Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #85

Well, it would seem like I'm still in time for the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge (in my post below, I was bemoaning the fact that I missed the deadline for the Casual Friday Challenge for this week, even though I finally got around to making a card for it! oh well...) My color inspiration was from this week's Playdate Cafe challenge, but I didn't get this posted in time for that either! (will I ever get my act together? ;) It was to use black & white with a splash of hot pink.

Here's the WMS sketch:

And here is my take on this sketch:



I bought this stamp set at Christmas time, but ran out of time to use it, so I love that I'm able to use it for things other than Christmas cards. The sweet wishes stamp can be perfect for birthdays! (I'll probably add a "birthday" type sentiment to the front later to make it clear that that's what it's for)

Supply list:

Cardstock: Smokey Shadow (PTI)
Patterned Paper: Black Diamonds from the Be Mine collection (Echo Park)
Stamp Set(s): Candy Jar Christmas (WMS)
Ink/Colorants: Black, Watermelon (CTMH); Copic Sketch markers (RV25, RV04, RV06, C1)
Embellishments:
Tools: Standard Scalloped Circles die (Spellbinders)

Make It Monday #54

Wow, I actually got to make a card this week for the Make It Monday challenge! It's been awhile...since I'm always pressed for time, I thought I'd participate in the Casual Friday Challenge also and combine these two challenges on one card. Make It Monday's challenge was to use glitter(ed) buttons, and the CFC was to use ribbon on the card in a creative way. I tried to do both here! Edited to add: I just realized that I missed the deadline for the CFC challenge...darn, it seems like I've been doing that a lot lately! I make the card, then don't get around to posting it until it's too late! Oh well, at least I got a cute, creative prompt out of it! :)

Here are my cards (I made a couple different ones, slightly different):



I used Everyday Button Bits (an oldie but goodie...this one never seems to stop being adorable!) I used gold & silver glittered buttons, and to make them stand out a bit more, cut some coordinating patterned paper to glue to the backs of them. I like the result.



For the above, I used an already scrunchy ribbon and then just pleated it carefully using a LOT of terrifically tacky tape (this is similar to scor-tape but can't be ripped by hand...it has to be cut with scissors, which makes it a lot harder to work with, but I have a ton of the stuff so I'm trying to use it up before I get all scor-tape to replace it. Works equally as effectively as scor-tape)



For this card I thought I'd try diecutting some ribbon. I used PTI's eyelet lace border. It took a little bit of doing, (some of the little circle centers didn't want to come all the way out, though I'd run it through my Big Shot 3 times), but ultimately I managed to get it all cut.

And below are some detail shots of the buttons.





Supply list:

Cardstock: So Saffron (SU)
Patterned Paper: Meadow from Lazy Summer Collection (Three Bugs in a Rug)
Stamp Set(s): Everyday Button Bits (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Chocolate Chip (SU); Crystal Blue (CTMH)
Embellishments: Double-Stitched Ribbon, Baja Breeze (SU); Yellow Ribbons (Current scrapbooking); Glittered buttons (OT)
Tools: Eyelet Lace Border die (PTI)

Birthday card catch-up...

So it's been awhile since I've posted...it seems that I just can't get my posting-regularly groove back on in 2012 since the holidays cut all of that out at the end of 2011. It's also that time of year when I make a stack of birthday cards for a few lovely friends & relatives who graciously buy my cards to share with others throughout the year. So I'm usually spending January and February on these projects. Here are the fruits of my labor...






























There are too many supplies to name here...but suffice it to say that I had a lot of fun pulling from my materials, some of which I hadn't used in a long time. If anyone happens to see this post and has a question about materials, feel free to ask!

Papertrey January 2012 Blog Hop

Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to participate in a Papertrey blog hop...and I'm barely fitting it in today! Wow, it sure is hard to find the time to do all the things I want to do in life. I find myself combining challenges all the time to try to kill two birds with one stone.

The challenge today is to post a favorite project from 2011 and then make something new that is inspired by the previous one. When I read that assignment, I immediately thought of the following card I made last year:



I loved the way this one turned out...I made it as part of another PTI challenge to use buttons on a card. I had this really fun resist paper from Stampin' Up that I used to ink up in various colors and add the coordinating butterflies.

So today, I wanted to use the same resist paper, and I wanted to use the Love Birds stamp set because of the sentiment, "Nothing's the same when you're gone"...my husband is leaving tomorrow for two weeks for a mission trip to Africa and I'm not looking forward to him being gone so far away for so long...hence the card to put into his luggage.

My hubby got me a Copic Airbrush system for Christmas, and I haven't had much time to play with it, so I thought I'd pull it out and see if it works on this resist paper. I found out that using the system is going to take some practice. It doesn't entirely create the effect I was going for because it doesn't go on "hard" enough to make the resist stand out. This whole card was an exercise in trial & error. I'm not entirely thrilled with the way it turned out, but when that happens, I try to chalk it up as a learning experience rather than feeling like I wasted my precious crafting time by making something that didn't turn out as well as I'd envisioned in my head.

Adding...in case you're wondering what the little blue blobs are next to the little bird cages, those are supposed to be the little hearts emanating from the birds...(that stamp is also in the Love Birds set)...they don't show up in the way that I'd like them to, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what to do to them to make them stand out more...I tried glitter pens, going over them with markers, tossed around the idea of adding glitter glue (but then they'd really look like blobs...those little hearts aren't a defined-enough heart shape), tried stamping on separate paper and popping them up with foam tape (too hard to cut them out and make them look good, they are too small), punching out different little hearts to layer over those (all my punches & dies were too big), stamping over them and adding embossing powder...everything....in the end I gave up because I had run out of time and nothing had worked. So they just look like little blue blobs. Oh well. ;)

Allrighty then, enough blabbing...here's today's card, a somewhat of a spin-off from my previous card...



On another note, I'm using a brand new camera for which I haven't had the time to read the manual to figure out how it works, so I'm not entirely excited about how the photo turned out either...but hey, just more learning curve going on there! :)

Supply list:

Cardstock: Smokey Shadow (PTI);
Patterned Paper: Presto Patterns Specialty DSP (SU)
Stamp Set(s): Love Birds (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Black, Moonstruck, Grey Wool (CTMH); Copic Markers B91, B93, B95, B97; Broken China, Faded Denim Distress Inks
Embellishments: Black grosgrain ribbon, Rhinestones (CTMH)
Tools: Ribbon Tags 2 die (Spellbinders); Love Birds bird cage die (PTI)

Scripture collage

With the busyness of the holidays, there were several projects that I just didn't have time to post. I thought I'd throw one of them on here now, as I enjoyed making them and liked the way they turned out. The first is a scripture collage that I made for my mom for Christmas. I just bought an inexpensive frame with 8 4x6 openings and filled each with a scripture. The My Mind's Eye Lost & Found line was perfect for this as several of their pages are already glittered with beautiful frames on them, which were perfect to stamp my scriptures in! The verses all came from Verve Stamps (their "plain jane" scripture stamps are so beautiful!) note: I apologize for the ugly white packaging showing up in several of the photos...I had already gotten it in there before I took photos and was too lazy to take it out again! ;)























The above photo I created with PTI's Outlines Alphabet, Fresh Alphabet + Copic markers plus a couple flourish stamps.

And here are some other things I made...a little note card set for my Grandma:



...and just some packaging for a couple of jewelry sets I got for my mom & sister...





I guess that oughta do it for today!

MIM #48 + WMSC79

I've had a rough time this week trying to get pictures...my lovely little point-n-shoot Casio that I've had for over six years is finally dying. It takes very nice pictures even though it's only 6MP and I've been happy with the results (plus a little editing in Photoshop) for my card photos. Now it's time for something new. I already missed one challenge because I couldn't get to taking pictures of the card I made (I'll include that one at the bottom just for fun) This post's card combines the Waltzingmouse Sketch for this week with Papertrey's Make It Monday challenge of using border dies to create backgrounds.

Here's the WM sketch (edited to add: which I  just realized that I missed the deadline for also!!!! I thought that their deadline was Friday evening, and I went to add my link only to find out it closes Friday at 9am my time!! Wow, bad luck for me this week for making cards and not getting them posted in time...drag):

And my card:



Clean & simple. Using Papertrey's Large Ricrack dies to create that partial background. I also created a card for last week's Casual Friday challenge, to use chipboard, but didn't get it posted in time. Here it is, just because I made it and I like it and I'm bummed that I got to busy to get it posted!



Supply list:

Birthday Wishes:

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Perfect Plum, Real Red, More Mustard (SU)
Stamp Set(s): Dainty Doilies LG, Fancy Phrases (WMS)
Ink/Colorants: Chocolate Chip, Perfect Plum (SU)
Embellishments: Lg Button, Purple rickrack (SU); Jewels (Queen & Co)
Tools: Doily Details die (PTI)

The Sweet Life:

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White (PTI); Pink Shimmer (Colorbok)
Stamp Set(s): Tiny Tags (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Chocolate (CTMH)
Embellishments: Chipboard focal point from the SWEET collection (DCWV); Pink organdy ribbon, safety pin (CTMH)
Tools: Tiny Tags die, Polka Dot impression plate (PTI)

Mojo Monday #222 + PDCC113

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted...the holidays were wonderful, but now it's time to get back to crafting!! My time is also taken up with lots of craft room cleaning and reorganizing and selling of unloved items...with limited time, it's hard to fit in the actual crafting and posting with all the extra other "meta-cardmaking" tasks! ;)

Ok, enough blah blah...getting right to the cards for this month's Mojo Monday contest...here's the sketch:

I combined it with this weeks Play Date Cafe challenge...

I had a really hard time finding just the right colors for the Play Date challenge...amazing that with all the massive amount of cardstock and patterned paper I have, I had a hard time matching these colors! They are quite unusual, I've decided...but very pretty. I finally found the colors I was looking for in my October Afternoon 8x8 paper packs, Thrift Shop & Fly a Kite. Once I had the patterned papers chosen, I decided to just use cream cardstock (I mean, "vanilla") to complete the sketch. I feel a little bit rusty after not crafting at all over the holidays (we were gone this year for the entire vacation)...but for my first try of the new year, I'm fairly happy with the way these turned out.



...and a variation of the first...



If by chance anyone happens to comment on these, I'd love to know which one of these cards you like better and why...thanks for looking! :)

Supply list:


Cardstock: Very Vanilla textured (SU!)
Patterned Paper: from Thrift Shop collection - "Collector's Item", from Fly a Kite collection - "Sprinklers" (October Afternoon)
Stamp Set(s): Love Deepens (Verve); Fillable Frames #4, Beautiful Blooms #2 (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Sage Shadow (SU!); Crystal Blue, Black, Juniper (CTMH)
Embellishments: Pearls (CTMH); Flower, brads (Making Memories)
Tools: Fillable Frames #4 die, Beautiful Blooms #1 dies, Tag Sale #5 die (PTI)