Distractedly Domestic

Present

2012-01-04T15:34:00.002-06:00

Oh hello. It's been a while, hasn't it?

It's a whole new year. A new calendar. Lots of lists of things we did and things we hope to do. Introspection. And there was a three day weekend. All things I love.

I've decided to participate in One Little Word this year and my word is "present". As in, be present, be in the present, present a good example (yes, technically that's a different word entirely, but it's spelled the same so there), each day is a present (and I like presents!), all the things in my life that are presents from above, and I'm sure tons of things I haven't thought of yet. I will try to be present more here, as well. I missed my own blogaversary for Pete's sake.

So let's catch up.

Our new baby is almost 3 months old and has a stack of outgrown clothes! The oldest is almost 4 and, by "almost", I mean that I have 2-3 weeks to throw together a birthday party (top theme contenders are an art party or a Mario Bros party). Yes, I will be spending copious amounts of time on Pinterest. And, lest I have leave out the other boy thereby fostering his inevitable middle child syndrome, he has a huge vocabulary for a 2 year old, recognizes several letters, counts, sings songs, and adores his little sister.

We had a great holiday season if you ignore the stomach bug, the ER trip for the busted gum (no stitches needed!), the crazy melt-down I had trying to get everything ready for extended family Christmas Eve morning, and that the suitable for 5 yr+ transformer I bought the boy took my extremely handy husband 30 minutes to turn from a robot to a car. But it really was nice. There was a lot of good family time and that's what it's really about, isn't it?

I have been crafting and cooking so I should have a post with pictures next time. I'm going to try my hand at Project Life this year and take Ali Edwards One Little Word class. Through the magic of Pinterest I've discovered embroidery. This baby season is just about over (waiting on 2 last babies) but the next cycle has begun! So I won't just gab next time, but if I wait until I get pictures to get started it might be February or 2013! So best to just get this awkward first post back out of the way. And there's no time like the present.

PTI Blog Hop and a New Arrival

2011-10-25T19:40:00.005-05:00

I cannot believe I'm actually doing the PTI blog hop! It's been months since I've managed to hop! I loved, loved, loved the pumpkin picture with all the fun patterns and was all set to do something like that.

And then, totally didn't. I noticed the acorns and thought, "hey, I have a rockin' acorn set from PTI that hasn't seen enough ink." And then, "hey, I need to make a baby card for my friend who might come visit tomorrow." So I made this instead. :)

I used the onesie die, the canvas and linen impression plate, and the Autumn Acorns set and acorn die. The felt is not pti and I promise the dark one is green not black! I don't know what's up with that, but it's a very pretty dark olive green that I got at Joann's for an abandoned project a few months ago. Super simple, but I don't have much time to stamp lately.

Our own new arrival showed up earlier this month and I'm pretty nuts about her, too. Her brothers are over the moon and her dad is already in abject terror of her dating. She's pretty and sweet and took a nice little snooze so I could make this card tonight. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI Autumn Acorns

Ink - A Muse French Roast

Paper - PTI Orange Zest, GinaK Ivory, Stampin' Up! Close to Cocoa

Other - PTI Autumn Acorns die, PTI Onesie die, A Muse light green felt, dark green felt from JoAnn's, PTI Canvas and Linen impression plate, scor-tape

Apples!

2011-09-22T16:42:00.003-05:00

It's finally fall! Hooray! It's still 90 degrees here, but we'll just ignore that for the moment. I made a few fall apple crafts to celebrate the demise of summer. I promise to work on my blog photography skills in the coming months, but for now these will have to do.

Apple specimen art using the Martha Stewart apple punch and a ton of paper scraps. I do want to frame it but haven't found an 8x10 cheap enough yet.

These were extremely fun! I saw this awesome Everything Etsy link on pinterest (one of my favorite hangouts lately) which takes you to The Purl Bee's Apple Coaster tutorial. I love projects that you can do while watching tv with your family in the living room. And the only thing I had to buy for the coasters was some green embroidery floss. I love that, too. :) There are three more plain apple coasters in yellow, green, and red, but my horrible photo skills didn't let them all be in the shot. So hooray fall, hooray felt, hooray scraps, hooray apples!

Dino Birthday

2011-09-20T19:13:00.004-05:00

Well, I am just not keeping up with things! It's been a month since my last post. I didn't think it had been that long. Baby girl will be here in three weeks and that's the excuse I'm going with. ;)

A very sweet little boy belonging to a very dear and sweet friend is having a birthday tomorrow. We are going to do everything we can to get to his birthday party this weekend since we'll be staying close to home once Little Miss gets here. It's dino themed. I love this retired My Favorite Things dinosaur set (that another dear friend sent me) and pulled it out for his card. FYI: I did make *my* sweet little boy a birthday card and might actually blog it ~~some decade~~ soon. Also, I used the MFT sketch challenge sketch for this but didn't realize the upload deadline was today at noon. Oops! It's a really cute sketch so don't be thinking it was my idea or anything. ;)

I colored the dino body with copics - um, green ones - and then dotted all over it with the colorless blender to give it some texture/not have to blend so much. The paper is Basic Grey Life of the Party that I got half off at Hobby Lobby today because they have finally started carrying some 6x6 pads! Whoohoo!

Supplies: Stamps - My Favorite Things dino set

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peeled Paint

Paper - PTI white, SU certainly celery, Basic Grey Life of the Party 6x6 pad

Other - sponge, copics, pop dots

Nuts About You

2011-08-21T18:38:00.005-05:00

I haven't done a Tuesday Trigger in forever. Ages and ages forever. I got new PTI stamps for my birthday this week and I was itching to try them out so I checked out this week's challenge. (My birthday's not until October, but my mom and my friend Alyssa decided to gift me early so I could get a little craft time in before baby girl arrives. :) Thanks!)

Here's the trigger picture. The yellow chairs reminded me of mushrooms. I don't have any cute mushroom stamps, but I did just get Maile Belles' adorable Autumn Acorns set and acorns are kind of like mushrooms, right?

So I came up with this. I stamped the acorns in Memento Dandelion and Angel Pink inks and added a little sparkle with a clear spica pen, which is apparently afraid of my camera because I have yet to take a picture where you can see it. Stamped the sentiment and that darlin little acorn on a circle punch out, added some black mats, and c'est tout. A nice, nutty CAS Tuesday Trigger. Thanks for looking!

Supplies & Dimensions: 4.5"x4.5"

Stamps - PTI Autumn Acorns

Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Angel Pink, Dandelion

Papers - Stampin' Up Very Vanilla and Pink Pirouette, unknown black

Other - Paper Shapers 1.75" circle punch, Marvy Super? (the blue one) scalloped circle punch, clear spica pen, pop dots

Baby Season Preview

2011-07-16T11:34:00.005-05:00

I have been reading crafty tutorials all morning long. Theoretically, I am getting a "break" this weekend. This may or may not happen since we have two birthday parties tomorrow and it's actually raining (YAY!) and wet today. Theoretically, if I get a break, I am going to be super productive and make lots of things. This may or may not happen as I am notoriously well intentioned but not overly motivated in general, I am about 26.5 weeks pregnant, and, well, do I need any other reason? Yes? Well, I bought oreos yesterday (because they're was a coupon stack at Target and it's morally wrong to not buy oreos when you are getting a good deal on them unless you are allergic to chocolate, sugar, or fun) and I have some pretty decent hot chocolate and it's a grey, rainy, and shockingly quiet day even though everyone is home. So not looking too good at the moment. I think my best shot is to have so many oreos and mugs of cocoa that I give myself a sugar high and that gives me the energy to craft. Sounds like a plan. (And, yes, I know it's July. I eat ice cream in February, too, so it's all good.)

If I should happen to get something done, baby gifts are high on the list. Two dear friends just had babies and I know 12 other preggos not counting myself. Baby season is at a trickle right now, but it picks up speed in August and breaks wide open in October and goes strong through January. Alyssa started things off with her sweet little chubby-cheeked man and I got a few things made for him. Just a week before he made his appearance, Alyssa had given me a cute little $1 stamp set of mustaches. I decided it would be fun to use that for his card and present so I did mustache onesie card and a custom mustache onesie. Since then, I've seen mustache pacifiers on Pinterest so that would have been fun to include too.

The other thing I made was this adorable rainbow sunshine plushie from Chez Beeper Bebe. It's a free pattern and even though I am really not a seamstress and have never embroidered it came together very quickly. I think next time I will either use thicker ribbon or more ribbon because it seems a bit sparse in places, but I still think it's pretty cute.

So a handmade with love baby gift that comes together in a day. Nice. And, since I had the onesie already and everything else was from my fabric and ribbon stash, this portion of the gift was free, which left more money to buy all those little baby things that add up crazy fast.

Now, to see what we can make today. :)

Summer Bucket List

2011-06-27T08:32:00.005-05:00

Figured I better do a post with my summer bucket list (ya know, since June is almost over). I keep forgetting what all we were gonna do so this is really more for me than anyone else. ;)

A Summer Bucket List, if you don't know, is just a list of fun things you intend to do over the summer. A lot of families write things out and let the kids choose a slip from, oh say, a bucket, but this year I'm picking off the list or just giving them a couple of options. Items in italics we've done at least once.

Make ice cream
Make popsicles - These or these are nice :)
Make playdough
Make slime
Have glow in the dark drinks
Learn new songs
Make crayons from old crayons
Make melted wax art
Go to the lake
Paint Mommy's belly
Play with cars and finger paint
Get sno-cones
Family water gun fight
Make big bubble wands
Let the boys make their own pb sandwiches
Crazy hair with hair gel
Dye hair with koolaid
Pick our grapes
Build a fort in the living room
Wash the car
Make and decorate sugar cookies
Water color
Make smores
Go for a picnic
Go to the zoo
Make fizzing sidewalk paint
Dress up play day
Make short videos for the baby
Make and play with pinwheels
Mail someone a surprise
Discover the wonderful world of gluesticks
Discover the wonderful world of paper punches
Handprint art
Paint with rolling pins
Make placemats with old books

Will we get to all this? Who knows. Will we add other stuff to it? Maybe. Is it better than watching tv all summer? Oh yes!

Someone Special

2011-06-19T21:04:00.005-05:00

We had a very nice Father's Day. Low-key, lots of good food, and it's wasn't too hot. We went for a walk just a little while ago and the youngest had fallen behind distracted by a mailbox. We all called for him to come on and then Jeff dropped to one knee and held his arms out wide and both boys took off running for him and fell into his arms hugging him. **melt** He's such an awesome dad. I can't wait to see him with another baby. I am so blessed.

I used this week's Make It Monday technique for his card. Trees always seem very Father's Dayish to me. I'll probably use one on my dad's card, too. (Yes, I'm bad. I haven't made Dad's card yet.) Anyway, I used 4 different greens on the leaves and I like how it turned out. I wish I had done it a little more evenly, but oh well. The frame is a piece of cork that is probably too thick for my cuttlebug but nothing broke so I guess it's okay. The button is either a PTI button that someone sent me because I cannot for the life of me find them on the site or it's a button off one of Jeff's Hawaiian shirts that is no longer with us. No worries, folks. He has plenty more.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day (or just a great Sunday). I'm gonna sneak a cupcake now. ;)

Supplies - Stamps: PTI Father Knows Best
Ink - Pear Tart, New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy, Rich Cocoa, Desert Sand
Paper - GP white, SU Bashful Blue, PTI kraft
Other - PTI button twine, wood button of unknown origin, cork, staples, PTI Sunshine impression plate

What I'm Up To

2011-05-21T09:33:00.004-05:00

Just thought I'd update anyone reading this on what I've been up to. Pirate Party VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) is this weekend and I get to hostess a challenge! You have until Monday evening to play so head over to SCS and check it out! I made this card for one of last night's challenges. (And no, your cards do not need to be pirate themed.) You have 45 minutes to make your card so it's great for slow, indecisive stampers like me to just make a card and not change my mind 400 times.

The cute pirate Ollie image is from the huge stack of images I collected from Wish Rak and Pay it Forward on Splitcoast. I think this card took about 30 minutes. Coloring took the longest and then finding something the right size to trace for that red circle mat. One of these days I will get the full set of circle nestabilities, but today is not that day. ;)

But mostly, we're up to this:

We are almost 19 weeks along and will find out in two weeks if we're having boy #3 or girl #1. Exciting! And exhausting. I have almost no energy for crafting and don't even ask what state the house is in. I don't know if it's because it's the 3rd pregnancy in 4.5 years or because I'm over 30 now, but I am tired ALL the time. Happily, everyone is very understanding and the only thing suffering is my to-do list. ;)

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Supplies:
Stamps - Ollie pirate image from Stampendous, Yo Ho Ho sentiment from Odd Bird Planet
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - Papertrey White, SU Real Red and Brilliant Blue
Other - almost every brown and grey Copic I have plus some red and blues, circle punch, scissors, Divine Swirls cuttlebug embossing folder, square punch to make the banner notch

Holiday Rejects

2011-05-17T10:38:00.004-05:00

Hello! It's rejection time again. :) And I really don't mind. Several friends got good news and I have a headstart on the holidays. Of course, I'm blathering on about another Reject Blog Hop that Amber at Damask Love is kind enough to put on for all the lovely cards that will not be gracing the pages of Paper Crafts magazine. My rejects are from Holiday Cards and More. I could have resubmitted them for the December call, but I decided eh, I'll try again next time. ;)

This is a double reject. It was originally for Go To Sketches, but I thought it was cute enough to give it another try. Apparently not, lol! Still, it was loads of fun to actually use some of the glitter colors I've had forever and was, all things considered, surprisingly not messy. Stamped the frame from Waltzingmouse Stamps in Fresh Snow ink and cut 8 strips of 1/4 tacky tape the same size (an inch, I think) and 1 strip slightly longer. Attach em, peel the liner off and glitter one at a time just giving the card a few taps before you move on to the next color. Easy peasy. I handcut the flames and stuck them on with small gluedots. Found the Celebrate sentiment in Scattered Showers. I submitted this one in the No Holiday Products category for Holiday Cards and More, but maybe it's *too* no holiday? Perhaps a Happy Hanukkah sentiment would have been better? Maybe having the frame on another layer from the base giving the card some dimension? Most likely there were just some really rockstar cards that got submitted and glitterati here had to stay home. ;)

This one is very straightforward. The menorah is stamped repeatedly in alternating silver and gold encore inks - word of warning, they take FOR-EVER to dry if you don't heat set them. These are from a cute stamp set from There She Goes that Alyssa gave me. (Thanks again!) Stamped the sentiment in black and matted it with some gorgeous GinaK metallic silver cardstock and tied a fabulous gold ribbon from PTI. Seriously, who wants real metals when you have these beauties around. I could eat them up! (The supplies, not the cards.)

Anyway, these are my rejects! Check out all the fabulousness at the blog hop on Damask Love.

Celebrate Supplies:

Stamps - Frame It by Waltzingmouse Stamps, Scattered Showers by Papertrey Ink

Ink - Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow

Paper - Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening, Stampin Up Daffodil Delight

Other - 1/4 Terrifically Tacky Tape, Martha Stewart Glitters - fire opal, peridot, turquoise, garnet, tourmaline, golden beryl, crystal fine, kunzite, charoite

Menorah Supplies:

Stamps - Home Sweet Home Hanukkah Additions by There She Goes Stamps

Ink - Silver and Gold Encore inks, Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Papertrey Stamper's Select White, GinaK Silver

Other - Papertrey gold ribbon, pop dots, craft knife (for the mat)

Surprise! It's a Birthday Blog Hop!

2011-04-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

Woohoo!!! It's a very special someone's birthday. One of the LuvLee-est people you could hope to encounter in the wide world or the world wide web! ;) And some of her friends decided we should celebrate with a blog hop and I am tickled pink to be included!

Happy Birthday Lee!!!!

Lee is just as sweet and fun in person as she is on the computer. Not to mention a truly righteous stamper. But in all seriousness, ;) she has some real addictions. I mean, the amount of bling she uses is practically unreal. You know how some people want a coffee IV? Lee's would be full of glitter. But I'm not here to judge. Especially on her birthday. So here's my very blingy, very pink, using a small smackerel of Basic Grey, and a fun Gina K image colored with copics birthday card for one of the very nicest people I know!

(There are, count 'em, 3 sizes of rhinestones and pink Stickles!) Awesome retro lady is from GinaK Designs Sew Pretty set and, yes, I know it includes a Happy Birthday stamp but Lee is too punny and hot to not use this one.

Check out all the birthday fun on all the blogs!

Alison

Carole

Christi

Crafty Math Chick

Joanne

Lori

Lydia

Misti

Nancy

Have the best 21st birthday ever, Lee!!!! Love ya!

Here's her blog so you stop by and wish her happy birthday in person.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Sew Pretty
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Stampin' Up! Pink Pirouette, Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz, Georgia Pacific white, Basic Grey hmm, Bittersweet? Sugared? (bet Lee knows!)
Other: Copics (YR04, E09, E00, RV21, RV23, 0, E30, E31, E33), Paper Studio Gemstones, Pink Stickles, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Papertrey Sunshine Impression Plate, Paper Shapers square punch (for the banner notch)

Family Cards

2011-04-04T13:26:00.006-05:00

I'm trying to be better blogger, which is proving difficult since my wireless network card is on the fritz, so I thought I'd share a couple of family occasion cards. First, my cousin is living in New York looking for a job in the fashion industry. She ended up in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy two weeks ago. She has friends there, of course, but no family remotely close by and was feeling a little lonesome. She loves her coffee so I thought a card and some free Starbucks would cheer her up. The colors are from the (small) gift card I sent her. Super quick and easy. Took me longer to clean up my area to take a picture than it did to make the card.

Next up, my uncle got married this past weekend. It was a very pretty wedding in my aunt's (not the same couple, my mom is the oldest of 7 kids) backyard. I have to confess that I actually made this card for a Paper Crafts call, although now I can't quite remember what the specifics were. I liked it and thought it would be great for an outdoor wedding.

There ya go. Some random cards from me. :) Today is my little sister's birthday so maybe there'll be something new here tomorrow! :) I hope so, anyway! Not really sure what I'm gonna make her just yet. Also random, I am totally trying these Mocha Cream Cheese Phyllo Triangles sometime this week. Anyone wanna visit?

Perk Up card: Stamps - Waltzingmouse Stamps Frame It, GinaK My Cuppa Joe, Crafty Secrets Coffee and Tea

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - PTI Aqua Mist and Stamper's Select White, Basic Grey Urban Prairie, Nook and Pantry, and Origins 6x6 collections

Growing in Unity card: Stamps - Unity Growing in Unity, Eco Chic

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa, Ranger Distress Ink Vintage Photo

Paper - PTI Rustic White, Stamper's Select White, Dark Chocolate

Other - Copics (been too long for me to know which ones, sorry!), scissors, PTI woodgrain impression plate, PTI small scallop border, Martha Stewart blush seam binding, Marvy Mega circle punch, sponge, PTI Ripe Avocado button, SU linen thread, pop dots

Make It Monday - Wish Big

2011-04-01T16:25:00.003-05:00

Oh dear. It's been almost a month since I've blogged. Sorry about that. I have a good reason! I'm 11ish weeks along with baby #3 and I'm pretty much 24/7 exhausted. Hope, hope, hoping that once I'm past the first trimester I get a little energy back!

Love this week's Make It Monday video at PTI. (Loved last week's, too. Made a card, never blogged it. Doh!) I have decided that I am definitely investing either in the Ranger blending tool with multiple pads like Betsy Veldman uses in the video or giant sponge daubers - one per ink color - like Theresa Momber at Crafting the Web uses. The little daubers are just not that awesome at blending. Still, it was lots of fun. I wasn't too sure about this card while I was making it but I think I'm happy with how it turned out. My sweet sister-in-law's birthday was, ahem, a couple of weeks ago so I will be putting this in the mail pronto with her birthday check.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Star Prints

Ink: Memento Angel Pink, Grape Jelly, Bahama Blue, Summer Sky, Lulu Lavender, Tuxedo Black

Paper: Stamper's Select White, True Black

Other: sponge daubers, rhinestones, pop dots

Rejects! It's the New Cool

2011-03-08T08:54:00.003-06:00

Oh my, oh my! It was Paper Crafts submission time for Go To Sketches Vol 2 last week. I am shocked and thrilled to say I got a happy email. But today isn't about that. Today is about the rejects. Dr. Amber at Damask Love is hosting a reject blog hop for all the lovely cards that won't be in the magazine. There is some fabulous stuff and I just have to join in! Now, the two cards I'm showing I'm not surpised they made it to the reject pile. Don't get me wrong, I like them and I'm glad I made them, but they're not ones that leave you scratching your head wondering what the editors were thinking. ;)

This card is for sketch 57. It's very plain, but a smiley face is the first thing that popped in my head when I saw the sketch. I wanted it to be bright and cheery while still keeping it simple. I stamped the letters on white, colored them, cut them out, and then sanded the snot out of the middles so there wouldn't be much white showing. There's a great tip to run a black marker around the edge for things like that, but I don't have a steady enough hand and always end up making a bigger mess.

This one is based on sketch 63. The idea of using real bandaids seemed fun to me. I wanted to use "Feel better friend" from the same set, but it wasn't long enough to be balanced. I do like this general idea and will probably use it again with kid bandaids if I ever need a kid's get well card.

Thanks for looking and you should check out all the fabulous rejects from everyone over on Amber's blog. And definitely pick up a copy of Go To Sketches Vol 2 when it hits the stands in August! It's gonna be fabulous! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:

Happy card: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Paper Tray and Outlines Alphabet Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black Paper - Papertrey Stamper's Select White, Stampin' Up! Dandelion Delight (is that what's it's called? Can't remember now) and Peach Parfait Other - Papertrey Ink Sunshine Impression Plate, Copics (RV00, RV02, RV04), Cutterbee scissors, Basic Grey sanding kit

Under the Weather: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Scattered Showers Additions Ink - Vivid Raspberry Paper - Stampin' Up! Pink Pirouette, Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz Other - Stampin' Up! Two-Step Owl Punch, bandaids

VSN and Make It Monday

2011-02-27T13:36:00.003-06:00

VSN is still going strong! One of the challenges is to make a card based on your first love, no, not your kindergarten crush, even before that. Whatever toy or lovey you carted around everywhere or what your kids are carting around now. Only problem is I don't recall having one special toy and my kids are equal opportunity carters at the moment. I've also been wanting to participate in the new PTI weekly challenge, Make It Monday. This week is to use double sided tape to make glitter strips. On top of that, I needed a birthday card for the twin girls down the street and they were having a bee themed party. Then I thought of the Fisher-Price bee pull toy that my mom gave me when I was pregnant with my first, which just happened to be the first toy she bought when she was pregnant with me. Everything clicked into place. :)

You can watch the great video Dawn McVey made showing how to make the glitter strips here.

I only have 1/8" scor-tape right now so I used red tacky tape. It worked the same, scor-tape is just a bit more user-friendly. My mom got me one of the Martha Stewart glitter sampler packs a few years ago and I love having tons of colors. The actual bee image is from the Unity Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety set. 'Happy' and 'day' are from PTI's Paper Tray set and the 'Bee' is from Honey Bee Sentiments. I feel weird using a non-PTI stamp for one of their challenges, but I don't have any of their bee images and I really do love this little guy. You can check out all the VSN challenges here and all the Make It Monday entries here. Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - Unity & Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety; Papertrey Honey Bee Sentiments, Paper Tray

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Papertrey White, Hibiscus Burst

Other - Terrifically Tacky Tape; Martha Stewart Onyx Glitter, Yellow Barite Glitter; Papertrey Limitless Layers Die, Copics (Y11, Y15, Y17, BG000, C0), clear Spica pen; foam tape

CPS, TGF, and VSN!

2011-02-26T19:10:00.003-06:00

Was that enough acronyms for ya? :) It's Virtual Stamp Night weekend at Splitcoast! Lots of fun challenges to get your creative juices flowing! I used this week's CPS sketch for Michelle's challenge to make a card featuring a red dress. I love Flirty Anya from The Greeting Farm and have been itching to ink her up! Perfect opportunity!

I tried to make her hair streaky and, well, I'll keep on trying! lol. She's still super cute even with her funky hair. I'm always thrilled to use up some old patterned paper from my stash, too. Come check out all the fun VSN challenges over at SCS! Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - The Greeting Farm Flirty Anya

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - PTI Stamper's Select White, Stampin' Up! Summer Picnic DSP, Real Red

Other - PTI Pure Poppy and Blueberry Skies buttons, PTI Jute Button Twine, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Copics (E13, E15, E25, E47, E49, R24, R27, R29, E00, E30, R20, B32, B34)

BIG Birthday

2011-02-12T13:43:00.005-06:00

I've completely lost track of which PTI anniversary day it is because we've been sick. (So sick I left PTI in my mailbox overnight! Gasp!) But we're mostly feeling better today and I had to make a card anyway because it's my grandmother's 80th birthday party tonight! The PTI challenge is to use something big on your card and 80's a pretty big birthday so they seemed to go together nicely. :) My big things are a tag and numbers.

The 80 is Basic Grey chipboard my mom found at Big Lots once upon a time. I would have used the PTI Number dies but I haven't caught them in stock yet. Sadness. My glittering skills could use some work, although the sparkles I couldn't get rid of look fairly festive on my face. My husband even thought they were on purpose. :) If you're wondering about these colors, they are the colors in her oh so 1950s bathroom, which has always cracked me up. :) Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Trajan Alphabet, Fresh Alphabet, Outline Alphabet

Ink - Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel

Paper - Papertrey Ink Rustic White, Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue, Basic Grey Pink (Bittersweet?)

Other - Papertrey Ink In Bloom impression plate, Scarlet Jewel button, thread, shipping tag, Stampin' Up! Bravo Burgundy marker (to touch up the letters), Martha Stewart Glittering Glue, White Gold glitter, ribbon from my stash, pop dots

PTI Color Contest: Belated Birthday

2011-02-09T22:52:00.003-06:00

Here's my second card for the fabulous PTI Anniversary color challenge contest! This time I used Heather Nichols' colors - Kraft (of course!), Spring Rain, Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado.

This one's very CAS. I pulled out Pond Life, which has not gotten enough love, and stamped the cutie pie turtle in green and brown. The Spring Rain panel got run through the Woodgrain impression plate and sponged with walnut ink. (I stamped the sentiment poorly so I took Maile Belles advice bia PTI Radio and flipped my cardstock around to cover it up.) Thanks for that! My brain is kinda fried right now and I might not have thought of it on my own. ;) Sad, but true. Loved that radio show. Might listen to it again tomorrow! :) Anywho, the card is Kraft with beautifully rounded corners thanks to the Corner Chomper. I finished it off with some linen thread and buttons that came off one of my husband's Hawaiian shirts. Thanks for looking!

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Ink Pond Life and Additions

Ink - Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Palette Burnt Umber, Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Paper - Papertrey Ink Kraft, Spring Rain, Stamper's Select White

Other - Marvy Mega Circle Punch, Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, Stampin' Up! Linen Thread, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, sponge, buttons, pop dots

PTI Color Challenge: Birthday Wishes

2011-02-09T22:19:00.004-06:00

It's Day 4 of the PTI anniversary contests and today's prize is a huge stack of ribbon, felt, and cardstock. Yes, please! You can enter one card per color combo and there are 10 combos! I did two. Would love to think I'm going to stay up and do a few more, but that's not going to happen. It's day 3 of the stomach bug/diaper rash plague here and I am just about whined out. As soon as my poor guy goes back to sleep I'm hitting the hay.

So, back to the fun stuff, I chose Betsy Veldman's color choices - Scarlet Jewel, Hibiscus Burst, Harvest Gold, and Rustic Cream. I don't think I've ever used In Bloom without coloring the flowers before. - Truth be told, I've only stamped In Bloom a handful of times because I had trouble getting a clear impression. I sanded the stamps with an eraser, stamped on a mousepad, used light pressure, used heavy pressure, everything I could think of and always had a blank spot on my image. Today, I used a tip I saw somewhere on the PTI forum to stamp in Versamark before stamping in your real ink. Whoever suggested that, thank you so much!!! It stamped perfectly! - I stamped the big flower on Hibiscus Burst and the smaller flowers on SU So Saffron since I don't have Harvest Gold cardstock yet and cut them out. The base is Vintage Cream, no Rustic Cream either, and the mat is vintage cream impressed with the In Bloom Impression Plate. The sentiment is from Daily Designs Sentiments also in Scarlet Jewel. It should be a bit more to the left, but oh well. Next time. I added Harvest Gold satin ribbon and a Hibiscus Burst button. It was a little stark so I inked the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink. The whole panel is popped up and the pink flower is popped up again. Thanks for looking! Check out everyone's entries here.

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Ink In Bloom, Daily Designs Sentiments

Ink - Papertrey Ink Scarlet Jewel, Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink

Paper - Stampin' Up! So Saffron, Papertrey Ink Pink Hibiscus, Vintage Cream

Other - Papertrey Ink Pink Hibiscus button, Harvest Gold satin ribbon, In Bloom Impression plate, sponge, pop dots

PTI Contest Day 2: Rainbow Note

2011-02-06T21:07:00.003-06:00

Whew! I did get another card made! I'm really liking these little tags. Methinks a tag set is getting bumped to the top of my PTI wish list! I went with Melissa Bickford's tag this time. Such a cute little rainbow. This card came together pretty fast, which is great because, otherwise, it wouldn't have gotten made. :)

I colored the rainbow with Copics and the dots in the cloud with a clear spica pen. Die cut the black with the Limitless Layers scallop. I don't own the notebook page die (I know, sadness) but my fab friend Alyssa cut several for me. This is the first one I've gotten to use, mostly because I keep forgetting where I put them. I used the Sunshine impression plate for the yellow background and stuck it on a black card base. It needed something, but I didn't want to use baker's twine on every card I made today ;) so settled on the rhinestones. Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - PTI Tag Download

Paper - PTI Lemon Tart, Georgia-Pacific white, unknown black, notebook paper

Other - Copics (R29, YR16, Y15, YG09, B24, B000), Spica Pen clear, 1.75" circle punch, PTI Limitless Layers scallop die, Notebook Page die, Sunshine Impression plate, red rhinestones, pop dots

PTI Contest Day 2: Just For You

2011-02-06T16:18:00.003-06:00

It is day 2 of PTI's anniversary contests. Today's prize is just as sweet as yesterday's and takes up a lot less room! You get to co-design a stamp set! I KNOW! How freakin' awesome is that?! And they gave us these adorable printable tags! I'm not a huge fan of digistamps, but these are really uber-cute and I like that I can just print, punch, and color. No formatting or resizing or anything. Sweet.

I chose Lisa Johnson's tag. It's so stinkin' cute! Colored it with Copics and popped it up on the Mat Stack 3 stamped with the frame from All Booked Up and "Just For You" from Daily Designs Sentiments. I actually chose my markers to match my paper for once so the blues are a pretty close match! I'm not sure which Basic Grey collection the paper is from, Urban Prairie maybe? Added some black and white baker's twine and a few rhinestones and it's a cute and easy card.

There are 8 more tags and you can enter once per tag so I'm hoping to be back later with another card. There is a little matter of the Super Bowl and the 77 party favors I still need to make for Nana's 80th birthday party next weekend so we shall see. You can check out all the tag awesomeness here. Happy Sunday!

Supplies: Stamps - PTI Tag Download, All Booked Up, Daily Designs Sentiments

Ink - Memento Angel Pink, Rose Bud

Paper - Basic Grey paper, PTI Stamper's Select White

Other - Divine Twine Baker's Twine, rhinestones, Copics (RV21, RV23, RV25, BG10, BG13, BG15, RV14), pop dots

PTI Favorites Contest

2011-02-05T12:09:00.003-06:00

Oh. My. Word. Have you seen the prize offered on Nichole's blog today??? It's AMAZING! I would hyperventilate with happiness if I won. Seriously. I'm getting a little short of breath now just thinking about the possibility! :) To enter you can comment and/or post your favorite PTI creation of last year for a total of two chances. GO DO IT. NOW. (Or not, and leave me a tiny sliver of hope, haha.) Anyway, this leaves me with a quandary. I am not good at choosing favorites. At all. So I'm just picking one I like a whole, whole lot, that I haven't posted on my blog yet, that is mostly PTI and saving myself the trauma of picking my absolute favorite ever. ;) And here it is.

I made this card for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoast last summer. I had just gotten All Booked Up and was so ecxited to use it! Mixing patterned paper is not my forte even if it's all from the same collection and this is a lot brighter than my typical card but that's what made it fun. :) Thanks for looking and check out all the amazing entries in this contest here!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink All Booked Up

Ink - Memento Dandelion, Stampin' Up! Real Red and Old Olive

Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, 2008 Bitty Dot Basics, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety

Other - Martha Stewart Butterfly punch, rhinestones, Papertrey Ink Mat Stack 3 die, yellow gingham ribbon, pop dots

Tuesday Trigger: Sweet Treats

2011-02-04T17:27:00.004-06:00

Hello! Wow, how did it get to be February? It'll be March before I even turn around. We avoided the Snow-pocalypse and just got some cold temps here. Southeast Texas, finding ways not to snow since forever. Onto brighter, or, at least, more shimmery subjects. Cath at Moxie Fab World had another fabulous Tuesday Trigger inspiration picture for us.

Isn't that fudge yummy?! Only problem is I was completely stumped. I don't make Valentines, this is a bit pink for my husband, and I just didn't have any awesome ideas. Now, not saying this is awesome, but I did finally come up with something I like. :)

I found this card very difficult to get a decent picture of. (Truly sorry if ending a sentence with a preposition offends you. It's my favorite grammar rule to break.) I'm including the natural light pic and the Ott light pic just because.

I really liked the pattern on the box lid and that inspired the vine mask and the fairytale paper on the heart. Smooch spritz is just cool. The sentiment is from PTI's Damask Designs and is a set I don't use often enough. I even broke open a new giant bottle of mod podge just for this card. ;)

My kids are destroying a bag of popcorn so I best go. Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Damask Designs
Ink - Palette Burnt Umber
Paper - Papertrey Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, DCWV Fairytale Mat Stack
Other - Smooch Spritz in gold and vanilla, wooden heart, sheer pink ribbon of unknown origin, Divine Twine baker's twine, Tim Holtz vine mask, scor-tape, matte Mod Podge.

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

2011-01-25T14:09:00.003-06:00

It's Papertrey Blog Hop time again! I had to miss November and December because of holidays so I'm glad the kids let me play along today. The theme this month is to use your uninked PTI or sets that are gathering dust. I don't have any sets that have never seen ink but plenty that haven't seen it lately.

This is not my typical card. And I feel like it's missing something. Even if I knew what it was that it needs, my toddler's up and he is a mini-Godzilla in the craft room so this is it for now, lol. I fit three under-used sets on this card. The tree is from Father Knows Best, the hills are dotted with Polka Dot Basics 2, and the sun is made from one of the decorative tabs in Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs. The sentiment is from Daily Designs Sentiments, which sees lots of ink. ;) The hills and handcut and sponged around the edges. The sun was begrudgingly handcut, too. The cloud is, of course, one of the adorable PTI cloud dies. The tree trunk I letterpressed with the woodgrain plate. That's all folks! I can't wait to see the awesomeness everyone else made! Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Father Knows Best, Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs, Polka Dot Basics 2, Daily Designs Sentiments

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Stampin' Up! Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive, Marigold Morning, Close to Cocoa

Paper - Papertrey Ink Spring Rain, Kraft, Lemon Tart; Stampin' Up! Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive

Other - Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, Cloud Die, pop dots, sponge, scissors

Moxie Fab: I'm So Pretty

2011-01-23T23:42:00.004-06:00

Gotta make this SUPER quick since it's for the Tuesday Trigger and is due in, oh, 17 minutes. I loved this week's trigger! And I happened to have made a flower that looked similar recently so I had to play even though we just finished hosting a 3rd birthday party with 13 kids. ;)

I stamped this ridiculously fast. I think the gray is SU Going Gray, but I'm not certain. Whatever it is, I love it. I tried to do the faux suede technique, but then messed up the stamping so the brown is the flip side. It's thinner than cardstock now, almost like old parchment, and feels pretty cool. It needed some texture so I stamped PTI Text Style background in Versamark. The flower is from scrap fabric and the sentiment is from Star Prints. TFL!

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Ink Star Prints, Background Basics: Text Style

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Paper: Stampin' Up! Going Grey, Soft Suede

Other: Scor-tape, fabric flower

Card Patterns and Candy Winner

2011-01-11T17:09:00.003-06:00

It's been a challenge-filled week and since they've been stamping challenges it's all good! There have been sick family challenges, too, but we won't talk about that. ;) I was able to do Card Patterns Sketch 97 and combine it with one of the GinaK release challenges to use turquoise, brown, and kraft. The blues match better in real life, I promise! The paper is some ooollld Basic Grey Blush and the mug is from Carolyn King's adorable Warm Winter Wishes set. You can't really see it, but I embossed the brown layer with the Swiss Dots folder so it has a little texture. The ribbon is off a package or something and exploding out of my ribbon box. It's much happier now on a card with some breathing room. ;)

Now for candy! Mr. Almost Three and Therefore Knows Everything pulled Patricia's name out of the hat! Patricia I'll get you your stuff asap! Thanks for commenting everyone!

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Warm Winter Wishes
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Paper - Papertrey Ink Kraft, GinaK Chocolate Kiss, Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla, Basic Grey Blush
Other - Copics (BG000, BG02, E15, E31, E30), ribbon, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder

Tuesday Trigger: Winter White

2011-01-09T18:38:00.006-06:00

Moxie Fab World has another fabulous Tuesday Trigger and I had a chance to play! Yay! (I was so sad to miss the striped mittens last week. Too fun for words.) Anyway, this week's challenge is a beautiful cake from Martha Stewart Living.

It's gorgeous! Look at all that yummy texture! Well, it's lace, so not yummy, I guess. But undeniably beautiful! :) Super classy in white on white.

I went playful. And white on very pale grey. ;) A white sky just seemed....weird. Now, I love this sentiment. I love this whole set, but especially this sentiment. The Billie Holiday version of Come Rain or Come Shine was our wedding dance. I embossed or impressed all the clouds with different folders and impression plates. Added some ribbon and stamped the sentiment. Done. A fun little clean and simple card my husband will love. Thanks Moxie Fab.

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Ink Scattered Showers

Ink: Memento Desert Sand

Paper: Papertrey Ink Stampers Select White, Soft Stone

Other: Cuttlebug Embossing Folders - Floral Screen, Swiss Dots, Tiny Bubbles; Papertrey Ink Impression Plates - Sunshine, Woodgrain, In Bloom; QuicKutz Plants Embossing Folder; Stampin' Up! Satin Trim Ribbon; Papertrey Ink cloud dies; pop dots

CPS, GinaK, and Old Paper

2011-01-08T16:05:00.004-06:00

I actually did a CPS sketch before the deadline! Yay! I combined it with the Emboss Resist technique challenge on StampTV. Yay! :) This is for CPS Sketch:199.

It's a cute sketch. I didn't round the corners because I was afraid with the big scallops on the blossom die that it would be too many curves, but now I think I should have. I don't heat emboss much anymore because I have issues with it warping my cardstock. Pretty sure this is user error. You can't emboss resist without it, though, so I pulled out my SU Irridescent Ice, Versamark, and the butterfly from GinaK's Take Flight. No warping, but I think I still managed to overheat it because the right side of the butterfly wasn't very sparkly. I die cut it with the largest die in the Nestabilities Blossom set. After sponging it with Memento Grape Jelly and Lulu Lavender I added a smidge of stickles to balance the shimmer back out.

Now, I'm not a super purple person. I like it. I like to wear it. I just don't create with it because I have a hard time finding colors that look good with it. I pulled out severals papers from my mountain o'papers and decided on this one from the Basic Grey Lily Kate collection (making it older than my first child). Very springy, but I hope not easter eggish. The sentiment is from My Cuppa Joe. Stamped it in Grape Jelly on a kraft strip and punched the ends with a square punch to make notches and glued everything down with the pink ATG gun my mom gave me. That's pretty much it. :)

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Take Flight, My Cuppa Joe

Ink: Versamark, Memento Grape Jelly, Lulu Lavender

Paper: PTI kraft cardstock, Georgia-Pacific white cardstock, Basic Grey Lily Kate paper

Other: Stampin' Up! Irridescent Ice embossing powder, Spellbinders Blossom Nestabilities die, Stardust Stickles, sponge daubers, craft knife, square punch

Oops! and Blogaversary Candy

2011-01-03T21:43:00.006-06:00

Wow, um, sorry! It's been over a month since I've posted! We've been sick a few times (there's a sick boy in my lap right now) and busy with holidays and family. And I have started posts but not finished them. My bad! I definitely will start posting more often! Once a week at least and I hope more than that!

And, what do you know, it's my blogaversary today! I would have missed it if my friend Cheri hadn't pointed it out to me. I've really enjoyed sharing projects and joining blog hops and I hope to get back in the swing of things very soon. How about a little candy? Included is a Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder, Spare Parts crochet trim, Memento Tuxedo Black Dew Drop, Making Memories Flower Shop flower assortment, Inkadinkado Inchies Butterflies and Birds stamp set, Papertrey button assortment, Pink Hedgehog Sea Rain Drops, American Craft Elements ribbon, and a fabric rosette headband - one of the many projects I've not blogged in the last month. To win just leave me a comment telling me a project you want to try this year. I'll leave this up until January 10. Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you!

Thank you to anyone who has ever wandered over here! Happy New Year!

Thank You Veterans!

2010-11-11T11:26:00.004-06:00

Thank you to all the veterans and active duty military (and families!) protecting freedom and democracy for the rest of us! Happy Veteran's Day! (And thanks to my awesome friend -and Air Force wife! - Jen for loaning me this great set!)

Supplies: Stamps - Greeting Farm Hero Ian, Papertrey Ink Let Freedom Ring
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Versamark Dazzle Diamond
Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White
Other - Copics (It's been a while so I'm not sure which ones, sorry!), pop dots

Fall Y'all

2010-11-10T12:25:00.005-06:00

There's not much fall weather in Southeast Texas. We're running the heater today, but all this week we've had the air conditioner on. But we've been doing fall crafts and activities and it's been tons o' fun!

Here's a wreath I made. It's an 18 inch grapevine wreath, wide ribbon from my stash (bought last year 80% off), and felt roses and leaves. Finding the felt was the hard part. Everything else was easy. If you want make one, you cut circles out of the felt, then cut a spiral shape, and roll it up. (Betz White has a fantastic tutorial on a project using these roses so head to her site to see pictures. And, obviously, hers are far more fabulous than mine!) The leaves are just hand cut. The orange, yellow, and darker green felt are from Weir Crafts, btw. I really love how this wreath turned out!

Here's another project. I saw this tutorial from Sparkle Studio on One Pretty Thing. I loved it! I even found some of the canvases in my craft room so that sealed the deal. I'm not 100% crazy about how it turned out. (And my picture is awful, sorry about that.) Next time, I will use a glue with a precision tip for the edges and that should help a lot! It was really fun so there will be a next time. :) I think once the kids are old enough to be trusted with glitter they would have lots of fun with this!

These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are so yummy! They'd make a great Thanksgiving morning breakfast!

Pumpkin pie playdough was a big hit here. One whole hour of quiet after I made it. Unheard of! The neighbor kids all liked it, too. (I bet peppermint playdough would be fun for winter! Or gingerbread. Mmm.)

I hope you're having a fun fall!

Chirp, Chirp, Tweet, Tweet

2010-10-29T09:50:00.004-05:00

If you recognize that then you spend way too much watching Nick Jr. just like me. ;) Today, I have a triple challenge card! I picked this sweet Crafty Secrets bird image (thanks Jaala!) for the SCS Hope You Can Cling To Cancer is for the Birds challenge. I've loved this set for a while so I'm excited to finally be playing with it! The sketch is from CPS. It's super cute! I was also inspired by this week's Tuesday Trigger, Sweater Weather.

I was inspired by the colors, the texture, and the overall cozy feeling.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - Crafty Secrets Bird Notes

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Ink Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo

Paper - Papertrey Ink Lemon Tart, kraft, Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla

Other -Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, yellow rhinestones, American Elements ribbon, sponge, Copics (Y00, Y11, Y15, YG93, YG95, B000), pop dots

Card Patterns Sketch 87

2010-10-26T19:46:00.004-05:00

Woo hoo! I was very excited to find out this morning that my butterfly card was picked as one of the Moxie Fab Trigger Targets! So awesome!!! And, what made it even better, was my friend Tessa (Kraf*T*y Mama) was a Trigger Target, too! Yay!

Today's card uses Card Patterns Sketch 87. This is such a pretty sketch! I had a few ideas pop in my head for it, none of which are on this card. ;) It just sort of happened. I like how it turned out and it came together pretty quickly. Love when that happens! The sentiment is from an older Unity Kit of the Month. This was the only circle I had that would fit it so I inked the edges to give it some definition. The colors are Stampin' Up! Old Olive and retired In Color Soft Sky. I wish they'd bring Soft Sky back! The felt flower qualifies this for the Splitcoast Hope You Can Cling To Flower Power challenge. Off to MD Anderson at the end of the month. :) I tied the bow, but decided it was a little plain. Slipped the seam binding off and stamped the background with PTI Text Style in Antique Linen Distress Ink and that did the trick.

There's plenty of time for you to make a card with this week's sketch! Check it out at Card Patterns! Thanks for visiting!

Supplies: Stamps - Unity November 2008 Kit of the Month, Papertrey Ink Text Style

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Ink Walnut Stain and Antique Linen

Paper - Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Soft Stone

Other - Martha Stewart seam binding, Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream felt, Beautiful Blooms 2 Dies #1, Sweet Blush button, Marvy Giga circle punch

PTI October Blog Hop Challenge

2010-10-25T11:39:00.004-05:00

It's Papertrey Blog Hop time again! This month's theme is right up my alley! The challenge is that since Christmas gets so much crafting attention to make a card for any winter holiday except Christmas. Hanukkah cards here I come! I made three cards for today's hop. They didn't all turn out exactly like I thought, but I figured I'd show them all anyway. ;)

The first card uses the Sunshine Impression plate which I absolutely love on Hanukkah cards and I'm not even sure why. Maybe the circles remind me of the glow from the candles? I dunno, but I like it! I think this one would be good for a guy. It's clean and kind of graphic. You could mass produce this card pretty easily. The dreidels don't take long to color and, if I cleaned the adhesive gunk off my scissors, would be easy to cut out.

The window idea I've had in my head for a while. It's a little more rustically (is that a word? and if it is, is that how you spell it?) imperfect than I had intended, but still cute. The wood frame and shutters are kraft cardstock run through the woodgrain impression plate and sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Then I handcut the shapes and added some outlines with a Copic multiliner. The menorah is outlined with a Sakura Stardust pen, but I'm not sure if clear or silver. I wish those things were labeled. The window itself is a square of office transparency. All held together by scor-tape then popped up.

I wanted to make a card with an untraditional color scheme, but I didn't really have any ideas and it was getting late so I ended up casing my own card layout from Holiday Cards and More. Kind of embarrassing, but I think the colors make it different enough from the original that I don't feel too bad. I also wanted a more light-hearted greeting to go with the offbeat colors and in the end this is what I came up with. I want some really cute and fun sentiments for Hanukkah, anyone with me? (And, out of curiousity, am I the only person to have lost several of my Simple Alphabet letters? I'm going to need a new set before long to spell anything!) The candles are a cuttlebug embossing folder that is supposed to be for birthdays but has so far only been used for Hanukkah. I blinged them up with some Shimmerz paint.

Thanks so much for looking and I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with! Check out all the creations from Nichole's blog.

Supplies:

Dreidel card

Stamps - Papertrey Mazel Tov

Ink - Memento Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black

Paper - Papertrey white, Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue, GinaK Pure Luxury Good as Gold

Other - Copics (B21, B23, B24, B000, 0), Bic Mark It Midnight Navy, Sakura Stardust pen gold, Papertrey Sunshine Impression plate, Long Rectangle Nestabilities dies, pop dots

Window card

Stamps - Papertrey Mazel Tov

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Vintage Photo

Paper - Papertrey kraft, white, Enchanted Evening

Other - Copics (Y15, YR16, B23), Papertrey Woodgrain Impression plate, office transparency, Sakura Stardust pen, Copic multiliner, 1/8" scor-tape, pop dots

Delightful card

Stamps - Papertrey Mazel Tov, Simple Alphabet

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Vivid Raspberry

Paper - Papertrey Ripe Avocado, Aqua Mist, Raspberry Fizz, white

Other - Copics (Y17, Yg93, YG95), Birthday Wishes Cuttlebug embossing folder, Pixie Dust Shimmerz Blingz paint, pop dots

Tuesday Trigger

2010-10-24T16:23:00.006-05:00

I got to play this week's Tuesday Trigger challenge! Isn't this a great inspiration piece! I love the vignetting in the photograph and the monochromatic feel.

I don't have any spooky stamps, but I think it works on a birthday card. Yeah, I guess I do have a slightly dark sense of humor to make a birthday card inspired by a graveyard. :)

The vines were made with a Tim Holtz mask that I bought (under $3) after seeing a card Melanie Muenchinger made with it on her blog. That was over 6 months ago and this is my first time to use it. (Yes, I'm lame like that.) Love the effect! You just stick it down and sponge over it. (I use an art sponge cut in quarters on things like this and save the sponge daubers for cards that need smoother results.) The butterfly from GinaK Hope Is Faith is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics then sprayed with Vanilla Smooch Spray for a subtle shimmer.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Hope Is Faith, Sew Pretty (sentiment)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Soot Black

Paper - Papertrey Ink Soft Stone, True Black, Georgia-Pacific White (for coloring)

Other - Copics (B000, C0, C1, C3, N5, C7), Cutterbee scissors, Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Tim Holtz mask, sponge

Double Challenge Cards

2010-10-20T22:11:00.006-05:00

So I'm back on a spending freeze. I have a couple of planned purchases, but, otherwise, back on the wagon. Jaala (The Witch Crafts) started one and I decided to jump back in with her. No craft shopping until we make 50 projects. She came up with the added rule that if it isn't blogged, sent, or given away it doesn't count. Oh my! That definitely complicates things! You may be seeing lots more of me in the near future. I really like to shop. :) On that note, I got to make a couple of double challenge cards! Always fun to kill two birds with one stone. Well, metaphorically anyway.

The first card uses the StampTV color challenge: red, chartreuse, and black. It's very striking. Remember me posting that Melanie Muenchinger was giving one of her new stamp sets away on her blog a few weeks ago? I won! I've been itching to use it and have other things I had to finish up. Splitcoast has a Hope You Can Cling To challenge to use something old and something new. Obviously, the stamps are new and I'm pretty sure everything else is at least a year old. Now, I will admit, I'm not that awesome at 2 step stamping. I need to just play with this set to really get a good feel for it. I love it, though, and I can't wait to try another card with it. I did stamp the flowers on a cardstock scrap so I could get the placement right this time. And so I didn't have to be super careful coloring. ;) On the jar, I outlined the glass with B000 and then tried to color in some water with C0. I'm not sure about the water. It seems like it should be there, but doesn't look right. Thoughts?

The second card is for the StampTV sketch challenge and the Hope You Can Cling To challenge to make a vintage card. I love this stamp set. Love. It. I had fun coloring her dress. I don't own a lot of pink Copics so I don't do a lot of pink coloring, but I tried R00, R20, and R22 and it worked pretty well! Isn't this a cute sketch? I might try it again sometime!

Floral Jar Card: Stamps - GinaK Buds and Vases

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Stampin' Up! Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, Georgia-Pacific White

Other - Copics (R22, R24, R29, YG03, YG06, YG09, YG95, B000, C0, Y15), Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, pop dots

Sew Vintage card: Stamps - GinaK Sew Pretty

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Palette Charcoal, Distress Ink Tattered Rose

Paper - Georgia-Pacific white, Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush, Soft Stone, Stampin' Up! Basic Gray, Basic Grey Bittersweet

Other - Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush button, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Nestabilities Ovals and Scalloped Ovals dies, sponge

Unity Tuesday Trigger

2010-10-10T23:45:00.007-05:00

A super quick post for the Tuesday Trigger. I loved this week's trigger picture! It's so happy and peaceful and fun. (And inexplicably at the bottom of this post instead of the top.)It reminded me of the super cute bird and tree fabric I bought recently so I decided to use it. I really need to bust out my sewing machine for cards more often. My sewing on cards skills need improvement! The sentiment is Unity and also qualifies this for the Unity WCMD stitching challenge. TFL!

Supplies: Stamps - Unity (It came in a grab bag I won from them)

Ink - Palette Burnt Umber

Paper - Stampin' Up! Peach Parfait, Melon Mambo, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate

Other - JoAnn's fabric, sewing machine, Nestabilities Ribbon Slider die, brown ribbon

Moxie Holiday

2010-10-06T09:24:00.007-05:00

I am loving the fall weather we're having now! I want to eat pumpkin bread and sip caramel apple cider 24/7. Therefore, I feel a little funny showing Hanukkah cards, but hey, it's not that far away and there's a Moxie Fab challenge!

The first card has a traditional color scheme of white, silver, and navy. The navy is actually the backside of a Christmas card someone sent us last year. It's really nice cardstock, I couldn't just let it go to waste! The cool background is the PTI Sunshine impression plate. I love that thing! I stamped the menorah from PTI's Mazel Tov in black and outlined it with a clear spica pen. The candles and flames are colored with copics. The silver cardstock is from GinaK and it is fabulous! It's nice and thick and embosses really well in the Nestabilities dies. The blue rhinestones were clear and I colored them with a navy bic marker. My heat gun and I haven't been getting along lately, but we called a truce long enough for me to emboss this sentiment without the whole page getting warped. I finished it off with this pretty white ribbon from Stampin' Up!. (Yeah, that does look weird with the exclamation mark and period. Remind me to always use Stampin' Up! in the middle of a sentence and not the end. Thanks.) The card base is 6x 4.5 inches.

My second card has most of the same elements - menorah stamp, sunshine plate, bling, nestabilities - but in a non-traditional color scheme. :) This is a dual challenge card as it's also for the Hope You Can Cling to card drive over at Splitcoast to send cards to MD Anderson Cancer Center. Lydia issued the challenge to make a pink holiday card so I made this one. This one uses Nestabilities Labels 4 and even more rhinestones.

TFL!

Blue Hanukkah Supplies:

Stamps - Papertrey Ink Mazel Tov

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Encore Silver

Paper - navy scrap, Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, GinaK Pure Luxury Silver Lining

Other - rhinestones, navy Bic Mark It, Copics (C1, Y15), clear Spica pen, Papertrey Ink Sunshine impression plate, Stampin' Up! white satin ribbon, Stampin' Up! silver embossing powder, heat gun, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One dies

Pink Hanukkah Supplies:

Stamps - Papertrey Ink Mazel Tov

Ink - Vivid Raspberry

Paper - Stampin' Up! Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White

Other - Stampin' Up! Pretty in Pink marker, Yellow Stickles, rhinestones, Papertrey Ink Sunshine impression plate, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4 dies

Scalloped Mermaid

2010-10-04T08:42:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a fabulous World Card Making Day weekend! I got 7 cards made! Hooray! One of those cards was for the Moxie Fab World Offest Scallop Gallop challenge that ends, of course, today. One day, I will not be a last minute crafter. Maybe. ;)

As soon as I saw this challenge I knew I wanted to pair the scallops with The Greeting Farm's Mermaid Anya. She's the cutest mermaid around! I love how this turned out. Once again with the red hair, purple shells, and green fin. What can I say, The Little Mermaid left an indelible mark on me! And I just love red hair. One day I'll have it again! I used a ton of Copics in her hair. I wanted it to have some texture. I need more practice, but it's a decent start. :) Since mermaid Anya doesn't have scales on her fin I made dots with the colorless blender and then drew in scallops with the clear spica pen, again, just for some texture. Her hair baubles have stickles on them.

The scallop scales are rows of SU Old Olive cut with the PTI large scallop border die, sprayed with vanilla Smooch Spritz, and adhered to each other with 1/8" scor-tape. I flicked them up with my fingernail a little bit, too. The purple ribbon was a gift so I don't know who makes it. It's a beautiful shade! I wish I had cardstock to match! The sentiment is from a longer Hero Arts sentiment but I just inked the 'hello'.

Thanks so much for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - The Greeting Farm Mermaid Anya, Hero Arts A Warm Hello

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Papertrey Ink Stampers Select White, Stampin' Up! kraft, Old Olive

Other - Copics (E00, E30, YR02, YR04, YR07, YR14,YR18, E09, YG03, YG06, YG09, YG11, YG93, V12, V15, V17, 0), clear Spica pen, Papertrey Ink Large Scallop Border Die, 1/8" Scor-tape, Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Stardust Stickles, purple double-stitched ribbon

Heart to heart Card Drive and Happy October!

2010-10-01T21:09:00.009-05:00

Happy October everyone! It's my birthday today! Lunch with all my guys, free mocha toffee frap, and lots of birthday messages and calls makes for a very nice day. I'm hoping to get a little crafting in tonight, too! We'll see, though. I kind of miss sleep. ;)

Speaking of crafting, you need to make a card for Carolyn King's Heart to Heart card drive. Carolyn lost her grandmother to Alzheimer's a few years ago and has a card drive to honor Alzheimer's caregivers. They need appreciation and recognition! It is exhausting caring for someone with Alzheimer's. There is a huge prize as well.

My grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's this year. Her care progressed from her just needing to be driven places, to having my brother live with her to be sure she took her medicine and didn't fall, to full time supervision. It took a lot of energy from a lot of people to take care of her. I miss her. A lot. Her birthday is coming up and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by thanking the people who are helping patients and family members walk this road. I've made three cards so far and I'm hoping to make several more. I'll take them to the nursing home where Grandmommy was living, but Carolyn provides an address and even a sample note if you don't know where to send a card or what to say.

My card details are very simple. The first card uses the Clean and Simple challenge sketch from Splitcoaststampers this week. The fabulous pumpkin is from a set that Carolyn designed in honor of her grandmother and she donates her proceeds to the Alzheimer's Association. (She rocks. And she's super fun, too. I know, I got to meet her once.)
The second card I made from old mail. The flower is torn from the base of a card my kids destroyed and the the leaf is torn from the cover of a jewelry catalog. I inked the edges, glued the layers together, and added some stickles and dew drops. Dawn McVey has an awesome tutorial on making flowers like this (much better than this).

Go make a card for Carolyn's card drive and head to her blog. You might win an amazingly huge prize and you will definitely make someone happy. Complete win.

Pumpkin Card Supplies:
Stamps - GinaK Designs Whimsical Autumn, Thanks a Million
Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa, Tuxedo Black
Paper - Papertrey Ink kraft, Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Georgia-Pacific white
Other - Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, Orange Zest button, twine, Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangle, Copics

Flower Card Supplies:
Stamps - GinaK Designs Inside and Out
Ink - Palette Burnt Umber, Stampin' Up! Tangerine Tango, Old Olive
Paper - Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, orange and green scraps
Other - Dew drops, Stickles, Papertrey Ink Large Scallop Border, green grosgrain

Leaf Sympathy

2010-09-30T00:09:00.004-05:00

I have a hard time making sympathy cards. I think most people do. How much is too much and how plain is too plain? What's a good color scheme? If the card is for a man, that just makes it even harder. Some really good friends had a death in their family and it was on the husband's side. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded if I sent him a card with flowers or butterflies on it, but he would definitely have known I didn't make it for him. Leaves seemed like the perfect choice. Still natural, but not as girly. A Year of Leaves has some gorgeous ones.

The Clean and Simple challenge on Splitcoaststampers was to use red, brown, kraft, and ivory, with optional orange. The Create blog challenge was to make a card with leaves. I wanted to go clean and simple anyway, so this was a perfect choice. The card is A2 size with a kraft base, dark chocolate mat, and a vanilla woodgrain panel. The woodgrain impression plate is so useful. I'm not really sure how I ever made cards without it. I stamped over the impression in Memento Rich Cocoa ink. There were a few blank spots and I was able to fill those in with a Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip marker. So happy about that! The leaves are colored with Copics and trimmed out. I purposely did not glue the tips down so it looks like the leaves are just resting on the card. I think I will make up a few of these to have on hand for the future.

Supplies: Stamps - Stampin' Up! Sincere Salutations, GinaK Designs A Year of Leaves

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa

Paper - Papertrey Ink kraft, Dark Chocolate, GinaK Designs Pure Luxury Ivory, Georgia Pacific White (for leaves)

Other - Copics (E33, E35, E37, YR62, YR65, YR68, R22, R24, R29), Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip marker

Win Melanie's New Set!

2010-09-28T18:35:00.006-05:00

Yay! Look what I found on
Melanie Muenchinger's blog!

"Melanie Muenchinger is releasing a companion to her "A Year of Flowers" called "Buds and Vases", a die cut stamp set filled with brand new flowers and containers, this Thursday night, September 30 at 10 PM CST from Gina K Designs! Be sure to check out her sneak preview of the set on her blog and enter for a chance to win the set!"

She has some GORGEOUS samples of this new set! You can comment for a chance to enter and blog about the giveaway for a second chance to win! How cool is that?! And look at all the cute stuff that fits in the jar from other sets? (That's Melanie's picture, btw, - used with permission of course - I never even thought about coloring strawberries that pretty!) Can't wait for this! So, quick! Go enter!!!

Papertrey September Blog Hop Challenge

2010-09-25T21:37:00.003-05:00

It's Papertrey Blog Hop time again! And in true fashion, I'm squeaking in at the last second! Good times! The challenge this time is to use a tip or technique we've learned from another stamper. Wow. There are so many amazing artists who have taught me so much! Someday I would love to do cards for all of them. This particular card uses a couple of things I've gleaned from Nichole Heady herself combined with all the fabulous colorists out there who have taught me so much about Copics: Debbie Olson, Theresa Momber, Sharon Harnist, and, of course, Colleen Schaan to name a few. Nichole rocks the white on white so much and I never would have thought to use the square punch to make the notch on the sentiment if she hadn't shown it on her blog. Now, I can't stop doing it! I really cannot say enough about the tips and tutorials and inspiration I have gotten from these crafters, but did I mention it's the last second?

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink In Bloom, Daily Designs Sentiments
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Palette Noir
Paper - Papertrey Stamper's Select White, Lemon Tart
Other - Copics (Y00, Y11, Y15, Y17, YG91, YG93, YG95, YG03), Basic Grey half pearls, square punch, Papertrey Woodgrain Impression Plate, lots of foam tape!, Cutterbee scissors

Candy Winner!

2010-09-22T10:26:00.002-05:00

The winner of my blog candy, as chosen by random.toddler, is Denise! Yay Denise! I'll get in touch with you on your gift certificate asap! Thanks eveyone for the sweet comments. Happy last day of summer!!

The Unpublishable!

2010-09-21T11:35:00.004-05:00

It's coming right for you! Run, run for your lives! It's...the Unpublishable! Cue B horror movie music. Yes, I do amuse myself. Thanks for noticing. ;) I just had a card published and it was super exciting! And it was on my first try even! Since then, however, I've been submitting and not having any success. But that's ok! I love the cards I've been making (well, mostly) and I learn something everytime I go through the submission process. And I'm really excited to share these rejected cards because I think they're pretty cute. And I bet you've made some pretty cute cards that haven't turned out to be contest winners, or published in magazines, or maybe haven't even gotten many comments. So let's all stop being mean to ourselves and saying things like "Oh, I'm not very good."It's just not true.

This sweet little reject was made for the Cards: All Occasions call. I was trying to come up with an unusual color combo. I like these colors together. SU's Basic Gray and Old Olive, PTI Hawaiian Shores, and some incredibly heavy base weight GinaK Ivory. The butterfly was stamped on PTI white and colored with Copics then trimmed out. I ran a black marker around the edges at the suggestion of a friend, but I don't think I will do it often. I totally get why you should do it, but I don't have a very steady hand for that kind of thing and it just seems fraught with peril. The grey (or gray, I guess, since that's how they spell it) is scored with a Scor-Pal. I love doing this! GinaK has a great tutorial on StampTV. Basically, you place the cardstock on your scoreboard with two corner points on the same line and score at 1/2 inch intervals across the cardstock. Flip it so the opposite two corner points are on the same line and score again creating the diamonds. I matted the gray with the Hawaiian Shores. The olive border is the SU open scallop border punch. I stamped 'thank you' on a strip of olive and cut out the notch with a square punch. I only adhered the straight side so it looks a little bit more like a flag banner. I thought about sewing it but was too lazy/nervous. I've had great success sewing on paper and horrible failures and since I was stamping this the night of the deadline I didn't want to risk it. The butterfly is popped up on pop dots. I'm almost out of those things. Must get more.

Anyway, there you have it! Look for more rejected cards coming soon! :)

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs Hope is Faith, Inside and Out
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - GinaK Pure Luxury base weight Ivory, Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Basic Gray, Papertrey Ink Stampers Select White (for coloring)
Other - Copics (BG10, BG45, BG48), Stampin' Up! Border Punch, Scor-Pal, Square Punch, pop dots

Clean and Simple Coffee

2010-09-20T13:20:00.010-05:00

Say what? Two posts from me in one day? The insanity! ;) But I really wanted to make another card for the design team challenge at GinaK this time. And I know it's simple, but I love this card.

So the challenge is a favorite fall memory. This one is from October 2005, post-Hurricane Rita. We lived in Beaumont at the time and were very blessed. We evacuated with family, had places to stay, and, while we suffered some damage, our house was pretty much intact. Two houses down the whole place was crushed. Our yard and patio were wrecked, but that was just fine considering! Jeff did get to leave with us, but had to come back to the tv station the day after the storm hit. It was two weeks before I made it home and that's still the longest we've been apart. (A big thank you to all the military families and other families that deal with long absences for their jobs. I know two weeks is nothing to some of you and I hate that.) It was a very hot October and of course no one had power but I was so ready to be back! A cold front came through that night and we sat on the porch the next morning eating chocolate croissants and some self-heating mochas I had brought back with me so thankful to see each other, have a home, and feel an autumn breeze. Who cares if there are so many tree branches in your driveway you can't see the car parked there when you're eating pastries with the love of your life. ;) Guess who's getting this card? :)

There's not much 'splaining to do for this. I stamped the mug from Warm Winter Wishes, die cut it, left it in the die and sponged it with the blue. Then I stamped the mug again on a cardstock scrap, colored it with copics, cut it out, and glued it on. I am obsessed with cutting out the white in the handle for some reason so I just make a quick x-acto cut on the straight side and then use fine tip scissors to finish it. I grabbed a large green scrap and impressed it with my PTI woodgrain impression plate. I stamped the sentiment after impressing it and glued it all down.

Please look at all the wonderful entries on Gina's blog! Thanks for looking! (Oh, and you can still comment on my blog candy through Tuesday!)

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs Warm Winter Wishes, Thanks a Million

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Tempting Turquoise

Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Stampin' Up! Kiwi Kiss, Georgia-Pacific White (die cut and mug)

Other - Nestabilities Labels One, Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, Copics (YR02, YR04, YR07, R22, R24, R29, E35)

Pumpkins, Apples, and Cheese

2010-09-20T01:48:00.006-05:00

Do you ever have a crazy idea that no matter all the better ideas you come up with you absolutely must choose the crazy one? It's Design Team challenge time at GinaK and this month's challenge is to make a card of a favorite fall memory. I LOVE fall! I love sweaters, I love cider, I love back to school (which comes in summer now, but still feels like fall). My birthday is in fall, Renaissance Festival is in fall, Thanksgiving, the High Holy Days, all in fall! I've been to Israel twice in the fall and Disneyworld twice. Then there's the kids. My son just turned 1. He's technically a very end of summer baby. But much like back to school, it feels like a fall event. And the feeling is what's important with memory anyway, right? Choosing the birth of my second child as my favorite fall memory is not crazy. Using my handwriting and a cheesetastic pun is. :)

I love a good pun. I really do. And I think it's genetic because my mother does, too. I'm not at all sure this qualifies as a good pun, but I could not shake it! And when inspiration strikes after midnight I try not to argue too much. ;) The sweet onesie is, of course, from Wee Tees. I cannot tell you how much I love that set. I'm ready for a companion set, Melanie. Just when you have time. :) I colored it with green and red Copics. The apple is from Whimsical Autumn. Thank you, Cammie for making a single apple! I colored the apple on scratch paper and cut it out. That way I don't have to be careful when coloring the onesie. It's the lazy way. I'm all about that, hehe. The pumpkins are from the Signs of Autumn set. Love them. They made me buy this set. Everything else is in it is fabulous too, but the pumpkins sang the siren song. The handwriting is, sigh, mine. I bought a craft book once called Love Your Handwriting, but it apparently only works if you practice, which if I'm going to keep doing I need more than one decent pen. But I do love my goofy, cheesy little card. Not nearly as much as my little fall fellow, though. ;)

Do yourself a favor and check out all the entries in this challenge. There is some gorgeous stuff! You can see everything on Gina's blog. I might even have a chance to make a card for one of those other memories. :) Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Whimsical Autumn, Signs of Autumn, Wee Tees

Paper - Papertrey Ink Kraft, Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Georgia-Pacific White (for coloring)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie

Other - Copics (YG03, YG06, YG09, R22, R24, R29), Copic Multiliner 0.5 mm

Happy with Candy

2010-09-14T16:59:00.006-05:00

Oh my! I am so happy, excited, and grateful right now. First off, Holiday Cards and More Vol 5 from Paper Crafts officially goes on sale today and I have my first (and so far only) published card inside! Page 77 if you happen to have one! ;) I have yet to see it in an actual store. That is going to be really cool. :) I hope to show you my card soon, I just need to double check the rules and see if that's ok.

Second, and far more important, those sweet little feet in my profile picture are going to be 1 year old tomorrow! I can hardly believe it! He is a crazy little monkey, too! He sings and dances and screams like a happy little nazgul. ;) It seems like just yesterday we brought him home but I can hardly remember what life was like before him. Memory is so weird.

It's kind of full-circle that Holiday Cards and More goes on sale today. I took Vol 4 with me to the hospital to pass the time before my C-section. It still has the hospital tag on it so it could find its way back to my room. (Did you know they don't let you bring stuff into surgery?) So when everyone but me was sleeping I was flipping through the magazine instead of focusing on why the hospital would not bring me real food. (Next time I'm bringing my own cooler. For real.)

There are a million other things I'm grateful for and happy about ranging from the other two fabulous men in my life to scor-tape to all my online friends to Glee to toffee mocha lattes at Starbucks to a LOT of other things large and small. So to celebrate all this happiness, I'd like to have a little blog candy. :) I will give away a copy of Holiday Cards and More Vol 5 plus a $10 gift certificate to the winner's choice of Papertrey or GinaK. (Btw, this is not in anyway affiliated with any of the giveaways on Paper Craft Connections or Moxie Fab World, although you should totally check them out. I'll be going to Hobby Lobby or Barnes and Noble and buying a copy. The one in the pictures is mine and already much loved. Yours will be new and unfondled.) ;) To enter, just leave me a comment telling me something you're happy about! That's it! This will stay open until the 21st and I'll randomly pick a winner on the 22nd! Be sure to leave me a way to get in touch with you - email, scs or stamptv user name - or remember to check back.

Thanks so much!

Huzzah!

2010-08-30T22:45:00.005-05:00

I won GinaK again! Yay! There's something about finding out you won free stamps that just brightens your day. :) Last week there was a challenge on StampTV to make a winter - Christmas - Holiday card using just your scraps. Perfect. I'm trying to use up the huge vortex of scraps that I have anyway. (I just told my neighbor if she ever needs ribbon to come to my house before she goes to Hobby Lobby.) Anyway, this is the card I made and it was randomly chosen to win! Happy day!

Love this lady. She reminds me of my grandmother when I was little for some reason. Spunky. With a funny apron. I have no idea what possessed me to color her hair auburn when my card is red or what possessed me to color her sweater red. Red is only behind black in the hardest for me to color race. But oh well. I used Copics, of course.

The leaves were already on my table from a project I did a month or so ago. Yeah, I clean my table on a bi-monthly schedule or when everything starts jumping off. I think pompoms are grandma fabulous. So are pipe cleaners. They needed some stickles. My stickles have been getting a lot more love since I started my stamp spending freeze. (I'm on 25/50 cards plus 3 altered items! yay!) The felt leaves are held in place with scor-tape. LOVE scor-tape. I'm buying 2 or 3 rolls of it next time! Pompoms are on a glue dot. I colored the rhinestones olive green with copics. Very clean and simple, totally from scraps, making it got me a new stamp set. SCORE.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Sew Pretty, Warm Winter Wishes

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Old Olive

Paper: Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red, kraft (now Crumb Cake), Georgia Pacific White Cardstock

Accessories: Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Stampin' Up! Modern Label Punch, rhinestones, Copics (I don't remember which ones, sorry!), hand cut felt leaves, red pompoms, Stardust Stickles, Scor-tape, Glue Dots, Pop dots

Papertrey August Blog Hop Challenge

2010-08-25T17:12:00.008-05:00

Fun stuff! This is my first time to participate in the PTI Blog Hops and I am so excited! (Thanks for the nudge, Alyssa!) The challenge is to alter a paper lunch sack to something wonderful and crafty. I happen to have a bunch of lunch sacks and my kids happened to be napping at the same time. Serendipity.

Knowing that this mystical sleeping simultaneously thing could not last long, I opted for a card. (Got an idea for a planner, but that will have to wait for another day.) My lunch bags are kinda tall so I trimmed the open edge with the small rickrack die. I have a cuttlebug so I had to fold the end I didn't want to cut over the top of the B plate. (Sandwich: A plate, C plate, die, lunch sack side I want to cut, B plate, folded side of lunch sack.) Folding it left a large crease that I could not iron out so I covered it with ribbon and it helped me choose layout. :) I love PTI ribbon. Love it. This Lemon Tart satin ribbon is one of the prettiest things I have in my craft room and there's a lot of stuff in there! The Mat Stack 3 die and All Booked up stamp provides a nice focal point and I got to use the anniversary set Round and Round for the circle! I love that All Booked Up and Round and Round coordinate so well together, the sentiments even fit! It's hard to tell in this picture but the rhinestones on the flowers are colored yellow with a Bic Mark It to match the ribbon. I added regular rhinestones along the rickrack edge and finished up just as the baby woke up! Talk about perfect timing! I think I will save this for when I want to give someone a little thank you gift card and slip it in the bag opening.

You can see all the entries on Nichole's blog. I doubt I will ever look at lunch sacks the same again!

Supplies - Stamps: Papertrey Ink All Booked Up, Round and Round

Ink: Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Palette Burnt Umber

Paper: Papertrey Ink Rustic White

Accessories: Papertrey Ink Rick Rack die, Mat Stack 3 die, Lemon Tart satin ribbon, rhinestones, Bic Mark It (yellow), pop dots, lunch sack

Summer Sunshine

2010-08-19T08:47:00.007-05:00

We are having a great time here. We went on a little vacation with the kids last week. (Although, I so owe my parents a big thank you. I had NO idea how much work it was to take children on a trip and have more than meltdowns to remember. Mission accomplished, but wow.) And my sweet husband took off this week so we've just been kicking back with occasional small bursts of productivity. :)

I'm still on my stamping spending freeze. I didn't even look at the Hobby Lobby ad this week! But I'm still finding ways to spend money. I bought some fabric on our trip. Someone recommended The Stitch Lab in Austin to me and I'm so glad I went! They had fabulous cotton prints and a great selection of felt! I also picked up some pillowcases at the Crate and Barrell outlet for the fabric. I cut out a tank top already so maybe I'll make something before the Mayan Doomsday. (No, I do not believe the world is going to end Dec 21, 2012, but I love specifics, so a scheduled apocalypse cracks me up.)

Here's a simple card I've been wanting to make. It didn't come out exactly like I thought, but what does? The sun was made by cutting small strips of Summer Sunrise ribbon and notching the ends and then sewing an Orange Zest button over the the middle. Thanks for the idea, Alyssa! I love this Papertrey impression plate. So many fun possibilities. The sparkles are stickles. I have soooo many bottles of stickles and they've just been sitting there so I'm having fun using them again. This card is 15/50 on my freeze. :)

In other news, the baby just popped his 3rd tooth and he has two more on the way. He hasn't taken any steps yet, but he's climbing into the bathtub, into chairs, and onto book displays at Barnes and Noble so it's only a matter of time. He also figured out how to use a straw so, if you visit, hang onto your drink!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink Scattered Showers
Ink - Memento Canteloupe
Paper - GinaK Pure Luxury White, Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue
Accessories - Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise stitched ribbon, Stardust Stickles, Papertrey Ink Orange Zest button, Papertrey Ink Cloud Dies, Papertrey Ink Sunshine Impression Plate

Holy Awesome Blog Candy!

2010-08-06T22:55:00.003-05:00

Wow! Amy at A Thousands Sheets of Paper is having FABULOUS blog candy! She's been tracking how long it would take her to cut into a thousand sheets of paper and she just did! I think I have a thousand bits of paper on my craft room floor, but that seems somehow less spectacular. To celebrate her milestone she is giving 200 sheets of 6x6 paper to 5 happy bloggers who spread the word about her candy plus she has some super awesome stamps to go with it. She even has some single stamps you can win even if you don't have a blog!

You should definitely check out Amy's art! She is an amazing colorist! (Colorer?) She has great tutorials as well. So, quick, get thee to A Thousand Sheets of Paper and enjoy!

It's Been a While

2010-08-05T16:14:00.004-05:00

So, um, if anyone reads this, sorry for dropping off the face of the earth. We had family in, we got sick, the little guy's getting teeth, etc. I have been crafting, cooking, sewing, and plotting (there's always lots of plotting) just no blogging. We've also done lots of lego-building, running around the couch, reading, and sweating outside. :)

A few tidbits. Homemade graham crackers are fabulous! I just made them on a whim, but wow. So good. A batch only lasts about a day here. The recipe I used was from MarthaStewart.com. Go. Make them now. We've been thinking of all the great things you can do with them, but they are wonderful all by themselves!

I have lots of cards to show, if, you know, I ever get around to it. ;) This one is for a challenge some friends are doing on Splitcoast. We post a challenge based on our hometown. This is for Jean's challenge. Her town is home to the Weeki Wachee Mermaid Show. Mermaid Anya is the cutest mermaid stamp around. I wanted to color her some fantastical color, but I just couldn't. I was absolutely compelled to color her like Ariel. I used a sketch from Paper Crafts Go-To Sketches. The paper was all in my scrap file. The purple is from the Basic Grey Lily Kate line. The orange and the blue are from a big My Minds Eye stack. The green someone sent me so I have no idea. Oh, the pink at the top is from Basic Grey Perhaps. Why did I add pink at the top. I think because Ariel wears a pink dress in the Little Mermaid. Makes no sense whatsoever, but I really think that's why I did it. Anywho. The cute sentiment is from Papertrey's Pond Life accessories. It's one of those sets that I love but almost never use. I have a lot of those.

That brings me to my spending freeze! :) My online friend Ashley started a spending freeze. She won't buy any craft stuff until she makes 200 cards! Ever since she started I've been thinking I should do something like that. Well, someone cute and 2 was looking at the Toys R Us ad on Sunday and telling me how we should buy pretty much everything in it. I told him he didn't need new toys, he had lots of toys already, more than he played with even. Then I heard what I said! (I would be the awesomest person ever if I did everything I tell my kids to do.) So I decided right then that I would go on a freeze. Now, Ashley is a way, way more productive stamper than I am. I want to be able to shop again before the Mayan doomsday so my freeze will be for 2 months or until I make 50 cards, whichever is longer. I'm at 9/50 right now. It would be wonderful to make more than 50 cards in two months! I do have a couple of exceptions. I can buy storage and organization stuff, adhesive, and - if I run out - neutral cardstock. Also, several friends are being published and I can buy their magazines if I find them. Everything else has to wait. GinaK is trying to test my resolve with an awesome coupon code, but there will be another sale. (If you aren't on a spending freeze, it's a really good deal. You should check it out.)

Supplies: Stamps - The Greeting Farm Mermaid Anya, Papertrey Ink Pond Life Accessories
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, My Mind's Eye Everyday Bohemian dsp, Basic Grey Lily Kate and Perhaps dsp, unknown green dsp
Accessories - Copics (YR04, YR14, YR16, YR18, E09, E51, E53, V12, V15, YG03, YG06, YG09, YG11), rhinestones, Nestabilities Labels 4, Stampin' Up! Scallop Border

Stripey Sunshine

2010-06-22T08:11:00.003-05:00

You know how sometimes you have plenty of time to stamp, but no ideas and other times you have lots of ideas and no time to stamp? Yeah. I started sketching out ideas and stuff as soon as the Paper Crafts submission call went out two weeks ago. I got several cards started during naptime, but, in the end, only had time to submit two. How could this happen? Well, short naps, late nights, broken air conditioner, sister's recital, Dad got robbed, Jeff working weekends do not a lot of stamping time make. Add to that that I am a sllloooowww crafter and there ya go.

So here's a card that didn't get submitted. ;) I saw a super cute children's dress online with yellow, white, and navy diagonal stripes that inspired this design. I've had the navy and yellow plaid fabric for, um, ever. At least 10 years! There are fabric flowers and rosettes showing up everywhere lately and I really wanted to try it. I just cut a ragged strip of fabric and rolled it loosely in my hand, pinching the bottom a little. When it looked something like a flower, I stitched it in place with a few quick stitches. I thought it needed something in the center for contrast so I added a PTI lemon tart button. Same thing for the little buds, just smaller strips of fabric and no buttons. My technique definitely needs some honing, but I was pleased at how easy it was for decent results. Now, I want to try making a headband or embellishing a top or something!

Supplies: Stamps - Scattered Showers and Distressed Stripes, Papertrey Ink
Paper - Lemon Tart and Stamper's Select White by Papertrey Ink, Night of Navy by Stampin' Up!
Ink - Dandelion by Memento, Night of Navy by Stampin' Up!
Accents - navy and yellow plaid fabric, Lemon Tart button by Papertrey Ink, square punch, needle and thread

Summer Memories with GinaK

2010-06-17T10:23:00.002-05:00

It's time for another GinaK design team challenge! This month's challenge is to use any GinaK stamp set and make a card inspired by a favorite summer memory. Wow, so many memories jumped into my head! So hard to focus, so hard to choose! The summer Jeff proposed? The night on the Sea of Galilee when they turned the lights off on the boat and it was just the sound of the water and the light of the stars and you could completely believe it was two thousand years ago? My sister's first steps? Taking our kids to the pool for the first time? Brain overload!!!

As I stared at my stamp table, hovering over my supplies not knowing what to grab, I started thinking about summers at my grandparents' house at the lake. We swam, made ice cream, got to eat in front of the tv, play in the dirt, and my grandmother had a prize box under her bed! It was heaven. My grandmother was an excellent baker. Not the fancy Martha Stewart kind of baker, but the old-fashioned, church cookbook kind of baker. Toll house cookies, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, and more! Yummy. She always let me help. When you are 4 that is a very big deal. It's the simple things, right? And thus, this simple card.

The stamps are Melanie's Have a Cookie set. I inked them in Memento ink and colored with copics. I used a glue pen on the hearts and a quick sprinkle of Martha Stewart pink glitter. My grandparents had wood panelling in their house so I used the PTI woodgrain impression plate with kraft cardstock and rubbed it with Tim Holtz distress ink for the background. Finish it off with punches and some piercing on the scallops and it's a clean and simple card.

There are some awesome entries in this DT challenge hop. Best wishes to everyone, you all inspire me! Thank you, Gina, for issuing the challenge (and for letting us use any stamps this time, you are always awesome!) I enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I miss my grandparents a lot. Granddaddy passed away when I was 8 (on Father's Day) and Grandmommy finally went to meet him this year. She had Alzheimers and a couple of strokes so it was a long time coming. It's good to think about the sweet and simple things. :)

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Have a Cookie
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo
Paper: Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Dark Chocolate, Georgia-Pacific White, Stampin' Up! Kraft
Accessories: Copic markers (E30, C0, C1, C3), Papertrey Ink Woodgrain Impression Plate, sponge, Marvy Mega Circle Punch, Marvy Giga Scallop Circle Punch, Paper Piercer, Pop Dots, Quickie Glue Pen, Martha Stewart Kunzite Pink Glitter

Card Patterns and Glitter

2010-06-01T16:07:00.009-05:00

This past weekend was a new Ginak release which means lots of challenges. Challenges with prizes. I'm highly motivated to stamp when there are free stamps on the line. ;) I didn't win, but I still had fun and got some cards made. So it's kind of like I won. :)

My awesome friend Lee (no, really, she's been to my house!) issued the challenge to completely cover your main image with something - microbeads, glitter, diamond glaze, whatever. Lee loves glitter so I had to go with that. I could have made it uber-Lee, and gone with pink glitter, but that would have been weird.

The sketch is from Card Patterns. Isn't it pretty? This is my first time to do one of their sketches, but it definitely won't be the last! The design team has gorgeous samples! You should check it out.

The yummy paper is from Basic Grey's Origins 6x6. I love it! I hope they come out with fabric from this line. It would make all kinds of awesome tote bags, aprons, pillows, etc. Ooh, and Origins skirt. Love it! The pretty ribbon is some that I scavenged from a wedding (thanks Andrea!). The butterfly is colored with Copics and glittered all up with Martha Stewart glitter. My mom got me the sampler pack a couple of years ago, glitter city! Tons of colors! This is good old clear, but not because I didn't have the choice. I stamped a few leaves on vanilla cardstock, die cut it with a blossom nestability, and sponged it with yellow ink. The sentiment is stamped on vanilla cardstock and sponged with SU Old Olive ink. The notch is cut with a square punch. Got that tip from Nichole Heady's blog. Oh, the pearl is a white pearl colored with Copics. Cool, huh? I think Tina Gilliland posted that tip on StampTV. Never have the wrong color pearls again. :)

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs Take Flight, Masculine Messages, A Year of Flowers
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa, Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Barely Banana
Paper - Papertrey Ink kraft, Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla, Georgia-Pacific White, Basic Grey Origins
Accessories - Copics, sponge daubers, Kaisercraft pearl, sheer ribbon, Blossom Nestabilities, cuttlebug, square punch, pop dots, Martha Stewart crystal glitter, Martha Stewart glittering glue

Tuesday Trigger and a GinaK Release Challenge

2010-05-30T20:30:00.003-05:00

I *finally* got to do the Tuesday Trigger challenge on Moxie Fab World! Yay! I've only been trying to play along for months. I loved Jessica Witty's trigger card. It's so soft and pretty. My take was bright and boyish. :) This also qualifies for the GinaK release color challenge on StampTV to use yellow, blue, and red. The adorable toys are from the GinaK Wee Tees set and the sentiment is from the GinaK Oh Boy! set. LOVE these! Of course, I have two little boys so there ya go. :) The toys are all colored with Copic markers, cut out and popped up.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Designs Wee Tees, Oh Boy!
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Real Red
Paper - Stampin' Up! Pacific Point, Summer Sun, Georgia-Pacific White cardstock
Accessories - Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy buttons, Stampin' Up Linen Thread, Copic markers, pop dots, Marvy yellow square punch

Casing Melanie

2010-05-17T23:23:00.006-05:00

Melanie Muenchinger has a challenge on her blog to case one of her cards. I love Melanie's GinaK Designs stamps so I had to play along! I chose her Love Bird card. Isn't it cute? Love it! Here's my take on it.

First, it is important to note, I cannot draw hearts to save my life. I had a cut out from another project that I had to try and alter to fit this card. I traced it out and cut it with an exacto knife. I cut the heart last night and my finger is still sore! I adhered the Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper to the cardstock so I'd only have to cut once. There are some imperfections. My exacto skills are not that impressive. I think it turned out okay. Imperfections are what make it one of a kind, right? The paper was a little roughed up so I ran a dark blue marker around the cut edge and then sponged over it with white ink.

The super cute onesie is from Wee Tees. I stamped it onto the dark blue solid in the Lime Rickey collection. I love these papers. The print reminds me of waves so I had to use it here. I stamped a starfish from Gifts of the Sea onto scratch paper, colored it with Copics and glued it on. The little coat hanger is made out of jewelry wire. I used the one in Little Tees as a guideline. I stamped a second onesie on the backside of the paper, cut it out, and sandwiched the coat hanger in the middle with some scor-tape. I stamped and cut out a second starfish so it looks cute in the back too. ;) I used a paper piercer to make the hole in the top and added the jump ring. All that was left is to stamp that fabulous quote in white pigment ink. To make it stand out more you could emboss it, but my embossing gun and I aren't getting along right now. This is so not my usual card, but I love it! Thanks for the great challenge, Mel!

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs Wee Tees, Gifts of the Sea

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow

Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Basic Grey Lime Rickey

Accessories - Copics (B26, Y21, Y26, Y28), 24 gauge jewelry wire, round nose pliers, jump ring, exacto knife, sponge

Movie Inspired GinaK challenge

2010-05-12T12:19:00.005-05:00

GinaK's CenterStage Spotlight Design Team challenge this month is to make a card using one of the new April release stamp sets inspired by your favorite movie. (The CenterStage person gets ALL of the May releases and gets to post with the regular design team that month. How cool is that?!) You can check out all the awesomeness here on Gina's blog. So I am KICKING myself for not getting Quite a Catch because the very first thing that popped into my head was a Sebastian the Crab Kiss the Girl card from one of my all-time faves, The Little Mermaid. But, I digress. I made myself a list of my top 15 or so favorite movies to see what else I could come up with. It's an eclectic list, lemme tell ya! Maybe one day I'll make a card for all of them. :)

I chose Roman Holiday. One of the best movies ever, in my humble opinion. Everytime I start it I think it won't be as good as I remember it and it always is. And really, what's not to love? Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Billy Wilder directing in glorious black and white, shot on location in Italy. It's pretty fabulous.

My card uses this vintage beauty from Asela Hopkin's Sew Pretty set. I love her! Her hairdo reminds me a little bit of the cut Audrey gets in the movie. Her outfit is even similar. (I see looking at the poster that her skirt is red, but I always watch it in B&W and I always think of it as khaki.) The Labels 4 Nestabilities look kind of cinematic to me. The lady is colored softly with Copics. I used R00 to barely shade her white top. I quickly colored a background for her with BG10 with the image still in the die. I usually sponge for something like that, but I liked this better since I didn't have to make a mask for the girl. :) A little distress ink gave the die cut some definition without me having to add another layer.

The herringbone is from Nina Brackett's awesome Vintage Backgrounds set. This set is so versatile, but it really pairs well with Sew Pretty. I love this stamp. It reminds me of tire tracks. Audrey and Gregory ride around on a cute little scooter in the movie so it seemed to fit. The sentiment is also perfect since Audrey gets this fabulous hair cut in the beginning (that always makes me want to cut mine off even though I would look ridiculous). The ribbon is from a past StampTV kit and I love it. So there ya go. A clean, simple, and, I hope, elegant but fun card. Just like the movie.

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs Sew Pretty, Vintage Backgrounds

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Ink Walnut Stain

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink Soft Stone, Georia-Pacific white

Accessories - Copic markers, Nestabilities Labels 4, pop dots, sponge, cuttlebug, brown ribbon, glue dot, Scor-pal

Whoo hoo!

2010-04-27T21:54:00.006-05:00

I won a free GinaK stamp set today! Hooray!!! How you ask? I made this card for one of the April Release Party challenges on StampTV and this morning I found out I won! Awe. Some. While I am pleased with how this card turned out, I must confess it was a random drawing. ;) Love GinaK stamps. Love free stamps. Love, love, love free GinaK stamps!

This cute little pumpkin is from Carolyn King's set, Whimsical Autumn. The layout is a sketch by Theresa Momber that was the basis of the challenge. I colored with Copics. This is my favorite pumpkin color combo so far. I like pumpkin stamps so I keep trying them out. Nestabilities, a PTI button, OLD patterned paper, and some distress ink and it's a card! :)

Completely changing the topic now, but Target has some cute purses clearanced at really great prices. I got 3 yesterday for $11. Yeah, $11. You might want to check it out.

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Whimsical Autumn

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo

Paper: Papertrey Ink kraft and Dark Chocolate, Georgia-Pacific White, Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie, DCWV patterned paper from at least 5 years ago

Accessories: Pure Poppy Papertrey Ink button, Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities, Stampin' Up! Linen Thread, Copics (YR14, YR16, YR18, YG93, YG95, E11, E13, E15), sponge, Scor-tape

Well, It Was a Little Chilly Today...

2010-04-19T23:12:00.003-05:00

So, yes, this is a snowman card, in April. Maybe I want to be early for once. Maybe I was stamping for magazine publication calls. Maybe he's just darn cute! ;)

This is a triple challenge card. His glittery heart, snowy landscape, and stickly thoughts qualify him for the StampTV challenge (last week) to add glitter and the Paper Crafts Connection Shimmer and Shine challenge and this card also is for the Moxie Fab World Get Sketchy challenge which used this awesome sketch from Paper Crafts Go-To Sketches special issue. So worth the money! Everytime I see it on the stands I want to buy it even though I already have it. :)

Carolyn King illustrated this for GinaK designs and she donates her proceeds to the Alzheimer's Association in memory of her grandmother. My grandmother recently passed away from Alzheimer's and I bought and use this set in memory of her. It makes me smile.

Supplies -

Stamps: GinaK Warm Winter Wishes

Paper: PTI Hawaiian Shores, Stampers Select White, Stampin' Up! Real Red

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Real Red

Accessories: Copic markers, Nestabilities Label On, Snowflake embossing folder, Cuttlebug, pop dots, Martha Stewart Garnet glitter, Snow glitter, Frosted Lace Stickles, Mono Multi glue, Scor-Tape

Been Awhile

2010-04-17T10:29:00.005-05:00

Hey there! Long time no see. We've been busy. Lots of coming and going and trips to the park and not sleeping at night and planting flowers and learning to crawl busy! :) I'm going to work on updating more often!

Here's a card I made for the inspiration challenge this week on StampTV. (If you haven't joined, do it now! It's free!) This card uses the super cute Tech Talk set by Melanie Muenchinger that I got from my super awesome mom who gives me GinaK stamps at the holidays! Thanks Mom! Add in some lemon tart cardstock, probably one of my favorite colors ever, from Papertrey, cardstock rickrack, and some My Minds Eye paper I've had forever and it's a card!

I hear someone fussing so I should go. I'll try not to be a stranger. :)

Supplies -
Stamps: GinaK Tech Talk
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Papertrey Lemon Tart, Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red, Georgia-Pacific White, My Minds Eye paper Wild Asparagus stack
Accessories: Papertrey rickrack die, copics, pop dots

Stamping Olympics #4

2010-03-08T21:00:00.002-06:00

Ok, I lied. I have 4 cards for the Moxie Fab World Olympics of Stamping. This is the last one, I promise. ;)

There was a cool tutorial on StampTV a while back about adding sparkle to an embossed background. So cute and easy! Very hard to photograph, however. I think you can see a little of the sparkliness in this picture.

Supplies: Stamps - Stampin' Up! Sincere Salutations
Ink - Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue
Paper - Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Dark Chocolate, Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue
Accessories - Sakura Stardust pen, Spellbinders Long Rectangle and Scalloped long Rectangle Nestabilities, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate Satin Ribbon, Cuttlebug and Snowflake embossing folder

Stamping Olympics #3

2010-03-08T20:52:00.004-06:00

Here's card #3 for the Olympics of Stamping for the Season's Greetings category. I love kraft cardstock!

Supplies: Stamps -Stampin' Up! Serene Snowflakes, Papertrey Ink Holiday Treats
Paper - Papertrey Ink Kraft
Ink - Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow, Stampin' Up! Real Red
Accessories - Stampin' Up! Modern Label Punch, Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy Satin Ribbon, Clear and Red Rhinestones, Sponge, Corner Rounder

Stamping Olympics #2

2010-03-08T20:37:00.002-06:00

Here is my Thank You card for the Olympics of Stamping at Moxie Fab World. This was my first time to use the Medallion stamp because my toddler ran off with the stamp as soon as I got it. I found it behind my bed about 3 weeks later and inked it up. :) This was another easy card. Of course, it still took me over an hour to make! Mama is sllooowww lately!

Supplies: Stamps - Stampin' Up! Medallion, Papertrey Ink Damask Designs
Ink - Palette Burnt Umber, Ranger Walnut Distress Ink
Paper - GinaK Pure Luxury Ivory, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, DCWV Old World Stack
Accessories - Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate Satin, Spellbinders Dies Ribbon Tags, Cuttlebug, Sponge

Stamping Olympics #1

2010-03-08T19:45:00.005-06:00

I have had almost zero time to craft, but I really wanted to participate in the Stamping Olympics at Moxie Fab World. I won't medal because oh my goodness there are some awesome cards! but I'm cool with that! It's an honor just to be in the same Mr. Linky. ;) I have three cards so I'll do three short posts. Still not down with those multiple picture posts other peeps seem to manage.

This is a clean and simple card for the Love category. Nothing says love like cookies. These GinaK cookie stamps by Melanie Muenchinger are super cute! The card is 4.25 in. square and colored with Copics. Easy peasy.

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs Have a Cookie
Paper - Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy, Stamper's Select White
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Real Red
Accessories - Copic markers E51, E53, C0, C1, C3, Stampin' Up! Modern Label Punch, Red Rhinestones, Pop Dots

CAS Card & Blog Candy Winner

2010-02-22T08:44:00.005-06:00

This is a super simple card I made for the inspiration challenge last week at StampTV. The challenge was to use stars. My kids were doing the miraculous and napping at the same time so I needed something clean and simple that I could bust out in about 15 minutes! I stamped the hoodie and the star from Melanie Muenchinger's Just So Sporty, added the star paper from the Rock Star pack, outlined the star with a white gel pen, and used some $1 star stick-ons. Card done. There's plenty of space to add a sentiment later when an occasion presents itself.

If you aren't a member at GinaK's StampTV, go join now! It's free, the eye candy is fab, Gina makes amazing tutorial videos, and there are tons of challenges and giveaways! You can use any stamps for the challenges and the winner of each challenge gets to choose a free GinaK stamp set! Yeah, it's awesome! And Gina frequently has extra giveaways, too! Seriously, join now.

And, the moment you might be waiting for ;), Lisa is the winner of my blog candy! Lisa, send me your address and I will get it out to you! Thanks everyone for commenting! There will be more candy soon. I have lots of stuff to share!

Supplies - Stamps: GinaK Just So Sporty
Paper: Stampin' Up! Pacific Point, Papertrey Ink Stampers Select white, DCWV Rock Star
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Star stick-ons, white gel pen, pop dots, x-acto knife

Blog Candy!!!

2010-02-06T11:39:00.007-06:00

Whoo-hoo! Half the reason I wanted to start a blog was so I could do blog candy. :) It's just so fun to win something. So here it is.

The ingredients to this candy are a Unity So and So Loves unmounted single, Whipper Snapper Jackson unmounted stamp, Paper Pretties handmade by unmounted stamp, Lost Coast Designs unmounted frame stamp, assorted Papertrey vintage buttons, 3 things (technical term here) of ribbon, lavender Stickles, Oh baby! stamp, pearls, white textured flowers, Celebrate stamp, assorted Nestabilities Labels One cuts, and some Hand-Dyed Hobbies fibers.

To win, just leave a comment telling me one of your favorite things to make for gifts. Do you like to make bookmarks, 3x3 cards, soap, giftable cupcakes??? If you don't make anything, tell me what you like to get as a handmade gift! If you want to link up a project you've made in your comment, go for it! You won't get any extra points but I would love to see your work! :) Anyone can enter, only one comment per person will count, and be sure to leave me a way to get in touch with you or check back. This candy will be open until Sunday night and I will pick a random winner Monday! Thanks!

Emboss Resist Challenge

2010-02-06T00:55:00.004-06:00

It's late, late, late so this is going to be fast. I know the second I get under the covers one or both of the boys are going to wake up! This card is for the emboss resist challenge on Nichole Heady's blog for the Papertrey 3rd anniversary shin dig. I got new pti loot yesterday so I stayed up ridiculously late to get a chance to play with it. :) Nichole has a great tutorial on emboss resist if you've never tried the technique. Good night!

PS: I was all set to post blog candy but my pictures were lousy. It really is coming soon.

Supplies -

Stamps: PTI Star Prints, Background Basics:Hearts, Daily Designs Sentiments

Paper: PTI Lemon Tart, Georgia Pacific white

Ink: Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie, Riding Hood Red, Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: Stampendous clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up! embossing buddy, PTI Pure Poppy buttons, Zots glue dots, sponge, Scor-Pal, heat gun

Felt Food!

2010-01-27T14:40:00.008-06:00

Every little kid likes play food, right? Ever get hit in the head with a plastic mustard bottle? Not fun. Worry that your toddler is going to (good-naturedly, of course) throw said plastic mustard bottle and hit the baby or the old-lady dog when you have your back turned for 2 seconds? Enter felt food. So soft, so cute, so affordable. Mine is homemade, but you can also buy it. My friend Shay just opened an etsy shop for felt food, she enjoyed making it so much! (Check her out at Gourmet Play Food!)

As you can see, I've made a mish mash of things. Chocolate chip cookies, a fried egg (which I hate in real life!), baby carrots, and a lime. The egg and the carrots I just drew the shapes on the felt free-hand. The lime and the cookies I traced circles. The chocolate chunks were free-handed, too. I sewed everything except the egg white by hand while watching tv or riding in the car. :)

I definitely want more felt food!!! You can see all kinds of awesome creations at Helping Little Hands. I missed the link up, but you can see tons of creative ideas for play food! It kicks plastic's hiney! :)

And now for something completely different, check out the amazing blog candy on Amy Young's blog. There are 4 different candies being offered through Saturday so I can't link it directly, just scroll down. Besides, you will want to catch all of her awesomeness. Her coloring is fabulous and her creations are beyond adorable!

Who Dat? It's Ian!

2010-01-25T13:41:00.008-06:00

Something wonderful happened last night. The team my husband has loved for years clinched their spot in the Super Bowl for the FIRST TIME EVER! Geaux Saints! Quarterback Ian from The Greeting Farm wanted to offer his congrats. :)

The card is pretty straightforward. I need to learn how to color black better. I just kind of winged it here with my darkest grey copics. Oh, and I need more greys. :) I've had the brads forEVER. (DH wore fleur-de-lis cufflinks at our wedding so it seemed like a safe buy.)

Anyway, this made my husband smile, which, while not hard to do, is always Super.

Supplies: Stamps - The Greeting Farm Quarterback Ian, Papertrey Ink Fresh Alphabet

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Georgia Pacific 110Lb. White cardstock, Papertrey Ink Stampers Select White cardstock, Black cardstock

Accessories - The Paper Studio fleur-de-lis brads, Copic markers (E00, E30, Y11, Y15, Y17, Y26, Y28, C3, N5, C7, E31, E35, E37, C1), Nestabilities Classic Rectangle & Scalloped Rectangle, pop dots, grid line clear block

Did you know you can title these things?

2010-01-23T16:06:00.006-06:00

One day I will be blog savvy. Maybe. Probably not, after all. Oh well. :) Not much crafting going on here. I'm still hoping to squeeze some in this weekend, but that's between a teething baby - yes, he's very little but I can already see the teeth under his gums! - and taking the toddler to eat for his birthday someplace loud with animatronics. We shall see if it transpires.

Here's a card I made last weekend. The beautiful rose image is from Melanie Muenchinger's Year of Flowers stamp set from GinaK Designs. Add copics, nestabilities, the paper from a package of holiday gift bags, and some buttons from a shirt that met a tragic end in the dryer and you have a a very simple and affordable card. (Assuming you already had the nestabilities and the copics, otherwise not affordable at all.)

I was going to post about my son's haircut but I can't figure out how to get two pictures in one post without it looking all stupid. Maybe by the time the baby is getting his 1st haircut I'll have that all figured out. ;) Oh, be on the lookout for blog candy! That's half the fun of having a blog, right?

Supplies: Stamps - GinaK Designs, A Year of Flowers

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Papertrey Ink Kraft, Georgia Pacific White, Stampin' Up! Soft Suede, green paper from a package of Autumn Leaves holiday gift bags

Accessories - Copic markers (R32, R35, R37, G20, G21, G24), Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Labels One, shirt buttons, Stampin' Up! Linen Thread, mini glue dots

2010-01-10T22:04:00.006-06:00

We went to a wedding yesterday. It was a small wedding. Very warm and pretty. The bride was absolutely beautiful! All brides are, but she was just perfect. Weddings with small children are tricky propositions. Thankfully, ours weren't the only little people making loud exclamations throughout the ceremony. ;)

Anyway, here is the card I made for them. I love coloring these Greeting Farm stamps with my Copics. (Btw, if you are looking for a coloring class, Colleen Schaan at http://www.mycreativeclassroom.com/ is awesome!) I am still a baby at coloring but I am enjoying it more and more. I wish I had taken more pictures of this card before I gave it to them. The flowers, ribbon, and the embossing on the white label part all have shimmerz paint on them so they sparkle. Oh well, any picture is better than no picture! The nestabilities Label 4 didn't quite fit behind the image so I trimmed it and taped it. I love tape. It's my favorite cheater supply.

Supplies

Stamps - Caketopper by The Greeting Farm, Warm Words by Stampin' Up!

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - Stampin' Up! Going Grey, Basic Black, Georgia Pacific White

Accessories - D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder, Cuttlebug, Copics (sorry, I didn't write down which ones), Pixie Dust Blingz Shimmerz Paint, Basic Grey pearls, Nestabilities Labels 4, tape :)

2010-01-03T13:31:00.004-06:00

Wee Tees is one of all time favorite sets! It's just so stinkin' cute! Melanie Muenchinger, the brilliant designer of this set, is celebrating her 2nd anniversary designing stamps with a blog hop.

I made a wintery card with Wee Tees in honor of the crazy snow we had here last month. We never get snow! I didn't have a stamp for the sentiment so I wrote it. I'm not a fan of my handwriting, but I am way too lazy to use the computer! Yeah, weird that I decided to start a blog, huh? ;)

2010-01-03T04:15:00.000-06:00

It's 4:15 am and I am starting a blog. I've thought about it before and always decided I spent enough time on the computer already, but it's 4 am and I'm not sleeping so why not? :) And now I *think* the baby is settled enough to go back to bed so I will be back later.