MTTC 01 & CPS 113 & IAP1

Combining three challenges into one card is kind of fun! Now I know why some people create their own challenge of seeing how many challenges they can combine into one project. I always think that I cannot do that, but evidently, I'm wrong!

I combined Lauren Meader's first color challenge with Card Positioning Systems weekly sketch challenge with a challenge at the Stamp Shack for Ink-A-Polooza this week.

Would you believe that I do not own a single sheet of darker gray cardstock?! Oh the horror!!! But, I did dig out a piece of corrugated gray........not sure what to call it....thicker than cardstock and thinner than cardboard and a squishier consistency than tag board. I bought a multi-color pack of the stuff back in 2000 when I started scrapbooking. Maybe I ought to find a 'use your stash' challenge since its nine years old!!

Colorful simplicity was the name of the game here. The whole card is created simply with layers of cardstock, the stamped image popped up on 1/8" foam squares, and a little tiny bling with some Spica glitter pens. First I traced the word 'thanks' with silver. Then I went back over it with red. I discovered a little trick when I did this. When I decided to use the red over the silver, I dotted the red pen with little tiny dots right next to each other. It then looks like a line drawn, but the sparkle effect is amazing!! Whatever sparkle you think you are getting with your Spica glitter pens, try dotting with them and you'll be amazed at just how much more sparkle there is. I am without much sun right now as we are expecting rain (please, please, please rain! its been Very dry here this season), so I don't think I'm capturing the difference here. That might be something I'll have to do though in the near future. :> In the meantime, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the sparkle a lot better!


Supplies:
Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Spring Rain, Pure Poppy - PTI; corrugated gray - Stash
Ink: Charcoal Chalk ink - Colorbox
Stamp: Lexicon of Love - SU
Other: Red & Silver Spica Glitter Pens - Copic

Knitted Sweets & A Hippity Hop!

Time is a concept that always seems to amaze me! When I was a teenager, I remember thinking that ninety years old would probably approach faster than the next couple of years. When you are waiting for a certain time to come (like a sixteenth birthday or graduation back then) time passes so slowly. And then when you are either really busy or even simply trying to slow down time to cherrish treasured moments with a loved one, time just speeds on by! I know its a cliche, but that's what is on my mind this morning as I'm realizing May arrives on Friday!

Two sweet delights were waiting in my daughter's Easter basket from my Mom, her Grammie. Mom was excited to find a great way to use the smaller left over amounts of yarn from other various projects. And I am just tickled that the pink beads and two blingy buttons on the cupcakes are from my grandmother's collection. So now, I am watching my daughter have tea parties with her princesses using cupcakes made by her Grammie with treasures from her Great Grandma on them. It just warms my heart. The bears were not from my Grandma's collection, but are vintage. Aren't these just so sweet?!

Mom wanted to make sure that her grandson had something fun too. Knowing that he loves bunnies right now, she knitted one for him! She said the knitting was simply a square that is folded and tucked a bunch of different ways. Since I don't knit, it looked pretty amazing to me! :> Thank you for your hand crafted goodness! :>

A Cup of Dye....Delightful Temptation!

Saturday before Easter Sunday, we dyed our 42 eggs, started cleaning up, told the kidlets for the umpteenth time to look with their eyes, not with their hands while the eggs dry, and hubby was about to take the mugs of dye back into the kitchen to dump them out before they too were dyed.

Wait!! No!! I see it!!! I quickly grab a paper towel, folded it into a small square and dipped the corners into four different dyes, unfolded it and let it dry! Isn't gorgeous?! All those bright colors! I just loved it! (The striped shadows on it are from the lattice strips above the table...whoops! didn't think about that when I took the pic! :>) I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I knew I would use it.

Gotta give hubby some credit.....his first question when he looked at it was, "Isn't that going to be bad to scrapbook since it has vinegar in it?" Holey Camole Macarole!!! He listens about this paper crafting obsession of mine!!! I told him that I planned to use it on a card, but wow!, I was definitely impressed!

A handmade flower was calling out to me and then I knew how I wanted to use some of my colorful paper towel! Again, as I mentioned in the egg card post, I cannot free hand cut out shapes. So, I drew some nested circles in MS Word, printed it out, cut them out and used them as templates to trace on different parts of the towel. I then cut out those circles, aligned them, used Taylor's Sticky Tape to adhere the layers together (I had to adhere each individual layer of the two layer paper towel as it started to separate with all the handling it was getting), and made my stem.

The stem and leaves are one piece of grosgrain ribbon simply folded back on itself and again, adhered with that fabulous Sticky Tape! Its like red line tape, but my absolutely favorite part of it is that when you peel off the backing to it (what would be the red film on red line tape), you can just put the backing down on the table!! I know this may sound silly, but that red film on the red line tape has Such static cling!! I can never get it off my fingers!! Sometimes I seriously think its gonna drive me straight to the looney bin!!! :> So, this Sticky Tape is my new best friend. I've had it for quite a long time now and never used it....but no more!

I love how bright, cheerful, and dimensional the flower is and yet, it will still lay flat in an envelope and can easily be mailed. I intend to do this again, but since the Easter supplies are put away, dye re-inkers will do the job!

Supplies:Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf - PTI
Ribbon: Stash
Other: Paper Towel & Easter egg dye

Siri's Blog Candy

Siri is offering up some really fun blog candy! Check out her blog and her fun crafting adventures! Definitely look at her hand made flowers as they are quite beautiful and unique! :>

Dazzled with Damask!

So, after my daughter discovered that I was making Easter egg cards for her and her brother, you would think I would learn the art of discretion a little better. Naw!! I made this card for my hubby for our anniversary (its not till June, but if I leave it to the last minute, it might not get done) and thought I would be able to tuck it away. I was discreet. He didn't see me make it or photograph it. Then I had a 'forgot to put all my marbles in my marble jar' moment.........the screen saver on our computer does a random slide show from our pictures files!!!! And, yup, you guessed it.....he saw it! So, back to the drawing board!!! And yes, I will make sure I don't download it to the family computer!

Now we return to our regularly scheduled program. Dawn McVey's Damask Designs has definitely become a fast favorite of mine (even if I wasn't able to put ink to it as fast as I would have liked....you know, those pesky responsibilities that get in the way of craft time!). First, I scored the outside double lines on the Scor-Pal, then stamped both the large damask and the sentiment, applied the different sized black bling strategically, and matted it on some True Black cardstock! Very simple, but I really do love how it turned out!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, True Black - PTI
Stamps: Damask Designs - PTI

Ink: Black Onyx - Versafine
Bling: Black Jewels - Jewelry Essentials

Happy Birthday to You, Elise!

Easter was a religious holiday, a bunny hopping egg finding day, and a friend's birthday! I met Elise through the wonderful world of scrapbook retreats and she became my 'friendly Stampin' Up! gal' as well. She is a sweet woman who is incredibly artistically talented. I am inspired everytime I get to watch her work! And now that she has her own blog, I do not have to wait for the next retreat to see what crafty & artsy goodness she is up to! Lately, she has been playing with Tim Holtz's fun fragments and giving me all kinds of ideas. By the way.....that workshop that Tim is talking about on his blog?? That's where Elise is right now...today!!! How Awesome is that?!! I am So looking forward to seeing what she's learning from Tim, the man, today!!



Rummaging through my stamp collection with Elise's birthday card in mind, I wanted to pull stamps that she may have not seen before. She is a stamp-addict, like most of us in this stampy blogosphere, so she's seen a lot. Then I came accross Marilyn, by Stampsmith, and thought she would be perfect! Since this card was going in the mail, I didn't want it to be too lumpy and bumpy, so I kept my design fairly flat. Something that I really liked was that the ribbon points on the card fold flat in the envelope, but pops up a bit when taken out. On the inside of the card is a piece of PTI's vintage cream cardstock with a strip of Bitty Dot paper to coordinate with the front of the card. I'm horrible about remembering to decorate the insides of the cards, so I was really glad that I did this time! :>

Here's a little mailing TIP: If you have brads, bling, or bumps that do not make your envelope thicker than the 1/4" max, put clear packing tape on the back of the envelope so that the post office machines do not get caught on your embellishment and you do not have to put additional postage on it for hand proccessing! Someone from the Stamp Shack sent me a birthday card this way and I thought it was ingenious! I even went to the post office to ask about it and they said, yup, it will keep your postage down to a single first class stamp as long as you do not exceed the size or weight limits. Too cool! (oh yea.....Elise, apologies for the lint and whatnot that was on the first piece of tape I put down....I didn't realize the packing tape had been sitting out so long!! :>)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding - PTI
Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot Basics - PTI
Stamps: Marilyn - Stampsmith
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Satin - PTI
Embellishments: Flowers - Prima; Light Pink Flower Rhinestones - KaiserCraft

Spreading the Love!

Wow! I had quite a nice surprise when I found the award that Cheryl left for me. :> I found Cheryl on the PTI forums and she has been so nice, funny, and inspiring!! I am extremely flattered that she thought of me when tagging people for this award! :>




Here are the rules for passing this award on: you must post the award on your blog, name the person who awarded you, then pass the award to 6 other bloggers and leave a message on their blog that they've received the award.

Dana
Elise
Tracey
Sarah
Sarita
Siri

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!!

Dyed eggs, plastic eggs, and of course, some Easter egg shaped cards for my kidlets!



You would never believe where I got the inspiration for these cards! A piece of cardboard, the packaging from a potty training Disney Princess toilet insert (you know, the kind so that little tushes don't fall in :>), was just about to make its way to the recycling bin when I turned my head to the side and saw it....the perfect egg shape to make a card with!

I cannot freehand cut shapes out, but by tracing the inside 'egg' onto cardstock, I was able to make egg shaped cards! A little Tip....if hand cutting layers is troublesome for you, put a little bit of removable adhesive in between the layers (I used a Hermafix Dotto that just rubs off) and then cut them out.

These both are very simple cards, but I had fun putting them together and enjoyed the smiles on the kids' faces when they got to see them completed on Sunday morning. And because they know Mama's supplies so well, the cards were from Mom and Dad and not the big Bunny! :>

For my son's I cut circles with my Coluzzle from PTI's Bitty Dot paper. At first I layered the circle evenly, but later moved them off center. Looking at it now, I realize it kind of looks like a bunch of eggs.....while it works with the theme, it definitely was not my intention! He loves bunnies, so it was an easy pick to grab this oldie but goody out of the stamp stash. (The block, rubber, and foam all look like PSX, but it isn't marked.) I punched holes on the side and laced it up to put the front and back together.

For my daughter's, I tied each set of holes individually for a series of lilac bows. The rest of her card is simple as well....more Bitty Dot papers, flowers, Dew Drops, and some Pearl Ex interference, violet, for sparkle.


Supplies:
Cardstock: Blue & Pink eggs - Pacon (inexpensive Costco pack from a few years ago); Vintage Cream - PTI
Patterned Papers: Bitty Dot - PTI
Stamps: Bunny - Unknown (maybe PSX??)
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Blue - Offray; Light Orchid - SU
Flowers: Prima
Bling: Orchid Dew Drops - Robin's Nest; Violet Interference Pearl Ex - Jacquard for SU; Pink Spica pen - Copic

You can Always spot a Mom when....

.....she's wearing a Dora bandaid on her leg and a Batman bandaid on her finger! I was stamping away tonight and looked down and realized that I'm a kiddie character billboard!!

I am working on a few projects right now, one of them being the kids' Easter cards. Unfortunately, I did not follow the advice I quietly gave myself (several times over) about only working on them at night. Since my daughter now has my former houseguest (aka..nasty cold), she was busy watching a 'kid show' right in front of me and so I thought I'd cut and glue a couple of items down while her attention was elsewhere. Well, I should have known better!! She always wants to know what I'm doing the second she hers my SU cutter slicing! Boom!! She's right there and I'm warning her to back up a little and protect her cute little nose! Once I had finished slicing up my papers, she went back to answering Super Why's question on her show. I thought if I was quiet, I could glue those pieces down. Well, um......ooops! is about all I can say when she turns around and gasps, "An Easter egg???!!!" Actually, 'ooops' isn't quite what came out...more like, "Don't look!!! You're not supposed to see it!!" What happened to my Mama wit?! Where on Earth did it go? You know, those witty comments that Mamas make when their kids ask questions.......I had none...zero, zip, nada.....simply, "Don't look!" I typically do not like to have caffiene first thing in the morning. I prefer to wait until I've had a few glasses of water. I may just have to change that though if my Mama wit doesn't come back soon! :>

An Unwanted 'Houseguest' vs. Craft Time

Unfortunately, I've gotten hit at the very end of this cold and flu season with the third bug in a row. Hopefully though, the third times the charm and when this bug vacates, I can stay healthy for awhile!! Fortunately, this not so welcome houseguest of a virus is starting to pack its bags in preparation for what I'm hoping is a timely departure and I was able to craft a simple little card!

I somewhat recently bought myself a Scor-Pal for my birthday, but have not used it for anything other than scoring cards to fold. While I bought it to make pretty boxes, my "houseguest" just was not going to give in and say, "Adios!" or "Au revoir!" quite yet, so I settled for trying something new (to me) and using it to make some decorative scoring marks. The effect is subtle, but I like it. For me though, the best part about this card, is simply having the energy to make it! YAY!!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Plum Pudding, Raspberry Fizz, Stampers Select White - PTI
Ink: Raspberry Fizz - PTI
Stamps: Life - PTI
Bling: Bling it On - Lisa Bearnson
Other: Spica Glitter Pens (pink & purple) - Copic (inside of card)