Love, Roses, and Lateness

May has been busy with all kinds of happenings. Registered my oldest for Kindergarten! I'm not ready to think on that too much, so instead, I thought I'd blog my mom's Mother's Day card that I made, oh, yesterday.

I was having a hard time figuring out what to do. None of my card ideas were working. Then I saw this stamp in my stash. Then the notebook die. Then the paper. Happiness. Mom's name is Rose so this dear Lizzy Neopolitan paper was just the ticket! That entire collection is just sweet bliss. It's a simple card, but lots of favorite things included.

The card is 6.25 x 4.5 inches. Inside is blank because I needed lots of room to write. Mom asked for a happy memory from childhood - funny coincidence, all three of us originally picked something from age 6! I changed mine though, there are lots to choose from. - and I write big and at an angle. ;)

This is going in the Simon Says Stamp Flower challenge. Thanks for looking! And I hope your May has been wonderful so far!

Supplies:
Stamps - Unity February 2011 Kit of the Month, Hero Arts Mother's Day wood stamp
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - PTI White, Sweet Blush; Dear Lizzy Neopolitan 6x6 pad
Other - PTI notebook die, MFT Sentiment Strips dies, pop dots, A Muse Studio pink pearl stickers

Spring Snow, Whatever That Is

It's the last day of the month, so it's time for another blogging challenge with some online peeps. And this month was Lee's turn to choose the theme. And she picked "spring snow" and you had to use snow and spring flowers. I'm pretty sure if the theme had been "please depict the life cycle of the common unicorn in die cuts and wood veneer" it would have made a little more sense to me. The only kind of snow we have in spring is the kind my kids make crumbling up styrofoam packing material.

Nonetheless, here is my card. It's very simple. The tulip is from the GinaK set Year of Flowers illustrated by the lovely Melanie Muenchinger (who I got to meet thanks to Lee) and I picked it because we had some growing in our yard, sans snow of course. For the snow I used my PTI In the Meadow hill die and stickles. All the cardstock was in my scrap box so that makes me happy and seems very Aprilish. The mat is kraft. On my monitor it has some weird greenish cast to it, but it's just plain kraft.

I'm linking this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge because it is anything. ;)

Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Stamps - GinaK Year of Flowers, PTI Birthday Bash Sentiments
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa
Paper - SU Regal Rose, PTI Kraft, Georgia Pacific white
Other - PTI In the Meadow die, Nestabilities Long Rectangle and Scalloped Long Rectangle dies, Frosted Lace stickles, gemstones, copics
Card is 7.25 x 3.75 inches.

Bright Hellos or Blogging While Cooking

I'm supposed to be making supper. Well, I am making supper, I'm just also blogging. Thank you iPhone.

It's PTI blog hop day and the theme is Tilted. Here's a quick CAS card featuring the hello die, white cardstock, and some really old cardstock from my stash. And that's all. :)

Thanks for looking!!! Enjoy the hop!

Skyline Birthday or Fun With Drinking Straws

I did a craft with my kids today. It had been a while. Oh, we've glued things and played with stickers and colored and all that, but a good cover-the-table-in-newspaper craft hadn't made an appearance here in months. So there's this awesome place where I spend most of my online time, perhaps you've heard of it? What's that? Pinterest? No, although that is a cool hangout. Splitcoaststampers? Yeah, that's the one! On splitcoast a girl in the Stamp to Spend challenge (where you "pay" yourself for each card or whatever that you make and only spend the amount that you've "earned", theoretically) had started a blog and one of her cards featured a cool technique where you blow ink drops around on glossy cardstock using a drinking straw. (Run-on sentence much?) Straws + mess = good kid fun. (Video tutorial for the straw technique here and here.

The 5 year old really enjoyed it and loaded his paper with all different colored inks. I thought it was a terrible idea but kept my mouth shut and I'm so glad because they turned out really cool. The 3 year old was interested for about two minutes and then decided stamping Mickey Mouse on the newspaper and on his arm was more fun. Whatever makes ya happy, sweetie. And the girl just wanted to chew on some clean paint brushes.

Sorry for the sideways photo! The two all the way to the right are my 5 year old's.

I used one of mine to make this card. It is highly unusual for me to do a technique and actually make a card in the same day. Highly unusual.

My reinker colors are Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, and Pacific Point. I think the weird little dots/bubbles are because my glossy cardstock is about 10 years old. Don't you love that glitter paper? It's so perfect for this skyline. A pale grey circle for a moon and a BIG birthday sentiment turns this into a birthday card for my cousin chasing her fashion dreams in NYC. I'm entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog's skyline challenge.

Thanks for looking and reading through my ramblings! And putting up with my phone photos. I think I'm ready to go back to my DSLR.


Supplies:
Stamps - PTI Birthday Bash Sentiments
Ink - SU Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point reinkers, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - SU Glossy cardstock, PTI white and Soft Stone, Coredinations black glitter paper
Other - MFT skyline die, circle punch, straws

Two cards, One Design

It's two hours before deadline for some of the Moxie Fab challenges so, of course, I have some cards. And I used the same layout for both of them.

The first one is for the Emphasize the Negative challenge. I used mint chevron washi tape, peach Color Shine mist, a doily, negative butterfly, and a wood veneer heart making this one of the trendiest cards I've made probably ever. I gave it to my little sister for her birthday. The big 14 this year. Yes, I'm 20 years older than her.

The second one I'm entering in the chevron challenge. Mine aren't particularly innovative, but they are shimmery green and that has to count for something. ;) I seem to be needing a lot of belated cards lately so I'll be making a few more of these. The scallop die cut is from my dear friend Alyssa who will be having her baby any day now! So excited for her!!!

That's all folks! Thanks so much for looking!

Supplies:
Negative Butterfly
Paper - PTI white
Other - mint chevron washi tape, peach Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray, Studio Calico mask, PTI Love Lives Here butterfly die, doily (not sure who makes this one ), Studio Calico heart wood veneer

Chevron Belated
Stamps - PTI Birthday Bash Sentiments
Ink - Versafine Onyx
Paper - PTI white
Other - Studio Calico chevron mask, Mint Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray, Recollections washi tape, PTI Fillable Frames #5 die cut , rhinestones, black Sharpie to color the rhinestones

Get Well Cards or Why I Love Washi So Much

Happy Holidays y'all! Be it Easter, Passover, or just spring you're celebrating I hope it's been wonderful!

This month the Flybaby challenge was Get Well cards and, oh my, my first card was a challenge. It seemed like such a good idea. It has a lot of elements I like, the polaroid die cut, clear embossed raindrops that really look wet, even my homemade enamel dots (tutorial by Mistylynn here). But nothing came together right, I had to change colors two or three times, my first rain scene looked ridiculous, etc. Eventually, I finished it and am happy to have something ready to go next time someone gets sick.

This card, however, is my favorite. It was fast. It's cheerful. It shows off a tiny bit of the new washi I bought. And it's far more likely to get there on time as it's for someone already on the mend. ;) I'm entering it in the Moxie Fab Washi challenge.
 

Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Under the Weather card
Stamps - PTI Scattered Shower, Scattered Shower Additions
Ink - Memento Tangelo, Versamark, Versafine Onyx
Paper - PTI white, Soft Stone, a muse studio slate, Seattle grey chevron, SU Bashful Blue
Other - MFT Instaframe die, PTI Sunshine impression plate, square punch, homemade enamel dots, pop dots, clear filigree embossing powder

Washi Hello Friend
Stamps - Studio Calico Oh Snap, PTI Ad Sense
Ink - Versafine Onyx
Paper - PTI white
Other - lots of washi tape, rhinestones

Black Tie

Hello! I'm trying something new this evening. I'm blogging from my phone. We'll see how it goes! If my picture is sideways I'll start over later.

Saturday night, we went to a fabulous wedding. It was gorgeous and one heck of a celebration! The bride and groom were giddy with happiness. The food was delicious. The music was as good as a concert. My second favorite wedding ever. ;)

Their invitation was gold, cream, and black with an Art Deco feel. I made this card for them. Pretty cards are not my forte so I went simple.
I'm happy with how it turned out. Except. I have no good inside sentiments. The best I could come up with was Best Wishes. Any inside sentiment set suggestions? Enable me people!

Anyway, back to the card. It's bigger than A2. 4.75 x 6 inches, I think. I stamped the flourish in Gold Encore pigment ink then embossed it with gold embossing powder. The double whammy of gold helps in case there are bare spots from the powder. The banner is handcut with the notches done using the corner of a square punch.

That's it for now! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Baroque Motifs, $1 spot at Michaels sentiment
Ink - Encore gold pigment ink, Versafine Onyx
Paper - MFT Black Licorice, GinaK Heavyweight vanilla
Other - SU Gold Glory embossing powder, scrap ribbon, square punch (for notches)