Crossword Bird II

There are some stamps I have that I really like, but struggle to figure out how to use. The crossword bird from the Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month is one of them. Here's my latest try:

What you can't see in this taken-after-dark pic (and alas, this was the best of a dark lot :P) is that the bird itself is stamped again and popped up on the rest of the image. The bird qualifies this card for the current Unity challenge, while the colours fit this week's Play Date Café challenge.

Supplies: white, red & pink cardstock, DCWV Christmas Stack patterned paper, Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month, VersaMagic red magic chalk ink, Stormy Sky distress ink, Tim Holtz symphony tissue tape, pop dot tape Pin It Now!

One Last Easter Post

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! One of my Easter traditions is making hot cross buns:

I jokingly call them hot pagan buns, as you'll notice they have no icing "x"s on top. After the first few Easters of making them, I realized that the icing either rubs off on the bags they're stored in, or melts off when they're toasted. So I now always skip that last step. Icing or no, they're one of my favourite things to make and eat, so it's good they come round just once a year. :P

And one last quick Easter card, another bunny, and another square:

Supplies: white & red cardstock, Rubber Stampede Sweet Bunny, Brilliance graphite black ink, clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, Fiskars flowers corner punch, Studio G heart punch Pin It Now!

A Card and Catalogue from Meg

Isn't this a beautiful card? My friend Meg recently became an A Muse Studio consultant and generously sent me a copy of their new catalogue, which you can see in the background of this picture. But even better? This awesome card! If the cardstock and stamps Meg used are any indication of the quality and variety that A Muse Studio has, colour me impressed! ;)

Thanks, Meg, for the catalogue to peruse and this fabulous card to admire. ☺

Pin It Now!

Why I Don't Do Shabby-Chic...

... or vintage, or distressed, or steampunk, or any of the many styles I admire outside of my usual clean and simple (CAS) way:

This is what I end up with. ☺
I have to admit, I have grown to like this artsy tag I have created -- good thing too, as it took shape over three days! This tag is really the responsibility of two very talented people. (But don't blame them.) The talented Savannah O'Gwynn posted this tag a few days ago. Isn't it beautiful? It made me realize that a tag would be a great canvas for experimentation. Somehow it seems more, I don't know, wasteful to experiment  on and perhaps trash a card? Then another talented crafter, Janna Werner, posted this great tutorial on how she makes her artistic background layers.
My background layer started with a piece of an LCBO paper bag. (Ontario readers will know of which I speak.) My first discovery: paper bags absorb acrylic paint REALLY EASILY, so the lovely vine pattern on the paper immediately disappeared. Oh well. Janna then uses this incredibly cool tool called a punchinella to add some decorative circles to her paper. Nope, don't have one. What I do have -- BUBBLE WRAP! I brayered some peeled paint distress ink on it and stamped it on. Then, just for good measure, I ran the brayer over part of the paper, too. Next I added two stamps from the Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month. I now had a background paper I liked, so I layered it on the tag layer, which is... a piece of an old manilla folder. I stamped the sentiment, from the October 2010 Kit of the Month, on another piece of the folder. Needed to fancy that up a bit, so I restamped part of it on white cardstock and made a faux brad of the "L". The bottom part of the tag has some Tim Holtz tissue tape and my first ever rolled paper flower.

The flower could probably be bigger, but if I spent any more time on this little tag, I might have to claim it as a dependent on my income tax. :D

After all is said and done, my little tag has the colours and just enough decorative embellishments to qualify it for the current Embellish Magazine challenge!

Now, to figure out what people do with the artsy tags they make... ☺

(Note: regularly scheduled programming -- i.e., my usual style of stamping -- will resume shortly.)

Supplies: manilla folder, paper bag, white cardstock, white acrylic craft paint, unknown green patterned paper, Unity August and October 2010 Kits of the Month, peeled paint distress ink, bubble wrap, Tim Holtz Symphony tissue tape, raffia

Pin It Now!

Little Easter Gifts

A little box for a girl...

A little box for a boy...

 And inside both...

Chocolate eggs, of course!

The boxes are made using templates from PaperCrafts' 350 Cards and Gifts magazine. The "girl" box uses an AmberINK digital iPaper -- and yes, those gerbera daisies do have little smiley-face centres! The "boy" box uses some Echo Park "In the Clouds" paper from the Little Boy collection. How appropriate. :P
My little boxes are perfect for The Little Gifts challenge at Moxie Fab World. They are also going to try their luck over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge to use spring colours or to make an Easter creation. (I'd say these have both covered!)

Supplies: purple, blue & Stampin' Up kraft cardstock, AmberINK Gerber Daisy Party tiny iPaper, Echo Park Little Boy: In the Clouds paper, mauve ribbon, Lindt chocolate eggs Pin It Now!

The Last of the Bunnies

It's true... if you don't keep your eyes on them, bunnies just proliferate like crazy! I think this will be the last one for awhile.

I have no idea why all my Easter cards this year (except this one) insisted on being square, but they did. I used this cute little bunny head again, this time layering him on an Almost Amethyst base. One last card for Easter, one last card for the Crafty Creations bunny challenge, and a card for the Do You Stack Up challenge (DYSU #13) to use clear, light pink and mauve. I realize using CLEAR embossing powder is stretching the concept a bit, but hey, why not? ☺

Supplies: white, pink & Stampin' Up almost amethyst cardstock, Rubber Stampede Bunny Face, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, Fiskars flowers corner punch, Offray ribbon, dimensionals Pin It Now!

Another Day, Another Bunny

Have you guessed? For me, Easter cards and bunnies are synonymous.

This one features the big-head bunny from Stampin' Up's Animal Crackers set. I feel little need to colour him in, except for that teeny carrot he's clutching -- it just calls out to be orange! Which then leads to other orange elements, of which I have very few. I don't really do orange. Fortunately, I had this orange square saved from a mini-card I received. When I checked my twine colours, the yellow was a little too, well, yellow, while the orange was a little too dark. So I used them both! I figure they cancel each other out and match just fine. ☺
Another card for the Crafty Creations bunny challenge.

Supplies: white & orange cardstock, Stampin' Up Animal Crackers bunny, Versafine onyx black & Colorbox orange inks, Sharpie, Twinery lemondrop and mandarin twine, dimensionals Pin It Now!

Another Bunny

I have to say, the Crafty Creations Challenge to use a bunny on your card has come at a perfect time. It's certainly helped give me the push I needed to get a few Easter cards done!

No sentiment... after all, isn't this little bunny too cute for words? ☺

Supplies: white, black & pink cardstock, Rubber Stampede bunny face, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Prismacolor pencils, blender pen, Marvy corner-rounding punch, ribbon, dimensionals Pin It Now!