Sparkle and Shine!!

Uh-oh........it has begun. What? What's begun? The Christmas music! The Christmas music that pops in my head throughout the whole year has started to escape from me. I found myself singing "Winter Wonderland" this morning. While I was lucky enough to experience the wonders of a white Christmas as a kidlet, snow doesn't visit these parts very often.....at all (as in decades between light dustings!). So, I enjoy the white wonders of Christmas through happy, snow filled, winter Christmas music!

So, how about a little sparkle reminiscent of Christmas? Okay, okay, so its a birthday card, but the red glitter sure does sparkle and make me want to get Christmas crafty!

In April, I made a card with the intention of giving it to Hubby for our anniversary (but, that is a whole other story.....). I really loved the simple elegance of that card and so I gave it another go and just changed up a couple of things. I kept it to two colors, like the first card, but changed the black to red. And instead of using bling/gems, I went with an all over sparkle, using a technique called burnished velvet (using glitter) that I used here for the first time and learned about from Dana at Paper Daydream, who saw a fantastic tutorial for this from Spike at Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot.

Yup, yup, it definitely has an all over sparkle! Not the greatest shot, but I really wanted to show you just how much the burnished glitter really does sparkle and shine!!

Do you have any Christmas songs singing in your head? Or are you just trying to get ready for Thanksgiving, if you are in the States? Would you believe that I have yet to start thinking about what we need for Thanksgiving dinner? Well, except for figuring out how to make a GF/CF pumpkin pie, which I am putting recipes together for, but have yet had the chance to try out....yikes!

Hope you're heading into a fantastic and relaxing weekend! I have some trips out to Mom's, lots of cleaning as we have friends coming the day after Thanksgiving, and apparently, working on that GF/CF pumpkin pie recipe! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Damask Designs
Ink: Real Red - Stampin' Up!
Glitter: Garnet (fine) - Martha Stewart
Other: Quickie Glue Pen - Sakura

Moxie Fab World Citrus Color Challenge

As I began pulling colors for the Moxie Fab color challenge, I saw just how many different directions we can go! I realize its more Moxie FAB to use current and new products, but I ended up with a couple of retired SU In Colors, River Rock (which I never liked, until now...yes, Elise, you can thump me now!) and Wild Wasabi, in combination with a current color from Papertrey Ink, Lemon Tart. There are several other combinations that could be made from current SU colors or using Lemon Tart, Spring Moss, and Ripe Avocado (or New Leaf) from PTI, and a huge number of combinations from Bazzill or any number of great companies out there with great springtime launching into summer colors!

Planning in my head what I wanted to do, I grabbed a one inch circle punch and started punching out Lemon Tart and Wild Wasabi circles. I started arranging them on the River Rock card base to match that picture in my head and no matter how hard I tried to put them in a larger circle, they kept inching back into a line......acting like the caterpillar that they looked like sitting there on my card. So, I decided, why fight it?! A caterpillar it is. Running the circles through a Xyron, made it easy to attach them to each other and the card. A little TIP: If you take a stylus and trace around the outside (and the inside, if it has any cutouts) before you remove the top liner/cover, you will not have any of those annoying little Xyron webs that used to drive me batty!

Looking for antennae options, I pulled out my Love & Happiness rub-ons that were an SU sellabration goodie a couple years ago. I'm embarrassed to admit, I had not used them yet, not a one!! Actually, I'm really horrible about remembering to use rub-ons!! Oh the horror!! I have them. I love them when I see them. I admire them on other people's projects. But, I forget to use them!! Consequently, it may be a very simple card, but I'm proud that I did indeed remember to check out my rub-on stash!!! I cut out one flower stem (in Old Olive, I believe), that I cut into two pieces and used that for that for the antennae stems and two little dots for the antennae bulbs. I then cut the same two dots from the Chocolate Chip sheet and used them for the eyes. And voila, a little rub-on personality for my caterpillar!

"Thank You so much" is a sentiment from Dawn McVey's fabulous set, Damask Designs and was stamped in Wild Wasabi. The edges were all inked with more of that great color (too bad it is no longer). After I completed inking the card, the sentiment was beginning to get lost, so I took a Spica Glitter Pen in Melon and traced over the top popping the sentiment back out and giving it just a little bling!

Time to get one kidlet down for a nap and convince the other that the sun really will eventually come out today.....it is 2:30pm on June 1st, afterall! Oh well, I took advantage of it being cooler as well as all the gardening inspiration that I'm finding on so many blogs this week by pruning and weeding out back this morning. We transplanted a graphed apple tree that will have six different kinds of apples.....once it starts producing fruit. Its a happy little guy and I love looking at him out my kitchen window. Even though its getting late, I want to at least get my herb garden going and hopefully, get back to growing some veggies. I SO do not have a green thumb, but I get points for trying, right? What are you all growing in your gardens, this summer? (Or, if you are on the south side of the equator....hi Sarah!....what do you like to plant during your growing season?)

Supplies:
Cardstock: River Rock, Wild Wasabi - SU!; Lemon Tart - PTI
Ink: Wild Wasabi Classic dye ink - SU!
Stamps: Damask Designs - PTI

Embellishments: Love & Happiness Rub-ons - SU!; Melon glitter pen - Spica by Copic

Other: 1" circle punch - EK Success

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

A Graphic Surprise

Last night, I sat down to work on Dawn McVey's current color challenge. I broke a new Martha Stewart butterfly punch out of it's packaging and went to test punch it on a subscription card that had fallen out of one of the kidlet's "My Big Backyard" magazines. When the butterflies popped out of the punch and landed on my table, I stared at them. When I realized they were holding my attention far longer than a test punch should, I knew that awesome butterfly had to make it onto a card!

I just loved how graphic it was! I punched two more from the same card (that would have ended up in the recycling bin), folded them, and glued their centers down onto black cs, allowing their wings to be raised up off the card.

The sentiment is from that juicy Damask Designs set by Dawn McVey for PTI. It arrived on my doorstep at the end of last week. I just love the font used! I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the set inky.....very soon!! :> Now back to that color challenge I was thinking about!

Supplies:
Stamps: Damask Designs - PTI
Cardstock: True Black, Pure Poppy, Stampers Select White - PTI
Ink: Craft White - SU!
Ribbon: Pure Poppy Satin - PTI
Punch: Classic Butterfly - Martha Stewart
Other: subscription card from kidlet's magazine