365 Cards - Day 25

I've enjoyed the Alphabet challenges over at 365 Cards this week, and the saga continues  (although I must admit that I'm a little tentative about an X challenge appearing tomorrow.  LOL.  I guess we'll see what Pam has in store!)

Here's today's - Day 25:

P Polka Dots
Q Quilting
R Red

I must admit that this is a CASE card.  I was completely inspired by a gorgeous card called "Happy Heart" by HB on Splitcoast Stampers.  I wouldn't have thought to try such a tight zigzag stitch on a card if I hadn't seen how effective it was on hers.  Thanks HB... whoever you are!  :)

DP is all from the "Fly a Kite" line (October Afternoon); Pearls are Zva; Sentiment is TH for Stampers Anonymous; Flower is Prima.

I got a hot dude waiting downstairs for me, so I gotta bolt!  Friday nights rock!  Hope yours is as fun as mine!

The Evolution of a Spring Themed Card

I find it odd (and utterly wonderful) that the project as imagined often differs so drastically from the project as completed.  

My first card began it's idea as an elaborate card.  I'd imagined as a garden of butterflies lighting all over the front of the card, but it turned out rather simple and understated with two lightly Stickled butterflies.  Sweet... and perfect for spring...

I was pleased with the result, so I thought I'd make a similar, Spring-y card.

My second card started with a piece of pink gingham paper and a gorgeous pink Prima flower.   Well, I started playing with colours, and the black crept in... stunning and elegant against the fuschia... and then I thought it would be fun to use a picture of Lucille Ball (so I did the ol' Google image search)   Gosh, I love Lucy!  Really, what a stunning beauty, what an expressive face, what a hoot she was!!  

Well, the fresh spring card turned into the old Hollywood glamour card.   It wasn't me!  Seriously... it evolved of it's own accord and took me along for the ride!  That's why I love card making.  It's an adventure, people! It's still got a touch of the original 'spring' idea... the gingham paper and the pink rose, so I'm still going to enter it into the Splitcoast Spring Challenge  (Gloria, are you proud?)  

Que sera sera!

Well, that's it for today.  Hope you have a wonderful, crafty weekend!

365 Cards - Challenge Catch Up

Ah, finally... time in my craft room! I've been battling a cold for the past week, and the last few days when I got home from work, I was wiped out with no strength for cards (how pathetic is that!) I'm feeling better today, though - thanks to a ton of sleep, and regular drops of disgusting oregano oil. Blech!

I caught up with yesterday's and today's cards - and went to post and noticed that Pam had put tomorrow's challenge up (it's helpful being on the west coast), so I got back to work and did that one, too! I'm caught up into the future!! Ooooh, freaky.

Challenge 192 - So Sweet: The word 'sweet' had to appear on our card.

This card was actually planned out in my head a lot different than it turned out. Once I stamped this gorgeous image from Ladybug and Friends, framed it and placed it... the embellishments I planned just didn't work. They seemed only to detract from the image.

And so, my submission for this particular challenge is pared down and simple - image, (slightly crooked) sentiment and a single brad.

I think this would be a very sweet card for any special someone... lover, friend or child.

Cardstock - Bazzill; Image - Ladybug & Friends; Sentiment - Technique Tuesday; Brad - stash.



Challenge 193 - Card Recipe:
5x5 Card
4 different patterned papers
3 blossoms
1 stamped (ink or digital) image
5 rhinestones
The sentiment is up to you

I find recipes fun, but challenging - not for the ingredients allowed, but for the ingredients not listed. I am pleased with the result this time, though.

I gotta admit, however, that this is the second attempt. The first card I made was fine, but I couldn't resist adding things that weren't in the 'recipe' (that's actually the way I cook, too)

The first card's been given away already... and I didn't take pics. Oh well. C'est la vie!


Cardstock - Bazzill & DCWV; Design Papers (clockwise from top left) SEI "Bridgeport", Paper Studio "Hot Pink Gingham", Basic Grey "Eva - Courtier", BoBunny "Green Dot"; Flowers - Prima; Image - Artistic Outpost "Bluebird"; Sentiment - PennyBlack (I think); Rhinestones - Swarovski (2 black in flower, 3 white on corners;

Challenge 194 - Imagine This: Technology

The specific challenge was to see how technology inspires you...

Oh, I'm not much of a techno-dweeb... I love this whole blogging thing, and I work at a software company - on a computer for 8 hours a day... but I don't know the inner workings, can't program in the simplest of languages and am not in the least bit interested to learn. Which means that I'm completely out of my league in most of the conversations at work. LOL That's OK... I sell the stuff - I leave the programming to others.

This card actually features a software CD from my company. It's an old version of our software, so it was going to be destroyed... I 'saved' it (and a dozen of it's friends) because I knew I'd put it on a card one day! Voila!!

Cardstock - Bazzill; Design Papers - Basic Grey "Obscure"; Images (main & bg) - Artistic Outpost "Geek is Chic"; Letter Stickers - Basic Grey; Metal 'screw' brads - Michael's; Metal mesh - Dollar Store;

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. I hope you're having a great day.

Triple Challenge

Yahoo! It's a long weekend. I'm going to celebrate by making cards. Who's with me?!!

This card is my entry into 3 different challenges:

Basic Grey's Challenge # 2: Colour Combo - Brown, Yellow & Pink

Get Sketchy's Sketch # 4

Pile it On: Challenge # 13 - Circles Spots & Dots (DP & Brads)

It all started with a sketch... OK, really, it all started with blog-hopping and visiting Amy Tsuruta's fun blog - where I saw the GS sketch. I do love working from a sketch, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The hardest part for me was the colour challenge. I had the yellow and brown - but fitting pink into my layout was tough. I wanted to do a muted, distressed look and the pinks in my stash just looked too 'pink' to work. So I made my own... using Stampin' Up's Pastels, I mixed pink and brown and brushed some on my Prima flowers. The "Promise" sign was too bright, too - so I distressed it by using a brown Staedler marker. Looking at my picture, I'd say that the gold is still a little too shiny. I'll put one more coat on, I think....

Cardstock - unknown from stash; Design Paper - Basic Grey "Mellow" collection (Seasoned & Birch); Image Stamp - Ladybug and Friends; Background Stamp - Penny Black Letter BG; Ribbon - Rusty Pickle; Flowers - Prima; Ink - StazOn Timber Brown; Distress Ink - Antique Linen, Scattered Straw & Black Soot; Brads, fancy pins & Promise Tag - Dollar Store.

Thanks for popping by my blog. I'd love it if you'd leave me a quick note and let me know you were here.

Have a GREAT long weekend!

365 Cards - Challenge 188

It's Touchy-Feely Friday over at 365 Cards! What does that mean? The specific challenge is to use felt or flocking on your card.

I chose the flocking... and kept it simple by using DCWV's La Creme Stack! Delish neutral palette with classic patterns and texture... Of course, I had to add a bit of colour and sparkle for my Gorjuss little fairy...

Design Paper - Die Cuts With a View "La Creme"; Image - Sugar Nellie; Chipboard Sentiment - Dollar Store; Ribbon - Michael's; Rose Stickles & CTMH Watercolour Pencils.




OK, it's late... I'm snoozy, but only because I couldn't resist staying up late to get an early start on Friday's challenge AND to play with my new Artistic Outpost stamps. I want to play some more, but I do have to work tomorrow, so this quickie post and it's 'hit the hay' time!

This one's not for a challenge...it's just for fun.

Cardstock -CTMH; BG Stamp - Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz; BG Ink - Versamark; Designer Paper - Basic Grey; Ribbon - Rusty Pickle; Flower - Prima; Sentiment - Artistic Outpost "Geek is Chic" set; Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black; Metal Sculpting net & decorative pins - Dollar Store.

Night all...

365 Cards - Challenges 185 & 186

What a great vacation!! So Grand Rapids isn't exactly Maui, but as both my daughters were there, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else! The hugfest was completely rejuvenating (I've missed them both so much!!) and I feel great. :D

I've been busy catching up at work, and today I did a bit of catching up on card challenges, too. OK, just two of them - but it felt so good to play with glue again!

Challenge 185 at 365 Cards - Feeling Blue

The specific challenge was to have at least 3 shades of blue on our card. DT Tammy gave us yet another inspiring example with her lovely ice blue card with a glorious bow (I am bow-challenged, so I can only aspire to have a glorious bow... alas, the best I can offer is a passable bow LOL)

I am in need of some baby cards, so I chose to make a baby blue boy card in response to the challenge.

Cardstock - Bazzill; Design Paper - Rocking Horses by Karen Foster & Blue Dots by BoBunny; Ink - VersaFine Majestic Blue; Fabric Brads - Dollar Store; Alpha Stamps - CTMH;






Challenge 186 - Ad Inspired

I love the Ad Inspired challenges at 365 Cards. We are given a picture and told to go for it! The entries are so unique and varied, because each designer takes inspiration from a different part of the picture (colour, subject, mood) It's so much fun to create... and it's so much fun to feast your eyes on what others have created! Today's pic was chosen by Kristie (sexy heels, tea set & rose in a glass) and her example card is a real knockout! Love the houndstooth background and how the rose pops off the card. :D

The picture inspired for me a fantasy of music, romance and whimsy - and so my card has elements of all three.

The sentiment reads "Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."


Design Paper - unknown from stash; Black & Red cardstock - Bazzill; Flowers - Prima; Brads dipped in glue & Martha Stewart Onyx glitter; Ribbon - Rusty Pickle (black lace from the Boo collection & oversized red rickrack from the WhipperSnapper collection); Sentiment - Stampers Anonymous (Just Thoughts by Tim Holtz); Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black;

I hope y'all are havin' a great day! Blessings...

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!