Flowers and Birthdays...

The dust is still abounding in my household because I spent the entire two days crafting and spending time with friends!  My kinda weekend!!  Betty Crocker, I am... NOT!

Started Friday with a bit of a craft room tidy and have come to the realization that my paper stash is ridiculous.  Two drawers full of 12 x 12 sheets + a box of books + a box of scraps (both rather big boxes).  I love paper... seriously, I do.  Colours, texture, pattern = heaven in my mind.  But still, things are getting out of hand with this obsession.  So I hereby swear not to buy any more paper until I've used up half of what I already have!  (except for the staple black and white card stock if I should run out of it... a girl's gotta be realistic)

I started my purge by making use of my scrap box and my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die cut.   Flower time!!   Making these is the perfect activity to do while visiting with a friend or, in my case on Saturday, watching hockey...   I cut out two of each (for a total of 8 flat paper flowers) of 12 different papers, packed and brought them along to my brother's house ...and started crumpling and layering when the hockey game started.   They're a bit time consuming, but I love the way these look:

Here are some of the cards I made from these luscious paper flowers this weekend:

I also made some simple birthday cards using the Cuttlebug birthday plate, and some giant brads that I found on clearance a year ago (stash cleansing is good!).   The balloon bows are kind of fun, too, I think:

My stamp stash is pretty major, too.   I have so many stamps that hadn't even been inked yet, so I thought I'd get to working with those...   This little dude is from Sugar Nellie - from a set called "Skull Boyz"  (don't think it's available any more)  I used Versamark and black heat embossing, then coloured him with a white gel pen.   LOVE IT!!  Why did I wait so long to stamp these guys, they are sooooo cute!    

Crafty weekends rock!  Craft on, my friends, craft on....

- Carolyn

365 Cards - 3 Day Catch-up Extravaganza!

I love Saturdays. It's 3 in the afternoon and I'm still in my PJs. Slept in, watched TV, made cards, blog surfed... ahhh. I was 3 days behind in challenges for 365 Cards, but my paper-play-time this morning catches me up!

365 Cards Day 201 - One, Two, Buckle my Shoe: any shoe will do as long as it's on your card.

I only have one shoe stamp! Luckily, I'd just purchased this digi-stamp beauty about a week ago from Sketching Stamper Christine Dark. I LOVE it!

Cardstock - CTMH; Design Papers - Basic Grey & K&Co; Coloured with Prismacolour Blue Slate & CTMH Watercolours; Crystals - Swarovski; Stickles in Dark Blue; Ribbon, flower & brad - from stash;











365 Cards Day 202 - Once Upon a Time. The challenge is to take inspiration from your favorite fairy tale - well, actually, any one will do even if it's not your favorite.

This one was inspired by one of my favourite tales of all time... a rather modern fairy tale called "The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch, in which the princess defeats the dragon with her cunning, and in so doing saves the prince from being eaten.

When the prince tells her she looks a mess after her adventure, she replies "Ronald, your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum." And they didn't get married after all.

I scanned one of the illustrations (by Michael Martchenko) in and printed it out, so I could 'pop' the dragon.

I also used liquid glass on the princess to give her dimension, and tiny bits of cotton off of a Qtip to fluff up the dragon's smoke. I gave the dragon some sheen ('cuz dragons are really pretty) with green Stickles, and popped the whole scene on - yes - a paper bag!

365 Cards Day 203 - Feeling Lucky. (Well do ya, punk?!) Today's challenge was to put a symbol of luck on your card.

I chose a lady bug. I had this cute "T is for Transparent" Penny Black stamp in a set called "Bubbly". So cute... I just adore that little hedgehog!

Cardstock - CTMH; Design Paper - Basic Grey; Dry Embossing - Cuttlebug (Swirls & Swiss Dots); Scalloped Circles - Nestabilities; Image - Penny Black; Watercolours - CTMH; Ribbon - from stash; Sentiment - computer generated (font: Heartbreaker - free download);

It feels good to be caught up on my card challenges - now I'm going to go get caught up on my housework. Cards first, house second... I have my priorities straight !! LOL!!

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 144

You Raise Me Up: Try to incorporate at least TWO ways to add dimension to your card.

I've just finished making a dozen of these cards... I'm taking them to work tomorrow to sell as a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. While I didn't make them in specific response to the challenge - I did just finish them, they fit the challenge to a "T" and I do hope it's an acceptable entry (if it's not - no worries... I'll make a replacement card for the challenge this week)

Adding Dimension:
Cuttlebug folder: Bloom Dots (check)
Pop Dots to make the embossed panel 'pop' (check)
Ribbon (check)
Punched flowers (check)
buttons (check)
Brads (check)
Pink Ribbon eyelet (check)
Swarovski crystal (check)

Now, off to package these babies in their acrylic bags, and they're good to go for tomorrow!

Thanks for lookin' y'all. G'night!

365 Cards - Challenge 138

Today's challenge: "She Said, and I quote" Using a quotation or poem on your card. Here's my submission (gotta make it quick, because I'm leaving for work).

The quote is computer generated on vellum. The image is Penny Black, coloured with CTMH watercolour pencils. The essential 3 were also used: Cuttlebug (love those swiss dots!), Nesties and Stickles.

I'm outta here - thanks for stopping by the madhouse! :P