365 Cards - Challenges 171 & 172

3 more sleeps, and I'm off for a week. I'm so looking forward to flying to Michigan to see my daughter, Allison!! I haven't seen her in over a year (I'm going through withdrawals). This may actually be my last post for a while - busy days before we fly off. Have fun carding without me!

365 Cards Challenge 171 was a Tueday's Trio: Triangle-Sticker-Button, you must incorporate these three things in your card.

While my card does have all three things, I'm not happy with it. I like the components - but not the way they work together... but I'm low on time, so it will have to do.

I think I'll be covering up the sticker 'hi' with another, more visible sentiment in black (to offset the dark frame)

I do LOVE this stamp though - this giraffe has attitude!! My husband laughed out loud when he saw him, too. I HAD to buy him!! Some things you just can't resist. :D

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; Frame - Little Yellow Bicycle; Black Crackle Paint - Tim Holtz; Stamp - Dog Gone Stamps; Buttons - from stash; Stickers - Making Memories

365 Cards Challenge 172: ABCs and 123s. The details: Create a card with alphabet stickers and include at least one number. Don't have alpha stickers? If you have a stamp set with individual letters and numbers, that qualifies as well.

This was actually a very quick card for me. My friend, Kieran, sent me this image in an email, and I knew right away I had to use it for a card. I'll probably use it again, too... I can imagine all sorts of pithy captions. LOL

The inside reads "Again..."

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; Patterned Paper - Karen Foster; Stickers - Making Memories

Work calls....gotta go

Have a GREAT day (and if I don't see you for a while, have a GREAT week!)

365 Cards - Challenge 170

Pam has given us a whopper today! The challenge is called "Double Duty".

"Today's challenge is called Double Duty because I want you to make a card that doubles as something else.... examples would be a bookmark, a place card, or some sort of pocket card. HOWEVER - NO GIFT CARD HOLDERS OR MONEY HOLDERS!"

Despite a marvelous example by Gloria (a phenomenal gift bag!) I was stumped all day about what I wanted to do. I guess that's OK, since I was at work and couldn't really start anything anyhow. LOL I had brought a CD into work with all the pictures from our company picnic - and that got me thinking... CD case/card.

This one is for my Dad - family photos all cropped and edited and organized into files by date (He appreciates that sort of thing). His birthday is in October and I'll be saving this until then, so don't tell him!

The front reads: 2008-2009 Every Day Moments...
The inside reads: Wonderful Memories... Happy Birthday, Dad!

Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants (Daily Grind); Alpha Stickers - Basic Grey (Recess); Camera Sticker - Sandylion; Photo Editing - Picnik.com; Stamps for CD - CTMH; Ink - StazOn Black;


Now I'm off to see what the rest of you have done, and say hello on your blogs. :D

Have a scrappy day!

365 Cards - Challenge 169

Well it's Super Sketchy Sunday over at 365 Cards. I love SSS! Pam gives us some great layouts to start with - and I love seeing how everyone interprets the same sketch and puts their own twist on it!

Isn't this a great sketch? Seriously, if you haven't already - go check out the design team's cards. Awesome!

I found today's challenge exceptionally easy - because I was inspired (again) by great paper! This paper obsession is becoming a problem. My Amex has just about reached its melting point this month. LOL

I just received this Anna Griffin Sierra cardstack in the mail on Friday, and I was itching to use it. Gorgeous! I love the matte look, and the country colours. This paper is so great with raffia - which of course I just had to use!

A metal ribbon slide from the dollar store is the final finishing touch.

Have a scrappy day!!

365 Cards - Challenge 168

Day 168 at 365 Cards brings the "Touch of Toile" challenge: use toile as the background pattern.

We were given a great example by Vicky - she used actual toile fabric on her stunning card. So there I was... no toile of either the paper or fabric variety. This left me with 2 options... go shopping or go surfing. Busy day - no time to shop, so a Google search it was. I found some great examples, but very few with file sizes large enough to print a decent looking background... but the few I found were beautiful, indeed! There is something very elegant about toile.

My card started off life as a birthday card, but I decided that the flowers looked too much like poinsettias to not be Christmas. And hey, this is the first time that I've ever created a Christmas card before November! Is it sacrilege for a cardmaker to say that? Well, I said it!! :P

Cardstock - Coredinations (I was out of Bazzill Black); Toile - Internet Pic printed on HP Everyday Photo Paper (matte); Ribbon - from stash; flourishes and flowers - Silhouette; Metal Tag Holder - dollar store; Finished with Swarovski crystals & Pink Stickles.


Not for a challenge, but still lots of fun - here's a card I made this morning to thank the hosts of our company picnic - which was today... it's the reason I'm posting so late! (I usually finish my Saturday challenges first thing!)

Simple card... using Karen Foster's wonderful red-checked paper (aptly called 'Picnic Cloth') and some sushi grass from dinner last night (yum!!) The mustard container and sentiment were cut by my new Silhouette. Oh yeah, I'm lovin' that baby!! :D

Cardstock - CTMH; DP - Karen Foster; Grass - re-used sushi paper.

I hope your Saturday was as fun as mine (cardmaking and a picnic!)

See ya on the 365 blog tomorrow - it's Super Sketchy Sunday. (I love SSS!!)

365 Cards - Challenges 166 & 167

:D This is me smiling from ear to ear. I've been playing with my new Silhouette digital cutter, and boy is it fun. I'm still learning the ropes and have wasted a bit of paper trying different things, but this thing rocks!! (I especially like being able to cut any font that's on my computer!!)

Anyhoo... down to business. Besides 'playing' I have made time to work in some challenges at my fave blog...365 Cards.

Challenge 166 - Card Recipe:

The challenge: Complete your card using only the ingredients below. Notice that this challenge DOES require you to include glitter:
Ingredients -
4x7 card
5 blossoms
glitter
wet embossed sentiment
3 different patterned papers

OK, this is my first go at a card recipe & I gotta tell you, that I found it tough - not really for the ingredients that are to be included - but for the ones that are absent...brads, ribbon etc.

I've used the first pp as the entire background (isn't that a luscious paper - it's flocked!) and added the 2nd and 3rd papers as the flowers themselves. I cheated and added a cut out flourish, which I glittered and ruined LOL I think the glue was drying, because most of the glitter has fallen off. Oh well... I also added glitter in the form of Stickles as the flower centres, but of course, I had to smoosh one that wasn't quite dry as I took pics. I'm skilled like that.

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; PP - DCWV (La Creme Stack); Glitter - Martha Stewart Onyx; Stickles - Copper; Sentiment - Inkadinkadoo; Embossing - CTMH

Challenge 167 - Gift Card

The challenge was to make your card look like a beautifully wrapped present.

Well, it's wrapped... I don't know if it's beautiful or not, but it's fun and I like it! :D The paper is really bright and fun - from Bella Blvd. I had to add an intricately cut little flourish (a product of my earlier play!) and a tag laced with Stickles to add some oomph with glitter. I'm really getting behind this whole glitter thing. It's been fun.... and that prize!! The weekly prize is posted today. My word, I'm salivating at the thought of playing with those Caribbean colours! Gorgeous. One of us is going to be lucky, lucky, lucky indeed. :D
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; DP - Bella Blvd; Sentiment - Stampendous?; Ribbon - Offray

Thanks for poppin' by!

My Silhouette SD Cutter is Here!!

Wooo hooo! Big fun in the old town 2nite! My Silhouette Cutter just arrived (I had it delivered to work - 'cuz basically, that's where I am during the day)Isn't it beautiful?!!
Ooooh, it's only noon and I can't wait for this day to be over! I wanna go home and play!!

365 Cards - Catch Up 163, 164 & 165 + PIO 10

I was just about to post 163 & 164 and I noticed that Day 165 was just posted by Pam... so I sat back down at my craft table and made a quickie. :)

I noticed that none of these cards used patterned paper, so they'd all qualify for Pile It On's Challenge # 10! If I'd have to pick one to be entered, I'd pick this first one:

365 Cards Day 163 - Try a Technique: Masking

Truth be told, I don't use this technique a lot. Perhaps I will use it a bit more now... time will tell. I stamped the flower first, then masked it and stamped the two chains with VersaMark. A little silver embossing powder and I had the look I wanted. I turned my attention to the flower, which needed a little oomph if it was to compete with the silver chains. Glitter, baby!! :) I finished off with a pewter-coloured bead for the flower centre + a funky piece of real chain for added dimension.

Card Stock - CTMH; Flower Stamp - CTMH, Chain Stamps - Inkadinkadoo (Chain Reaction); Sentiment - Fiskars; Bead & Chain - Dollar Store


365 Cards Day 164 - Colour Scheme:




For me, this one was tough. First I tried to combine challenges with Mojo Monday. Yeah... that was a wasted hour. Piali did it - skillfully with panache... but alas, I could not.

When I concentrated on the colours alone, I could do it. I didn't have any DP with all 5 colours, so I opted for simple blocks of colour, stamped with a Penny Black background script. The bird was painted with Tim Holtz's Distress Crackle black, which looked good, but left the whole card rather flat... so I added more oomph again with glitter. While I like the result, there are definitely things I would change if I was going to do the card over. C'est la vie.

Cardstock - CTMH, DCWV; Ribbon - Offray; Chipboard Bird - Little Yellow Bicycle; Background Stamp - Penny Black; Sentiment - CTMH; Paint - Tim Holtz Distress Black; Glitter - Martha Stewart Onyx; Metal Tag - Dollar Store

365 Cards Day 165 - Shape Up: Star

Today's card (rather, tomorrow's card... I'm a west coastie, so I got to finish a whole day early!! LOL) had to feature a star as the dominant shape on the card.

Simple card! I just picked up these fun stickers at the dollar store (yeah, I go to dollar stores a LOT) I loved the colours and they were just so darned sparkly! Finish off with a satin ribbon (don't look to closely at the cut edge - my scissors are apparently getting dull) and a metal tag - and done!

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; Ribbon - unknown from stash; Star Stickers & Metal Tag - Dollar Store; Sentiment - computer generated, font: BlackJack

Whoo hoo! That was one crafty evening... and it's nigh on midnight now, so I'm heading off to catch some zzz's or I'll be useless at work tomorrow!

Thanks for poppin' by this crazy lady's blog. :)

Basic Grey Challenge - Week 1

We're heading to my sister-in-law's later... so I had some more time to play with paper and glue. What a challenging sketch posted for challenge # 1 on Basic Grey's new challenge blog!
Tough, but FUN!!


As always, the ideas for me are started with great paper... and then the ideas flow from there. One thing you can count on with Basic Grey is great paper - and great colours!

The sketch is all pretty and pink and flowery - well, I didn't go that way at all!! LOL

Todays entry is almost entirely made up of papers from BG's Obscure line, including the Design Papers, Die Cuts & Alphabet Stickers. Obscure is not really a pretty line, but it's definitely way funky - It's now disco'd, which is too bad, cuz it's fab and FUN - especially for teen cards and such... but happy for me - I got a fab deal at Peachy Cheap on it. Yay!!

I flipped the sketch and got to work.

There was no way a ribbon was going to fit on this grunge theme, so I opted for a couple of die-cut arrows. I like 'em! Same with the flower - the fun stripey cloud die cut is standing in for that.

I loved the paper so much, I decided to pop some inside the card, too. :) I'm going to save this one for my niece...

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; Blue Card - CTMH; Design Papers - Basic Grey; Die Cuts - BG; Alpha Stickies - BG; Eyelets - from stash; Inside Sentiment - computer generated (font: Inked God - free download!!)

I absolutely adore card-making! Thanks for popping by and sharing in my fun little obsession.

Cheerio!

365 Cards - Challenge 162

Challenge 162 is a Sketch. I love Super Sketchy Sundays! Today's sketch from Pam is simple, but you should see the variety of cards produced by the Design Team and the entrants. Fabulous!

I cheated a bit by adding some elements (kites) to the right side of the card - but it needed them! The card was too plain otherwise. I really like this one (I think it's fun) and I hope my nephew will, too. :)

We were supposed to add some glitter, but I didn't have to - this lovely kite paper by Best Creation is already glittery! I hope to get my glue n' glitter out tomorrow.

Cardstock - unknown; Design Paper - Best Creation Inc; Sentiment - CTMH; Ink - SU! Ruby Red; Ribbon - Offray; Metal Tab Holder - Dollar Store; Thread & Brads - from my stash.

I'm off to have a cuppa joe with Harvey, and then we're off to visit Judy (my sister-in-law, whom I adore!) If I have time later, I may try my hand at the Basic Grey challenge sketch. :)

Have a great day!!

365 Cards - Challenges 160 & 161

I love weekends. I was happily up until 2:30 card-crafting because I didn't have to worry about getting up in the morning for work. Of course, I woke up at 7am anyway... just like any other day! Ha ha on me. I made these two cards last night, but was too tired at the end of it all to post them.

The challenge for Day 160 at 365 Cards: Lovely Lace

We had to add lace to our card... a little or a lot....and boy, did I have to dig to find a piece of lace... I'm not really a lacey kinda girl ~ the digging wrought an old lace collar from somebody's old dress. I actually remember finding this at a thrift shop when my girls were wee... I was going to sew it onto one of their dresses. 20 years later, it's in my sewing box unattached to anything.

After removing the old piece of dress that was still attached, I ironed it and attached it with brads to my base card - which is frosted acrylic from Shortcuts, with a diagonal dp behind.

The rest was simplicity itself... glue on two flowers, cut, distress and stamp a tag sentiment and finish with a corner rub-on.

I really like the result. I may not be a lacey girl, but maybe I'll become a lacey old lady...

Card base - Shortcuts; Designer Paper - My Mind's Eye, Signature Suite; Lace - ancient; Flowers - Prima; Sentiment - Inkadinkadoo; Rub-on - Little Yellow Bicycle

Challenge 161: Cool Collage

The challenge entailed covering our card entirely with DP and embellishments.

My entry is actually my second attempt at this challenge. The first will not see the business end of my digital camera... nor the light of day. I may cannibalize it for it's parts and use them on other cards... or just toss the whole bleedin' thing. LOL

The second attempt is much more subdued. A simple quilt of papers with a tad embellishment. Technically it fits the challenge. The base cardstock is white - and you don't see any of that, do you?

I wasn't sure what sentiment to put on this one, so I left it blank ~ inside too. I think this'll make a nice way to send a letter, although the metal charm may make mailing a tad more expensive. C'est la vie.

Card Stock - Bazzill Basics; DP - K & Co, MME (Signature Suite, Bohemia & 29th St. Market); Ribbon - Offray; Charm & Buttons - nameless from the stash.

I am so excited that I won some blog candy from the lovely Amy Tsuruta. What fun! Amy's awesome. It's her birthday... and SHE gives away presents. You know what's really cool- there are cupcake stamps in there.... yahoo! Love 'em! Not only that - I'm doing another fund-raiser (beside the ongoing card sale) for CBCF in September... Cupcakes for a Cure. To see pics of last year's event, which raised over $1,000 for the foundation, click here. Those cupcake stamps will be used to make thankyou cards for the volunteer bakers. Yay, yay, yay! Thanks Amy!

Well I'm off. I'm posting in my jammies because I have no more clean undies. LMAO I guess there's no getting around the fact that I need to do laundry and housework today. I have a heavy date with Mr. Clean. Dang!!

See you wonderful ladies tomorrow for Sketchy Sunday!

365 Cards - Challenge 159

Today's challenge at 365 Cards - Setting the Scene: Indoors

Gulp! No 'indoor' stamps! I had this challenge at the back of my mind all day, and looked to Amy's example and the other entries for inspiration. Great stuff... but I had to work with what I had. I decided to paper piece a room... but had no idea what I was going to place into it to make it interesting or fun.

After work, I was paging through my stamp stash (I keep my acrylic stamps organized in page protectors in a binder) I found this cute little pup from Penny Black. I love PB's critters. Too cute.

I stamped and watercoloured him then cut him out (carefully - didn't want to lop an ear off!). The image had a rose in his mouth, but I did cut that off (intentionally) and stamped it separately... too hard to cut out the stem, otherwise! I used the wire from a paper mini flower and glued the rose head onto it and inserted it through the pups mouth. I popped him and his 'mess' to give the card some dimension. More dimension was added by using Liquid Glass on the pup's nose, rose and doo (gotta have shiny doo!)

The inside of the card reads "I messed up"

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics; DP - unknown from stash; Image - Penny Black; Sentiment - Technique Tuesday; Metal Frame - Dollar store; Watercolour Pencils - CTMH; Liquid Glass - CTMH

It's only 9-ish, but I'm heading off to bed. I can hardly keep my eyes open. No more craftin' 2nite!

'night cyber-buddies!

Thank You Diana... and 365 Cards Catch Up

The very first thing I've got to do is send out a HUGE thank you to Diana Crick (the inventor of the Scor-Pal)! I work with her daughter-in-law, Jaylene, at Safe Software, and when Diana found out I was making and selling cards to raise funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation she sent a generous gift... a new Scor-Pal + Scor-Mat + an extra Scor-Tool!! How awesome is that!! This thing is the bees knees, let me tell you! LOVE IT. Not only was it a complete breeze to score and fold these two cards, I had a wonderful cutting and working surface to do so on with the Scor-Mat. Thank you Diana, and thank you Jaylene, for delivering this gift! Look, you can see I'm using it already... and my mind is swimming with ideas after visiting the Scor-Pal website!! Can you say "fun"?


Now... I'm a bit behind on my 365 Cards challenges, but not to worry, I found time to play with paper tonight. Yay!!

365 Cards Challenge 157 - Imagine This: Sunflowers

The day's challenge was all about sunflowers. It wasn't required that we have a sunflower on our card - only that the design of a card was inspired by a sunflower.

It's a good thing a sunflower wasn't required, because I only put ¼ of one on there! LOL Without any sunflower stamps or images... and not wanting to go onto the internet to find a picture, I decided to make my own paper sunflower. The petals were time consuming, but the card is pretty simple.

I Cuttlebugged a partial circle with my fave D'vine Swirls folder, and added some cinnamon Stickles for interest (I should start a Stickles Anonymous group - but I'm not ready to quit!). I cut a bunch of 3" petals randomly out of gold card stock and watercoloured them just a tad for fun. I curled them by hand before gluing them to the back of the brown flower centre. I love the dimension that added. When the glue was dry, I popped up the flower onto the card and added a few embellies from my growing stash. I hope you like it!

Card stock - Bazzill Basics; Cuttlebug folder - D'vine Swirls; Metal Star - unknown from the stash; Dream Chipboard - dollar store



365 Cards Challenge 158 - What's Your Sign

The assignment for today was to put a sign on our cards (not astrological) ... be it stamp or paper or the card itself.

I decided to make a mini sign out of wood. Those wooden business cards from Lee Valley Tools came out of my embellie box again.

Simple card, really. The image is actually 3 images (all Penny Black hedgies) making up a family on a birthday parade. I watercoloured the hedgehogs, but also did some colouring with markers for the flowers - to brighten 'em up. I topped it off by razor cutting by Hedgy's hand and tucking the slice of wood in there so it looks like he's actually holding the sign. I like it, but then I really am easily amused. :)

Card Stock - CTMH; Design Paper: SEI (Lovebirds); Images - Penny Black; Watercolour Pencils - CTMH; Markers - Staedtler; Ink: Staz-On & Versafine; Wooden Sign - Lee Valley Tools

Well that was fun! I'm going to put these two cards in the bin...
and hopefully raise some more money to put an end to breast cancer!!


Thanks for poppin' by the blog... leave a comment if you've got the time. Comments always make me smile. :)

Cuttlebug Spot Challenge

This is my first entry to the Cuttlebug Spot challenge... (#42 - find the blinkie + use your fave folder)
I'm not sure why I've waited so long - I love the 'bug, and I've been lurking on that blog for a month now, checkin' out the DT cards and some of the entries.

It's actually a little hard to see the embossed background because of the dotty paper, but I used the Divine Swirls folder on those, and used the die cut from the Love Language folder & die set to cut out the word love twice (I layered the green over the burgundy to give it depth and shadow) I couldn't resist using the pompom ribbon I just picked up... the colour was perfect, and the theme was rather round with all those dots and swirls. I love it! Fun stuff.

The "Love" is surrounded by tiny pink Swarovski crystals, 'cuz a girl can never have too much bling!

That concludes this holiday Monday for this Canadian working girl. Dang! Back to work tomorrow. Gosh, it was nice to spend a whole day in my craft room. I didn't get a whole lot made, but the place is organized and I feel great.

Cardstock: CTMH; Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Cuttlebug Folder: Divine Swirls; Cuttlebug Die: Love Language; Ribbon: Offray

As Tigger would say "TTFN" (ta ta for now)

365 Cards - Challenge 155 + 2 More

It's Ad Inspired day at 365 Cards, and here's the pic from which we were to gain inspiration ~ as chosen by 365 DT member, Gloria. (Be sure to check out Gloria's card based on this ad - it's simply perfection!) Lovely picture... lots of inspiration there!

I've also chosen to enter this card into two other challenges: PaperPlay's Week# 28: Add Dimension & Pile it On's Challenge # 9: Use at least 3 flowers.

I took inspiration from both the colours and textures in the picture. The weathered green of the table and the wicker... the focal point of the picture ~ and my card ~ are the orange flowers... of course, my dollar store white paper flowers required a watercolour makeover before they'd work - but that was fun!

Papers: unknown from stash; Cuttlebug folder: bloom dots; Sentiment: Technique Tuesday

Thanks for visitin' my crazy l'il blog. I sure do have fun mucking about with paper and glue and posting the results of all my fun for you. And thanks for posting your 'fun' too. I am so inspired every day...

Have a happy, scrappy day!

365 Cards - Challenge 155

It's Super Sketchy Sunday over at 365 cards, and here's the sketch we were to base our cards on:

I'm not crazy about my result. The idea was so clear in my head, but it didn't come out the way I envisioned it. The components are OK, but they don't seem to work together. Eh, happens to almost everyone...

I like the burlap on the card (dollar store find) but don't like the colour... it's too bright. Unfortunately the only other choice (yellow) was even brighter.
I do like the buttons, which are made out of shell (and were a great find in my mum's button box - thanks Mum!) I think that I should have matted the crackle paper, for more depth and impact.

Oh well, tomorrow's another day... with another challenge, and I get the day off with pay! Yay! Statutory holidays!!! I plan on crafting for 8 hours, all the while giggling gleefully and mumbling "I'm getting paid for this"... well, that and sleeping in. :)

Cardstock & Papers: Nameless in the stash; Image: Penny Black; Sentiment: Technique Tuesday; Burlap: Dollar Giant; Shell Buttons: Mom

Thanks for popping on by the madhouse :)