Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Game On at Crafty Creations Challenges

This week at Crafty Creations Challenges, it's Game On! Any style of game qualifies, whether it's sports or board games or whatever your definition. (Ooh, Hunger Games maybe!) For some reason, even though I'm not a big sports person myself (give me a book any day), I wanted my project to be sports-related. 




Fortunately, I have these great Snoopy images! I have Hello Kitty sports stamps, too, and... that's about it. I'd also picked up a Studio G sports-related set at Michaels once, and that provided the sentiment. I used a classic inchie-stamp layout.
My teammate Jaime is offering a great prize from Close to My Heart this week, so you'll want to get YOUR game on and link up! 


Supplies: white, blue, yellow, purple & black cardstock, PSA Essentials Peanuts Sports Stars & Studio G stamps, Memories black & Versafine onyx black inks, clear embossing powder, Cuttlebug scalloped square die Pin It Now!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

The Other Cardmaker in the Family

Although I do believe I have rediscovered my creativity from where it was hiding in the corner, I thought I would share a few cards made by the other cardmaker in the family, my ten-year-old granddaughter. 




This was for her "other" grandfather's birthday. :P Originally she thought she wanted to do a beach scene, but when she spotted this cute deer image (thanks, Ang!)  she decided on a woodland scene, instead. One of her favourite techniques is multicoloured stamp inking, which she did for the bird on the tree. (We would have put some red liquid pearls on the berries, but they wouldn't have had time to dry before she needed to give the card.) She cut out the deer and the cloud herself! 




This was a "could we make a card just for fun, Grandma?" card. She wanted to try my Cuttlebug, thought this embossing folder looked like bubble wrap, and that the cat face had the perfect cat-on-bubble-wrap expression. 



And this is a card for her mother's birthday this weekend. My girl is also very good at discovering stamp sets I've yet to ink up myself, this one a Christmas gift from Meg. If you look closely, you can see where she discovered that cardstock can scorch when you're embossing if you're not careful! It's also been suggested I need heart-shaped die-cuts. :P  Pin It Now!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Crafty Creations #161: Sing a Song...

... of Mother Goose! (That's the librarian in me showing.) This week we are looking for Mother Goose-themed projects at Crafty Creations Challenges. Meljen's Designs, our sponsor this week, supplied some delightful images for the design team. Here's what I came up with: 




I thought this was perfect to use for a new baby card. I printed the entire image on dark blue cardstock, then paper-pieced the cow and moon. I went over the swirls with white gel pen to show up against the dark background. This image is called "Over the Moon" and seemed like the perfect congratulatory sentiment. And yes, I DO have a star stamp that small! It added that extra something that was needed to finish the card. 
Join us at Crafty Creations Challenges for your chance to win four images from Meljen's Designs! 


Supplies: white, blue & yellow cardstock, Recollections blue and yellow gingham patterned paper, Meljen's Designs Over the Moon digital image, Digi Doodle Shop frame 3 digital image, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies star stamp, Colorbox frost white ink, white gel pen Pin It Now!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Flashback Fridays: Paper-Piecing

Nothing wrong with playing with Flashback Fridays on a Sunday, I'm sure! My stamping buddy Jen is providing the challenge inspiration this week, and it's a fun one: revisit your first paper-piecing project. Mine is from my fourth-ever blog post:



And you know, other than maybe stamping the mittens in blue instead of black, I'd happily make this card now. My original post is here with all the details.
Thanks, Jen, for a fun look back!  Pin It Now!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Keep Calm -- and make your own washi tape???

This week, the challenge at Crafty Creations Challenges is to incorporate stripes into your project. This worked nicely with an idea that was already percolating in my brain, and when I discovered the new challenge blog Retro Sketches, it all came together into this:




I'll be needing one of those significant-number birthday cards soon, and this stamp has lately become my go-to image for that purpose. I've been seeing lots of blog posts around the interwebs about making your own washi tape, and decided I wanted some Union Jack tape to go on the card. I found the perfect image to use on a teacher website (you really can't ever get rid of the teacher gene), printed it on tissue paper, and applied it to some ordinary double-sided tape. Here's a pearl of wisdom based on my experience... when I first made it a couple of weeks ago, the tape easily lifted off the wax paper I put it on. When I went to use it, not so much. I peeled it off the best I could then added some new adhesive. 
Here's a little close-up of the shiny embossing on the image:




I'm always amazed at the crispness of the lettering on this stamp! The (real) stamp peeking out from behind was a little goody sent to me by my friend Angela. It makes me think I might have to investigate my dad's and grandfather's stamp collections!  
Remember to link up your card or other project with stripes at Crafty Creations Challenges this week! While you're at it, check out the new Retro Sketches challenge blog, too! 




Supplies: white & blue cardstock, Market Street Stamps Sip On stamp, Memories passion red ink, Ranger rich red embossing powder, homemade Union Jack washi tape, postage stamp, Icicle Stickles, pop-dot tape Pin It Now!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Tea-rific!

I am a tea drinker. Which is funny, because I spent the first couple of decades of my life as a coffee-lover. My dad would share his coffee with me from my toddler-hood, and by high school, I was a confirmed java-fiend. (Completely debunks the whole coffee stunts your growth myth, by the way.) But nowadays, apart from the odd Starbucks coffee-based beverage, it's all tea, all the time.
Emily, knowing this, gave me a perfect stamp set for Christmas. To thank her, I sent her a card made with it:




When I was designing this card in my mind (you know, in the middle of the night, half-asleep?), I was picturing paper-piecing the teapot and cup. Well, no, not if they're solid stamps. So instead, I "kissed" them with my Hero Arts envelope background. I was really pleased that the white ink worked over the darker blue; I wasn't sure it would. And, it just so happens that Lily Pad Cards is currently running a Kissing Challenge, so of course I'm going to link up to it. And I can never resist a Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge! 


Supplies: white cardstock, Papertrey Ink (I think) patterned paper, Lawn Fawn My Cup of Tea stamps, Hero Arts envelope pattern stamp, VersaMagic Aegean blue, Colorbox frost white, Memento London fog & Versafine onyx black inks, clear embossing powder, white floss, pop-dot tape Pin It Now!