Celestial birthday

I had to pull out some old stamps for this one. I stamped the sun and moon in black on white cardstock, pulled out my watercolour pencil crayons, and went to work. Good thing I had some Robin Hood episodes to watch because this sure took a while. I love the detail though and it was totally worth it. I also used my Sakura Stardust glitter pen to accent the faces and the outer corners. I used thin dimensionals to mount the images on plain cardstock, then put those on thicker dimensionals.

The background paper does actually have hints of blue, although it doesn't show well in this photo. I used some edge stamps in silver to make the lines, then embossed them with clear EP. The sentiment was written in silver ink. Overall, I like it, although I am a little iffy on the background paper. It does look better in person though. My camera is not great at night with the lights in my appartment.

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!

Tiara!

Well I'm still working on the cards for my friend. This is the last of the cat birthday cards. Don't you love cat people? So glad she has so many friends and family members who are also cat people!

This particular card was inspired by a card I found that is a photo of a female persian wearing a tiara. How perfect?! A cat in a tiara is definitely the ultimate in queen imagery. Book the wonder cat agrees.

I was inspired by the CPS #58 sketch. I just really liked the idea of it. There are some fab examples up there!

Recipe:
Paper: Basic Grey Romani, purple, blue, white and orange cardstock
Other: teal ribbon from Michael's, Prima polkadot daisies, rhinestone brads, pink fineliner, watercolour pencil crayons, green ColorBox chalk ink, dimensionals, Sakura Stardust pen, Glossy Accents.

King Percival

This is a quick sketch I did of my mom's cat Percival, done from a picture and imagination. I found a card today that is a picture of a female Persian wearing a tiara and it made me think of Percy in a crown. It is mostly pencil with a bit of added colour from watercolour pencil crayons. I have since added a bit of colour in the background to make the kitty stand out a bit more. I pondered making this into a card but I think I'm going to frame it for my mother in May.

I have definitely missed drawing! Hopefully I keep finding enough creativity for that AND cards! I'm sure I'll manage. ;)

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Circles, Circles Everywhere!

I have seen a couple cards ( here and here ) that include an arrangement of 4 circles (although Taylor's includes one square instead) and I liked the look of it. Of course, that meant I had to try it out myself!

I punched out 4 1.5" circles from cream cardstock and immediately knew I was going to use more brown polkadot paper. I love this stuff and will have to get more when I run out. I also wanted some brown cardstock underneath although I did not quite have the shade I wanted. Not sure exactly what I did want, but I never seem to have quite the right shade of brown. Oh well. The corners of the polkadot paper were cut using my circle punch. Not perfect, but not too awful. That will take some practice.

For the stamps I grabbed a VERY old set I have from All Night Media. It is one of those sets of numerous small stamps that were rubber mounted on foam and you put a sticker on top to identify the stamp. Needless to say all the stickers have fallen off. I love that there are multiple cat stamps in the bunch! This sleeping kitty was just too darn cute! And the paw print too appropriate. I stamped them both in brown ink, then put a bow in one circle and then just a plain greeting in the other. I finished it off with some scalloped edges and shimmery yellow brads.

For some reason the finished product reminds me of old men's dress shoes, or even women's saddle shoes. I think it's just the cream and brown together. But I like that edge of retro feel.

Recipe:
Stamps: sleeping cat and paw print by All Night Media
Ink: dark brown by ColorBox
Papers: brown polkadot, brown and cream cardstock
Other: 1.5" circle punch, brown polkadot ribbon, brown fineliner, yellow shimmer brads, scalloped edge scissors, white gel pen

Lauren's sketch

I also found Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch and liked that layout. I too pulled the colours together from some ribbon I had. I love this ribbon and I don't use it nearly enough so it was fun to try to find paper that would work. I had to colour the orange with a brown pencil crayon because I had no paper that was more pumpkin than bright.

I adore these cat peel and sticks. Just so cute! This one was coloured in with Sakura Stardust pen (I just got it so it is going on everything it seems!). All in all a fairly simple card, but I'm happy.

Recipe:

Paper: dark red, orange, blue, white, and dark brown cardstock

Other: striped ribbon from Michael's, peel and stick cat, Sakura Stardust pen, birthday rubon, black fineliner.

SFYTT kitty style!

I'm still working on making birthday cards for a friend of mine so this week's SFYTT by Jen del Muro was another chance for me to work on it. I didn't want to cover up too much of the patterned paper so I went with small ribbon instead of wider bands. I had also seen some cards with more rounded lines and liked that so I chose the bottom panel to round.

I love this kitten stamp. I got it when I was a kid and one corner of it has been chewed, although I forget if it was by a cat or dog. It doesn't show up well here but I used my new Sakura clear Stardust pen to add a bit of glitter to the stamp.

Recipe:
Stamp: kitten
Ink: ColorBox black
Paper: doodlebug valentine's hearts and flowers, glittery dark pink swirls, pink and white cardstock
Other: buttons, heart brad, Sakura clear Stardust pen, black fineliner, red rikrak by Offray, white satin ribbon by Offray, white daisy sticker

I Own a Cuttlebug!

I finally own a Cuttlebug of my very own. Unfortunately I have to wait until May to play with it. My mother was thoughtful enough to phone me and ask if I did want one for sure and offer to pick one up for me (intending it as a gift for some point in time) as Michael's had a 50% off coupon this week. I decided to spend Easter money on it so we solved all dilemmas. Luckily they weren't sold out. It was a bit more than I'd hoped, even with the coupon, since they are one of those things that has not had a price change with the change of the dollar. But still cheaper than Walmart! Very exciting for me. I am not good at cutting circles, am definitely not good at ovals, and I always seem to have problems getting my scalloped scissors to work out when edging things. So I will be slowly adding some Nestabilities to my collection! I had a little trip to Walmart the other day and bought a couple embossing folders and the tiny tag die set since they were all on sale.

I will also have some new cards to post later today, including my take on Jen's SFYTT from yesterday. I was participating in Earth Hour last night and did not feel like turning my computer back on after that. Then this morning I discovered that my camera batteries needed recharging anyway, of course! So it's time to get some homework done so I can play later! Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

Drawings

As I mentioned in my last post I had finally realized (with a little help) that I could draw images as stamp-style outlines and colour them to use on cards instead of always buying a stamp for what I want. And I want quite a few so this is a much cheaper and more creative alternative! So over the past week I have been looking around at stamp sites to see what I am really liking and thinking of how I could do it myself. I have been having warm fuzzy moments over giraffes since I saw some diecuts used for a baby card. I had a stuffed giraffe named Gerome (after the giraffe on The Friendly Giant) when I was young and I love him still. I gave my friend's baby a giraffe for her first birthday. Of course I need giraffe images! So I finally got myself in gear and drew one. I wanted it to look a bit like a stuffed animal and I think he turned out not bad. Not too hard to customize to change the face, make it bigger or smaller, etc.

This frog here is a cute little guy who could easily be adapted for a number of purposes. I could trace him but give him flowers, or a crown, change his mouth, give him a bow and make it a her, lots of options!

This grumpy cat was inspired by this stamp at Whipper Snapper Designs. I saw it and in the back of my mind I was thinking about how my cat would react to a party hat. This stamp is my rendition of what Book's expression would be, if one were able to actually get a party hat on her and make her stay still. More probable is my cat racing away to hide or playing with it so much you can't get it on her. I'm going to need a caption for this one, but I'm still pondering options.

Needless to say I had to try a variation of the grumpy cat. I traced the outline and simply changed the expression. I think the eyes need to be fixed, but that is how easy it is. I just put the two images up against my window and traced (the cheap girl's lightbox)!

I've done a couple more images, but I'm holding onto them to colour in the originals since I do not expect to trace them. They are also more obviously inspired by card layouts and particular artwork so I want to use them in cards and do a proper post with all the inspiration and that listed. But it's a beginning! A nice chance to get back to drawing as I haven't felt inspired to do my usual pencil and heavy shading in a while.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

It almost feels like spring...

Today actually felt like spring outside here this afternoon. As long as I forgot the snow I'd seen this morning. Ugh. Still dropping snow on us! But I was running around downtown without my jacket in a t-shirt. In and out of stores, of course, so it hardly counts!

I've been awol from cards for a few days and I'm starting to feel guilty about it, especially as I offered to make 15 cards for my friend and I still have 9 to go! Hopefully this weekend will be productive without hot cross buns to slow me down! I've also been working on drawing some images which I will share as soon as I work them into cards. My mother kept reminding me that I should draw more. To explain, in high school I was sure I wanted to teach art. I loved to draw especially and took an extra art class before regular classes started. I even applied to university initially in Visual Arts. That did not last as all the forced creativity just felt wrong. Slowly over the years I have drawn less and less, especially since I started making cards for my creative outlet. I usually draw with pencils and do alot of shading, and almost exclusively faces. Not the usual choice of images for my cards! After I kept finding stamps that I wanted but just couldn't justify, especially considering shipping adds up nastily, I had the light go on: "Why don't I just DRAW images that are inspired by things I like?" Yes, one would think that as a PhD student I would be smart enough to have thought of this long ago. Apparently not. I have since drawn a giraffe (after I drooled over numerous giraffe stamps), a cat in a party hat which I have done in two versions with different expressions, started a cow jumping over the moon, and stared a frog (to be varied into frog prince, princess, holding flowers, etc). I have gone outside my usual comfort zone for drawing into more cartoon/animated types of line drawings finished in black ink that I can trace against my window onto cardstock. Now the problem is finding what images I want and getting them to look the way I want. But then I get to trace and colour them! That's where all the shading comes in! And someday I'll actually do something in my usual style, probably a fairy as I am amazingly inspired by the work of Brian Froud. (In case you're wondering, he did the conceptual design for Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and is the artist behind Lady Cottington as well as the book Faeries.) Amazing artist, to say the least. After looking through his books I find it difficult not to be inspired to try a variation on a pose he's done. Almost like having a live model, but easier because everything is already flat!

Hope to have some new pictures to post soon! Hope everyone has a great day!

SFYTT take 2

I just couldn't resist taking another stab at Jen del Muro's SFYTT! Yet another card in the large batch for my friend. This time I pulled out a new stamp from a doodlebug set I got this past week. I just had to join the cupcake fad! And I was wanting to make it at least somewhat gender neutral, despite the glitter.

Recipe:
Stamps: cupcake and border by Doodlebug, "happy" and "birthday" by Studio G
Inks: dark blue and black by ColorBox
Papers: circles on red, white and blue cardstock
Other: green and blue ribbon by Offray from Walmart, dimensionals, watercolor pencil crayons, blue glitter glue, detail clear EP, primary buttons, checked ribbon in red, orange, and blue by Offray, dimensionals

WSC40 and ssnotime27

I decided to try out Beate's sketch finally this week and had fun. A friend of mine requested a whole bunch of birthday cards so I've been working on getting some made and it gave me an excuse to do sketches and challenges! I even decided to use the Stamp Simply challenge and make sure all my corners were rounded. Worked so well with the circles.

Stamps: Fluffles Birthday or Bust, "just for you" by Studio G

Paper: ProvoCraft stripes and circles, blue and yellow cardstock, white velum

Ink: black and dark green by ColorBox

Other: watercolor pencil crayons, white Sakura gel pen, detail clear EP, dimensionals, corner rounder

Hot Cross Buns!

I just had to share! My hot cross buns are done and they turned out pretty well! Most of them I put on baking sheets but the last 6 I did in a muffin tin, hence the little ones at the bottom of the picture. I only iced one of them since they're still warm and it will just drip. But so yummy! Imagine the scents of cinnamon and nutmeg. That's the smell of my appartment right now!

Happy Easter to everyone! Wish I could share!

Jen's SFYTT

When I saw Jen del Muro's sketch for today I was originally thinking of a new doodlebug stamp set I got, but upon reading the SCS DD challenge that had helped inspire her which required using everything old I had an idea! Jen was kind enough to let me know that her challenge didn't require using everything old, but I'd already decided I needed to do at least one version of her sketch with an old stamp set of mine. When I was in my early teens I had bought a fairy stamp set and I recently pulled it out again (finally!) to do a couple fairytale cards. So I just had to use some of the images for this.

Moreover, the stamps lend themselves well to becoming Inchies! So I'm getting in on that craze too! I used a purple ink which would stand out well on the pink paper, then coloured the images with a mix of fineliner markers and watercolour pencil crayons. Then I pulled out some new (cheap) tubes of glitter glue I got at Walmart in the kids' crafts section.

It isn't obvious in this picture, but the trail from the little star is actually mounted on dimensionals while the star end is stuck down with a mini glue dot to give it a bit of depth. I dotted more glitter glue in the center of each little flower because I wanted the inside of the card to be clean and none of my brads were tiny enough to be hidden behind the petals. "believe" is written with a blue Sakura glaze pen, and the faux stitches were done with the same pen.

Recipe:

Stamps: incredibly old rubber on foam fairy stamps which might be by All Night Media?

Ink: purple from the primary petals by ColorBox

Paper: blue, pale pink, pale yellow, peach cardstock, green polkadot from a pad from Walmart

Other: paper flowers by MM, glitter glue, dimensionals, watercolor pencil crayons, fineliner markers, blue Sakura glaze pen.

Definitely need to make another one of this sketch with my new stamp!

My OSW cards have been claimed... by my mother! I emailed her pictures, as I do with most of my cards, and she asked if she could buy them. I promptly replied that I would give them to her as a thank you for looking after me in May when I am on "vacation" there getting my wisdom teeth removed. I was really happy that things turned out so serendipitously!

PS I finally made myself a watermark! I just couldn't convince myself to mess up the simplicity of this card by putting it overtop. Eventually I'll do it right!

Now back to the hot cross buns which I hope have continued to rise!

One Sheet Wonder

I finally finished my OSW! I know usually only a couple pictures are taken of the whole lot, but I really liked all the cards! I got my initial inspiration from Melanie Muenchinger's card. I had a fab piece of paper from The Paper Company that was white with black velvet flocking, and I remembered a very old stamp I have that my mother actually bought but which ended up in my collection. We both know who will actually use it! So I did one card. Then I looked at the paper, looked at the stamp, looked at my single card and thought I might as well use up the paper and make a set! This way I could give it as a gift.

And once I'd thought about giving it as a gift I remembered the awesome gift set Amy Rysavy made and showed on her blog, especially the customizable sentiments she included. I had to improvise a bit since I didn't have a set of sentiments stamps or a cuttlebug, but a marvy punch, xacto knife, and a Sakura glaze pen worked not bad. I also used her idea of glue dots on the back stuck to the paper they come on to make them removeable. This didn't work as well for me as I'd hoped as I had some serious problems getting my Terrificly Tacky Tape to stick to the backing paper, but it seems to be holding on for the moment. I'll make an envelope for it to protect it. I also chose to leave three circles blank to let the person add in what they need. I may turn one of the blanks into a birthday sentiment as I realized after I finished last night that I hadn't included anything for a birthday, but I like leaving options. Two of the cards already have small sentiments on them, meaning that they could get a sticky also, or not. Lots of options.

All in all I had fun! Not sure who I'll give it to as most of my friends are just not that likely to send cards, but I know I'll think of someone eventually!

Recipe:
Stamps: dried flower bouquet by Crazy Stamps Ltd. (small company out of Alberta)
Ink: black and white by ColorBox
Paper:Black Velvet Flocked Floral by The Paper Company, black and white cardstock
Other: dimensionals, black and red brads by MM, buttons, black satin ribbon by Offray, thin red ribbon, triangle crystal stickers, white Sakura gel pen, black Sakura glaze pen, brushed pewter square brads by MM, mini Glue Dots, Terrifically Tacky Tape, red satin ribon by Offray, red heart brad, large white satin ribon from my remnant pile, black and white EP.

Hope everyone has a great day! The sun is shining here, even if it is chilly outside, so it's time to do a bit of homework, some cleaning, and definitely my hot cross buns!

New Template

I was messing around a bit and decided I needed a new template, which meant a new banner. I'm liking the change. I'll even work up a watermark while I have my editor open. The brushes used in the new banner are AvH Amaranth and an unknown source (looks like the site is gone now), but the brush set is 165_nero. Wish I could give credit where it was due, but I tried.

Almost done my OSW set! Just 2 cards left to finish up, so that makes me happy. The weather does not. Sunny today, but very windy which made it quite cold. Had a nice walk, but felt darn chilly by the time I got home. My car is obviously still frozen to my parking spot. Oh well. Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

Cherry ABC Time!

I decided to do something that wasn't a card finally so I pulled out my glass paints and a plain heart-shaped glass ornament that I bought after Christmas when stuff went on sale. I had decided to make something for my Grandma and in honour of all the cherry pies she has made I decided on cherries. I started on the front, used the outliner, let it dry, then painted in the cherries, using black to shadow the bottom and white to highlight the tops. Then I did a leaf with the same thing. The back of the ornament I painted with pearl medium, a few coats. I didn't let it dry enough between coats apparently so it buckled a bit, but it just looked like cracks and weathering from the front.

I finished it off with outliner to write "Sweet as cherry pie!" then painted the edge with red and used gold outliner to edge it then paint on dots. And voila! I have glass paints to be used on dishware, so I have to let it dry then bake it, but then it will be permanent.

Aside from that I've been working on a OSW set of cards which I haven't quite finished yet. Looking forward to sharing them when I do finish though!

The weather was nice for a couple days but is supposed to head back down below freezing for the next few days. My car is still frozen to my parking spot, so that is less than exciting news. Oh well. Still waiting to get an email from my LSS about the Bella stamps I ordered so I guess it's good I can't drive out there yet.

Hope everyone has a good Easter weekend!

Chocolate Bunny

The other night as I was trying to fall asleep I got an idea for a card. What else would I think about when trying to sleep? I remembered the chocolate Easter bunny my mom and dad sent me (I still get a little Easter basket because they're so sweet!) and thinking about a cute bunny stamp I have. And then I thought about biting into that chocolate bunny and I had my idea! A bunny stamp with a bite out of it. Who said bunnies needed to be white?

It took me a couple stamps to get two images I was happy with. I pondered masking the bite out, but it didn't work all that well. It was much easier to just grab some edging scissors and cut scallops.

I had to continue my pink and brown kick. I am just addicted to salmon and brown. Plus I was thinking chocolate. I love this based DP. The EK success Beach line is so much fun! And double sided with contrasting patterns (green stripes in this case).

A silly little saying was a must, although not quite as clever as Far Side cartoons. This is probably destined for a friend of mine teasing her about all the goodies she will eat over Easter.

Recipe:
Stamps: bunny by All Night Media
Ink: brown and black by ColorBox
Paper: blue and white cardstock, Beach Bursts by EK Success, chocolate polkadot, cream cardstock
Other: peach shimmer brads by MM, brown polkadot Offray ribbon, dimensionals, watercolour pencil crayons, corner rounder, pinking shears.

Needless to say after making this card my Easter bunny seemed to disappear. Oops! But it was so good! I looooooove Bernard Callebaut dark chocolate!

As an extra present for Easter my parents bought me some great tins with glass lids for my embellishments! I love them. They came from Lee Valley of all places! They have a variety of sizes and combos. I started out with a set of 12 of the largest flat tins and some higher ones that look a bit like spice tins or salt and pepper shakers. Great for bulldog clips and things like that. Might have to get more little flat tins sometime! So much fun to play around and figure out how to reorganize my goodies!

Ducky Stamp!

I have had this Ducky stamp for a while and I've used it a couple times. I used it originally for a baby gift, then later for an Easter card. This year I had too many ideas for Easter cards but I felt like using this stamp again. I am working on colouring more and this one is perfect for that so I pulled it out and stamped it. Then it sat waiting for me to pick up my pencil crayons for about a week. I finally felt inspired today and grabbed it. Although it doesn't show up well in the picture there is more contrast between the yellow duck and the green around it. Watercolour pencil crayons are the best!

Originally I had been thinking of doing a "just ducky" card, but looking at it I just kept thinking of relaxing. I saw my "enjoy" stamp from Studio G and knew the sentiment needed to be "enjoy a little 'me' time." The rest of the sentiment is inside the card. I played around trying to find a good combo of colours, happy with the middle but not sure about what DP to use. Finally I pulled out this fab BG paper and decided it worked. Some brads, a mix of some bars and shimmer ones, and voila! Perfect for reminding a friend to destress! And I know she needs it since she's working on her master's thesis right now! Been there, done that, know all about the stress!

Recipe:

Stamps: "Sleeping Witzy" from Little Suzy's Zoo by Rubber Stampede, "enjoy" by Studio G

Ink: ColorBox black and dark blue

Papers: BG pink herringbone, dark and light blue cardstock, white cardstock

Other: green bar brads, green and yellow shimmer brads by MM, flower ribbon from Michael's, blue Sakura glaze pen, white Sakura gel pen

Hoping everyone had a little "me" time this weekend. And I think I need to get myself a colouring book. I haven't had any ideas for drawings to colour and I just do not have enough stamps to feed my colouring craving! Although I do have some Bellas on the way, assuming I can ever get my car out of my parking spot. Stupid ice around the wheels not melting!

Rainy Day Blues

Today has been gray with a bit of snow. Definitely not the spring weather I'm hoping for. I am actually wishing for rain, which I know I will regret later. Just the way I now regret all the snow!

With all my dreams of rain I was overjoyed to find a great tutorial by Lauren Meader on how to make a paper umbrella! She had two gorgeous examples on her page and I just had to test it out. I looked at what I had done when I had just the paper and wasn't as happy as I'd hoped. I really was not liking the line between the panels, but then I remembered something I'd seen on Melanie Muenchinger's blog about using sticky tape to adhere beads to a project. Of course! I could use some beads to cover up what I didn't like. I pulled out my container with all my beads and felt bad for neglecting them. I haven't used beads much for quite a while since I stopped playing around with jewelry much. But now I have a new use for my little beads! And then after I had stuck the rainbow beads on the umbrella I decided the handle would look far too lonely. So I used beading wire to string the same beads randomly.

Now I had to decide how to make the card. Then I remembered Jen Del Muro's sketch that I had wanted to try. So I adjusted it a little bit to work with the umbrella and voila! Although the picture isn't the clearest, it says "rainy day blues?" at the bottom. Good for a get well or even just a cheering up card for someone sometime. And I got to use some of my lovely buttons! All in all a fun card for playing! Now if only it would rain outside and melt the snow and ice that is still holding my car captive!

Quilled Turtles

I finally decided it was time to do some more quilling and I figured out what I wanted to do: turtles! The design came in the Little Critters kit I bought so I had to try it out. Not perfect, especially the bigger turtle who has different sized feet, but still cute! I'm still learning.

Unfortunately the colours didn't come out quite right on this. The turtles are a medium green, they are mounted on pale blue velum and the background cardstock is more orange/peach than it appears. I added in shimmery peach brads to hold down the velum on white cardstock, used edge scissors to shape it. I used yellow chalk ink on the edges and then grabbed my blue Sakura glaze pen to make dots. The bottom ribbon was a last minute fix. I had originally written the sentiment directly on the peach cardstock in white, but I just did not like it. There was just something not right, so I went for some ribbon. I cut slits in the cardstock so I could tuck the ends of the ribbon inside the card. I used a black fineliner to print the words on the ribbon with minimal bleeding.

I still wasn't happy, so I pierced the paper all along the scallopped edge of the card, even if it doesn't show up well in the photo. And then I decided the velum still needed an edging, so I drew a dot and dash line between the brads with a pink Sakura glaze pen. Not totally sure about it, bit it's ok.

Recipe:

Papers: light blue velum, white and peach cardstock

Other: peach shimmer brads, quilled turtles and flower, pink and blue Sakura glaze pens, yellow check ribbon, black marker, piercing tool.

Here's hoping the weather gets nice and the ice holding my car captive melts enough that I can drive it again soon! And I am fairly certain the parcel at the post office is my Easter parcel from my Mum. Isn't she sweet? I'm hoping for chocolate from the bunny Easter morning!

Sketch

I was looking at the new sketch over at sketch this: cards and I really liked this week's design. I was really happy to have some time today to play around with it and see what I could do. I took the original design pretty literally and only did a bit of playing around with it, but I love how it turned out.

I started out with the brown polkadot paper and then pulled out the peachy pink DP. I wanted to do a bit of shadow under the polkadot circles so I picked the blue out of the DP and used dimensionals to make the brown stand out a bit more. I alternated where the "shadow" would be. Then I grabbed some cream that also matches the DP and used a cute little "thank you" stamp I have in blue. A little EP, some textured brown paper, some photo brads and I stared at it for a bit to decide if it was really done. I finally decided it did need a flower. I got lucky and had a large blue flower and a little pink one that matched! I picked out a shimmery yellow brad and voila!

Recipe:
Stamp: "thank you"
Ink: blue pigment ink from ColorBox
Papers: mint green cardstock, brown polkadot, blue cardstock, EK success beach design
Other: photo brads, shimmery yellow brad, pink fiber, dimensionals

Masculine Invitation

As it turns out I needed to make another invitation for the cheesecake and movie night. We decided to invite a friend's little brother who is a sweet kid (can I still call him a kid even if he's closer to 20 than 10?) and enjoys hanging out with us and us with him. Needless to say I figured his invitation probably shouldn't be pink or flowery, just in case. It's the same layout with some minor modifications of how I cut out the stamp. I decided to use edge scissors on the yellow cardstock underneath the stamped image also. And of course I ended up liking this one best. Isn't that always the way?

Happy Monday!

Snowstorm results!

Just to share the pain, that is my beetle under all that snow. Admittedly it is the result of 2 snowstorms in a row, but I am not enjoying all that shovelling! Good exercise but I'd rather go to the gym or go for a walk! I just felt too depressed at the thought of shovelling it out, then having to do it all over again. I never manage to get my car moved before they plow the parking lot at something like 6-7am (or in the middle of the snowstorm sometimes it seems). So I did maybe half the shovelling this evening since I felt the need to burn some energy. And more to come tomorrow. le-sigh.

Invitations

After a conversation with a friend who was planning a birthday party for her hubby and was going to have cheesecake, it was decided that we should have a cheesecake and movie night when I'm visiting next. After checking to see if that was still a go, my friend agreed to enable me and let me make invitations. How much fun is that? I pulled out my Fluffles stamp and got to work.

Fluffles is coloured in with watercolour pencil crayons, and I put Glossy Accents on the balloons and the cake icing. I put on dimensionals and over a coordinating piece of paper. I put the whole circle on dimensionals again to mount it on the card. The bottom of the front of each card is finished in a different way with different scissors. Inside is a fairly typical "invitation" template I printed out on butter yellow paper.

Recipe:
Stamps: Fluffles Eat Cake by Stampendous
Ink: black by ColorBox, brown pigment stack by Colorbox, pastel chalk stack by ColorBox.
Papers: stack from Walmart (in previous post), butter yellow cardstock, white base cards, white cardstock
Other: Glossy Accents, watercolour pencil crayons, dimensionals, decorative scissors, Sakura Glaze pen in black.

new papers

During my walk today to enjoy the nice weather before the snow hits I couldn't resist swinging by Walmart. And I found a pack of very pretty paper for very cheap! The pack is by Paperbilities, Printed Paper Designer. I also picked up some packs of cheap cardstock to help fill in some gaps I'd made. Ok, so my paper supply hasn't really dipped very much, but I couldn't resist!

I also pulled out a set of peel off's that I haven't used in far too long. I coloured in the cat to try to mimic my own little kitty, blending the watercolour pencil crayons a bit then adding in more on top. I put the kitty on brown cardstock, then used dimensionals to stick it onto blue paper. I also pulled out some Noteworthy decorations. So pretty!

Recipe:
Papers: coral floral stripe from Paperbilities, blue reversible solid from the same pack, brown cardstock
Other: Love & Cats peel off's, {note}worthy glitter diecut, brown ribbon, watercolour pencil crayons, dimensionals, edge scissors

I am tired of snow!

As anyone in Eastern Canada and the North Eastern US knows, we have yet another stupid snowstorm on the way. We got a disgusting dump of snow Tuesday night/Wed and we have more on the way tonight and tomorrow. I am not impressed. I just couldn't face digging out my car to do it all over again, so it will be twice as bad when I get to it on Sunday or Monday. So I'm hoping I can curl up with a book, making cards, and doing homework. Hot chocolate and chai lattes will be my friends!
My empathy to anyone else who is getting this storm. I vote we send it all to the southern US. We should be nice and share!

Card box!

I had bought an extra unfinished box from Omer DeSerres a while ago when they were on sale. I was sure I'd come up with a use for it sometime, and I did. I started to get a pile of finished cards, many that I had no destination for, so I needed somewhere to put them. And then, of course, I had to do something with the box!

I had bought this gorgeous paper a while back and had thought I might use it for a scrapbook page, but I got inspired to pull it out for this. I also pulled out a sheet of metallic dark brown. I loved the look of the chipboard box so I wanted to keep some of it visible. Very simple. The only thing that took time was to cut the pieces for the front. I might do more to the top sometime, but for the moment I like it plain like this.

On another note, the weather here is quite disgusting. It started to snow last night and we had awful wind today. And the snow is going to keep coming! We have a risk of even more snow on the weekend! I am so ready for winter to be over. Digging my car out has gotten very old. Thankfully I can get to school on public transit.

Variation on a Tag Card

I got the idea the other night as I was trying to fall asleep: why not do a tag card as a folder instead of an accordian fold? I was excited and looking forward to having some time today to put it together.

I grabbed a bunch of papers in red, black and white as those are the colours of my friend's house. I used the Making Memories envelope template, leaving off the top flap, and made 5 envelopes. I put them together with the seams together. I used ribbon to lace the bottoms together and put eyelets in the tops. Ribbon was used as a closure. And then time to add all the fun stuff! The top corners were rounded with my corner punch.

I made the tags using the large tag card template from MM. I also used a small tag template to make small tags of contrasting paper to decorate one side. I used various stamps to decorate the plain cardstock under the decorated mini tags, all with white ink.

I also put a paperclip at the top of the tag, using both more regular design and square ones to make it easier to pull out the tags.

Recipe:
Stamps: Kelly Panaci flowers and swirls, All Night Media heart, paisley
Ink: Colorbox white
Papers: DCWV variety of black, white and grey designs, strawberry paper, red cardstock, white cardstock, black cardstock
Other: variety of paperclips, variety of brads, checked ribbon, black adhesive ribbon, red ribbon, dimensionals, "happy birthday" rubon set, MM flower with crystal brad

Clearly a CASE

I have to say I had a really good day today. I woke up feeling rested, got at least some reading done (still a bit more to do for my class this week) and went for a walk over to Omer DeSerres. The only blot was that the sidewalks were more like slushy puddles today so my boots were rather soaked by the time I got home. But it was just too nice to stay inside!

I even got a card made! When I saw such a wonderful card on Thinking Inking I had to try it for myself. As I didn't have the stamp that was used I pulled out my Sharpie markers and gave it a shot. Sadly the brown is a bit too red for what I wanted, but it turned out ok. I also replaced the Liquid Applique with quilled circles. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I put a small message on the back and now I can customize it whenever I want. Check out the original for instructions!

Recipe:
Papers: blue cardstock, Chenille by BG, white cardstock
Other: blue button brads, brown and green sharpies, white quilling paper, flowered ribbon from Michael's, sentiment sticker

CASEs

So I have found a few more cards that I just had to try in my trips through blogs and galleries. The first one is this criss cross card by Stampin' with Sugar. I loved the little details she added with the faux lace edging. I wanted to use it as an insert for a present for my friend Rhonda. I decorated a box for her and have found various little things to put in it. Each little present is individually wrapped so I wanted a little card "explaining" each present. (The first present is a set of 3 coasters I made to "protect" her tables.)

The card also gave me a chance to play more with my new set of clear flower stamps by Kelly Panacci. I just love the set.

Recipe:
Stamps: Kelly Panacci flowers and swirls
Ink: merlot by ColorBox
Paper: Red cardstock, black and white swirl and floral, white cardstock, black cardstock
Other: crystal brad, black polkadot ribbon, edge scissors



My other CASE comes from Nichole Heady. She had CASEd a card she received and I loved the idea. I've seen a few other cards done with squares of different papers and I just liked the idea of using small pieces since I usually use large chunks of designer paper. I also had a great excuse to dig into my packs of Japanese paper scraps that I adore but don't use nearly enough. I looked to find some papers that would go well together and pulled out these 4 different pieces. And tada! I am not quite sure what sentiment to put on the card yet but I'll figure it out. I'm also waiting until I can buy new pale yellow and white gel pens. All the ones I used to have disappeared or died of old age! But this design is just so easy, just like Ms. Heady said! Done in minutes and the thing that took longest was my inability to draw and cut a flower that looked less squished.

Recipe:
Paper: variety of Japanese scrap papers from Paper Umbrella and a store in Ohio, pale yellow cardstock, brown cardstock
Other: antique bronze eyelets, small flower punch, crystal brad, dimensional squares for under the flower, black fine tip sharpie.

Easter card!

Well, today has not been particularly productive unfortunately. One of those nights when I just did not sleep well and got to pay for it. But I have new cards!

This is the Easter card I made for my grandmother. I built it around the basket and egg stickers, a Jolees for You kit I bought specifically for this. I started looking at all my papers trying to find bright and fun papers. I love the glitter paper from my DCWV stack. Fun new ribbon also added a good twist.

Recipe:

Stamps: small flower

Paper: stripes from DCWV stack, pink cardstock, blue cardstock, yellow cardstock, white base card

Other: green ribbon, Jolees By You Easter stickers, glittery brads, Making Memories ribbon, black Sakura glaze pen

The only thing I really did today so far was to finally work on my carousel box again. I bought a fab set of 3 nesting containers from Omer DeSerres a while back and finished the smaller two but had kept the biggest for myself. I decided I wanted to decorate it like a carousel since I love them. I used to demand I get to ride on them as a kid (especially since I am not a "ride" person). I picked out some wonderful papers, chose coordinating paint, got the bottom done and some of the lid, then nothing happened. I also found a cute carousel horse colouring page online and printed it out and coloured it in with watercolour pencil crayons. Once it was colour-photocopied onto acetate and traced the outlines with Crystal Effects, I cut out the horses but wasn't quite sure where to go from there. Today I got the horses mounted on white cardstock, got gold stick and peel bars put on for the poles, and got the horses stuck on the box. Then I put more paper on the lid and stared at it. Now I'm stuck. I need ribbon for finishing up the lid, possibly some flowers, not quite sure, but my next trip to Scrapbook Centrale is weeks away! Their wall 'o ribbon is so nice I want to pick something from there. Oh well. The box will just have to wait a while longer. I'll post photos when I get it done.