Bashful Blogging

Crafty Creations Challenges #159... Who Made THAT?

2012-02-29T01:00:00.010-05:00

This week, Crafty Creations Challenges is asking participants to go VINTAGE. While I love many things vintage, in cardmaking that's not exactly my style. But that's what a challenge is all about, right?

Our sponsor this week is Digi Doodle Shop, and that's where my terrific focal image comes from, along with the simple tag frame around it. The background panel has a collage of images from the Paper Girl set from The Girls' Paperie (part of a blog candy win from Kary!). The base layer is a digital paper from Echo Park's For the Record pack. I recoloured it a bit in Word... I wondered if that was, um, allowed, but then decided it was no different than adding some sponging. Speaking of... I sponged! I distressed! Me! And since I distress so rarely, how can I pass up adding this to the current Do You Stack Up? challenge (DYSU#60), which is all about distressing.
If I can do vintage, anyone can, so come join the challenge this week!

Supplies: white cardstock, cream certificate paper, Echo Park For the Record Noteworthy digital patterned paper, Digi Doodle Shop 1920 vintage dress & frame 1 digital images, The Girls' Paperie paper girl stamps, Brilliance coffee bean ink, feathers

Triple Challenge!

2012-02-27T12:57:00.000-05:00

1. Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge

This is the latest inspiration photo Kim has posted on the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge blog. I really like the blue stripes on the clock, so at first, focused particularly on that. After a nasty first attempt involving watercolour paper, distress inks and a stippling brush (ugh), I went with strips of blue cardstock for the background panel. The maritime theme lent itself to the little fish from the set Birthday Buddies. They are coloured with Twinkling H2Os for some shimmer... you can almost see it on the main guy in the photo!

2. CAS-ual Fridays CFC #41: Jest for the Pun of it

I can enjoy a good pun, so I knew the latest CAS-ual Fridays challenge might be for me. There are a few layers on the card, but overall, I think the design is still clean and simple. And the sentiment is a fine pun, isn't it? :P

3. Moxie Fab World: The Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge

The Cure for the Winter Blues Challenge is inspired by the amount of navy blue seen at the recent Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) winter show. And yes, I will admit, navy is not overly prominent on this card, but after looking at some of the inspiration and other entries, I think I can sneak it in. ☺

I'll be back on Wednesday with a so-not-me card for the newest Crafty Creations Challenge!

supplies: white and various blue cardstock, Paper Smooches birthday buddies stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Twinkling H2Os, tiara glitz Stickles, Stampin' Up basic rhinestone, pop-dot tape

Flashback Friday Challenge

2012-02-24T20:11:00.000-05:00

I discovered the latest Flashback Friday challenge thanks to my blogging friend Jen. Hosted by Amy Tsuruta, this week you are asked to look back and re-post your first black and white card. I wasn't actually sure I had any! But just over a year ago, back at the dawn of ~~time~~ my blog, I posted this:

And I am pleased to say, I even still like it. :P The details, should you care, are here.

Happy Friday!

Two... and not TOO late!

2012-02-23T20:52:00.001-05:00

The February Hero Arts contest has only been around for 23 days, and ends tonight, so what better time to enter? Just because it's last-minute doesn't mean I can't come up with two entries!

Here's my friendship/hello card. How cute is that little owl? He's actually a Christmas stamp, but a little masking and paper-piecing lets him grace a non-seasonal card. His little wing-wave seemed perfect for saying hello. Yes, technically there are also die-cuts on this card, but since they're not overly original, we'll just stick with the hello theme.

The contest this month offered three nice, simple sketches, so of course I had to take one and make it even simpler! I love this flourish-y treble clef, and it seems to lend itself to metallic heat embossing. First I took the music score part of the set, stamped it in versamark and heat-set it before embossing the clef in pale gold pearl embossing powder. And of course one of my greatest discoveries ever was finding out that you can heat-emboss vellum out of the printer! No die-cuts here -- a ticket-corner punch for the clef panel, and the sentiment tab is cut by hand.
Wish me luck! ☺

Supplies: (Hi! card) white & Stampin' Up kraft cardstock, Recollections patterned paper, green note paper, Hero Arts Do Not Open stamp, Memories black ink, Letraset rub-on letters, circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities, pop-dot tape; (Just a Note card) Stampin' Up very vanilla and old olive cardstock, vellum, Hero Arts Musical Clef stamps, Versamark ink, pale gold pearl embossing powder, Tim Holtz symphony tissue tape, Stampin' Up' ticket-corner punch

Friends with Flair!

2012-02-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! If it's Friday, it must be time for Unity's Friends with Flair.

I didn't want to post my husband's Valentine before the big day -- yes, he does sometimes look at my blog! I stamped the Giving It All Meaning background, then added a layer of vellum over top to soften it a bit before putting the three hearts on top, popping up the middle one with pop dot tape. Added a red frame, and it was done! Since this has about as many layers as I ever manage, I'm going to add this to the layering challenge at DYSU (Do You Stack Up?). And I hope Simon Says Stamp and Show means it when they say "Anything Goes"!
Don't forget to check out all the other Friends with Flair inspiration over on the Unity blog. Have a great weekend!

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, vellum, Unity Giving It All Meaning & August 2010 Kit of the Month (All You Need) stamps, Versamark & Stampin' Up real red inks, clear & white embossing powder, pop dot tape

Crafty Creations Challenges -- Bears, Oh My!

2012-02-15T01:00:00.003-05:00

Sorry, no lions or tigers... but Crafty Creations Challenges would like to see your teddy bear cards this week! Show us you warm and cuddly teddy bears, and add some flocking for an extra bonus!

No flocking here (I have mostly pinks and purples...) but how about this cute little bear from our sponsor this week, Stamp Fairy? He's coloured in Prismacolor pencils, while the balloons are coloured with Sharpies with highlights in white gel pen. The balloons and the teddy's nose have some Glossy Accents for shine, as well.
Please join us this week for your chance to win a terrific prize!

Supplies: white cardstock, Gina K. Jersey Shore digital patterned paper, Stamp Fairy digital image, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, white gel pen, Glossy Accents, corner-rounding punch

A True Valentine

2012-02-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

This is a card I made for a cousin (I have never totally grasped the hierarchy of firsts, seconds, removed... let's just say she is my grandmother's niece) and her husband who are celebrating their SEVENTIETH wedding anniversary. Does your mind not boggle just a bit at the concept?
Anyway, the card... a larger format, just under 5"x7". The image is embossed in pale gold pearl embossing powder, then watercoloured with distress inks. I'm entering this card into the ♥Love is in the Air♥ challenge at Simon Says Stamp.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Supplies: Stampin' Up old olive cardstock, watercolour paper, light gold pearl paper, Stampin' Up Elements of Style image stamp & JudiKins calligraphic sentiment stamp, Versamark ink, worn lipstick & peeled paint distress inks, pale gold pearl embossing powder

Not Your Typical Valentine...

2012-02-12T16:33:00.000-05:00

... but I'm not sure all that many eight-year-old boys are all that thrilled by typical valentines.

This is for a boy whose current loves are hockey, Super Mario and beagles. Of those three, I can do beagles the best, especially Snoopy! A computer-printed strip, a little layering, and it's done.

Supplies: white, red & yellow cardstock, PSA Essentials Joe Cool stamps, Memories black ink, Nestabilities circle & scalloped circle dies, yellow Sharpie

Charles Dickens!

2012-02-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

Today marks the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of my very favourite author, Charles Dickens. I didn't start reading Dickens until university, where it was love at first book. Discovering Dickens also helped cement my move from pre-med to English. (Well, that and organic chemistry, yipes.) This Christmas, I read The Chimes, a Christmas story reminiscent of the more famous A Christmas Carol, for the first time. In it, Dickens is even more critical of the divide between the rich and poor, and the little he felt was being done to help those most in need -- very 1% versus 99%, and written a century and a half ago!
Besides having one or more editions of all Dickens' novels (no first editions, though!) I have quite a collection of Dickens ephemera. In honour of the great man's birthday, here is some of it.

This isn't my very oldest edition of a Dickens' book (although with some it's hard to tell; wouldn't it have been nice if publishers had always dated their work?) but it may be the most fun. Advertisements on the inside covers are for the likes of Dr. J. Collis Browne's Chlorodyne ("the best remedy known for coughs and colds, asthma, bronchitis") and Stuart's Plaster Pads ("truss troubles vanish forever"). It dates from around 1909-10.

Also from 1909, The Children's Dickens is subtitled "Stories Selected from Various Tales", and includes such chapters as "The Tale of Tiny Tim" and "Little Paul Dombey". It also has line illustrations and great coloured plates.

A monthly calendar from 1917, there is a page for each month with several quotes and a teeny calendar at the bottom of the page.

A 1920 first edition, with a quotation for every day in the year.

I'm not enough of a fanatic to subscribe to any scholarly Dickens journals, but I do have this copy of The Dickensian from the winter of 1930/31, and a copy of The Dickens Quarterly from 1989. Sample article title from The Dickensian: Who Was Jasper? Sample article title from The Dickens Quarterly: The First of the Singles: Watkins Tottle. (I haven't a clue what that means, either.)

As a kid, I always liked Ladybird Books, so when the school library where I was teaching discarded this, I was more than happy to snap it up. It's from 1965.

A children's book about Dickens' visit to Montreal in 1842. (He also visited Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston, Québec City and St. John's while in Canada. Of his visit, Dickens wrote: "But Canada has held, and will always retain, a foremost place in my remembrance." American Notes, 1842)

Yes, there's a Charles Dickens cookbook! Perhaps not a lot of recipes that I will ever make (tripe and onions, anyone?) but for me, a must-have.

Happy birthday, C.D.! ☺

Crafty Creations Challenge #155: Home Sweet Home

2012-02-01T01:00:00.001-05:00

Another Wednesday, another challenge at Crafty Creations Challenges! This week we're celebrating home sweet home. Design team member Deena, who is also the artist behind the Etsy shop A Creative Need, is sponsoring this week and offered some of her designs for the design team to use.

This cute little image just called out to me to be put on a card. What's that you say? How is this related to the theme? Okay, I'll agree, the link is tenuous, but these are obviously love birds, sitting in a heart tree, so they must live there, right? I'm sure their cozy little nest is just out of the picture, further along the branch. There, I feel completely justified. My little birds started out pink, but they looked rather, um, naked! Adding a little mauve shading made them looked less plucked. I wanted the hearts to stand out, so gave them some glossy accents for shine. Once I had that centre panel done, I needed a little more inspiration, so I used CPS sketch #252 -- of course, I couldn't post the card till today, so missed the challenge deadline.

I decided to create a second project for this week, a little more obviously tied to the challenge theme:

These new home gift tags are made with the Cottage Home set from Waltzingmouse.
Put on your creative thinking cap and show us your home sweet home project at Crafty Creations Challenges!

Supplies: (valentine) white & blue cardstock, Stampin' Up patterned paper, A Creative Need Love Birds digital image, Tumbled Glass distress ink, watercolour pencils, Glossy Accents, white ribbon (stash), Valentine Doodle twine, dimensionals; (tags) manila tag, white cardstock, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party patterned paper (green tag), DCWV Christmas Stack patterned paper (blue tag), Waltzingmouse Cottage Home stamps, Memories black ink, watercolour pencils, ribbon (stash), dimensionals

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-28T18:30:00.000-05:00

The Chinese New Year was celebrated this week! (Monday, to be exact.) It supposedly also marks the beginning of the spring season, although the weather here at the moment would beg to differ. We have now entered the Year of the Dragon, which just happens to follow the Year of the Rabbit -- that's me! While I do have bunny stamps, I am lacking in the dragon department, so went very traditional for my New Year card:

For me, one of the neat things about this card is that much of it is made with things I have won! The lanterns are part of a Black Leaf Design Solutions digital set I won on the DYSU challenge blog. They are paper-pieced with some My Mind's Eye paper I won from my friend, Meg. And the twine the lanterns are hanging from is one of five colours of twine I won from the Ribbon Carousel Challenge! (Yay, me! Granted, these wins took place over quite a stretch of time.) For the little dragon medallion, I went back to my teacher roots and found the image on Scholastic.com. I did manage to supply the red and white cardstock all by myself. ☺

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge is calling to me to link this card! And since the Year of the Dragon is supposed to be one of extra good fortune, here's hoping!

Supplies: white and Stampin' Up real red cardstock, My Mind's Eye Life of the Party Lime Twist patterned paper, Black Leaf Design Solutions Festive Chinese Lanterns digital image, gold gel pen, black baker's twine, dimensionals

It's Friends with Flair!

2012-01-27T19:46:00.002-05:00

It's Friday, and that means Unity Friends with Flair! I'm always happy to link up, just not thrilled at the reason I had to make this card... it's another sympathy card. I wanted to get it done and in the mail right away, so... I CASEd myself. (CASE = Copy and Share Everything.) I switched up the colours and dropped a layer, but kept the same general layout. I will have to use this image for a different type of card soon, though -- otherwise, it may start to be "the sympathy card stamp" in my mind. (I pigeonhole things that way sometimes, if I'm not careful. ☺)
Hope you're getting ready for a great weekend! And if you head over to the Unity blog... wow, there's a ton of fun new releases over there!
P.S. Almost forgot to link this to Simon Says Stamp anything goes challenge!

Supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla cardstock, wedgewood blue cardstock, Unity/Webster's Pages Love stamp & Bevy of Butterflies sentiment, Stormy Sky distress ink, clear embossing powder, oval nestabilities, Fiskars threading water punch

Time for Valentines at Crafty Creations Challenges

2012-01-18T01:00:00.002-05:00

This week at Crafty Creations Challenges, we're looking for Valentine-themed projects -- after all, Valentine's Day is less than a month away! I've got two heart-related cards to help get your ideas flowing.

It's a one-layer card! Even though I'm all about keeping my cards clean and simple, I rarely make one-layer cards. Somehow, they always seem too plain. However, after stamping these hearts and trying to layer them several different ways, I realized they were calling out to just be right on the card base. I also have to share my (very) unlikely inspiration:

Don't worry, I'm not equating myself to Matisse. ☺I used this piece a number of times in the classroom as part of an art lesson in collage. When I was looking at my heart stamps, trying to decide what to do with them, I thought of this and using them as a tower.
My second card has no links to modernist art:

Instead, it has candy hearts! I stamped each heart on a different colour of cardstock with a coordinating ink. This easy frame is fun to use when it's a card you don't plan to send in the mail.
Have you started your Valentine crafting yet? Link your projects up to our challenge and you might win a great prize from this week's sponsor, Whiff of Joy. Plus, the rest of the design team will be sure to inspire you.

Supplies: (tower of love) white cardstock, Hero Arts heart in a heart, dot heart, star heart & spiral heart stamps, Colorbox orchid pastel, lime pastel, blue lagoon & lipstick red chalk inks; (candy hearts) white, pink, blue, green, yellow & Stampin' Up almost amethyst textured cardstock, Craft Smart candy hearts, Hero Arts envelope pattern & Unity All Seasons stamps, Colorbox orchid, cyan, fresh green, canary & Stampin' Up lavender lace inks, clear embossing powder

Crafty Creations Challenges: What's New?

2012-01-11T01:00:00.002-05:00

It's technically my week off at Crafty Creations Challenges, but I was in search of a little inspiration and decided to play along anyway! This week, show us something new! I used a new image from our sponsor this week, Sew Many Cards:

I wanted to keep this card very pastel, so watercoloured the Love Tree image with distress inks. It looked like the perfect tree to lie beneath on a spring day, so I paired it with a "daydream" sentiment from a Unity set I picked up just before Christmas. (New item number two!) Unfortunately, the light colours made this tough for me to get a good photograph.
Be sure to visit Crafty Creations Challenges to see what this week's design team has to inspire you... and consider this a good excuse to start using some new craft goodies!

Supplies: cream & Stampin' Up pink pirouette cardstock, watercolour paper, Sew Many Cards digital image, Unity Gratitude=Joy sentiment stamp, spun sugar, milled lavender, dusty concord, bundled sage, peeled paint, antique linen & vintage photo Distress Inks

New Year Friends with Flair

2012-01-06T16:45:00.000-05:00

I thought it would be fun to link up to the first Friends with Flair for 2012, so got out my Unity stamps:

I used a variety of Unity and Ippity stamps to create this little wildflower-and-grass silhouette and paired it with a sentiment to make this serene card.

Supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla and soft suede textured cardstock, Crate Paper portrait collection-pearls patterned paper, Unity Gratitude=Joy, Bevy of Butterflies & Ippity Sing a New Song stamps, Vintage Photo distress ink

The Last of the Christmas Posts?

2012-01-05T09:00:00.006-05:00

Before we get too far into January, I wanted to share some fabulous (mostly) Christmas cards I received from some very talented friends. These are more or less in the order I received them.

Back in November, Kary celebrated her birthday by giving away stamps sets on her blog! And I won two lovely sets! When Kary sent them (from Malaysia!) she included this lovely card. One of the best things about this beautiful card is that it confirms that I have no need to invest in Copic markers... I could never come close to this level of gorgeous colouring! This also turned out to be the first Christmas card we received this season.

I guess I've been on a bit of a winning streak, as I also won some fun stamp sets from Angela in November. She sent them along with some extra goodies and this great card, which was perfect to receive on a gray and gloomy late fall day.

But then Angela sent me this beautiful Christmas card a few weeks later! I love the more vintage-y feel of this design with its rich warm colours.

My friend Amanda knows I love me some Mickey, so she sent this amazing card to me. Do they not look perfectly festive in red? (Fun coincidence: my husb had already bought my Christmas card, featuring... die-cut Mickey and Minnie under the mistletoe!)

I do like Emily's clean and simple (CAS) style -- and playdates at her house where she lets me use all her awesome stuff! (I don't think I'll be getting her out of the city any time soon to return the favour. Besides, she has way better toys. ☺) My photograph doesn't do justice to the glittery green felt she used for this sweet Christmas tree. Emily does a much better job displaying it here.

A Stampin' Up demo that sends her customers Christmas cards? How awesome is that? Of course, Grace knows what she's doing, since she used beautiful SU products, most of which I don't have.

It takes a while for an angry red bird to fly from the States up here to Canada (so many pigs along the way, I'm sure) but wow, it was worth the wait to see this card from Meg in person! Every little detail is perfect, right down to the shimmery Santa hat!

Thanks for making it through this long post -- I think these awesome cards make it all worthwhile, though.

Crafty Creations Challenge #151: Turn Up the Heat!

2012-01-04T01:00:00.002-05:00

In my neck of the woods, yesterday was definitely a day to turn up the thermostat -- it was COLD! And at Crafty Creations Challenges, we're getting you to turn up the heat with some heat embossing this week.

Using heat embossing is not a huge challenge for me -- NOT using heat embossing might make it a challenge! So I decided to increase my heat-embossing repertoire by investigating using it on digital images. This butterfly image is from our sponsor this week, Pattie's Creations. I printed it out on vellum and had my embossing powder at the ready to sprinkle as soon as the paper cleared the printer. As you can see, it worked perfectly! (I may have to try this on regular cardstock next -- imagine the possibilities! ☺)

Be sure to visit the Crafty Creations Challenges blog to see what the other design team members have created, and to enter the challenge!

supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla and rich razzleberry cardstock, Basic Grey euphoria-ferver patterned paper, Pattie's Creations digital image, gold embossing powder, Martha Stewart border punch

Year in Review Blog Hop

2011-12-29T20:56:00.001-05:00

My friend and fellow former Amber Ink torchbearer, Karin, is hosting A Year in Review Blog Hop. It's fun to see synopses of other peoples' favourite creations; I decided to participate because two of my 2011 favourites haven't even been blogged yet! (Did December suddenly get really busy for anyone else, by any chance? :P There were cards and tags I photographed but never blogged, and at the end made but never even photographed!)
Here are some of my 2011 favourites:

Original post here.

Love the Echo Park patterned paper!

Original post here.

Shakespeare, lots of fun little details, not-bad colouring. Happy sigh.

Original post here.

Someday, this will be my feeling exactly. In the meantime, a fun 60th birthday card for someone else.

Original post here.

A little out of my box, in a good way.

Original post here.

I just like this.

Original post here.

A more subtle age-related birthday card.

Original post here.

These two snowmen, and the happy colours, make me smile.

The only cat Christmas card I made this year! Magenta stamp, Cuttlebug faux letterpress background, Glossy Accents on the ornaments, Stickles, computer-printed sentiment on vellum.

I love the expression on the face of this Ippity penguin. I also love how perfectly the polka-dot paper works for a snowy background!
To join in this fun year-end review, head over to Karin's blog and link up a post of some of your favourites, too! (Oh, if you need more incentive... there are prizes!) And Happy New Year!

2011-12-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

Crafty Creations Challenges: Blog Hop!

2011-12-21T01:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Crafty Creations Blog Hop and Two-Week Challenge! You should be arriving here from Jaime's blog. If this is your first stop you can always start by going to Claire's blog.

The two week challenge is: A Card or Gift of Gratitude or Thanks. I decided to make one of each: a tag for a hostess gift as well as a card. First, the tag:

This was partly inspired by a bottle of wine friends brought to our house the other evening. It had a promotional tag on it, and I noticed the paper loop hanger at the top. I usually make a tag that ties on with ribbon, but thought it would be fun to try this style. Is this sentiment not perfect for the gift of a festive libation?

And my card:

Green glitter embossing tinsel is hard to beat for Christmas, and I thought it was perfect for this stylized tree. (As always, the shine shows up much better in real life, as does the lettering in the sentiment. Photography's funny that way, sometimes. ☺)

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to enter Crafty Creations two-week challenge for your chance to win one of the many sponsored prizes! Your next stop on the hop is Donelda's blog. If you happen to get lost along the way, come on back here or head over to Crafty Creations for the complete order list.

1. Claire

2. Deena

3. Bernie

4. Dawn

5. Juelmarie

6. Kaos

7. Rudlis

8. Jenni

9. Donna

10. Peggy

11. Jaime

12. Lindsey

13. Donelda

14. Kathleen
15.Crafty
Creations

Supplies: (tag) manila file folder, white & Stampin' Up real red & old olive cardstock, Amuse Studio wreath stamp, Unity/Jillibean Soup Christmas Eve Chowder stamps, Hero Arts Get Merry! stamp, Brilliance coffee bean ink, Stampin' Up old olive & real red inks, clear & clear glitter embossing powders, Spellbinders nestabilities circle dies, Sizzix holly embossing folder, icicle Stickles, red Liquid Pearls, Fiskars glue dots, pop-dot tape; (card) Stampin' Up very vanilla cardstock, Unity November Kit of the Month (All Seasons) stamps, Versamark ink, Ranger green embossing tinsel, Marvy corner-rounding punch, pop-dot tape

Blog Candy Winner!

2011-12-09T21:05:00.000-05:00

The winner of my birthday blog candy from this post is ...
Jen W.! Congratulations, Jen! Please send me an email with your snail mail address so I can get the Inkadinkado stamp set off to you soon!

Paper Crafts Magazine: Donelda's Turn

2011-12-09T06:00:00.004-05:00

Here's my card based on Donelda's pick from the November/December 2010 issue of Paper Crafts magazine, Beth Opel's Rejoice card on p. 48:

Donelda told me she picked it both because it would be a bit of a creative stretch for both of us (um, yes) and because of the ribbon treatment on it. So I definitely wanted to try a similar ribbon style. I did delete a couple of the layers of the original card, because, well, I rarely do a lot of layers. I also don't do a lot of browns, so like yesterday, I went for red. I also used the same sentiment stamp as yesterday, but masked out the little poinsettia in the middle so I could use a circle of the patterned paper, instead.
Can't wait to see what Donelda's come up with today, especially after her beautiful CASE (Copy and Share Everything) of my inspiration pick yesterday. You might also want to stop back here later today to discover the winner of my one-year-of-blogging blog candy winner!

Supplies: Stampin' Up real red & very vanilla cardstock, (?) patterned paper, Hero Arts Joy stamp, Colorbox cranberry ink, clear embossing powder, Fiskar's threading water border punch, recycled ribbon, pop-dot tape

We're Back!

2011-12-08T06:00:00.004-05:00

Donelda and I had such fun a few weeks ago picking Paper Crafts magazine cards that we would each CASE, we decided to do it again! I convinced Donelda to dig out last year's November/December issue -- I'd bought it last year, but in the holiday rush, I only had time to make a few tags inspired by all the projects in it! One of the reasons I picked up the magazine was the feature on music, so I decided to pick Kelley Eubanks' Musical Joy card on p. 67. Here's what I came up with:

I used the same layout as Kelley, but switched to a red card base instead of black. I used a strip of music paper from the Stampin' Up newsprint collection, and backed it with a strip of black. This plaid ribbon is one of my favourites to use at Christmas, and I'm going to be so sad when I get to the end of the roll! I coloured the rhinestone with a Sharpie to match the card base. I'm entering this card into the inspiration challenge at Ribbon Carousel (RCC32).

Don't forget to head over to Donelda's blog to see what she came up with! Tomorrow we'll be revealing her pick from this issue.

Supplies: black & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Stampin' Up newsprint patterned paper, Hero Arts Joy stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, $ store ribbon, Hodges & Lettau rhinestone, red Sharpie

Amber Ink Holiday Hop Winner!

2011-12-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

*** Please scroll down or click here for this week's Crafty Creations Challenge.***

The elves are back on their shelves, and it's time to announce my winner for the Amber Ink Holiday Blog Hop. Drumroll, please:

Congrats, Sav! The elves at Amber Ink will be emailing you your own elf soon. Remember, there were 22 other chances to win, so you can either retrace your blog hop steps (hops?) or check in at Amber Inklings later today. If you didn't get a chance to hop Monday or Tuesday, you should go now to see all the fun creations! If you want your very own elf, just head over to the Amber Ink store. Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Sentiments at Crafty Creations Challenges

2011-12-07T01:00:00.010-05:00

This week at Crafty Creations Challenges, we're helping you get your Christmas cards done! The challenge this week is to create a Christmas card and include a sentiment. Our sponsor this week is Lili of the Valley. I used their beautiful Advent Calendar image:

I started with the advent calendar on some oatmeal cardstock -- I thought the colour and texture suited the image. Then I paper-pieced the dates and Christmas tree, and used a bunch of different media to colour everything: watercolour pencils, gold shimmer paint, white flocking and red glitter glue. When I went to cut out the image, there was no way I could cut around the original hanger effectively, so instead I added some twine and a brad to hang it from. I picked a sentiment to reflect the warm cozy feel of the image. The twine qualifies this card for the challenge at Do You Stack Up (DYSU#48) to use something you can tie.
Play along with our challenge for your chance to win a £10 gift voucher from Lili of the Valley!
I'll be back later today with my winner from the Amber Ink blog hop!

Supplies: white & oatmeal cardstock, Lili of the Valley advent calendar & Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month October (Take Time to Laugh) stamps, Versacolor green ink, clear embossing powder, watercolor pencils, gold shimmer paint, Studio G white fun flocking, Studio G red glitter glue, Twinery peapod twine, gold brad, pop dot tape

Amber Ink Holiday Hop Time!

2011-12-05T10:00:00.093-05:00

Welcome to my stop on the second annual Amber Ink Holiday Blog Hop! This year twenty-two Amber Ink design alumnae are tapping into their inner elves to bring on some holiday cheer. I will confess... I had somehow missed the phenomenon that is Elf on the Shelf. Amber and Pam, the elves behind all that is Amber Ink, quickly filled me in. They also provided us with our choice of cute elf images to use for the hop.

The inside says, "Good for you!"

This little guy looked to me like he'd been up to some mischief! He's dressed in some green snowflake lace iPaper, with a glittery collar and hat brim. (It's obviously December, because there is now glitter everywhere.) I printed the sentiment in Santa's Sleigh font.
Now, let's talk prizes! One lucky person who comments on this blog post will win this elf image! And as they say on TV... but wait! There's more! The grand prize winner will receive an Elf on the Shelf gift set! So you'll want to be sure to comment on all the hop stops by Tuesday midnight EST, and on the Amber Inklings blog as well. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 7th. Good luck and enjoy the hop!

Supplies: white cardstock, green snowflake lace tiny iPaper, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, Stampin' Up dazzling diamonds glitter, pop dot tape, corner-rounding punch

Happy Birthday x2

2011-12-02T09:47:00.002-05:00

The super-talented Virginia is celebrating a, shall we say, significant birthday -- and has asked everyone to join in on her celebration! Well, not the birthday cruise she's going on with her family part, but the general festivities. So here's a card I've made with her in mind:

Virginia is a pro with her Hero Arts stamps, so I thought it was only fitting that I use some to make a card in her honour. Also appropriate -- I won the Hero Arts envelope background from her as blog candy! So I used it to make a sky-type background, and picked some fun Friendly Flags to make a birthday banner. When Virginia sent me that envelope background (and the cute snail stamp I won with it) she also generously included some fun SRM sentiment stickers. I thought this one, with the little flower, was perfect with the end pennants.
If you would like to join in on wishing Virginia a happy **th birthday, check out this post.
I'm entering this card in the current Simon Says Stamp challenge... I'm a big fan of their Anything Goes challenges!
You may have noticed my title refers to more than one birthday... and that's because this little blog turns one today! So, as a long, proud tradition dictates... it seems a little blog candy is in order!

This cute little sentiment set from Inkadinkado can be yours! Just leave a comment on this post before Thursday, December 8th at midnight EST. I'll announce the winner Friday, December 8th. You don't have to be a follower of Bashful Blogging to participate, but I'd love to have you join if you're not!

Supplies: white cardstock, Hero Arts friendly flags & envelope background stamps, Memento tuxedo black, Memories passion red & Brilliance pearlescent sky blue inks, clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, SRM sticker, natural hemp twine, pop dot tape

Inspiration at Crafty Creations

2011-11-30T02:00:00.002-05:00

This week at Crafty Creations, the challenge is to create a project based on this beautiful inspiration photo. So many possibilities! The rich colours, the multiple textures... I chose to focus on the subtle festive touches -- the poinsettia towels and the little evergreen wreath. And from there, I got to this:

My first attempt, I stamped and embossed this Christmas postcard image in silver and coloured it in using the colours in the photo. It looked okay, but didn't really do the trick for me. So I tried again, leaving the details uncoloured and letting the deep green and red carry the show.
This week is my last week as a guest designer at Crafty Creations Challenges. Sad? No -- because I'm going to join the design team full time! I'm so excited! Thank you to the fabulous ladies there, especially Peggy and Deena, for making me feel so welcome.

Supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla, real red and (?) green cardstock, Stampin' Up Christmas Postcard stamp, Colorbox evergreen ink, clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up ticket-corner punch, dimensionals

Amber Ink's First Pinny Party!

2011-11-27T22:46:00.002-05:00

I have a soft spot for Amber Ink -- after all, they trusted ME, a brand-new blogger, to design for them for a month last year. Not to mention they have incredibly fun digital images and digital paper! So when they announced their latest blog party, I really wanted to play along!

Here's the deal -- if you hang out on Pinterest at all, you may have pinned lots of great, inspirational ideas that you plan to use... someday. But of course instead, you just pin more terrific ideas... for someday. Well, the brilliant minds at Amber Ink are encouraging us to actually take our pins and use them!
So the weekend was a ~~little~~ lot busier than my average one, but I did want to play in the first ever weekend Pinny Party! Here's the pin I chose be inspired by:

I like to use music on my Christmas cards, and really liked the clean and simple design of this. So of course my end product turned out quite differently:

It really didn't seem right not to use some Amber Ink iPaper for their first official Linky party, so I picked some Bubble Fizz: Green iPaper for a fun background. I also decided I didn't want floating ornaments, so hung them with some silver elastic cord. Not as clean and graphic as my inspiration, but I think it turned out kind of fun!
Hope your weekend was great, whether it was a long Thanksgiving one or not!

Supplies: white cardstock, Amber Ink bubble fizz: green iPaper, silver pearl paper, Hero Arts Get Merry! stamps, Colorbox cranberry ink, Spellbinders Nestabilities 1 1/2 inch circle die, silver cord, corner-rounder punch

Being Grateful at Crafty Creations

2011-11-23T02:00:00.010-05:00

Just in time for American Thanksgiving, this week's challenge at Crafty Creations Challenges is to make a thank you or gratitude card or other project. Even though Canadian Thanksgiving has passed, it is always good to have a thank you card or two in reserve.

It's a funny thing about inspiration, or mojo, or if you're feeling particularly arty, the Muse. :D I was on a total roll there for a couple of weeks, happily cranking out cards and tags. Then, starting this past weekend... nothing. So it's helpful to have a stamp that can do most of the heavy lifting, such as this CardArt Thanks Phrase stamp from Hero Arts. I couldn't let it do all the work, though, so I did manage to do a little cutting, distressing (me!), and picked a pair of coordinating patterned papers. Although you can't see it in the photo, the flowered paper has text in the background, which goes nicely with the definition on the stamp.

And hey, if you're feeling bereft of ideas, why not make TWO cards? I decided to try my hand at the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge. From the inspiration photo, I took away the flowers with their scallopy shape, and the general colours, particularly the greys. I recoloured the digital image and sentiment to grey before printing it out and colouring with Sharpies and Prismacolor pencils. I also played with my first nestabilities to cut and emboss the big scalloped circle! I considered making this a circle card, but liked the look of the yellow background.
Come play with us at Crafty Creations Challenges! And to my American friends and visitors, Happy Thanksgiving!

Supplies: (thanks) Stampin' Up very vanilla cardstock, Daisy D's and Karen Foster patterned paper, Hero Arts CardArt Thanks Phrase stamp, VersaMagic Spanish olive chalk ink; (thankful) white & yellow cardstock, Paper Smooches digital stamps, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, silver gel pen, Spellbinders Nestabilities classic scalloped circles large

Double Inspiration

2011-11-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today it's my turn to pick again from the September/October issue of Paper Crafts magazine, and I must have chosen well -- both Donelda and I ended up making two cards from my choice! I picked Ellie Augustin's Brew Some Fun card on p. 46. I chose it both for the layout and for the fact that it wasn't a standard A2 size card. First up, the card I'm undecided about:

I decided to go with colours similar to the ones on the inspiration card. The edges of the patterned paper and the pine cone circle are sponged with gold ink, and the image and sentiment are embossed in gold. The sentiment does show up better in real life than it does in the photo!
Now this one I'm really happy with!

I thought this little polar bear scene was perfect to highlight in a circular frame! And since I already had this patterned paper out from the card I posted yesterday, it all came together quite easily. ☺
If Donelda had as much fun as I've had doing this, don't be surprised if we do it again one of these days! For now, head on over to Donelda's blog to see her terrific creations!

Supplies: (Happy Holidays) Stampin' Up old olive & very vanilla cardstock, old olive patterned paper, Inkadinkado pine cone stamp, Craft Smart sentiment stamp, Versamark and Colorbox gold inks, gold embossing powder, dimensionals; (polar bears) white cardstock, DCWV patterned paper, Stamp Barn stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, Atyou Spica clear glitter marker, silver half-pearls, Offray ribbon, dimensionals

Week Two of Paper Craft Magazine Inspiration

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

My blogging buddy Donelda and I are back with another double dose of Paper Craft magazine inspiration! This week, we're featuring Donelda's choice first. She picked Cristina Kowalczyk's Ahoy Birthday card on p. 58 of the September/October issue.

Cristina's card had made my shortlist of cards to CASE, too, so this should have been easy, right? Not so much. Since I'm totally in Christmas card mode now, I tried that route first. We've both been picking cards from the feature on using canvas, so I got out all my Christmas fabric (What? Doesn't everyone have a collection?) and started trying different pieces and combinations. After ~~immense frustration~~ a few false starts, I realized I was going nowhere fast, so put everything away and went in an entirely new direction -- a close interpretation of the original card, following the colours, layout and theme. Patterned paper takes the place of the canvas strips, and my image and sentiment are a Unity/Webster's Pages itty bitty duo that hadn't seen ink before. I thought the figure eight knot in the twine added a nautical touch, too.
We'll be back tomorrow with our interpretations of the card I chose!

Supplies: white cardstock, DCWV patterned paper, Unity/Webster's Pages Celebrate, Colorbox royal blue & Memories passion red inks, clear embossing powder, red Divine twine, dimensionals

Tag, You're It!

2011-11-16T20:06:00.000-05:00

I'm back! For the Crafty Creations Challenge post, please check this post.

I wanted to sneak in before the deadline of this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge (CFC28) to create a tag, as well as the same theme over at Bows and Berries. The tag itself is cut from a manila file folder, the music comes from a carol book, and the rest are bits and pieces from my stash.

Tomorrow starts week two of CASEing Paper Crafts magazine with Donelda!

Supplies: manila file folder, white & red cardstock, Stampin' Up Holiday Collection stamp, Colorbox evergreen ink, brass eyelet, green ribbon

Crafty Creations Challenges: Recycle It!

2011-11-16T02:00:00.009-05:00

This week, the Crafty Creations challenge wants you to create a project with at least one recycled item. What, did they arrange this challenge just for me? ☺

How did I recycle? Let me count the ways...

The bag itself originally held crafting goodies that I bought at The Rubber Stamp Store in St. Catharines. Wasn't it nice of them to give me a bag I could save and reuse?
The snowflakes are punched from a card that a charity sent out... you know, the "here are some cards, please give us a donation" kind. I recycle them both by cutting out cute parts to incorporate into gift tags, and by using punches, as I did here.
I had two narrow strips of silver pearl paper left over from trimming a sheet for a different project, so they became paper curls.
The raffia and silver cord are "recycled" out of my Christmas wrapping stash.
The snowflake background could almost count, too... my buddy Emily didn't want the stamp any more, so she recycled it on to me!

Not bad, huh? The non-recycled elements include the festive deer from DT member Deena's Etsy store, A Creative Need. By recolouring him before printing him out, I only needed to add the lightest of shading to him, plus some silver and blue gel pen to his pine cone ornament. Here's a closer look at some of the glittery goodness:

Please visit Crafty Creations Challenges to see what the rest of the DT has created, and to add your own project!

Supplies: kraft gift bag, white & blue cardstock, DCWV Christmas Collection patterned paper, silver pearl paper, Brilliance moonlight white ink, tumbled glass & broken china distress inks, Ranger snowflake embossing tinsel, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Prismacolor pencils, gel pens, Icicle Stickles, raffia, silver cord

Friends with Christmas Flair

2011-11-11T21:28:00.000-05:00

*** This is my second post for today! Please check out my Paper Crafts magazine inspiration challenge, Part II, here. ***

I love this image from the October 2010 Kit of the Month, Take Time to Laugh. It's so versatile! For this card, I kept it simple, embossing it in silver, then watercolouring the sentiment and ornaments. What do you think of the non-traditional colours?
Pop on over to the Unity blog to see the rest of this week's Friends with Flair entries!

Supplies: white and Stampin' Up rich razzleberry cardstock, Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month, Take Time to Laugh stamp, Stampin' Up rich razzleberry ink, silver embossing powder, Stampin' Up rich razzleberry grosgrain ribbon, corner-rounding punch, dimensionals

CASEing Paper Crafts Magazine with Donelda, Part II

2011-11-11T06:00:00.006-05:00

I'm back with another CASE from the September/October issue of Paper Crafts, along with my blogging friend Donelda! Today we're interpreting her choice from the magazine, Betsy Veldman's Doily Gratitude card on p. 56:

This was challenging! I went in a few different directions before I ended up with this finished product. The ink-sprayed canvas on the original made me think of denim for some reason, but that idea didn't really go anywhere. Then the doilies made me think of snowflakes. Since I didn't have any large snowflake stamps, I went with an overall background pattern of them. My large chipboard element has way more coats of paint than it should! I started with two coats of gesso (the second because I forgot to cover the edges properly with the first coat). Then I thought silver might look good, so I sponged it with some silver ink. Didn't like that look! It took two coats of acrylic craft paint to cover the silver properly. Another small chipboard element, some lace and a sentiment finished the card.
Remember to check out what Donelda did for her CASE of this card! Plus, we had so much fun this week, we've picked two more cards to CASE next week. Hope we'll see you then!

(On an entirely different note: Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. I doubt I'd be writing this blog, or making cards with rubber stamps, or doing many of the other things I enjoy doing, if it wasn't for the freedom I enjoy today thanks to the generations that came before me, a few of whom were my relatives.)

Supplies: white and Stampin' Up riding hood red cardstock, riding hood red patterned paper, Local King Rubber Stamp snowflakes background stamp, All Night Media snowflake stamp, Studio G joy stamp, Brilliance moonlight white & Stampin' Up riding hood red inks, Claudine Hellmuth Studio gesso, Anita's white acrylic craft paint, Ranger snowflake embossing tinsel, Stampin' Up chipboard elements, lace

CASEing Paper Crafts Magazine with Donelda, Part I

2011-11-10T06:00:00.016-05:00

After I posted a couple of cards inspired by those in the September/October issue of Paper Crafts magazine, fellow card maker Donelda (Wiggy's World) suggested we should challenge each other to pick cards that each of us would CASE (copy and share everything). What a fun idea! I picked the Autumn Button Tree Card card on p. 52 by Katie Gehring. Here is my take on it:

I picked the original card mostly for its layout, so I followed the card design quite closely. Shockingly (for me) there is NO STAMPING on this card! The trees are paint chips! (Inspired by these.) Even though I have more Christmas stamps than anyone should really need, I couldn't find a sentiment that worked for me, so this one is computer-generated. The paper is from Echo Park's Holly Jolly 6"x6" paper pad.
Now you can head over to Donelda's blog to see her interpretation! Tomorrow, we take on her choice from the issue. See you then, I hope!

Supplies: white & Recollections metallic green cardstock, Echo Park Holly Jolly Merry and Bright patterned paper, Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, paint chips, corner-rounding punch, dimensionals

Crafty Creations Challenge: PB&J, Anyone?

2011-11-09T02:00:00.003-05:00

Mmmm, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. How's that for a challenge theme? At Crafty Creations Challenges this week, we're asking you to create a peanut butter and jelly ~~sandwich~~ card or other project! Peanut butter = kraft, jelly = a colour of your choice, and the bread = white or cream.

This beautiful wreath image is from our sponsor this week, the talented Claire, a member of the design team and owner of the Etsy store Hope Jacare. I resized the image so it would be just a bit bigger than a 4 1/4" card base. I coloured the base of the wreath with a kraft-coloured marker, and paper-pieced the hearts with my jelly colour of riding hood red. The "joy" sentiment is embossed in bread, I mean white. I thought about a circular card base, but decided I wanted more of the kraft to be visible. (I do think I need a bigger corner-rounder, though; I would have liked that look a bit more.)
I hope you'll join us in this fun and tasty challenge! And please come back to the blog tomorrow when I start a fun challenge with fellow crafter Donelda!

Supplies: white, Stampin' Up kraft and riding hood red cardstock, riding hood red patterned paper, Hope Jacare digital image, Unity Oh! Joy! sentiment, Brilliance moonlight white ink, white embossing powder, corner-rounding punch, dimensionals

A Card from Angela!

2011-11-07T20:47:00.000-05:00

I've been remiss in not showing off this gorgeous card I received from Angela!

You can read about what Angela used to make this card here. (And if you haven't before, you really should visit her blog!) I really like the background stamped squirrels and that the acorn caps just happen to be in my favourite colour. ;) Angela sent me this to thank me for the birthday card I sent her, and included a few more of the squirrels stamped just for me, and a couple of the amazing medallions she makes out of washi tape. So I could send Ang a thank you card for this, but then she might feel obligated to send a card to me to thank me for the card, and... maybe I'll wait till closer to Christmas.
Wednesday will be my second post for Crafty Creations Challenges, and you still have some time to enter the current colour challenge!

Friends with Flair and a Friend Indeed

2011-11-04T10:57:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday! Now that it's November (and rather chilly today!), it's really not hard at all to think about making Christmas cards. I made this one using the new Unity Sketch challenge layout.

These two cute snowmen are from the January 2011 Kit of the Month, To the Moon and Back. I don't actually own that kit, but when I expressed my liking for them a while back, my friend Emily stamped a few and popped them in the mail for me. This when she was in the middle of preparing to move to a new house! Now that's friendship. ☺ The tag and circle elements of the sketch seemed perfect for these two dudes. I threaded the fake buttons on the tall snowman with real twine ;) and gave the snow and the round snowman some glitz with Stickles.
I'm linking up to Unity's Friends with Flair, and since I've used both twine AND ribbon, I'll add it to Ribbon Carousel's current "Anything Goes" (RCC27) challenge. It doesn't extend by much, but the ribbon on the tag qualifies for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge(CFC27) to go "over the edge" of your card. Have a great weekend!

Supplies: Gina K. white cardstock, Stampin' Up real read and kraft cardstock, DCWV Christmas Collection patterned paper, Unity January 2011 Kit of the Month (To the Moon and Back) stamps, Memento tuxedo black ink, sharpies, 1" circle punch, hole punch, Twinery maraschino twine, Celebrate It ribbon, Frosted Lace Stickles, pop-dot tape

Last-Minute Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge

2011-11-02T20:46:00.000-04:00

*** This is a rare, 2nd post of the day! Please click HERE for the Crafty Creations Challenges post. ***

Even though the outline has been wandering around in my head for a little while, it took until today to create this card for the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, closing tonight:

From Kim's inspiration photo, I focused on the woodland setting, the colours, the tree/wood and the shape of that vintage VW micro-bus. That shape reminded me of this critter from the PS set Birthday Buddies. For a minute or two, I thought about giving him a watery setting and making him a beaver -- Canada's currently in a bit of a tempest over whether our traditional symbol, the beaver, should be changed to the polar bear. Although I like polar bears, I'm still firmly Team Beaver in the national symbol department. The inspiration pic has nothing to do with water, though, so I stuck to the original gopher/groundhog look. The world's smallest pom-pom tops his birthday hat, and he's framed in a woodgrain pattern from My Mind's Eye. I was SO tempted to make his big nose red, but settled on shining up his nose and teeth with Glossy Accents. The whole design is fairly vertical to match the inspiration, too. I think he'll make a fine masculine birthday card. :P

Supplies: white & cream cardstock, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party patterned paper, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies stamps, Brilliance coffee bean ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, Twinery mandarin twine, Glossy Accents, pop-dot tape

Crafty Creations Challenges Guest Designer!

2011-11-02T07:00:00.009-04:00

I'm very excited to be guest designing at Crafty Creations Challenges for the month of November! I was so honoured when Peggy wrote to ask if I would play along with the talented crafters there. Their challenges are always original and inspiring, so be sure to check them out!
This week's challenge is to use green, purple, silver... and snow! Snow can be interpreted any way you wish. I picked a super-cute image from this week's sponsor, Stretch N' Bubbles.

I knew right away I wanted to paper-piece the little birds. I second-guessed that decision more than once while cutting and gluing teeny-tiny bodies and wings, but I persevered. :P (Note to self: remember next time to colour BEFORE paper-piecing, even if really excited about it.) I also paper-pieced the snowman's accessories, framing the scene in the same paper. The silver gets into the mix from the snowman's hatband and the strings the birds have their little presents and ornaments hanging from. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to achieve the snow element of the challenge (well, besides the fact that, yes, he's a SNOWman). Eventually, I embossed some snowflakes onto cardstock then made them shine with Smooch spritz. Here's a closeup:

I debated adding a sentiment, but decided I liked the scene as it was. I also thought about adding some colour to the sky or some shading to the snowman, but knew the odds of messing the whole thing up were just too high. :P
Be sure to check out Crafty Creations Challenges to see the rest of the design team's beautiful work! I hope you're inspired to create something for this week's challenge!

Supplies: white cardstock, Karen Foster Designs Shades of Purple & My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party patterned papers, Stretch N' Bubbles feed the birds digital stamp, Prismacolour pencils, Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, vanilla Smooch spritz, black diamond Stickles, silver gel pen

Happy Hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T14:44:00.000-04:00

Something homemade of a different kind:

As you can see: 1) I decorate cookies sort of the same way I make cards -- simple is good!
2) I'm not getting a job as a food stylist any time soon
Have a safe and fun Hallowe'en!
P.S. Please come back on Wednesday... I'm going to be starting a month-long guest designer gig!

Friends with Flair and Sympathy

2011-10-28T14:43:00.001-04:00

I needed a sympathy card to send to a friend, and this is what resulted. It was my first chance to ink up this Unity/Webster's Pages image. The beautiful patterned paper was part of the amazing goody package my friend Meg sent me, and I used a strip of the reverse side instead of ribbon. A little different from my usual standard sympathy card approach, and I quite like how it turned out. It's going in Simon Says Stamp's current Anything Goes challenge.
Be sure to stop by the Unity blog for lots of other Friends with Flair goodness!

Supplies: white cardstock, Crate Paper Portrait Collection patterned paper, Unity/Webster's Pages Love stamp, Bevy of Butterflies sentiment, Brilliance coffee bean ink, clear embossing powder

Two CAS CASEs for Hallowe'en*

2011-10-26T09:26:00.001-04:00

These are the last of my Hallowe'en creations for this year. I'm almost sure. ;) And although I thought I was still on a run of ideas, I suddenly hit a creative Hallowe'en wall. It took me a few days, but then it hit me... I have the September/October issue of PaperCrafts magazine (thanks, Meg!) and could look to it for inspiration! My first card is inspired by the online bonus project on p. 41.

When I first looked at the thumbnail picture, I thought, ooh, a yellow vellum moon, what an awesome idea! Then I discovered it wasn't vellum, it was cardstock. But I went with a vellum moon anyway; and I like how the patterned paper behind it gives it a bit of moon-like shadowing. A bat, a sentiment, and a black base... and call it done.
If you've seen this magazine, you'll recognize the source of my inspiration for the second card on p. 36.

This is a much closer CASE: black cardstock wrapped with twine, an image and a sentiment. I rounded the corners because I could; and because it echoes the round shape of the little (so not scary) owl.
That's a lot of seasonal cards for someone who's not even that big a Hallowe'en fan! :D
*Just in case you're not part of the ~~cult~~ hobby... CAS = clean and simple, my kind of cardmaking style; CASE = copy and share everything, or in other words, take a card idea from someone else, tweak it, and make it your own. ;)

Supplies: (bat card) black cardstock, yellow vellum, Karen Foster patterned paper, Imaginisce Happy Hallowe'en stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Martha Stewart bat punch; (owl card) black & white cardstock, Unity Mix-Up of Cuteness stamp, Imaginisce Happy Hallowe'en stamp, Brilliance graphite black and moonlight white inks, clear & white embossing powders, Prismacolor pencils, Twinery mandarin twine, Marvy corner-rounder punch, dimensionals

Friends with Flair Friday... a Hallowe'en Break

2011-10-21T15:17:00.001-04:00

I have managed to pause in my current affection for making Hallowe'en cards long enough to make a completely all-purpose one:

I really like this tail-wagger puppy; he's probably the favourite dog stamp I own. (That being said, I think I only have four or five dog stamps, as opposed to a dozen or more cat stamps. It's not my fault, sometimes people GIVE me cat stamps! :P) He's also easy to colour, easy to cut out, easy to use in a variety of ways.
Enjoy checking out the Friends with Flair creations, and have a great weekend!

Supplies: white and Stampin' Up textured crushed curry cardstock, Unity Tail-wagger and Bevy of Butterflies stamps, Brilliance coffee bean ink, clear embossing powder, Sharpies, corner-rounding punch, dimensionals

Yet More Hallowe'en

2011-10-18T21:58:00.001-04:00

Yes, I'm still on the Hallowe'en kick, and here's my latest card:

I decided to use the Marah Johnson set, "Moxie", that I won from the All Things Unity challenge. It's the most gothic stamp set I own by far! I also may not decide to stamp and cut out one of these frames any time in the near future. :P I purposely overheated my embossing powder (honest!) to make it a little bumpy to add to the goth factor. (I'm not sure it really does, but it seemed like a cool idea.) I came across the CPS card sketch for this week, and decided it was a perfect layout to use. I didn't have the appropriate bat stamp (I have a "cute" sort of one) so used my Martha Stewart bat punch and a post-it note as a mask to sponge the bats on the card base. The hardest part of the card (next to cutting out that ornate frame, at least) was making sure the inset inside was centred so the "Boo" showed perfectly through the vellum window.
Besides the current CPS #240 challenge, I am also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Hallowe'en/Goth challenge, the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to make Hallowe'en cards without orange, and the Wee Memories challenge #72, Holiday Madness. And yes, I've started work on yet another Hallowe'en card!

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up rich razzleberry cardstock, vellum, Unity Marah Johnson Moxie stamp, Brilliance graphite black & Memories black inks, clear embossing powder, Martha Stewart bat punch

Scraps, yes. Orange, no.

2011-10-17T20:52:00.000-04:00

I usually make a grand total of two Hallowe'en cards. I'm on a little bit of a roll this year!

This was inspired by three challenges. This week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to make a Hallowe'en card without any orange. No problem, I'm not that big an orange fan anyway. ;) Simon Says Stamp is also having a Hallowe'en challenge. Then along came the challenge at Do You Stack Up? (DYSU#41) to use your scraps. Well! See that spooky tree? THAT is some scrap rubber left over from a Unity stamp set I bought a few weeks ago! When I removed the stamps, I thought right away that this particular leftover rubber piece would make an awesome Hallowe'en tree. Initially I tried to make my own background using some distress inks and an acrylic block, but it wasn't what I'd hoped. Then I took a look at this patterned paper and realized it would make a fine stormy Hallowe'en sky. (Not precisely a scrap, but I had cut into it before.) It's not really showing up in the photo, but I even sponged the edges of the crazy cat moon. (Me! Sponging edges! Oh, and stamped on a scrap of white cardstock, of course.) The sentiment is also a scrap... from a Twinery Hallowe'en freebie.

I even have other Hallowe'en card ideas percolating in my head. No idea what's going on here... :P

Supplies: black & white cardstock, Karen Foster purple swish patterned paper, Amuse smiley cat stamp, scrap rubber, milled lavender distress, Memories black & Brilliance graphite black inks, clear embossing powder, Twinery Hallowe'en printable gift tag, dimensionals

Keep Calm and...

2011-10-16T19:58:00.000-04:00

It's everywhere, isn't it? The British World War Two slogan, "Keep Calm and Carry On", has enjoyed a renaissance in the past few years, first in its original form and then in infinite variations. But when I saw THIS stamp, I knew it was the riff on the classic for me:

I first learned of Market Street Stamps when my blogging friend Meg was named to the company's design team. Not only is Meg uber-talented, she's also very generous, and sent me this stamp recently after I admired it. (And included a bunch of other goodies, as well!) When it came time to use it, I was very impressed at how cleanly and evenly it stamped, especially for such a solid image. I wanted it to be the one focal point of the card, so I kept everything else simple. I did take a close-up photo to show off the Stickle salt rim on the glass and the quilting I scored on the background panel:

You can also see the clear glitter embossing powder I used. I've had it forever, and love its perfect mix of very fine glitter and clear embossing goodness.
This card is destined for a friend who will be celebrating a birthday that ends in zero. With that in mind, the inside reads, "After all, it's only another birthday." I think she'll see the humour in it.
I'm adding this card to Market Street Stamps current first anniversary challenge to link up any MSS creation. I'm also going to add this to the latest Less Is More challenge: Cocktail. (Best. Challenge. Idea. Ever.) In the meantime, keep calm and... whatever! :P
P.S. Not that any further proof of her genius is needed, but check out this awesome card Meg tucked in with the stamping goodies she sent me!

P.P.S. Hey! This is my 100th post! Who would have thunk???

Supplies: white, black & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Market Street Stamps Sip On stamp, Colorbox cranberry ink, clear glitter embossing powder, Icicle Stickles, Martha Stewart scoring board, dimensionals

A Glimpse into the Creative Process

2011-10-15T20:06:00.002-04:00

1. Stare at the Paper Smooches current inspiration photo for a few days.

2. Stamp a whole school of fish from Birthday Buddies and colour using various shades from the inspiration picture.

3. Wonder how to satisfy apparent current need for some shine, notice pins stuck in pincushions, and go, Aha! Use Versamarker to colour in party hats so they can be embossed in silver.
4. Note, briefly, that silver embossing powder is already starting to lose some of its shine, even though it's not that old.

5. Cut out fish and play around with various layouts for a card.

6. Not be happy with any of the combinations.

7. Look off to pile of various cardstock, papers, etc. and notice red mini card base left over from recent card-making.

8. Think, Hmmmmmm...

9. Pick one fish to pop onto card base, then stamp and emboss sentiment.

10. Realize that card has moved a long way off from the original inspiration, but then decide to consider "inspiration" picture as just that... a starting point that can take one in many directions.
11. Post to the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge blog, and hope that better inspiration strikes before challenge deadline is reached.

Hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into the creative process. ☺

Supplies: white & red cardstock, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies stamps, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear & silver embossing powder, Sharpies, pop dot tape

October 14th Friends with Flair

2011-10-14T10:42:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! It may be autumn (and grey, and rainy...) outside, but I'm thinking sunshine and happy thoughts with today's card:

I used the crossword bird image again from the October 2010 Kit of the Month. Can't be too many other crossword birds out there! I stamped it twice, masking a bit of the circle out the first time so I could cut out the bird and branch with a little bit of white border. I thought colouring the circle this way made it look a bit like a sun against the blue of the embossed panel. The sentiment is from another Unity set, Bevy of Butterflies. I'm just a little addicted at the moment to inking up my embossing folders to create a bit of a faux-letterpress look. I'm entering this in the faux-letterpress challenge at Yvonne Yam's blog, Do More with Less. I've also added it to today's Friends with Flair over at the Unity blog.
Maybe if we all think sunshine, we'll get some this weekend! Have a good one. ☺

Supplies: white & blue cardstock, Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month "Take Time to Laugh" & Bevy of Butterflies, Brilliance graphite black & tumbled glass distress inks, clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, Crafts-Too embossing folder, dimensionals

When in Vancouver...

2011-10-10T19:47:00.001-04:00

Once or twice a year, my husb and I spend a week or so in British Columbia. Doesn't mean I have to go an entire week without playing with rubber stamps! :P There's a rubber stamp store on Granville Island, I'm Impressed, that offers a Coffee and a Card class every week. For a $2 donation to charity, participants enjoy a cup of Starbucks and the chance to make a card. I've been three times now.

That's Eleonor facing the camera. She comes up with the week's card design and leads the class.

That's me, gluing (too much of) the ribbon for the day's card.

Putting the card together...

...and the finished product.
Whenever I bring one of these cards home, I always like to try it again, with my own personal slant. So here's my version:

I needed a thank you card for our cat-sitter, so I used colours that are a little more me, and different images. Music and flowers are related, right?
Happy Thanksgiving or Columbus Day, and thank you to the many participants in the past weekend's blog hop in support of Julie Ranae!

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red cardstock, Local King Rubber Stamp music background stamp, Hero Arts thank you stamp, Riding Hood Red & Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Cuttlebug tiny flowers embossing folder, Stampin' Up scallop border punch, Doodlebug Designs eyelet, dollar store ribbon

Blog Hop for Operation Julie's Smile!

2011-10-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

First off, the story behind this ginormous weekend blog hop:

The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae. You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine to die cuts, rubber stamps and more. What many people don’t know about Julie is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her life due to medication she had to take as a child. It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out. But then it happened… she chipped her front teeth one weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them and it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all removed soon; for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would "work out payments" with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appointment for the first step, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the "payments" applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. So this is how she has found herself in this situation: needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight!

Because Julie is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done.

It is the goal these generous friends and sponsors to help make this situation more doable for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click. Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.

On to the HOP! You should have arrived here by way of Tracy Schultz's blog. You can always check in at Sweet Stamp Shop's blog to get the full list of participants.

This is a mini-card (3"x3") made with a product new to me, Elizabeth Craft Designs Peel-Off Stickers. I stuck this intricate lady-bug on watercolour paper and coloured her in, then cut her out and popped her on a circle of purple cardstock. I heat-embossed the sentiment -- which I thought rather appropriate, given that this hop is for YOU, Julie -- so it would match the shine of the sticker. I also added some black diamond Stickles to the ladybug's antennae.

Thank you for visiting, and for taking part in this amazing hop! Your next stop is Ashley Scrappin' Pink Piglet! Remember your blog comments give you a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs! If you can make a donation (please see my sidebar) you will also be eligible for prizes. You have until October 9th at 11:59 pm to complete the hop. Have a great weekend, and Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

Supplies: white & purple cardstock, Studio G stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Elizabeth Craft Designs Peel-Off sticker, watercolour pencils, black diamond Stickles, pop-dot tape

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge

2011-10-05T20:49:00.001-04:00

Here is the current inspiration picture for the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge. Cute! Obviously a baby theme, which I ignored. I'm just like that. I took inspiration instead from the colours (although mine are muted versions), the tag, the twine clothesline, the topstitching and the overall feminine feel. Here's what resulted:

Remember I'm still a newbie Cuttlebug owner, so this faux-letterpress technique is new and cool to me! I'm not sure you're really supposed to end up with that stippled look, but I like how it looks regardless. Besides, distress inks have interesting properties, so maybe you do get a stippled look. I used one of Kim's free digital images, and carefully watercoloured the flowers. (I find my printer ink can sometimes be smeary when watercolouring, but I was able to keep it clean this time.) I added a few leaves behind the flowers to give some contrast against the embossed layer. I love it when products from different companies coordinate: here the tag from Generations, the Divine twine, and the bundled sage distress ink.
Be sure to pop in on Friday -- Operation Julie's Smile blog hop begins, and it's a BIG one!!!

Supplies: cream & black cardstock, Paper Smooches digital stamp, Unity Gratitude=Joy stamp, Victorian velvet & bundled sage distress inks, CuttleBug Happy Birthday embossing folder, Generations tag sticker, Mrs. Grossman's happy birthday sticker, green Divine twine

Boo to you!

2011-10-04T22:37:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my latest installment of Wow, you really can make a card without spending the big bucks! :D

I love these monsters! And I found them all in the cheap bins at Michaels! (Aside: don't even think about getting me started on the fact that they're dollar stamps in the US, and we pay 50% more.) The patterned paper is from a freebie digi pack! The Boo medallion is a Love the Day freebie! A bit of colouring, a scallop punch, some ribbon... poof, a cute and inexpensive Hallowe'en card! (Not to mention more exclamation marks than should ever be used in one paragraph.)
I made this for a ~~boat-load~~ haunted house-full of challenges. I pulled my colours and some of the themes from The latest Bows and Berries inspiration photo challenge. The ribbon loop qualifies this for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge (CFC22). I hope it's not considered double-dipping to also add this to the Ribbon Carousel challenge... anything goes. Speaking of... one last entry for the Simon Says Stamp challenge, although they've far surpassed their 1000 entries goal. (Next , they should team up with Pixar... "To Infinity... and Beyond!")

Supplies: white & black cardstock, Sherry K Designs patterned paper, Love the Day "boo" circle, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, chipboard, Stampin' Up scallop border punch, Offray ribbon, Fiskars glue dots

World Card Making Day!

2011-10-01T21:57:00.002-04:00

Really, there is such a thing! And what a great excuse to think, oh, I can't do (insert tedious chore here), I should make a card! :P I had time for two; one was needed, and one I wanted to make.

We returned from a week away to read in our local paper that a friend had died while we were gone. I have known her since I was about eight years old, and she was a colleague of my husb's for several years. We were fortunate to attend her 80th birthday celebration earlier this year. Since we had already missed the visitation and funeral, I wanted a card for the family I could make quickly and easily. I went for a combination of two cards (see here and here). I wanted to incorporate a text component as our friend had been a newspaper columnist for our local paper for a number of years. (Aside: It's Dickens again! I went with A Tale of Two Cities for this card. Thanks, Project Gutenberg! The sentiment is also computer-generated.)
From that card, I went on to one that's been percolating in my head for a bit:

Is this not the least scary Hallowe'en card you've ever seen? How can you be afraid of Hello Vampire-Kitty? :[ (Fangs, doncha know...) And this may be the most decorated card-interior I've ever done:

I stamped this cute little kitty when I visited my stamping buddy, Emily, this summer. It was just waiting for the perfect chance to be used! I popped her on my first-ever paper rosette, wrapped with some mandarin twine for extra Hallowe'en orange. The cobwebs and sentiment are embossed in holographic embossing powder. I think it's really great that purple has become an official Hallowe'en colour alongside orange and black! :P
My Hello Vampire card is being added to this week's Simon Says Stamp challenge, anything goes. Because, really, a vampire kitty? If that's not anything goes, I'm not sure what is. ;)

Supplies: (sympathy card) white & Stampin' Up almost amethyst cardstock, watercolour paper, vellum, Stampin' Up Fifth Avenue Floral stamp, Brilliance moonlight white ink, white embossing powder, Stargazer Twinkling H2Os, dimensionals; (Hallowe'en card) black & white cardstock, Karen Foster patterned paper, Shery K Designs digital patterned paper, PSA Hello Kitty Trick or Treat stamp, Craft Smart cobweb stamp, Imaginisce Happy Hallowe'en stamp, Memories black ink, Dusty Concord distress ink, Colorbox orange ink, holographic embossing powder, Sharpies, Twinery mandarin twine, Fiskars glue dots

End of September Friends with Flair!

2011-09-30T13:40:00.000-04:00

How can it possibly be the last day of September? Personally, I have no idea. But it is, and it's also Friday, so it's time for Unity Friends with Flair.

As soon as I saw this Itty Bitty stamp, I knew I, um, needed it. There are so many things you could do with this image, but for this card, I kept it simple. Inked and embossed the image in red, cut it out, and popped it up on red and then black. This card is definitely clean and simple (CAS) so I'm throwing it into the latest challenge at Crafty Creations, which is exactly that: clean and simple creations. And how can I resist entering the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge?
Any plans for World Card Making Day tomorrow? I'm hoping!

Supplies: white, black & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Unity silhouette song bird stamp, Colorbox cranberry ink, Ranger rich red embossing powder, pop dot tape

Sympathy Cards

2011-09-23T10:00:00.004-04:00

I am fortunate in that I haven't had to make a lot of sympathy cards, but already, I have discovered I am in a bit of a rut. All of my cards so far (I think six?) are blue and have flowers. Obviously, I have some subconscious fixation of what a sympathy card should look like. Anyway, this one uses the flower image from the Unity October Kit of the Month combined with a sentiment from Bevy of Butterflies. I made this card for a friend who needs to send a few sympathy cards, so I hope she agrees with my idea of what they should look like! I'm linking this to this week's Unity Friends with Flair. Have a great weekend!

Supplies: white & blue cardstock, Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month Take Time to Laugh & Unity Bevy of Butterflies stamps, Versacolor Atlantic blue ink, dimensionals

Mini cards!

2011-09-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Mini cards are so much fun! A small canvas, but lots of scope for creativity. I like to make 3"x3" cards as gift enclosure cards, so I made a Christmas one for the new CAS-ual Fridays challenge (CFC20):

I actually steeled myself to cut into an extra copy of a Christmas choir book I have, even though it's painful to my book-loving heart. I distressed the edges a bit before stamping some gold snowflakes around. The central image is embossed in gold. And the stamp comes pre-distressed, I didn't actually mess up the embossing. :D I'll also throw this into the growing collection for the Less is More challenge to gather 1000 entries this week!

Supplies: green cardstock, DCWV Christmas Collection patterned paper, Christmas carol book, Studio G Joy & Hero Arts Decorate You stamps, Versamark, Antique Linen distress & Colorbox gold inks, clear embossing powder

Ahh, the weekend...

2011-09-18T17:04:00.000-04:00

I decided I would try to participate in a bunch of card-making challenges this weekend. Right. It's amazing how real life can get in the way of things you hope to accomplish! And for me, real life this weekend resembles a tomato. We planted lots of tomato plants this spring, because usually the neighbourhood critters get more than we do. (Last summer, critters -- probably raccoons -- wiped out pretty much our entire crop in two nights, just as the first tomatoes were barely beginning to blush.) This year, our various preventative measures seem to have worked, resulting in many MANY tomatoes. So that's where a lot of my weekend has gone. Meanwhile, here's what I've made out of paper, not produce:

This uses the sketch from Lily Pad Cards new challenge. I'm hoping it's only my first entry, but we'll see. This one interprets the sketch fairly literally, and I'd like to play with it some more. I went looking through my Christmas papers, thinking I'd cut strips of three coordinating ones for the left panel, but when I came to this striped paper, I knew it was the look I wanted. I'm also entering this in the Less is More "Anything CAS (Clean and Simple) Goes" challenge. All my cards are CAS, so if it gets made this week, that's where it goes! The blog is hoping to reach 1000 entries this week. I'll do my part if I can. :P

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, manila file folder, chipboard, DCWV Christmas collection patterned paper, Cavallini Papers & Co. Vintage Christmas stamps, Colorbox cranberry ink, clear embossing powder, green soutache, dimensionals

September 16th Friends with Flair

2011-09-16T14:24:00.000-04:00

I feel a bit guilty adding this card to a hop called Friends with FLAIR. It's not necessarily full of said flair. But obviously I'm not bothered enough not to share it...

I needed a card as a pick-me-up for a friend, and didn't want anything too bright or busy, so I changed my normally red gingham iPaper to greyscale before printing it out. I successfully used my stamp positioner to get the bottom text perfectly aligned on the gingham... the first time, even!
This is the second card I've made with the the strawberry stamp from Unity's Vintage Fruit bundle. (Yes, they're remarkably similar; good they were for two different people.) I've also used the apple stamp, but have yet to have success with the pear. I'll have to keep working on that one, I guess. :P Have a great weekend!

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Amber Ink plaid picnic gingham-tiny iPaper, Unity strawberry greetings stamp, Colorbox cranberry ink, clear embossing powder

Hanging on to Summer

2011-09-13T20:45:00.000-04:00

Many people embrace autumn -- the crisp mornings, the changing colours, cozy sweaters. I don't. I hold on to summer for as long as possible. Like with this card:

This is for my step-son's birthday, so it was a collaborative effort. My husb suggested a card with a deck chair. Amazingly, a stamp set with a deck chair was clearing at Michaels! I used some great paper from Echo Park for the sky, but then realized I had nothing to match it for the water. Luckily, Caribbean twine works perfectly... and the name's appropriate, too! I used more Echo Park paper to piece the beach umbrella. My husb also contributed what the sentiment should say and the idea of the beer mug. We thought of a champagne bottle in the sand beside the chair, but I didn't have anything to the right scale.
So as the days get cooler, I'll just imagine myself in this little scene... ☺

Supplies: white, red & oatmeal cardstock, Echo Park Sweet Summertime & Little Boy patterned paper, Stampendous Fun in the Sun & Amber Ink Hope, Popcorn & Wine stamps, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, Twinery Caribbean twine, dimensionals

That IS Why It's Called a Challenge

2011-09-09T20:55:00.001-04:00

To help celebrate her move to a new house, my friend Emily is hosting The Moving Challenge.

Participants are to use this picture of her new house as inspiration for a paper project. So I looked, and I thought, and I looked some more. The house itself wasn't really doing it for me, as I have a sum total of one roof stamp, and that's as close as I get to anything house-related. So then I looked at the colours of the picture. Very earth toned -- also not really me, but that's what I decided to work with.

I focussed on the cream colour of the siding, the green of the trees and plants and the browns of the mulch in the front bed. I decided to ignore the brick tone, as I was already way out of my comfort zone with these colours. Since Emily is moving from the concrete jungle of the downtown to a street with yards and trees, I picked the trees image from the August 2010 Unity Kit of the Month called All You Need... That decision was great, but what to do with them? I turned to the new Unity sketch challenge for a little added inspiration. The "leaves" are paper-pieced with some Stampin' Up patterned paper, which I also used for the background panels. The two-part sentiment comes from the same kit, and seemed appropriate for such a major life-change as moving to a new house. The "o" of "love" is another of the fabulous epoxy faux brads that another friend, Angela, not only gave me, but actually MADE! The other half of the sentiment is adhered to a piece of chipboard (okay, fine, a piece of a Kleenex box) for a little extra dimension.
Since it's Friday, I'm also linking this card to Unity's Friends with Flair blog hop.
So now I'm thinking, hmm, cream and green are nice for Christmas cards... ☺

Supplies: cream & Stampin' Up kraft cardstock, Stampin' Up patterned paper, chipboard, Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month "All You Need..." stamps, Brilliance coffee bean and Stampin' Up old olive craft inks, clear embossing powder, epoxy faux brad, dimensionals

Another Floral Birthday

2011-09-05T21:01:00.000-04:00

Every once in awhile, Stampin' Up has a stamp set I just can't resist, and this set, Elements of Style, is one of them. It is a no-brainer if you want to make any kind of elegant card. This one was for my mother-in-law's birthday recently. By ~~mistake~~ happy accident, I grabbed my holographic embossing powder instead of regular clear when I went to emboss the flowers. It added the coolest iridescent sheen to the image, which is watercoloured with distress inks. Then I inked the hummingbird in the same inks, cut him out, and popped him up. Everyone at the family birthday gathering was suitably impressed. :D

Supplies: white & olive cardstock, Stampin' Up Elements of Style stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Worn Lipstick & Peeled Paint distress inks, holographic embossing powder, dimensionals

Stuck on CAS-ual Fridays

2011-08-31T20:27:00.000-04:00

I'm back, and for a second week in a row, I'm participating in the CAS-ual Fridays challenge. This week's challenge (CFC17) is to use a sticker. Ages ago, I bought a sheet of Mrs. Grossman's stickers. I thought they were great, as they had all different styles of "Happy Birthday" sentiments. I just never remember to use them. So I broke them out for this card:

The flowers are coloured with a combination of Sharpies and Prismacolor pencils. This is something I will do again -- a quick all over-colour with a Sharpie, then highlight and shade with the pencils. The centres are black diamond Stickles. The top yellow flower is adhered directly to the background, the second is popped up, and then the orange flower is popped up on a double layer of dimensionals. The orange layer is embossed with the folder that comes with the Cuttlebug, which may be called Tiny Flowers. Or not. Both the orange and dark brown layers are -- wait for it -- paint chips! I love paint chips! But again, I rarely remember to use them. It worked out perfectly for this card, since I don't buy a lot of orange cardstock. The sentiment is on yellow vellum, sandwiched between an epoxy sticker (another gift from Angela!) and a glue dot for a little extra "lift". Much as I love summer, this card does seem to say autumn, doesn't it? :P

Supplies: cream cardstock, orange & brown paint chips, yellow vellum, Stampin' Up Fifth Avenue Floral stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, Mrs. Grossman happy birthday sticker, epoxy sticker, dimensionals, Fiskars glue dot.

Birthday cards

2011-08-30T20:47:00.000-04:00

I usually make two cards for my granddaughter's birthday, not least because she's the second-biggest fan of my creations (after my husb, of course). The first one is her official birthday card:

The background is made with a stencil, sponged with distress inks. The butterflies are coloured with a combination of Sharpies and Laurentien markers. What doesn't show up in the photo are the black diamond Stickles on their bodies. I had originally intended to put a sentiment on the front, but decided to let the butterflies speak for themselves. It does say "happy birthday" on the inside.
The second card includes a certificate for a back-to-school shopping trip, so I wanted it to be stylin'.

Stylin', but oh so easy! Both the patterned paper and the cat sticker were gifts from my generous and talented friend Angela. My big contribution, other than noticing that the paper and cat were a perfect match, is the pink rhinestone collar. :P I'm linking this second card up with the current Crafty Creations challenge to show your inner animal. I am, after all, a stylin' cat... at least in my own mind.

Supplies: (butterfly card) white & pink cardstock, Heather's Stamping Haven butterfly stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, spun sugar & worn lipstick distress inks, Crafter's Workshop Mini Butterfly Ballet stencil, Sharpies, Laurentien markers, black diamond Stickles; (cat card) white cardstock, Anna Griffin Fifi and Fido patterned paper & sticker, Queen & Co. Pretty in Pink rhinestones

Christmas Begins for CAS-ual Fridays

2011-08-24T11:57:00.001-04:00

It's August, we've been having a perfect summer... and I've started to make Christmas cards. Sad but true. :P I'd rather make them a few at a time starting now than be in a rush when all the other holiday preparations also go into overdrive.

There, at least I'm not subjecting you to snowflakes and Santa. :D I really like the pearl metallic embossing powders I found in a great stamp store in London, Ontario -- they are much nicer than I can capture in a photograph. The tree stamp is from the same store. Since this card is primarily about the heat embossing, I'm entering it in CAS-ual Fridays current embossing challenge (CFC 16), as well as Christmas Inspirations challenge (#31) for Clean and Simple cards. After all, clean and simple (and occasionally PAB -- plain and boring) is what I do. ☺

Supplies: white & green cardstock, Artful Stamper tree stamp, Versamark ink, Artful Stamper gold pearl, silver & copper pearl embossing powder

Party Dog

2011-08-22T09:36:00.001-04:00

You may remember this little puppy tag from the lead-up to Amber Ink's first birthday party last month. It turned out this guy had greater aspirations than being a tag... he wanted to be part of a full-fledged card, so here he is:

A while back, I gave my husb a tshirt with a cartoon dog and the caption "party dog". I borrowed that for this card, printing it on computer and layering it on some of the same Spin Pin iPaper that the puppy's party hat and tag are from. The dog is popped up on a Cuttlebug-embossed layer of cardstock and then some more patterned paper.
My Cuttlebug layer qualifies this card for the current CAS-ual Friday's challenge to use embossing. And it proves I don't HAVE to heat emboss, though I may be going through a bit of withdrawal. ;) And the puppy qualifies this for the latest All Things Unity challenge (ATU#38), Anything Goes.

Supplies: white cardstock, Amber Ink Spin Pin: tiny iPaper, Unity Tailwagger stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, green Divine twine, Cuttlebug and Happy Birthday embossing folder, dimensionals

Vintage Fruit...

2011-08-19T15:32:00.001-04:00

... is not very appealing if you happen to find it at the back of your fridge, but can be very attractive in stamps. :D Unity's Friends with Flair and the All Things Unity vintage challenge were all the nudge I needed to try another of my Vintage Fruit Bundle stamps.

Unlike my strawberry card, which translated rather nicely from imagination to paper, this one is very different from my initial idea. I started by creating an acrylic block background on my white card using two different distress inks. Then I stamped the image. Unfortunately, despite using my stamp positioner... it was just a BIT crooked. And when there are a lot of horizontal lines in the image, crooked is obvious, especially if it's not crooked enough to look deliberate. ;) So the background got cut down to a layer instead of being directly on the card itself. Then I had the idea that I'd use the darker of the two background inks with an even darker one to sponge a bit of cardstock and re-stamp the apple, so I'd have this cool gradation of colour. No, looked bad. So I sponged the same two colours and then stamped and embossed the apple with the darker of the two. Wait, what's that you say? CAS-ual Fridays is having an embossing challenge this week? It's like they created this challenge just for me! I never have moved past my love for heat embossing. Who knows, maybe it will inspire me to start using that new Cuttlebug and do some dry embossing, too. :P
Since you're here... what do you think of my little dollar store easel for displaying my cards? Thanks for stopping in and have a great weekend!

Supplies: Colorbök pastel card, white & black cardstock, Unity Weekly Schedule Vintage Apple image & Take Time to Laugh (Oct. 2010 Kit of the Month) sentiment, Tim Holtz spun sugar and worn lipstick distress inks, clear embossing powder, Martha Stewart border punch

Going Old School with All Things Unity and Friends with Flair

2011-08-12T16:22:00.001-04:00

The current challenge at All Things Unity (ATU #37) is to create something vintage. Not exactly my go-to style. However, I do have the Unity Vintage Fruit Bundle, so anything made with those stamps has to count, right?

Here are the things I'm happy about on this card...
1) The address is Canadian -- Regina, to be specific! As it turns out, the stamp designer, Lesley Langdon, is Canadian. I didn't expect that happy Canuck connection with a Unity stamp.
2) I think the gingham paper works perfectly with the image and adds to the vintage feeling.
3) This gingham paper also happens to be a fine match for Riding Hood red cardstock from Stampin' Up, on which I stamped and embossed the strawberry, then popped it up on the main image.
4) All Things Unity is calling the Challenge "Going Old School"... and this image is addressed to someone at a school! Gotta love serendipity like that. :D

I'm also linking this post to this week's Unity Friends with Flair. It's been awhile! It's nice to get back into entering a challenge or two, but this card also has a specific purpose... it's a get well note for a friend who broke her leg recently. :(

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up Riding Hood red cardstock, AmberInk Plaid Picnic Gingham-tiny iPaper, Unity Strawberry Greetings stamp, Versafine onyx black, Versamark & Stampin' Up Riding Hood red inks; clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up ticket corner punch, dimensionals

My First Card Order!

2011-08-08T21:14:00.002-04:00

Last month, I received my first card commission! (Well, you know, other than my husband occasionally mentioning a card that I could make for someone, usually right away. :P) I had sent this thank you card to a family friend back in June, and received an email asking if she could order some! When I wrote her back to ask how many... she said twenty-four. GULP. Fortunately, not all twenty-four had to be exactly the same. Eight looked like this:

And eight looked like this:

Yes, that's SIXTEEN roses coloured with Prismacolor pencils and cut out. Here's what they looked like when they were all done:

And then, three more roses, but these were easily coloured with Twinkling H2Os:

I think I'll be taking a break from this stamp for a little while. ☺
To finish off the two dozen cards, I made three of these:

And finally, two of these:

These leaves were inked with three colours of Colorbox ink and stamped -- not hand-coloured! ;)
It was very exciting to be asked to make cards by someone... but I was also very glad when the last one was done. ☺

Supplies: (rose thank you card) see this post; (rose card) as previous, with Stampin' Up Whisper White ribbon instead of vellum; (mauve rose card) see this post; (pussywillow card) see this post; (leaf card) Stampin' Up kraft, early expresso & very vanilla cardstock, Artistamps leaf stamp, Colorbox inks, Offray orange ribbon, Marvy corner-rounder punch, dimensionals

Other Birthdays

2011-08-03T14:20:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I joined in the celebration of Amber Ink's first birthday. (I even won some of their birthday giveaways!) There are other birthdays to celebrate this summer, though... including mine! I received some amazing cards:

Emily's post with all the details about this card can be found here. She often says she can't heat emboss, yet look at the beautifully-embossed red and purple panels! With this card, Em included some Stampin' Up rich razzleberry cardstock and ribbon... I apparently like purple tones much more than she does. :P

Angela's card arrived reasonably soon after the Canada Post lockout ended. I had already had a sneak peek when she wrote about it on her blog, but it's even better in person! In with the card, Ang sent several die cuts, including the clouds she cut out of this card, several from the Papertrey Ink (PTI) set she used to make her card, plus die cuts I can use with my own PTI set, Fly Away!

Now this card I thought had been lost forever in the postal lockout. Finally Meg posted it on her blog and the Unity blog... and the next day, there it was in the mailbox! It was worth the wait... Meg works wonders with her Silhouette. Meg also generously included several die cuts in with her card. (Many in red!) And speaking of Meg -- have you seen her finalist party trio project for Paper Crafts Magazine's Gallery Idol contest? Go, admire -- and vote before 2 pm Eastern tomorrow!
This was not a birthday card, but it came with a blog candy win, so that's practically like a birthday present!

Virginia included this card with some awesome Hero Arts stamps I won on her blog; she also added an assortment of fun SRM stickers! I always admire speckle-free white embossing, and this card has it. My grandson was utterly fascinated with the main image; first with how it was stamped (we had used "magic powder" together before, but not in white), and then I had to name all the buildings for him!
Are you still reading? If you are, thank you -- I'm not done yet! My husb also has a summer birthday. Here is the card I made him:

My card is very much inspired by this one; of course, I didn't bother to actually READ how Vicky made hers and went ahead and did it my own way, using an acrylic block background on watercolour paper and heat embossing some of my music stamps (or parts of them) on top. (No, the vellum did not originally bow out like that; I'm blaming it on the humidity.)

His grandkids made him a card, too, with just a little help from me:

They decided the stamps and colours on their own, and my granddaughter (who's nine) cut out the guitar herself. My contributions were cutting the background to size and assisting with the magic powder for the guitar. ☺
Thanks for surviving this marathon post!

Supplies: (heart & soul) white & navy cardstock, watercolour paper, vellum, Hero Arts musical clef stamp, Stampendous double note stamp, Local King Rubber Stamp Noteworthy, Versafine onyx black ink, Tumbled Glass, Broken China & Stormy Sky distress inks, clear embossing powder; (guitar) white & blue cardstock, Local King Rubber Stamp Noteworthy, Studio G guitar stamp, Faded Jeans distress ink, clear embossing powder, dimensionals

Emily has a House!

2011-07-29T20:38:00.000-04:00

My friend Emily, after months of searching, has found a house! I wanted to mark the occasion with a card (we are both card-makers, after all), so I made this quick and goofy card:

I don't consider this card particularly brilliant in terms of design or execution. So why am I even sharing it? Well... see that door? I MADE MY OWN EMBOSSING FOLDER! That's worth all caps in my book. :D

(Note to self: do something about cat scratches on sideboard before taking photographs...)
I wanted the door to have a little style, rather than just being a cardstock rectangle. I'd recently read this post about making your own embossing folders out of cereal box cardboard, so decided to give it a try in my new Cuttlebug. (Yes, I've finally joined the embossing/die cut machine brigade!) A little trial-and-error, and I had exactly what I wanted!
I will confess that I stamped that roof image more than once before I realized... it wasn't my lack of inking skills -- it came pre-distressed! The words are from a Unity Marah Johnson set that I won on the All Things Unity blog. They seemed to express the process Emily had gone through.
P.S. Another friend, Meg, is in the TOP 5 in the Paper Crafts magazine Gallery Idol contest! Her creations have all been amazing so far, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next! The newest projects will be displayed Monday. View, admire, vote!

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up real red and kraft cardstock, Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month (Take Time to Laugh) & Moxie stamps, Versamark & vintage photo distress ink, clear embossing powder, Cuttlebug, black half pearl, dimensionals

Amber Ink Birthday Bash Winners

2011-07-22T20:42:00.000-04:00

If you participated in the Amber Ink party train blog hop in honour of the company's first birthday, then you enjoyed some fabulous creativity! And if you commented, you were eligible for some fabulous prizes! The winner from my blog is... FrancineB! Congratulations! To see if you were a winner, head over to the Amber Inklings blog.
Happy Friday!

Happy Birthday to Amber Ink!

2011-07-20T10:00:00.006-04:00

It's Amber Ink's first birthday, and you're invited to the party! To celebrate, many of the past and present Amber Ink torchbearers are participating in a giant blog hop. If you've already been hopping, you should have arrived from Emily's always inspiring blog. If you're looking for hop directions, head over to Party Central (aka Amber Inklings) for all the details. And what would a birthday party be without presents, so be sure to comment for your chance to win!
I have two cards to share today, one using a classic Amber Ink girl, and one using some brand new images!

I made this birthday card recently for a friend celebrating a rather significant birthday. At first I was stumped as to what I could do for a card, but once I thought of this Amber girl from the set Hope, Popcorn & Wine, the idea soon came together.

This card uses Amber Ink's brand new set, It's a Train Set, along with a few cupcakes and candles from Little Things: Birthday Fanfare - Bake Me a Cake. I put all the images together in Microsoft Word, printed it out and coloured them. The train's layered on my second-favourite iPaper, Spin Pin: Tiny. Quick and fun!
Your next stop on the birthday party hop is Meg! Not only a former torchbearer for Amber Ink, Meg is also currently in the top 15 in Paper Crafts magazine's Gallery Idol contest. Get ready to be dazzled!
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the birthday hop!

Supplies: (60th birthday card) white & blue cardstock, Amber Ink Hope, Popcorn and Wine stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Prismacolor pencils, dimensionals; (train card) white cardstock, Amber Ink Spin Pin: Tiny iPaper, Amber Ink It's a Trainset & Bake Me a Cake digital stamps, Laurentien markers, Prismacolor pencils, silver & gold gel pens, Twinery charcoal twine

Happy BARKday

2011-07-19T11:00:00.002-04:00

I may lean towards cats a bit more than dogs, but I do have some friends and family that are dog people first and foremost. And sometimes I even take that preference into account. ☺

I do like this happy dog from Paper Smooches! (I also used him in a slightly different way here.) Although I do think that little twine embellishment on his party hat may have lowered (the appearance of) his IQ by more than a few points. Once again, I was happy to get out my Sharpies and add some quick colour both to him and to the fun sentiment. Once in awhile, it's nice to make a quick, fun, colourful card!

Supplies: white & green cardstock, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies stamps, Memories black ink, Sharpies, Twinery peapod twine

Amber Ink's Getting Ready to Party!

2011-07-18T21:08:00.001-04:00

Amber Ink is turning one this week, and while the big party (i.e. blog hop) is on Wednesday, the preparations are already starting. Today, Amber Ink is asking everybody to show off their party hats! Here's mine:

This little puppy from Unity seemed perfect for a party hat. His hat is made from Spin Pin: Tiny iPaper, and of course he needed his dog tag to match. The pom-pom ensures the hat is for a party, and not a dunce-cap. ;)
And now I have a shaped gift tag, ready for any last minute birthday presents. After all, there's a birthday party on Wednesday! Hope you'll join in on the fun.

P.S. For the first time ever, this is my second post in a day! Check out Simon's get well card here.

Supplies: white cardstock, Amber Ink Spin Pin: Tiny iPaper, Unity Tail Wagger stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, Sharpies, green Divine twine

Poor Simon!

2011-07-18T08:00:00.002-04:00

Earlier this month, I got to meet Emily, a fellow rubber-stamper and cardmaker. We've known each other online for about a year now, and it was fun to get together in real life. While we were visiting, we made a card for another stamping friend, Angela. Her new kitten, Simon, broke his leg and had to have surgery! How could we not make him a get well card?

We used a digital image from Pink Cat Studio. I let Emily work her Copic magic to colour the cat. We (okay, she) then wrapped some Twinery twine around his leg for a cast. My big contribution was stamping the Verve sentiment before we popped the image on the base.
Please come back on Wednesday when I'm participating in a blog hop to celebrate the first birthday of Amber INK! You'll see lots of fun creations... and rumour is, there'll be prizes!

Two Quick Cards

2011-07-13T12:20:00.001-04:00

The other day, I needed two cards in a hurry to celebrate a couple of good end-of-year report cards:

Fortunately, I'd had a play date ;) at Emily's place recently, and she had let me ink up some of her stamps and bring the images home.

I think some Hello Kitty stamps deserve a home in my stamp collection! They're so cute and easy to colour! I've been spending a lot of time using my Prismacolor pencils lately (more on that in a future post), so it was nice to just bring out the markers and add some quick colour. I punched out four 1" circles as a bit of sky on which to pop up the main image and added a contrail of iridescent silver stars. Further evidence these cards were done quickly: a hand-printed sentiment instead of printing something out on the computer.

Next up, this cutie-pie puppy from Paper Smooches. (Sigh. More stamps to covet.) He, too, got a little quick colour, some Stickles bling on his party hat (otherwise, it just looked a bit too much like a dunce cap in the whole school context...), plus a sentiment from SRM stickers. I recently won some fantastic Hero Arts stamps from Virginia, and she was also generous enough to add some of these great sticker sentiments!
So thank you, Emily and Virginia! You made these two quick cards even quicker! ☺

Supplies: (Hello Kitty card) white & blue cardstock, PSA Hello Kitty On the Go stamp, Memories black ink, Sharpies, Sandylion stickers, Stampin' Up ticket corner punch, dimensionals; (dog card) white & blue cardstock, Paper smooches Birthday Buddies stamp, Memories black ink, Sharpies, Icicle Stickles, SRM sticker, dimensionals

A Chance to Win some Hero Art Stamps!

2011-07-10T21:13:00.002-04:00

I became a member of Lily Pad Cards today! Go become a member for a chance to win a collection of Hero Arts stamps. Contest closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, July 15.

Beautiful Music

2011-07-09T18:17:00.001-04:00

My husb and I celebrated our anniversary this week.

I love the woodcut look of this stamp. We have a few Gerard Brender a Brandis engravings which made this image extra appropriate. It's embossed in clear, matted on black cardstock and then popped up on the red layer. Simple and classy.

Supplies: white, black & red cardstock, Magenta musical instruments stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, dimensionals

New Baby Card

2011-06-30T18:31:00.000-04:00

Just because I have former elementary school students that are now married and having babies does not in any way suggest I am old. No way. That being said... a former student of mine that has remained in touch over the years recently added a baby girl to her family.

The last card I sent her was a Mickey card, and she wrote me back to say her young son carried the card around the house with him all day. So my first inclination was of course to use Mickey again, but I decided Minnie was maybe more appropriate for a baby girl. Besides, I love her TA-DA! posture, and decided it was appropriately congratulatory. The sentiment, at least, is in Mickey font. (What can I say? I've always been a Mickey girl.) ☺

Supplies: white & pink cardstock, Disney (EK Success) Mickey stamps, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolour pencils, Stampin' Up scallop border punch

Talented Friends

2011-06-26T16:49:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share cards I received -- before the Canada Post lockout! -- from talented friends.

I love how Angela used the pale blue Stickles to tie together the branch and the flower. Such a pretty spring card. (I guess a realistic spring card would have been all about rain, but what fun is that?) With this card, Angela shared some blog candy goodies she won (amazing patterned paper and awesome stickers), some Unity stamps and a washi tape medallion similar to this one. Thank you, Ang!

Meg recently treated herself to a Silhouette. Oh, envy. She used my favourite colour, my favourite activity, and a mutually favourite phrase to create this masterpiece. The photo didn't capture the dimension, but the red layer is pop-dotted, which means placing all those little bits (inside the A's, for example) on teeny pieces of dimensional tape, too. Finicky and fabulous! (Check out the trio of similarly themed cards Meg created here.) Thanks, Meg!

A Few Facts About my Brother...

2011-06-22T12:08:00.000-04:00

1. He likes dogs.
2. He enjoys the occasional glass of wine.
3. His name is Jim.
Now that you know these attributes, you will understand how I could not resist picking this up for him when I saw it recently:

The only slight problem... he prefers red wine to white. So I decided to make a tag for the bottle that would help explain it:

I used the four little bottles in the AmberINK set "Hope, Popcorn and Wine" as well as the two little "hics" to make the background layer. (Note to self: be VERY careful when cleaning such teeny stamps -- they're easy to lose! :P) I printed the sentiment on the computer, except for the word "wine", which I inked up and embossed from the sentiment in the set to make it stand out.
P.S. Thanks for checking in on my little blog when I've been so quiet lately! I think I'm discovering that I'm not so inclined to blog during the summer. I'm going to try to post more often, though, so stay tuned!

Supplies: manila file folder (for the tag base), white cardstock, AmberINK Hope, Popcorn and Wine stamps, Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red and Versamark inks, clear embossing powder, $ store ribbon & eyelet

A thank you

2011-06-09T20:33:00.000-04:00

Finally, after a trip to Montreal (fun) and a hard drive meltdown (so not fun) I'm back with a card:

We had a wonderful time attending convocation at McGill (I even got to meet WILLIAM SHATNER, who received an honorary degree) and needed to send a thank you to a friend who helped with all the details. I kept the same colours as I used for this card, and used a similar layout to this one inspired by a Hero Arts sketch. I already had the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral (Stampin' Up) coloured -- if you use Prismacolour pencils, check out this tutorial on the Hero Arts site, it has some excellent tips. The text panel is an excerpt from American Notes for General Circulation by none other than Charles Dickens. (Thank you again, Google Books!) I made a faux brad to add to the intersection of the text and the vellum panel, but decided I liked it better without.
And can you tell that once again, the weather defeated my photo-taking abilities? ☺ But the card needed to go in the mail...

Supplies: white & black cardstock, vellum, Fifth Avenue Floral (Stampin' Up), Thank You (Hero Arts), Versafine grapic black ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, dimensionals

A Graduation Card, All Things Unity and CAS-ual Fridays

2011-05-28T17:06:00.024-04:00

Seems like forever since I made and posted a card! A bad cold does nothing for your creativity, I've decided. Plus, it seems to be dreary and rainy so much lately, and I like natural light for crafting. However, I'm almost over the cold, and there was just barely enough bright(ish) weather today to make a graduation card that I need for next week.

I don't have any graduation-specific stamps, but owls are often used to symbolize graduating, so I inked up this little guy from Unity's Mix-Up of Cuteness set. It's the first time he's seen ink, so this card qualifies for the current All Things Unity challenge (ATU #31) to break out Unity stamps that haven't been used before. The graduation theme means this also fits the current theme challenge at CAS-ual Fridays (CFC4). I took advantage of the ten minutes of sunshine today to colour him with Prismacolor pencils. I drew the mortarboard and cut it out of a paintchip -- it provided the right amount of gloss for the look I wanted. Besides, how can I resist a Mickey's head paintchip called "Mickey's Pants"? I used maraschino baker's twine for the tassel and to tie the rice paper diploma, since McGill's colours are red and white. The recipient of this card is graduating with a degree in English and Drama, so I used a page from A Midsummer Night's Dream as the background. (Thanks, Google Books!) It's a simple card, but it makes me smile!

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Disney paintchip, rice paper, Unity Mix-Up of Cuteness, Versafine onyx black ink, Prismacolor pencils, Twinery maraschino baker's twine, black brad, dimensionals

All Things Unity Trifecta Challenge

2011-05-13T20:31:00.002-04:00

In honour of Unity Stamp Company's third anniversary, the All Things Unity blog has a trifecta challenge: make a three inch square anniversary or birthday card with three types of embellishment. Here's mine:

I used the Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month, All You Need. I stamped one of the heart images to make a faux brad for one embellishment, with silver half-pearls and red ribbon as the other two.
Happy Friday the thirteenth!

Supplies: white, red & black cardstock, Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month, "All You Need", Brilliance graphite black & VersaMagic red magic chalk inks, Glossy Accents, Recollections silver half-pearls, red ribbon

Oops...

2011-05-10T21:50:00.000-04:00

... I thought I was all done with Easter posts. I wasn't expecting these two beautiful cards in the mail!

What a totally cute bunny, and don't you love that scalloped patterned paper element? Emily blogged all about this and her coordinating cards here.

And look at this gorgeous card from Angela, with the fabulous patterned paper! I had to show off the envelope, too -- see that seal on the back? Angela made it with washi tape!
(No, I didn't really just receive them. I really did just get around to posting them.)

Mother's Day in Mauve

2011-05-07T15:02:00.001-04:00

This week's Do You Stack Up? (DYSU) challenge is to use purple. No problem! And since it's a colour my mother-in-law also likes, this is a Mother's Day card for her.

(Just to clarify: purple's not my FAVOURITE colour; that's red. But I do like purple.)
This card allowed me to try something I picked up recently that I'm now in love with: Twinkling H2Os. WOW. They really are as glimmery and shimmery as everyone says they are! I was able to find a store that sold individual pots; I didn't really want to drop funds on a multi-pack before I knew if I would like them or not. One thing I now know is that what the paint looks like in the pot is not exactly what it will look like when you use it. In the lidded pot under fluorescent store lights, this Stargazer shade looked like a light blue. When you use it, it's a lovely blue/mauve sparkly mix, perfect with this Almost Amethyst cardstock. The shimmer refuses to show up properly in the photo, as do the two score lines on the white panel. What you can see a bit of is the decorated inside of the card, something I rarely do, but which worked perfectly with this card.
If you're a scrapbooker (I'm NOT), happy national scrapbooking day; if you're a mom, happy Mother's Day tomorrow... otherwise, happy weekend! ☺

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up almost amethyst textured cardstock, Stampin' Up Fifth Avenue Floral stamp, Brilliance moonlight white and Stampin' Up almost amethyst inks, white embossing powder, Stargazer Twinkling H2Os, Martha Stewart border punch, pop dot tape