August 31, 2010

Ribbon patterned paper



Hi Everyone! I'm back from my long weekend of visiting family, and wanted to pop in and post this card I made for the Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week to use ribbon in a "different" way. Ribbon with a Twist is the actual challenge this week, but it just means not using it in the same old tie-a-bow way!

I was so excited to use up some of my ribbon scraps for this challenge! Originally I tried to create a multi-petaled flower with them but it kept falling apart so I just decided to glue them down as if they were PP instead. 

Maybe some of you will have better luck and give the flower thing a try!

Sentiment stamps by Hampton Art Stamps. These are older wood-mounted stamps so they turned out a bit crooked after I stamped them, but that's the beauty of wood-mounted stamps, right? *snort*

Join us this week and show us how YOU use ribbon in a different way!




Oh and if you want a chance at some incredible blog candy, check out what Sherry is offering HERE!

August 28, 2010

Stamped onesies for my great-niece

HI All! I'm away for the weekend with no internet access, so I'm scheduling this post.


I glued the buttons on with non-toxic fabric glue and double stitched them too! Those buttons are NOT coming off!





Her daddy (my nephew) is a huge VW fan, and his favorite color is purple, so this one is super appropriate for her! I double stamped the sentiment so the lavender would add a shadow effect. It didn't really work, it just looks blurry! lol!



Here's where the whole thing went wrong. 
Horribly wrong. 
*sigh* I knew the Copics would bleed, so I left a pretty good margin between my coloring and the outline of the duck. Everything was great until I went back over it to darken the color. The second layer started to spread and I freaked! I'm practically screaming at it to "STOP, PLEASE STOP!" As you can see, my "wide margin" was nowhere near wide enough...
Live and learn people. Don't do what I did!


I love the font on the cupcake one and how "sassy" is is! I hope her mom will like this one!

For packaging I just recovered the CS that came in the original plastic.




I'm so excited about meeting my great-niece Evelyn this weekend! I hope her parents like her onesies.

All black ink is Memento Tuxedo black, all colored ink is Palette hybrid (except the duck which was colored with Copic markers). Stamps from PTI and Inkadinkado.

Thanks for stopping by today friends I'll catch-up on your posts when I return!

August 26, 2010

Pears aplenty



 Karen issued a challenge to create a background grid by measuring your stamp and then drawing lines to stamp it perfectly on your CS. I tried this and it's so simple and fab!

I used the clear Pear Postage stamp by FCD, and then paper pieced all the pears and used Copics to add some color to the leaves and stem and striped lines. SO FUN!

This is brighter than my normal style and uses Hibiscus Burst CS for what I believe is only the second time. (It's not my favorite...)


I colored some button twine with a black Copic, and stamped the sentiment inside one of the postage shapes to finish. Simple and different. No buttons!


Thanks for stopping by today! 

August 25, 2010

Keys and locks




So I used only ONE stamp on this card...anyone know what it is?

It's the key on the left! It's from the Key to My Heart set by Practicing Creativity Designs, and I embossed it with a mixture of patina gold and copper e.p. and fussy cut it out including the center sections.
(I buy all my e.p. HERE if you are interested. Their detail e.p. is the best I've ever come across, and no, I don't get kickbacks! *snort*)

This card is for Sasya's Sketches. This week's sketch was HARD for me...I could not make up my mind what to create and then all of a sudden this idea popped into my head and the whole card took me about 20 minutes! I'm happy with it. I have a ton of those old keys in my "altered art" drawers from my altered art obsession days, and I was glad to use one!


Play along with us this week at Sasya's Sketches and see if this one is easy for you! And check out what the rest of the DT did...oh my goodness, some beautiful cards for sure. Those girls are tal-en-ted!

Maybe you can be the next guest designer!

August 24, 2010

Spooky little girl like you...SPOOKY!




I have that song stuck in my head! Who sings it...? The Zombies maybe? I don't know but I can hear it! 
ETA: Two music savvy commenter let me know that Atlanta Rhythm Section is the name of the group that sings that song! Thanks guys!)
Thought I'd change things up a bit and throw this extremely bright, off-season card on the blog today. Fun, huh?! I made it for the Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week, which is to use the rock-n-roll technique on your project.

I love the pumpkin in the Spooky Sweets set from PTI. It works with the rock-n-roll technique so well! Actually, I love almost everything in that set! lol. The bats, the spiders and the pumpkin all appear in these pictures, along with a sentiment or two!


I LOVE the new treat box die from PTI! It was so easy to cut and assemble this cute little Halloween box. All PP are Basic Grey. Can you believe I actually fussy cut that bat (and the pumpkin stem on the card too!)? Clearly I was crazy!






If you like the rock-n-roll technique, join us for Tuesday Throwdown this week!


Oh and thanks for the anniversary wishes yesterday. You all are so sweet. Wanna hear something really neat-o? At our wedding two talented friends of ours sang a duet of "Two of Us" by The Beatles, and last night my Hubster took me to this really great restaurant at the local ski/golf resort and during dinner that song came on the Sirius radio station! We were so shocked and totally thrilled. Talk about serendipity!


For your listening pleasure...




Thanks for stopping by today! *mwah*

August 23, 2010

Seven year itch


Today my hubster and I have been married for seven years. We met in college. He was 17, I was 20 (no comments from the peanut gallery *snort*). We dated for 6 years before getting married, can you believe it? 

I made this card for him this weekend  in between working on DT commitments. Tire track stamps from You're The Man, Sentiment from Look Up, and rays from You're Dandy all by PCD.
The mat stack stamp is from this year's anniversary set by PTI, called Round and Round.
This is actually a LO that I reach for frequently, as it's simple to execute and always looks good.

I don't know if there are any plans in the works for this evening, but I'll let you know if he surprises me!

Happy Monday everyone, hope you have a great week!

August 20, 2010

Firecracker Blog Hop


Hello all!
Welcome to my first FirecrackerDesigns by Pamela Blog Hop! (whewww. that's a mouthful!) This month's theme is to be inspired by book covers.
The inspiration could be color combos, sketch design, title treatments, etc. Whatever we liked about the cover.



Here's the book I was inspired by:

I chose this book for several reasons. One, I have a really difficult time putting red and green together without it looking holiday-ish, and two, I LOVE the author and wanted to highlight her! I mostly used the colors to create my card. Red, pink, green and brown.

 I used Daisy Tops on my card, aren't they cute with brown felt flowers and Basic Grey papers?


BLOG HOP DETAILS:


This is a “circular blog hop” where the only beginning is wherever you start!!  You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started from (here).

The winner will be chosen from a mystery blog hostess …so you’ll want to leave a comment on EVERY blog, so you don’t miss out!

**To find out if you’ve won… you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, at 8:00 PM EST.**

Now, to continue the circle, you will need to hop on over to Boni's blog
and keep going until you’ve come back to where you’ve started!  Thanks so much for playing along with us and we hope you have a great time!

August 19, 2010

Hey there!


Last week I was attempting to design a BD card for my best friend, Mary. We've been BFF since we were 2 and 3 years old, (SHE'S older *grin*) so I sort of know what she likes by now! After I put this one together, I realized it wasn't "right" so into the stash pile it went.



Stamps used: Giga Guidelines, Fillable Frames #6, Paper Tray all by PTI, and Very Vintage Labels no. 4 by Waltzing Mouse Stamps.

You wouldn't think I could use 4 different stamp sets on one relatively simple card, but there you have it! *chuckle* Raspberry Fizz and Harvest Gold.

Thanks for stopping by today, love you guys!

August 18, 2010

Birthday Wishes



Good morning all! Just a quick pop-in today. This is for Sasya's Sketches...can you believe we're already up to no. 24?! I know, right?

(Somewhere in blogland there is a similar card...I saw it forever ago and it stuck in my head, so if it was yours, let me know and I'll give proper credit!)

This was the first time I've ever made those tiny roll up flower buds. I don't recall where I learned them, but I just cut out a simple swirl, like this one (only thicker), 
and started rolling up from the inside. When I got to the end I glued it and stuck a pearl in the center. Simple and easy!

Stamps include script background from TAC, Turning a New Leaf and Mixed Messages from PTI.


Join us for this week's sketch at Sasya's sketches!
Thanks for stopping by! 
*Mwah*

August 17, 2010

A little birdie told me...


...that I needed to update my blog! *chuckle* I needed a few days off from blogging but thanks for all the emails asking where I was! It's nice to be missed.

Today's card is for the Tuesday Throwdown challenge of "more than one fold." Now, I have to tell you that I made several cards for this challenge, but none of them worked for me. So I gave up making the card base have many folds and decided to fold down a corner ON the card! That counts doesn't it? *fingers crossed*

The bird image is from Robyn's Fetish digi images. I just love her cute stance and open beak! I stamped the sentiment with Fresh Alphabet from PTI, and added some musical notes from the Birds of a Feather set.

If you want to play along with us this week, upload your card with more than one fold to Tuesday Throwdown!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to my friend, the talented, Melissa Ladd! Go wish her a good one!

August 13, 2010

Baby goodies


 Good morning all! Sleep well?

I'm popping in today to show you the baby card I made for my newest great-niece, Evelyn. I finally inked up Night Night Moon by PTI. Love this set, so many fun elements. Oh and I also used a fillable frame for the first time too! (no.5 I think...)

Here's a close up of the bib I stamped.

I first stamped the tiny bunny rabbit from Bitty Baby Blessings on some Sweet Blush CS and colored it in with a white gel pen. Then I inked up the bib image with Dazzle Versamark and stamped over it, then covered with clear e.p. and heat set.

When my nephew's wife was pregnant, we planned a baby shower for her and I and my BFF Mary, made 80 tiny paper shoes to give as favors. Unfortunately the weekend of the shower I got really ill and couldn't travel so no one went home with a baby shoe (and I'm stuck with them!).
However, I DID make a special set just for the mom-to-be, and here they are.


Aren't they sweet? I stamped them with a flourish from Turning a new Leaf.

Thanks for stopping by today folks, Have a great FRIDAY (the 13th)!!!!!

August 12, 2010

Fun in the sand


Hey everyone, hope you guys are well! Just wanted to pop in and post this fun card I made last weekend.
I actually tied that bow last MONTH and ended up not using it, so it was sitting on my desk, calling my name! All I had to do was find some fun papers and stamps to go with it!
Definitely not my normal mode of card making. Starting with the bow that is. *wink*

Don't you love that row of bubbles along the bottom? They are a FCD stamp that I just fell for! Adding the highlight with a white gel pen really made them pop. *groan* Bad pun, sorry.

The image is actually comprised of 2 different stamps, Pail and Shovel, also by FCD. I stamped them together and colored them with Copics. They make me long to go back to the beach!

Sentiment (and ribbon) by PCD from the My Beach House set. All other supplies are PTI.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope it's a good one for you!

August 11, 2010

Blue skies...smilin' at me...nothin' but blue skies


I'm late posting this morning. I want to to go back to bed. It's only Wednesday and already I'm clambering for the weekend!

The sketch this week at Sasyas Sketches is so different, I had a hard time with it, I'll admit! But once I fiddled with it enough I made it work for me and this beauty (if I do say so myself) was created.
Yes, that's another paper rose! I left it white this time and absolutely love it. Everything else is PTI except the orange snaps in the corner which are MM.



I hope you'll play along with us this week because I'd love to see what you come up with using this sketch! Can you believe this is sketch no. 23????

August 10, 2010

Asian spotlight


I really like pink with kraft lately if you couldn't tell! *smile* 

This is for the Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week to try spotlighting as a technique. Although I knew what spotlighting was I had never tried it. I sort of reversed my spotlight because I forgot what I was doing and just started coloring my cherry blossom branch! lol! When I realized what I had done, I decided to just make the spotlight B&W instead. I think it works!

If you want to give spotlighting a try, join us this week at Tuesday Throwdown for a chance to win a fabby prize.

Thanks for stopping by today, do something creative!

August 09, 2010

Delicate branches


So did everyone have a good weekend? We actually didn't have to BE somewhere for the first weekend in quite a while, so it was nice to just relax and do fun things for once! I spent a lot of time in my studio, we went to the community pool, for a family bike ride, and my hubster took our youngest to the county fair for rides, fun food and a monster truck show.

Today's card is simple and sweet. I finally inked up some stamps I've had for a while, Delicate Branches by Inkadinkado. I embossed them in white on kraft, sponged on some pink ink and used a white gel pen to outline the image. Then I mounted the panel on a rustic white CS base and added a bow using May Arts pink twill from the Practicing Creativity Designs store. I added the raven in black on a pop dot, and a sentiment from YOF: Sweet Peas by PTI.

Thanks for stopping by today friends!

August 07, 2010

Paper rose wedding card


 Happy Saturday everyone! I plan on spending some quality crafting time in my studio today while my husband participates in a triathlon in the State Park. (He's crazy in the head *wink*)

So I used Glimmer Mist (Sugar Maple) for the very first time on this card! Yes, on the scrunched ribbon, but also on the paper rose I made too!

Here is a photo tutorial on how I made the rose using a flower die from PTI.
I know the pics are small, so if you would like more detailed instruction, please email me (see the "About Me" page at the top left of my blog for address), and I will send you full instructions and larger photos.





This is also the first time I've inked up my Wedding Day stamps from PTI. I even had to take them out of the box and put them into the CD case first! What a slacker I am! Sentiment is from Giga Guidelines, also from PTI.

So what do you think? Is the card too simple? Too bold? Give me some honest feedback, will ya? *grin*

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend!