sparkles or Shines, and/or use a Dilly Beans Image. So, got anything sparkly, blingy, shiny, or glittery? Now come on, I KNOW you have some bling in your stash, am I right?!?! There are sooooo many possibilities here ... gems, rhinestones, glitter paper, anything glossy - BLING IT UP, BABY!

So I took a different approach. You expected no less, right? :) I made this:

This card is 83.7% stash - only the card base was cut new, and it's based on this sketch from Stamping 411:

I took it literally because I had two butterflies sitting on my desk that needed to be used. They were already inked and stamped and with wires, so all I did was cover them with a Versamarker and clear-emboss them. Now they shine! See:

You may need to click on the image to embiggen it to see the shine, but it's there! Oh, and the bamboo paper and layer of Soft Suede were cut from scra ... er, remnants, and the DSP is a remnant, too. It gave me a bit of a challenge, but I wrestled it into submission. You see, it was too short, so I did this:

:)

Now its your turn! Go into your stash, find something shiny or sparkly or glittery or blingy, or use a Dilly Bean image (OR BOTH!), make a card, then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger: By The Numbers (Redux)

2012-01-08T17:27:00.000-05:00

In my last post I showed you a card I made by literally interpreting this photo for the Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger:

I mentioned in that post that I could make more cards using the letters from that sticker set. As I wandered into The Captain's Quarters, I had an AH HA moment, or should I say more of a DUUUH moment. You see that photo above? See how it's quilted? I decided I should have quilted my card front, so I grabbed the letters and made this:

I love how the card front looks quilted when you run through the Big Shot with the SU Square Lattice folder. It even feels soft like cloth!

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll link this up over at the Moxie Fab blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger: By The Numbers

2012-01-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

The current Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger is By The Numbers, and they gave us this photo for inspiration:

I went with another literal interpretation because I had a pack of Making Memories stickers that were gathering dust, so I made this:

And so you can see it's not flat ;/ -->

This is another 100% remnant card, including the base, which is I think SU Confetti Tan. I used up almost all the numbers on the sheet. Now I need to make a few with letters and use up the whole thing! :)

I'm going back in. I might have one more card in me this weekend. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Something Completely Different

2012-01-08T12:23:00.000-05:00

I'm still in challenge mode, and this time I went in a vintage-y direction with the latest Deconstructing Jen sketch:

I'm also still in a "use the new stuff so you can put it away" mode, so I grabbed my Basic Grey "little black dress" 6x6 paper pack and made this:

I was totally driven by the paper here, and I used all sorts of stash. The lace is some Hero Arts lace I got about a year ago, and I've used the last full piece. The pearls in the center of the rolled flowers are from my old SU Pretties kit. The rub-on was a last-minute addition to fill the empty in the center - it's a Bo Bunny rub-on, and I had to open the package to use it. The butterfly is punched with an MS punch, and if I were a better photographer, you'd see its only stuck on in the center and the wings are raised up.

I'm pretty happy with how the rolled flowers turned out! :) This is going into a package I'm mailing, so I don't even need to worry about it getting all flattened in transit. yee-hah!

Thanks for stopping by!

Another 2-Fer

2012-01-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

I am still in challenge mode, though I am slowing down a bit. I love using up stuff!!!! I might find the top of my table by the end of the weekend. (Okay, maybe not.) This next card is a combination of two challenges. I started with the sketch from Skipping Stones Designs:

and this color combo from Stamping 411:

and made this:

This is like my third pass at an idea; my first two hit the bin. :( But I DID NOT GIVE UP! And I managed to succeed in making a rare SU-Only card to boot! I think the most exciting moment (short of cutting the paper strips mostly straight) was when I stamped the sentiment straight on the first try! I did practice on the grid paper like I always do, but I was so happeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Did you hear me squee?

Now that I look at this, I probably should have tied the knot on the other side for better balance, but you know what? I'm okay with how it turned out anyway. :) I might be suffering from challenge fatigue.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Challenge, Another Card

2012-01-07T15:55:00.000-05:00

One of the perils of Google Reader is you keep adding more and more blogs as your current bloggy pals introduce you to more and more blogs and challenges. And more and more until your head explodes. Did you know that Google Reader stops counting at 1000 unread posts? No no no, I don't follow 1000 blogs, but I have multiple unread posts in many of them, so I have hit that 1000 mark in the past. Your total unread blogs = 1000+ until you get it down to 999. You have no idea how far over 1000 you are unless you do that math, and I generally choose not to know.

So you can understand how stoopid-proud I am *puffs out feathers* when I get my Reader under 100. I strut my stuff and tweet and get all full of myself, then BOOM! I read one or two more blogs and find new challenges I need to add to my list of challenges I'll print out and not get to, then throw away. It is a vicious cycle.

So imagine my joy when I was catching up on Stef's posts (*waves*) and she's done a challenge of which I'd not yet heard! You know I had to go add it to my Reader, right? Sigh.

So here is the sketch from Fetch A Sketch:

I flipped it:

and made this:

And because I know my photography stinks, here is another shot at an angle so you can see it is not flat:

The star background is a piece of tissue paper I glued to a scrap of SU Naturals White. I declared the blue to be Brilliant Blue (retired) and used that for the mat. Red twine by Divine Twine, red buttons by SU, and sentiment by Paper Smooches.

Hmmm, almost 4 pm here on the Right Coast. Maybe I'll shower and begin my day. :D

Thanks for stopping by!

ESS#155 & PDCC #113

2012-01-07T11:58:00.000-05:00

This is turning out to be quite the sketch Saturday for me! This next card combines the fabby colors of the current Play Date Cafe challenge:

and the sketch from Eat, Sleep, Stamp:

to make this:

I declared the colors to be equivalent of SU's Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla. Instead of digging around for a remnant that would coordinate with both the blue and the green, I went with a virgin piece of patterned paper from Kaiser Kraft that was in my stash. It has a little black in it, and I hope that doesn't disqualify me, but oh, well.

I punched 4 scallop circles from the patterned paper, folded them into 4ths, and stuck them to a circle punched from a scrap. The SU Jumbo Brad holds them in place nicely. The sentiment is from my stash of OMG LOOK AT ALL THESE SENTIMENTS I MUST HOARD THEM collection. Can you say SABLE? Mmm-hmmm.

That's it for this one. I'm off to see what else I can cook up in The Captain's Quarters today. Thanks for stopping by!

Card Patterns: Sketch 147

2012-01-07T11:01:00.000-05:00

The next sketch I tackled is Card Patterns : Sketch 147. Here is the sketch:

I turned it sideways:

and I used some of the buttons I picked up at Mike's to make this:

Yep, more of the Memory Box "brioche" papers, more pearls, and a repeat of one of the sentiments I used on my last sketch post. I might be in a rut.

I'm going back in for more. Thanks for stopping by!

CPS 249

2012-01-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

I'm working on my pile o'sketches this weekend, and first out of the gate is Card Postitioning Systems sketch #249:

I decided this would be a most-excellent way to exhibit a few still-uninked irreverent sentiments, so I made two cards. Here's the first one:

This paper is from the Basic Grey piccadilly 6x6 papers. I figured this one isn't my normal go-to paper pattern, so I'd use it all by itself and make it go away. You will see here in a moment that I am stuck in the "oh, let's add pearls" mode. ;/ This card speaks to me today because I've spent part of the morning gathering things I've meant to send to people but just haven't gotten around to it. I got around to it today.

The rest: Sentiment by MFT, Nestie tag die, and SU ribbon and pearls.

Here's my second card:

Again with the Memory Box "brioche" papers that are still out near my desk (no room ON my desk ...). You see the pearls again, and yes, I'm pretty sick of this color combination, too. I need to move on to something else. Seriously.

The rest: Sentiment by MFT, Nestie tag die, and SU ribbon and pearls. (I sound like a broken record.)

So stay tuned - I will post more sketches as I complete them. Should be a busy weekend. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, Behave

2012-01-04T21:14:00.000-05:00

Are you channeling Austin Powers right now? I am! :) I went into The Captain's Quarters to make something, and this came out instead:

I wanted to use that Hero Arts flower and matching dies set that I HAD to have a while back, so it's seen ink. Yay. But before I could color it I needed to select the papers I would use. I went to my still-out Memory Box "brioche" papers and found three strips of coordinating paper already cut in different widths. That gave me the colors, so I colored the two parts of the flower with Copics. A few snip snips and the card was born.

The sentiment is from a package of Impression Obsession irreverent words that, believe it or not, hasn't seen ink either until tonight. I was torn between "Oh, Behave*", "whatever" and "who knew?", but I think this was the best choice (read: increased chance that someone might actually buy it and send it.)

Since my photography skillz still stink, here is evidence this card actually has layers:

The flower & die set has two dies that work with the flower image. I stamped it twice, and cut the center out of one of the images. Kinda fun!

Next time I go into The Captain's Quarters, I might actually accomplish what I set out to do. :) (oh, shiny)

Thanks for stopping by!

*Yes, I do believe there should be a comma between Oh and Behave.

SOS Challenge #33 - Challenge Rewind or Meljens

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is a Challenge Rewind: pick a challenge from 2011 and do it again! Or you can use a Meljens image. Or do BOTH and knock our sox off! :) I chose to re-do Challenge #3, which was UFOs - UnFinished Objects. Goodness knows I have many!

Here is the pile of things with which I started:

Let me just say right now that I totally messed up the coloring of that image (Hambo stamp), but NEVER FEAR! I had another one I could use. Yes, already in the UFO pile. Do you now see why I chose this challenge to do again? ;/

I ended up not using that pretty stamped frame thingie, and adding a (gah) pink layer, to make this:

The ribbon was a scrap I cut from the too-long piece I used for my Hambo card. Actually, there are two pieces of it here, because I messed up and put the SU copyright where you could see it above the frame, so it needed to be covered, and that scrap of ribbon was perfect. I may go back and trim off the cut end. Still undecided.

Now it's your turn! Go back through our challenges for 2011, pick one you'd like to re-do, DO IT, then link us up over at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mornings

2012-01-02T20:36:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the first day back at the office after a long weekend for most people, and for me, it's the first day back after 10 days away. I may die. So I thought I'd post just one more card tonight in honor of the occasion:

Please don't misunderstand me. I actually like my job. I'd like it even more if I didn't have to spend an hour driving each way in traffic made up of a bunch of ying-yangs, but I digress. So yes, having to go to work in the morning has made me old before my time.

I started out with the stamp set from Bugaboo (actually Stampalicious) and used this week's sketch from Karen Giron:

I used more of my (still out) Memory Box "brioche" papers, and I was very happy that I didn't add anything not on the sketch. I even used a scrap of the blue paper for the one vertical element, but then I looked at it and I got twitchy. It needed something. It needed rrrrrrrrrrrrribbon! Who was I to say no? So I added it, then I went all crazy and added a button I got at Mike's last week (it was in a bag of about 12 buttons for 49 cents, and I may or may not have gotten more than one or two or three of them. Leave me alone ...)

I shall now leave you to your blog reading and start getting mentally prepared for The Drive. Ugh.

Thanks for stopping by!

MFT Sketch 52

2012-01-02T17:37:00.001-05:00

I've managed to squeeze in last week's MFT sketch! Whoot! Here's the sketch:

By now most of you know I can't leave things alone, so I turned the sketch on its ear and used it like this:

to make this card:

By now you also know I go for the extra credit wherever I can. You have a shot at an MFT gift certificate if you win the random drawing, and it's a larger dollar amount if you've used MFT stamps, so I did. Not only that, I went the extra mile and used MFT packaging for the stamped images. See:

:) I also stamped the moon image on there in Versamark, heat-embossed it with clear EP and cut it out. The pretty papers are Memory Box "brioche", the ribbon is retired SU organza, the oval die is a Nestie, and the hearts are from my stash. Oh, and the red layer is SU Poppy Parade.

But wait, there's more! I had turned the sketch sideways so I could use that pretty piece of paper with the tree, but then I realized I'd largely covered it up. I thunk and I thunk, and I decided to flip the turned-90-degree sketch over, and I got this:

and I made another card with the same papers:

I like this one a lot better! And in case you're wondering, I used a patterned vellum for the pink banner element and the organza ribbon for the horizontal element because I didn't want to cover up that pretty paper!

That's it! Thanks for stopping by!

PS: I just now noticed the one rounded corner in the sketch. :(

January Collage

2012-01-02T11:41:00.000-05:00

As if I don't have enough to do already, my bloggy pal Lauren introduced me to the Green Paper Collage Challenge. The first of each month they post digital images, and you need to make a collage project using a part of each one. Well, I took an online Collage 101 class last year from Claudine Hellmuth, and I can tell you I definitely need practice. So since this is once-a-month, I figured I could probably fit it in.

The great thing about digital is you can mess with the colors, sizes, opacity, etc., of each of the images, so there are SO MANY possibilities. Plus, with collages you can pile on lots of s-crap, thus allowing me to continue my "use what you've got" plan.

So here's my card, then I'll explain:

In my own defense, it started out normal. I had the girl and the tiny floral piece on top of the label image - I enlarged the label and reduced its opacity so it's kinda faded, and printed it on linen paper instead of card stock; I reduced the size of the girl, and really reduced the floral image, and printed them both on vanilla card stock. The lace is from a piece I got at the fabric store a few months ago, and I sewed it on. The stack of paper flowers is from a ginormous collection I have, and they are held together with an SU Kraft corduroy brad.

Then it got weird. It needed a sentiment, but where to put it? I decided it needed a banner, and it needed some unexpected irreverence. The girl kept staring at me, and it was boring, so I added some googlie eyes, printed out the sentiment on linen paper, and stuck it on a trimmed toothpick. That metal flower thingie on the right (from a pack I picked up at Mike's on my road trip...HEY, it was 49 cents for 6 brads) cleverly covers the bottom of the formerly disembodied banner holder.

So there you have it: a collage-y card with googlie eyes. Not something you see every day, eh? :)

Okay, then. I'm going back to play some more on this LAST day of my vacation. I have a few challenge sketches stacked up in there, and I hope to get to at least one of them before the day is out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Ribbon Wreath

2012-01-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Just to show you I haven't been a total slug today - forget the fact that it's almost 4:00 pm and I'm still in my jammies, and that I've considered showering and going to the store to purchase food, but decided against it - I thought I'd show you a project I started last night and will probably work on for a week or so:

Another ribbon wreath! This one is 12" like the one I made for my front door last year (I'll link to it once I find it in my archives), and it affords me the opportunity to use up more of my boxes of Every Color But The One I Need ribbons. For this one I'm focusing on blues and creams/off-whites. I've started adding some burgundy, and have a little bit of yellow and pink on deck:

The focus will still be blue and cream, but the pop of burgundy is really nice, and I like the subtle surprise of the yellow and pink. They will blend nicely with all the other colors that go with nothing I own, but go together swimmingly on this wreath.

The added bonus of doing this is: I am disappearing a sizable amount of my Every Color Ribbons. Lookie:

All those clothespins used to hold ribbon. TRUTH! You have no idea how happy this makes me! For those of you just starting out in the crafting world, please learn from my folly and do not buy every color ribbon because you think it will go with something. I think I single-handedly supported Mike's ribbon department until I got a clue, and then I had to organize all of it, and now I'm finally using it. My goal is to disappear ALL of it and reclaim some shelf space.

And no, I do not want to talk about my Every Color Ribbon Ever Made By SU collection. That is a different subject entirely. ... Whaaa? It is SO different. THOSE ribbons at least go with all the other SU stuff I have. (Well, they do ...)

So ANYway, I'm catching up on blog reading and making a mental list of things I want to try. And maybe I'll shower and start my day ... tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles 2012 #1 - Gift Wrap

2011-12-31T19:37:00.000-05:00

Wow, tomorrow is January 1st, 2012! I'm sure those Jingle Belles have some fine challenges cooked up for us this year, and it's time for the first one: No Time Like the Present(s) wherein they asked us to use some wrapping paper on our card. It could be a piece of wrapping paper, or an image cut out of wrapping paper - whatever, or even a theme of presents! LOTS of options.

Little do they know I have rolls and rolls of SU wrapping paper from when we sold it a few years ago. Each roll would wrap like 18 shirt boxes, so yeah, I have a bit of it on hand. Here's what I made, then I'll explain:

The card is on an angle since the paper is shiny and reflected the lights and it was making me stabby, so I turned it to save myself. I do have a bit of 'splainin' to do here. It doesn't look much like a Christmas card, does it? That's because once I got past the black layer (gots to use black with River Rock) I spied that UFO city scape die cut (Skyline Border from MFT) and decided I needed to use it on this card. Now it's no longer on my desk. WIN!

That star burst is from SU's Bursting With Joy, and is stamped in purple StazOn. I colored some bling with a purple Sharpie and added them to the "sky". I didn't intend for them to be in a circle, but ... whatever. And you should know by now that if I had intended for them to be in a circle, they wouldn't be.

The sentiment is from the SU Bright Hopes set (Holiday Mini - only 3 days left to order it!). I stamped it in Memento black, then I remembered it would never dry on glossy paper, so I clear-embossed it. Done!

Side note: I have a personal challenge for the Jingle Belles prompts this year: I hope to mix it up a little bit. And by "mix it up" I mean like using a skyline as a Christmas card. I may also make some tag sets instead of cards (if the Belles will allow me to do so). Who knows? But I DO know it's gonna be a fun ride, no matter what!

Oh, and the prompts are every other week now, so we have 2 weeks to do each one! This fits perfectly with my schedule. :) Won't you join us?

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown - Happy Newt Year!

2011-12-31T14:40:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not getting political - not even close. I played the Hambo Hoedown challenge, and they gave us this image to use this week (free if you played the last challenge AND remembered to email it to them, which I miraculously did!):

This is Hambo's Reptile digi image, and the wheels are turning as to what I can have this guy say in the irreverent category. My options are many. But for this challenge we were supposed to use not only one of the provided sentiments, but also something NEW that we have acquired in the past three months. Too easy, people, too easy. I mean, I have bags I trip over every day in the paths of The Captain's Quarters. Seriously.

For my new item, I chose to unwrap my Tim Holtz Limited Edition Holiday Inks and I used the Ice Spruce color to ink the raised portions of the embossed background. Here is my card:

Given that my mission in life is to use my s-crap, the rest of this card is all stash. I paper pieced his shirt from a manly piece of paper in the Heaplet. The images were printed on a left-over half sheet of white from ... someone. The ribbon is SU Taupe (hoarded), so you know how old that is! Even the card base is from a stack of bases I am working to disappear. Oh, and the misguided idea to add the red heart bling? I don't know what came over me, but I now have 5 fewer of them, so I call that a WIN! :)

I'm off to work on a few more challenges. Thanks for stopping by!

The Crafty Part of my Road Trip

2011-12-31T10:27:00.000-05:00

When this road trip was first planned (see my previous post for details), one of the reasons was to show my friend how to use the crafty stuff she'd scored at a yard sale, and that she'd added to with more scores on Craig's List.

What did we have? A Big Shot, a bazillion Sizzix dies and Sizzlits, and some other stuff we didn't ever get to. Let me just say: this was a major SCORE.

I had brought along a few boxes of old class kits and some stuff for actual projects, in case the mood struck us. I showed her how to use the Big Shot and we made a card and a few other things until she felt comfortable with the process. She is VERY crafty, and has all sorts of ideas for things to make for the house.

This is what the table looked like after three women were finished "playing" and being crafty:

I'm showing you this so you can contrast it with how things looked after we added four 20-somethings the following night for Arts & Crafts Night:

I had actually planned projects in case they were needed, but once they saw they could make paper dolls with clothes and hair and accessories, the night kindof set its own course. Plus, the quantities of wine consumed prior to the crafting might have had an impact on that decision.

But what a hoot! We had the best time! Following are their completed projects. First, an example of the paper doll theme of the evening:

A blue person with bunneh slippers and a cat. Next we have someone who actually broke with the paper dolls mode and instead focused on frogs and punctuation:

Then the young lady who made the Blue Girl With Bunneh Slippers made this fabby card:

Then, back to the paper dolls. There were two unattended people in the corner who may or may not have (a) lost control, or (b) embraced the true meaning of getting your craft on. They made this:

Looks tame enough, right? But the inside is the true masterpiece:

Blue people. Hair. Hats. Clothes. CORNER ADORNMENTS. Nature (a tree ON THE FOLD). HAND-CRAFTED accessories: sun glasses, hoop ear rings, a boom box, music notes. I'm telling you, it was so much fun watching them make this!

(The blue scribbles above the card are my attempt at the infamous Blue Dot of anonymity. Or, in my case, the inability to get the Blur feature to work, so it was all I had, people. I think I've invented the Blue Scribble of Anonymity.)

So there you have it: a fun time with crafts, and lots of happy people. I can't imagine a better way to spend a few days, can you? :)

Now that I'm back home, I have some serious catching up to do. I hope to tackle some challenges so I'll have some cards to show you later. Hey, it could happen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Road Trip Report

2011-12-31T09:35:00.001-05:00

I've just returned from a 4-day trip to visit a friend in CT. This trip had three purposes: drag me out of the house, visit her and the 1740s house in which she lives, and show her how to use a pile of crafty stuff she scored at a yard sale. This post will be about the house and a few adventures, and I'll do a separate one about the crafty part.

[Please excuse the fact that I used the word "cool" in almost every sentence here.]

For starters, here is the house:

This is the front of the house - the part built in the 1740s. In the mid-1800s the owners added an 'L' in the back. Here is part of it (the shorter part behind the main house):

The house and property was owned by the same family until 1996 when it was sold and the house was converted to a B&B. Being an old house, there are a lot of cool things about it that I love. For starters, check out this closet:

This was in my room - The Green Room (of course). I chose this room because it was on the main level and I didn't need to climb the very steep stairs. :)

A few other cool things are the ghost doors in all doors leading upstairs (and there are a few):

The purpose of these is so when someone dies upstairs, their spirit can get out. Seriously.

Also, check this out:

That's an old old old soapstone sink, and it's sitting on top of the original 1740s hearth stone. Before the addition was built, the kitchen hearth stone was "out back" and not part of the main house. This was to reduce the chance of fire for the wooden main house. When they built the addition in the 1800s, they enclosed the old kitchen and kept the hearthstone - just built around it. I think this is VERY cool!

One other feature: Indian Shutters:

See that handle to the right of the window? That whole panel slides over the window. There is one on each window. They slide on a track. Very cool!

A couple of other cool things ... there is a fish pond out back:

This is just one side of it, and you can't see the fish, but there are 8 fish - some koi, some regular pond gold fish, and all are named "Olivia", so we went out to see the Olivias. :)

The last house feature I'm going to share is her dogs. She works with the Malamute Rescue, so naturally she has Malamutes. May I introduce Charlotte:

and Benson:

I couldn't decide which pictures were better, so you got both, at no extra charge!

We were mostly slugs while I was there, but we did have one adventure that I caused. I needed to go get new glasses before the end of the year (nothing like waiting until the last moment, eh?), so we went to ... The. Mall. ... ... I KNOW, and I survived! But it took so long for the eye exam and getting the frames and stuff that I took my friend to Mystic for lunch. See:

We ate at the Ancient Mariner, and had the BEST potato & bacon soup and pastrami sandwich. It really hit the spot! The first thing that caught my attention when we walked in was their decorations:

Aren't these the coolest?!

Check out this drink that we did not have:

A Bloody Mary with LOBSTAH! OMG, I must go back!

Okay, that's enough road trip sharing. I'll post some pics of our crafty sessions next.

Thanks for stopping by!

So Artful Challenge

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm on another DT! Whoot! I'm now part of the So Artful Challenges Design Team! I liked the challenges because they are not company-specific, which means I can mix and match all my stash, like I usually do! Sweet!

The challenge for today is to create a card inspired by the following images, with an optional theme of dragon or New Year:

Source: http://www.saragilbaneinteriors.com/travelfordesign/2010/03/f-schumacher-chiang-mai-dragon-fabric-for-sale/

Source: Pinterest

Source: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2011/12/subway-art-new-years.html

And here's my card:

I took the obvious road and used some Japanese paper I have in my stash. I had to buy it (HAD to) when it screamed POPPY at me, and it does totally match that Poppy Parade card stock! I got the dragon image from the Silhouette online store, and cut it out of both gold and black. The black acts as a shadow, and so the gold doesn't disappear into the pretty paper. See:

Now it's your turn! Come play with us at So Artful and link us up to your creations!

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge 32: Ribbon or Bugaboo

2011-12-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

It's time for this week's Shopping Our Stash challenge: Rrrrrrrrrrrribbon! Okay, really it's Tie it up ... ribbons, ric rak or twine; or a Bugaboo image. But you know me and rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrribbon, am I right? :)

Here's my card for this week:

Not what you expected, eh? Well this card serves two purposes. First and foremost uses three - THREE - different ribbons:

The top strip is paper ribbon (Webster's Pages), the greenish-blueish lace (also Webster's Pages) and the vanilla seam binding (SU).

The second purpose of this card is my controlled test I mentioned the other day - to make a FAT card. I don't think I got it fat enough, but it should be fine:

I put Scotch brand mounting tape between each of the layers, made a multi-layer flower with curled-up edges and attached it to the card front with a Dimensional. I actually had a HUMONGOUS 3D flower out, but it completely covered the whole card front. Maybe I'll stick in the plastic box inside the bubble envelope, too, because I can. My purpose here is to show a pal that the insides of the plastic box inside the bubble envelope will not be crushed in transit. Yeah, I'll tuck that baby inside the box with the card.

Also, please notice I used some reeeeeeally old stuff from a long-ago-retired SU Pretties Kit - the stick pin and the pearl in the center of the flower. And that flower was made using parts left over on my craft table, so I declare this a WIN!

Now go into your stash, dig out some ribbon or ric rak or twine - OR use a Bugaboo image, make a card, then come link it to our Shopping Our Stash post so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

A $10 Booty Card

2011-12-25T20:12:00.002-05:00

Heh heh ... got your attention, did I? This card is another one of those "what was I thinking?!" efforts, that you don't know is so bad until you get started, and then you're so stubborn you can't stop, and it takes you 3 hours to make one card and you swear you'll never make another one, and it took you 3 hours so it must be a $10 card. Yeah, one of those. Here it is, then I'll explain:

First of all: all scra ... er, remnants, and yes, I am very proud. The image and sentiment are my last two uninked Hambo stamps from my HYCCT gift certificate. I tried really, really hard to not use any pink, but I got this image because it was a pig, and pigs are pink, so ... I had to. But I chose a background paper that was mostly green, and used as little pink (gah) as possible.

The floofy oval die is one of my new and now used MFT dies from a release or so ago, and the white oval is a Nestie that perfectly fit both around the pig and inside the pink layer to cover up a lot of the (gah) pink. WIN!

Here's the sentiment up close and personal:

(hee hee) Love it. Okay, now for the whine-fest.

So I had this idea to use a piece of the 1/8 yard of Tulle I bought a while ago as the pig's tutu. I thought I'd gather it and tie a piece of baker's twine around it. I know how to sew, and all you do is run a needle over and under, over and over again, through the fabric and then you can gather it along that thread.

Well, thread is not baker's twine, or should I say baker's twine is not thread. Oh, it wove all right, since I used a big-eyed needle. However, the attaching part became a challenge. I poked holes on either side of where her waist would be, and it took me a while until I came up with a wrap that worked to both hold the Tulle in place AND let me tie the bow. I still had to go back and put a glue dot under the bow to hold it in place.

AND, because of this hair-brained scheme to use the Tulle, I had to use a marker to ink the pig, since her arm would have been in the way of the tutu, so I had to not ink that part of the main image, then had to stamp the arm separately. The very last thing I did after finally getting the tutu to stay in place was to cut out her arm and stick it onto the image at an angle other than would have been stamped.

See:

I'm pretty sure, now, that anyone who read this far wonders why (or how) I ever manage to make a card, much less more than one of them. It's notalways pretty, people. Stamping can be HARD, especially if you are me, which right now I'm fairly certain you're glad you are not.

So that's my second card today, and I'm pretty wiped out from the exertion.

Tomorrow morning I get a massaaaaage, then I hope to stamp again. No Tulle will be involved, I can promise you that much.

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrappy Sunday

2011-12-25T16:03:00.000-05:00

Day two of my three-day weekend, and I've finally made a card I'm not embarrassed to post. Yesterday was not a good crafty day in my world. Today, however, I broke out some new rubbah and made this:

The critter is from Hambo, and the sentiment is from my bag of unused and unloved stamps and is made by Stampendous. The white and grey card stock is from the remnant bin, and the green card base was on my desk, and now it's not. The ribbon is from my box of Every Color Neutral Ribbon But The One I Need, and I think it's a perfect match! :) I attached it with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher that Lisa enabled me to purchase.

I hope everyone's having a fabulous weekend! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to The Captain's Quarters for some more play time.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's (GAH) Pink!

2011-12-22T18:48:00.000-05:00

I did it. I can't believe I did, but I did. I made a Valentine's Day card already, and it's (gah) PINK! ACK! I KNOW! In all fairness, it started out with a lot of black and red, but I flipped the paper over to tape it and saw the mostly pink side, and even though it was pink, I decided it was the better choice for this card.

Here she is:

The pig and sentiment are two of the Hambo images I chose with my $50 gift certificate winnings from October's HYCCT challenge over on Splitcoast. I think he is a cutie. :) I really did have all sorts of red and black layers die-cut, and they are currently all over my desk, unused and unloved. I shall have to remedy that by finding another purpose for them. But THIS card needed to be pink.

Now if you'll exqueeze me, I need to go play some more. Thanks for stopping by!

WOYWW & Moxie Fab!

2011-12-21T20:53:00.000-05:00

I decided to combine two challenges today - this week's Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger: Stripe-tastic and WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday). To save all the Moxie Fab peeps from having to look at my desk, I'll do the challenge first, then move on to The Reveal for WOYWW.

Okay, here's the trigger:

Isn't that amazing?! And here's my card:

I chose the stripes, which I declared to be Concord Crush, River Rock, Baja Breeze and White. I also chose the Peter Pan collar with circles on it and used my MFT Dizzy Border die for that element.

That handsome taffeta ribbon hides the results of an unfortunate un-sticking incident that I really don't want to discuss right now, but I WASN'T starting over! Hmph. Oh, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Okay, time for the desk reveal for WOYWW:

Yeah, I know it's Thursday over in the UK already, but it's still Wednesday here! There is a lot of, er, stuff here, mostly projects in progress. Front & center are the pieces of card stock that became my Tuesday Trigger card above. To the left are some parts that are in the process of becoming a (gasp) Valentine's Day card. Everything else is pretty much still here from the last time I took a photo. See that bandanna? Yep, still there.

In other news, the Analyst in me has planned a controlled test. One of my peeps wants to open an Etsy store, but she's afraid her cards are too floofy and fat to mail without being destroyed. BAH, I say, BAH! So I said I'd make a floofy card (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, yes, I know, pretty funny, eh?) and mail it to her so she can see that she's worried about nothing. So stay tuned for that. I might have to take out some of my Webster's Pages floof for that effort. I'll be sure to warn you before I post it.

I'm off to finish that Valentine's card. I can't believe I made one ...

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Scrappy Card

2011-12-20T20:06:00.000-05:00

Last night I played with remnants some more and made this:

Maybe not my best work, but I had fun with it, and that's what's important, right? :) I broke out my as-yet-unused Memory Box Seville Buckle die, cut two of them, and put them on top of each other - offset. I only put glue in the center, so most of the die-cut shape sticks up off the card front:

The yellow and poppy layers were from my remnant box, and the poppy piece was already punched - all I did was layer the two pieces. :)

Hopefully I'll get over this color combination soon, but maybe not. I'll rummage deeper into The Heaplet next time. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #31 - Soft as a Snowflake

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Soft as a Snowflake. This time we ask you to dig out the Flower Soft, felt, snowflake stamps, papers, bubble stickers, puffy embellishments, flocking, fun flock, fabric flowers ... as long as it has something "soft" on it and/or an element of snow (snowmen, snowflakes, snowy scenes) - it works! OR use a Day for Daisies image! I think that's a TON of options!

Here's what I did:

I flocked him!!! (OMG, you have no idea how I've wanted to say that!) Okay, seriously, this is a 100% stash card. I had an extra (failed/mis-cut) MFT snow man stamped on a piece of white, and I figured out I could cut him out with that oval die and even though the bottom of the image was a hack, I could over that up, no problem.

I colored him with Copics, then got to work flocking him. (hee hee, no, I won't stop). Having learned my lesson about white flock being a magnet for the non-white flock, I did the blue scarf first, THEN did the white. Poifect! Lookie:

The Basic Grey papers were all still out, stuck into the front of the 6x6 pad, so I used them. Done.

Next, mostly because this cra ... er, stuff was still out on my desk, and also because that awesome piece of paper came for freeeeee with my Silhouette glitter pens, I used it with the red felt snow flake to make this:

Oh, look, that handsome folded and sewed ribbon is crooked. Sigh. There is a pool of Crystal Effects under that snow flake to hold it in place. The Merry Christmas is from a Taylored Expressions Poinsettia stamp set.

Here's a shot of that paper so you can see there really is red in it, and also so you can actually see the sentiment:

Niiice, eh? I love that piece of paper. Again - ALL STASH, PEOPLE!

Okay, now it's your turn! Go find something in your stash that passes for "soft" and USE IT to make a card. Then go over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Something A Little Different

2011-12-18T17:24:00.001-05:00

Earlier today I was cleaning up my craft desk (Bwahahahaha! Okay, that won't happen.) Um, I was putting away the Christmas stamps and cut-outs and stickers and stuff and I ran across some of this really pretty SU paper (Domestic Goddess, of all things) and felt compelled to act on a suggestion from a friend. The suggestion was to make Post-It Note™ holders.

Well, knowing how short I am on space, I hesitated. Also, a fellow crafter is THE Post-It Note Holder Lady at all the local shows, so that wouldn't be fair. (It's amazing I ever sleep at night, isn't it?) HOWEVER, it is a fabulous way to use up remnants, and heaven knows I have those laying around, so I tried one. Here she is:

All of this was cut from pieces laying on my desk, except the base which was cut from a piece of very heavy card stock - maybe 120 lb. The doily is from Martha, but I also have that die from MFT, so I could make more if I run out. I also made the button, because I could.

Here's a side view:

This was ridiculously easy to make, so maybe I'll clean up my desk some more and make more of them. I need to get Post-Its to put in them, but I'll wait until after the holidays. OMG, you'd need to be CA-RAZY to go out there now. I don't shop after Thanksgiving, and I sure don't shop the week before Christmas!

You'll probably see some more of these float by as I continue straightening up The Captain's Quarters. Next up: Valentine's Day. Can you believe it?!?!?! Stamping is HARD, people, HARD! We are always a holiday or two ahead of the rest of the world. It can be quite confusing.

In other news, I've put away the remaining unsold holiday cards as part of the Holiday Purge. I suppose I could maybe, I dunno, write a few of them and send them, but that would be so out of character for me. Hmmm, maybe that's enough reason to do it! NO ONE will suspect anything! heh heh

Okay, then. Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Challenge and CAS (not)

2011-12-17T18:28:00.000-05:00

I tried the Hambo Hoedown challenge again, this time remembering it involved CORNERS. I still failed, unless consistently-rounded corners counts as "dressing up", which I'm pretty sure it does not.

I also used a sketch that has been stuck in my head since I first saw it, and tried to make it work.

Here's the sketch from Card Positioning Systems:

When I first saw it, I thought "stop light!" Then my challenge was how to incorporate that into a card. THEN I thought I needed to use a Hambo image. Then this happened:

I totally blew the CAS aspect of the challenge, but it NEEDED CLOUDS! I originally had just the stop light, cow and grass and it was booooooring. I was going to use my LawnFawn Harold's Letters set to stamp "cow crossing" but then I decided the sMOOches sentiment from Paper Smooches was better.

Oh, look, the stop light is crooked. ;/

And the Hambo challenge was to dress up the corners. I don't think a corner rounder really counts there, but I'm going to enter it anyway, if only to let them know I'm not dead.

Other details: Cloud die - A Muse Studio; Grass die - MFT (I think); image - Hambo farm cow; sentiment - Paper Smooches; buttons - hand-made by moi; card stock - ALL SCRAPS!; Copic markers and silver glitter gel pen for coloring.

That's it! I'm off to find something for dinner, then I'll hopefully stamp some more.

Thanks for stopping by!

A 'speriment

2011-12-16T21:15:00.000-05:00

I ordered some glitter pens for my Silhouette Cameo, and they arrived today, so I had to play! I HAD to!

I just made this:

The lace is an image I bought at the Silhouette online store, and I used my green glitter pen to draw it with the Silhouette Cameo! May I just say SQUEEEEE! Naturally, I selected one of the most intricate images available to use as my 'speriment. A simple bird cage would never do!

So what is so amazing about this effort? Well, besides the fact that it SPARKLES?!?! I searched high and low all over the Interwebz and could not find instructions on how to sketch & cut with the Silhouette Cameo. Nope. There are instructions and videos on how to use the sketch pen, and how to Print & Cut, but not sketch & cut. Hmph.

So I 'sperimented! I had the image in my software, loaded the card stock and cutting mat, loaded the green pen in place of the cutting blade, and sent the design to the Cameo. GOR-JUS! Next, DO NOT REMOVE THE CUTTING MAT! Nope. I switched out the pen and replaced the cutting blade. Then in the software I drew an outline around the image and offset it a little to leave a border, deleted the image so all I had was the outline, and sent THAT to the Silhouette. Since I hadn't removed the cutting mat, I hoped it would cut perfectly. And you know what? IT DID! IT DID! WHOOT! I did a happy dance!!!!

Okay, then I had to calm down and make this into a card. I added some loooong-retired SU organza ribbon and tied a three-loop bow with my Bow-Easy. Then I stamped the Mr & Mrs (from Paper Smooches) in Memento London Fog.

I don't know about you, but I think this has potential. :) (squee)

Thanks for stopping by!

Two-Fer Challenge Card

2011-12-15T20:53:00.000-05:00

Well, this was going to be a 3-fer challenge. I was going to combine the AWESOME Play Date Cafe color challenge:

with this week's Hambo Hoedown challenge (I need to get back on that wagon), and I needed a sketch to get me started, so I chose this one from Cardabilities:

Then, as is my nature, I was so proud of myself for remembering to use a Hambo image that I forgot to check on the specifics of the challenge - CORNERS. Once you see my card, you'll know why I've FAILED:

Duuuude. Do you see any fancy corner focus here?! Do you even see any chance of a save!? No, no you do not. HOWEVER, I think I might have knocked 2 of these out of the park, eh? Sketch -- check. Colors = Black + White + a splash of Teal -- check.

In case you're wondering, the cow does not have the pox. That was my attempt to give him freckles. Pffth.

Details: Cow image - Hambo Stamps; Circle Nestabilities; MFT doily die; Basic Grey little black dress paper (first time I've used it!); SU scallop punch; SU Taken with Teal card stock; EK Success leaf punch; SU Itty Bitty Shapes punch (small flower); misc bling; Paper Smooches sentiment; Copic markers.

Guess I'll go back in and try that Hambo challenge again, and this time I'll remember CORNERS!

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, Crab

2011-12-15T07:30:00.000-05:00

I finally opened my new Paper Smooches stamps last night and used the crab, which was the main reason I bought this set (other than the critters are all STINKIN' CUTE!) to make this:

ALL. SCRAPS. Did you know a crab is not red until it's cooked? Well, except for the red crab, but here in Maryland crabs are blue-ish when alive, so mine is blue. Plus, I had a scrap of blue paper out on top of The Heaplet, so, you see, I had no choice.

This is your pretty standard beach scene, except I forgot the ocean, so he's floating on air with his ~~paws~~ claws in the sand. The sand is torn Creamy Caramel card stock. The clouds are two layers - white and some SU blue DSP scrap. The yellow is very shiny mystery card stock. Clouds are an A Muse die; sun is MFT. Birds by moi, drawn with a black Memento marker.

The eyes. Well, his eyes started out blue, like his body, so I colored them with a white gel pen, but the pupils disappeared, so as soon as the white part was dry, I added Ranger glossy enamel black dots. They started out smaller than what you see here. It was kindof like cutting your own bangs ... a little more here, a little more there ... until the black spots were almost as big as the white parts of the eyes. I finally declared them "even enough" and let them dry over night.

Well, who know I could say so much about a little blue crab? I personally think he's charming. :)

Happy Almost Friday, people!!! And thanks for stopping by!

MFT Sketch - Tea For Two

2011-12-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

Today I thought I'd try the new MFT Sketch:

And I opened and USED some of my MFT goodies to make this card:

The tea pot die and the letter dies are new; the layered labels and the numbers dies are old, but not necessarily used yet. All the papers are remnants. All. of. them. And yes, I am very proud, again. :)

Here is a close-up shot of that tea pot, because there are a few things I need to tell you:

First, I didn't get the coordinating stamp set. I thought, "Pffth, I don't need another stamp set ... I can just cut the teapot out of one color, then cut the handles and stuff out of another color." Well, maybe. You can see what happened here. I cut the pot out of the red floral and also out of dotted vellum and layered them together. I also cut out some "parts" from the floral and stuck them on top, so effectively I have a two-toned tea pot. Eh, it's okay. And it weighs 5 lbs, too.

Second, please note that I cut a tiny piece from the Leafy Flourish die and used it as steam. I just glued it to the back of the spout. :)

Now about the letters and numbers ... I had that space at the bottom of the card and for the LIFE of me I couldn't figure out what to put there (yeah, yeah, shoulda gotten the stamp set ...) and then I stole the idea from the sample and used letters and numbers to stand in for Tea For Two (t 4 2):

The comedy here is me looking for the numbers that I just KNEW I owned, but ... um, er, maybe I put them away somewhere real safe, ya know? I finally did find them, and cut them out of the scrap left from cutting the tea pot. Done. (Oh, look, the 2 is crooked. ;/ )

Next up: I plan to break open my new Paper Smooches goodies and get to work inking them up! I'm feeling a little "crabby". {wink wink, nudge nudge}

Thanks for stopping by!

December VSN, Part Third (and Last)

2011-12-14T07:24:00.001-05:00

Welcome to my third and blessedly last installment of VSN show-and-tell. This next challenge was Doorway to Narnia, where we were asked to: step into your wardrobe in your spare room, and find inspiration in there.

First of all, I don't have a spare room. My teeny tiny condo is so small I live in the small bedroom and the big bedroom is my craft room. So technically, the big bedroom is my "spare" room, but I thought it would be totally unfair to step into a crafty closet for inspiration whilst others were looking at piles of sleeping bags and camping equipment, know what I mean?

But since I ALWAYS follow directions (hahahahahhahahahahahahahhahaha) I opened the closet in my craft/spare room and gazed upon the supplies therein. I remembered the day(s) I emptied that closet of real closet-kinda stuff, painted it (yes, I did), hung Elfa shelving, and lovingly stacked all my crafty stuff on the shelves. It's a beautiful thing. I sighed deeply. I love that closet.

But waaaaaaaay at the top, where I'd need a ladder to reach, I have boxes. Boxes of things I may never need again, but refuse to give away. One or two of these boxes contain shoes. Shoes, as in pumps - high heels - objects of pain and suffering in my world. I wore them back when the dress code was very strict and we had to wear suits and ties and nylons and heels. You know, h3ll. Thank goodness for Business Casual. I gave away ALL my dresses and I ain't going back. But I have the boxes of shoes. So shoes it was.

Here's my card:

I was pretty proud of this one. I even used pinking circles to accentuate the idea of pain. heh heh Here's that sentiment up close:

So, so true. I even went over the shoes image with a Versamarker and clear-embossed them to be shiny. I had time - still within the dreaded 45-minutes limit:

One more done, and again: all scraps.

The next challenge I did was Walking in a Winter Wonderland, where we were asked to create your own winter wonderland scene. When you think of winter what sights give you that heartwarming feeling that only winter can bring?

Me? I like being inside looking out. I also thought of the two window dies I hadn't opened yet, so one of them was destined to be used on this card. Scene ... I needed a scene. Well, duh! Lovely As A Tree - what else would anyone use for a Winter scene? Seriously.

So here's my card, then I'll tell you the tale of woe:

I started with a white window, and it's still there, under the wood one. After I'd stamped the trees and put the white window over it, it was boring. (remember: tick tock, 45 minutes) What to do, what to do. As I thunk, I spied that felt deer still out on my table, and decided he needed to be in my Winter scene. Now he was thicker than the window pane - virtually inside the house! ACK! (tick tock)

Then I spied a scrap of craft wood on my desk (yes, people all this stuff really is on my desk) and cut another window. Then I took a piece of the plastic sleeve in which the die had been packaged, taped it to the back of the wood window, lined all 4 sides with strips of Dimensionals, and layered it over the white window. I now had a window pane with real "panes" in it, and Bambi was once again on the correct side of the glass! WIN! (tick tock) Here you can see the two windows stacked up:

That sentiment is layered on a piece of green that doesn't even match the paper, but it was textured and it was on top and it made it to the card front. DONE!

(Are you tired yet?)

LAST ONE!

This last challenge I did was Winter Sparkles, where we were asked to make your entire image panel sparkle!! The technique is to use loose glitter to cover your panel. And no Stickles or glitter glue allowed!

Here's my card:

I grabbed one of my snow globe cards, stamped a Paper Smooches Snow Dude on it, and colored him with Copics. I then covered the globe part with my glue pad, and dumped SU Dazzling Diamonds onto it. SO SPARKLY!

I messed up the sentiment and since that old tick-tock thing was happening, I opted to use part of a formerly destroyed snow globe card (Whaaaaat, don't you keep your failures to reuse later? Uh-huh. Thought so.), re-stamped a different sentiment, cut it out and stuck it over the bad sentiment. I added some snow flake images to try and distract you from the cut-out sentiment.

See how sparkly he is:

I cannot believe I've never used this technique before, but I promise you I'll be using it again.

That's it. Well, I did attempt a few more challenges, like the Telescoping Card one, but I failed miserably and ran out of time. By the way, hearts don't telescope well.

Thank you for reading this far! And I hope you'll join in the fun for the next VSN (whenever that is). I'll be sure to alert you! The more, the merrier!

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #30 - Tag It Krafty

2011-12-13T07:00:00.005-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Tag it Krafty, where we ask you to use Kraft card stock somewhere on your project OR incorporate a tag element on your project OR make a tag of any kind! You can also use a Dilly Beans image, since they are sponsoring us this week! SO. MANY. OPTIONS.

Here's my card for this week:

I used two of the challenge options: tag and Kraft. The tag is from a Webster's Pages Freebie download of a sheet of tags, and I thought it was pretty enough to be the star of the show. The tag has a blank box were you see my sentiment; it was added through the magic of digital smoke and mirrors*.

The stash on this card includes: Webster's Pages ribbon from my I MUST HAVE TWO Groupon kits of more WP stuff than I can humanly use in my lifetime; the seam binding is SU; and the Kraft card base is from my pile of miscellaneous card bases I've collected from the various cleaning attempts in the Captain's Quarters.

Now it's your turn! Go find some Kraft card stock, or make a tag, or make a Kraft tag, or put a tag on a card, or use a Dilly Beans image ... Make a card or tag, then go over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

* My heartfelt gratitude goes to Lisa for helping me with the sentiment. I failed so many times, but she saved me! xo

Just Playing - MFT Style

2011-12-12T20:15:00.003-05:00

I got my latest shipment of new MFT goodies today, and I just HAD to play. I got all dies (ahem) and one stamp set. This guy:

I got him ONLY for that scarf. Isn't it great!? I covered it in blue flock(ing) so it's all fuzzy. :) The lace is from Hero Arts. Here's a close-up of the scarf:

Love it!

Next I wanted to play with the Fringed Flower dies, so I mixed up flowers and snow flakes and made this:

The greenish paper was still out from a failed VSN card, so it's technically a remnant. The music pattern on the flower is the back side of the paper. It may also be obvious that I broke out my Memory Box snow flake die again, only this time I used purple glitter paper. And yes, I thought of Libby when I put the green and purple together. *waves*

Well, that was fun! :)

Thanks for stopping by! And make sure to come back tomorrow for the next SOS challenge! It's a fun one!

December VSN, Part Second

2011-12-12T06:45:00.001-05:00

Here are a few more cards I made this past weekend for VSN over on Splitcoast.

This challenge was called Layer it On!, and our hostess said, "... it made me think how we layer on the clothing to keep warm as the weather layers on the ice, snow, rain, slush... !! My challenge is……for you to make a card or project with at least SIX LAYERS! The card base counts.... Also, this is at any point on the card... not the whole card being six layers... "

Layers, eh? Well guess what was still out on my desk? My already cut-up flower from MelStampz, and a silhouette image I'd bought and cut. They both screamed USE ME, so I obliged and made this:

(It's a little out-of-focus at the bottom - your eyes are fine.) I rubbed the edges of the flower layers in Rich Razzleberry before I layered them and added the bling to the center. I cut an oval from a scrap of SU DSP and edged it in Rich Razzleberry, too, and used it behind the ladies. The string o'bling is from some SU bling I got a few mini-catalogs ago - I just opened it. ;/

Next challenge, we have FaLaLaLaLa, where our hostess said, "This VSN theme, Winter Wonderland, made me think of the song "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." Christmas music definitely helps get me into the winter and Christmas spirit! My challenge focuses on music! Create a winter or Christmas card and incorporate music. Some ideas: use a music-themed stamp, paper with music on it, or even a sentiment with a line from your favorite song."

Well, I started looking through my stack of parts-is-parts on the right side of my desk, and I found a small strip of music paper! I also found three pieces of scalloped DSP, a 1/2 sheet of A Muse card stock, a coordinating piece of DSP to go with the scallops, and a piece of craft wood. This is what came out:

I was embarrassed, it was so easy. All I did was layer it all together and add the ribbon. Seriously. Okay, I opened another never-used die to cut the wood. *wipes sweat from brow*

The next challenge card I did was for Blue Christmas where our hostess said, "Let's see all of your holiday creations being made with blue." Blue, eh? Well lookie what came out of that bag of paper I tripped over and finally went to put away:

Okay, okay, ONE piece of virgin paper gave it's life for one of my VSN cards. But it did ALL THE WORK for me! I added layers, ribbon and a sentiment. Done! And it's very shiny, too! :)

That it for show-and-tell today. I'll post the rest later this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

December VSN, Part First

2011-12-11T17:59:00.006-05:00

This past Friday and Saturday Splitcoast had the December Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) challenges. They post a challenge an hour, and you have 45 minutes to do each one (not including photographing & posting). You don't have to do the challenges as they're posted, but you do have a deadline for uploading them all (usually by Monday).

This VSN's theme was Winter Wonderland, and all of the challenges related to Winter in some way. I thought I'd show you a few of the ones I've completed.

The first challenge was Give me the Warm Fuzzies! hosted by my bloggy and tweety pal Lydia of UnderstandBlue. She asked us to "Show me what warms your heart, your soul, your fingers or toes on those frosty nights!" Well, in MY world, that translates into my flannel jammies! When I switch from T-shirt & boxers to a long-sleeved T-shirt and flannel pants, it's Winter. I cannot wait to get home from work and change into my flannel jammies!

So I made this card for the challenge:

That's Ellie, from My Favorite Things. I flocked her jammies and her bunneh slippers:

They are so fuzzy! :) Note to self: do the pink first next time, as it sticks to the white. What a mess.

I'd also like to add that this card and ALL THE REST of the cards I made for VSN are 100% remnants. No virgin card stock was used here, people. And yes, I am very proud.

Then I remembered how both Lydia and I SQUEEEd when we first saw the SU stitched felt embellishments and how we both planned to hoard them. So I made a second card (it got its own 45 minutes) for her challenge, mostly because I could:

I loved how this one came together!

The next challenge was called There is no business like SNOW business where our hostess said: "My challenge for you is to incorporate a snowflake into your project. Use a stamp of a snowflake, a die cut, or get creative and make your own snowflake with paper and scissors."

My brain immediately went to my un-opened Memory Box snow flake die and my stash of Every Color glitter paper I may or may not have snagged at Mike's last year, and I made this:

Too. Stinkin'. Easy. I die-cut from the back side of the glitter paper and it cut like buttah. Even this intricate design just popped out of the sheet. I also punched a 1/4" circle from the blue and put it in the center of the layered snow flakes and topped it with a rhinestone. Here it is up close and personal:

So that's a taste of what I've been doing all weekend. I have a few more to share, but I'll hold those so I have something to show you tomorrow. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Mrawr

2011-12-10T11:58:00.005-05:00

In keeping with my cat theme, here is another card using a no-longer-virgin Magenta stamp:

I made it last night, but couldn't think of a sentiment, so there it sat until this morning. I actually had to look up how to spell "mrawr" and along the way I discovered its Urban Dictionary entry: Closely related to "rawr." Meant to be kitten-esque; sexy; fiesty. And I love that they use it in a sentence, too: That guy is so hot! Mrawr! Heh heh. I think it fits this image perfectly.

While we're on the subject of cats, lookie what arrived yesterday:

My 2012 Rachael Rossman calendar! Why is this so special? Not only is she an awesome painter, but I participated in her Kickstarter project (see the link at the bottom left of my blog) and my Koshka was included. Here's her painting:

I. LOVE. THIS. It's the eyes. RuffHaven was right - it's the eyes that get you. And by the way, the dog on the cover of the calendar is her dog Nikki. Koshka is in a square in January. :) So check out her calendar and if you want one, you can order at the bottom of her preview page here.

In other news, I'm playing in this weekend's VSN over at Splicoast - 16 challenges and I've done 4 already, so I'll post a few cards as I get time. So far, I've used ALL STASH! Whoot! BONUS!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamping: It's Good For The Soul

2011-12-08T13:21:00.005-05:00

This is a tough time of year for me. Not because of the holidays so much, but my craft show the first weekend of December marks the end of my "in person" selling year. When I get home from that show, I empty out the car and collapse onto the couch. It takes me a while to get back into stamping again, and I'm in a funk until I do.

Plus, this year I seem to be fighting a battle of a bug. Nothing serious, I'm just very "meh" and tired. I left work early both Tuesday and Wednesday and took 3+ hour naps both days, so yeah, I'm fighting something. I even took today off so I could nap in the afternoon (that's coming right up after I post this) and I hope to be all floofy-tailed tomorrow!

Just to test the waters, though, I ventured into The Captain's Quarters, and made this:

I warned you the other day I could have an entire week of cards featuring all my uninked and unloved cat stamps. This is the first of what I hope will be many. I've neglected my cat stamps. Dog stamps, too. Dang, I could have WEEKS of critter cards flowing! HA! Maybe I should.

This kitteh image and sentiment are from Magenta, and I picked them up on my last trip to the LSS. Everything else on this card is from my stash. The patterned paper is from the Heaplet, the brown layers are Core'dinations papers with the pretty blue on the other side, which let me emboss it to have the blue dots showing. :)

The two die cuts are from the same blue Core'dinations papers, and the dies were also snagged on my last LSS trip. The store owner cleverly nestled them onto the display next to the Memory Box dies I was grabbing, so they also landed in my shopping basket. They are from www.poppystamps.com, in case you were wondering.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll have a hot bath, followed by a nap. And then maybe I'll stamp some more later. Feels soooo good!

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #29 - Light or White or Meljens

2011-12-06T07:00:00.002-05:00

Okay, I can't count. Last week was week #28, and THIS week is #29. Sorry about that!

Ahem. Welcome to another challenge at Shopping Our Stash! This week's theme is Light or White or use a Meljen's image. From our fearless leader: ... use something from your stash that represents light - candle, fireplace, stars, Christmas lights; or decorate a candle, make a lantern, etc.; or make a project that is mostly white; OR use a Meljens Image!

Now if that doesn't give you plenty of options, I don't know what does! :) I chose to go with the 'light' option and made this:

But I ~~hated~~ intensely disliked it, so I made this:

I got the idea for the bunched candles from a blog post that I know I bookmarked, but for the life of me I can't find it. :( If you know the post of which I speak, please let me know so I can credit them for the idea.

As you can see, 'candles' was my 'light' theme. There are SO MANY options this week, you should probably enter more than one card. Think: birthday cakes with candles, windows let in light, a lamp + comfy chair... or go mostly white like some of our DT did. So get stampy, then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up to your creation so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

End of Another Season

2011-12-05T14:40:00.005-05:00

This past weekend was my last craft show for the season. Since I'm not planning to do the weekly farmers markets next year, it's the end of an era for me. Yeah, I've decided to take a year off and enjoy two-day weekends for a change. So far I kinda like them. :)

This show during the first weekend of December is pretty ingrained in people's psyches. So much so that last year, when the organizer changed it from Saturday to Sunday, people still showed up on Saturday looking for us. This year he made it a 2-day show. I wasn't convinced it would work, but I was pleasantly surprised with fairly steady shopper traffic on Sunday.

Here's how my set-up looked this time:

The card rack on the left of this photo was all holiday cards - not quite full. The one on the right was ... not holiday.

And here's the side table:

I actually SOLD the Noel and Love ribbon wreaths under glass, plus that collage in the back. :)

And I also - SURPRISINGLY - sold a TON of holiday cards. I almost never sell holiday cards. Every year people come into my booth, heavily laden with holiday shopping merchandise and wreaths and things, then ask if I have any birthday cards. Seriously.

I sold so many holiday cards my standing card rack was nekkid. Something had to be done. So I made it a skirt for the second day:

Sorry it's so fuzzy. It worked out quite well, I think. And I sold a bunch more holiday cards, too! :)

So what's next in my crooked life? I'll be adding more cards to my Etsy shop, and I'll probably send a bunch of the older stuff to Cards for Soldiers like I do most years about this time. It thins the inventory so I have fewer boxes in here, plus it's a great cause.

Then I shall re-group and get stampy! I think I'll start by using all my uninked and neglected CAT STAMPS. I could have a theme a week. :)

I'll be back tomorrow with another Shopping Our Stash challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

I Am Not Dead (Yet)

2011-12-02T19:52:00.005-05:00

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I just realized I haven't posted since Sunday, but that's largely because I've been a slug, plus I've been playing with the Silhouette Cameo and not accomplishing much else. AND, I have the last craft show of the season (for me, anyway) this weekend, and I've spent some time getting my ducks in a row for that.

I did make a card last week (LAST week, not this past week) with one of my earlier Silhouette Cameo cutting 'speriments. Here she is:

Except for the cutting part, this card is all SU. :) I used the color combination from this color challenge from Create with Connie & Mary:

Do these not just scream my name? I punched two hearts out of Night of Navy and ran one of them through the Big Shot in the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit. I just wanted the dots - didn't care about the scallop part - and it fit perfectly in the center. The embossed one is raised up on Dimensionals over the non-embossed one. The card front needed more blue, and I just cut three strips of Night of Navy and stuck them onto the River Rock.

I had cut the letters out of the River Rock piece, and the Lucky Limeade patterned paper is behind it. The DSP is from ... um ... I don't remember. :( I added the bling to connect the top and bottom horizontal elements and be a sorta vertical element. (Isn't it scary that I sound like I know what I'm talking about?! Remember: I make stuff up.) At the last second I decided to faux stitch around the letters with a Night of Navy marker.

The end.

So I'm mostly set up for my show this weekend. It's a 2-day, so I did the bulk of the hauling tonight to avoid the bumper cars and unloading masses in the morning. I'll show you a pic of my booth tomorrow when I'm done setting up. The jury comes around at 9 am to judge the booth set-ups, and the show starts at 10. My goal is to sell out and bring home as little as possible. Wish me luck!

Local peeps: Bauer Drive Community Center on ... Bauer Drive, in Rockville. Stop by if you can! I'll be there Saturday and Sunday! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #29 - Digi Image or Recycled Card

2011-11-29T07:00:00.006-05:00

Happy Tuesday! It's time for another Shopping Our Stash challenge! This week it's Digis. That means you need to go to your computer and find one of the OMG I NEED TO OWN THIS RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE digi files that you have never used, print it, and USE IT to make a card. If your digi file is from Bugaboo - our sponsor this week, it doesn't have to be a virgin image. So digi or Bugaboo. Got that?

Don't have any digi files? How about a sentiment you've always wished you had, but couldn't find on a stamp! Type it into your computer, print it out, and there you have it: a digital image. At least in MY world that counts as digital. :) Also, one time I printed words as a background on a card. You could do that, too.

No printer? No problem! You can use an old card you got and recycle it into a new one! LOTS OF OPTIONS, people. LOTS.

Well, I just happened to have a virgin Bugaboo image! I DID! Okay, maybe I have a lot of them, but work with me here.

Here's my card:

This card is all stash, and yes, I am very proud. I die-cut the green scalloped rectangle and the pink circle from remnants of Lucky Limeade and Regal Rose, respectively. The patterned paper was from a piece of Basic Grey olivia paper that is still out because ... I don't know why. It just is.

I colored the image with Copics and Touch Twin markers (I'm an equal-opportunity collector). Gus needed dark socks and a white T-shirt. I added stripes to his boxers using a Copic multi-liner and colored just the stripes green.

The froo-froo-y die was used because it fit the random size of the printed sentiment; plus, I don't think I've ever used it, so there's another no-longer-virgin item. The Lucky Limeade layer under the patterned paper was also cut from a remnant, and the Lucky Limeade ribbon is from an "I must have these in all colors" shopping moment, so it is totally "stash".

Finally, I took out one of my "oh, I must have these, all of them" Sakura glitter gel pen sets and used the hot pink one to color the heart and to add dots around the sentiment. You just never know when you might need a glitter pen. I had to have them. HAD TO. (did, too)

There you have it - a virgin Bugaboo digi file, and an irreverent anniversary card I hope to sell this weekend.

Now, it's your turn! Find an un-used and forgotten digi file (or create one, like we've already discussed above), or use parts of an old card, make a new card with it, then come on over to Shopping Our Stash and link us so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Car, A Card, and Some Shameless Commerce

2011-11-27T15:26:00.006-05:00

Another gorgeous day in Maryland, and I actually left the house today! I DID! I drove to my storage unit to retrieve the walls I use for the larger craft shows - my big (and final) show is this weekend at Bauer Drive Community Center, Rockville, MD. Here's the back of my car:

And no, it's not full, not even close. See all that space behind the tables where I stuck the legs for the walls? LOTS of space. And I can still see out the back window, so nope, not full. But it is as full as it will get this time. I've actually cut way back on the s-crap I haul with me to these things. I need to streamline. And in case you're wondering, my car ALWAYS holds that stuff, except for the wall sections on top, which is what I picked up today.

So to celebrate that feat (leaving the house... I tend to be a recluse when I don't need to be somewhere), when I got home I made this card:

I followed this two-week-old sketch from Twisted Sketches, sortof, but it doesn't matter since it's two weeks old, and doesn't count for anything anyway. Pffth. It's all about the idea, right?

This card actually started with the Poinsettia I made using my now-opened Poinsettia stamps and dies from Taylored Expressions. LOVE! I stamped them in Cherry Cobbler onto Cherry Cobbler card stock. The leaves are stamped in Wild Wasabi onto Wild Wasabi card stock. The red in the SU papers is Real Red, but I think this works okay.

And I don't know about you, but having made a Christmas card a week for 48 weeks has me kinda Christmas'd out in the card category. So after this weekend I won't be making any more this year. Well, unless I decide to actually SEND cards this year - hahahahahahahahahaha *wipes tears of laughter* ... but hey, it could happen. Maybe.

In other news, I spent some time today making chipboard pieces covered in pretty paper to use to hold my massive yardage of twine that I'm selling in my Etsy shop. I do not need 400 yards of twine. So if you'd like a 20-yard length of twine, check it out here. :)

That's it. I need to mentally prepare myself to go back to work tomorrow. This could take all night.

Thanks for stopping by!

The $50 Card

2011-11-26T15:10:00.004-05:00

Once again, I found myself lost in the Silhouette Cameo this morning. I saw this card a while ago, but just saw it again and decided I needed to re-produce it. But being averse to all that cutting with a craft knife, I had the idea I could do this in the Silhouette software, then cut them at will. So that's what I did. First, my finished card:

Well, almost finished. There's no sentiment yet. I have until Friday to figure that out.

Easy, peasey, right? WRONG! This card took me 6 HOURS to make, people. SIX HOURS. That's how long it took me to figure out what I was doing wrong in the software. Each time I failed, I learned something else, then went back to apply that. I cut, I cried, I searched for knowledge on the Interwebz, I found knowledge on the Interwebz, I applied that knowledge, I failed again, but I persevered until I GOT IT! I...GOT...IT! FINALLY!

Then I showered, changed the linens, started the wash, and went back in to make the actual card. My first attempt sukketh:

Meh. I intensely dislike it. Then I remembered the Striped Wipe technique and made this using a variation of it:

WAY better! I took a wet wipe, added a few drops of one color re-inker, and schmeared it across a piece of glossy card stock. Then I moved on to the next color. No two backgrounds come out the same, so it's kinda fun. I didn't get the full effect of the look until I placed the die-cut tree over the background. Wow, I really like how it came out!

Here's the second of the two I made:

So door-to-door - 6 hours. Based on my hourly rate I need to sell these for $50 each. Or else I need to sell a squillion of them. Next weekend is my last craft show of the season, so if you are local, please stop by Bauer Drive Community Center and introduce yourself! I'd love to meet one of my local readers! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock #48 - FOOD

2011-11-25T17:54:00.004-05:00

This was not the card I intended to make for the last Jingle Belles challenge for 2011. However, it is the perfect example of why I have so much advantage over all you neat freaks who put things away after every card! I do not understand this concept, and I couldn't live like that. Half my inspiration comes from all the s-crap laying around on my work table. SERIOUSLY. This card could not have happened if I had put away all this stuff.

First, here's my card:

Second, I'll talk about all the happy accidents, then I shall endeavor to explain how it fits this week's challenge.

I started out by standing at my work desk thinking how I need to maybe clean the growing pile of stamps that I've used for the past week or so, so I can put away all the stamp sets laying around waiting for their brethren and sistren to be cleaned and come back to join them in their respective cases, when I spied the remaining felt stickers from this card I made for the JBR challenge two weeks ago! I had that wreath and several leaves left, and the mental gears started turning.

Then I started to toss the old sketches I've not gotten to in the past two weeks, and one of them made me stop. This one from Clean & Simple:

I envisioned the felt wreath in the center and the leaves for the button elements. But what about that horizontal piece? Remember I mentioned in my earlier post that I'd cut a bunch of JOY tags out of Naturals White? HELLO! Horizontal! And a card was born.

I cut two circles with my Nestabilities as the nest for the felt wreath and stuck it down to the card base. I then put dimensionals under the JOY piece and put it down, and stuck on the branches. Berries, it needed red berries, so I used my Distress Stickles to add them to the wreath and above the branches.

One Christmas card - DONE! But wait! The theme for the Jingle Belles card is holiday food. There was no holiday food on my card. Enter: THE BIRDS! This time of year I think about loading up the bird feeder for the birds that stick around here all Winter, so I decided that berries = bird food, and stamped, colored and fussy-cut the birds (Paper Smooches), then placed them where there was food! The guy on the ground is making quick work of all his buddies' discarded berries!

So there you have it! I totally backed into this one, didn't I? :)

Now go forth and make a card inspired by YOUR holiday food! The Jingle Belles want to see!

Thanks for stopping by!

More Silhouette Play

2011-11-25T15:49:00.005-05:00

As you know by now, my new time-waster is figuring out my Silhouette Cameo. Fortunately for me, there are a bunch of How To videos on YouTube that I can watch over and over again until the information registers in my pea-brain. Then as I'm trying it out myself, I go back to watch it again.

I just made this card with stuff I cut out using the Silhouette Cameo:

The hills were cut by hand, and the trees are actually stamped (shocker, I know!), but the silhouette kids and the JOY tag at the top were done in the Silhouette software.

Both these images are from the SU Welcome Christmas stamp brush set. I brought the image of the kids into the Silhouette Studio software and sized it to fit on a card. Then I chose to Outline it and the software drew the outline around the whole image. I then had the machine cut it out of Early Espresso. Done.

I got the How To's from this video by Kristina Werner. Mine was a bit easier since I only wanted the outline. I'm pretty darned excited about this.

Then I played with two other images from the same SU set - I brought in the JOY and the tag. I then erased the inside of the tag, leaving only the edge and dotted inside line. With the software I drew an outer offset so when it cut out, the original outer edge would show. I then sized the JOY to fit inside the tag.

Then it got fun! One of the things the Silhouette can do is print then cut! YEP! I first told it to print the tags, and part of this exercise creates what's known as "Registration Lines". These are later used for the cutting step.

Once you've printed, you put your card stock on the cutting mat and the machine will align itself based on the printed registration lines, then it will cut out your images perfectly. Of course, me being me, I didn't get it right until attempt #5, but still here's the end result:

That is a sheet of vellum, stuck to the mat and already cut out. I printed it on vellum, heat-embossed it since ink jet ink doesn't dry on vellum, stuck it to the mat, then it cut. Here's the registration lines I'm blathering on about:

The marks in red were printed when I printed the whole thing. I did not make these - the Silhouette did! It uses these lines to align itself so it will cut correctly. The blue lines show you the edges of the vellum.

You can see where I'd picked up the bottom left image to use on the card. :)

Here's that finished beauty again:

The kids are stuck on with Dimensionals to give it more ... dimension. I attached the tag by putting in eyelets and tying baker's twine through them. The only thing left for me to figure out is how to change the color of the image from black to brown. I tried many things, but alas, nothing worked. I figured the black on vellum wasn't so bad, but I still want to learn how to do that!

The reason I went with vellum is because the tags I cut perfectly out of Naturals White card stock covered up all the trees, and we can't have that, now, can we?!?! So I went through the whole exercise again with vellum. THIS is why it took me 4 hours to make this card. Non-stampers have no idea what we go through for our craft. NO idea. *wipes brow*

Okay, now that my day is almost over, I need to go play some more. Who knows what I'll cook up next! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

New Toy

2011-11-24T14:27:00.005-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers, and Happy Thursday to everyone else! Today is day 1 of a 4-day weekend for me! :) I used to always work the Friday after Thanksgiving since it's the BEST day of the year to work. No traffic, practically no one at the office, no ringing phones, and all sorts of time to catch up, or clean your desk, or organize your work-a-day life, or whatever. But the past few years I've been taking the Friday off as a vacation day, since the first weekend of December is my biggest craft show of the year, and I'm never mentally prepared for it. I NEED this 4-day weekend for that last gasp of preparation.

So where have I been all week? PLAYING! I got a new toy: a Silhouette Cameo. I DID! I'm still in the neophyte phase, like learning to line up the paper (!) but I've watched several videos over and over and I finally tried a few things. I thought I'd show you what survived the card stock massacre.

First, I watched this video that includes instructions on how to cut out words as negative space in a card front. I have so many ideas for this, but let me tell you - it ain't easy. Well, maybe it is, but not for me.

Anyway, here's my first card:

I cut out the cute and butt n with the Silhouette, and I got 4 out of one piece of 8.5x11. A lot of these videos are all about technique, but they cut the card front out of the middle of the card stock, which I SO do not do.

I hacked some of my vast rub-on collection for the as a instead of cutting smaller letters like in the video. Maybe next time I'll cut them out of white.

I put a piece of Baja Breeze DSP behind the cut-out words, and also used a piece at the top. The ribbon I've had forEVER, and the button is from my box of SU Neutrals.

Please note that I took the extra step of cutting a chunk out of the b and the e so the cutter leaves the center of the letters in place. It took a while to do, but I think I've got it down now.

For my next trick, I cut out letters to use for this card:

I got distracted last night and downloaded a bazillion fonts, including this one, and I just cut the j and y out of both Ridinghood Red and Wild Wasabi. One nice thing about SU is all the matchy-matchy. That piece of DSP is from Holly Berry Bouquet, and ~~Ridinghood~~ Real Red and WWasabi are two of the coordinating colors. Also, the button is from the Holly Berry Bouquet button pack. TOO EASY!

I knew the green would disappear into the background, so that's why I did the red, too, to act as a shadow. It still blended into the background too much, so I added a piece of Crumb Cake seam binding behind the letters, and that worked out great!

The letters and button are held on with mini glue dots.

I have more ideas for this gizmo, so I'm off to play some more. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #27 - Christmas/Winter

2011-11-22T07:00:00.010-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to make something Christmas- or Winter-related. Think: penguins, polar bears, stockings, wreaths, angels, presents, snow, ice skating, tree, Santa, nativity scenes, etc! LOTS of options for you!

My card for this challenge may be the ultimate in stash-shopping. Here's the card:

and now I shall bore you with the details of the stash involved. First, I cut five (5) gingerbread men with my A Muse Studio die I bought a while ago and have never used. I cut them from a piece of Core'dinations card stock that is chocolate/brown on one side and a cool minty green on the other side. Why 5? Because 5 fit and I disappeared that remnant from the Heaplet.

Next we'll talk about buttons. A while back I had this idea I needed to organize the bazillion little packages of buttons to get them out of the craft closet and out somewhere so I could see them and maybe even use them. So I took each of the 20+ packages of 40+ buttons each and dumped them all into this jar:

The problem comes when you're looking for one color, and have to sift through all of these to find that one color. I needed black. I started by pouring them into my palm, but when that looked about to overflow, I resorted to this:

Yeah, that's a few buttons. Here's all I needed:

So in this case, maybe organization wasn't the best idea. Or maybe I need to get over it.

I next selected black buttons in sets of 3 until I had them on all 5 gingerbread men:

The rest got dumped back into the jar.

I next glued them down and added the mouths with Liquid Pearls and the eyes with black enamel:

Here's the enamel stuff I used for the eyes:

and one of the drying guys up close and personal:

Then I went on to gather the rest of the card parts. I was following this sketch (last week's sketch from Stamping 411):

As all that other stuff dried, I tried to think of how to make that white panel not so ... white. Then I remembered this stuff I bought and haven't used yet:

So I sprayed it all over the white piece after I'd stamped the sentiment, and it dried like this:

But wait - there's more! YES, there IS!

Here's the card again:

See that back panel? It matches the back side of the gingerbread man Core'dinations. Why am I telling you this? Because I ran out of that color of the Chocolate Core'dinations, but I checked out the Beach Core'dinations (whaaaat, you're surprised I have all of them? Pffth) and they have the same colors in that pack, just a different "other" side. I was home free!

AND, I used one of my SU folders on it and sanded it to try and bring out the other color. I love how it turned out.

AAAAAAND, I used my crimper (had to blow off the dust) to make the black horizontal strip, and the ribbon is A Muse, from the stash. Now even you'll have to admit that's a lotta stash on one card, eh? :)

Now it's your turn! Go into your stash, find some neglected Christmas/Holiday/Winter/whatever stuff, make a card, then come link us at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Just Playing

2011-11-21T20:44:00.003-05:00

People ask me where I get the weird sentiments I put on some of my cards. Well, believe it or not, most of them are stamps that I've purchased. I must just hang out at different stamp stores than everyone else does. Actually, the scary thing is that someone else thought them up; I just bought them.

Another source for a lot of my irreverent sentiments comes from the Interwebz, and mostly from Twitter. People say the darnedest things, and repeat things they over-hear. I get LOTS of ideas from Twitter. Some of them not suitable for this blog, but I will admit the cards sporting them sold this past weekend. :)

So the other day, one of my peeps and I were talking about something and we were both so riled up, at one point she said, "That brings out the inner trucker in me." I laughed so hard I had to write it down.

Tonight I bring you my inner trucker card:

I used the last piece of orange napkin "paper" I made several weeks ago, so that's off my desk finally. (bonus!) I cut the special characters on my new toy! I caved and got a Silhouette Cameo, and I'm learning I have much to learn about using it. Still, these came out poifectly!

Oh, look, I've managed to make that sentiment crooked. ;/

In other news, I've printed off 17 more sketch challenges to add to the 17 I didn't do last week. BUT, this week ends in a 4-day weekend for me, so I might actually make something. Could happen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gettin' Scrappy

2011-11-20T17:35:00.003-05:00

Not scrappy-scrapbooking! No no no, scrappy-using-up-stuff. I made two cards with pieces of some Webster's Pages paper I had left over from something else. First, this Love You card:

I cut three strips of the butterfly paper, added some twine to the bottom strip, stamped the Paper Smooches sentiment on the center strip - done!

For the second card:

I just stamped Thanks and added some pleated ribbon from my stash. Couldn't be easier. I think I've once again justified the hoarding of pretty paper. You're welcome. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft Show Schtuff

2011-11-20T14:10:00.008-05:00

I had a craft show yesterday in Arlington, VA, and for as small as this venue is (only 10-12 crafters), it always amazes me how much traffic they get. It's a combination craft show & Malamute rescue fund-raiser bake sale & farmers market all rolled into one. It is historically one of my best shows each year, and this year didn't disappoint!

I forgot my real camera, so please excuse the cr@ppy phone photos. Here is my set-up:

The organizer gave me an end spot which let me grab a little extra space. I know it's not fair, but with those two card racks, you can't get to my tables any other way. I never set up the same way twice; this is a constant work-in-progress, even after 8 years!

Here is the second table:

I tried something different this time - I have a two-tiered set-up on that table! Here's the side view:

That's a shelf from a big box hardware store (under $5), and it's on top of some boxes I covered with another table cloth:

It was perfect! It let me put one of my Plexiglas card racks up high and left the front of the table for all my framed stuff. Oh, and I actually sold one of the ribbon wreaths! (whoot)

One of the vendors sells T-shirts like these:

(hee hee)

And the vendor across from me sells gourd art. She grows them on their farm, then makes them into ornaments and other items. Here's the one I snagged:

She burns the design into the gourd, then stains and paints them. Isn't this too cute?

Here's another one I snapped yesterday:

and here's some more from the ornament section of her Web site:

And a larger non-ornament gourd:

The best thing about these is they don't break! Nope! I know because there was a minor craftastrophe yesterday while setting up, and one of her display trees came crashing to the floor - gourd ornaments EVERYwhere. As we all ran to help her recover, we saw they don't break; they bounce! I found that cat one and called it mine. :D These would be perfect for anyone with small children, as they are not fragile at all!

I think you should contact her and tell her you want a bazillion of these for gifts this year. :)

In other news, I cooked my Thanksgiving turkey breast today since I bought it too early and it was fresh, so my place now smells fantastic. I'll wait until Thursday to eat it, but that's one thing done ahead. Most people make the pies ahead, but not me; I make the turkey ahead. ;/

I'm also back to my old trick of printing out 17 or 20 sketch challenges so I can be inspired to toss them when there's 17 more next week, but hey, maybe I'll actually do one or two in what's left of this afternoon. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock - Not Christmas

2011-11-18T20:09:00.005-05:00

This week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge is to make a card for our friends who do not celebrate Christmas. Well, guess what? I do this ALL THE TIME since *I* don't celebrate Christmas, AND I know several people who celebrate/observe the solstice, so I can do non-Christmas.

I just cranked out four of these babies:

I CASEd this card, but naturally made it my own by changing it up a little bit. Okay, the only thing I changed was where I placed the sentiment. You know I have issues with white space, and this card was so white! And truth be told, it was a way for me to justify purchasing that Memory Box die last night from the LSS when I went to pick up my Tim Holtz Winter inks and, well, Oh, Shiny! Sigh.

But I'm telling you: if you're short on ideas for a card to mass-produce, this is it. Get this die and some white card stock and you're home free. Just put that white layer over any color base and you are done!

Gotta go link up this baby, then head to bed. I have a craft show tomorrow and it is faaaaar away, so I need to get up at the crack of cranky. I'll report back on how it went.

Thanks for stopping by!

From The Ashes

2011-11-16T21:24:00.004-05:00

One of the partial projects on my desk last week was a stacked image I made into this card:

I got the idea from this post by my bloggy pal Lydia (understandblue), and I liked it so much, I had to play. I used my SU Leaves of a Tree stamp (from the Holiday mini) and stamped it several times in both Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo. I then cut graduated ovals with my Nestabilities and stacked them with Dimensionals between each layer. This is VERY thick.

It was at this point I realized I hadn't trimmed the base layer it was on, and at 3" thick (I'm only slightly exaggerating there), it no longer fit in any of my paper trimmers, so I tossed it onto the top area of my desk and there it languished.

Fast forward a few days or a week and I needed to send a card in a package, and what better excuse to figure out how to salvage this beast. I decided to trim what I could to make it mostly even, and worked with that size like I meant to do that. A few layers, a little corner-rounding, a few die-cuts for the sentiment, a few pearls from the stash to cover the holes on that label die - and there you have it!

In other news, I tagged along with a co-worker and went to a department store at lunch time today. I was desperate to leave the building, and *I* wasn't shopping, so it was okay. (Ordinarily, I'm allergic to shopping). So she was looking for a camisole to wear under those not-for-work V-neck things they make these days (what's up with that, anyway? Is it a plot to sell camisoles? cuz it's working!) and ever on the lookout for grievous grammatical errors, I saw these words on a tag on a camisole:

no panty line promise

Um, say what? They don't promise you won't have a panty line if you wear this? Or do they mean if you wear this you won't have a panty line? If it's the latter, then it should be something like no-pantyline promise. And how would a camisole create a panty line anyway?

See, it's these sorts of distractions that dominate my life. Who else could take a camisole-shopping adventure and turn it into a grammatical pondering session? So yeah, she bought a camisole and I got to wonder what they meant.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown - Framed

2011-11-15T21:17:00.005-05:00

I'm getting this week's Hambo Hoedown card posted ~~at the last minute! EEEEP!~~ after the deadline - I forgot they moved it to Monday. :( Oh, well. :( *sniff* (stoopid day job)

This week we were to use their image, which I did not get because I forgot to email them my card, and incorporate a frame. Not a mat (which goes under) but a frame (which goes over). Here's my card:

I was scrambling, so I dug in my UFO pile and found this secret agent dude. Then I cut the frame. Just to show you I didn't cheat, here are the parts-is-parts:

See? One dude and 3 frames. The orange layer of that card is one of the left-over napkin thingies from the other day. I'm slooowly working my way down to the desk top.

I stuck Mr Agent Man onto the card, then layered the three frames over him to (hopefully) look like he's hanging on a wall. The dude is made with sparkly Thickers because they are the only thing that would fit there and be FAST.

Now if you'll exqueeze me, I need to ~~post this, link it and email it before bed.~~ put this in the comments because I missed the deadline. I haz a sad.

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #26 - Uninked/Neutrals/Dilly Beans

2011-11-15T07:00:00.006-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Never Been Inked OR Neutrals. We ask you to use a stamp that hasn't been inked (or printed, for digi stamps) and/or a neutral color theme - think kraft, black, whites, crumb cake, beige, sand, ivory, etc. And since we are being sponsored by Dilly Beans this week, you can alternatively use a Dilly Beans image.

Well, that's quite a few options for you! Personally, I was pretty excited about the un-inked part, since I have boxes and bags of new and un-used stamps scattered about The Captain's Quarters. But I started with this Dilly Beans snowman image called Disturbed Snowman. How perfect is that?! :) Here's my first card with Mr. Disturbed:

That's some of my new Basic Grey picadilly paper, and it's quite yummy! The pearls, button and twine are all stash. The sentiment had never seen ink.

This next card also uses the snowman, and is closer to being all neutrals, but not quite:

I looooooove that SU brought back River Rock, because River Rock+ black, er ROCK! There's a few things I'd like to point out here. First, I broke out my newly arrived Dymo label-maker to make that sentiment. I think I'm in love with this label maker.

Second, see that spot of yellow on Mr Distressed? THAT is why he's distressed! The neighbor's dog came to visit! :)

All papers are remnants - even the card base, SU satin ribbon and neutrals buttons, SU Melon Mambo remnant for the heart (only not-neutral element here), Copic marker for the puppy pee.

Next I went all crazy and broke out another un-inked stamp - the Hero Arts' Branch Background to make this:

I stamped it in Versamark on the top half of an A Muse card stock base (from the Heaplet) and embossed it with white EP. Taffeta ribbon, a simple Thank You (Paper Smooches), and I was done. I'm very happy I remembered I could stamp on patterned paper. This has promise.

Moving on (just this one more), I used two un-inked stamps AND all neutrals to make this:

Yeah, it could also be called "You don't know when to stop". First I stamped the Impression Obsession Wavy Lines cover-a-card stamp (these things are ha-uuuge) in black onto a piece of Basic Grey Kraft paper. I then stamped the HA Branch stamp over that in Versamark and embossed it with white EP. Then I stepped away for a while to let it settle, like a big meal. It was very, very busy.

So I added more. I punched that black border with my new MS punch that SmilynStef enabled me to need here, then filled in three of the holes with white SU brads from my stash.

This was so. stinkin. busy. I needed to cut it, so I made a plain layered rectangle for the sentiment, and it hides a lot of the "busy".

There, that should give you a few ideas of what YOU can do for this challenge. Got some never-seen-ink stamps? USE one or more of them! Or try an all-neutral card. Or use a Dilly Beans image. Or mix it up and combine a few of the options. WE DON'T CARE as long as you come play. So go make something and link it up over at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock - Stickers

2011-11-14T20:59:00.004-05:00

This week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge is to use stickers. Stickers - I haz 'em. Having cleared enough space the other night by finishing a bunch of unfinished projects, I went back in to make my Jingle Belles card.

Here she is:

It's a mess. Vellum and I are not friends, and I have no idea why I chose to use it on this card, but there you have it. It started with those green felt stickers. I had some of the embossed music paper still out (of course), but it was so SHINY, the trees didn't work. Oh, now I remember about the vellum: it was to tone down the SHINY and still let the music show through.

I stuck the trees to the vellum, then put glue on the back of the vellum behind the trees and stuck it to the music paper. I thought I was being so smart. We'll come back to that in a moment.

Here's the bottom part of the card, whose details follow:

I pulled out a package of plastic stickers from the stash and used part of one as the bottom horizontal layer. It had music on it - had to be done.

Then I added a piece of Tim Holtz tape (which, in my world, is a sticker) across the middle of the plastic sticker. I have music tape, too, but I thought that might be overdoing it a bit, so I used snowflakes instead.

Then I broke out my new Taylored Expressions Layers of Love II stamp set that coordinates with the Nestabilities Ribbon Tag Trio 3 dies, stamped and cut the tag, but realized any ribbon I'd use would cover up one of my sticker elements. What to do ... what to do. I unstuck the tape and put it through the die-cut tag instead of ribbon, then stuck it back down. I could do this because it's such a good sticker. :)

Then I got a hair-brained idea that the trees were boring, so I filled all the openings with gold Stickles and set it aside to dry overnight.

The next day ... I had warped vellum. Have I mentioned that vellum is not my friend? Sigh. So in an attempt to secure the wavy vellum, I added some MORE stuff to the card to disguise the glue dots I put under the vellum to try hold it down. Now I have three red buttons on the card and the vellum is still wavy. ;(

I layered the whole thing onto a piece of (I think) Cherry Cobbler remnant to make it look like I meant to put those red buttons there. THEN the bottom of the card was boring with no color, so I added some skinny green ribbon so you could still see the tape (sticker).

As my final effort for bonus points, I added a rub-on across the top, which we all know is really a fancy sticker, am I right?!

This card weighs 12 pounds. It could also be sub-titled: not knowing when to stop. But it does have stickers, so I'm calling it my JBR entry for this week. I'm also calling this a one-of-a-kind, as I have no plans to revisit any of this ever again.

I'm off to link this up to the Jingle Belles blog, then I plan to move on. Only two more weeks to go, which means two more holiday cards to make this year! How many holiday cards have YOU made so far? Hmmm? I have a squillion!!! :) Feels soooo good.

Thanks for stopping by!

Not What I'd Intended To Make

2011-11-13T19:41:00.007-05:00

I went into The Captain's Quarters to work on this week's Jingle Belles card. We were asked to use at least one sticker, so I grabbed two packages of holiday felt stickers (whaaat ... don't you buy two of everything?) and turned around to get to work. Then I encountered this:

This is the desk I showed you on Tuesday, and apparently I haven't been back. So I had to work on other stuff before I could make my Jingle Bells card.

First, I finished up that snow globe card I'd started. Here's the finished card:

The snowman and sentiment are from SU's Snow Much Fun set. The snow globe is from a pack I bought online and have not used yet. I thought I'd just use half of one as a layer on a standard A2 card and I like how it turned out. The embossed layer is Baja Breeze. I colored some SU white taffeta with a Copic marker, and since it's been 5 days, I'd say it worked. :) Button is from the stash.

Okay, one down. Then I tackled this unfinished project:

I used the four remaining lady images I had stamped in brown to make four of these cards. One of my scalloped long rectangle Nesties has gone missing, so I improvised the brown layer with a different die.

Now, about that ribbon. I know you say you hoard like I do, but how many of you still have SU Taupe grosgrain? Anyone? I found two unopened spools plus an open one. Can you say SABLE? (Look it up in the left side-bar.)

So now it's 8 pm, and I'm too tired to start another card. I'll have to do my Jingle Belles card tomorrow.

In other news, yesterday's craft show was not the best one I've ever had, so I moped around last night, then snapped out of it today and added about a third of my holiday card stash to my Etsy store. Plus, I added the two cards I just made. I kinda like this. So if you saw anything in passing over the past year as I made my Jingle Belles cards, check out my Etsy store. Hopefully I'll have another card to show you tomorrow. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

One For The Road

2011-11-11T21:02:00.004-05:00

I made this card earlier this week. It was the result of me dropping a purple remnant onto the Heaplet and it lay (~~laid~~, ~~layed~~, landed) on top of that striped remnant and this card was born:

Now, if I always put everything away before I started something else, cards like this could never happen! :) In honor of my craft show this weekend, I used an irreverent sentiment. ALL the parts-is-parts on the card are remnants, and that ribbon is "cream", which was before SU renamed it to Very Vanilla. I haz ribbon.

I think I also used a virgin die for the purple layer under the sentiment. Oh, yes, I am quite proud of this one. I almost didn't post it, but Lisa made me do it. :) *waves*

As soon as my credit card swiper thingie finishes charging, I'm going to bed. I'll report back later this weekend on how the show goes, and if I find anything funky along the way.

Thanks for stopping by!

WOTT & WOYWW 11/8-9/2011

2011-11-08T20:28:00.005-05:00

Time for another What's On Tap Tuesday, wherein I reveal the mess that is my crafty desk. Here you go:

Kinda busy, so let's do those numbers again:

1. More stamped ladies from here that still haven't made it to their card bases, somewhere under #12.
2. A post-it-note I used to mask #14.
3. The sentiment stamp I used on #14.
4. Bits of things I ... don't know.
5. A sentiment I took out to use and haven't yet.
6. The bandanna I found a week or two ago. I've moved it from atop the paper trimmer. Baby steps, people, baby steps.
7. Another piece of napkin-ironed-onto-card-stock like here, just not used yet.
8. A stamp I actually used ... on something. I think it's under the post-it in #2. Or in the trash.
9. A failed card I haven't the heart to throw away. I might be able to save it, though it is about 3" thick.
9.5. (look up above 9 & 11) I wanted to show you the handle of my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig is exactly where it was in my last reveal.
10. Ink used in #9 and 11.
11. Two stamped images that I didn't use (stand-by, gotta have stand-by) in #9.
12. My pile of papers from recent and future projects. It groweth. That music paper was used in my Jingle Belles card here.
13. Copics used to color #14.
14. So I was enabled by my bloggy and tweepy pal Libby to purchase some snow globe shaped cards, and I'm still trying to actually use them. One was hacked into a skull shape here, but since we are into the holiday season, I thought I'd try to use them as, I dunno, snow globes? That card-in-progress might make the blog. Might. Oh, and Memory Box has now come out with at least two snow globe DIES! Of course.

So there you have it: my desk. I plan to come back Wednesday morning to link up to WOYWW over in the UK, mostly because it's Wednesday over there now, and all those people need to see the craftastrophe that is my desk, too.

Now don't you feel better about your own crafty space? I thought so.

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #25 - Stickers, Rub-ons or Chipboard

2011-11-08T07:00:00.006-05:00

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Stickers, Rub-ons or Chipboard. And I must confess: this one was my idea. Why? Because I am OVER-RUN with the things. Why, WHY, for the love of all that is good, WHY do I keep buying them?!?!?

You know how they say if you are young and want kids, try babysitting someone else's kids, not just over-night, but have them over for a weekend, or a week? Funny how it kills that instinct dead, isn't it? I looked at this challenge as the same thing: use them until you no longer like them, and they'll go away in the process. WIN-WIN!

So in keeping with the goal of SOS: to SHOP OUR STASH, I did, and I disappeared a TON of these things. I hope to never buy them again. Well, unless they're really cute, you know ...

Let's get started, shall we?

First, I found two packages of these:

I cut them apart and rubbed them onto several cream card bases. I rubbed until my body ached. THIS IS HARD WORK! The 'happy' and 'birthday' are actually stickers, not a rub-on. Ooooh, she's getting fancy now, eh?

After I got tired of those rub-ons, I moved on to a pack of these:

I made five cards from the pack (only one floofy peacock like this), but I decided I hate, er intensely dislike them. Not feeling the love.

THEN I moved on to a pack of these:

These are plastic-y stickers, and I actually LOVE them. I divided them up and made several cards with three stickers each:

THEN I went back to my package of SRM stickers and made these:

Yeah, I made about 15 cards, and I think it's safe to say I'm "over" rub-ons and stickers for a while. See, immersion does work! I've disappeared a bunch of them, and I don't see myself buying more any time soon. I'm free! I'm free! Um, except for that sheet of sticker letters I picked up last weekend, but we won't talk about those. ;/

Now it's your turn! Go into your stash, find some rub-ons or stickers or chipboard that you just HAD to own at the time, and use them! Then go over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock - CLEAR

2011-11-06T14:26:00.004-05:00

This week's challenge at Jingle Belles Rock is "It came upon a midnight *CLEAR*" where they asked us to make a holiday card that contains at least one see-through element, whether that be glass, a transparency, some vellum, acetate or "ghost" shapes, clear stickers, Lucite buttons, shrink plastic... whatever you like... if you can see through it (& figure out how to attach it!). Yeah, it's the attaching part that's tricky here.

For my card I chose a 6x6 of my Webster's Pages vellum and I made this:

I think the most difficult part was figuring out the 6x6 part. I actually considered making a 6x6 card, which would have me making a custom envelope, and that started to sound like work, so I gave in and trimmed the vellum.

Please notice you can "see through" the vellum to a piece of gold-embossed music paper. I liked how it shows through the vellum. :)

Now to the attaching. On the left side I used two green eyelet brads. Remember those? I have a whole collection, in every color. Why do you ask? ;/ I was looking for gold, but decided these green ones blended into the vellum better:

I punched the holes with the largest Crop-A-Dile punch for it to fit properly. I'm trying to remember back to what we would have used pre-Crop-A-Dile, when these eyelet brads came out. Either a punch or the hammer and hole-maker tool. I sure don't miss that.

So two of these hold down the left side of the vellum. You can also see the purple in the vellum pattern that led me to choose the Elegant Eggplant layer. I could have used a green, but I like being different.

The shiny gold ribbon was out in my box of ribbons I'm using to make my holiday ribbon wreaths, and given that I've made one - ONE - and my shows start next weekend, I'm using the active verb very, very loosely here.

Back to the attaching. The whole right side of the vellum was flopping in the breeze, and I was actually okay with that. Then I remembered I'd purchased some "drastically reduced for quick sale" glitter letters just to use on this card, so I added the NOEL:

and under each letter I put a rolled-up glue dot so the vellum sticks to the music paper. This leaves only the top corner and the bottom 1/4 of the vellum loose, and I think that's fine.

Here is is again, in all its sparkly glory:

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. I might even make another one with the second piece of matching vellum! :)

I just checked, and this is #45 of 48 challenges. Only 3 more weeks! And I have 60+ holiday cards done, too! Whoot! How about you? Need some cool ideas? Well then, you should clearly stop by the Jingle Belles site and play along! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Napkins, Irons, Craftalanches, Oh My!

2011-11-06T12:14:00.005-05:00

My first craft show of the season is this coming Saturday, with set-up Friday night, and no - I am not ready. I'm never ready. Well, technically I am ready since I have a car full of cards from the markets, and my box of 100+ holiday cards is sitting on my Dining Room table, but it just never seems to be enough. Later this week I'm sure I'll resign myself to the "if I'm not ready by now, I never will be" thinking and get over it. Until then, I shall panic.

So in this state of mind I ventured into The Captain's Quarters with the intent of making some cards for the upcoming show, when my brain was suddenly distracted by something discussed on Twitter several days ago. One of my tweeps asked about the napkin-as-paper technique (aka: Felted Cardstock), and I decided today that I needed to do that. Like right now. I have no idea how my brain works, and it's probably better that it remain a mystery.

I pulled out two napkins from my stash ... Hey, while we're on that subject, I think napkins should be sold singly to crafters. I do. Why in heaven's name do I want 25 napkins that will make a squillion cards?!? I only want one or two, please.

So I took the napkins, and using some paper recycled from my work printouts, I ironed the napkins to card stock. Important tip: Do not put any printed material facing your card stock. My paper has a printed line on one side of it, and since I wasn't paying attention, I got this:

which is okay if you plan to stick that side to something else, but I just thought I'd share.

Okay, so here's the first card I made:

The orange part is (was) a napkin. I decided that the dots in it were PTI Spring Moss so I used that for my layers. I also used two of the ladies sitting on my table from before, not yet assembled onto cards (I made two of this design).

Oh, the craftalanches (plural). My first craftalanche of the week in The Captain's Quarters happened in the craft closet. It seems I've used enough of several of my Basic Grey 6x6 pads that they are no longer stacked flat, and a few of them leaped (~~lept~~, ~~leapt~~, jumped) to their intended demise and landed in a scattered heap on the floor of my closet. I stood there looking at them, decided they were unharmed, and there they sat while I finished whatever I was doing. I did eventually pick them up, but the point is, they tumbled. I might have to re-think how I store them. Tomorrow.

The second craftalanche happened when I reached for a bottle of buttons, knocked another one off the shelf, it hit two spools of neatly arranged baker's twine, and all fell to the floor. Sigh. I watched the whole thing happen slow-motion-like, then put it all back. Never a dull moment around here.

Moving on to my next napkin, I had a bit of trouble trimming it, and it kept doing this:

See the torn edge? Yeah, probably a combination of not heating it long enough AND I need a new blade on my paper trimmer. To keep me from trashing the whole thing, I opted to die-cut it into shapes instead and made two cards. Here's the first one:

I layered it onto More Mustard and used Early Espresso for the bottom layer and tag. This could work as a Thank You for Thanksgiving, so that's pretty timely for this upcoming show.

Here's the other die-cut:

Purty, huh? I have a few more pieces of both of these napkins, so I'll go make a few more cards, then maybe focus on something. Hey, it could happen.

Thanks for stopping by!

A 5-minute Card

2011-11-05T22:15:00.005-04:00

Quick post - I had to share! I just made this card in 5 minutes:

This is one of the free - FREE - downloads from Stampin' Up! for Digital Scrapbooking Day. It's only available for a few days, so time's a-wastin'! You want some free digis? Just do the following:

Start at www.stampinup.com, then click on the image for Digital Scrapbooking Day.
There is a link on that page that says Fill out a brief survey. Click on that.
Take the survey - it's like 4 or 5 questions.
At the end of the survey are three links for downloading the free images. One is for My Digital Studio (MDS) for Windows, one is MDS for MAC, and one is Other. Just click on the link and your download will begin.
The one I played with tonight was "Other". "Other" means it works in other digital software. You do not need MDS to use these images.

The image I used is part of the Home for the Holidays file, called text tree. All I did was import it into Word (Insert, Picture, From file), size it, copy it so it was 4-up, and print it on my color printer. Then I cut it out, layered it onto a piece of Wild Wasabi, then on a Very Vanilla base. DONE!

This would be a fabulous way to get some quick cards for the office, or to include with gifts of food for neighbors and friends.

Now go forth and download! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown - Techniques

2011-11-05T12:27:00.004-04:00

This week's Hambo Hoedown challenge was to use this image (free if you played last week AND remembered to email them a picture of your card):

with any technique on the Splitcoast techniques pages to make our cards. I decided to use Paper Piecing since it's the one thing I can't really mess up too badly, plus it fits my OMG IT'S THE WEEKEND AND I HAVE TO CATCH UP ON ALL THESE CHALLENGES life style.

I also decided to use this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

I printed the snails in two sizes on white and also on a piece of Basic Grey olivia 12x12 remnant:

I also used olivia remnants for the rest of the patterned papers. Hey, it's still out ... what can I say?

I decided to do this two different ways: one with a paper-pieced snail and one with paper-pieced leaves. Here's the first one with the smaller image:

I paper pieced the snail and colored the leaves and rake with Copics. The paper under the custom sentiment (I used one of my old SU fonts) is the same one I used for the snail.

I was going to go for bonus points by using TWO techniques - I was going to sponge clouds in the sky, but when I found this piece of paper in the olivia pack, my laziness crept in and I opted to use it instead.

Here's the second card:

I paper pieced the leaves on this one, which had me yelling WHAT WAS I THINKING?! GAH! So small and detailed! But I really like how it turned out.

For the snail on this one, I used 3 of the green-grey markers from my relatively new-to-me Touch Twin Blue- & Green-Grey marker set. Again, the leaves are the same paper as the oval under the sentiment. This one stretches the sketch a little because the snail and sentiment are a bit larger, but the spirit of the sketch is still there! :)

Okay, I'm off to link these to their challenges, then attempt to stamp some more. Thanks for stopping by!

Sketchy Color Throwdown

2011-11-03T19:22:00.004-04:00

Today one of my bloggy and tweety pals, Lydia (understandblue) just happened to mention she's the Nov/Dec guest designer over at Color Throwdown, so of course I had to play! Here's this week's colors:

Who could resist green + blue + kraft, er, crumb cake? (Thank goodness no (gah!) pink!) I also found this sketch at CPS-Card Sketches that spoke to me:

so I combined the two and made this:

I looove that piece of floral paper, and that the leaves are Old Olive-ish. Poifect. AND I broke into some new paper within a week of getting it, which is such a rare occurrence in my world that I had to mention it. :)

I'm kinda loving the Kraft, er Crumb Cake base, too. Must use it more. I must.

Okay, I'm going to see if I can make another card before bed time. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Patterned paper is from the Basic Grey picadilly 6x6 pack; sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Word Up set; Old Olive flower was cut with the Flower Daisies #2 die; the clip is from a box of SU Library Clips; button is SU.