Monday, March 31, 2008

Mom's in Trouble...digi layout

Oh my goodness....this is the first layout for Digi: In Deep and I can't even beging to explain ALL the fantastic steps that were involved in creating this. It took HOURS to do this, but I had the most fantastic time. It's definitely intense, but in the best possible way. I learned a lot and need to practice A LOT to commit everything to memory. I made that circle, I added swirls to the title, I made the scallops, recolored the buttons....(all with Jessica's help, of course)...WHEW!
The quote says "People tend to forget that play is serious." And the journaling talks about how happy Jessica was to get a Trouble game for Easter. We had picked up a Dollar Tree version, but it was small and kept falling apart. She wanted to PLAY not pose for pictures. When I snapped that lower right photo, Jessica was saying...."take pictures, LATER, Mom." LOL

Thanks for visiting and letting me gush. I'm so happy to be learning so much about digi!
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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Thinking of You

I made this card before the one for Steve's sister. It was sort of a warm up card, if you will! LOL. This is my version of this card by Jen del Muro. It was fun to make. I guess I can send this to Steve's mom if he wants!

credits: Barn Red textured cardstock, Olive cs, New England Ivy ink, pewter brads (CTMH), All About Borders stamp (Inkadinkado), "thinking of you" Frames and Messages (Hero Arts), antique circle brad, silk flowers (Spare Parts-Hobby Lobby), Cuttlebug embossing folder, concave punch, brown ribbon, pop dots

Have a great night, and a great week. Thanks for visiting! I hope you find some time to create.
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Embrace Happiness

Most of the time when I show a card I've made to my hubby, he glances at it and says...cute or that's nice. In other words, not too much enthusiasm is shown. He's told me before that he doesn't "get" how I create them. It's beyond his realm of expertise, so he doesn't know what to say. But then, he'll share some family news or something and say...maybe you can make a card for them. So, at least he appreciates the making of the card and he must like them enough to ask me to make one.

Such was the case last night as we were getting ready for bed. He told me he got an email from his mom, who informed him that his sister had her thyroid removed, and they found cancer. He didn't know any more than that, but the jist from his mom's email was that every thing will be okay. Btw, his sister and I are the same age. Can you say...hitting close to home? Then he said, maybe you can make a nice card. For her or your mom? (inside joke, sorry).Here's the card I came up with after seeing this card on a "new to me" blog. And yes, I attempted to make the ribbon blossom, but wasn't successful, so I followed most of the rest of the design instead! I didn't want to make a get well card...so I thought the embrace happiness sentiment would send a positive hopeful message. Hubby really liked the card, too, which is saying something!
credits: striped ad paisley paper(Making Memories), Taffy, Bubblegum, Buttercup cardstock and inks (CTMH), rectangle nestabilities, oval scallop punch, Coluzzle oval, various circle punches, Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Embrace happiness (Mixed Messages-Papertrey Ink), white brads, pearl stickers, stems are from Happy Easter set (CTMH) stamped in Sweet Leaf ink, ribbon (my stash).

Thanks as always for visiting!
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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Got to Play Today! Yea!

(I don't know why this happens, I do separate the paragraphs and for some reason Blogger doesn't show the breaks that I see in my preview. I even tried to fix it-sorry)
For the first time in I don't know HOW long, Steve had to go into work on Saturday. Oh and he wasn't thrilled by the idea either. So, he left at his normal work time and I slept in again. Okay, I don't normally sleep in at all, but this past week I have each morning. Just so you know...sleeping in for me means getting up at 7am as opposed to between 5-5:30am! My girls have actually woken up before me. So unusual, but nice in a way, too.

So anyway, I knew I wasn't going out anywhere for awhile and the girls decided they wanted to go out to Mommy's Room and who am I to say no?? LOL They've had fun coming up with kid creations, or playing in the back yard while I keep an ear out for them.

Beate Johns (Fresh & Fun) posts a Weekend Sketch Challenge every week and most times I admire it, the cards that others post, but don't ever get a chance to play (I usually have a bunch of cards I want to make). Well, when I saw Beate's card creation for the sketch she shared this week, I wanted to CASE it. So, I did. Now, I don't own much if anything from Stampin' Up, so I had to make do with other products, but I followed her design. It was a lot of fun to create.
credits: Grey Wool cardstock and ink(CTMH), blue textured cardstock (DCWV-Spring pack), patterned paper Spring Matstack (DCWV), Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, swirl stamp (Heidi Grace), friends stamp-Share Laughter (Hero Arts), Pearls (Crystal stickers), grosgrain ribbon (CTMH), oval coluzzle, My Legacy Marker (CTMH)


Then, after Steve got home, I wanted to go out for a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love my girls, but we've had a lot of together time this week, and I wanted a little Mommy time. I went into a local scrapbook store (not Michaels, Joann's or Hobby Lobby) that is up the street from where I live and asked the owner if she had gotten the Nestibilities in that I knew she had ordered. Never in a million years did I think I'd hear, yes, they are hanging up right here. I am now the happy owner of the Classic Large Rectangles and Scallops. This will probably be my only set for a long, long time (unless I come into some money somehow). But I am tickled and think this set will be pretty versatile for me and will keep me happy for a long, long time! I did a few more errands and came home to break them out.

Hence, the second version of the same card!

credits: Dutch Blue, Black Cardstock, inks (CTMH), Baby Blue Paisley (Paper Studio, Hobby Lobby), oval Coluzzle, Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), flower stamp (unknown), Friends sentiment-Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink), white ribbon (Hobby Lobby), rhinestones (JoAnn's), rectangle scallop (Nestabilities)

Then after this fun day of stamping/playing, we had a birthday party to go to. It was at a local game place called Boondocks. The girls had pizza, cupcakes and then got 20 tokens a piece, plus a wristband allowing them to play in the climbing structure. Let's just say they played long and they played hard! And had a great time doing it.

I made more cards than this today, but am pretty tired myself so will close this hugely long post and thank you for reading IF you got this far! :o)

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Birthday Cards...

I found a couple of other cards I wanted to copy at this blog called Paper Hearts Card Co.
Click here for the post on the first card. You'll have to scroll down a little to find it and I realized I totally forgot to add the polka dots! I just might have to make another one with the polka dots.

This is another card I saw on the same blog. I really like how she uses the Papertrey Ink sets in a unique way. Again you'll have to scroll a bit to see her card. She's like me and posts more than one project at a time. :o) I think you'll enjoy the view on the way to the card.
Credits first card:
green textured cardstock(Die Cuts With a View-DCWV), Hollyhock cardstock (CTMH), flower punch (EK Success), pink acrylic disc (Michaels), Happy Birthday (Women of Life set, Papertrey Ink)

Credits second card:
Baby Pink cardstock (CTMH), Chocolate ink, Garden Green Ink (CTMH), Women of Life stamp set (Papertrey Ink), Share Laughter stamp (for flower centers-punched out) (Hero Arts).

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It's Your Day

I saw this card on the Just Dandy blog by Melissa Bickford. She used Papertrey Ink product, but I don't own that particular line so I improvised!
Credits: Bubblegum and Dutch Blue cardstock (CTMH), Dutch Blue ink (CTMH), Paisley printed paper (Doodlebug), paper flower (CTMH), button (unknown), DMC floss, It's Your Day stamp (Michaels $1 stamp).

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Signature on all Your Posts Automatically..

I just LOVE blogs! I know I spend WAY too much time reading blogs, but I don't care. I learn SO much. Like today, on Stampin When I Can, Allison shared how to get your signature to show up in all your posts and you don't have to copy and paste each time! Go to her blog post HERE and check it out for yourself. :o) Love it, love it, love it!!!
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edited to add...to get the line to disappear around the "picture" of my signature, I had to go into the html code and get rid of the border around my images.

Inkspired by Kathi!

Kathi does it again! When I saw the card she posted today, I knew I wanted to make one too. She was inkspired by another blogger's post. I love how this happens. :o)



The girls wanted to spend some time out in Mommy's Craft Room today, so I happily obliged and got a few cards done.

My version is pretty much a case of hers, but I did a couple of things to "make it my own." Mainly, before I ran my embossing folder through my Cuttlebug, I inked one side with Garden Green ink. Doesn't that look cool? I read about doing this on a blog somewhere, but can't quite remember where-could have been Kathi's! LOL I also chose to use a different sentiment in a different location.



Credits: Lilac Mist, Garden Green and White cardstock and ink (CTMH), Black Textured cardstock (Hobby Lobby), Simple Blossoms stamp set (CTMH), Cuttlebug embossing folder, green acrylic discs (Michaels), Hi There sentiment from Mixed Messages set (Papertrey Ink).

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Museum of Nature & Science Visit

My girls have a wide range of interests which is great! Amy has been fascinated by just about every subject she studies in school, but two have stood out. One is her interest in space and the other is her interest in dinosaurs. Steve took them to the Museum of Nature and Science and Amy got to indulge in both! Well, I thought it would be a good idea to get a membership to the museum thereby allowing us to visit more often and more economically for us. So, yesterday we headed to the museum. The museum is located pretty much next to the Denver Zoo. When we got stuck in the traffic going to the zoo, I knew I had made the right decision to NOT go to the zoo yesterday (it was in the 70s and gorgeous). But we still had to wade thru the traffic. And the museum was packed too. We had to park down on the third level in the parking structure!

I'd been to the museum before as a teacher on field trips, but it's a different feeling going with your kids to satisfy their curiosity. These pictures aren't very good at all, but I'll share them anyway.
The girls wanted to go into the planetarium, but it was only 11 or so and the next show was at 2pm. I knew they wouldn't make it to the next showing and I didn't want to leave and come back. So we wandered and checked out a bunch of exhibits. We did the Space Odyssey, but the few pictures I took were WAY too blurry to share. Amy and Jess were fascinated though. I love these scenes they have set up of the animals in their habitats. We even went into the exhibit with the mummies!

The girls are awestruck by these dinosaur fossils. It's kind of hard to take a decent picture of these so I can only hope you get a sense of their size. I'm not the greatest photographer at all and most of my shots if they are good are happy accidents! :o)

Would you believe when I looked out the window this morning I saw snowflakes falling??? Not enough to cover the ground, but to go from the gorgeousness (is that a word?) of yesterday to the dreariness of cloudy and cool today, with scattered snow/rain is a bit of a let down. The girls and I are just hanging out at home and have swim lessons later this afternoon. We were supposed to play with Amy's good friend, but apparently her family got a great deal on tickets and left today to visit family out of state!

I may be back later with something creative, but tonight is the finale of The Apprentice and I got sucked into watching it. Actually this has been one of the most entertaining seasons I've ever watched and I have been fascinated by Trace Adkins...a country singer with the most mesmerizing gravelly voice when he speaks...and his ideas have been awesome!

Wow! Thanks, ERIN G.!!!

Looky what showed up in the mail {for me} today!! How cool is this?? My friend Erin sent this to me as a thank you for my doing a favor for her recently. I gladly did the favor and was pleased to help her. To receive this is just lots of icing on the cake! Thanks!!! The picture doesn't even do it justice. There's lots of sparkly on it, which isn't getting picked up.

You are tooooooo sweet Erin! I'm so glad we are friends! :o)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Lorikeets Layout

The girls and I headed to the Denver Zoo this morning. We are on Spring Break this week, and so far it looks like the weather is going to be great! Yea! Well, apparently Denver, Jefferson County and Adams County school districts are ALL on Break this week and with the lovely weather...everyone has the same idea for something fun to do...go to the zoo! LOL It was crowded! There was a huge line just for getting or renewing a membership (which we had to stand in) then we juggled with all the other people to see the animals. One good thing...the girls are old enough that we didn't need a stroller and I toyed with the idea of renting a wagon, but didn't. Good thing. It was much easier navigating without one this time!

I took my camera, but I've taken just about all the pictures of most of the animals I could stand on previous visits. But then, towards the end of our visit, we saw a new (to us) exhibit, the Lorikeets. We had to stand in line to get into it. I guess they limit the number of people in at a time. The lorikeets are wild and fly freely in the enclosure. You can purchase a little cup of nectar and they'll eat it. I opted not to buy the cup(the pictures are of a little girl about my girls' age holding up the cup). The girls were getting a little tired and were just about ready to head home. Jessica and I really wanted to see these gorgeously colored birds up close though, and then get the heck outta Dodge!

I put this layout together as part of a challenge on the Jessica Sprague website. I don't think I've mentioned, except in passing, that the next course in her series Digi: In Deep starts next Monday. I'm getting quite excited! So, soon, hopefully, you'll be seeing some layouts with new tricks/techniques added to them.

Credits:
Template: Set 16a by Kay Miller Designs
Kit: Lovin' Life by Kay Miller Designs and yellow paper from Digital Design Essentials, Bookworm Kit. The paper color is called Sunny Side Up and it's creator is Gina Cabrera.
Font: Rockwell

Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Coloring Eggs

Last layout for today! I think knowing Jessica Sprague's new class starts in a week has got me motivated!

The girls had a great time coloring their eggs. The package I bought had only 3 color discs, but we talked about dunking the eggs into different colors to get more colors. They were all over that! Then they discovered the stickers! LOL Credits:
Template: Created by Simply Sarah, I used template #25 from her blog.
Kit: Hippity Hoppity, a collaboration Mixed Nuts kit created by Nitwitcollections and Kay Miller Designs.
Font: Rockwell

I hope you all have had a wonderful Easter. Ours was quiet, just the 4 of us, but fun nonetheless. Since it snowed overnight, our egg hunt occurred inside, but that is a layout to be created on another day.

Easter Nests Layout

I actually did this layout yesterday, but wasn't sure if I wanted to futz with it more before I posted. Tonight I opened it and futzed a little, but in the end just added the buttons. That patterned paper is a bit busy to add much more to the layout without making it overwhelming.
One of the books Amy likes looking at is a kids' craft book. Most of the time she enjoys the pictures, but yesterday I think she was looking for something to do. She found a recipe for these nests and excitedly asked me if we could make them for the Easter Bunny. I thought it sounded like fun, but I had to get some of the ingredients. And here is the result of this little project. Interesting looking nests and happy kids...who could ask for more? :o) It was well worth the quick trip to the store.

Credits:
Template: Created by ScrapShana at GoDigitalScrapbooking, it's from Template set #3.
Papers and elements from a collaborative kit by Nitwitcollections and Kay Miller called Hippity Hoppity (you would have to visit both stores to buy all the goodies for this kit).
Font: Pea Tracy and Rockford

Thanks for visiting!

Walking With Dinosaurs....Enthralled....layout

I honest to goodness took these pictures about 40minutes ago-max! As the journaling says, I was checking emails/blogs and noticed that both Amy and Steve were on the couch just enthralled with an episode of Walking With Dinosaurs on the Discovery channel. I loved how Amy was snuggling up to her daddy and just "fixinated" (which is a word she uses a lot) on the show. Gotta love digital that I could snap the shots and then scrapbook and share it in about 40 minutes! :o) Credits: Delight Freebie kit from KsharonKDesigns blog Artistic Musings
Stitching from Amy Teets SunPorch kit at Shabby Princess
Font: Pea Tracy

Happy Easter...wanna laugh?

I just came across this on Nicole Seitler's blog...Sugarplum Paperie and laughed SO hard. I wanted to share it with you all as well. Love it! Thanks for sharing Nicole...it put a big ole grin on my face.

Hopefully sometime today I'll be able to work on a layout or something crafty to share...we'll see!

Have a wonderful day!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Butterfly Card...Enjoy the Moment

Oh gee, surprise! Here's another card I CASED...this time from Kathi's card that was posted wayyyyyyy back in the beginning of February. I changed it up just a tad to make it my own. I added some Waterfall Stickles to the butterflies, which are from the Flutter set by CTMH. The colors are the same as Kathi's, but I chose to put the butterflies on different colors.
I also scored some lines which you may not be able to see above the focal images and below them. "Enjoy the moment" is from a PTI set, Mixed Messages. I found some Outdoor Denim grosgrain ribbon in my stash.

I'm hoping to work on a layout of some things we did today, but may not get it done in time to post this evening...since that Easter Bunny is supposed to make a visit tonight....If I don't make it back, I truly hope you have a Happy Easter, Bunny Day or whatever you may call it. Let's hope that Spring is definitely here to stay...

Papertrey Ink's Women of Life Cards

I saw these two cards on two different blogs.
This first card is pretty much a CASE of this card created by Penny Hajiantoni
She won Guest Stamper of the Month over at Papertrey Ink for the Best Use of Stamps. I thought the card was gorgeous and this is my attempt at it. It was harder than it looked, let me tell you!

I stamped the acetate with White pigment ink. Then realized this ink takes forever to dry. Used a heat gun, which might have warped the acetate. So I tried a couple of other ways...stamping in Versamark then white heat embossing...but those looked worse than this one and ended up in the trash can.

I used Breeze and white cardstock, Women of Life stamp set from PTI, pearl brads from the bridal area at Michaels. Polka Dots are stamped using the Polka Dot Basics set from PTI. Ribbon is American Craft. I pop dotted a lot of it to give it a bit of depth.

This next card is also a CASE from this one shown on Nichole Heady's blog.
It's a 3 1/2 by 8 sized card. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Just fiddled and futzed with it, until I was satisfied with how it looked.

I used Heavenly Blue cardstock and some ribbon from my stash. I stamped the Women of Life flowers in Heavenly Blue and Sweet Leaf, then added those acrylic discs I found at Michaels.

Thanks for looking!

Another Dahlia Fold Card

After I saw the tutorial in the Weekly Inkling from Splitcoaststampers, I have been itching to try the card again. Today I was able to head out to my craft room and here's what I came up with!
The papers are SEI Winnie's Walls that I've had in my stash for quite some time. This time I punched the circles 1 1/4 inches, which makes for a more manageable dahlia. I added the gold cord with some Scotch paper glue (love that stuff because it starts drying fairly quickly). The button is from that bag o' vintage buttons I picked up at Michaels recently. Thank you stamp is from PTI's Women of Life set. Oh and I cut the larger (3 inches if I remember right) scallop circle using my Cricut and the Mini Monograms cartridge.
Thanks for looking!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Response for Rose About Video Tutorial Paper

Hi Rose!

I couldn't email you directly because I don't have your email. I can assure you that the paper I used in the video is indeed a Close To My Heart product. If you have the current Spring 2008 Idea Book, look on page 20. Creative Basics Silhouette Collection. Price is $8.95 and the item number is X5803. Look at the card they are showing in the lower right corner with the word LOVE on it.

Hope this helps! Thanks for watching my video and have fun creating!
Jeanne

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Dahlia Fold Card Inspired by Jen Jordan

When I saw this card on Jen Jordan's blog Jordan Memories, I immediately printed it for c.a.s.e.-ing. Obviously it's taken me a bit to actually get to it, and I'm not completely happy with how it came out. More on that in a bit. But today's Splitcoaststampers' newsletter, The Weekly Inkling arrived in my inbox, and in it is a tutorial on how to do the Dahlia Fold! So, I decided to post my not quite as nice card for you to see. Thanks for the inspiration, Jen, even if my rendition isn't nearly as nice as yours! :o)
Why don't I especially like this card? Well, for one thing, the Dahlia is too big. When I first learned of this fold, all I found were sketchy directions on how to do the fold...didn't really see anything on the size of the circle to use. So, right off the bat, my circles were too big. Makes the flower too big! I used CTMH's Silhouette Creative Basics paper, because I never did buy the Silhouette Reflections pack. But I didn't like the Colonial white next to the stripes. So, I made some black paper fit on that part. (sort of a pain, but I like the black much better-it was after I did all this work that I realized the dahlia folds were too big. Too much work to just scrap it, so I made do). I thought I had the same heart stamps that Jen used, only to find out that I don't. So I used hearts from the Soulmates stamp set. The scripted one with the flourishes looks "blurry" to me, but it's how the stamp was created (not a favorite look of mine). So that was another strike against this card.

So, then I go to put the flower together (remember I never got any real directions on how to do this). When I tried this fold previously I discovered it's hard to get all those circles to stick together. I had been gluing those little flaps, which doesn't make it very stable. So this time I decided I needed a base, so I took a scrap of black paper and started gluing the folds to the paper making sure the sides of each fold were touching. Welllllllll....it didn't work out quite like I'd hoped and I had a big gap between the first and last folds (which is strategically covered by those two hearts). Another strike because it sort of feels off balance to me. I do like the black button, though!

Now, when you see the tutorial from Splitcoast, you will see I had the right idea to use a base, I just didn't use the correct type of base! I learned something new there and I am excited to try this technique again.

Jen's card is gorgeous and why I wanted to cardlift the design. Mine is so-so, but I do like the colors. It's a good idea gone wrong I think. Oh well. I think I'll have better luck next time.

Thanks for visiting and laughing along with me at my not so great card experiment...

Eggciting Layout

I did this layout yesterday, but never did get it uploaded! Sorry. There's not a lot of "schtuff" added to it, but I did use Kay Miller's kit So Eggciting. The template (it's a tiff file) is from Jen Caputo, from her blog and the file says 61506, which I'm pretty sure is the date. I was download happy a while ago, so am not sure if I am remembering correctly. Font is Pea Tracy...cuz that is how I WISH my handwriting would look! :o)

I liked the angles on this template and that I was able to add a lot of photos without being too, too busy. And no...we did not dye 4 dozen eggs, I used the same photo for those "borders" because I thought it looked kind of neat.
We started a new session of swim class yesterday and hit the first glitch in the system at the rec center since we started classes last July. Amy moved up a level, which made me happy for more reasons than just being proud of her. The class she was in was only offered at 4 or 5pm and that's getting kind of late in the day. The next level class was being offered at 3:30, which was perfect. So, last Thursday, when I found out she moved up, I gleefully went to sign her up. Only to find out the head of the swim dept. CANCELLED the 3:30 class because he had no registrants! Um...hello! I JUST found out she qualified for the class! He apologized but it was a done deal. So, the only other class available was....yep....the 5pm class! But knowing how much Amy adores these lessons, I sucked it up and signed them up for this time slot. So, yesterday we are there waiting for class to start. When they hadn't called the Level 4 group, I asked where were they meeting. The guy told me, um...don't kill the messenger but the Level 4 class is cancelled! WHAT?? I knew for a fact that they had more than 2 registrants. In fact there was a wait list for this class (could it be because the guy cancelled the other class prematurely????). So I go to the front desk to find out what was going on. The gal there gave me the roster with a full class list! Of course the guy I needed to talk to was NO where to be found. By the time I went back to the pool, I discovered the instructors pulled together the kids and one of the gals very nicely taught the class. There was a full class there and happily for Amy, one of her friends from her 1st grade class is in this group. Another friend from her class is also taking lessons in this time slot...so Amy is one happy camper! She gets to swim and see some friends. I was told this instructor will be teaching this swim class for this session and through word of mouth on the bench for parents, I hear she is a REALLY good instructor. So all's well, but it was a bit dicey there for a few minutes. :o) I still don't like being there at 5pm...we usually eat dinner at 5:30...and let me tell you the girls practically inhaled their dinner last night-which was Wendy's because Steve got home late as well. Hopefully the next session we'll be able to go a little earlier. Time will tell though.

Thanks for visiting!




Monday, March 17, 2008

Deleted Comment...

I just wanted to let you know that I have deleted a comment that was posted. The reason being that I don't recognize the name of the poster, which isn't bad at all, but more because one of the words in the comment was hyperlinked. To me that is a red flag. I've heard of viruses being transmitted through comments where something is linked.

So please beware, if you receive a comment from someone you don't recognize, and there is a link in the comment, DON'T click on the link!!!

In Blogger you can delete comments. I went to manage posts and clicked on the comments link. When the comments come up, there is a little trashcan icon. Clicking on that will delete the post.

Now if that poster was legitimate, I do apologize. I had hoped that by adding the verification feature, these types of comments would not be showing up. But nothing is fool-proof.

I hope no one clicked on that link!

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Flower Card

How's that for a boring title? I didn't know what else to call it. I got the idea for this card from one I'd seen on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts. Click here to see it. I know I liked it because I had two copies of the card printed out! I thought it was pretty and spring-like. I knew I had a flower stamp similar to the one she used. I found it in the Friendship Flowers set by CTMH. I stamped it in Baby Pink, on Baby Pink cardstock, then stamped the image on white and offset it just a bit before cutting it out. I added it with pop dots. The pink polka dotted paper is a piece I had sitting on my table. (I used PTI's Polka Dot Basics to stamp it). The stem is stamped in Sweet Leaf. I added some glitter glue on the center and finished it off with some grosgrain ribbon.

The striped paper is some I bought at Michaels last summer! The yellow is Buttercup. I ran a strip of Baby Pink cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder and then sanded it a bit to show the white. The little baubles I picked up a Michaels in the floral area. They are acrylic discs and are similar to the baubles I've been seeing on lots of cards lately-while not many colors are available, suffice it to say I have enough of these things to last me a lifetime now! If I could figure the best way to color the clear ones, I'd be all set!
These cards I'm showing you are ones I made today. I still have the rest of the ones from yesterday to share, but they will have to wait for another day.
Thanks for visiting!

Thinking of You Card (brown)

I've had this Frames and Messages set for a bit. (Hero Arts). Last week I made a card using the flower frame. This time I wanted to use the swirly frame. I had picked up the Die Cuts With A View Spring matstack not too long ago and this brown paper is in there. I thought it would go well with the frame. I stamped the frame in Chocolate, as well as the sentiment. I added a couple of pearls and the brown ribbon is from Big Lots(...thanks for sharing where you got your ribbon, Lisa).

Easter Peek-A-Boo Treat Holder

I got the idea for this little gift idea from the Weekly Inkling, which is Splitcoaststampers' newsletter. It comes out every Wednesday. I made a couple of these for my godson and his brother for Easter. Sorry for the finger holding it down, I wasn't sure if I was going to add velcro to close it. And I guess I will! :o) I'll bet this would be fun as a class gift, too.

You can find the directions on how to make this here.


Colors are Crystal Blue, Cranberry and Honey. I cut the scallops using my Cricut and the Mini Monograms cardtridge. The bunny is from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The ribbon is American Crafts. I used a black pen to add the details on his face.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Butterfly-Easter Wishes card

This card kind of evolved today as well. I used the new set from Inkadinkado called Patterned Bugs. I love butterflies, so can you guess why this set would have called my name as I looked at all the new stamp sets at Joann's?? The border of butterflies is one image and I suppose I could have cut it apart and stamped images separately, but I kind of liked how they are in a wavy line. But it did present a bit of a hmmmmm....now what do I do? Kathi has shown projects where she stamped on vellum and that popped into my head as I kept looking at the large butterfly. On cardstock, it would have been too "heavy," I think, so I tried stamping on vellum. Then I got the bright idea to clear heat emboss the image. Well, that sort of changes the color of the ink, but after it cooled off, I liked it. So I carefully cut the butterfly out and bent the wings up just a tad. It needed something, so I added some lavendar (lavendar is the name on the bottle, but to me it looks way more purple than lavendar) Stickles. See the close up below. The Easter Wishes is from Papertrey Ink...Mixed Messages. I sponged some ink on the edge of the white cardstock to soften the edges.

With that, I think I am done posting for the evening. I have a few more cards (a lot of them were quick and simple allowing me to feel a lot more productive) that I might share tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you find time to create this weekend!

Just Because Cards

This card just sort of evolved as I was creating. When I got this Perfect Paisley embossing folder, I immediately thought of a bandanna, then jeans, then the jean pocket from the Blue Jeans stamp set by CTMH (which is retired, I think, sorry). Ideas for a card have been percolating for a while and I guess today was the day to bring them out. I used Moonstruck cardstock, sanded, embossed Holiday Red cardstock and then sanded that. The pocket is stamped in Moonstruck and the flowers are stamped in Sunflower. The flowers came from a Hero Arts set called Share Laughter. The ribbon is from Michaels and the bling from Joann's.
Here's the inside of the card. Somehow I got a hankering to complete the insides of some of these cards! I used a couple of paisley dies for the Cuttlebug. I've had the dies for a long time and this is the first time I've used them. I punched them in the three colors and then just built up the paisleys by playing around. I added a little bling. The sentiment is from the same set as the flower.
The inspiration for this card came from a blog and I completely forgot to note the name. I'll go back and look for it and edit when I find it. *I spent 10 minutes looking and cannot find it! If this looks familiar to you, please comment so that I may give proper credit for the inspiration* Anyway, I used PTI's Polka Dot Basics set. I really like how the card that inkspired me was stamped with the outline circle then the solid center was added. The colors are Chocolate, Hollyhock, and Garden Green. Ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment is from Mixed Messages by PTI. I also stamped the envelope flap with the circles. Looks cute if I do say so myself. :o)
Jessica and I did our Friday morning ritual of going to Joann's and the Dollar Tree yesterday. I haven't found anything worth purchasing there for a while, but as we wandered the scrapbook aisle, I saw that they have a new display of clear stamps! More than I've seen there before and names they haven't carried before. The gal working in the area said they are carrying less wood mounted sets and added more of the clear, since they are more popular now. Being that Jess was anxious to get to the Dollar Tree, I didn't have long to look, but I did pick up one set from Inkadinkado called Patterned Bugs. The ladybug in this card is from that set. It's one image, but I masked off part of it to get the body red and the head black. Then I embossed it with clear embossing powder and added some red Stickles for bling. I also added 3 black rhinestones and put some Stickles on those. The ribbon is from Michaels and the dots from Polka Dot Basics, sentiment from Mixed Messages both from Papertrey Ink.
I have one more card I want to share tonight, so that will be the next post.

I'm feeling a teensy bit sore right now...I think I might regret all the skating I did tomorrow morning! :o)

Birthday Cards

I got to play in my craft room today and made a bunch of cards. Here are a couple of birthday ones I came up with.

The first uses a stamp set from Doodlebug. I attempted to color it in using my Prisma pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I am always excited to try this technique and always less than impressed with my ability to execute the technique well. LOL I stamped in Archival Black ink, then decided to cut a frame using orange cardstock. Oh and I cut apart the blue colored frame and traced the outline on orange cardstock and cut that out, too. I added some orange dots using my Papertrey Ink Polka Dot Basics set. I added some doodling lines with my fine tip pen. I finally caved and bought some Stickles so added some bling with some red. As a final touch and also to cover up some funky coloring, I added the ribbon. I also stamped on the inside of the card.

This next card was inkspired by Kathi's Cupcake Card. Since I don't own the numbers embossing folder *yet* I decided to use the Happy Birthday embossing folder. Colors are Orange, Olive, Desert Sand and Breeze (all CTMH colors). Added some bling on the "sprinkles" with some glitter glue. The colors for this card were inspired by the ribbon I picked up at Michaels recently.

I have more to share, but the kiddos want me to snuggle for a while. We just got back from a birthday party at a roller skating rink. I even skated and I haven't roller skated since, I don't know...high school???!!! I didn't fall down once, but wobbled a bit. Then I found my groove and worked up a bit of a sweat. The girls had fun and so did Steve.

More soon!