A Tiny Craft: Happy Holidays ATCs

It's the middle of December (insert panicked face here) and time for a new A Tiny Craft Challenge! Our theme this month is HAPPY HOLIDAYS, and we'd like to see trading cards or coins that reflect what you celebrate this time of year. 

Funny, I don't exactly "celebrate" the snow that comes along with Christmas in December, but I went with a snowflake theme for my trio of ATCs anyway: 

 

These backgrounds were already in my Christmas stash, although I did get a chance to use my new mica spray on the embossed snowflakes to the lower right! Shimmery. :D In addition, all the stamped and die cut elements were already made and just waiting to be added to these. My other main contributions were cutting the strip of patterned paper for the side of the one ATC, and adding the blue brad to the centre of the die cut snowflake.

A closer look at each one: 

(Yep, noticed the one wonky snowflake arm AFTER

I photographed. Luckily, I was able to

nudge it into its proper place.)

Not surprisingly, we weren't the only ATC challenge to come up with this theme, so I will be adding these to both ATC Around the World: Christmas Time and ATCs with Heart/ATCs hit Herz - also Christmas Time. 

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What Did You Say???

That's right! The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is actually encouraging you to use profanity for our new challenge! It's our 21st offering: P is for Profanity (Swear if You Dare). Obviously our mascot Edna is too prim to swear (out loud at least). You may have noticed by my previous SoSS offerings that I do like to be subtle in my snark. So for me today, a card that is clean and simple and merely suggestive:

Some pictures are worth a thousand words; this merely needs one. ;) I could have made this a true one-layer card, but I liked the mix of fonts I came up with from my die cut scraps. And of course I had to use three different stamp sets for the simple stamping! 
Admit it... haven't you just been looking for an excuse to bring truly colourful vocabulary to your card? :D My sisters in snark have outdone themselves as usual, so make sure to check the blog for lots more inspiration. We also have the talented Lauren with us as a guest designer! Now I'm thinking, hmm, maybe I should take a picture of the snow outside and use the same sentiment on a second card... 

Supplies: white, orange, blue & yellow cardstock, Paper Smooches Free Spirits, Amber Ink Hope, Popcorn and Wine & Lawn Fawn freebie stamps, Versafine onyx black, & Memento rhubarb stalk & pear tart inks, assorted die cut letters

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Flashback Friday Challenge

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! 

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Amber Ink Holiday Hop Time!

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
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Amber Ink's First Pinny Party!

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 Pin It Now!

September 16th Friends with Flair

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 Pin It Now!

Hanging on to Summer

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

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Going Old School with All Things Unity and Friends with Flair

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 Pin It Now!

Happy Birthday to Amber Ink!

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

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Amber Ink's Getting Ready to Party!

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 Pin It Now!

Poor Simon!

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! 

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A Few Facts About my Brother...

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 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!

It's a Valentine's Day Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Virtual Valentine's Day blog hop! There are a ton of participants and a lots of sponsors. If you pop over to Taylor's blog where it all starts, you will see the entire list of blogs and prizes. And I know you will see a lot of great Valentine-related creations! I'm participating courtesy of the sweet folks over at AmberINK.

Here's my Valentine creation:

The main panel of this card was created using the quilted card tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. I tried the design with three solid colours and two patterned papers as the directions suggested, but decided I just had to add a few squares of my very favourite AmberINK iPaper! Solid black just looked too harsh. ;) The other elements of the card each pick up on two of the colours from the quilt; white and black ribbon, black on red Love sentiment and white embossed on red for the smaller sentiment. The stamps are from my current favourite Unity set, the August 2010 Kit of the Month, All You Need. That means it qualifies for the All Things Unity challenge this week!
Hop on over to Kristi's blog next; and remember, you have till Thursday at 6 pm EST to leave comments for a chance to win a fabulous prize. Thanks for hopping by, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Supples:white, black & Ruby Red Stampin' Up cardstock, AmberINK Schoolgirl Plaid-Fire and Ash: Tiny and Spin Pin: Holiday Black Tie Tiny & Festive Punch Tiny iPapers, Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month All You Need..., Brilliance graphite black and Versamark inks, clear & white embossing powder, EK Success 3/4" square punch, Offray ribbon Pin It Now!

AmberINK Birthday Challenge

The latest AmberINK INKredible 21 Day challenge is to create anything birthday-related. (Amber herself recently celebrated hers!) I wanted to do something more than a card, and thought of Emily's terrific paper bow that she made when she was an orange torchbearer. Here's my birthday take on it:

This bow is even easier than it looks! Especially if you follow the step-by-step instructions here. I once again used my very favourite AmberINK iPaper, Spin Pin: Holiday -- Black Tie. It's just so classy-looking. I used both the regular size and the tiny version, although you can't really tell in the end result. Then I used a square of the regular size to make a matching gift card. I really like how the birthday sentiment fits in one of the circles of the paper. I plan to use the bow and card on a parcel wrapped in silver paper. I think it will look so elegant! I'll just have to make sure the present inside is worthy! ☺

Supplies: (bow) AmberINK Spin Pin: Holiday-Black Tie iPaper regular & tiny, brad; (mini-card) white & black cardstock, AmberINK Spin Pin: Holiday-Black Tie iPaper regular, Studio G stamp, Versafine onyx black ink Pin It Now!

Passing the Torch

Yes, it's that time... my month as an AmberINK torchbearer has come to an end. It was a crazy month of balancing holidays, family... and creating! Here's a little summary of what I made, all while running with a flaming ORANGE torch...

And now, drumroll please, as I announce the next ORANGEtorchbearer...



I don't think this is really Meg...

 Meg is a stamper and cardmaker extraordinaire with a wicked sense of humour whom I'm glad to say has become a friend in the past few months. I know she will carry the torch high and dazzle you with her AmberINK creations.
I'd also like to thank the equally über-talented Angela for entrusting the torch to me for the past month. They were big shoes to fill, so I hope I did you proud!   Pin It Now!

Almost Ready to Pass the Torch...

This is my last official AmberINK Torchbearer project! Where did the month go? I had such a blast doing this. Amber and Pam are great fun to hang out with, and were very patient with this newby blogger and first time design team member.

For this simple but elegant card, I used the champagne glass from the set Hostess with the Mostess as well as the flourish from Tis the Season to be Pretty, which seems to be my go-to flourish lately! I think the Spin Pin: Holiday - Black Tie: Tiny iPaper is currently my favourite, too. I went with pink champagne, mostly because I couldn't decide what shade I could use for regular champagne that couldn't be mistaken for something else. You know, apple juice. What were YOU thinking I meant? ;) The champagne and the flourish are also traced over with my Spica clear glitter pen that Santa generously put in my stocking this Christmas. (Santa is SO smart.) I had to leave my photo a bit darker than I liked to leave a little of that sparkle showing. (You can see it if you big it, I hope...) I think this will make a perfect engagement, wedding or anniversary card.
Thanks, Amber and Pam, for a fun month! You haven't seen the last of me, though... :P

Supplies: black & white cardstock, silver pearl paper, Spin Pin: Holiday - Black Tie: Tiny iPaper, pink watercolour pencil, Spica clear glitter pen, dimensionals Pin It Now!

Groovy!

Is this little gift bag not funkalicious? ☺

I used the psychedelic Spin Pin Tiny iPaper and a gift bag template I downloaded over a year ago from The Toymaker website. I did change the handles from rectangular to round, to echo the paper. When I was printing the paper, I played around with some of the print options, and printed the iPaper in a larger size. I won't do that again, as it does not come out quite as crisply as the original, but it did allow me to punch three 1" circles to make a coordinating gift tag. The bag is a perfect size to hold a pair of earrings or other small treat. Totally cool, man. :P

You still have another week to enter AmberINK's INKredible 21 Day Challenge:

Create something to help you get organized, and use at least one AmberINK product. Easy, no? The winner gets to collaborate with Amber herself on a stamp set design... and how groovy is that? ;)  

Supplies: white cardstock, AmberINK Spin Pin Tiny iPaper, gift bag template, EK Success 1" circle punch

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Play Date Café Challenge #62

As soon as I saw the colours for this week's Play Date Café challenge, I thought of AmberINK's Bunny Bunny Kiss Kiss pink iPaper.







Here's what resulted:

Instead of cutting the bunnies out, I cut a circle out of the iPaper and used it as a frame. After I coloured the bunnies, their tails just needed to be fuzzy! ☺

Supplies: white cs, Bunny Bunny Kiss Kiss iPaper, Love Bunnies Kissy Kiss Fluffy Bottom digital stamp, Prismacolor pencils, baby oil, Studio G white Fun Flocking Pin It Now!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011! I made a couple of different things to help see in the New Year.

I thought these two little fish from Fish Wishes were perfect for a New Year's card. I added the celebrate bubbles from the same set, as well as the little flourishes from Tis the Season to Be Pretty. I love the undersea look of the Dolphin Paisley light blue iPaper with its marine colours and swirling dolphins. And I just happened to have a light blue cardstock that matched perfectly! The little party hats are pieced from gold and silver ribbon (and are much shinier in real life). Finally, I added lots of sparkle with glitter and stickers.

As soon as we set our New Year's Eve table in black and red, I knew I wanted to use Spin Pin: Holiday-Black Tie: Tiny for the dinner menu. It looks so elegant and festive! A perfect way to usher in the New Year.

Supplies: (card) white & blue cardstock, dolphin paisley iPaper, Fish Wishes & Tis the Season stamps, silver & gold ribbon, SU dazzling diamonds glitter, Studio G gold glitter glue, Stampendous silver & gold Dot Sparklers, SU scallop edge punch, dimensionals; (menu) Spin Pin: Holiday-Black Tie: Tiny iPaper Pin It Now!