Spot The Mistake - Results

On Wednesday I posted my latest Spot The Mistake opportunity, and you guys came through as usual. Let's look at those responses:

1. "It's one of the punch-outs form the tree" - should be from the tree. Yes, right out of the gate!
2. you appear to be missing a piece of vellum underlay on the bottom left corner of your tree Not a mistake. It's actually missing a few of the punch-out thingies, but I decided I liked it that way.
3."My bad'? should it be ME bad Nope, it's just some US slang I unfortunately picked up. It means "my mistake".

I think that's most of them. There was one more I had my eye on, but mostly because it bugs ME. I can be good and let. it. go.

Now we need to pick a winner! I've decided to do this via random.org, using the number of people who responded (minus those, who don't want or need any of my stuff) instead of counting the actual comments, so ... drum-roll please ....


Number 4! (That's the 4th person to comment that wanted to be included, not necessarily the 4th comment. Whatever.) ... SUE! You are our winner! COME ON DOWN!!!!

Please email me and I'll get your prize out to you next week. I have no idea what it will be yet, so we'll both be surprised.

Thanks for playing, everyone!!!!

One More Sketch

Last weekend I pulled out a piece of really pretty paper (is there really any other kind?) and decided it went perfectly with So Saffron card stock. Then I looked at it. Then I looked at it some more. Then I showed it to Marianne (of RuffHaven), and she suggested I sit and look at it a little longer, and it would come to me eventually.

It's been almost a week, and when I started pondering my plan to use this sketch from Eat, Sleep, Stamp:

it hit me! BONK! I just made this:

See how that blue/green paper with the yellow feathers goes perfectly with the So Saffron paper? I decided to just use Vanilla as the other elements to not detract from the perfect pairing. I stamped one of my neglected irreverent sentiments (from River City Rubber Works) in black onto vanilla, and cut it with a Nestabilities square - just a boring old square. I cut the longer vanilla strip a bit wider than the square, and ran it through my Big Shot with an embossing folder. Lastly, I ran a line of sticky tape across the bottom of the papers, folded some vanilla taffeta along it, then sewed it down. Done!

I kinda like it.

I have been a lurker at the ESS site for about 142 of the 143 challenges - long time. This may be the first one I've played. Days off can be good for the stampy soul! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock #34 - Fall To Layout (Maybe)

I'm back for attempt #2 at this week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge. They've teamed up with the fine folks at Clean & Simple and gave us this sketch:

We were asked to follow the sketch and keep it Clean & Simple. Well, I failed with my first attempt, so here's my second try:

I used some retired SU papers and for the circle elements ... I cheated. Yeah, instead of circles, I cut out some of the holly in the paper. I thought by keeping all those elements the same it would look less busy, aka: Cleaner & Simpler.

Eh, not my best work, but I'm okay with it. Time to move on to do a few more challenges I've earmarked for the "do these some day" pile. Hopefully I'll have something to show you later this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock #34 - Fall To Layout (Not)

This week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge is a sketch from the Clean & Simple blog:


We were asked to make a holiday card following this sketch, and to keep it Clean & Simple. Well, I failed at the C&S part. I followed the sketch, but I used really busy papers, so it's all ... not C&S. See:

(Sorry about the glare.) I did follow the sketch, but I chose poorly with the papers, which are from the Basic Grey jovial 6x6 pack. Oh, it's a perfectly fine card, I just can't submit it as a Clean & Simple card. I shall try again this weekend.

I think you should play, especially since you can also post your card over at the Clean & Simple blog this week aaaaand because there's a prize being offered, too. Go to the Jingle Belles blog and check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown #29 - What's The Score

This week's Hambo Hoedown challenge is What's The Score, where we were asked to include scoring on our card. Can you even believe I remembered that?! Like before I made my card?

This is the image we got (free, if you remembered to email them your card last week):

A geranium! Simple, sweet, sooo not me. It's a challenge, right? So I went into one of my cabinets in search of papers, and I found one of those 12x12 pieces with 4 different patterns on it, each 6x6. I used about half the sheet to make this:

Blue ribbon? Yeah, there's blue in the design. :) Did you notice I die-cut that shape? I DID! My replacement Big Shot arrived today and it is sweeeeeeeet. I am so happy I don't need to suffer the weekend without one. (dependent much?)

Oh, the scoring - yes, it's scored:

I scored it on the diagonal every 1/2 inch, and only in one direction. With the busy pattern I thought one direction was enough.

The orange-ish layer behind the geranium and also the larger mat layer is the reverse side of the paper. Perfect match!

So get your scoring tools out and come join us over at the Hambo Hoedown!

Thanks for stopping by!

Spot The Mistake!

It's time for another round of Spot The Mistake! There may or may not be at least one mistake in last night's blog post. If you find it, please comment on THIS post and tell me what you think it is. I'll go rummage in the Captain's Quarters and find something to give away.

Rules:
1. You can comment more thank once, but only if you find something else.
2. You are allowed to find mistakes I don't know about yet.
3. You usually do.
4. No cheating.
5. Finding mistakes in THIS post will get you disqualified.
6. I mean it.
7. I've had a rough week.
8. My dis-assembly of the Big Shot, while it might have been a mistake, is not going to win you favor if mentioned.
9. I said it's been a bad week.

ETA: Enter by 10 pm ET on Friday, Aug 19th. I will pick one random response in a yet-to-be-determined, probably unfair, or just weird, method.

Good luck!

(and thanks for stopping by)

PS: I am inordinately proud that Blogger found zero spelling mistakes in this post. :)

Jingle Belles Rock #33 - Bling On The Holidays

Tonight was a sad night in the Crooked household. Tonight, a dear family member has passed on. Although it was an inanimate object, it had a lot of moving parts, but a few of them move no more. I'm speaking of my dear, departed Big Shot. The darn thing had the nerve - THE NERVE - to seize up on me at the very moment I was cutting a most-critical part for this week's Jingle Belles Rock card. Hmph.

Once I knew a replacement Big Shot was on its way (they have a 3-year warranty) I got permission to try and remove my still-stuck die with whatever force was necessary, then I went to work. I started with the most obvious screws, then the next set, then the next... until I finally had the whole thing in pieces on my craft room floor. It blocks one of my major paths. Here she is:

That part in the lower left? That's the iron grip of the jammed rollers holding my all-purpose platform and cutting plates hostage. They are locked in there gooood. I have a week to re-assemble her. Wish me luck.

Please note: Do not try this at home. If I had taken off the handle first, I would have realized there was no hope, and I would have saved all that time removing the rest of the screws. My bad.

So anyway, what was I cutting? I was using this die from Memory Box:

I cut it last night (JUST FINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH) out of some of the new SU Silver Glimmer paper (available Sept 1st). A sheet of this stuff is blinding, but the tree came out so one doesn't need sun glasses to view the final product. But it disappeared into my chosen background paper, so I was cutting it again out of a piece of card stock vellum when disaster struck. :(

I did (obviously) manage to rescue the die and the piece of vellum (I have my priorities), but at that point I was faced with the task of finishing my card without the use of a die-cut machine. {horrors} I might have to punch or tear or ... it was too much for me to accept. Just too much. I was still reeling from my loss. It's been a rough night, people.

So, do you wanna see my card? Lookie:

Here's a close-up of the tree:

You can see the shimmer, though it is not even close to being captured here. I added red Distress Stickles at the last minute. You can also see the vellum behind the tree - it's just enough without being really obvious. (Thanks to Lisa for her suggestion!)

Here's the other side of the card:

The ribbon ... do you know that 99.5% of all Christmas ribbon uses gold accents, not silver? I rummaged through my box of "you don't belong in the other color boxes" of ribbon and finally found this shimmery one. I like it!

You can also see the stars I was reduced to punching since the snowflake punch was too detailed to cut through the glimmer paper. And I opened and used my Robin's Nest bottle of Christmas tear drops.

Here she is again:

Check out that swirl on the top right. It's one of the punch-outs form the tree. :)

So that's it. I survived my craftastrophe, though I have a week to go before my new Big Shot arrives. What will I do?!?!? It could be an interesting week.

I'm going to post this over at the Jingle Belles blog. Why not get your bling on and join us? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #13 - The Weakest Link

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is The Weakest Link. From our fearless leader: Do you have the best intentions of not buying anything new, but seem to always "fall" for a certain company's release or item? Maybe you just have to have the Basic Grey paper pads or new Magnolia stamps, or maybe you just can't resist buying a certain color supplies, or have to have more Wild Orchid Craft flowers? Whatever its, please use that and tells us what is your weakest link!

*ahem*

Here is my card, and then I'll explain:

Kinda busy, isn't it? My weakest link(s) are: Basic Grey 6x6 pads, MFT dies, and ribbon. There's more, but we'll start with those.

Basic Grey: I was late to this party, but not by much. To make a very long story short, I am on a Basic Grey 6x6 pad Frequent Shoppers list at the LSS, and I get "one of each, please", as in every. single. one. On this card, all the papers I used are from the Lauderdale 6x6 pad.

MFT dies: Late to this party, too, but again, not by much. I really didn't want to fall out of love with my Nestabilities, and I do still love them and use them almost every day, but I'm over them. That means I am not swooning over the new Nestabilities releases any more. Nope. NOW I swoon over the MFT releases. On this card I opened and used both the dies from the Open Scallop Duo (smaller versions of the bigger die I already had) and the Leafy Flourish.

Here's a closer look at some of those die-cuts:

The one in the center is the larger of the two. The smaller green-ish one was cut in half and placed upper right and lower left. I punched some flowers from one of the SU Triple punches to try and break up all that green, then I had to cut all that white with yellow buttons.

The scallop in the center was so pretty I didn't want to cover it up, so I used one of my scallop circle Nestabilities and cut a piece of card stock vellum. The button is from some I bought on Etsy a long time ago.

I sat there and looked at the bazillion things I'd stuck on this card, but you know what? It was all symmetrical, and it was making me a little itchy. You know what else? It didn't have any RIBBON!

Ribbon. Um, yeah. One of the first things I hoarded, which grew into my Boxes Of Every Color Ribbon But The One I Need. Then when I became a Demo, I bought every color of ribbon SU made. I did. Then I bought storage cabinets to hold it all. Now I need to move.

No, I KID! But yes, ribbon. I had to add ribbon to this card, not only because I AM ALL ABOUT RIBBON, but I needed to break all that symmetry. So I did:

I put this at about the bottom 1/3 point (that whole Rule of Threes thing), and tied a double bow with my Bow Easy.

I'm happy to say I no longer hoard ribbon, I no longer shop at the ribbon sales at Mike's, and I no longer even buy every color SU offers. This may no longer be my weakest link. In fact, I think it's definitely #3 of the three I've discussed in painful detail here today.

So there you have it: my three (maybe just two, really) weakest links. Now you need to do some thinking, narrow your OMG, I NEED THAT, AND I NEED IT RIGHT NOW list to just one or two, USE some of it to make a card, then link us up over at the Shopping Our Stash post so we can see what you've made, and tell us what's your weakest link! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown #28 - It's A Sketch

Time for another Hambo Hoedown challenge! This week we got this cute image (free if you played last week and remembered to email them your card image):

A cutie-patootie hedgehog! And here's the sketch they gave us:

I printed off two images like I do every week. Why? It's easier; wastes less card stock; if I like my card I can easily make another one; and more truthfully: I always mess up, so I need a back-up. Case in point:

Darling, no? I went in search of DSP remnants to use and found this piece from the 12x12 MASSIVE Sweet Pea stack from SU (long-retired). I thought HOW CUTE with this little guy standing amongst the flowers. But I had to cut him out, and I did. Every. last. hair.

Post-assembly, as I grinned at my accomplishment, I glanced to my right and saw the sketch I'd printed and failed to follow. NOW do you see why I print two images?!?!?!?! Sigh. I need a keeper.

I went back in and made this one:

Better. Sigh.

In other news, I skipped the market this morning, so there will be no pictures of fruits and veggies. I have my Stamp Camps tomorrow and I'm so far behind with things that I just needed a day to catch up. So yeah, I made cards.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to vacuum and cut up card stock and find the tops of my tables. Then I'll reward my efforts by making more cards. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday, Monica!

Welcome to a Surprise Birthday Hop for Monica Hunter! Monica is the owner of Hambo Stamps and tomorrow is her birthday. A few of us got together and decided to throw a little surprise party for her, and we would like you to join us! If you arrived here via Beverly's blog, you are in the right place. Otherwise, please start at the beginning with Jenn's blog so you don't miss out on any of the fun!

Every birthday has to have presents, and this one has one for you! One random hopper that completes the hop will receive a Hambo Birthday surprise! The winner will be announced at the Hambo Hoedown on Wednesday, August 17.

Here's my card for Monica:

I love this stamp (Harvest Moon hee hee) & sentiment combination. I've had it for years, and it never fails to make me smile. :) Speaking of which, THANK YOU, Monica, for making such great stamps and fulfilling my irreverent need. You guys ROCK!

Your next stop is Libby's blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: Here's the whole hop list:

Jenn Cochran
Beverly Cole
Leslie Hanna <-- you are here
Libby Hickson
Dina Kowal
Karin Martin
Isabelle Mung
Paula Riley
Nora Anne Robinson
Judy Rozema
Bonnie Sharp
Marcie Sharp
Lisa Spangler