Sketchy Birthday Card

One of my tweeps, Tiff (@iheartart on Twitter) does a lot of card sketches, and thought it would be fun to post a sketch a week for us to play with. This week is her first Sketchy Sunday, with this sketch:


and here is my take on it:

Now most of you will know this sketch SCREAMS MY NAME! This card took maybe 5 minutes to make, and I made TWO of them. The card base is Hero Arts (it's white on the inside - love it!); the DSP is from the UFO pile; The banner and sentiment are from Lawn Fawn; and the bling is from the bling drawer. I've used all the smaller ones, or I would have put smaller ones on each side of a larger one, but it was not to be this time.

FIVE MINUTES, people! This is a SUPER sketch for using up scraps, um, I mean remnants. Just change up the sentiment and - DONE! Now go forth and play along! (Psst: this is NOT a challenge. Just have some fun!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock - Week 3

Here it is, Week 3 of the Jingle Belles Rock Challenge, and I'm still playing! Whoot! This week's challenge was to use acrylic paint. ACK!

Okay, I actually have acrylic paints - they were purchased while under the influence of Claudine Hellmuth and her wonderful class I took at Angela's. Hoarding I can do. Using - not so much.

So after I got done whining to Lauren about the challenge, I went into The Captain's Quarters and grabbed two colors - one green and one tan - and made this mess:

I decided the green was very, very bright, and then I had A Moment. I remembered you can mix the colors to get new colors, so I mixed them together to create a more muted green. (Sorry, no pic - forgot.)

Here is the finished card:

The bright green is on either end and the tan is in the middle. The two strips between them are painted with the muted color I achieved by mixing the two together. Not bad, not bad.

I should probably tell you it took me 2 hours to get the rest of this to come together. There is a totally different piece of DSP under that Basic Grey piece. I decided I intensely disliked it, but ATG adhesive is so good, it wasn't coming off, so it's layered. The ribbon (SU Crumb Cake seam binding - LOVE!) hides the unfortunate measuring boo-boo I did with the BG strip.

Those snowflakes are cut from a piece of glitter paper I picked up at Mike's, and are cut with some MFT Die-Namics I got from Libby. I need to tell you that several snowflakes were sacrificed for this card. I couldn't for the life of me pop them out without tearing an arm, so yeah, several died along the way. So sad. These are the two that survived the massacre.

My last stumbling block was what color to use for a sentiment. I ended up using Soft Suede.

So that's it! I'm 3 for 3! Yay, me.

If you haven't already joined the fun, come play!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lazy Saturday

Welcome to what just may be my lamest post ever. But it WILL give you a glimpse into my weird life.

Let me start by saying a blogger who also tweets and stamps and has a camera is a dangerous combination. I take pics of everything. Some make it to Twitter, some make it to the blog, and some are just "OMG I MUST RECORD THIS FOR POSTERITY" moments.

Today I finally transferred my pics from the phone to the laptop, and I decided it was such an eclectic collection of photos even though most of them are blurry, that it was blog-worthy. And darn your luck you are reading my blog right now.

Think of this as yet another example of why you don't want to be me, because if this were your life's high points, well ...

Let's get started.

1. Last summer a farmers market customer of mine suggested I make cards with a wine theme, being as we are all aging, and old people drink a lot of wine. Okay, maybe I paraphrased a bit, but she did suggest wine-themed cards. So on one of my recent trips to my LSS, I got this:

Niiiice, huh? :)

2. Sometime back in December, I had to go to the grocery store during the time when sensible people don't go to the grocery store. Like the day before Christmas. Imagine my JOY when I realized how smart my local store peeps are, because instead of being inundated with "where can I find ..." questions from frantic last-minute shoppers, they placed these at the end of every aisle:

3. My commute suks. But the good thing about being stopped in traffic is you get to see things like this vanity plate:

4. Squirrels. This tree outside my front door used to house squirrel nests. No more! See those handsome red arrows? Those branches are gone. Squirrels are pissed.


5. The cat is comatose:


6. It got cold, and look what I pulled out of my back seat:

7. Field trip for work, and while on the Metro, I noticed one of my co-workers was wearing red cowboy (cowgirl?) boots:


8. Sunset. Sunset is a great time for color shows in the sky. I saw this one night recently on my way home from work and tried to get it on pixels. The first one is REALLY blurry (I was driving, people!), but the others were taken at a stop light.



I smell a card with trees. I do.

9. We had a water main break across the street from my office building. Oops (not my car):

Here's the water looking across to my office building:

What a mess.

10. Onions. Some time before Christmas - maybe even THE DAY before, I saw this pick-em-up truck FILLED with onions:

That's a lot of onions.

11. On a recent trip to my LSS, I took a side trip to get some lunch and saw this mug at Sbux:

The pic was taken for one of my Tweeps who lives in Germany and collects Sbux mugs. This is now in her possession.

12. Merging - a foreign concept in these parts. Check out that opening:

All of those cars were behind me, but they zoomed ahead and past the opening to get to the front of the line. Heaven forbid they merge before their lane ended. WHO DOES THAT?! No wonder we all have to stop to let them in, thus stopping traffic even more. Idjits.

13. Here's another one. See that ashhat in the "no drive" section:

He is crossing 2 solid white lines AND a no-drive safety zone to merge into a merge lane. I could not make up this stuff. This is why I am stabby a lot - an hour of this nonsense twice a day.

14. Another vanity plate:

This one has a plate frame that says 100 mile something. Yes, people do 100-mile races on foot. Runners. They go out for "quick" 15-mile runs before breakfast. They have T-shirts that say, "Oh, you ran a marathon, how cute." These are serious people! This particular driver, however, decided that being on the phone wasn't enough, so she also cut across 2 lanes of traffic to drive on the shoulder for a while. I'm telling you, I cannot make up this stuff.

15. Take-in Thai. Spicy beef. YUMMY! Caution: don't eat these:

16. One happy kitty:


17. A stamp for all stampers:

18. The house across from my December craft show. I covet this house:

19. My idea of heaven:

19.1. ... and a fun title I found while I was there visiting:

20. Al wearing my new Crafting Cap:

All done. Now that my phone is empty, I have some crafting to do.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flashback Friday 7.0

Guess what day it is, kids? It's FRIDAY! That means it's time for another:



Today's Flashback Friday Challenge is to go back in time and find our first glitter card. Well, some of us are OLD, and we were playing with glitter before we even had a blog, so I went back in my blog archives to find one of the first glitter cards I posted. Here you go:

And I was so lame back then, I tried to post pics on the left, then on the right - you know, for symmetry. All I managed to do was skew my blog. I am much wiser now, although not wise enough to know how to fix this cut-and-paste pic, so it's still left-justified. You want "back in time"? You've got it!

And sorry it's so small, and sorry it's so dark and not staged or anything, and sorry you can't even click on it to embiggen it. S O R R Y!

It's things like this that make me glad it's been almost 3 years since then, and I've learned much.

Oh, this card was originally posted here on March 29, 2008.

I hope to get crafty this weekend, so I'll have something NEW to share with you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Deer Friend

Once again, rumors of my demise have been GREATLY exaggerated. I can't believe I haven't blogged all week! Yikes!

The wrist is on the mend, and I'm rebelling against the wrist brace, because now I'm over-compensating for the immobility in my wrist by straining other muscles in my hand and arm, and we all know I don't need any more help messing up my arms and back, am I right?!?!

So tonight I forged on and stepped into The Captain's Quarters to find something from the Heaplet or UFO pile that needed to be rescued. I ended up using a sheet of paper from last year's Sale-A-Bration (SAB) paper pack to make this:

The trees and clouds are already on the paper, so all I did was cut it. I've always wanted to do that - use the patterns on the paper and call it done! Um, but that didn't happen here. Nope - I added the teeny tiny deer to make it a "scene". Isn't it cute?!?! I got it on Etsy from nikoart.etsy.com. Her stuff is SO cute. I colored the deer with Copics and added the white dots to the back with my white gel pen. The sentiment is from A Muse, and I drew the grass with my Old Olive marker.

I'm kinda loving this baker's twine. I know, I'm late to that party, too. I use it for packaging my Etsy sales, but it's so nice to work with, and it comes in so many colors ... yeah, I plan to begin hoarding it, why do you ask?

I'm going to go back in now to make the other two cards, then move on to something else.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock - Week 2

Here we are already with Week 2 of the Jingle Belles Rock challenge to make a Christmas card per week. Now, if you would be so kind as to drop what you're doing and go pick Lauren up off the floor, I'd appreciate it. I'll wait ... ... ... ...

Okay, this week we were supposed to use Inchies on our card. Inchies-schminchies. I don't have no stinkin' Inchies. But wait ... as the wheels turned .. an Inchie is nothing more than a fancy name for a 1" square piece of something, right? Well guess what *I* have! You've got it: a 1" square punch! I was home freeeeee! With that baby I can make ANYTHING into an "inchie", so I did. Lookie:

Now I have to tell you, I am SO very proud of this card, and for many reasons I am about to list for you:

1. The blue paper is from the floor at my feet at The Captain's Table. It used to stand up next to the table, but it fell over. I used part of it.
2. All the Garden Green pieces are from the remnant box.
3. I used the Glad Tidings set which I think I used once the year I got it and never again, until now.
4. I found my Garden Green reinker and I am wearing some of it.
5. The poinsettia is from a package of HA Poinsettia parts I got in November that I never used, until now.
6. The handsome teeny tiny bow was made from a scrap of ribbon on my table.
7. FYI: When you adhere the green to the white card base crooked(ly), then unceremoniously rip it off and try it again on a new base, the ATG doesn't stick so well to the torn backing.

Because I cut two pieces of the DSP from the partial piece I had, I also made this one:

It's the same except the flower is from a pack I opened but didn't finish last month. It's still not all gone, but it is one less to put away.

Please pay special attention to the red circle under that blingy flower. It is a ... 1" circle! Are Inchies only square? Do I get extra credit for combining 1" squares with a 1" circle? Well, DO I?!?!?!

Okay. That's all I have.Wha? Punchy? You think I'm punchy? Well, let's see... I woke up at 4 am and by 5 am, when I was still not back to sleep, I got up and chatted with my Tweeps, and drank a mug of coffee. Then I was running late for work, drank mug #2 on the way in, then I got another mug when I got there. And I'm on a masso anti-inflammatory medication that may or may not be speed. Not sure. Yes, I think it may be speed. Did I tell you I typed this whole thing WITHOUT A MISTAKE in 12.3 seconds. Mmm-hmmm. I rest my case.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flashback Friday 6.0

I saw this Flashback Friday thing over on Mary Dawn's blog, and thought I'd play, since I'm still wounded*.

So welcome to:

ETA2: Dang! I didn't read the rules! This was supposed to be a card using an unexpected find around my home. Well, I don't have unexpected finds. In fact, I cannot FIND anything! I might be able to stre-e-e-tch the rules a bit and say I "found" a pile of the punch-outs on my workspace (which is truth) and figured out a way to use them ALL ON ONE CARD! If that doesn't fly with the crafty authorities, then feel free to disqualify me. :(

I went back in the old archives to my second post, and this is not the first card, but it's the second card in my post (Apr 25, 2007). I called it "over the edge" for a reason:


It's the rubbah molecule! See? I was destined to take a different path with this stamping gig. Yes, I know the image is tiny, even tinier than the blinkie, but it is no longer stored on this computer, and I didn't feel like finding it, so I just saved the tiny image and re-posted it. But you get the idea, right? Try clicking on it to embiggen it. (ETA: That doesn't work. You'll have to go back to my original post to see it bigger, plus you can read the history of how the card came to be.)

Wanna play? Amy is giving away some cool stuff this week! Go check it out and show us your old stuff!

Thanks for stopping by!

*Wounded. I took myself to the local after-hours clinic last night and my wrist is not broken. He wouldn't even x-ray it... said it would be a waste of time. If it was broken, I wouldn't have the mobility I do. I have basically given myself carpal tunnel. Who knew I was that good? I get to wear a metal splint for a few weeks to let it rest and I also have some major anti-inflammatory medication. I do NOT plan to stop crafting. If I can drive a manual transmission, I think I can handle a rubber stamp. I'll give it a shot tonight.

Because I am Wounded

No pics. No new cards. I have sustained a minor crafty-related injury. Okay, not directly a crafty injury, but if I hadn't been crafting, it wouldn't have happened.

The other night, as I left The Captain's Quarters, I managed to slam the inside of my right wrist into the door jamb. Can you say, "OUCH!"? It smarted, but I forgot about it. Over the past two days, however, my wrist and hand have gotten worse, to the point where it hurts to do anything and my hand tingles like it will go numb. I cannot lift or hold or unscrew or tear or ... anything. I'm doing that whole hot-then-cold-then-hot application thing. Ow.

So today's post is going to send you to someone else's blog, because it was an amazing post, and I needed to share. And I'd say I've wondered about 98.3% of the items listed. The blog is geekgirl's random ramblings, and here is her post. Go read it and leave her some comment love.

Me? I'm going for some more cold. Ow.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Hybrid Card

Yes, hybrid. You read that correctly. I've purchased and used individual digital images in the past, and I don't consider that "hybrid". Nope. That's printing an image instead of stamping it. I still die-cut it, color it, layer it, etc. with real crafty tools. To be truly hybrid, I believe part of your card needs to be printed and applied to the paper card untouched. That's my take on it, anyway.

So a month or so back, SU had a special on My Digital Studio, and in a Good Demo moment I caved and bought it. This past weekend, I actually installed it and played a little. My efforts resulted in this digital card:

Fun, huh? Yes, it is soooooooooo cheating on my stamps. I was riddled with guilt. Then I thought I'd try to print the card. 25 hours later ... sigh... no luck. For a computer professional, I was pretty inept. I begged the Demo of all Demos and the Queen of Tutorials - Ms Patty Bennett - for assistance, and she came through! She is awesome!

Unfortunately, now that I knew HOW to print, I got a clue and realized that I'd made a Kraft card base (I know, I know, it's Crumb Cake now, but MY package is still Kraft, so I'm going with it), and printing the whole card would use about $3545 worth of ink. Not such a great plan.

Plan B hit me Monday night. I saved the image as a jpg, then cropped only the center part of the square, copied it into a word document, and printed THAT on Whisper White card stock. SUCCESS! Whoo-hoo! I then layered that digital part on Marina Mist and Basic Black and put it on the card front. Ergo: Hybrid. Lookie:


(Oh, look, I put it on upside down. ;/) The cool thing about this is I don't have (read: cannot find) that stamp set - Best Wishes and More, and I don't have that patterned paper. But I do NOW! Let's get a closer look at the details:

Okay, maybe it's not as crisp-looking as the digital version, but I still really, really like it. Hey, you know what? I think the writing on that paper is upside down and backwards, like mirrored. Could be... could be. I blame my screen capture program - it has attitude. But who cares, really? The whole point of this card is you CAN use a digital element, in my case to fill a gap in the stash, and still make it a real paper card with layers and RIBBON and all that good stuff.

I am so pleased with this, I declare it project #4 of 4 for this weekend's Stamp Camps. I think The Ladies will enjoy making something "not Valentine's" and "not pink or red". In my world of serving suggestions, this is the palate cleanser.

That also means I have the rest of the week to play play play. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

End of My Rope

Saturday I picked up a few new irreverent sentiments at Angela's. Here's one of them:

When I saw it I immediately thought of this image to pair it with (with which to pair it):

So the other night I grabbed a few remnants from the right side of The Captain's Table, and started to work. Part-way through, I realized this sentiment wasn't going to fit on the cards as I had them laid out. Lookie:

That one on the right? Maybe. The one on the left? No way. What to do, what to do. I remembered seeing someone take a sentiment and put the words on their card individually, so I hacked up one of the stamped sayings and tried this:

I liked it! I think the separate words actually emphasize her frustration. :) Here are the finished cards:

Please note those handsome copper faux pearls. I got them Saturday and I actually used them and then put them away. I KNOW!

Here is the second card:

For this one, I decided to just distress the heck out of the edges of the sentiment. It fit, both the card and the mood.

The sentiment actually has no company name stamped on it, though I think it may be River City Rubber Works. Can't say for sure.

Two more cards for the old irreverent inventory. Yay, me! I'm going back in for more tonight.

Thanks for stopping by!