A Happy Accident

I've seen a bunch of cool cards that use the new Hero Arts Lattice background stamp, so I continue to play with mine. Here's what came out tonight:

I started with the die-cut shape, then stamped the background over it and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder. It was cut from a Kraft remnant, so it was boring, and the embossed background made it busy enough that it wouldn't work with any background papers I have. Boring yet busy at the same time. What to do ... what to do ...

I took out three colors of Distress Inks: Fired Brick, Wild Honey and Faded Jeans, and put the red on one side and the blue on the other. Then a funny thing happened: when I blended the yellow down the middle, it made green and orange! IT DID! Duuuh. Is this not the easiest way to get five colors out of three, and perfectly blended, to boot!? 

I decided this baby needed to stand on its own, so I put it on a Kraft card base and added a sentiment. Done.

Is it too early for Father's Day*, ya think? Hmph. Oh, and this would be a crazy-easy card to mass-produce, if you are so inclined. Just sayin'.

Thanks for stopping by!


* Sentiment by A Muse Studio

Jingle Belles - 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas

I CANNOT BELIEVE I missed the previous Jingle Belles challenge. *hangs head in shame* To make up for it, I jumped on this one, which is ever-so-cleverly called 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas, and it's - you guessed it: a sketch!

Here is the sketch:

And I, of course, had to flip it:

because I'm ornery that way. No, in truth, my papers made me flip it. Here's my card:

See? I had to flip the sketch! Who could cover up that yummy paper?! It's Memory Box Yuletide, and I just opened it for the first time today. How sad is that?!! I went through the whole season last year and never opened it. I think that speaks volumes for my SABLE (look it up in the left side bar).

ANYway, back to the card. That paper did all the work. I just cut a strip of a brown piece and went to work on the other parts-is-parts. I wanted to put a snowflake there and layer it up, but I couldn't get the punch to punch the glitter paper. I'm pretty sure I have a snowflake die ... somewhere ... I couldn't find it so I moved on to Plan B. I opened (*ahem* do you see a pattern here?) my SU stocking accessories die I got last year when I purchased the stocking die and used it to cut the ornament shape.

Actually, I started out with the idea to use a frosted box I saved from a purchase and use the die on that, and it worked swell, but the ornament disappeared into the card, so I went back and die-cut the glimmery blue ornament to place behind it. You'd think I wouldn't need the clear one then, right? Pffth. Layers are good.

The gold ribbon is wired (much like me this weekend) and for the first time ever, I like the wired ribbon on a card. I love how it holds its shape! Look at those sassy ends, will you?!

Now, the sentiment. That took me a while. What I really need is a pack of those Class A Peel stickers that say Merry Christmas, but I only have the boring Happy Birthday/Anniversary/etc. sets. I ended up stamping the sentiment on the clear, die-cut holly leaf, then had the same "disappears into the card" issue, so I die-cut another piece of paper to put behind it. It wasn't until I globbed on some Crystal Effects to hold things together that I realized I could have just stamped on the paper. Life's tough all over, isn't it?

So there's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I think I'm done stamping for the weekend. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stress

I'll bet you know some Type A people, right? Heck, you might BE one of them. I'm surrounded by them at work, and they make me tired. I think I used to be a Type B+ about 20 years ago, but no more. I leave that stress level to the youngsters now.

When you make a card with a funny or irreverent sentiment, one of the toughest things is to figure out if you could actually SEND that card to someone; "funny" doesn't always equal "mailable". In this case, I do know a bazillion people who could receive this card and laugh out loud! That, my friends, is the job of a good, unexpected sentiment.

Here's today's irreverence:

 And a close-up so you can maybe even read it:

Some of you may recognize this paper. It's from the first year SU had the In Colors, and I fell in love with them. During my 12x12 paper purge, I snagged this one from the OMG GET IT OUT OF HERE ALREADY pile because it makes a nice non-frilly card. Masculine, even. You'll notice I also have some of the Cranberry ribbon. Mmm-hmmm.

The sentiment is punched out because ... you know how you practice stamping on your scrap paper, then when you stamp on the actual card front, you still mess it up? Yeah, that. Sigh.  Also, the button was an after-thought, because I wanted to do one of the challenges I have on my list for this weekend. This one is from The Friday Mash-up, and they gave us this tic-tac-toe board:

My selection kinda dictated itself since I wanted to keep this card masculine. Lace, Flowers, Baby and No Stamping were out, so that left the Pearls, Ribbons and Buttons row. That's why I added the button and the pearl. :)

In other news, I am mailing - yes, MAILING - five cards tomorrow. F I V E! I hope the world doesn't tip out of rotation or anything. I like making them, but sending? Not so much. Having to write on the inside of a card is its own form of stress. Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pearlized Resist

While working on my Creative Chemistry 101 homework last weekend, I made up a technique! I DID! I had been working on several of the projects, and as I usually do, I follow the directions the first time before going off on one of my tangents. I'll show you the "according to directions" versions, then how I morphed them.

First, I played with Perfect Distress Mists, where you combine Distress reinker in a mini mister with water and a dash of Perfect Pearls. I created three different colors in my mini misters, and where Tim added colored Perfect Pearls, I went with the plain white one.  Here is the tag I made:

I must tell you I used plain card stock first, and the pearl part never did dry - it kept rubbing off on my fingers. That's when I switched to one of the Ranger tags, and it dried beautifully, of course. I might have ordered some of this paper in 8.5x11.

The next technique I tried was Paint Dabber Resist. You first stamp an image with acrylic paint (I used Picket Fence) onto a piece of sticky-back canvas, then dry it. Then you go over it with your resist inks. Mine didn't turn out very well:

You can see the white image trying to show through, but I chose poorly with the ink colors I rubbed over it. Plus, my blending skillz leave a lot to be desired.

Never one to give up completely, I stamped another piece of sticky-back canvas with the white paint and dried it, and as I sat there, I spied my pearl mists from the previous technique. So in a departure from The Rules, I got adventurous and just sprayed the pearlized colored mists over the dried paint, and I got this:

Pretty neat, huh? :) Oh, and that clean desk? Not my house. No way would I have that much room to stage a project photo. Get real, people.

Here it is, up close and personal:

I think you'll see me use this one again. I really like it!

Okay, I'm going back in to play some more. Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking Of You

I don't know about you, but I like to abbreviate things when referring to a card, like HB = Happy Birthday. Do you also find it annoying that TOY = Thinking of You? No? Maybe it's just me.

ANYway, two of my pals have started a new blog called A Blog Named Hero, and it's about their collective love for all things Hero Arts. They're having their first challenge: to use your favorite Hero Arts stamp! Since I recently purchased a MUST-HAVE stamp, I thought this would be a good time to use it. :) So here's my card:

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd imagined it in my head, but I still like it! I stamped the new Lattice background in Versamark and embossed it with white embossing powder. Then, as is my custom, I looked around my desk for inspiration.

One of the things we learned in the Creative Chemistry 101 class with Tim Holtz is to never waste the over-spray on your craft sheet. When you spray on your project, there is always extra spritz surrounding the piece, and he picks that up on a tag or a piece of card stock to have another piece benefit from all that inky goodness.

Well, I was playing with pearl sprays last night and had a piece of white sticky-back canvas laying on my desk, so I swiped it through the over-spray. That die-cut piece in the middle of my card is the result. In real life, it shimmers. :)

I stamped a crooked sentiment, then distressed the edges of the piece with Broken China Distress Ink.

Yes, I've had the Kool Aid, and it is good. My personal challenge is to try to fit this distress-y goodness in with my "normal" style - whatever that is. I think this card demonstrates it's possible.

Thanks for stopping by!

MFT Sketch Birthday Card

I played the MFT sketch challenge, mostly because I just got a shipment of goodies from their last release and I felt compelled to use them. Hey, it happens. So here's the sketch:

Yeah, there's a lot going on here, which is part of what makes sketches fun - I would never think to put these pieces together like this!

Here's my card:

 I used paper from the SU Attic Boutique DSP (from the Occasions Mini) and actually went with a square card for a change. The MFT parts are the two Dizzy Doilies. Two you say? Yes, two! The larger one is from the Dizzy Doily Duo set, and the teeny tiny one on top of it is from the new Mini Doily Circles set. The leaves were cut from a scrap of ... something, using the new Royal Leaves die. The yellow felt rolled flower is the MFT Gardenia die that I just now opened, and the scallop border is also MFT.

Oh, wait, there's more! The sentiment is also MFT, from their new Big Greetings stamp set. The Happy and Birthday were inked separately so I could stamp them side-by-each.

Okay, here's the close-up so you can see there really is a second doily under that flower:

It's actually cut out of a different color paper, but it's tough to tell from my crack photography skillz. I did go all artsy fartsy and curl up the edges of the smaller one, just because I could. 

So there you have it: one prissy card that I would never have made if not for this sketch. I think I'll go back in for one more card tonight. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown - Extra Fold

I confess: it's been FOREVER since I last played the Hambo Hoedown, but I'm baaaaack! I think it's because I got up, showered, dressed and out of the house by 8 am, so when I got back I was already moving and didn't feel compelled to sit on the couch and drool.

So this week's challenge asked us to use a Hambo image and add an extra fold to our card. This is what I made:

 Yes, I know - it's PINK! But what else would a ballerina be? It did give me the opportunity to use up some pink paper, so there's that ...  I colored her with Copics, then die-cut her with one of my oval Nestabilities, but, well, see that handsome ribbon? Ribbon covers a myriad of sins, including the use of a too-narrow piece of card stock. Yes, ribbon is good, and floofy, and girlie, so it all works.

Here's a peek at the inside and my extra fold:

All I did was fold the top of the card back on itself, and those pieces of green paper were already cut, just waiting to be used. I did cut into a virgin piece of the pink for the layer under the piggie, but it was pink and it deserved to die.

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

A Road-Trip Inspired Card

I do a lot of driving. Not so much any more now that my kids are grown and off doing their own thing, but I've spent a ton of time behind the wheel of a car. My favorite thing to pass the time is listening to books on CD. I have a few favorites, and I listen to them over and over again. My top two are The Rule of Four (sooooo good) and Pride & Prejudice (*swoon*).

Oh, and lest you worry, I never ever ever evereverever listen to the books on CD while driving around HERE. Oh, no no no. I would be stabbier than stabby, and maybe dead. I reserve the books on CD for road trips.

Speaking of which, I had a road trip this past weekend. Driving TO Atlanta was quite nerve-wracking since I forgot it was Spring Break and all 850,000 people from the DC area were ON MY ROAD!  Pffth. So I came home a different route, taking the winding roads through the Western part of Virginia and the Blue Ridge mountains. Sooooo pretty. The trees are that pretty spring green, and they were interspersed with a bright purple tree - dunno what it is, and I'm too tired/lazy to look it up. There were also pretty yellow flowers/weeds along the ground.

So on this trip, in addition to mentally redesigning my craft room to hold all the Tim Holtz Ranger products I've purchased as the result of taking this "Oh, it's only $35" class *ahem*, I also designed a card based on the colors I saw along the way. This is the card I made:

Yeah, it's dark, so you might need to embiggen it to see it clearly, if the mood strikes you. I used an image from SU's Pocket Silhouette set, linked it in Lucky Limeade, used my finger to wipe the ink off the stems, and stamped it. A lot. I stamped it a few times along the bottom in YoYo Yellow, then went back and stamped it some more in Versamark and embossed those with some long-retired lavender embossing powder. Some sponged clouds, some twine, some tags, a button, and the obligatory birds - done.

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

It came out okay, I think. :)

I hope to get back to playing with my Tim Holtz goodies, maybe later this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday, Korin!

I'm a day early with a very special birthday surprise....tomorrow is Korin Sutherland's birthday! A group of her friends got together today for a fun early birthday party, since tomorrow is the April Release Blog Hop for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, and we didn't want to take the spotlight from that. So please join us as we celebrate Korin's birthday a little early! After all - you can never have too much celebration, can you?!?!

If you've arrived here from Dina Kowal 's blog, welcome! (Well, welcome, anyway, but you know what I mean.) This hop started at Taylor Usry 's blog, so if you landed here first, you can start at the beginning and hop all the way through! The list is also at the bottom of my post for your hopping pleasure. 

For my card I used my new SNSS stamps and papers to make this:

I love this kitteh so much I have her in both digital AND the clear stamp set. :)

Feel free to leave Korin some early birthday love, either on her blog, her Facebook page, or the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Facebook page!

Your next stop is Lisa Hjulberg, and here is the list of all the participants:

Taylor Usry

Beate Johns

Bridget Finlay

Holly McMillen

Lydia Fiedler

Chrissy Dickinson

Dina Kowal

Leslie Hanna (you are here)

Lisa Hjulberg

Kim Schofield

Jessica Fick

Julie Ranae

Monika Davis

Jessica Diedrich

Cathy McCauley

Makiko Jones

Kim Singdahlsen

Mary Faus

Deb Felts

Lori Craig

Giovana Smith

Kim O'Connell

Wendy Jordan

Julie Smith

Michele Single

Jeanne Streiff

Lee Murphy

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge 46 - Punch It Out (sorta)

Yes, I'm late with this week's Shopping Our Stash challenge. Actually, I was out of town this past weekend and did it from memory, and, well, when you are as old as I am, memory fails you. This week's challenge is Punch It Out, and you must have at least two punched elements on your project.

So ANYway, I had a spur-of-the-moment road trip to visit my stampy pal Libby, and we planned to do our collective Creative Chemistry 101 homework together. We got quite messy! Along the way, I used one of my samples to make a card using punches for this week's challenge. This is what came out:

I'm fairly certain this would not count for the challenge since I used the same punch twice - not two different punched elements. So don't be like me, and make sure to add something else punched, too, okay?

The colored piece was one of the alcohol ink techniques from the class. I stamped over it with two stamps from a Hero Arts set, then layered it onto a piece of black on which I punched two rows using a Fleur de Lis punch (EK Success, I think). As a final touch, I stuck on two pieces of polka-dotted paper tape I picked up on one of our crafty shopping sprees. *ahem*

Now that I'm home, I'll try to get organized and post some more of my homework samples. They were a lot of fun to make, and I may have collected enough Ranger product to make me need to rearrange my craft room. I even played around and created a technique of my own by combining two of our lessons into one. :) So watch for them over the next week or so, or when I get to them.

Thanks for stopping by!