It's So Sparkly, Too!

Hi There!

I hope you had a lovely holiday and are ready for the start of a brand-spanking new year. Our Christmas was quiet, but nice. It's been quite nice to have some downtime. Wish it was a smidge warmer, but it's winter, so I guess I can't complain too loudly.  Amy got a new Wii U game called Yoshi's Wooly World. It's pretty neat because all the graphics look like the things are created by being crocheted or knitted-if you watch the little video you'll see what I mean. The girls are much, much better at the game than I am, but I keep playing, dying, and laughing like a loon.

Today I managed to do a little playing in my crafty space. Here's what I came up with. I didn't "copy" anyone here (and you may be able to really tell). I pulled out a bunch of snowmen and snow related products and told myself to just play. This is what I ended up with. There's lots of sparkle!

The stamp set is Lawn Fawn's Ready, Set, Snow. The pattern paper (which you don't see used too often these days) is Doodlebug's Frost Friends (as are the snowflakes). The glittery base is glittered fun foam from Michaels. There's a Hero Arts background swirly stamp used. I remember being so enamored with that stamp a couple of years ago and I had to have it. Of course, I've not used it nearly enough. Today, I pulled it out, stamped it with Versamark ink and poured a silvery sparkly embossing powder from Michaels over it and heat embossed. Then I tried adding some distress ink (Broken China and Milled Lavendar) to create a sky. I probably should have done the inking first and then the embossing, but I was really playing and going with the flow. The images are colored with my colored pencils and today is the first time I played the purple pencil. It's gorgeous!! 

Edited to add: My friend, Carol, of Just Me:c left me a comment about a challenge on the Simon Says Blog here. She felt I should enter this card into the challenge. I decided to go ahead and try it. Thanks for the information and the link, Carol. We'll see what happens. There are a lot of entries. Great place for inspiration, that is for sure. :)

That's it from me for right now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Tags and a Santa

 Hi There!

Imagine my complete surprise  early this morning to get a phone call from my manager telling me that schools are closed today! A forecasted snowstorm came through overnight, but the totals weren't supposed to be very impressive. I hadn't even turned on my tv because our district very rarely ever calls a snow day.  Usually when I do check the news, it's only to be disappointed. I think there must be 7 inches out there right now. Whoo hooo for a completely unexpected free day! Now I can try to catch up on getting ready for the holiday. I'm now doubly glad that I pushed myself to get the packages I needed to mail out to the post office yesterday. :) 

My assistant manager asked me if I could make some tags for little gifts she is making for some of our co-workers at the school. She is making homemade caramel popcorn and we got to test her first batch yesterday~yummy! I agreed and immediately wanted to make snowglobe tags using Lawn Fawn's Ready Set Snow and Let's Toboggan Together stamp sets. I even splurged and bought the dies to cut the snowglobes and boy am I glad I did. Made creating the globes ever so much easier!

I spent a good chunk of time on Saturday afternoon coloring the images and fussy cutting the critters out. Sunday afternoon was spent creating the tags. 

Here's how they turned out. They are colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. The hat bands and snowballs are "winked" as well. 

Here are close ups for your viewing pleasure (I hope).

I  actually made 2 of each of the designs above!

 I decided to add the ribbon in case the recipients wanted to use them as an ornament. 

They were a bit more work than I anticipated, but so worth the effort in the end. 

Here's the Santa I made. Actually I crocheted two of these and I'm really bummed that the backside photos didn't work for whatever reason. I can't re-take the photos because they are in the mail. 

Anyway, I saw this in the December issue of Crochet World. 

This Santa works as an ornament and as a gift card holder! When you crochet the back side, you create an opening to slip the gift card into place. 

That's it from me for now.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a great day and I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs!

Three Cards!

Oh golly, I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! Yikes! It's been hard for me to get into my crafty space much anymore. I debated on whether to space out my cards, but not knowing when I'd get back to it, I figured you would get a feast today.

Hope you had a fun Halloween and a Happy Thanksgiving. Amy and I had to work Bingo on Halloween night. She was a little bummed at first, but did a great job. Her sister has been good about sharing her candy, too. That helps take the sting out of it.  ;)

We had a nice Thanksgiving. My dad flew in from CA to visit for 11 days. Two of my brothers also came to celebrate with us. They stayed the weekend. It was nice having family here. It was the first time my girls met one of my brothers, too. Now there is only one they haven't met. He had to work and couldn't join us. It was a great time, but I'm not used to so many people in the house!

We had some work done on our house thanks to a grant we received from our city. They upgraded our electrical panel, replaced 8 windows and replaced a gutter that was full of holes. This work also contributed to my not getting to my crafty space. But on Sunday I was bound and determined to work on some cards. All the family has gone home and the repair work has been completed. Steve took the girls out on an errand for a while and I got to work.

One of these days I will refrain from CASEing cards, but yesterday wasn't one of them. Two are pretty much copies of the card that inspired me. One of them I did change up a bit. All are cards I have seen online.

Sandy Allnock did a video on how she colored a card with these adorable elves. I copied what she did with the Inktense pencils I had. She used a MISTI to stamp them. I don't own one and a couple of colors are different than hers. But, everything else...copied!

I follow a blog where the gal does most of her Copic coloring using a no line technique. I've long wanted to see if I could mimic the idea using colored pencils. This is my attempt. Blatant copy of the Swanky Snowdudes card(Paper Smooches) she made, only using Flirty Frames from Lawn Fawn. I guess I put my own spin on this using a silver pigment ink to add ink to the edges and then the snowflakes. Frames are cut from Doodlebug paper.

This card is a bit different than the card that inspired me. You can definitely tell I copied parts of it. I love the look of watercolor and those little snowmen are so cute. I added the trees and some snow falling. Then I "winked" the snow bank. 

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season so far. 

Thank you so much for not giving up on me. I will try to get back soon!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week. 

Hugs!

Wizard Owl and a Card!

 Hi Friends!

I was told marching band was a big commitment and I believed those who told me that. But I didn't get just how busy life would be until I was in the midst of it. And I wasn't even the person who was doing the marching, the practicing and the playing! But I was the one who was taking the marcher, the practicer and the player to where she needed to be. And I am also the volunteer, helper and all that. I fully comprehend what a commitment marching band is now. :) The season has ended and my marching band student has completely and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is eagerly looking forward to next season. Mom is happy that the marcher is happy, but also kind of happy that things should slow down a bit. Then the marcher told the mom that she signed a paper to try Winter Guard(Flags that perform inside).
Really?!

Oh yes, she also joined the recreational basketball league again.
Sigh.

The other daughter is doing great as well and is very busy, but doesn't need quite as much driving around as the first one does.

I have not been into my crafty space in what feels like a really long time and I do miss it. I am hoping that someday soon I will venture back in there. I mentioned before that I do have time in evenings, but don't do well cardmaking then. But I do enjoy doing handwork. Last summer, I came across a magazine online with a counted cross stitched wizardly owl on the cover that I instantly fell in love with. The magazine hadn't even been released at that point. I began stalking the stores in anticipation of buying the magazine for the pattern. Finally I found it and I got to work. I enjoyed creating this piece very much. However, I probably will not be stitching on black cloth ever again. Especially dark gray on black. My poor eyes sure got a workout and at times I needed extra light to see where I needed to stitch. But...all of that was SO worth it when I finished. I actually was done with the stitching awhile ago. I just needed to take the time to create the fabric border. I grabbed that time the other day and the project is completely finished.

I'm so happy with how this came out.
Feel free to enlarge to see it better. 

One of the more recently releases from Lawn Fawn was Happy Harvest. I decided to get it after I received my first paycheck for this school year. There was a day where I had some time to work on cards and I was so sure I would get oodles and oodles of cards made. This is the only one that got started. I didn't even finish it that day. But I eventually got it done. Sorry for the not so great photo. I took it with my smartphone. And there's some nice shadowing from the overhead lights going on. 

Colored with my prismacolor pencils. Popped up a bit and already in the recipient's hands. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I truly hope you are doing well and are ready for a Happy Halloween (if you celebrate). 

I also hope I will be back again soon. 

Hugs!

Playing in Darnell's NBUS Challenge

Hi Friends!

Back to participate in Darnell's NBUS Challenge. If you haven't "met" Darnell, you should go check out her super fun and fabulous blog, here. She is a great gal who has a very big heart and a truly wonderful way with words that will leave you in stitches. She coined the acronym NBUS-Never Before Used Schtuff and occasionally has challenges for us to break out and use our hoard or supplies. You can check out all the rules and such here. I believe the challenge ends on the 18th, so you'd better get a hoppin'.

Onto my card...I recently celebrated my birthday and my good friend, Becky, gifted me with, among other goodies, this great Impression Obsession gingham background stamp. She knows how much I adore the gingham look. I had to break it out and use it right away. Not sure that was truly the intent with Darnell's challenge, but it fits the criteria, so I'm going with it. :)

I got the idea for the card online somewhere, only a different background was used. 

I inked up all those Lawn Fawn leaves, the background and the (Lawn Fawn)thanks with Close To My Heart inks, What can I say? I was feeling like getting inky. The thanks is also covered with Wink of Stella. 

Thanks for stopping by.

I truly appreciate the visit. 

Have a great day.

Hugs, 

Crocheted Retro Ornament Throw

Hi Crafty Friends!

Long time no see. I'm so sorry about my prolonged silence. I'm back to work, but our schedule is very different with Amy in high school now. I have to drive her to and from school. It's not bad, but it takes up time. She's loving high school so far. She is in marching band and played in her first football game a couple of weeks ago. The band sounded really good, but I might be a little biased. All that to say that my crafty time is limited. I don't do well stamping at night, so that doesn't help, either. 

Anyway, I have managed to work on some projects. I'm sharing a crochet project called a Retro Ornament Throw. It's a free pattern from Red Heart. The gal who wrote the pattern took the time to create some videos to show how to make the ornaments and then the strips and finally the finishing. Those were very helpful.  I just finished this project this afternoon. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. It is a gift for a friend who recently redecorated her home in a retro theme. 

I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn to make the project. What I really like about this yarn is there in no dye lot, so if you need to get more yarn you don't have to worry about it not matching up. And I did need to buy more soft white. I think that is the only mistake in the pattern. The pattern said 2 skeins of the soft white and I needed a little over three. I also had to substitute a color. The pattern called for a coral color, but it's been discontinued. I chose to use baby pink instead. 

That's it from me for now. I thank you so very much for stopping by. I will be posting a couple of cards in my next post. I just thought to keep them separated from the crochet project. 

Best Buds~Thanks a Lot

Hello friends!

I'm back with another card using Paper Smooches Best Buds stamp set. Eek! 

I had an idea of a card I wanted to create that used the banner image in the set. Terrific cardmakers have been using those single word dies to span a die cut circle and I think that looks really neat. So I thought I'd try my hand at it using the banner image. I thought I'd die cut a circle out of the top of the card and use a negative space of the die cut to act as a stencil and I would blend some colors like Kay Miller or Laura Bassen does. That was the look I was going for. But not what I ended up with!

So I start by taking a few attempts to die cut the circle on the main panel of my card, because, you know, the die kept shifting and going off center. My tape wasn't strong enough. Got that right. Okay, so I start blending using a negative space circle. I got a couple of hard lines, even though I thought I was being super careful, but liked the look by the time I was done. Picked up the stencil and realized that the "stencil" didn't cover the whole inside of the card and....I got ink on the inside panel of the card. Grr again. So, I start over and messed up the blending a.gain. Oy! I had a mini hissy fit and just about threw it all into the garbage can. But I took a couple of deep breaths and changed my plan. 

Instead of  doing the blended ink circle on the inside panel of the card, I used the same size panel and attached it with foam tape to the top piece with the die cut circle. Okay, I'm sure that doesn't make any sense. 

Here's the card I ended up with:

Originally, my idea was to have that blue inked circle be what you see on the inside when you open up the card. Now it's attached with foam tape to that embossed panel and when you open up the card you have the full white panel to write your note or stamp your sentiment. Would you believe that when I attached the embossed piece that was covered with foam tape to the card base, I did it crooked? Oh my gosh, it was just about the last straw for me today. But I carefully cut it off the card base and attached it to a new one. 

I took a close up of the circle because I liked what I decided to do here. I used my clear Wink of Stella pen and covered the blue inked circle. I love how sparkly it is! Then I added some Stickles to the center of the flowers and used a Gelly Stardust pen on the leaves. I also added some foam under the banner to help keep it from bending in the open space behind it. 

That embossing folder is a Darice brand and I colored the images with pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I so appreciate the visit!

Best Buds Surprise!

Hi Friends!

I got a huge surprise last week when my sweet friend,  Ms C left me a comment telling me that I had won a prize from Paper Smooches(for a comment I left on my massively talented friend, Kay Miller's, blog). I was absolutely giddy. I knew for sure which stamp set I wanted to order, Best Buds. I also was able to select a few dies. Squeal! Shipping was super fast, too! Thanks, Ms. C, Kay, and Paper Smooches!!

I sat down and stamped several of the images onto white cardstock (Michaels Recollections 110lb white). I knew for sure the first image I was going to color was the one with the flowers in the jar. I used my trusty colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits and got to work. 

I kept it simple and straightforward. Then I added some Wink of Stella as well as a little bit of Gelly Stardust pen. I also tried some white dots from my Signo pen, but I think that might be drying out or gooping up from lack of use. :( I ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug with a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle and adhered that to a piece of textured black cardstock from Hobby Lobby. Finally, I add a few iridescent sequins (also from Hobby Lobby). 

By the time I finished futzing with this one, my crafty time was up. But oh, I was smiling big time when I was done. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a wonderful day. 

Big hugs!

Fox Makes a Wish...

Hi Friends!

Here's a birthday card that Jessica and I made today. My godson has a birthday coming up and and I don't have a lot of masculine stamps. But I do have Party Animal from Lawn Fawn. A quick search on Pinterest gave us this inspiration. The card is pretty straight forward. Jessica did all the coloring. She really wanted to color Mr. Fox. I think she did a great job I did the random stamping. :)

I used primary colors for the little bits using Close to My Heart inks. I also used a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die. But the rectangle was a smidge too big. So I cut it down a bit and ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug again to get the "stitches" on the sides that got cut. Worked really well.  Mr. Fox is popped up with foam dots. 

It was fun working with my crafty co-hort this afternoon while her sister was at band practice. 

Thanks so very much for stopping by. I hope your week is going well. 

Shake, Shake, Shake...

Hi Friends!

Welcome to a new week in a new month! Yikes! It's August already and my darling daughters are scheduled to begin school in a few short weeks. That means I'm also slated to head back to work, too. Oh my. Rather that think about that, how about I show you some cards I made? That sounds like lots more fun!

Of course these cards are inspired by cards I saw online. I think you would faint dead away if they weren't and I don't want to be held responsible for any dead faints. ;)

The first one is completely inspired by the wonderfully talented Laura Bassen's card that you can see here. I wanted to do the blended ink background and, well, it kinda grew from there. 

I'd never done partial die cutting, so I wanted to try that. Took a few attempts, but I got it. Yay. Then I wanted to do the blended color background to look sunset-ish. I also wanted to add some additional interest, so I heat embossed a Hero Arts background stamp in white before blending Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon and Squeezed Lemonade inks. I made that portion a shaker, like Laura did. I used a bunch of Martha Stewart chunky glitters from a set I got at Michaels. I really liked the letters she used, but of course, I don't own them, so I cut them using my Cricut and Artiste cartridge. The letters are cut at 3/4 inch. I blended Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade on the letters and gave them a dose of Wink Of Stella (whihc is hard to see, but it is there) before gluing the letters onto the acetate. The palm trees and flipflops are from Lawn Fawns Life is Good stamp set adn the word sunshine is from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine set. I heat embossed the sunshine and blended Spiced Marmalade, then added Picked Raspberries to make it a little more pink. 

I added the waves to help break up the vastness of the blue, since there is no texture on CTMH's cardstock. But I added them after I made the shaker. Um. Should NOT have done that. Let's just say doing so gave me several opportunities to embellish and leave it at that, shall we? I sponged on some clouds using Lagoon ink and a template made from the Taylored Expressions cloud die. All in all, I am happy with the final result, but along the way wasn't sure that this wouldn't end up in the trash can. Whew!

Now, while I was on a roll, I decided to try another card. I really liked the one with a butterfly die cut in this post. Only...I don't have a large enough butterfly die. So, I decided to go off on my own. That should have alerted me that this might not go well. Let's just say, I'm going to show you the card, even though I don't love it. I think the idea is good, but the execution could use a little (okay, a lot of) work. Ha, ha! (not)

See, I told you!

And another example of how this idea just didn't quite work.

I blended many distress inks. Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick (mistake #1), Crushed Olive (mistake #2) and then I tried to fix it with a few other colors. Yeah, that didn't work. I thought the white behind the leaf cut out was too stark, so I inked CTMH's Creme Brulee. It softened it, but I didn't put enough Recollections fall colored chunky glitter in the space and the inside of the leaf looks majorly stark. Sigh. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's set So Thankful for You. I added some hemp to give the bottom of the card more weight and for good measure added a few sequins. Unfortunately, I cannot get past the fact that the top of the card looks like newborn baby poop. 

I may try this again, with a few modifications. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day.

Leafy Thanks Card

Hi There!

I know it's not fall yet, but I recently saw the Autumn issue of Cardmaker magazine and couldn't resist the cover art. Oh so pretty! There are lots of fun techniques and card inside, too. I wanted to make that cover card!! So I did my best with what I had on hand.

(click to enlarge if you like)

I don't own the creative medium stuff that the cover card has on the background piece. I really do like how shiny and vibrant it looks, but didn't want to spend the money it would cost to get the stuff for possibly just one card. I got to work seeing if I could mimic the look with my crafty supplies. I tried some Perfect Pearls, but realized I don't have any fixative.  So, while it looked good, I couldn't "keep" the look from rubbing off. Darn. I tried blending some inks on white paper. Nope, no good. Hmmmmmm I found some Brilliance pigment pads from several years ago in Galaxy Gold and Cosmic Copper. So, I used those on black cardstock. It looked okay and still had a bit of sheen. Yay. I dried the first layer with my heat gun and blended another layer on top of that and dried it again. Good enough. I used a Darice woodgrain embossing folder to get the texture. 

The original piece used a tag, but I don't have any tag dies and I spent so much time working on the background piece, I didn't want to fuss with pulling out a die cutting machine and searching for a tag cut. So I opted for a Sizzix arched die. I cut that out of vellum and stamped the Lawn Fawn thanks (from the Happy Everything set) in Versafine black pigment ink and clear heat embossed that. Next, I cut a bunch of Lawn Fawn stitched leaves from various colors of cardstock(mostly DCWV, but also Ocean cardstock from Close To My Heart). I inked the edges with some Close To My Heart inks-Ocean, Vineyard Berry and Sunset. Then I hunted down my container of Waxy Flax from when I used to be a Close To My Heart consultant many, many moons ago. I also found some hemp. Tied some bows and adhered those down with glue. I wanted to add some sequins or something, but I don't have any in fall colors. I decided on some Dew Drops (remember those???).

All in all I am very satisfied with the end result. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day. 

Two CAS Cards using Stamplorations Stencils

Hi Friends!

I have a couple of cards to share today. Yay! A couple of weeks ago I commented on a new to me blog called After-Hours Ink & Flowers. Oh the beautiful work that Laura Jane produces. You should check it out. Her profile picture is so sweet! I adore her hat. She wears is beautifully. Anyway, I didn't pay attention to the part of the post that talked about a giveaway, I just wanted to comment on the lovely creation. Imagine my surprise when I got a comment from my friend Carol of Just Me:c saying I needed to contact the gal at Stamplorations as I had won some blog candy! What!?! Apparently my name was selected from the comments on that particular post. Whoo hoooo! Last weekend I ordered a couple of stencils and they arrived today. Yay! Fast shipping that arrived in plenty of time for me to play. :)

I ordered a stencil (or maybe it should be called a mask) called Shower of Flowers thanks to Carol. She completely inspired me with this card. I loved the colors! Here is my take using the stencil/mask, Ripe Persimmon and Tattered Rose distress inks. The sentiment is Avery Elle Oh Happy Day and I wasn't sure where to put it. I think it works. I added, though you can't really see it in the photo, some Wink of Stella all along the inside edges of  the white spaces on the butterflies for a little bit of sparkle. Thanks so much Carol, both for the heads up and the inspiration!!

The other stencil I ordered is called Leaf Prints and I chose to ink it with Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks. The sentiment is from the same Avery Elle set. I added the Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins for a touch of bling. 

I could have added more layers to the cards, but I really wanted the stencils to shine this first time using them. These were so fun to play with. I think I will have a lot of fun trying out different color schemes and backgrounds with them. 

Thanks so very much for stopping by.  I hope you are having a great day. 

Floating Along...

Hello!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Things have been a little quiet here on the old blog recently. That is because my dad flew in for a week long visit. It's our summer ritual. One I'm very happy to be a part of. This year's visit was extra special as he celebrated his 85th birthday while here! Yay! My oldest brother was able to sneak away from where he lives in Idaho to be here as well. We had a little party for him and pampered him as much as he'd let us. To look at him, you would be hard pressed to believe he is 85. He is slowing down a bit, and suffers from diminishing eyesight due to macular degeneration, but he is always ready to go shopping! He lives in drought stricken southern California and aside from the joy he got from seeing his granddaughters, his next biggest joy was experiencing a few pretty loud thunderstorms. *Ü* He saw more rain in his week here than he has in a couple of years back home! Sure wish I could have sent some rain home with him, that is for sure.

Not long after he left, we got word that our good friend and neighbor took a fall and broke her ankle. :( Not only that, she messed up her big toe on the other foot! So not good! She's going to have a hard time getting around for the next month or two. I wanted to make her a card and thought this image might help her dream of where she'd like to be over where she has to be right now. I picked the image up at Tiddly Inks and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. My coloring is completely inspired by one of the samples shown with the digital stamp.

I was thinking if she could think about floating along on the water maybe she could imagine away any discomfort she is feeling. And while the drink may look like lemonade...it could have a little sumthin' sumthin' in it to help take away the pain, too, right? 

Anyway, that's it from me today. I hope you are having a great day!

Jane's Doodle Owl Watercolored ala Jennifer McGuire :)

Hi there!

On the 4th of July my local scrapbook/stamp store had a one day sale. Since we were in town I took some time to check it out. As I wandered the aisles I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked down toward the bottom of the section for owl stamps and goodies and saw the very same Jane's Doodle stamp set Jennifer McGuire used in her video on watercoloring and stamping here. That was last August and I've never quite been able to get that card out of my mind. I never expected to see it in this store! Lucky day for me!

Of course, when I got home I wanted to play with it, but had to wait. It was a holiday after all. :)

So, I got to work on it Sunday. Yes, this is a shameless CASE of Jennifer's card. I even used some Peerless watercolors. Not the ones she did as I don't have the same set, but who I liked the colors I had. I even added Perfect Pearls to get the shimmer. I took my time and let it dry over night. Then with bated breath, I cut through one wing. Ohhhh that hurt just a bit. In the end though, I did it because I just adored the card Jennifer had made. 

Here's how mine came out:

Tried to angle so you can see the shimmer.

He's a cutie!

(Feel free to click on any photo to enlarge it).

I even added Perfect Pearls to the background color. It's quite shimmery and I like it! 

Big smiles at how this one came out. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I hope you are having a happy day. 

Hugs,

Jeanne

Twofer :)

Hi Friends!

Hope you had a great weekend. My family met up with some friends and took a very enjoyable walk to a city park and watched fireworks burst almost right above us. It was pretty cool. When we got home and went to bed, we couldn't sleep. Someone in the neighborhood decided to host their own show for a couple of hours(!) and it was way loud. Not so cool. 

But they finally stopped around 1:30 am or so.

Thank goodness.

Anyway, I got a couple of cards made. Which are inspired (okay, cased) by cards I saw online. 

This first one was inspired by this one.  I really liked the blue and the orange. I did tweak it a bit. :)

I don't have any diagonal stripes! Oh my! But I did have some old Close To My Heart pattern paper that worked. I also chose to random stamp the bubble stamp all over the large strip to give additional interest. The images are colored with pencil and blended with odorless mineral spirits. 

And here's the other part of the twofer...

I have been following a blog called Just Me: c and Carol is one of the nicest bloggers around. Her blog is simply a delight and so is she. She's also a pretty good enabler, so be forewarned if you've never been to her blog before. :) I just bought Ripe Persimmon distress ink thanks to her wonderful use of that color.

Anyway, the minute I saw this card I was smitten. I had a Spellbinders die that is so similar to the one Carol used, I knew I could case her card once I got delivery of Ripe Persimmon. Here's my version. Thanks for the inspiration, Carol!!

I used a Hero Arts butterfly die and Lawn Fawn hugs die. (I'm working on adding a few single word dies to my stash). 

That's it from me today. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a great week.